


The Eighth Year

by Holz9364



Series: The Eighth Year Universe [1]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M, Hogwarts Eighth Year, Multi, Non-Canon Relationship, Post-Hogwarts
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-31
Updated: 2020-05-27
Packaged: 2020-07-27 22:34:15
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 141
Words: 901,278
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20053615
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Holz9364/pseuds/Holz9364
Summary: When Harry, Ron and Hermione decide to return to Hogwarts after the war to finish their schooling, they are expecting an easy year. Nobody expected McGonagall to push for inter-house unity and nobody expected the unlikely friendships and relationships that would result.Tells the tale of the trios final year at school, then goes beyond that.ORIGINALLY POSTED ON FANFICTION.NET UNDER NAME OF HOLZ9364. However, I am in the process of deleting that account.





	1. Brave New World

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Title comes from the songs:  
Brave New World by Iron Maiden  
Brave New World in the musical, War of the Worlds

** _DISCLAIMER: I don't own anything except the idea!_ **

* * *

"Harry, Ron, Hermione! Dinner's out!"

The sound of the familiar voice drifting up the stairs pulled the three people sitting on the floor of the attic room out of their thoughts. They hadn't been speaking to each other much that day. With everything that had happened it was sometimes nice to just be able to sit in silence, to think or even to read a book.

Without words the three occupants of the room rose and walked soundlessly downstairs to a very different dinner scene than had been usual lately. The table was not set for 4 or 6 as it usually was. Instead it was set for 11 and had been extended. The room was a little cramped and crowded but Harry found he preferred this to the usual miserable affair that was dinner.

The entire Weasley clan was gathered there and Harry noticed immediately that they all looked rather cheerful which again was a big difference. Frowning and glancing at his equally perplexed best friends Harry took his seat between Ginny and Ron. Ginny smiled slightly sadly at him. After the final battle they had talked and Harry had told Ginny all of the unpleasant truths about the war that she didn't want to hear. She had told him some unpleasant truths too and they had established that whatever was between them before the war was now gone. Harry had changed, not entirely for the better either, and Ginny had changed too. They couldn't just pick up where they had left off, it wasn't that simple. However, they had agreed to remain friends and Harry could only hope that they would soon no longer be in the 'awkward' phase of their sort of break up. Although if they were to be honest with each other and themselves, they both knew that they had broken up at the end of 6th year rather than at the end of the war.

Mrs. Weasley stood up at the head of the table and smiled genuinely around at her family. Harry felt a small smile tugging at his own lips, he had missed the motherly figure and was glad to see her truly smiling again.

"Now, I arranged this family dinner to fix things," Mrs. Weasley announced, her voice was strong but the pain in her eyes had not yet faded, "I know that the last 2 months have been hard for us all but we have let it pull us apart instead of bring us together so these family dinners that we have always held on a Sunday will continue in honour of Fred."

Harry didn't want to give out mixed signals but he saw the tell-tale signs of grief on Ginny's face, she had a pained look in her eyes and she had clenched her hand into a fist. He sighed and gently took her hand under the table with what he hoped was a comforting smile. Ginny seemed shocked, but she squeezed his hand back all the same.

Mrs. Weasley caught sight of the exchange and positively beamed which made Harry uncomfortable. The last thing he wanted was to deceive Ginny or her family, so he dropped her hand like it was a hot coal.

George spoke up, "Speaking as the person who knew Fred better than anyone, I know for a fact that he wouldn't be happy at the way we've been coping. Moping around and withdrawing into ourselves isn't the right way to get through this. We need to get on with our lives. Personally, carrying on running the jokeshop makes me feel close to Fred, like it's his legacy. I know he'd feel the same about everyone else. You can't feel guilty about going to work or going out to have fun because that's not what Fred would have wanted."

George had spoken emotional words and most of the tables occupants had teared up, including Ginny. Harry glanced down guiltily, both for Fred's death which he still blamed himself for and for the fact he had refused to be with Ginny when she clearly needed him right now. But it didn't feel right, being with someone because they needed you not because they wanted you or because you wanted them.

Mrs. Weasley wiped her eyes and nodded in agreement with George, he had been coping particularly well with the loss of Fred as of late but Harry assumed it was because he understood how to honour Fred and miss him without giving his life up. He had been a wreck when it first happened though.

That didn't mean that everyone else had been coping well however. Mrs. Weasley had burst into tears whenever something reminded her of Fred for a good 6 weeks after the battle. It had been two months since the war had ended and Mr. Weasley had been slightly withdrawn for the majority of this time. Ron had suffered very much to begin with but he was gradually beginning to get back to himself. Whatever had been between himself and Hermione hadn't worked out. Harry knew that they had kissed in the heat of the moment, he had been right there and witnessed it. When it was all over she held his hand and stood by him through the burials but after that she could no longer keep up the façade. Harry was fairly sure Ron had cried when Hermione told him that she just didn't love him in that way and it had only made him even more withdrawn and forlorn. They had salvaged their friendship but things had been icy recently, just as things had been forced between Harry and Ginny.

Charlie and Bill who had always been close to the twins had struggled just like everyone else, but it seemed through helping George with the jokeshop they coped as well as he did. Percy too had decided to work with his brother, he had quit his job at the Ministry immediately after the final battle and had signed on as co-owner of the shop in Fred's place. He had taken the loss of his brother very hard for two reasons, the first being that he had only just gotten him back to lose him again and the second being that he blamed himself for Fred's death.

Harry sighed as he thought about the days since the end of the war, it had been weeks before the effects wore off for Ginny. She was close to all of her brothers but the twins and Bill in particular. She had probably taken it as badly as Percy had and she had been very quiet and teary. She was getting back to herself now but she would never be the same. Not just because of Fred's death but because of the war. None of them would ever be the same again, it had changed everything.

Mrs. Weasley was talking again so Harry pulled himself out of his thoughts to pay attention to what she was saying, "So tonight we put the past behind us and celebrate the present."

Her speech brought applause and everyone agreed that the best way to remember Fred was to eat, toast and be happy. So they did just that, and that was the evening when Harry knew that things in the burrow were finally going to go back to normal…or at least as normal as they could be without Fred.

* * *

"Harry. Harry, Harry!"

Harry had the feeling of being prodded by something sharp in his side but he was too tired to open his eyes or tell the prodder to stop so he just grunted and was surprised to hear a very feminine chuckle come from somewhere next to him.

This woke Harry up, his eyes flew open and he sat bolt upright in his camper bed on the floor of Ron's room. Ginny was sitting next to him, her head cocked to the side as she watched him in amusement.

"Ginny! What are you doing here?'" Harry asked in surprise, pulling the covers on his camper bed up slightly, it had been a hot night and he'd slept without pajamas on.

Ginny rolled her eyes, "It's nothing I haven't already seen."

Harry blushed slightly and cleared his throat, "Look Ginny, I didn't mean to give out mixed signals the other day at dinner-"

"You were only holding my hand because I was upset," Ginny said a little irritably, "I know Harry. We aren't together, I am aware of that."

"Right," Harry muttered awkwardly.

"I just came up here to tell you that Ron and Hermione are downstairs. They both tried and failed to wake you up so they asked me to come up and try. Mum says you're to go downstairs and make sure you eat something because she's planned a Quidditch match today to boost our morale."

Harry nodded vaguely and looked pointedly at Ginny, "Can you leave so that I can get changed?"

Ginny smirked, "Sure, see you at breakfast," she said as she left the room.

Harry immediately jumped up and dressed in record time. 5 minutes later he walked into the kitchen to a home cooked breakfast of eggs, bacon and sausages curtesy of Mrs. Weasley.

"Thanks Mrs. Weasley," Harry said as he tucked into the delicious food. All of the Weasley children were around the table eating and holding conversations amongst themselves about the Quidditch game and what the teams should be.

"I want Harry," Bill said after agreeing that he was the captain of one team and Charlie was the captain of the other.

"I think we should have Ginny on our team," Harry said.

Bill raised an eyebrow at him, "Do you?"

"Yes," Harry said calmly, ignoring his suggestive look, “She was my chaser in 5th year. She's good."

"I know she's good at Quidditch," Bill muttered, "But she was your chaser longer ago than that."

Harry rolled his eyes, "I've told you we aren't together Bill," he said a little irritably.

Mrs. Weasley couldn't hear the exchange but she did notice the sudden tension in Harry's body, "Whatever you are teasing him about, leave him be Bill."

Bill raised his hands in defeat and the talk soon went back to Quidditch. By the time breakfast was over the teams had been decided. Bill had Harry, Ron and Ginny on his team, he and Ginny were chasers, Harry the seeker and Ron the keeper, they had decided to forgo beaters. Charlie was the keeper of his team with Hermione and George as chasers and Percy as the seeker.

The plan was to get changed, grab their brooms and play after breakfast but the post arrived as a distraction. These days Harry got a lot more post than usual even with the ministry checking his letters to make sure he wasn't being sent anything cursed from angry ex-Death Eaters or crazy fans, but all of the non-dangerous packages still came through.

Today several letters were dropped onto the table by a ministry mail owl and one large package was dropped carefully in front of Mrs. Weasley who smiled ruefully and opened it, "It will be the new clock," she told them. After the war the hands on the Weasley clock had not moved away from mortal peril and after a few days the hand with Fred's name and face on it had fallen off. Mrs. Weasley had cried all day and locked herself in her bedroom, she had carried that hand around in her apron for weeks afterwards.

However, Harry recalled a hushed conversation between Mr. and Mrs. Weasley one evening, at the end of which they had decided to buy a new clock. Mrs. Weasley unwrapped it and looked down at it with a smile but there was sadness in her eyes too for Fred was no longer on it. The Weasley family clock which had previously had 9 hands looked no different at first glance. The destinations, the pattern, the colour, it was all the same. The hands were silver with the name of the family member engraved in gold but instead of there being 8 hands Harry noticed that there were in fact 10. One hand pointed at work which was Mr. Weasley's and the other 9 hands all pointed at 'home'.

"Mrs. Weasley," Harry said slightly breathlessly, "You put Hermione and me on the clock."

Mrs. Weasley looked over at him, smiling genuinely now and nodding, "Yes dear, you and Hermione are part of the family after all," she said, and in a rush of gratitude that he didn't quite understand Harry hugged Mrs. Weasley who hugged him back and cried, yet again.

Feeling a little embarrassed after the exchange Harry sunk a little lower in his seat and began to sift through the letters on the table to hide his face. There was a large pile this morning, most of which were addressed to him.

"Fan mail, fan mail, fan mail," Harry muttered as he looked through it all. George grinned and grabbed a letter, following his lead Charlie and Bill did the same and began to read out extracts of his fan mail.

_"Dear Mr. Potter. You are truly an extraordinary young man, having considered your amazing feat in the war we would like to offer you a place on the Wizengamot."_

"Wow Harry! You have to say yes, no one has ever been offered a place on the Wizengamot without getting their N.E.W.T's first!"

Harry rolled his eyes at Percy, grabbed the letter and threw it into the fire, "I don't have to say yes, and I won't. The Ministry is still corrupt, I sure as hell don't want to be on the Wizengamot."

He ignored Percy's wide eyed gaze and simply threw a few more of the fan mail letters into the fire, with much amusement from Hermione.

"Listen to this one Harry," said Bill, catching Harry's attention, _"Dear Mr. Potter, I have been informed by one of my reputable sources that you would consider the position of an Auror with the British Ministry of Magic. Due to your extraordinary circumstances we are willing to offer you a place on this year's training course without asking for the necessary grades. In your case the practical experience is more than enough."_

"I'll say!" Percy echoed, "You defeated Voldemort and escaped him on countless occasions. You are right about the Ministry though Harry, as much as I hate to admit it. You should be careful before you take the job, the ministry are very good at corrupting people."

"I know," Harry said darkly, "I wouldn't take a position in the Ministry, not until Kingsley has been Minister for longer and has had a chance to change things around there. Besides, I don't want to get into Auror training because I'm the chosen one. I want to actually earn something for once in my life."

Hermione smiled slightly, "That's very mature of you Harry."

Harry shot his best friend a grin, "You finally got through to me after all these years Hermione."

Mrs. Weasley chuckled as she looked through the remaining letters, "These look like Hogwarts letters," she said with a frown as she unearthed four letters written in the same style of writing with a very familiar wax seal.

Harry glanced at the table and saw that she was right. The four letters were addressed to himself, Ron, Hermione and Ginny. He eagerly grabbed his while Mrs. Weasley handed the others their letters out.

"Mine is standard. There's a list of the books I'll need for my 7th year and I need to send a copy of the subjects I want to take to see if I can take up another N.E.W.T or if I want to drop one," Ginny told them after a quick skim read of her letter, "But why do you three have letters?"

To answer Ginny's question Hermione read her letter out loud,

"_Dear Miss. Granger,_

_In light of recent events we would like to welcome all 7th year pupils from the 1997 school year back to Hogwarts on the 1st of September so that they may re-sit their final year and achieve the qualifications that they deserve._

_This is not compulsory, and students who choose to return will be known as '8th Year' students. Due to lack of space in the house common rooms, a common room for returning students has been created in the Eastern tower. This common room will be shared amongst the year group, it is intended that students from all four houses will coincide there peacefully. _

_This school year will run as any other with the exception of certain classes which may have to be shared with the current 7th year students to avoid further demands on the time and resources of the staff. _

_As has been stated above this year is not compulsory. It is possible for students to sit their N.E.W.T's at the Ministry of Magic if they feel capable of doing so despite the extreme disruption to the school year of 1997-98. However, this is not advisable for certain professions. This pertains to students who wish to work within the high ranking sectors of the Ministry of Magic (for example any posts within the Department of Magical Law Enforcement), train as Healers, or for those who wish to go on to teach after graduating from Hogwarts. If you are at all interested in any of these professions it is highly recommended that you return to school for your final year._

_I would appreciate it greatly if you could respond to this letter within two weeks of receiving it. With your response please include the classes that you wish to take if you decide that you would like to return to the school. You are entitled to drop only one subject and replace it with another. It is not advisable to try and pick up a highly skilful subject when you have missed the first year of teaching. For example, I would advise against picking up the following subjects at 7th Year Level if you did not study them at O.W.L Level; Ancient Runes, Arithmancy, Alchemy and Care of Magical Creatures (unless you can display other relevant extra-curricular activities as proof that you have enough experience to attempt to do so)._

_Yours sincerely, _

_Minerva McGonagall,_

_Headmistress of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry."_

There was a stunned silence for a good few minutes until Ron eventually broke it, "Blimey, should we go back?"

Immediately Hermione answered, "Yes!" as if any other answer couldn't possibly be good enough for her.

Ron resisted the urge to roll his eyes as he looked to Harry. The dark haired boy appeared to be thoughtful, "I think so…I know the Ministry will let me do whatever I want without the grades but I meant it when I said I want to earn it. I either want to go into the Auror department or maybe teach Defence so I suppose I should go back and get my N.E.W.T's."

"It could be a laugh," Ron said with a nod, "And I was thinking of being an Auror too so I do need my N.E.W.T's."

They both seemed to have simultaneously agreed that going back to school was the best option but Hermione, who had decided the moment she had read the letter, had already written her reply and sent the letter away with Pigwidgeon.

Ron and Harry chuckled under their breath at this, it was so Hermione. Turning back to the table she said, "Well I don't want a particularly difficult year so I dropped a couple of subjects but going back is definitely the best idea. I'd thought about going into the Ministry, I thought I might do something about helping house elves, or magical law enforcement, oh I don't know yet!"

Harry and Ron were still chuckling under their breath as they wrote their replies too.

Harry scrawled down on the back of the parchment, _"Yes Professor I would like to return to Hogwarts. I would like to continue taking Defence against the Dark Arts, Potions, Charms, Herbology and Transfiguration."_

"Hey Ron, do you reckon we should take up Divination again? Just for a laugh," Harry asked with a grin, it had been fun taking the mick out of Trelawney and making up predictions about death.

Ron grinned back, "Yeah, why not? I could do with a bit of comic relief."

Harry laughed to himself as he wrote on the letter that he also wished to pick up Divination. He felt a sense of satisfaction as he sent the letters away with his new tawny owl Mercury. Going back to Hogwarts for Harry felt like going home and he found himself feeling giddily excited for the 1st of September once more. It was the most ordinary and nice feeling he had felt in a good few months and for the first time in a while he had a sense of hope again.

* * *

They were all in high spirits as they stepped outside into the blazing July heat. The orchard was filled with apples and the grass was a vibrant shade of green. The sun hung high in the sky and it was so warm with barely any breeze. Harry felt excited and carefree again as he mounted his broomstick and soared into the air. Their mock up game of Quidditch was great fun, they all teased Ron for letting in countless 'quaffles' which were really just enlarged apples. Hermione gave up about halfway through when the old comet she was flying tried to buck her off, and in the end Bill, Harry, Ron and Ginny's team won with ease. When they had finished their game they landed on the soft grass of the orchard and Hermione showcased a pretty neat sprinkler charm in an attempt to cool them all down.

"Go on, run through it," Bill was daring Charlie.

"I work with dragon's bro," Charlie grinned, "You think I'm scared of a bit of water?"

"Ice cold water!" Hermione called.

Charlie scoffed and pulled his t-shirt off, he was covered in scars, burns and tattoos. He smirked at his older brother and the girl he thought of as a little sister, "Easy, watch me."

Charlie ran forward into the sprinkler and let out a rather girly squeal when he realised that ice cold really meant _ice _cold. Hermione was beside herself with laughter and Ginny positively cackled as Charlie ran away from the sprinkler.

Bill was doubled over with laughter and Charlie grinned wickedly. He transfigured a makeshift paddling pool out of some nearby chopped wood and sped Hermione's charm up so that it filled the pool in seconds.

Bill narrowed his eyes suspiciously at his younger brother, "Oh no…you wouldn't."

"Oh yeah I would," Charlie grinned as he picked Bill up with ease.

"Charlie put me down you bloody prick!" Bill shouted as Charlie carried Bill to the pool.

The rest of the gang were watching on and crying with laughter at the scene that was unfolding in front of them.

"Fancy a dip, brother?" Charlie asked.

"I am going to fucking kill you Charlie!" Bill shouted as Charlie dropped Bill into the ice cold water.

It wasn't very deep but Bill looked incredibly flustered as he resurfaced, coughing and breathing heavily, "Fuck me that is cold!"

"Language, William," Ginny teased, "Don't let Mum hear you talking like that."

"Or Fleur," Charlie added with a grin.

"She's in France, I'd be impressed if she could hear me from there," Bill retorted as he sat back in the pool, "Lovely in here when you get used to the temperature, is anyone joining me?"

"Yeah but we'll do it voluntarily," Harry said in amusement.

Ginny snorted as she got to her feet, "Not in my clothes. I'll go change into a swimsuit first."

Hermione chuckled as she stood up, "Yeah I'll join you."

The two girls returned to the house, along with Ron and Percy who had decided to see if they could sneak any Pimm's past Mrs. Weasley. Ron had informed Harry that it was some kind of refreshing alcoholic beverage.

"You coming in?" Bill asked Harry in amusement. He had just cast a warming charm on the pool.

Charlie and George had stripped to their boxers and cast water retardant charms on them as they joined Bill in the pool.

"Yeah," Harry said after a moment, "Sure."

He quickly stripped and cast the same water retardant charms on his boxers before jumping into the cold water. He gasped slightly, "Merlin, that is cold!"

"You should have felt it before we warmed it up," Bill said with a half-hearted glare at his little brother, "Did you find that funny Char?"

"Incredibly funny Billy," Charlie smirked.

Harry chuckled at the interplay between the two eldest brothers, "Today is great, I can't remember the last time I really relaxed like this. It must have been before the war."

"Ah, when you were with Ginny?" George asked with a raised eyebrow.

Harry sighed, "Yeah…when I was with Ginny."

"Why didn't you try and give things another chance Harry?" Bill asked curiously, "You never know if it will work or not unless you try."

"I don't want to try, I'm sorry if that's not what you want to hear," Harry said firmly.

"So you're still maintaining the excuse that the war changed you?" Charlie asked.

"Excuse?" Harry frowned, "It's not an excuse."

"So you aren't gay then?" Charlie asked pointedly.

Harry blanched, "What? No! Why would you even think that?"

"Well you haven't had many girlfriends," Charlie pointed out, "You could be a virgin for all we know."

"I'm not," Harry muttered as he blushed furiously.

"Woah, woah, woah! Wait one minute!" Bill said hotly, "Are you saying you _slept _with our bloody sister?"

Harry looked quite terrified, "Uh, yes. Once or twice, I mean not lots of times, just on a few occasions! Oh my God, please don't kill me."

George nodded, "Right…" he caught the eye of Charlie and said, “Okay so we have about 10 minutes until the others get back, we have time.”

Charlie nodded sincerely, "But what would we do with the body? I mean we could dump it in the woods…there are Muggle repelling charms here."

"But we'd have to hide it well," Bill added as Harry's eyes flitted between them in disbelief, "We couldn't have them finding it when they went looking for him. We'd have to come up with an excuse."

"He went for a walk in the woods," George said quickly, "And he got lost. They would assume he got eaten by something horrible. There are magical creatures in these woods."

"And Garden Gnomes have been known to kill when provoked," Charlie said, "We'd have to mangle the body a little so they wouldn't suspect anything when they found it."

"Definitely do-able," Bill said matter of factly.

Harry cleared his throats, "Guys…either you are the best pranksters in the world or you are all psychopaths…I'm not sure which one it is right now."

"It is a very fine line," George said thoughtfully.

Bill grinned, "Nah, it's okay. Not all relationships last, we understand that Harry."

"So if you aren't gay, the war really is the real reason," Charlie said.

Harry nodded, "I loved Ginny once but the war changed me, and it changed her. She doesn't want a guy who wants to get a job that involves putting his life in danger because he can't live without the adrenaline rush. She wants someone who can make her feel safe, someone who can make her laugh and who she doesn't have to worry about everyday….and I need more than a wife and kids and an ordinary life. That would bore me so much."

"Well then, I think by realising you are wrong for her you are doing the best thing for her," Bill said with a slight smile, "So we'll forgive you."

"And we won't feed you to the Gnomes," George said as he patted Harry on the back, "We'll always be family Harry, you're the 7th Weasley brother."

"It doesn't have to be by blood or marriage mate," Charlie agreed as he put his arm around Harry, "You’ll always be one of our little brothers."

Harry smiled at them all, at his family, "Thanks guys," he said with a genuine smile.

* * *

"Hey Perce."

"Oh, hiya Harry."

It was the middle of July now and they were quickly approaching Harry's birthday. He had come across Percy sitting outside on his own taking in the dying light of the warm summer's night.

"You seem like you've got a lot on your mind," Harry said thoughtfully as he sat down next to Percy on the rickety bench.

Percy sighed as he stared at the sun as it continued its descent towards the ground, "Sometimes I don't think the guilt will ever stop gnawing at me," he admitted.

"About Fred," Harry realised.

Percy nodded silently.

"It does get easier," Harry said quietly, "Not better necessarily but it gets easier to forget and move on. You have nothing to feel guilty for though, Fred didn't die because of you. Your actions didn't kill him."

"No, but he died in my place," Percy said quietly, "I should have been the one to die, not him. I'm not stupid Harry, in fact I am incredibly perceptive. Everybody wishes that it was me who had died instead of Fred."

Harry shook his head in disbelief, "No, they don't Percy," he said angrily.

Percy's eyes flashed with surprise at Harry's reaction to his words.

Harry got to his feet and crossed his arms as he stared down at the older man, "You were a complete dick over the last couple of years, that much is true. But that doesn't mean that your family love you any less than they loved Fred. You are their son and their brother just the same as Fred was. They would have cared just as much if you had died, Fred would have blamed himself too, just like you are doing now."

Percy was silent as he took in those words.

"They love you Percy," Harry added, "All of them, and while they don't agree with your past choices they won't let those choices define your present or your future. They just want you to be in theirs, don't you get that?"

"I get it now," Percy replied quietly as he looked down at his hands.

"And you have to stop blaming yourself for Fred's death," Harry said hotly, "It wasn't your fault. He died for the cause, just like everybody else did. You didn't force him to do it, he chose to and I hate that he's gone too. But you can't let it affect you like this, you need to move on with your life, that's what Fred would want."

"I know," Percy said, he cleared his throat and got to his feet, "But Harry, I really think you ought to take your own advice."

Harry frowned, "What do you mean?"

Percy smiled slightly as he placed his hand on Harry's shoulder, "It wasn't your fault that Remus died, or Tonks. None of those deaths were your fault, like you said they fought for the cause and nobody made them. It was their choice, not anybody else's. I'll stop blaming myself for Fred's death, but you have to stop blaming yourself for everybody else's."

Harry was stunned by those words as Percy patted him on the shoulder and walked away. He stood there for a little while. The sun completed its descent and the stars began to sparkle in the dark blue sky. Percy was right, about everything. Or rather, Harry's own advice was right. In order to live in the present fully, and to move on in the future he had to let go of the past and he had to stop blaming himself for everything that had happened in the past. He sighed, it was going to be a long hard road but he was sure it was possible, with time.

**TBC.  
**


	2. Making Amends

Harry got up early on his 18th birthday. He dressed and snuck down the stairs of the Burrow without waking Ron. He didn’t sleep as much as he used to anymore and he liked to keep his mind occupied. His birthday always made him feel a little sad, it was a time when he missed the family he had never known or had not known for long enough.

Considering the fact that it was only 5am in the morning and the sky was shining with vivid shades of orange and pink, Harry didn't think he would meet anyone on his venture but he was wrong.

Harry walked into the kitchen and stopped in his tracks when he saw that Ginny was already there. She was sitting with her back to him at the table holding something in her hands as her body shook with silent sobs. He was unsure about what to do at first, but Harry silently crossed the room and tapped her on the shoulder. Ginny got a shock and dropped the photo in her hands onto the table as she turned to look at Harry.

Harry mustered a smile as he looked at the redheaded girl. The photograph that she had been looking at was an old one of herself and Fred when she was only a little girl.

"Are you still struggling?" Harry asked gently.

Ginny nodded and cleared her throat, "Does it ever get easy? Does the ache in your chest ever go away?"

"Yes," Harry replied as he sat down next to her at the kitchen table, "It hurts really badly at first. It feels like there's a hole that will never be filled. You feel like you will always be numb and empty. But then slowly the hole starts to close up and other people fill it, then life starts to look up. You start to laugh at jokes again, you start to smile again and when you come out of that tunnel everything seems brighter, it feels like the best thing in the world to have hope again. I'm not going to lie and tell you that it's easy Gin because it's not. But it does get better, I promise."

Ginny nodded and wiped away her tears with shaking hands, "Do you still miss them Harry?"

"My parents?" Harry asked quietly, "Yes, some days more than others…like today and on Halloween."

Ginny's eyes widened, "Oh Merlin, I'm so sorry! I totally forgot that it was your birthday! And I just dumped all of my emotional drama on you, I'm sorry."

Harry smiled, "I don't mind Gin. It's just another birthday, nothing special is it?"

"I'd say that it's pretty special that you lived this long," Ginny smiled, "You never thought you'd see your 18th birthday."

"Then I suppose it's an accomplishment," Harry chuckled.

Ginny laughed too, "I hope you don't mind me bringing this up today but do you think we should talk properly about what happened during the war? I mean I understand that we won't get back together and I don't expect us to. But if we're going to be friends I think we have to know everything."

"I told you everything," Harry promised.

Ginny glanced up at him, "Yes, but you were vague on…certain things."

"Do you really want to hear about those things in detail?" Harry asked quietly.

"I think I need to understand," Ginny said with a frown, "I need to understand if that…if she…well, if that was why we didn't get back together."

Harry sighed and glanced down at his hands, "No, Gin. What happened between Hermione and I was a mistake. Not a stupid mistake, it didn't ruin our friendship but it shouldn't have happened. She's my best friend and we've always been close. You don't understand what it was like out there. It wasn't like it was the real world, everything felt strange and surreal like it was a dream and you were going to wake up and you know…not have to deal with the consequences."

"So there weren't feelings?" Ginny asked calmly.

"Not those sort of feelings," Harry admitted, "There was loneliness…it was just a need for human comfort I suppose. If Ron hadn't left things would have been different but it was just the two of us for months and we naturally got closer but it wasn't by choice, it was by necessity. Do you know what I mean? It was just the two of us so it just…happened."

"I get it," Ginny said with a nod, "Trust me, I get it."

"What happened between you and…him?" Harry asked as he cleared his throat.

Ginny frowned and looked away from Harry towards the kitchen window, "It was a similar situation I guess. We were sort of leading the DA together so we saw each other day in and day out. I missed you and we both missed normality… we were lonely and struggling with the way things were at school so it just…happened."

"We weren't together," Harry reminded her.

"Did that make it feel any less like cheating for you?" Ginny asked bluntly.

"No," Harry replied honestly.

"No, not for me either," Ginny said as she caught his eye, "And that's why we can't make it work, isn't it?"

"I think so," Harry replied quietly, "As much as we can attempt to justify things we've lost the trust haven't we?"

Ginny nodded and pulled her gaze away from his, "Yeah."

"I'm sorry Gin," Harry said, "But I don't think I could have given you what you wanted."

"I know," Ginny said with a weak laugh, "You need someone who'll be okay with you running around trying to kill yourself to save everybody else every other day. And I need someone with a stable, _normal _job so that I don't get bloody anxiety disorders."

Harry smiled slightly, "We could have made it work if the war hadn't happened."

"But the war did happen so there's no point in talking about what might have happened if it didn't," Ginny said matter of factly, "Let's just make sure we salvage a friendship from this. I don't want to lose our friendship, I've lost too many people I care about already."

"So have I," Harry said as he placed his hand on top of hers, "We'll stay friends, that much I can promise."

"Thank you Harry," Ginny said with a soft smile.

* * *

When Hermione tiptoed into the room Ron and Harry shared at the Burrow not long after 5am she expected both of the room's occupants to be asleep. She pushed the door open silently and jumped out of her skin when Ron opened an eye to look at her.

"Mione," he mumbled, "What you doing in here so early?"

"I was just dropping Harry's present off," Hermione whispered, she frowned as she put the present down on top of the small pile already sitting by his bed, "Where is Harry?"

Ron yawned, "Dunno, he gets up early these days and goes out for walks. I reckon it clears his head, he's always having nightmares."

Hermione sighed, "Do you think he's going to be okay?" she asked as she sat down on the edge of Ron's bed.

Ron was quiet for a moment, "I hope so, maybe Hogwarts will help."

"Maybe," Hermione said softly, she looked down at her hands, "Ron, do you think you and I… do you think our friendship will ever go back to the way it was before?"

"Honestly, I don't think it can be the same," Ron said, Hermione's face fell.

"But maybe it can be better," Ron added with a slight smile, "You said it yourself Hermione. We've been through way too much together to abandon each other now."

Hermione smiled slightly sadly, "I can't lie to you anymore Ron. If we're going to be friends again and try and fix things I have to tell you the truth about-"

"-about what happened between you and Harry during the war," Ron finished.

Hermione's eyes widened, "How did you…"

"Harry told me," Ron admitted as he caught Hermione's eye, "After I destroyed the locket…he told me that something had happened when I was gone."

Hermione frowned, "And you would have been okay with that, if you and I _had _gotten together?"

Ron shrugged and looked down, "I wasn't exactly happy about it. But I would have had to be okay with it wouldn't I? You and me weren't together and it was my fault it happened. If I hadn't left…"

"It wouldn't have happened, you're right," Hermione said quietly.

"Is that why you didn't want to be with me, and why he broke up with Ginny?" Ron asked, still not meeting Hermione's eye.

"No," Hermione replied honestly, "There were feelings between Harry and I…I suppose. But nothing like that, it was just so confusing…like the line between friendship and more was so blurred because of how isolated and lonely we were."

"So why didn't you give us a try?" Ron asked curiously, "I didn't want to know before, but I think I need to now."

Hermione's frown deepened and when she glanced over at Ron she was aware she was fighting back tears, "You're my best friend Ron. We went through so much together and I always thought I had feelings for you…but looking back on them after everything that happened in the war they seemed feeble and childish."

"Like a childhood crush," Ron said quietly.

Hermione nodded and wiped her tears, "We all changed so much. The war changed us, it damaged us. We're all such a mess, Harry is a wreck, you are a wreck and Merlin knows that I'm a complete mess. We've been through so much together, _too _much. We've both seen the other at our worst and neither of us like that person. We all need someone a little bit more removed from all of this…someone who can help us fix ourselves."

Ron smiled sadly, "You're right Hermione, I know you are…but I didn't want someone else, I wanted you."

A few more tears spilled out of Hermione's eyes, "And I wanted you too, once upon a time. But not now Ron...and I don't want to lose you, you're my best friend."

Ron nodded and cleared his throat as he wiped away a few of his own tears with frustration, "You're my best friend too Hermione. We'll be alright."

Hermione nodded, "In time," she agreed.

* * *

"Have you been crying?"

Hermione nodded as she pulled on a cardigan and walked out into the garden. It was still early and the dew on the grass was fresh. She sat down next to Harry on the bench and kissed him on the cheek.

"Happy Birthday, Harry."

Harry smiled slightly, "What's wrong Hermione?"

"Nothing," Hermione sighed, "I just spoke to Ron this morning…about what happened in the war. I never knew that you told him about that.”

"I was going to tell you," Harry promised, "But you were still struggling to cope with what happened to you at Malfoy Manor…I was waiting for the right time."

"Yes well in the future I'd appreciate it if you just told me things, regardless of whether you thought the time was right or not," Hermione said irritably.

"I know, I'm sorry," Harry said as he turned away from her to look out at the quiet, awakening village of Ottery St. Catchpole.

"Do you think we'll ever be okay again? Any of us?" Hermione asked quietly.

"Yeah, I think we'll all be okay," Harry said as he put his hand on top of hers, "With time I think all of the wounds will heal."

"I feel like I'm old before my time," Hermione said with a quiet chuckle.

"Well, that's part of the reason why we're going to school, isn't it?" Harry said with a smile as he closed his hand around hers, "To be young again and actually enjoy a year of school without Voldemort breathing down our necks."

"It will be a nice change," Hermione admitted as she also looked out at the village.

"It's odd that you spoke to Ron this morning, because I spoke to Ginny," Harry said after a few moments of comfortable silence, "I had already told her about what happened but she questioned me in more detail about it. I think it helped give her some kind of closure, but to be honest I'm just glad that we agreed to stay friends."

"Same with Ron and I," Hermione sighed, "But I don't think our trio will ever be the same."

"No," Harry agreed, "I think things will change when we go back to school. Our friend group will expand; we won't just be a trio anymore."

"I'm not sure how Ron will take that," Hermione said cautiously.

"Neither am I," Harry said as he gently squeezed Hermione's hand.

Hermione frowned slightly as she looked down at their hands, "Harry…about what happened between us in the war. It didn't mean _anything _did it?"

"It meant something," Harry said as he glanced over at her, "Or it wouldn't have happened."

"Yes, but then what did it mean?" Hermione asked a little desperately, "Because I've searched my brain a million times and I can't work it out."

"It means we love each other, in our own way," Harry said thoughtfully, "You are my best friend Hermione and you always will be. I don't feel like anything has changed between us, do you?"

"No," Hermione admitted, "It doesn't feel like anything has changed at all. I think our emotions just got the better of us, I thought you were going to die from that snake bite."

"I know," Harry said as he looked at her again, “We were lonely and we needed each other. It's odd actually, we've always been there for each other as friends…I suppose you could call that an extreme extension of that friendship."

Hermione laughed as she looked down at her hands, "I suppose you could," she agreed.

* * *

"Happy Birthday Harry dear!"

Harry smiled as Molly walked into the kitchen and began to cook up a large, splendid breakfast, "Did you like our present?"

"Oh," Harry said with a frown, "I haven't opened them yet. They're still in my room."

Ron guffawed, "How could you forget your own presents mate? I'll bring them down."

Harry grinned, "Thanks mate," he said cheerfully.

"The whole family are joining us for dinner tonight," Molly said cheerfully, "It's such a lovely night so I thought we could eat outside, oh and Fleur is bringing a cake!"

"It sounds great Mrs. Weasley," Harry said honestly as he looked down at the watch he still wore, the watch they had given him the previous year.

"Oh and Andromeda wrote yesterday," Mrs. Weasley remembered, "She wondered if you would like her to come by tonight with Teddy?"

Harry's grin widened, "She's going to bring Teddy round? Yes, definitely! Can I floo her now?"

Mrs. Weasley smiled fondly at Harry, "Of course you can, on you go."

Hermione chuckled as Harry darted towards the kitchen fireplace and flew some floo powder into it. He spoke Andromeda's address and her head appeared in the flames within a few seconds.

She looked very much like Bellatrix, but her hair wasn't quite so dark and her smile was kind.

"Happy Birthday Harry."

"Thanks Andi," Harry smiled, "Molly said you were thinking of dropping by with Teddy?"

Andromeda nodded, "Yes, he has a birthday present for you. Although I picked it, wrapped it and paid for it."

Harry laughed, "Why don't you join us for dinner tonight? Molly won't mind, will you Molly?"

Mrs. Weasley shook her head and smiled, "Of course not, it would be a pleasure to have you both Andromeda."

"That sounds lovely," Andromeda said honestly, "What time should we come by?"

"Oh any time after 5pm will be fine," Molly smiled.

Andromeda smiled back, "Perfect, I will see you all this evening in that case. Oh and do enjoy your birthday until then Harry."

"I will," Harry promised, "See you later Andi."

Her face disappeared from the flames, and Ron walked into the kitchen with a large pile of presents. He dropped them onto the table where they wobbled precariously and Harry eagerly ripped into them all then ate a lovely big breakfast. He was really beginning to think that the day couldn't get any better as he, Ron, Hermione and Ginny set out for the orchard for a game of tag Quidditch which Hermione would referee.

* * *

When Harry walked out into the warm, bright sunlit back garden that evening he had to stop for a moment and smile as he surveyed the scene. The gazebo that the Weasley's had bought for that summer was erected over two long rectangular tables. Fireflies in jars were sitting on the tables for when the light began to fade later that evening. Standing around the garden or sitting at the tables were the people he loved more than anyone else in the world.

There was a twinge of sadness too because Sirius, Remus, Tonks and Fred weren't here. But that didn't stop the gathering from being any larger or livelier than the Weasley gatherings normally were. Arthur was standing talking to Bill and Charlie. Fleur was in the kitchen helping Molly prepare the food and the cake. Percy was talking to George, he had his arm around a very pretty dark-haired woman who Harry didn't recognise, and George was here with Angelina which made Harry smile broadly.

Ron, Hermione and Ginny were playing with a toy mouse and Crookshanks close to the hedge where the occasional garden gnome would peek out from.

Kingsley was here too, despite being the new Minister for Magic he had managed to find the time to come to Harry's birthday dinner. Andromeda was talking animatedly with him while bouncing Teddy absentmindedly in her arms. The little boy was still very little; he was nearly 4 months old now. He couldn't speak but he had started to babble very vividly as if he was having a very interesting conversation with himself. His hair was its favoured bright blue at the moment and his eyes the same hazel colour that Remus's had been. The moment he spotted Harry he began to kick his legs and his hair began to transition to black.

Harry laughed as he walked across the garden, “I think somebody is pleased to see me.”

Andromeda smiled, "Here we go Teddy," she said, "It's Uncle Harry's birthday today."

Harry grinned broadly as he took the little boy into his arms, "Hey Teddy!" he said as he tickled the little boy’s tummy and made him giggle.

Ron grinned in amusement when he walked over to his best friend, "You're doing that ridiculous baby voice again."

"Of course he is," Hermione said brightly as she put her hand on Teddy's tummy and tickled him, "Because he's gorgeous, aren't you Teddy?"

"He's cute," Ron conceded as Teddy grabbed his finger.

Kingsley laughed in his low, deep way, "That little boy has everyone wrapped around his little finger."

"Mum included," Ron said in amusement.

"Oh yes," Andromeda said with a sad sort of smile, "Dora was exactly the same as a baby, everybody adored her."

Harry sent a sympathetic glance Andromeda's way, "How has he been?"

"He's been teething," Andromeda said with a long-suffering sigh, "I found out at his St. Mungo's check-up that a teething part-werewolf baby is even worse than a normal teething baby."

"Oh dear," Hermione said with a smile, "Did he destroy anything soft and fluffy?"

Andromeda smiled in amusement, "All of the cuddly toys he could get his hands on and my favourite cushions."

Ron laughed loudly, "How sharp are his teeth?"

"Not any sharper than an ordinary babies," Andromeda admitted, "He just has werewolf instincts when he's in pain apparently. Bill said he has the same thing; he growls when he gets mad."

"Yeah and Fleur locks him in the dog house she built outside their house," Ron said through his laughter.

Harry chuckled as he gently opened Teddy's mouth, "Oh yeah, I can see a couple of teeth in there," he said as he removed his finger before Teddy could bite him.

"Why don't you give him one of those chewy bones for dogs?" Ron asked cluelessly.

"Ron!" Hermione chastised.

"I'm not giving my Godson a dog's toy Ron," Harry scoffed.

"Right," Ron muttered, "I didn't mean it like _that_."

Andromeda shook her head in amusement, "It will pass, and I have some diluted pain potions so that he can sleep through the night. Although if you fancy taking him for a few days I would appreciate it."

"Of course," Harry said with a smile, "I'll miss him when I go back to Hogwarts. I'll have him for the whole first week of August if you like?"

"Would you really not mind?" Andromeda asked as she glanced at her Grandson, "I have been thinking about visiting my sister."

"Your sister?" Harry asked in surprise, "Narcissa?"

"Malfoy?" Ron added.

Andromeda nodded, "Yes, well…after the war we talked briefly about reconciling. We haven't spoken since her little boy was born, Draco I believe he's called."

"Little, he's our age now," Harry said in amusement, "It's good though that you reconciled. You should go, family is important."

"I am surprised that you are behind the idea," Andromeda admitted, "I had heard that you and my nephew did not get along."

"We didn't," Harry said honestly, "Well, we don't. But he saved my life in the war and so did your sister. Maybe they're more willing to make amends now that Lucius is in prison."

Andromeda nodded, she still appeared to be deep in thought, "Then I will make sure it is alright with Molly and if she agrees you can have Teddy for the week."

"She'll say yes," Harry assured Andromeda before she left to seek out Molly.

"How come you're so okay about that?" Ron asked with a slight frown.

"I told you, Narcissa Malfoy saved my life," Harry said honestly, "And so did Draco, in Malfoy Manor."

"Yeah but he also sat by and let Hermione get tortured," Ron pointed out.

"No, he didn't," Hermione sighed, "He tried to run forward, just like he ran forward to give Harry his wand in the final battle.”

"Still," Ron muttered, "You're cool with Andromeda just hanging out with her?"

"Narcissa is her sister," Hermione said in disbelief, "And Draco is her nephew. It has nothing to do with us."

"Yeah well, it doesn't mean I'm going to forgive the Malfoys," Ron said irritably, "Do you reckon Malfoy will come back to school too?"

"I dunno," Harry said honestly, "If he does he won't be the same person."

"None of us are, Harry," Hermione said softly.

* * *

"Everything you need is in his bag," Andromeda was saying, "His travel cot, his bottle, and all of the changing equipment. Remember to feed him just-"

"-just before his afternoon nap," Harry finished, "And not to put him to sleep any later than 6pm. I know Andi."

Andromeda smiled and kissed the little boy on the forehead, "You be good for Uncle Harry," she said.

Teddy gurgled in response and Harry hugged her, "Have a good week Andromeda. Give my best to Narcissa…and Draco," he added as an afterthought.

Andromeda chuckled, "How the world has changed," she said softly, "Of course I will."

Harry smiled at her and waved as she stepped into the fireplace and disappeared from sight. He sat down at the table and pulled the formula milk from Teddy's bag, "I suppose we better give you some breakfast little man."

"Let me make it up for you Harry," Mrs. Weasley said kindly as she took the formula from Harry.

Harry smiled, "Thanks, Molly."

"You make a very good Father to that little boy, you know," Molly said absentmindedly as she made up the milk.

Harry shook his head, "No, I'm not his Father. Remus Lupin is his Father."

"I understand," Molly said softly, "But Remus died when he was only a month old. He is going to need a Father figure in life to look up to, someone to take him to Quidditch games, someone who he can look to for advice, you are that person."

Harry frowned slightly, "I suppose so. Do you think it's selfish of me to go back to Hogwarts?"

"Of course not," Molly said gently, "You need to get your N.E.W.T's so that you can give yourself a good career. Andromeda knows that and understands that, and she knows you'll visit as often as you can. It's only for a year after all."

"I know," Harry said as Molly handed him the bottle, "Molly, can I ask you a question?"

Molly sat down opposite Harry as he fed Teddy his bottle, "Of course, what's on your mind Harry?"

"Draco Malfoy," Harry frowned, "If we go back to school and he has changed…if he's lonely and…well like I was for a good deal of my time at school. Do you think I should try and make amends?"

Molly smiled slightly, "I think that's a very mature idea. Draco Malfoy and yourself may be more similar than you think and I think he will be very lonely. Your generation all seem older than you are but you are still teenagers who had to grow up far too quickly because of a war. You were forced into something you didn't want to do by the prophecy and he probably was by his Father. I don't see what makes you any different and I think a friend might be exactly what he needs."

Harry smiled back at her, "Ron won't like it."

Molly scoffed, "My son is far too prejudiced Harry. The world is changing thanks to you and what you did in the war. Ron will have to get used to that one day."

Harry nodded, "Thank you, Molly."

* * *

When Andromeda stepped out of the fireplace into the drawing room of Malfoy Manor she was immediately hugged by her younger sister, Narcissa.

She chuckled, "You haven't changed a single bit Cissa."

Narcissa smiled slightly, "You have. I seem to remember a lot of tartan skirts and band t-shirts."

Andromeda laughed, "Yes well I am a Grandmother now, not to mention a Juror of the Wizengamot! So it's black robes now, but I seem to remember you wearing an awful lot of pink back then."

"She still does," Draco said as he sauntered through the drawing room, "Only not in public because Father told her it wasn't becoming."

Andromeda scoffed, "Then your Father was an idiot. Your Mother looks beautiful in pink, Draco."

"Do you have any respect for pureblood etiquette?" Draco asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Not a shred," Andromeda said cheerfully, "I was disowned for marrying a Muggle-born, I constantly ran away from home and I spent my entire youth wearing tartan skirts and band t-shirts. Now you, young Draco Malfoy have far too much respect for Pureblood etiquette."

Narcissa smiled from behind her hands, "Draco, this is your Aunt Dromeda."

"Yes Mother, I gathered," Draco said as he surveyed his Aunt with interest, "How long will you be staying for?"

"The entire week," Andromeda smirked, "So you had better get used to me."

Narcissa looked down to hide her laughter, "I'll show you to your room, come Dromeda."

Andromeda slung her bag over her shoulder and walked out onto the grand staircase with her sister, "I do apologise about my son's behaviour. He's far too much like his Father for my liking, but I'm sure you two will bond. He's a sweet boy when you get past the sarcasm."

"Now that sounds familiar," Andromeda chuckled.

Narcissa smiled, "Yes, he is rather like you actually. He pretends he is okay but he will not talk about the war and I know he must one day. It has clearly had some adverse effects on him."

"I can't say I'm surprised," Andromeda admitted, "From what I know from Harry, he seems to have been forced to try and kill a man when he was only 16 years old."

Narcissa nodded as she looked down at her hands, "For his Father's failures. There were so many days when I wished I had gone against Mothers plans and married a Muggle-born, like you Dromeda."

"No, you never could have Cissa," Andromeda smiled, "You cared far too much for etiquette. You would never have been happy with a Muggle-born."

"Yes well I wasn't exactly happy with Lucius either," Narcissa pointed out as she opened the door to Andromeda's room and led her inside, "In the beginning I loved him very much. But when he joined the Death Eaters and that _man _became involved in our lives I could no longer be happy. I only wanted a husband who could provide a safe, happy home for my son and he could not do that, Dromeda."

Andromeda sighed as she dropped her bag on the bed and pulled her younger sister into a hug, "Well he's gone now and I'm here Cissa. I won't run away this time, I promise."

* * *

"I get the impression you don't like me very much, Draco," Andromeda said as she sat down next to the boy by the lake in the back garden of the Manor.

Draco shrugged, "I just don't know you very well."

"Yes, I haven't exactly been in your life," Andromeda said, "Which you can blame your Grandfather for. My Father disowned me."

"For marrying a Muggle-born," Draco said thoughtfully.

Andromeda nodded, "Yes, I ran away with him after I left Hogwarts. We eloped and I gave birth to our daughter when I was only 19 years old."

"I'm sorry," Draco said, frowning down at his hands, "About what happened to your daughter."

"So am I," Andromeda said softly, "I begged her not to leave but she loved her husband and she had to protect him. I find some comfort in the fact that she died for love not because of her blood status as my Husband did."

"What happened to him?" Draco asked.

"He was killed by snatchers," Andromeda replied calmly, "During the war."

"Sorry," Draco said again.

"You did not kill him, nor did you help the snatchers who did," Andromeda said, "Therefore you have nothing to apologise for."

"I did a lot of bad things in the war," Draco said quietly.

"Have you ever killed someone, Draco?" Andromeda asked thoughtfully.

Draco shook his head but a dark look flashed across his face which made Andromeda wonder if he was telling the truth, "Then there is some hope for you yet. You are not beyond saving, contrary to what you believe."

Draco shrugged, "Maybe I don't want to be saved."

"You say that, but deep down you know that it isn't true," Andromeda said.

Draco said nothing in response to this so they fell into a peaceful silence. Andromeda sighed contently and looked out at the shimmering lake, "This reminds me of Hogwarts."

Draco nodded, "The lake is smaller and the water is clearer, but I suppose so it is similar."

"Are you returning to school, Draco?" Andromeda asked conversationally, "Your Mother said you got a letter about re-sitting your final year to get your N.E.W.T's."

Draco shrugged yet again, "I got the letter, but I'm not going back."

"And why is that?"

"I wasn't on the same side as everybody else there," Draco said quietly, "They won't want me there. I won't have a single friend."

"I think you will have at least one friend," Andromeda said thoughtfully.

Draco scoffed, "Oh yeah, who?"

"Harry," Andromeda replied.

"Harry Potter?" Draco asked in disbelief, “He's my arch enemy!”

"You are 18 years old Draco," Narcissa said as she emerged from the small summerhouse with a tray of ice cold lemonade, "18 year olds do not have arch enemies."

"And I think you'll find that Harry probably considered Voldemort as his arch enemy, not a fellow schoolboy," Andromeda said with a raised eyebrow, "Consider the difference; Voldemort killed his parents and you called him some nasty names. Which do you think _he _considered a bigger threat?"

Draco flushed at the comment, "Yeah well…Potter and I hate each other."

"Harry doesn't hate you and I don't think you hate him either," Andromeda said matter of factly, "He saved your life in the war and you saved his."

"Yeah well, I was just doing the right thing, for once," Draco said under his breath.

"Harry and yourself have an awful lot in common, Draco," Andromeda continued as if she had not heard his comment, "You are both lonely-"

"Lonely?" Draco scoffed, "He's got all of his little friends and his Weaslette girlfriend."

"It is comments like that which make people dislike you Draco," Narcissa pointed out as she handed her son a glass of lemonade.

Draco rolled his eyes and Andromeda said, "And you know Draco, it's very easy to be surrounded by people and still be lonely. Harry has not been the same since the war, he's very withdrawn about the whole thing and barely talks to anybody about it."

"Yeah well, I don't like talking about it either," Draco said as he put the lemonade down on the bench and stalked away.

Narcissa sighed, "I'm worried about him Dromeda," she said as she sat down in the seat he had just vacated.

"I'll get through to him," Andromeda promised, "Before I leave."

**TBC.  
**


	3. Aboard the Hogwarts Express

"Good morning Aunt Dromeda," Draco said politely as Andromeda walked out onto the patio where Draco was sitting with a cup of coffee and a croissant in front of him.

"Good morning, Draco," Andromeda smiled. It was the last day of her stay and she had gradually become quite close to her nephew.

"You leave today, don't you?" Draco asked.

"Yes, I do," Andromeda said, "You'll be glad to see me go, I'm sure."

"No," Draco frowned, "I've kind of liked having you around actually."

"Have you?" Andromeda asked with interest.

Draco nodded and glanced down at the piece of parchment that was blowing in the slight breeze, "Do you think I should drop a N.E.W.T and pick up a new subject?"

Andromeda couldn't contain her amused smile, "So you decided to go back to school?"

"Yes, well I thought getting my N.E.W.T's properly would open up my job prospects," Draco said evasively.

"What is it you want to do?" Andromeda asked curiously.

Draco began to close up again, "Nothing."

"Oh come now Draco, I won't laugh, whatever it is," Andromeda promised.

Draco shook his head, "Nothing, alright? I don't know what I want to do yet."

"Oh Draco, tell Aunt Dromeda the truth," Narcissa's voice said as she floated out onto the patio looking as glamourous as ever in pale pink satin robes.

"No," Draco said as his face flushed.

Narcissa smiled, "Draco wants to be an Auror, Dromeda."

"No I don't Mother," Draco said, his cheeks reddening even more, "I was 5 years old when I told you I wanted to be an Auror!"

Andromeda hid a smile as she recognised the signs of denial, "Well my Dora was an Auror. I still have all of her old books from training in the attic somewhere. I could lend them to you if you like?"

"No thank you," Draco muttered, "I don't want to be an Auror."

"If you insist," Andromeda said, smiling at her sister in amusement.

***

"Aunt Dromeda?"

"Yes, Draco?"

They were in the garden having just eaten lunch. Andromeda would be preparing to leave soon so she could pick Teddy up from the Burrow and go home.

"Can I ask you a question?" Draco asked, unable to look her in the eye.

"Of course, ask away."

"Were you afraid of what your family or your friends in Slytherin would think of you when you started dating that Muggle-born you married?" Draco asked bluntly.

"I knew my family would disown me," Andromeda said truthfully, "And I was aware I would lose a few friends, yes. But I loved Ted more than I loved anybody else, until I held Dora of course. I decided to take a chance on love and I gave up a lot for that."

"Did you ever regret it?" Draco asked.

"Not once," Andromeda replied instantly.

Draco nodded, "Right. Thanks."

"Why do you ask?" Andromeda asked him, aware she was probably pushing a little too hard.

Draco shrugged, "No reason," he said as he walked forward and hugged her.

Andromeda was surprised but she hugged him back and she heard him say very quietly, "I'll miss you."

She smiled to herself and pulled away from the hug, "You will be seeing me more often than you think, Draco. Your Mother has invited me and Teddy to share dinner with you every Saturday."

Draco blushed slightly, "Right, that's good," he said as he walked away, leaving Andromeda chuckling in his wake.

***

"How is my beautiful Grandson?"

Harry smiled as he handed the baby over to his Grandmother, "He is perfect. His first tooth came through properly a couple of days ago. Ron has the bite marks to prove it, with the help of George we managed to convince him he was turning into a werewolf last night."

Andromeda laughed, "Oh Harry, you look exhausted."

Harry laughed too, "I don't mind. He hasn't been sleeping well because of the teething. You look refreshed though."

"I did have a lovely week," Andromeda admitted as she rocked Teddy in her arms, "Narcissa and I haven't spent time together like that since we were teenagers. We are only a year apart in age so we did miss each other an awful lot."

"How were they?" Harry asked curiously.

"Oh struggling to adapt of course," Andromeda said, "But they both seem far better off without Lucius Malfoy. I never did like him you know…Draco is returning to school, like you."

"I wondered if he might," Harry said thoughtfully, "I thought he might be lonely…that he might need a friend."

"Yes, I suspect he will," Andromeda said with a slight smile, "And I will suggest to you the same thing I suggested to him. After everything that has happened I suggest you make amends, call a truce as it were."

"You are quite meddlesome Andi," Harry said in amusement.

"I only want the best for you, and for my nephew," Andromeda said with a smile.

"Well if Draco wants to raise a white flag, I will too," Harry promised as he absentmindedly stroked Teddy's thick blue hair.

"I think that's very wise and mature of you Harry," Andromeda said with a soft smile.

***

Harry couldn't quite believe how fast the rest of August had flown in. He had enjoyed the lazy days in the orchard with Ron, Hermione and Ginny, the mock Quidditch games and the big family dinners. He was sad the summer was over but he was also looking forward to the year ahead as he stood on the busy bustling Platform at 9 ¾. The scarlet train was ready to go, steam billowed and filled the platform and Harry found it surreal that he was getting back on it and going back to school. He smiled at Mrs. Weasley and on instinct hugged her, "Thank you for this summer Molly,” he said in an undertone, “I know it's been hard for you and I appreciate you letting me stay."

Mrs. Weasley gave him a watery smile, "Oh you know you're family Harry. There really is no need for you to thank me."

Harry smiled at the woman he thought of as a Mother.

She smiled broadly at him, "Now, you have a good term and we'll see you at Christmas."

They did the rounds, all being hugged by Molly and shaking Arthurs hand, apart from Ginny who also got a hug from her Father. The train blew the whistle as its final warning and they clambered on with their trunks. They had just found a compartment and sat down when the train began to pull out of the station. From the window of their compartment Harry, Ginny, Ron and Hermione all waved and shouted their goodbyes to Mr. and Mrs. Weasley until the train had rounded a corner and the station had vanished from sight.

"Feels weird, doesn't it?" Ron asked after a moment of silence, "Going back to Hogwarts."

Hermione nodded, "Yeah, it does," she agreed.

Harry nodded too, aware that they were all thinking the same thing. The last time they had been at Hogwarts for any significant amount of time it had been a battlefield. They had all helped out over the summer to rebuild the parts of the school that had been damaged but the resounding memories they had of the place were of war and death.

"Stop being so morbid," Ginny said as she read the expressions on their faces, "It might have been a warzone for a little while. But we have some of our best memories at Hogwarts too. Don't you think we should just try and make more?"

Hermione smiled as she pulled a book out of her bag, "When did you get so wise Ginny?"

Ginny shrugged and said, "I guess Harry must have rubbed off on me over the years. Now who's up for a game of wizarding chess?"

Ron snorted, "Come on then, I bet I can beat you at least 3 times in the hour."

Ginny narrowed her eyes at her brother, "Alright. You're on, 5 galleons."

"Easy money," Ron grinned as he shook her hand.

Harry laughed and pulled out a book about Quidditch that Hermione had gotten him for his birthday as the Weasley siblings began their chess tournament. The journey continued quite happily and quietly (apart from the odd shout or complaint from Ginny or Ron when they thought their sibling was cheating).

The train had only been on the move for about half an hour when the compartment door slid open. Harry grinned when Neville and Luna walked into the compartment and they all shuffled up so that their friends could fit in.

"Neville!" Harry said happily as the dark haired boy sat down next to him, "I'm so glad you decided to come back."

Neville laughed, "Yeah well I needed my N.E.W.T's. I didn't think you'd come back though Harry, anyone will hire you, N.E.W.T's or not."

"He wants to earn it though Neville," Hermione said over the top of her book.

Neville raised an eyebrow at his friend, "Don't you think killing Voldemort was enough to earn it?"

"Nah," Harry said honestly, "I just want to be a normal person. I want to apply on my own merit and grades. Not on whether I killed some dark lord or not."

"Humble of you," Neville said with a smile.

Harry laughed a little, "Yeah well the fame hasn't gone to my head if that's what you're worried about. I'm surprised it hasn't gone to yours yet though, weren't they calling you my badass snake killing sidekick in the press?"

Neville grinned, "Something like that."

Luna cocked her head at her friend, "Witch Weekly wrote an article about you in the summer Neville. They called you one of the most sought after bachelors in wizarding Britain."

Neville's cheeks flushed pink at this comment and the others chuckled as he said, "Yeah well I wouldn't go that far."

"Being famous isn't always so neat, huh?" Harry grinned through his laughter.

Neville scoffed and promptly started up a conversation with Ginny about the latest Holyhead Harpies game while Luna began to read the latest edition of "_The Quibbler."_

They made small talk throughout the journey and talked about their summers. Neville and Luna got a particular kick out of hearing about the time Teddy had projectile vomited on Harry, it had set Ron off into a set of the giggles which lasted for at least 10 minutes. They were probably around halfway through the long journey north to Hogwarts when an interruption came in the form of a knock on their compartment door.

It startled Hermione, she looked up from her book with a frown as the door to the compartment slid open. She, along with everybody else in the little compartment, was surprised to see Draco Malfoy standing there looking incredibly uncomfortable.

"Not got your cronies with you, Malfoy?" Ron asked a little maliciously as Draco shuffled from foot to foot.

Something flashed in the Slytherins eyes at Ron's words, "Crabbe was one of my best friends and he died, Weasley," he said irritably.

Ron looked a little gobsmacked at Draco's response and couldn't seem to find another insult to comeback with. They were all silent for a moment and the air was incredibly tense and awkward. Draco eventually cleared his throat and asked, "Could I talk to you Potter?" he glared at Ron as he added, "In private."

Harry nodded and stood up, "Take over for me Nev," he said, referring to his chess game. Ron watched in disbelief as Harry left the compartment with Draco and slid the door shut behind them. He leant against the wall of the empty corridor and looked at Draco pointedly.

"You saved my life in the war," Draco said simply.

"Twice!" Came a call from inside the compartment. Harry recognised Ron's voice instantly. He shook his head in amusement, "Muffliato," he murmured as he pointed his wand at the compartment door.

"Yeah, we did save you twice. We were invisible the second time," Harry said casually.

Draco frowned and then realised what Harry meant, "You punched me!"

"No," Harry said truthfully, "It was Ron who punched you."

Draco's frown deepened and he seemed to struggle to find the words he wanted to say. He cleared his throat again, "Well you clearly wouldn't have saved me if you thought I was a die-hard Death Eater or a Dark Wizard."

"I knew you weren't either of those things, Malfoy," Harry said, "You were just a high school bully."

Draco shook his head, "Just?" he asked in disbelief, "I did inexcusable things in the war."

"Yes," Harry agreed, "We all did things we aren't proud of in the war. What point are you trying to make here?"

A dark looked flashed through Draco's eyes, "As much as it pains me to say this Potter, I just wanted to thank you for saving my life."

Harry smirked, "That looked physically painful Malfoy."

"It wasn't exactly pleasant," Draco muttered as he turned to walk away.

Harry had to try his best not to laugh, "Malfoy?"

The blonde man turned around and waited pointedly for Harry to say whatever he was going to say.

"What do you say to a truce?" Harry asked.

Draco frowned, "A truce?"

"Yes," Harry reiterated, "I don't know if I'll ever be friends with you. But I do know that I can forgive you for what happened in the war. Whether other people will feel the same…people like Hermione…well that I'm not sure of."

"Well I suppose it might be a good idea," Draco said slowly, "But only because we're sharing a common room this year and not because I want to be your friend."

"I didn't say friends," Harry pointed out, "You're still a pompous dick for all I know."

"And you're still an egotistical twat," Draco added.

"I said a truce, no more arch enemies," Harry said as he held his hand out, "I've had enough of that for a lifetime."

Draco looked at Harry's outstretched hand for a long moment, he couldn't help but think back to the last time they had met like this on a train and how he had wished Harry had taken his hand then and become his friend. He reached out and took the hand, they shook on the deal. They shared a slightly awkward glance as their hands dropped. What did you say to someone who you'd hated for years and just made a truce with?

"Well, I need to get back," Harry said simply.

Draco nodded, "See you around Scarhead," he said with a wave of his hand.

Harry rolled his eyes and called after him, "See you around ferret!"

Draco made a rude hand gesture behind his back and Harry snorted as he slid open the door and walked back into the compartment where he found five curious sets of eyes watching him.

"You cast the Muffliato charm on us!" Ron exclaimed indignantly.

"Yeah well, you were being a nosy git," Harry retorted as he sat back down.

"What did he want Harry?" Hermione asked curiously.

"He wanted to thank me for saving his life," Harry said honestly as he resumed his chess game with Ron.

"He actually thanked you?" Hermione asked in surprise.

Harry nodded, "And we called a truce."

"A truce? What did he want to call a truce for?" Ron asked with a frown.

"He didn't, it was my idea," Harry said, "I mean, we'll be sharing a common room this year and I'm sick of having an arch-enemy. It's way too much work."

Hermione smiled slightly, "Andromeda told you to try and even things out with him, didn't she?"

Harry shrugged, "Am I that bad at keeping things secret?"

"Yes," Ginny said in amusement, "Why did Andi want you to cut him some slack?"

"He's been having a hard time of it, apparently," Harry said.

"Maybe he should have thought of that before he became a Death Eater," Ron muttered.

"Before he was forced into becoming a Death Eater, you mean?" Harry asked Ron a little irritably.

Ron rolled his eyes, "Yeah but he still did some pretty shitty things. He nearly killed Katie and me with that poisoned mead! He was going to kill Dumbledore!"

"Yeah and what would you do if somebody told you to kill someone or that your entire family would be killed?" Harry asked Ron, "Would you just say no and let them murder your brothers and your parents, and Ginny?"

Ron's cheeks had gone as red as his ears, "Well, no."

"Harry's right, Ron," Ginny said, "You might not like him and he might have done some questionable stuff but you're going to have to see a fair bit of him this year."

"Why are you on his side anyway?" Ron asked his little sister, "His Father tried to kill you with that diary!"

"Yes, his Father," Hermione pointed out, “Not him. You can't blame somebody for their parent's actions. You're going to have to get over this before we get to school, Ron."

Neville nodded, "We might even have to share a dorm with Malfoy this year."

Ron shuddered, "Ugh, I don't want to have to share a dorm with that git."

"I know he's a complete prick but cut him a bit of slack Ron," Ginny said, "Malfoy helped us out of a lot last year. He snuck us out of the dungeons where the Carrows tortured us and he helped us escape their clutches when we were nearly caught a couple of times."

Neville nodded, he too had witnessed this other side of Draco Malfoy, "I completely understand why you wouldn't want to like the guy. I don't know exactly what happened at Malfoy Manor in the war but from what Luna told me it wasn't pleasant-"

"It wasn't," Hermione cut in, "But it wasn't his fault.”

"Bellatrix would have killed him the second she saw him trying to help us," Harry pointed out.

Neville nodded, "He’s not all bad. I used to be friends with him when we were little. Our families ran in the same pureblood circles and my Grandma knew his Grandad. I don't think he ever wanted to be a Death Eater, he just didn't know how to get out of the mess he had gotten himself into."

"And he threw Harry his wand in the final battle," Luna said thoughtfully, “When he woke up from being dead."

"So that makes up for everything else?" Ron asked in disbelief, "He did a couple of nice things in the war so we forget the bullying and the way he treated Hermione for years?"

"No, Ron," Hermione said gently, "A few good deeds don't make somebody a different person and they don't erase their past. We aren't saying that, but you have to understand that the war has changed the world. These house divides and blood divides are going to start disintegrating soon and by keeping this grudge alive you are only encouraging those prejudices. I know he has never been friendly to us and we aren't saying that we should all forget the past and become best friends with him."

"What are you saying then?" Ron asked, looking thoroughly confused.

"We are saying that the war touched him too," Hermione said, "Maybe he's always been a nice guy underneath the nastiness. We never took the time to get to know him, we don't know why he acted that way."

"Bullies often bully because their own lives are difficult," Luna said poignantly.

"All we're saying Ron is maybe we should stop hating him," Neville said, "Maybe we should give him the benefit of the doubt. That doesn't mean become friends with him, it just means be civil and see where that leads. Hermione's right, he lost people too."

"Really? Who did he lose?" Ron asked sarcastically.

"His Father is in Azkaban," Harry pointed out, "And yes he does belong there. But that doesn't necessarily mean he doesn't miss him. He's as good as dead, hes in the high security sector of Azkaban for life, he can't write and he can't be visited."

"And Draco was dating Pansy Parkinson who was killed in a duel during the final battle," Neville added, "The only friends he's got left who didn't die or get imprisoned are Blaise Zabini, Daphne Greengrass and Theodore Nott."

Harry had been very quiet for the majority of the conversation, "And Andromeda said he didn't want to come back to Hogwarts because he wouldn't fit in and we'd all bully him."

"We should," Ron muttered, "Give him a taste of his own medicine."

"That doesn't help anyone, Ron," Hermione pointed out, "That just makes us bullies."

Ron was quiet for a moment and then he sighed, "Fine! I'll be civil to him or at least I'll try to. But this doesn't mean I have to like the guy."

Hermione smiled slightly and returned to her book. Harry was left to his own thoughts as the others continued with what they had being doing before the interruption had come. Only Hermione knew about what had happened after the war, he hadn't wanted to tell anyone else because everybody had been struggling so much to deal with their own problems. Harry had talked to Kingsley right after he became Minister for Magic, after he had been told that Draco was facing a long sentence in Azkaban. It was going to be 3 years for Aiding and Abetting with the murder of Albus Dumbledore. Then 5 more years were to be added onto that sentence for multiple war crimes, including witnessing murders and doing nothing to stop them. Harry knew Ron would react badly if he knew about what he'd done so he and Hermione had decided to keep the knowledge to themselves when Harry vouched for Draco and his Mother. But after his little encounter with Draco he found himself feeling glad that he had saved the boy from Azkaban. He may have done some questionable things in his life but he wasn't a murderer and he wasn't a dark wizard, Harry was sure of that.

"I wonder if he'll still be an arrogant little git," Ron said, breaking the silence.

"I doubt it," Ginny said offhandedly, "His family name is hardly something to be proud of these days, is it?"

"It's certainly not," Hermione said thoughtfully, "The wizarding world will look on him very badly for his part in the war, and the extreme pureblood community that he was once a part of will shun him and his Mother. He doesn't really belong anywhere anymore."

"I wonder if that means he'll be a nicer person," Neville thought out-loud, "Because he helped us a lot last year but he was still a sarcastic dick about it."

Harry snorted, "I don't think he'll be a bully anymore but I don't think he'll ever stop being a sarcastic dick."

"He'll have grown up a lot," Hermione said simply, “All of us have.”

Luna nodded thoughtfully and without even looking up from her magazine she said, "A child who has seen war cannot be compared with a child who does not know what war is."

There was a shocked silence at the truth of her words. They couldn't compare themselves with ordinary 17 and 18 year olds at all. At the age of 17 Harry, Ron and Hermione had gone on a quest many adults had failed at. At 17 years old Harry had killed the most dangerous wizard of all time. At 18 years old Hermione had been tortured by a sick Death Eater. At 17 years old Ron had battled against a horcrux that was twisting his mind. At 16 years old Draco Malfoy had been ordered to kill his Headmaster and told that if he didn't he and his family would be killed. At 11 years old Ginny had been possessed by Voldemort. All of them had grown up too fast.

They marvelled at the truth of Luna's words and the remainder of the journey passed far too slowly as Harry's excitement began to grow. The lunch trolley came and went. They laughed together as they ate. Harry always felt a little giddy and excited as the sky darkened and the train got closer to the school, to his _home. _Eventually the train's lights clicked on and Hermione said they had probably start changing into their robes.

Half an hour later the train pulled into Hogsmeade station and the group of friends eagerly made their way off of the train towards the Thestral pulled carriages.

As they walked towards the carriages Harry saw a flash of blonde hair and realised that it was Draco Malfoy. He caught the Slytherins eye and nodded at him, Draco paused and nodded back but that was the extent of their exchange. He was walking with five other Slytherin students that were returning for an 8th Year. Harry recognised the tall scrawny haired boy as Theodore Nott. There was another boy he knew straight away; the tall, dark and handsome Blaise Zabini. With the three boys were three girls but none of them were Pansy Parkinson, it seemed the others had been right about her perishing in the battle.

One of the girls had been in Harry's 6th Year Potions class, she was extremely pretty with long blonde hair and blue eyes. She had always been a quiet Slytherin and had never said a word to him or the others. Instead she had steered clear of them, Harry knew that her name was Daphne Greengrass. Walking next to Daphne and arm in arm with her was a girl Harry recognised, he wasn't sure what her name was but she and Daphne looked very alike as she too had long blonde hair and blue eyes. The third girl was dark-haired and she was called Tracey Davis; she had been another of the quiet members of Pansy Parkinson's Slytherin gang.

Harry and the others climbed into the carriage behind the Slytherin one and it began to move as soon as the door was snapped shut.

"I can see them now," Hermione said in a soft voice. All eyes turned to her as she stared at the Thestrals pulling the carriage toward the school gates.

"Who did you see…?" Neville began and then drifted off.

"Professor Snape," Hermione said quietly, out of respect for the dead she had kept his title.

"Oh," Neville said simply, he looked towards the Thestrals; he had been able to see them for years after witnessing his Grandfathers death. Luna too didn't even bother to lift her head from _"The Quibbler_" which she was once again engrossed in. She had been able to see them since she arrived at Hogwarts.

Ron however had turned very pale and Ginny was staring at the Thestrals too. It hadn't occurred to Harry that they would be able to see the animals too now. Ron had witnessed Peter Pettigrew be killed by his own hand and even worse than that, he'd seen Fred die. Harry frowned to himself as he tried to comprehend who Ginny had seen die but then he remembered that she'd watched the duel between her Mother and Bellatrix Lestrange in the final battle.

Harry glanced forward at the carriage in front of theirs. Through the back window he could see the Slytherins faintly. He couldn't help but notice a significantly paler Draco Malfoy watching the Thestrals; he of course had witnessed Dumbledore's death, amongst others. Everyone else in the Slytherin carriage seemed to be able to see them too.

"It's proof of how many people the war hit," Harry said quietly. All eyes turned to him and he jerked his head in the direction of the Slytherin carriage, "I wonder how many others can see them now."

"Everyone who watched you kill Voldemort I expect," Hermione said, she seemed to be thinking this over, "I know he was a monster but I suppose it still counts."

Harry nodded and was thankful that the carriage had come to a stop. They were within a few feet of the castle doors. Along with the others Harry jumped out of the carriage and looked up at the school with a smile, he was happy to be back but looking at it also made him think of all that had happened the last time he had been here. This was where Remus, Tonks and Fred had died.

Harry felt a hand on his and jumped slightly before realising that it was only Hermione. She smiled sadly at him.

“Thanks,” Harry said weakly as they walked through the gates together.

"You looked like you needed it," Hermione admitted as she dropped his hand and they joined the crowd of students walking towards the school.

Harry simply nodded and Hermione said, "Ginny was right earlier, Harry. Don't think about the bad things that happened here. Think all of the good memories, this is where Voldemort was finally killed and we'll make lots of new memories this year too."

Harry smiled at her properly, "Yeah, you're right Mione," he said, feeling a little lighter as they walked into the hall with the others close behind them. Luna skipped over to the Ravenclaw table and the others all sat down at the Gryffindor table. Harry couldn't resist looking around the hall for curiosity's sake. It looked exactly the same as it had done before the war with only one small difference. At the very front of the hall behind the head table there was a large window which let the sun stream in at breakfast time. It had always been there but above that window there was now a large plaque which read;

"_This is the location where Lord Voldemort met his end by the wand of the boy-who-lived, Harry Potter."_

Harry felt a tug in his chest when he read it and he was grateful when Hermione placed her hand on top of his. He swallowed the lump in his throat and somehow he knew from the wording that the plaque had been erected by McGonagall. He glanced to her seat at the centre of the Head Table and met her eye. She gave him a very slight smile and a small nod which confirmed his suspicions.

Harry couldn't find his voice and she wouldn't hear him anyway, seeing as she was so far away. He merely nodded back at her and tried his best to return her smile.

**TBC :)**


	4. House Unity

Once every student had entered the Great Hall McGonagall stood up and silence fell immediately. It was her first year as Headmistress and Harry wondered if she felt nervous as she stood up there for the first time. If she did, it wasn't obvious. She looked perfectly at ease as she stood in the spot Dumbledore had occupied for so long.

"Students of Hogwarts, welcome back," She said with an easy smile, "I have been informed that the first years are stuck on the lake with Professor Hagrid and there will be a slight delay in the sorting."

A collective groan and much grumbling went through the hall at this news because, as usual, everybody was starving.

"However," McGonagall said, raising her voice slightly so that silence fell across the hall once more, "This gives me a perfect opportunity to address our new 8th Year students."

Harry listened more intently than before as McGonagall carried on, "8th Years, as you already know you will be sharing a common room in the Eastern tower of the school. I understand that it may be difficult for certain pupils to overcome house barriers-"

Her eyes flitted briefly from Harry to Draco who both noticed this and couldn't resist a small smile at the irony of it.

"-Nevertheless I will not tolerate anything less than complete house unity in this common room."

Harry glanced around for any familiar faces as he wondered who else had returned, he hadn't imagined a lot of people had. Anyone who had been at school last year and had actually taken in any of the teaching had probably done their N.E.W.T's at the Ministry.

McGonagall's short speech seemed to be over and Hagrids timing was perfect as the oak doors opened and the terrified but dry children walked into the hall slowly. Several of them were glancing around the hall in fear and others with excitement. Harry smiled as he remembered that feeling, he remembered exactly how he'd felt walking into this hall. Something uncomfortable squirmed in his stomach as he remembered the first time he had seen Severus Snape. Harry understood now why he had stared, he had seen Lily Evans eyes and he had become immersed in memories.

Harry watched as the group of students walked to the front of the Great Hall and again he found himself thinking too much. When Harry had been sorted there had been 10 students in each house. 10 Gryffindors, Slytherins, Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs, which meant that his year group had consisted of 40 students. Harry found himself wondering how many of those 40 would return to school. He knew for a fact that Pansy and Crabbe were dead and that Goyle was in Azkaban which lowered the number to 37 but that still meant that a possible 7 Slytherins could return, yet he'd only seen 6 come off the train…

"Harry!"

Hermione's voice pulled Harry back to the present, "Huh?" He said, aware that he probably looked a little dazed as he looked at Hermione.

She seemed to be torn between scolding him and laughing, "You're missing the sorting," she said in amusement.

"Oh, right," Harry said as he watched a small redheaded child join the Gryffindor table, "Anyone we know?" he asked.

Hermione shook her head, "Not really. Sally's little sister Sarah was sorted into Gryffindor."

"Sally?" Harry asked and Hermione rolled her eyes, "Sally Smith, Harry she's in our year and our house."

"Really?" Harry asked, how could he not have known that? It showed how little attention he had paid to girls in his school days.

"Yes!" Hermione hissed in disbelief, "Harry I shared a dorm with her for 6 years!"

Harry was pretty certain that Hermione had never mentioned a Sally Smith to him in the many years he'd known her so they clearly weren't the best of friends. Again, he hadn't been paying attention and was getting glared at by Hermione so he turned to the sorting to see, with surprise, that the last person was sitting on the three-legged stool.

Natasha Wilson became a Ravenclaw and once again McGonagall stood up to speak, "I have a few important notices I would like to inform you all of before you become too full to take in anything."

Ron groaned, "I'd take it in better when I'm full than when I'm starving."

"Ron, shh!" Hermione hissed.

"This year we have imposed some new school rules. Bullying or teasing anyone because of their house is now against the rules and you will receive detention and lose house points if you are caught doing so," McGonagall said as Hermione nodded, Harry agreed with her.

"Anyone of the belief that Slytherin house is full of dark Wizards needs to drop this silly belief right away, it is not true nor is it fair," The Slytherins looked smug for a moment until McGonagall finished her sentence, "But the Slytherins must learn to stop believing themselves better than those in other houses because this is also not true or fair."

Harry chuckled under his breath at the look on some of the Slytherins faces at being told that they weren't better than anyone else. Draco didn't seem annoyed, in fact he was smiling as if he found this idea vaguely amusing.

"I have also been asked to inform you that products from Weasley's Wizard Wheezes are banned and that the forbidden forest is forbidden to all students under any and all circumstances," at this McGonagall looked directly at the trio and Harry merely grinned. He was sure he had been in that forest more than any of his other classmates.

"That is all. Now I'm sure you are all famished, enjoy the feast!" McGonagall said. With a smile she raised both of her arms and the plates were suddenly piled high with food. Harry and Ron dove into the food like starved boys who hadn't been fed for months and Hermione rolled her eyes in a long-suffering way in Ginny's direction.

"I 'orgot ow uch I loved 'Ogwarts ood!" Ron said through a large mouthful of food.

Hermione looked at him distastefully, "What?"

Harry swallowed his own mouthful and translated, "He said he forgot how much he loved Hogwarts food."

"That's disgusting Ron," Hermione said, then turned on Harry, "How can you understand him?"

Harry merely shrugged, "I'm used to it."

"At least you have manners Harry," Hermione said with a raised eyebrow.

This prompted Ron to swallow his large mouthful and exclaim, "Hey!"

Hermione tried not to snigger in amusement and they all ate quietly for a while.

"It will be odd, won't it?" Ginny asked them out of the blue when the food eventually vanished and was replaced by the many mouth-watering desserts.

"What will be?" Harry asked as he scooped some treacle tart into a bowl.

"Not sharing a common room with you all," Ginny said casually but Harry suspected it bothered her more than she was letting on. They had spent the entire summer as a foursome and they had gotten quite used to it.

Harry smiled at her, "Hey you can always visit our common room if you get bored of the Gryffindor vibe."

Ginny smiled, "Yeah well…that might be cool. I bet your common room will have the best parties."

"Oh I hope not," Hermione said nervously.

Ron rolled his eyes, "Hey live a little Hermione!" he said through a mouthful of trifle.

Ginny chuckled but Harry could tell that she was going to miss them and he would miss her too. Whether they were together or not, she was still one of his best friends and he didn't like to see his friends upset.

The hall was very loud as everyone ate and laughed and talked so Harry barely heard the loud crack over the noise but he did notice Kreacher appear next to him at the table. The elf looked as well-groomed as he had when they'd left Grimmauld place with Regulas's locket around his neck, "Can I get you any extra helpings Master Harry?" Kreacher asked and Harry smiled fondly at the elf.

"I'm good thanks Kreacher but I'll tell you what you can do for me when you've got the time,” Harry said with a smile at Ginny, “Can you find out if there's any way I can hoodwink the new 8th Year common room to let a 7th Year in?"

Kreacher nodded eagerly, "Of course Master Harry!" he squeaked and with another crack he vanished.

"Aw, I love that elf," Harry said honestly as he turned back to his food in a better mood now than he had been in a long time, "He's really turned himself around lately."

Ginny shook her head in amusement, "I don't know whether to be flattered or disturbed that you're gonna miss me so much this year that you just sent your house elf on a quest to hoodwink your common room so I can get in."

Hermione glared at Harry, "You should be disturbed Gin," she assured the younger girl.

Ron shook his head, "Be flattered. Kreacher loves serving Harry, it makes him happy and you should hear him brag to the other elves about how his Master is Harry Potter, it's not like he's making him slam his hands in oven doors Mione."

Harry noticed the subtle jibe at Draco Malfoy and wondered how many more would slip into conversation over the next year, but he kept his mouth shut as Hermione got agitated over house elves again.

"It's still not right Ron!" Hermione exclaimed, "He's essentially a slave against his will!"

"But it's not against his will is it? He likes it!"

Harry rolled his eyes and muttered to Ginny as Ron and Hermione's bickering got louder, "Some things never change."

"Clearly," Ginny laughed.

Before they knew it the feast was over and they were all leaving the hall en-route for their common rooms. Harry, Ron, Hermione and Neville walked with Ginny and Luna out of the hall and through the entrance hall. They had a rough idea of where the Eastern Tower was so they all walked up the marble staircase together into the grand staircase. They split up on the 5th floor, with Ginny continuing to climb up to Gryffindor Tower and Luna heading towards Ravenclaw Tower.

Hermione followed Draco Malfoy and the group of Slytherins in the opposite direction that Luna had gone. They walked along a long narrow corridor and started up a long spiral staircase lined with wizarding paintings. 5 minutes later they reached the top of the staircase and were on a large landing with two doors. According to the signs one was a bathroom and the other was the 8th Year common room.

The common room however wasn't accessed by a portrait and a password. Instead there was a large wooden door with a brass knocker with the Hogwarts crest on it. It reminded Harry very much of the door to the Ravenclaw common room.

The group of 6 Slytherins were looking at the door in confusion when the trio reached the top of the stairs.

"How do we get in?" Ron asked rather stupidly.

One of the girls, the one whose name Harry didn't know said, "We don't know. The door told us a riddle."

"Oh," Harry said and he felt awkward when all eyes turned to him, "It will be like the Ravenclaw common room then, wont it? You have to answer the riddle right to get in, it's to make you learn."

The dark haired girl, Tracey, raised an eyebrow at him, "Why have you been in the Ravenclaw common room Potter?" She asked suggestively and Harry blushed a deep red at the question.

"Well, what is the riddle?" Hermione asked a little impatiently.

A familiar voice filled the large landing at her question.

"_A beggar's brother died, but the man who died had no brother. How could that be?"_

"Is that Dumbledore's voice?" Harry asked in astonishment.

"Yeah, that's what we thought," The 3rd Slytherin girl, Daphne, said.

"But we've tried everything we can think of," Blaise said, "We thought it was because he was adopted…"

Hermione rolled her eyes, "Well it's obvious isn't it?"

"For all of us who aren't teenage geniuses, no," Theodore Nott said, but not unkindly, just with an amused smirk.

Hermione heard more voices on the stairs behind them and knew it would be a tight squeeze on this landing if they didn't get the door open soon so she said, "The beggar was his sister."

"Correct!" Albus Dumbledore's voice said and the door swung open. Curiously the trio followed the Slytherins into the room. In shape and size it was exactly the same as Gryffindor common room. In décor however it was not. It was very homey with a large fire and lots of tables for studying, there were armchairs of all house colours and trappings on the walls of all the house crests as well as the Hogwarts crest. The room looked like a nice place to sit and relax and do homework. The view out of the window was of the forbidden forest and the mountains beyond it, it was very picturesque. Harry looked around the common room that was now full of students in robes bearing 4 different crests. A sign on the notice board said that in total there were 24 students in this common room.

Harry knew 6 of these were the Slytherins and that 4 of them were he, Hermione, Ron and Neville but that left 14 people to identify. A quick glance around gave Harry an idea of who he knew and who he didn't. He saw Dean Thomas and Seamus Finnigan. However Lavender Brown and Parvati Patil were not here because they had both died in the final battle. He didn't see Padma either so he assumed that because of the death of her sister and her best friend she probably hadn't wanted to come back. There were other former DA members that Harry recognised, such as Ginny's ex Michael Corner and also Terry Boot. Amongst the Hufflepuffs Harry recognised Hannah Abbott, Ernie MacMillan, Justin Finch-Fletchely, Susan Bones and Zacharias Smith. In fact, amongst everyone gathered in the common room there were only 6 students he didn't recognise and they were all girls. So naturally, he asked Hermione.

"Hey Hermione," Harry said in a quiet voice, "Who are those two girls over there?"

Hermione followed his line of sight to where a blonde girl with heavy eye make-up and very bright blue eyes was talking to a girl with dark brown hair. They both looked familiar.

"Harry," said Hermione in exasperation, "That's the two Sally's. Sally Smith and Sally-Ann Perks who gets called Annie. I shared a dorm with them, Parvati and Lavender. How can you not have seen them in the Gryffindor common room?"

Harry honestly didn't know the answer to that question, they had probably been in most of his classes too. Instead of attempting to justify himself he asked about a tanned, pretty Ravenclaw girl that he didn't recognise.

"Mandy Brocklehurst. She was in our Transfiguration class, she's really good, she was second best in the class," Hermione replied from where she was sitting in a scarlet armchair. Harry was perched on the arm of it as he glanced at an unknown Hufflepuff girl with shoulder length blonde hair who was rather disturbingly sitting on Zacharias Smiths lap on a yellow puffy beanbag.

"Oh Harry, how can you not know these people? That's Megan Jones, she was in the DA not to mention our Herbology class since 1st year!"

"Well I'm sorry I didn't pay enough attention," Harry remarked. His eyes were then drawn to where the Slytherins were standing in a tight knit circle as if they were afraid to try and socialise with any of the other houses. Harry could see why they would feel that way and he felt a little sorry for them.

"What about her? She's called Daphne right?" Harry asked, "She was in our potions class…"

"Yes," Hermione said, surprised he knew that, "Daphne Greengrass. How did you remember her?"

Harry's cheeks flushed, "Don't go shouting about it, but I had a bit of a thing for her at the start of 6th year."

"That’s understandable," Hermione said as she glanced at Daphne's flawless skin, beautiful smile and large blue eyes, not to mention her long blonde locks, "She's beautiful."

"Yeah, she is," Harry said as the blonde hair girl turned around and caught him looking at her.

Harry snapped his eyes away and Hermione chuckled as his cheeks flushed. He cleared his throat and continued with his identification game, "Right, so the dark haired girl. She's Tracey Davis, isn't she?"

"Uh-huh," Hermione replied calmly, "And the other Slytherin girl is Sadie Cauldwell. Her Dad wasn't a Death Eater but she hung around with Pansy's gang to fit in. I think her Dad actually invented the sneakoscope. He was a Ravenclaw but her Mum was a Slytherin, she used to date Lucius Malfoy before he married Narcissa. She seems nice though, she's very quiet."

"How on Earth do you know all of that Mione?" Harry asked in astonishment.

Hermione frowned, "Oh…well, she gets lonely sometimes and she's very intelligent so sometimes we talked in the library," she explained a little awkwardly, "…you know, when for whatever reason you and Ron weren't on speaking terms with me."

"Oh," Harry said, a little guiltily, "Well, she must be alright then if she was content talking to you even knowing Pansy hated you."

"It's hard to hate Pansy now though," Hermione said with a sad little sigh, "Knowing what happened to her."

"I know," Harry agreed.

"Is there anyone else you don't recognise?" Hermione asked. Harry was unsure whether she was amused or exasperated at how little he knew of his own school year.

"Yes," Harry said as he found the last unknown person, "That Ravenclaw girl."

He had pointed to a girl sitting on her own, she had shoulder length dark brown hair, blue eyes and glasses.

"Oh, that's Lilly," Hermione replied, "Lilly Moon, she's a Muggle-born and a Ravenclaw. She's lovely, I talk to her an awful lot."

"Ah," Harry realised, "Another bookworm?"

"I suppose so," Hermione yawned, "Merlin, I'm exhausted. If you're quite done trying to work out who you went to school with for the last 6 years I think I'll go to bed. You should do the same Harry, you don't want to be late for your first lessons tomorrow."

"I know, I will," Harry said, hugging Hermione and bidding her goodnight as she climbed the girl’s staircase to her new dorm.

"Want to check out the dorm situation then?" Harry asked Ron as he crossed the room to where he and Neville were catching up with a few former DA members.

Ron nodded and glanced cautiously at the staircase, "I really hope we aren't sharing with Malfoy."

"I doubt it," Harry said as they climbed the staircase and stopped at the first door they came to.

Ron grinned when he saw that the door was marked with the words;

"_GRYFFINDOR BOYS."_

Harry grinned too when he walked in. The room looked exactly the same as their Gryffindor dorm. Even the beds were in the same place and the trappings and décor were exactly the same. Harry was glad that he and Ron would spend their last year sharing with Neville, Dean and Seamus again, it just felt right.

The two boys changed into their pyjamas and said goodnight to each other before getting into bed. As Harry shut the curtains on his four poster he smiled and shut his eyes. He fell asleep easily that night knowing that he was home once again and that this time it was going to be a peaceful, happy Voldemort free year.

**TBC :)**


	5. Back to School, Back to Books

Hermione and Ron were struggling not to laugh at Harry on the morning of September 2nd. He got up early and dressed at top speed then proceeded to walk with a spring in his step towards the great hall. It was clear he was incredibly happy to be back.

"Why is our common room so high up?" Ron grumbled when they eventually reached the bottom of the spiral staircase, he was breathing heavily and his face was red.

"You're so unfit Ron," Hermione remarked.

This of course offended the redhead, "What? Unfit?" he huffed, "Hermione, you've seen me topless!"

There was a giggle from behind them and Hermione blushed furiously, "Ron!"

"I'm just saying!" Ron said, glancing behind them to see that Megan Jones was the girl giggling and her friend Susan Bones was smiling with amusement.

"That wasn't my point!" Hermione said, recovering from her embarrassment, "I didn't mean physically I meant in a sporty way! You've stopped playing Quidditch, when you start playing again you'll be back to your normal...you know...fit self."

There was more giggling and Hermione blushed again, Ron grinned in amusement, Harry knew he got a kick out of making Hermione uncomfortable.

They continued on their way to the great hall and bumped into Ginny on the way, "Oh, morning, how's your new common room?"

"It's okay," Ron reasoned, "Not much different to the Gryffindor common room except the colours."

Ginny smirked, "So you _aren't _sharing a dorm with Malfoy then?"

Harry laughed, "No, it's just the 5 Gryffindor guys like it was in the old dorm."

"Thank Merlin," Ron muttered.

"I thought you were trying out this whole being civil thing," Hermione said pointedly.

"I am being civil!" Ron remarked, "But that doesn't mean I want to share a room with the ferret! I bet it would stink of hair gel."

Harry snorted and Ginny cut in, "Just for the record Ron, that doesn't sound very civil."

Ron rolled his eyes, "Whatever," he mumbled as they got to the busy, bustling great hall.

They were just about to head over to the Gryffindor table when Harry heard his name being called loudly from the other end of the hall.

"Potter!"

When Harry turned around he realised that the person shouting was Draco, "What?" he called back because he really couldn't be bothered walking all the way to the Slytherin side of the hall.

McGonagall had been walking up the Gryffindor table handing out class timetables, but she paused to look up at them suspiciously. She clearly thought they were going to start jinxing each other or swearing at each other across the hall.

"Slughorn told me to tell you he's having a party tonight at 8!" Draco shouted over the noise.

"Thanks!" Harry shouted back and McGonagall shook her head. She looked exasperated but her smile gave her away. When Harry joined his amused friends at the Gryffindor table she said, "Mr. Potter, while it is fantastic to see you and Mr. Malfoy on civil terms I would appreciate it if you refrained from holding conversations across the Great Hall."

Harry grinned sheepishly, "Of course Professor, it won't happen again."

McGonagall tried and failed to look strict, but Harry had seen past her façade now anyway. The Headmistress handed them all a timetable and then brought out some badges, "With everything that happened we are a little behind schedule with all the badges and titles," she explained as she handed one of the badges to Hermione, "Miss. Granger, Head Girl, well done."

Hermione grinned broadly and stuck the badge onto her chest proudly. Harry smiled at her, he knew she had always aspired to be Head Girl.

"Mr. Potter, Quidditch Captain, once again," McGonagall said and Harry accepted his badge with a grin.

"Mr. Weasley and Mr. Thomas," McGonagall said as she handed them each a shiny silver badge, "You are both Prefects."

As McGonagall moved further up the table Harry glanced over at the table closest to theirs. Professor Sprout had handed two silver badges out to Hannah Abbott and Ernie MacMillan and by the looks of it Justin Finch-Fletchley who played chaser had become the new Quidditch Captain.

Further over at the Ravenclaw table Terry Boot and a 7th Year he didn't know were wearing prefect badges and the Quidditch Captain title had gone to Michael Corner who was a beater for the team. Harry had to sit up a little straighter to see the Slytherin table at the opposite side of the hall from Gryffindor. From what he could see two 7th Years had been made prefects and Draco Malfoy and Theodore Nott were both holding badges which meant one of them was Head Boy and the other Quidditch Captain.

Harry relayed his findings to Ron, Hermione and Ginny.

"Malfoy won't be Head Boy," Hermione said matter of factly, "After all that happened with Dumbledore I don't think McGonagall can say he's a good example for the younger students."

"Says the Head Girl who ran off with undesirable number one, effectively abandoning her last year of education," Ron grinned, he knew what was coming and ducked when she swung her arm at him to whack him over the back of the head.

"I think helping bring Voldemort down is an excellent example for younger students," Hermione said as she crossed her arms and glared at Ron.

"I was just having a laugh," Ron muttered as he cowered away from Hermione's wrath.

Harry chuckled and said to Ron and Ginny, "I'm going to hold Quidditch try outs a week on Saturday if you two want to re-join the team."

Ron and Ginny nodded simultaneously, "I'll try out," Ron said simply.

Ginny added, "Me too, I'm thinking of making a career out of it. I'd love to join the Holyhead Harpies."

Ron sniggered and Ginny glared at him, "Just because you don't think I'm good enough, that doesn't mean everybody else thinks that too," she said angrily.

"He's just being a git Ginny," Harry said casually, "And you are good, don't tell Angelina or Katie but I'd say you’re even better than they were."

"You're biased though, you and Ginny are friends," Hermione pointed out.

Harry snorted, "Ron's my best mate and I'll admit that he played really badly sometimes in 6th Year."

Ron glared at him but in good nature and Harry chuckled as he glanced down at his new timetable for the first time since McGonagall had handed it to him.

"Potions first Ron," Harry said as he glanced down the column for Monday. His eyes scanned over it. Potions first period, a free period, Transfiguration, Herbology and then Defence against the Dark Arts with their new Professor…

"Harry!"

"Ron!"

The two boys looked up at the same time and said simultaneously, "Professor Dumbledore!"

Hermione rolled her eyes, "Yes, _Aberforth _Dumbledore. He's sitting at the table right up there."

"Well I knew it wasn't going to be Albus Dumbledore," Ron said, "I'm not completely stupid you know."

"The way you both said it made it seem like you thought he was back from the dead," Hermione said with a raised eyebrow.

Harry just chuckled, "Oh Merlin, this year is going to be fun. Doesn't Aberforth hate kids?"

"And teaching, yes," Hermione said in amusement.

"How the hell do you think McGonagall convinced him to take the job?" Ron asked them.

"He clearly owes her a favour," Hermione smiled as the owls came in and dropped post on all of the tables. A large one dropped Hermione's copy of the Daily Prophet and she paled when she read one of the stories on the inside page.

"Hey, what's up?" Harry asked quietly as he slid closer to her.

Hermione frowned, "Malfoy Manor has been donated."

"How can you donate a house?" Harry asked in confusion.

"Purebloods do it sometimes," Neville said from where he was sitting across from them, "It's quite an old tradition but to repent for their sins purebloods would often donate houses to be used as orphanages or hospitals."

"That's not why they did it," Hermione said quietly as she read from the newspaper article under her breath.

"_In a statement to the Prophet, Mrs. Narcissa Malfoy informed us that the house was filled with too many bad memories for herself and her son Draco (who is currently re-sitting his final year at Hogwarts). Her husband Lucius Malfoy, who is now serving his lifetime sentence in Azkaban, was one of Lord Voldemort's followers (known as Death Eaters). Mrs. Malfoy informed us that unspeakable things happened in the house, including torture, and that she and her son can no longer live there."_

"So they think they can just get off with everything by donating the house?" Ron fumed, "It's just like the last time when Lucius Malfoy claimed he was under the Imperius Curse and now they're playing the victims saying they can't live there because bad things happened!"

"Ron, calm down," Hermione hissed.

"Hermione, you can't be on their side here-"

"Ron," Hermione snapped, "I'm not on anyone's side but I don't want you shouting about what happened to me there when half the Great Hall can hear," she told him in an angry undertone.

Harry nodded, "Leave it be, we'll talk about it later _in private,"_ he agreed as he glanced across the hall to Draco. He clearly knew about the donation of the house but he gave nothing away about his feelings about it. He was just moving his cereal around his bowl absentmindedly with his spoon.

"But-" Ron began.

Hermione stood up abruptly, "I don't want to be late for potions," she said as she stalked off ahead.

Ron frowned after her and turned to Harry in complete confusion, "Harry I'd thought what happened at Malfoy Manor would be worse for her than me."

Harry sighed as he and Ron got up and left the hall. He was suddenly quite aware that Draco and Blaise were walking quite close behind them on their way to Potions, "It was Ron. It was probably the worst thing to ever happen to her, that's why she doesn't want to talk about it."

"But she's the one telling me to be nice to Malfoy and she said she felt sorry for him because his Father was in prison and he-" Ron was cut off by Harry who understood Hermione's pain much more than Ron did.

"You know, Lucius Malfoy didn't actually do it Ron. Yes, he didn't stop it and she probably thinks he deserves to rot in Azkaban for that and for everything else he's done. But the hell she went through at Malfoy Manor, that was all inflicted by Bellatrix and she's gone now. I think that's enough revenge for Hermione," Harry reasoned and he was glad they had reached the door to the Potions classroom so that he and Ron wouldn't get into an argument over the issue.

When they got to the door everyone was waiting outside. Harry smiled at Hermione and whispered, "Don't be too hard on him, he's just never gone through something like that."

The way trauma had affected himself and Hermione was something Ron had thankfully never known. He had lost Fred, he knew what it felt like to lose someone. But he had never had pain inflicted on him in the same way that they had so he couldn't understand. Hermione seemed to accept this because she gave Harry a small nod and smiled at Ron.

The door to the classroom opened and as they walked in Slughorn told them to line up along the wall. The confused group did so. The N.E.W.T potions class had gotten a little larger but was still relatively small with only 12 students taking it.

"The Headmistress has asked all Professors to sit pupils with classmates from different housemates this year, so that we can promote house unity," Slughorn told them all, "Which means unlike every other year this year you will be allocated a seat."

Ron groaned, he relied on Hermione to help him because he was terrible at Potions. Harry felt the same, ever since he had lost the Princes book he had gone back to being a dunce at the subject. Slughorn began picking people from the line at random and pairing them off. Blaise Zabini and Sally Smith were given one of the two tables at the front of the classroom and Ron was given the second one and was paired with Daphne Greengrass. He smirked at Harry as he went to sit down next to the beautiful Slytherin.

Ernie MacMillan and Michael Corner were seated at the table behind Blaise and Sally, and Hermione and Theodore Nott behind Ron and Daphne. Harry glanced around, only himself, Draco, Justin and Terry were left.

"Boot and Finch-Fletchley," Slughorn said, pointing to the table behind Hermione and Theo. Harry's stomach dropped, this left himself and Draco.

"Oh yes and Harry, you and Mr. Malfoy in this corner here," Slughorn said with a smile at Harry, "I hope you'll make my little party tonight," he added as Harry and Draco silently took their seats and pulled their books out. Harry had absolutely no intention to even attempt to make said party.

Slughorn told them what ingredients they would need and wrote instructions on the board for making a hate potion.

"Now this is a potion that will come in handy for anyone planning to be an Auror," Harry and Ron shared a grin across the classroom at this. Slughorn continued, "It reveals the worst faults and habits of the target person to the drinker. Sometimes this can amount to nothing but if the target person happens to have a thirst for blood it can be assumed that he has most likely acted on it."

As the instructions continued to write themselves up on the board he said, "Of course it is strictly for professional use, we will not be using it on anyone in the classroom today," Slughorn chuckled a little anxiously and sat down behind his desk, leaving them to get on with it.

For the first 10 minutes of the lesson Draco and Harry chopped and stirred in awkward silence.

"I hear you and your friends are trying to be civil towards me this year Potter."

Harry inwardly rolled his eyes, "We're giving you the benefit of the doubt Malfoy, out of the goodness of our hearts."

"It's not out of the goodness of your heart Potter," Draco drawled, "It's because my Aunt Andromeda is your Godsons Grandmother and she's a meddlesome gossiping Witch."

Harry had to fight back an amused chuckle, "She is meddlesome."

"She told you to befriend me," Draco stated.

"Not exactly," Harry replied, "She told me that I should make amends with you, which I did. We made our truce."

"Indeed," Draco said as he measured out an ingredient for the potion.

"Why did your Mother donate your house, Malfoy?"

"That's none of your business Potter," Draco said quietly.

"Was it really because of what the Prophet said or was it just because you felt guilty about what happened there?" Harry asked the blonde, aware he was pushing all of the wrong buttons.

Draco's eyes flashed angrily, "We donated the house because I saw people die in its dungeons and I saw Granger nearly die on the floor of my drawing room," he hissed, "And yes, I do feel guilty about that."

"Well at least you've got some remorse," Harry retorted, he had been honest with Ron when he said that he didn't expect to become friends with Draco, "Where is she going to live, your Mother?"

"My Aunt Andromeda asked her to move into her home," Draco said, "Not that it's any of your business but I suppose you would find out one way or another. The wolf boy is your Godson after all."

"Don't call him that," Harry said irritably, "He's a baby, not a wolf."

Draco was silent for a moment as they diced some frog's spleen, and then he said, "For the record Potter it was horrible…watching her be tortured and standing there helplessly. I tried to help, I foolishly tried to run forward but my Father stopped me before my Aunt could kill me."

Harry frowned, he was sure he heard real remorse in the Slytherins voice but he didn't dare look him in the eye. Instead he kept his eyes on the potion ingredients as he said, "I don't blame you and neither does she. It was your _Aunt _who did everything.”

Draco kept his eyes cast downwards as he said, "My family and I were proud, arrogant gits Potter but we never wanted to be murderers, we never wanted to torture people."

After a moment Harry nodded, "I know," he said simply. They carried on with their potion as if the conversation had never happened, but it had gotten Harry thinking about what Andromeda and Molly had said, about Draco being lonely and probably needing a friend. His mind was elsewhere and he accidentally added the wrong amount of armadillo bile to the potion.

"Shit," Harry muttered under his breath.

Draco rolled his eyes, "How the hell were you so good at Potions in 6th Year, Potter?" he drawled as he leant over the bench and glanced at the thick substance in Harry's cauldron.

"I cheated," Harry shrugged, "Found a book with tips written in it."

"Well that makes sense," Draco said as he threw some powder into Harry's cauldron, "I wondered how you could go from being dreadful at a subject to acing it."

Harry watched him as he stirred the liquid in the cauldron anti-clockwise a few times. The colour returned to what it was supposed to be and Draco returned to his own cauldron, leaving Harry feeling thoroughly bemused.

"I thought it was just because you and Snape hated each other and we had a new Professor that year," Draco mused.

Harry chuckled, "Well, Potions was a lot more bearable that year," he admitted.

Draco nodded and they didn't talk again after that as they concentrated on their potions. Occasionally Draco would point out something Harry was doing wrong or help put his potion right if he missed out a step but that was all. At least the environment was civil though, he had never thought he and Draco would achieve that, not with all the animosity that had been between them.

They all packed up and left the classroom, Hermione said she would meet Harry and Ron in their favoured courtyard at break and then she rushed off to Ancient Runes which was her next class. Ron was meeting up with Seamus and Dean to catch up after the long summer break. Harry had a free period too so he trudged up to the 8th Year common room. When he reached the door Dumbledore's voice filled the landing with another riddle.

"_What can you catch but not throw?"_

Harry was silent as he tried to work it out, "A cold?"

"Precisely!" The voice said cheerfully as the door to the common room swung open. Harry walked in, dropped his bag and sunk into a scarlet armchair by the fire. He shut his eyes and fell deep into thought about Draco Malfoy and whether he really was a good person who was trying to make amends. Maybe he just also happened to be a sarcastic git.

Just as he was thinking about the Slytherin the door opened and he walked in, "Oh fantastic," the blonde drawled, "And I came here looking for peace and quiet."

"There's not a rule saying you have to talk to me, Malfoy," Harry pointed out.

Draco sat down in an armchair and surveyed Harry, "True."

"Do you want to be my friend, or not?" Harry asked curiously.

Draco scoffed, "Please, why would I want to be friends with you Potter?"

"Because you don't really have many other friends by the looks of it," Harry said

Draco rolled his eyes, "I have plenty of friends in my own house and I don't buy any of this ridiculous house unity nonsense."

"McGonagall is just trying to help us adjust," Harry said sharply, "Because otherwise we're going to get a shock when we emerge into a new Wizarding world which doesn't have these stupid blood and house prejudices."

"Yes well, putting us into a common room isn't going to make us all magically become friends," Draco pointed out.

"I am aware of that," Harry said as he sat back in his armchair, "Are you Head Boy, by the way?"

Draco scoffed, "Of course not. Wouldn't I be a fantastic role model for the younger students? An ex-Death Eater who stood by while one of the wizarding world's greatest heroines was tortured."

"So Theodore Nott then, he's Head Boy and you’re Quidditch Captain," Harry realised.

Draco nodded, "Yes. Although I have no idea why they didn't make you Head Boy, you are our golden bloody saviour after all."

Harry smirked, "Because I asked McGonagall to make sure that I wasn't Head Boy," he admitted.

"You asked her _not _to make you Head Boy?" Draco asked with a raised eyebrow, "I always knew you were a bit odd Potter."

Harry actually chuckled, "I didn't want the responsibility. In the real world people look up to me all the time, they think I'm this fantastic hero who can do no wrong. I want a break from that this year, I don't want the younger students to start adoring me."

Draco watched him with interest, "So you aren't this fantastic hero who can do no wrong? Interesting."

Harry rolled his eyes, "I'm not going to fudge my words with you Malfoy. I'm not a pureblood and I can't be bothered with the way you lot dance around subjects instead of discussing them. I'm not a hero and I'm not bloody perfect. I am a giant fucked up mess, I'm sifting through my life to try and make things feel normal again and nothing feels right. So you know what I do? I look for adrenaline because I'm bored. I'm bored because Voldemort is gone."

Draco had surveyed Harry throughout his little rant. When he had finished the blonde man hummed thoughtfully, "You went through a war Potter. Your life is never going to be the same, none of our lives are ever going to be the same."

Harry caught the Slytherins eye, "I know. But that isn't the point anyway, you didn't answer my earlier question. Do you want to be my friend, Malfoy?"

Draco seemed to think about that for a long moment, "I suppose I could handle being your acquaintance," he drawled, "But don't expect me to be nice to you just because I've agreed to this. I am always like this."

Harry smirked as he pulled a book from his bag, "Fine. Will we sit in silence now and try to be civil towards each other then?"

He could tell that Draco was trying not to smile as he pulled a book from his own bag and said, "Suits me fine, Potter."

***

On his way to meet Ron and Hermione for break, Harry bumped into Neville.

"Oh hey Nev," Harry said with a smile, "How you doing?"

"I'm good," Neville said cheerfully, "It's weird to be back isn't it?"

"Weird, but good," Harry said thoughtfully, "I think I became acquaintances with Malfoy earlier you know."

"Ron will love that," Neville retorted.

"I don't get it," Harry admitted, "I don't get why Ron has such a strong hatred for him and I don't get Malfoy at all."

"I don't think anyone understands Malfoy," Neville pointed out, "He's cryptic and sarcastic and just annoying most of the time. He appears out of nowhere with his comments and I just want to punch him in the face half the time."

Harry snorted, "You should, bet you'd beat him in a duel."

"Hands down," Neville grinned, "But you never know, he might just be trying to be civil because of the whole house unity thing McGonagall was talking about."

"I suppose," Harry said, "But he could also be scheming or planning something."

"Planning something?" Neville asked in amusement, "Harry, there is no war, no Voldemort. What could he possibly be planning?"

"I dunno," Harry admitted, "But Draco Malfoy being kind of nice is just too weird to be legit."

Neville grinned and patted his friend on the back, "You, my friend, are paranoid."

Harry rolled his eyes, "You sound like Hermione."

"I'll take that as a compliment," Neville chortled as they reached the entrance hall, "See you later Harry."

"Yeah see you Nev," Harry said absentmindedly as the bell for break rang and Harry walked towards the courtyard through the flow of students. When he reached the courtyard Hermione and Ron were already there, sitting on a bench holding a jar of Hermione's famous fire to keep their hands warm. He joined them and warmed his hands up on the jar.

"So, I just became friends with Draco Malfoy, sort of," Harry said with a frown, "It was a strange and surreal experience."

"What happened to just being civil?" Ron asked in disbelief.

"I felt sorry for him and he doesn't actually seem to be that much of a dick," Harry shrugged, "I think his lines of good and bad are just a little…blurred."

Hermione chuckled, "Well it's up to you who you befriend. It doesn't mean you have to become friends with him Ron."

"Yeah well I don't even think he should have been allowed to come back," Ron said irritably.

"Yes because that's the way forward, to treat people who have wronged in the past like lepers," Hermione said sarcastically.

Ron frowned, "What the hell is a leper?"

"It's a Muggle skin disease," Harry yawned, “They thought it was a sign of the devil or something in medieval Britain so people who had it became outcasts."

Hermione and Ron both looked at Harry in surprise.

"How did you know that?" Hermione asked.

Harry smirked, "I did go to Muggle primary school too Hermione, occasionally I actually listened."

Hermione smiled slightly, "Well I think it's a good thing that you became friends with Malfoy and I'm not surprised that you disagree Ron. It's just like the Yule Ball when you accused me of fraternizing with the enemy when the whole idea of the tournament was to promote unity between the schools. It's the same situation here, only with houses."

"I don't think that had anything to do with Ron being against inter-school friendships," Harry grinned as Ron's ears began to turn red, "I think he was just jealous that you went to the ball with Krum."

"Shut up Harry," Ron muttered.

Hermione's cheeks flushed and Harry added, "And I think he had reason to be worried. Did I ever mention that I saw you snogging him in the rose garden?"

Ron's eyes widened, "And you had the nerve to slag me off for snogging Lavender in 6th Year?"

"That was different," Hermione said quickly, "I kissed Viktor a few times in _private. _You were snogging her all over the school in front of everyone, it was grotesque!"

Ron huffed at her words, "Grotesque? Cheers Hermione."

"I don't know what's worse, grotesque or wet," Harry mused.

Ron sniggered, "Yeah well, if you will snog a girl while she's crying about her dead ex-boyfriend."

"Ron!" Hermione chastised, but Harry let out a reluctant and rather girly giggle at Ron's words which sent the redhead into a fit of uncontrollable laughter.

Hermione shook her head at the two boys as she hid a smile, "What do you think Defence against the Dark Arts will be like with Aberforth as the Professor?"

Ron snorted, "Hilarious?"

"Merlin knows," Harry said as the bell rang, announcing that they had to start making their way to Transfiguration, "I think it could be a laugh though."

"He's probably going to be quite a good Professor," Hermione said thoughtfully as they walked with the crowds, "I mean, he was amazing in the final battle."

"He is Dumbledore's brother," Ron said.

Harry nodded, "Yeah, it makes sense that he's a powerful wizard. I just don't think teaching is his thing."

"Could be a bit like Moody," Ron added.

"Except that Moody wasn't Moody, he was Barty Crouch Junior," Hermione reminded them both.

"Yeah but saying a bit like Moody is easier than saying, a bit like Moody who wasn't really Moody though because he was actually Barty Crouch Junior," Ron retorted.

Harry had to refrain from sniggering as he sped up to walk ahead of his bickering best friends.

***

"Are you certain you don't mind me moving in, Dromeda?"

Andromeda scoffed, "I'm delighted Narcissa, and I completely understand why you had to leave that place. It's toxic, just like Lucius was."

"No," Narcissa sighed, "Lucius wasn't always a bad person, Dromeda. I loved him at first, I honestly did."

"Yes well your taste in men was always questionable," Andromeda teased as she helped move boxes of her sister's things into her house, "Personally I never liked him. He was far too arrogant."

"It was all part of his charm," Narcissa said as she dropped a box in the hall and paused to catch her breath.

"Well I'm happy to have you here Cissa, and Draco if he decides to visit at Christmas," Andromeda said as she straightened up, "The house is certainly big enough. I may have been disowned but Ted and I still did alright for ourselves."

"I can see," Narcissa smiled, "Your house is beautiful."

"And not filled with an attic of incredibly dark and dangerous things like yours," Andromeda added.

"Well it was never my house," Narcissa said as they made their way into the drawing room for tea, "It was Lucius's and I was only able to donate it because Draco became Head of the family when his Father was sentenced to life in Azkaban."

"It was Draco who made the decision?" Andromeda asked.

Narcissa nodded and sat down heavily on one of the sofa's in the drawing room, "Yes, it was his choice and I happened to agree."

"Well he's wise beyond his years then," Andromeda smiled, "It's his first day back at school today, isn't it?"

"Yes," Narcissa replied, "I'm expecting a letter tomorrow about how it went. I do hope he makes some friends; he has a few Slytherin friends which I can find some comfort in. He and Theo have been close for years and he used to date Daphne. You know Daphne Greengrass don't you? Lareina and Cygnus's daughter."

Andromeda laughed, "I used to date Cygnus's older brother, at Hogwarts!"

"I remember!" Narcissa chuckled, "You and Phineas! You swore you wouldn't marry your cousin, is that why you broke up with him?"

Andromeda was still laughing as she nodded, "I was adamant that I wouldn't marry my cousin like everybody else in our family did so I broke up with him. It was quite a shame, he was a lovely man back then."

"And he's a very rich man now," Narcissa pointed out, "That reminds me. Are you going to keep your married name Dromeda, now that you are widowed?"

"I see no reason to change it," Andromeda admitted, "Why do you ask?"

"With Lucius in prison I am within my rights to annul the marriage," Narcissa admitted, "I am incredibly tempted, but I have yet to talk to Draco about the idea. If I decide to do so, I may go back to Narcissa Black."

"Now that's a name I haven't heard in years," Andromeda chuckled as she picked Teddy up from the travel cot he had been sleeping in.

"Oh I know," Narcissa said, smiling down at the blue haired boy who was just beginning to open his eyes, "Oh Merlin Dromeda, is this your Grandson? He's gorgeous."

"I know, everyone adores him," Andromeda chuckled, "Would you like to hold him, Cissa?"

Narcissa nodded, and gently took the baby from her sister, "Gosh, I haven't held a baby since Draco was small," she said softly.

"It's odd that you don't seem to forget how," Andromeda said thoughtfully as their tea arrived. She watched her sister rock Teddy as she poured out two cups and gently placed the teapot back on the tray.

"Does Draco have a girlfriend, Cissa?" Andromeda asked curiously.

Narcissa frowned, "No, I don't believe so. He doesn't tend to discuss his love life with me mind you. I know he dated Daphne and he was with Pansy Parkinson for a little while too. You know, Roland and Miranda's daughter?"

"Yes," Andromeda nodded, “She died in the war did she not?"

"Killed by friendly fire, so I heard," Narcissa said sadly, "Draco was very withdrawn after that. I wasn't sure if it was because of the war in general and the things his Father had forced him to watch or because of her death. He was such a happy little boy but Lucius was so harsh on him, it hardened him ever so much."

Andromeda sighed, "It's a fine line. I wasn't tough enough on Dora and she was a rebellious pain in the arse, but I still loved her and I miss her so much."

"It sounds like she was like you," Narcissa said with a sad smile, "You were always rebelling against our parents."

"Yes well they were horribly traditional and complete blood purists," Andromeda pointed out, "You know, the only reason I asked about Draco was because he asked me an odd question when I stayed with you a few weeks ago."

"About a girl?" Narcissa asked with interest.

"Not specifically," Andromeda said as she sipped her tea, "He asked me how I managed to defy my family and friends and date then marry Ted with him being a Muggle-born. I got the impression he was thinking of a Muggle-born himself."

"Well, he doesn't know many Muggle-borns," Narcissa said thoughtfully, "The only one he has ever mentioned to me is Hermione Granger but he was always quite scathing. He insulted her for being a know-it-all and for being friends with Harry Potter. Never for her blood status, however."

"Sounds like the sort of things little boys do when they have a crush on a girl," Andromeda chuckled, "I know Hermione Granger, she's a lovely girl."

"Well, perhaps I may meet her one day," Narcissa chuckled, "If you are correct about Draco's feelings that is."

"I suppose we will find out," Andromeda said with a cryptic smile.

**TBC :)**


	6. The Apprentice Becomes the Master

When Harry, Ron and Hermione walked into the corridor outside their Transfiguration classroom they came face to face with the Slytherins taking the class.

"Ah there’s our chosen one," Daphne smirked, “Are you befriending all Slytherins or just Draco?"

Harry rolled his eyes, "I don't remember us becoming friends, do you Malfoy?"

"Certainly not," Draco drawled, "As I told you Daphne, we agreed to consider ourselves as acquaintances."

Daphne's smirk remained fixed on her face and Harry felt uncomfortable as she surveyed him, "Pity, you might actually like some of us if you got to know us, Potter."

"Hey I don't have a blanket ban on befriending Slytherins," Harry joked, "Just Slytherins who happened to be my arch enemy up until to a few days ago."

Hermione scoffed, "Arch enemies, honestly. Dumbledore and Grindelwald were arch enemies, you two are not arch enemies. Have you ever had massive duels that nearly killed people?"

Draco raised an eyebrow at Hermione, "I don't know if you recall Granger, but Potter attempted to cut me to pieces in 6th Year."

Harry glanced down guiltily, "Yeah, sorry about that," he said genuinely.

This genuine apology threw Draco. He simply shrugged and all of a sudden the air was tense again. There was such a fine line to toe with Draco and Harry because of all of the shit that had happened in the past. If anything more was going to be said there was no time for it. The classroom door opened by itself and McGonagall immediately had them line up against the wall so that she could seat them to promote house unity.

Harry sighed, if all classes were like this he would never get to sit with Ron and Hermione. He understood what McGonagall was trying to do but he wanted to sit with his friends in at least one class. They were all seated in twos again, next to someone who wasn't in their own house. This time Ron ended up with Terry Boot and Hermione with Sadie Cauldwell, neither of them seemed very bothered about their partners and they were at the table next to each other. Harry was paired with Daphne at the table behind Ron and the redhead winked at him. He knew about Harry's brief crush on the Slytherin girl and if he was honest Harry's heart had leapt a little bit excitedly when he heard the pairing. Ginny was in this class too because it was one of the few that they shared with the 7th Years, she had been paired with Draco. Harry was surprised when he glanced around and saw them talking quite civilly but then he remembered what she had said about him helping out the DA the previous year while Harry and his friends had been on the run.

"Well lucky me," Daphne said from next to Harry, "I get to sit with the chosen one."

Harry raised an eyebrow at the blonde girl who smiled, "I'm Daphne Greengrass, I was in your Potions class in 6th year."

"I remember you," Harry said, trying very hard not to blush. Their conversation was stopped there as the lesson began and McGonagall called for silence.

The rest of the day went by very slowly and Harry wished for it to be 5th period so he could find out what kind of teacher Aberforth Dumbledore was going to be. After Transfiguration Harry headed to Herbology where thankfully they got to choose their seats around the long table which meant Harry, Ron, Hermione and Neville could work together and talk in undertones as they popped open puffapod seeds. Lunch passed quickly and Harry, Ron and Hermione hurried up to the 3rd floor to wait outside their Defence against the Dark Arts room.

5 minutes later the rest of the class had arrived and the door opened of its own accord. A gruff voice called, "Come in then you lot!"

Harry and Ron shared an amused grin and were the first to walk into the room. It looked far better than the last time Harry had been in it, back when Snape had been teaching DADA. The windows were no longer blacked out and the grotesque pictures had been removed.

Aberforth was sitting on the desk watching them all. Nobody walked to seats, because they were unsure if they were allowed to sit where they wanted.

"Right then, I'm Professor Dumbledore."

There was some sniggering.

Aberforth rolled his eyes, "Yeah, not that Dumbledore. I'm not Albus risen from the dead and I'm not a patient saint like him either. Let's get one thing straight here, I hate kids and I hate teaching. I'm only doing this because I owe Minerva a favour and I'm out of here the minute she finds a proper teacher."

Harry smirked at these words and Ron was shaking with silent laughter next to him.

"So, Minerva said you should all sit next to someone who isn't in your house to promote all of this house unity nonsense. Well, that's never going to work but I've got to do what the boss lady says so sit down next to someone who isn't in your house and then we'll get on with this class."

There was chaos as people shuffled to sit next to someone who wasn't in their house but who was still their friend so that they didn't get stuck next to someone that they didn't like. Hermione sat down next to Sadie Cauldwell and Ron quickly slid into a seat next to his fellow Cannons fan, Susan Bones.

Harry glanced around at the few remaining seats and sat down at the table at the back of the room, he was just going to have to wait and see who was left. He supposed he should have made more of an effort to make friends who weren't in Gryffindor or to make more friends in general. The seats had filled up fast and the last person to find one happened to be Draco Malfoy.

He rolled his eyes when he saw that the last seat was next to Harry, "Oh seriously?" he remarked irritably as he threw himself into the seat.

Aberforth scoffed, "Suck it up Malfoy. Where you're sitting now is where you're sitting till the end of the term or until Minerva can find a proper teacher. You're 8th Years, you know your stuff so I'll just be sitting here leaving you to get on with it."

"You aren't going to teach us?" Harry asked in surprise.

Aberforth rolled his eyes, "I'll teach you, but I'm not going to be happy about it."

"What about practical experience?" Harry asked.

Aberforth barked out a laugh, "I reckon your year group have had enough practical experience for a lifetime Potter."

Harry couldn't argue with that, "Oh come on Abe, classes will be boring if you don't let us do practical work. It's 7th year work, we can do patronuses and talk about how to become animagi-"

Aberforth pushed himself to his feet, "Do you think you can teach this class, Potter?" he asked irritably.

Harry hid his smirk, "Probably, I did lead a whole army for your brother when I was in 5th year."

Aberforth narrowed his eyes at the boy, and then smirked, "Fine then, come up here and teach this class."

He was challenging Harry, probably thinking that he would back down or change his mind. He probably wasn't expecting Harry to stand up and walk to the front of the class. He pushed himself up onto the desk and rolled up his sleeves while the class watched him in amusement and Aberforth surveyed him with interest.

"Good afternoon class!" Harry said brightly, "So, I think since we're at 7th Year level and almost all of us fought in the war, we should be looking at learning more defensive spells rather than offensive ones because we already know the bulk of that. Now, the Patronus charm is a particularly handy spell because-"

"Merlin," Aberforth mumbled, "You really were my brother's apprentice."

Harry smirked and continued, "-because it protects against dark creatures, chiefly Dementors. Any questions?"

"Can't it also be used to send messages, _Professor Potter?" _Daphne Greengrass smirked.

Harry grinned, "Excellent question. Yes, it can be used to send messages. It's faster than floo and it can't be intercepted. Raise your hand if you have ever performed a Patronus charm."

Hermione shook her head in disbelief as she raised her hand and mumbled to Sadie, "I can't believe he's just taken over this entire class."

"It's kind of his area of expertise," Sadie whispered to her friend.

Aberforth was watching on in amusement, he seemed quite content to let Harry continue on with the teaching of the class because he clearly didn't want to be here.

"The trick to casting a successful Patronus charm is your happy memory," Harry said as he jumped up from the desk, “If you have a memory that literally fills you with joy and you focus on it and let it fill you up, your patronus has a far better shot at taking a form. It isn't easy magic and many wizards can't cast a patronus at all. Any more questions?"

Sadie raised her hand, out of habit.

Harry smiled slightly, "Yes?"

The blonde Slytherin girl lowered her hand, "Does the form your patronus takes have something to do with your personality?"

"Yes, it does," Harry replied as he began to pace, "It can take the form of someone, or something, close to your heart. My Patronus takes the form of something that reminds me of my Father and I have known people whose patronuses have changed when they are in love to reflect that. Often your patronus reflects your own personality traits, if you are loyal it may become a dog. It can also reflect your magical ability and become a magical creature, or reflect your name," Harry glanced over at Draco, "For example, I imagine Draco means 'dragon', and I suspect your patronus may take the form of a dragon because of that."

"Give us a look at yours then!" Theo said eagerly.

Harry chuckled, "Alright, but it's quite big so don't be alarmed. It won't hurt you."

"That's what she said!" Ron jeered.

"Oi Aberforth, give him a detention," Harry smirked.

"I'm your best mate!" Ron objected.

"Exactly," Harry said with a raised eyebrow.

"Aye, order order!" Aberforth said with an amused look at them all.

Harry shut his eyes, focused on his happy memory and shouted, "Expecto Patronum!"

There were shouts and gasps of awe as the huge stag emerged from Harry's wand and pranced out of the classroom into the hallway. When it had vanished he got much applause from the class and Aberforth shook his head in amusement, "Right, that's it. You've got the job Potter."

Harry turned to Aberforth in surprise, "What?"

"Until Minerva finds a decent replacement you're teaching the 8th Year class," Aberforth told him, "You seem a damn sight better at it than I am."

Harry frowned at the man, "Uh, well what do you want me to teach?"

"Whatever you want," Aberforth shrugged, "Your patronus class seems a good enough idea."

Harry glanced at Hermione in amusement, "Right, well I’ll need a helper…"

Harry told everybody to stand up and pushed all of the desks against the walls. He divided the classroom into two sides and looked at his amused best friend once more, "Hermione, would you mind walking up and down the right side of the room for me and helping people out?"

Hermione chuckled, "Of course not," she replied.

They spent the rest of the class helping their fellow 8th Years produce patronuses or perfect their current charms. Nobody who hadn't been able to do one before managed to produce a full patronus that day, but Harry would have been surprised if they had. As it was they made great progress, everyone was capable of producing wisps from their wands by the end of the class.

When the bell rang Harry restored the classroom to normalcy and grabbed his bag. He walked out of the classroom with Ron, because Hermione had rushed on ahead to get to Arithmancy on time.

"You just taught an entire DADA class," Ron sniggered.

"Yeah, that was a bit surreal," Harry grinned.

"Bet McGonagall will go mad when she hears," Ron said in amusement, "Like that time when she found out about Moody turning Malfoy into a ferret."

“I did feel quite bad for Malfoy about that. I mean it wasn't Moody, it was Crouch which means he was probably doing it to punish Malfoy because his Father claimed he was under the imperius curse in the first war..." Harry admitted thoughtfully.

"Whatever Harry," Ron snorted, "You're reading into it too much, it served him right."

Harry didn't entirely agree but he didn't want to argue either, "Anyway, what do you reckon I should teach next, Ron?"

"You should do a more up to date class on the Unforgivables," Ron said thoughtfully, "Might make some folk uncomfortable though. I bet you Malfoy knows all about how to use them, what do you reckon he had to murder someone to become a Death Eater or that he tortured Muggles with the cruciatus curse?" he asked darkly.

A voice from behind them suddenly made Harry and Ron jump, "Yes, I do know all about the unforgivables," Draco's cold voice said, "My Father used them for discipline. I highly doubt that you know what it is like to have your Father watch while his Death Eater friends use the cruciatus curse on you because you came downstairs for a drink during one of his meetings."

Ron rolled his eyes, "Maybe you shouldn't have become a junior Death Eater then, Malfoy."

"I was _6 years old_, Weasley," Draco remarked scathingly.

Harry and Ron exchanged a glance and Harry said, "Go on to Divination Ron, I'll meet you there."

Ron didn't seem to want to hang around, "Right, see you there Harry," he said as he walked away very quickly.

"What class do you have next?" Harry asked casually.

"Free period," Draco replied simply.

"Fancy a walk?" Harry asked him.

"I don't have anything better to do," Draco drawled.

He and Harry proceeded to walk through the quiet halls. It was clear to Harry that Draco needed a friend right now, Andromeda and Molly had been right.

"I grew up with Muggles who tried to beat the magic out of me," Harry said conversationally, "Everyone thinks I grew up being handed everything on a silver platter but I didn't even know that I was a wizard until I got my Hogwarts letter.”

"Why are you telling me this, Potter?" Draco drawled.

"Well you clearly aren't going to talk about yourself so I thought I might as well talk about myself," Harry said bluntly, "Do you know that they made me cook their breakfast and clean their house since I was about 4? I was basically a house elf, I even slept in the cupboard under the stairs."

"Potter, I don't care," Draco remarked.

"It wasn't particularly pleasant," Harry continued, "I've got a bit of a thing about small spaces now but I'm not scared of spiders oddly enough. They were my friends, even after the whole Acromantula thing in 2nd Year..."

"Have you lost the plot?" Draco asked in disbelief.

"What plot?" Harry asked calmly.

Draco raised an eyebrow at him, "If you think spilling your sob story to me is going to make me tell you all about my shitty childhood, then you're wrong."

"Oh go on Draco," Harry smirked.

"Don't call me Draco," the blonde said irritably, "You're not my friend, Potter."

"But you wanted to be my friend," Harry pointed out, "When you tried to shake my hand in 1st year."

They had been climbing the stairs to the Divination tower throughout their whole conversation and they were just nearing the top now.

"That was 7 years ago, Potter!" Draco remarked, "It doesn't mean I want to be your friend _now_."

"What if I want to be your friend?" Harry asked as they reached the landing.

Draco looked startled at the suggestion, "Well…you can't be because I don't like you. Goodbye Potter."

Harry sniggered as the blonde turned on his heel and stalked off down the stairs. He was still chuckling as he climbed up the ladder into the Divination Classroom. He had to do a double take as he did, he'd forgotten quite how foggy and heavily scented it was.

Harry walked over to a table where Ron was sitting with Susan Bones and sat down on a pink pouffe next to his best friend. He grinned and whispered, "I forgot how fun Malfoy-baiting was."

This caused Ron to burst out into a fit of the giggles which Susan seemed to find highly amusing. Harry looked at him in bemusement as Trelawney toppled over towards them and got right up in Harry's face.

"My inner eye tells me that your lateness is due to helping out a friend!" She said dramatically.

Harry was surprised by her accuracy for once, but then again she had been standing near the trap door so she had probably just seen him walk upstairs with Draco.

"Uh, yeah sort of. He's more of an acquaintance really," Harry said with an amused look at Ron, they were impressed by Trelawney's apparent improvement since they had last had her as a Professor.

"I am delighted to have you back with us Harry," Trelawney said, "As we have such a little class we are happy to welcome anyone else!"

She spread her arms and her shawls fell from her shoulders making her look like a bat. So yes, she was still as insane as ever.

The class was indeed small; there were 4 circular tables of three. Next to them sat Dean, Seamus and Megan. Behind Ron and Harry sat the three Slytherin girls, Daphne, Tracey and Sadie. At the last table sat Mandy Brocklehurst, Lilly Moon and Sally-Ann Perks.

They spent the double lesson discussing a famous old Wizard who had predicted his future by analysing his dreams and they got their first homework of the day which was to keep a month long dream diary. Harry and Ron shared an amused grin at this; as usual they would make up their dreams and make them as crazy and lethal as possible to please Trelawney.

When the class was over and Harry and Ron were making their way to the great hall for dinner, Harry finally said, "What made you giggle so much in that class?"

Ron grinned and said, "Don't you realise how similar Malfoy-baiting and masturbating sound? I thought you'd said something else at first."

Harry was torn between embarrassment and amusement as his cheeks flushed.

"What were you baiting him about anyway?" Ron asked curiously.

"I was just winding him up," Harry said honestly, "He makes it so easy after all. Do you know I don't actually mind the guy but if I end up becoming friends with him I won't be able to slag him off endlessly…and that's one of the most fun things about being back here."

"What, Malfoy-baiting?" Ron asked, descending into another fit of the giggles.

***

"Oh, goodness Andromeda," Narcissa said as she shook her head over the breakfast table.

"Is that a letter from your darling son?" Andromeda asked with a smile as she fed Teddy his bottle.

Narcissa nodded, smiling slightly, "It's rather dramatic, he's so much like his Father. Don't you think?"

"Heavens yes," Andromeda chuckled, "But luckily for Draco, he's like his Father _before _that wicked man corrupted him. Read the letter out to me, Cissa."

Narcissa chuckled, "_Dear Mother-"_

"Doesn't he ever just call you Mum?" Andromeda asked in amusement.

"Oh, I tried,” Narcissa said with a shake of her head, "But Lucius thought it was too common. He calls me Mum when he's upset or sick but beyond that I am 'Mother' to him."

Andromeda was still chuckling as Narcissa continued to read the letter.

"_The first day back at Hogwarts was bearable, I suppose. I have some friends here, Theo is good company as he always has been and he does not seem to have judged me for what I did during the war. Even Daphne has been reasonably nice, she has only insulted me a few times for what she likes to call our disastrous break-up._

_It is heinous having to share a common room with the likes of Potter and his Gryffindor posse. Would you believe that McGonagall wants to promote house unity and make us all become friends? I have been forced to sit next to Potter in not one, but two classes! Beyond that, he took it upon himself to take over from the DADA Professor and teach the class today! Who does he think he is?_

_The rest of his posse have been manageable. Weasley avoids me, which suits me just fine. Granger seems to want to extend the hand of friendship as she put it, but that will not happen I can assure you. She answered every question posed in every class today, the insufferable know-it-all. To top it off she stole my favourite table at the library this evening which means I have been forced to share the table with her, and her hair takes up the majority of it. (Can you believe she had the nerve to look at my letter and tell me that I should occasionally call you Mum? As if, how very common that would sound)._

_I hope you and Aunt Dromeda are well. Give my best regards to her and also to the wolf child. Potter seems to get offended when I call the little blue-haired monster that so I think I shall keep doing it. The only good thing about being back at this school is Potter-baiting._

_Love,_

_Draco._"

"Does he have any of your genetics?" Andromeda asked in amusement.

"I do wonder sometimes," Narcissa said with a chuckle, "Although I think you may be right about Hermione Granger."

"He talks about her far too much to _just_ hate her," Andromeda smirked, "When you write back, tell him that his Aunt Dromeda thinks he should grow up and stop acting like his Father."

"With pleasure," Narcissa laughed.

***

"Good evening Malfoy."

"Granger, I may have unwittingly sat next to you in the library once but that does not mean I like you," Draco said matter of factly.

Hermione rolled her eyes, "I didn't say that you did Malfoy. I was just being polite."

They were in the common room and it was practically empty. Draco was sitting at a desk doing some homework and Hermione had just come in from the library.

"Good, then do it elsewhere. I don't need your politeness," Draco said with a wave of his hand.

"Do you actually want to make friends or is it your goal to be lonely for the rest of your life?" Hermione asked irritably.

"Excuse me?" Draco said coolly, "I have plenty of friends in my own house-"

Hermione cut him off, "And the whole point of this year is to make new friends who aren't in your house! People are trying Malfoy! Harry, me, Neville, we're all trying to be nice to you."

"Well I don't want or need you to be nice to me," Draco drawled, "I have far better things to do than hang around with you, Potty and the Weasel."

"See, this is why people don't like you," Hermione said as she crossed her arms and glared at him, "You are pushing everyone away! If you actually let somebody in, you never know you might actually like them!"

Draco scoffed and Hermione stalked away up the stairs in a huff. When she was gone, his hand froze over the essay he was writing and he sighed as he grabbed a new piece of parchment and penned a hurried letter to his Aunt Andromeda.

***

"A letter arrived for you this morning Dromeda," Narcissa said conversationally.

Andromeda smiled at her younger sister, she was walking back and forth in the kitchen with Teddy trying to lull him back to sleep, "Thank you so much for taking care of him this morning."

Narcissa waved her hand nonchalantly, "Think nothing of it, you didn't sleep well last night, I gather?"

"The nightmares," Andromeda admitted as she sat down at the kitchen table, "They have been intermittent since the end of the war."

"I understand," Narcissa said, a temporary darkness flitting behind her eyes, “Are you grateful for Teddy?"

"All of the time," Andromeda said quietly, "Why do you ask?"

Narcissa sighed as she looked down at the little boy in her arms, "If I had a grandchild I would be grateful. I would view it as a chance to raise them properly and…to make sure I didn’t make all the same mistakes I did with Draco."

"You made no mistakes with Draco," Andromeda said softly as she picked up the letter that was addressed to her on the table.

"He grew up to become a Death Eater," Narcissa sighed, "And he was always arrogant and over-confident."

"I think we both know that was his Fathers influence, not yours," Andromeda pointed out, "It's all a façade. Beneath his arrogance he's insecure and beneath his sarcasm he's incredibly sweet. Eventually he will meet friends, or perhaps a woman, who he can be himself with."

"How can you be so certain?" Narcissa asked anxiously, "I don't want him to become bitter and angry, like Lucius did."

"Because he is very similar to my Dora," Andromeda said as she looked up at her sister, "And when she became an Auror she finally fell in with the right crowd and they stabilized her. The same thing will happen for Draco, I'm certain."

Narcissa nodded, "I do hope so," she sighed.

"Speaking of your son, this letter is from him," Andromeda said as a smile played on her lips.

"Is it incredibly secretive or will you tell me what it says?" Narcissa asked with a smile, "I find it odd that he talks to you about certain things that he will not discuss with me."

"Not certain things, one thing," Andromeda chuckled, "And I do believe it is because I married a Muggle-born and you did not, my darling sister."

Narcissa raised an eyebrow at her sister, "Now you must tell me what it says."

Andromeda was still smiling as she read the letter aloud.

"_Dear Aunt Dromeda,_

_Apologies for the rushed nature of this letter. I wanted to send it off promptly. Following our last conversation, I had some questions about your Husband. Of course, I am aware that he was a Muggle-born but what house was he in? Surely he was not in Slytherin as you were. I also wondered, were you ostracized because of your feelings for him?_

_Theoretically, do you believe Mother would object if I were to say have feelings for a Muggle-born or a girl not in my house? Or even worse, a Muggle-born who is also not a Slytherin? _

_Also, in theory of course. How would one approach a Muggle-born? Pureblood culture is surely different from Muggle culture, so how exactly would somebody say ask one out or tell them they have feelings for them?_

_I have friends in predicaments such as these and I knew you would have the answers._

_Love,_

_Draco."_

"I have friends in these predicaments," Narcissa chuckled, "How silly does he think you are? He's talking about himself."

"Of course he is," Andromeda laughed as she began to compose a reply, "And I'm fairly certain I know who he's talking about too."

"Well I am glad he feels he can confide in you," Narcissa smiled, "When you write please put a P.S on the end of the letter for me."

"Of course," Andromeda smiled, “What would you like to say?"

Narcissa smiled mischievously at her sister in response to that question.

***

"_Dear Draco,_

_You are awfully formal in your letters and in my opinion you sound far too much like your Father. You really ought to start calling your Mother, Mum (it is not common contrary to what your Father has told you). In response to your questions about your friends in these predicaments, I can only help so much I am afraid. Not all Muggle-borns are the same and Muggle traditions differ from region to region, or family to family._

_My husband Ted was a Hufflepuff, so yes I was teased rotten for dating him. Although this was by my friends in Gryffindor and Ravenclaw and it was good natured. However, my so called 'friends' in Slytherin did not seem to care for his house, only that he was a Muggle-born and yes, I was cast out. But I must emphasize, that was in 1970, and this is 1998. Our world has seen two wars since I met my Husband and that has changed things. I am not saying that dating a Muggle-born or someone out-with your house will be easy but I am saying that it is no longer 'social suicide' as my Mother called it before she cast me out of the family._

_Now, as far as a conflict of cultures go, I do believe that is an excuse Draco. I also believe these 'friends' are non-existent. If you have feelings for this girl then tell her, or do nice things for her. Do not insult her, that is not pureblood custom, that is your Father's custom and as you know I think your Father is an idiot. Her culture may be different from yours but that causes problems in serious relationships, not at the stage you are at. Ask her out for goodness sake! What's the worst that could happen?_

_Love_

_Aunt Dromeda_

_P.S. Draco, I hope you do not mind but Dromeda read your letter to me. I have no objections to you dating a Muggle-born or someone out-with your house, or even both. I want you to be happy and I want you to be able to move on from everything that has happened to you in the last few years. I do not care who that is with, the only person who would is your Father and he is not here to control our lives anymore - Love, Mum."_

"Draco, why are you scoffing at a letter?" Daphne asked conversationally. They had been back at Hogwarts for almost a week now and apart from the fact that Draco and Harry seemed to take pleasure in winding each other up, not much had changed from every other year. Although there was also the fact that Draco spent an awful lot of time in the library these days.

"It's from my Aunt Andromeda," Draco said with a shake of his head, "Her advice is dreadful, as always."

"When did you even meet your Aunt Andromeda?" Theo asked with a frown, "Didn't she get disowned for getting knocked up by a Muggle?"

"She married him first, it wasn’t a shotgun wedding," Draco said defensively, "And he was a Muggle-born, not a Muggle."

"Not much difference," Blaise said.

"Yes, there is," Draco said stiffly, "What's wrong with marrying a Muggle-born? They're completely different from Muggles, they're magical, they just have a different culture from us!"

Tracey raised an eyebrow at the blonde boy, "Thinking about marrying a Muggle-born, Draco?"

"No, I'm not," Draco snapped, "I don't like Muggle-borns and I don't like Gryffindors and if that's Potter coming over to try and befriend me again I am going to punch him!"

Daphne, Tracey and Sadie shared amused looks as Harry stopped at the Slytherin table and grabbed a piece of toast.

"Excuse me Potter but this is Slytherin territory and therefore Slytherin toast, you have no right to eat it," Draco said irritably.

Harry shrugged, "I was a hat-stall, I nearly became a Slytherin so I think I do. Anyway, it's a free country Malfoy."

"You can't just strut around this place like you own it-"

"What, like you did for…oh yeah about 6 years?" Harry smirked, "My turn, don't you think? Who's your letter from, Andi?"

"That is none of your business," Draco remarked as he stuffed the letter into his pocket.

"Hmm, she sent me one today too," Harry mused, "Filled with plenty of interesting things about you, I even got a P.S from your Mother."

Draco paled significantly, and Daphne snorted in amusement, "Potter, are you blackmailing him?"

Harry grinned, "Not yet, just letting him know that I have the capability to do so. Have a good day Malfoy."

Draco growled as the Gryffindor walked away from the table, "Is it possible to hate him more now than before?" he asked angrily.

Daphne grinned after the Gryffindor boy, "It _is _possible but I don't think you do. He wasn't lying when he said he was a hat-stall though, that sneaky little shit."

***

"What did my Mother say to you in Aunt Dromeda's letter?"

Harry had to fight to contain his smirk. They had gotten about 10 minutes into double potions and then Draco had asked Harry the question he knew had been burning in his mind.

"Nothing really," Harry chuckled, "I was just winding you up. It literally just said, "_Dear Harry, Andromeda has told me about how doting you are on Teddy. We thought you would like to know that he has been trying very hard to say your name this week. I have contained the memories, Dromeda assures me you have a pensieve." _That was all."

"So it had nothing to do with me?" Draco asked with a sigh of relief.

"Nope, neither of them mentioned you," Harry replied as he began to dice some disgusting spleen looking thing.

"You're dicing it too big," Draco said offhandedly, "The pieces needed to be smaller and more even."

"Right," Harry said, "Thanks, Malfoy."

"You don't actually hate me, do you?" Draco asked the Gryffindor, "You only slag me off because you find it fun."

"You are easy to wind up," Harry grinned, "And it adds some excitement to my day."

Draco rolled his eyes and Harry was sure he saw the blonde smile slightly as he said, "You seriously need a girlfriend Potter."

"So do you Malfoy," Harry retorted, "After all, I heard your passionate defence of Muggle-borns this morning."

"You heard that?" Draco muttered.

"Half the hall heard it," Harry snorted, "Who is she then?"

"What?" Draco asked sharply.

"The Muggle-born you were defending," Harry said pointedly, "Who is she?"

"Nobody," Draco remarked irritably, "I don't like Muggle-borns, I don't like anyone. Got it Potter?"

Harry snorted, "Whatever Malfoy," he said and they fell back into comfortable silence as they focused on their potions.

***

For the next week things carried on in a similar vein. Not much had instantly changed since returning for an 8th Year. Harry and Draco talked minimally in the classes they shared and were forced to sit next to each other in. Draco gave Harry the odd tip in Potions, but they never talked about much beyond that apart from their shared links in Andromeda, Narcissa and Teddy. On Monday evening, when they had been back at school for a week, Hermione walked into the common room muttering angrily to herself.

"Mad at the books again?" Ron joked.

"No," Hermione said irritably as she slammed a book on the table and sat down next to the two boys.

"What could possibly happen to you in the library to piss you off this much?" Harry asked in disbelief.

"Draco Malfoy," Hermione muttered, "I honestly do not understand what he gets out of annoying me. I swear, since we got back for this 8th Year I've done nothing but try and be nice to him and all I get is insults about my hair and the fact I'm a know-it-all. He brushes off every nice thing I try and do!"

"Get the hint and stop trying to be nice then" Ron retorted, "Don't waste your time on him."

"He's pretty closed off," Harry agreed, "And he does the same with me, although not to the same extent. He has pretty much insulted you every time you've so much as walked past him."

"Hey, totally don't mean to intrude but you guys talk quite loud," Susan said from where she was sitting a few seats along, "Have you considered that maybe he has a thing for you?”

Hermione shook her head, "No, there's little boys pulling on little girl’s pigtails because they have a thing for them and then there's being a dickhead because you really are just a dickhead."

Ron's eyes widened, "When did you start swearing?"

"Contrary to what you and half the population of this school seem to believe, I'm not an angel Ronald!" Hermione snapped.

Susan hid her face as she chuckled at the comment. Then the door to the common room opened and Draco sauntered in. Harry couldn't get over the fact that the Slytherin still strutted around the school like he owned it despite everything that had happened. Hermione narrowed her eyes at him but didn't say anything as he walked over to them and dropped a textbook in front of Hermione.

"You left your book in the library, Granger," Draco drawled.

"Thanks," Hermione said simply.

Draco shrugged, "Whatever, see you around Granger," he said as he walked away.

Susan raised an eyebrow at the bushy haired girl, "Now, that seemed pretty civil and nice."

"Yeah, well it's a change from normal," Hermione said as she glanced over at the redhead.

Susan smirked, "He likes you."

"Well Hermione doesn't like him," Ron interjected, "He spent the last 7 years insulting her."

"And she punched him in the face," Harry added with a grin.

"Exactly," Hermione said but she had hesitated and Susan noticed. The redheaded girl winked at Hermione who glanced down at her homework to try and hide the blush rising in her cheeks.

**TBC :)**


	7. Mirror Charms

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The inspiration for this chapter was an episode of the scifi show, "Smallville" in case it looks at all familiar!

"I hate this door!"

Ron, Hermione and Harry had emerged onto the landing to the common room after dinner one night to find a small crowd there. 8 people were crammed into the landing and none of them could figure out the riddle. Seamus was nursing a painful foot having just kicked the door.

Hermione sighed, "What is the riddle?" she asked.

"_A man moves into a new house. After the journey he is exhausted and turns off all the lights before going to bed. The next morning he wakes up to discover he has killed 365 people. He does not sleep walk. How could this be?"_

"Stupid door," Seamus mumbled with a glare at the door for good measure.

"I can't work out a lot of them either," Ron said to Harry who merely shrugged, "Some of them are just common sense."

"The answer is easy anyway," Hermione said, "The man lives in a lighthouse."

"Ah, clever girl!" Said Dumbledore's voice and the door swung open.

"What the hell is a lighthouse?" Asked Theo.

"It's like a muggle tower, there's a big light that helps the ships see where they're going so they don't crash into the rocks," Draco said. Quite a few people seemed surprised that he knew the answer to a muggle related question.

"Well it's a stupid riddle, how are we supposed to know about muggle towers?" Theo asked no one in particular.

Draco just shrugged and grabbed a book before getting comfy in front of the fire. Harry and Ron sat at the desks to get on with their Divination homework. Hermione however sat down next to Draco by the fire.

"I had a dream about getting chased by a murderer with an axe and it means that…" Ron trailed off in thought.

Harry finished for him, "That your life is going to be in danger from someone you consider a friend."

"Yeah that will be right if you keep flirting with Daphne in Potions," Hermione muttered from her spot next to Draco.

Harry shot his friend a brief glare and Ron grinned, "Woah, you have a thing for her Harry? Still?"

"How long have you been harbouring it for again Harry, since 6th year Potions?" Hermione teased.

Harry's cheeks had reddened and Draco smirked, "Daphne Greengrass? Good luck with that one Potter, they call her the ice queen for a reason."

"She doesn't seem that icy to me," Ron mused, "And I wasn't flirting with her for your information Hermione. I was just talking to her, she seems friendly."

"I bet she does," Hermione mumbled and Draco smiled slightly at the comment, but nobody saw this because his face was hiding behind his book.

Ron rolled his eyes, "Oh come on, you sit next to Nott and I'm not saying you're flirting with him or that Harry's flirting with Malfoy!"

Draco scoffed, "That is certainly accurate Weasel."

Harry sniggered, "The extent of our conversations are "can you pass me that armadillo bile?" and "oh by the way my Aunt told me to tell you that your Godwolfchild ate some food today"."

Draco nodded his agreement, "Precisely."

Ron shook his head, "So you and Nott then?"

"He's the Head Boy, Ron," Hermione said irritably, "We patrol together and we're friends so of course we talk in Potions."

"You're friends with a Slytherin?" Ron asked in surprise.

"Have you still not understood the point of this year?" Hermione asked hotly, "House unity, to make friends with people who aren't in our houses! Harry and I have both made new friends and you still won't talk to anyone in Slytherin!"

Ron shrugged, "Yeah well I just don't want to be friends with their lot."

"Have you ever considered that we don't want to be friends with _you _either Weasley?" Draco asked coolly.

"Stop it," Harry sighed, "Hermione's right, house unity means no arguing. Come on, we need to get on with this homework Ron.”

Ron pulled out of the argument and looked back down at his dream diary.

"I think I'll actually put one real dream in here," Harry said thoughtfully.

"You actually remember one?" Ron asked as he shut the book and put it in his bag.

Harry nodded, "Yeah, last night I had a dream that my broomstick got annoyed because I insulted it and it wouldn't work for me in the game so Slytherin won!" He seemed annoyed even as he spoke about it, he was determined that Gryffindor would win this year.

Ron laughed loudly at the dream, "What do you think it means?" he asked through his laughter.

"That you are going to crash and burn against us in the first game of the season," Draco smirked from the sofa.

"You wish Malfoy," Harry snorted.

Draco raised an eyebrow at Harry, "We'll see about that," he said as he looked back down at his book.

Harry shook his head as he pulled out his Herbology essay. Regardless of his acquaintanceship or whatever the hell it was with Draco, he wasn't going to let it get in the way of the Quidditch cup. They had been back at Hogwarts for nearly two weeks and he would be holding Quidditch trials at the weekend. He was determined to make sure he picked the best team yet, this was his final chance to watch Slytherin crash and burn after all.

"How do you know about lighthouses?" Hermione asked Draco out of the blue as she held her quill in her mouth and balanced her essay on her lap.

Draco watched her in amusement but was careful to hide his smile, "Why do you care?"

"I'm just curious," Hermione said honestly.

Draco rolled his eyes, "Nosy, more like it. Is that why your hair is so big because it's full of everyone's secrets?"

"Ugh!" Hermione exclaimed as she dropped her quill onto her essay and looked up at him, "Would you stop playing games with me Malfoy? I can't be bothered trying to figure you out! Either you really hate me and I'm wasting my time trying to become your friend or you actually like me and the only way you can think of to show it is by constantly insulting me! So which one is it?"

Draco stared at her in disbelief and the common room had gone incredibly quiet too. Hermione, in the course of her rant, had thrown her essay _and _her quill to the floor. She was standing up now with her arms crossed as she glared down at Draco.

"I have no idea what you are talking about, Granger," Draco said after a few minutes of silence. His cheeks were slightly red and he looked remarkably flustered.

"Of course you would say that," Hermione muttered irritably as she gathered up her supplies, "Because you can never just answer a question simply. I'm going to the library; I'm not playing anymore of these stupid games with you Malfoy."

Draco was silent as Hermione stalked out of the common room. The moment that she was gone everyone began to talk very loudly and Draco was advanced on by Hermione's personal bloody body guards.

"What was that about?" Harry asked.

"How am I supposed to know, Pothead?" Draco scoffed, "She's the one who lost the plot!"

"Is it true, what everyone is saying?" Ron asked with narrowed eyes, "That you like her?"

"No," Draco drawled, "And even if it was, which it _isn't_, I would hardly tell you two would I? What are you, Granger's personal bodyguards?"

"Pretty much," Harry said as his hand gripped his wand. Draco paled slightly at the motion.

"Leave Hermione alone," Ron said hotly.

"I barely even talk to her,” Draco remarked as he slung his bag over his shoulder, "But I have better things to do than stand around talking to you two idiots anyway."

Harry and Ron didn't stop him as he walked swiftly up to his dormitory.

"Do you think he has a thing for Hermione?" Ron asked Harry.

"I dunno," Harry replied honestly, "I mean all he's ever done is insult her. It would be a bit out of the blue if he did, wouldn't it?"

"Nope," Susan said as she popped up behind them.

Ron raised an eyebrow at her, "Do you eavesdrop on everyone's conversations or just ours?"

"It's not my fault that you two oafs speak so loudly," Susan said matter of factly, "And it wouldn't be out of the blue. He insulted her because it was the only way he could think of to show her he liked her. It's weird I know, but this is Draco Malfoy. He didn't exactly have a conventional upbringing, his Dad is a complete dickhead."

Ron snorted in amusement, and Harry asked, "How come you know all of this, Susan?"

"My Aunt was friends with his Mother," Susan said offhandedly, "I went to a lot of the little shits birthday parties when we were younger as a result. He was spoiled rotten which probably didn't help but he copied everything his Dad did."

"So you think he does like Hermione?" Ron asked.

"Probably," Susan replied.

"But Hermione doesn't like him," Ron said again, as he had when they had vaguely discussed this before.

Susan smirked, "You're still holding a torch for her so of course that's what you want to believe but she comes back with insults just as good as his. She also goes out of her way to talk to him despite his insults, I think she might well like him."

Harry scoffed at that, "No offence Susan but you barely know Hermione. We've known her for years, there's no way she likes Draco Malfoy."

"Whatever you say," Susan winked before disappearing once more.

"She's a bit odd," Ron said with a slight frown, "Reminds me of Luna."

"Yeah," Harry said distractedly, "You don't think she's right do you?"

"Nah," Ron said, "Definitely not. Like you said, why would Hermione like Malfoy?"

***

Draco and Hermione did not sit together in any classes which was probably a good thing because of how icy the air around them had been since Hermione's rather public rant on Wednesday evening. Ron and Harry hadn't asked her about it because she had seemed to calm down and they didn't want to make her kick off again. It certainly didn't seem like Draco and Hermione liked each other, all they seemed to do was glare at each other when they passed in the common room or in the hallways, they had both been giving the other the silent treatment.

Even Draco had been talking to Harry less in Potions over the last few days. The icy air was still there on Friday afternoon in their last class of the day, Charms. It had begun as a very normal lesson and had descended into chaos as things only could at Hogwarts.

"Today we will be performing mirror charms," squeaked Professor Flitwick. Thankfully in Charms they had also been allowed to sit where they wanted which meant the awkward air surrounding Draco and Hermione had temporarily dissipated. As they sat in the class they each had a rat on the table in front of them and Flitwick continued, "The mirror charm creates a mirror image of something. For example, the use of a mirror charm on your rat should mirror it so that it faces the other way."

Everyone had starting talking and to some of the class the end of his speech was drowned out so Flitwick raised his voice, "However! If the mirror charm is used on humans it can have strange effects so please be careful!"

The room was loud as usual and full of flashes of lights, bangs and the smell of burning and smoke as charms went wrong. The trio were talking under their breath about plans to have a party on Saturday night after Harry had picked his Quidditch team, so that they could christen their new common room. Harry was in the middle of telling Ron about how they should sneak out to Hogsmeade and smuggle some butterbeer back into the castle when the chaos began.

At the front of the classroom Mandy and Annie screamed, their mirror charms had bounced off an actual mirror as Annie fixed her hair. With a loud bang three jets of purple light rocketed around the room before eventually hitting three people. Those three people happened to be Draco Malfoy, Harry Potter and Hermione Granger who heard screams of panic and fear and then felt and heard nothing…

***

_Draco Malfoy opened his eyes to nothing but a dull grey fog. As he squinted the fog began to clear and the place he was standing in became recognizable. This was Kings cross station. It was duller than he remembered, yet still in colour. It was as if he was in a memory but he couldn't have accidentally fallen into a pensieve. Draco frowned as he walked around the crowded station, he was walking right through people. This couldn't be real but then if it wasn't real and it wasn't a memory, what was it?_

_"BOY! Hurry up or you'll miss your train to freak school!"_

_Draco turned at the voice and saw a man he was distantly related to. He was a muggle cousin that his Father had pretended hadn't existed. Standing with this man was Draco himself, or at least a small 11-year-old version of himself who looked terrified of the Muggle man. The image dissolved and the fog once again obscured everything, just as it would in a pensieve when memories were being recalled. Yet this couldn't be what this was, because these were not his own memories, they couldn't have been. When the fog cleared once more Draco found himself standing in the Great Hall waiting to be sorted. His name was called out and he sat on the stool. He waited for the hat to shout out 'Slytherin!' as he remembered, but instead it placed him in Gryffindor._

_"What the hell…" Draco muttered as the scene changed again. It was now a dark stormy night and a hooded man was walking up a pathway. Draco instantly recognised the path, with its high primly trimmed hedges. He frowned and hurried after the hooded figure as it walked up the path towards Malfoy Manor. The man reached the house and broke through the wards with ease. He walked into the hall where he was pulled into a duel with Draco's father. It did not last long and the hooded figure then killed his Father. Draco cried out but no one heard him and in extreme confusion he followed the figure, who by this point he could only assume was Lord Voldemort, upstairs to Draco's own childhood bedroom. He watched in shock as his Mother used herself as a shield and was killed for doing so. He was beyond crying out because he had now worked out that nobody could hear him. He stood, frozen to the spot, as the man attempted to kill the baby version of himself but failed._

_With a jolt Draco realised that this wasn't his life, these memories were not his own. They were Harry Potter's and this revelation caused him to remember what had happened before he had blacked out. A mirror charm had bounced off in all directions and one of those beams had hit him. This charm was showing him a mirror image of his life, it was showing him how his life would have been if **he **had been the boy-who-lived._

_The scene changed again and this time when the fog cleared there was a battle going on. It was surreal for Draco to see Harry Potter in the midst of it in Death Eater robes but that was exactly what he saw. The battle was raging in the Great Hall and in the centre of it was himself battling Lord Voldemort and ultimately defeating him._

_When Voldemort crumbled to the ground Draco watched himself run to his 'friends'. He hugged Ron Weasley and kissed Hermione Granger. The former made his stomach churn and the latter did something entirely different to his stomach but he refused to call it butterflies. Draco shook his head in disbelief and wished that he could get back to his own life. He was unsure if it was part of the spell or not but it clearly worked because the scene slowly started to dissolve with the image of himself and Hermione kissing burned into his brain. _

He tried to push it away as he heard muttering around him. Draco opened his eyes to find himself in the hospital wing with Daphne and Theo talking in undertones around his bed.

"Draco!" Daphne exclaimed, "Are you alright?"

"Ugh!" Draco said, shaking his head to rid himself of the memory, "I was Potter!"

"What?" Theo asked looking utterly perplexed.

"I had some weird vision or something…" Draco said with a frown as he tried to recall, "I was Potter. Voldemort killed my parents and I lived with muggles then I killed Voldemort…It was like Potter's life was my life."

"You were hit with a mirror charm," Daphne informed him, "Professor Flitwick said it would mess with your head and show you an alternate universe. That's obviously what happened."

Draco was quiet for a moment and Theo got up to leave, citing that he had only stayed because Daphne was worried about him. When they were alone Draco turned to Daphne and said quietly, "Don't tell anyone that I'm saying this but after seeing that I feel sorry for Potter."

Daphne looked sympathetic, "I know how you feel, when you find out someone else has had a crappy life too you kind of have to relate."

"Exactly," Draco said, glad that Daphne understood. He glanced to his right where Harry and Hermione lay unconscious, Ginny and Ron were sitting nearby, talking amongst themselves.

"They haven't woken up yet," Daphne explained, "Madam Pomfrey says you'll wake up in the order you got hit so Granger should be next."

"I wonder whats happening inside their heads…" Draco muttered as he looked at the two sleeping figures.

***

_When Hermione Granger opened her eyes she wasn't in the Charms classroom as she last remembered. She was at Platform 9 ¾ with her parents who were dressed in robes which implied that they were magical. But she knew that couldn't be right because they were Muggles, they were dentists._

_"Have a good year at Hogwarts darling," said her Mother._

_"You'll be in Slytherin just like us, I expect!" said her Father._

_Hermione frowned deeply as her 11-year-old self hugged her Mother and kissed her Father on the cheek before getting onto the Hogwarts Express where she immediately found a compartment with none other than Draco Malfoy._

_Before Hermione could figure out what was going on fog obscured the scene like it would in a memory. When it cleared she saw herself getting sorted into Slytherin rather than Gryffindor. Her confusion mounted but she knew this wasn't real as her 11-year-old self rushed over to the Slytherin table and sat down next to Draco._

_When the fog obscured her vision once more, the scene changed again. This time she was in the Slytherin common room, watching herself with Draco. They looked to be around 5th year, he was sitting on the sofa and she was lying with her head in his lap._

_"He think he owns this school," Draco said saying, "Harry Potter, with his fancy broomsticks and his worldwide fame."_

_"Calm down Draco," Hermione said, “He's hated by practically everybody this year."_

_"Potter the plotter," Draco sniggered, "Genius, I should shake the hand of whoever wrote that newspaper article."_

_Hermione realised how unsettling it was to watch Draco talk to her and stroke her hair affectionately. She had cottoned on to what this was, the mirror charm was showing her a mirror image of her life. Had she born into a pureblood family this is how things could have gone. She had effectively taken Pansy's place and for some insane reason she felt jealous in a way. Hermione wasn't stupid of course, she understood her own emotions better than a lot of people and she knew that she had conflicting feelings for Draco Malfoy. She always had, in ways she found him admirable, she was attracted to his intelligence, and yes to his sarcastic nature and his wit too because he could challenge her and she could snark back without it causing an argument as it would with Ron. But in other ways he was arrogant and nasty and he didn't think about how hurtful his words could be. He was dangerous, he could and he had hurt people but ultimately underneath it all was a good person, Hermione just had no idea how to get that person to come out._

_In the alternative reality, Draco leant down and kissed her and her stomach did flips. Hermione cursed herself because this wasn't real and it could never be real even if she wanted it to be._

_She was grateful when the fog obscured the vision and transported her somewhere else. This time she saw herself duelling Dawlish in the final battle. She was wearing black robes and Slytherin colours and the Auror was far superior to her. She was hit by a killing curse that had been misfired by a nearby Death Eater and she fell to the ground, this caused the fog to obscure everything for a final time._

With a gasp Hermione's eyes shot open in the real world and she breathed a sigh of relief when she saw the ceiling of the hospital wing come into focus.

"You're awake," Ron said in relief, "Are you okay?"

"Fine," Hermione said weakly, "That was just…very surreal."

"What happened?" Ginny frowned, "You were sort of thrashing around like you were having a nightmare."

Hermione took a deep breath as the two redheads came into focus. She was about to launch into an explanation when somebody else spoke.

"It's some kind of alternate reality," Daphne's voice said from where she was sitting next to Draco, "The mirror charm shows you a parallel reality to your own."

"That makes sense," Hermione said as her head finally began to clear and she felt back to normal, "It shows you an image of what could have been if a few things were different."

Daphne nodded and Ginny asked, "So what did you see then, Hermione?"

"I was a pureblood…I went to Hogwarts and got sorted into Slytherin…and I…" Hermione trailed off, a faint blush crawling up her cheeks, "…I was dating Malfoy."

Draco peered around Daphne to look at Hermione, "In mine I was best friends with Weasel and dating you Granger. It was clearly a _very _parallel world."

Hermione nodded, fighting her blush and trying to ignore the look that Ginny was giving her, "Clearly," she said quickly.

Ginny raised an eyebrow at her friend and Ron was still frowning at the fact Hermione had dated Draco in the parallel world.

"I wonder what's going on inside Potter's head," Daphne voiced.

"Well, if what you say is true and these alternate worlds are completely parallel to our own…Then I expect Harry will probably envision himself as a pureblood and a Slytherin, much like Malfoy," Hermione reasoned as she too looked at her unconscious best friend.

"I don't envy him if that's the case," Draco said quietly so that only Daphne could hear. He lay back against his pillows, feeling like he had run a marathon.

"Do you reckon there will be any long term damage?" Ron asked Hermione in particular.

Hermione shook her head but Daphne answered, "I doubt it. Flitwick did say that when mirror charms are used on people they're like some sort of bad trip. So you guys will probably feel awful for a couple of hours but nothing more."

"How does Flitwick know what a bad trip feels like?" Ron asked in amusement.

Daphne grinned, "I did wonder that, when I asked he just said he was a younger man in the 60's."

Draco chortled at that and even Hermione smiled slightly, "So much for a drama free year."

"This stuff always happens to you lot," Draco remarked, "And I try to be nice to Potter a couple times then get caught up in it."

Daphne rolled her eyes at him, "You've hardly been nice to anyone since we came back to school. You've just been slightly less nasty than normal so go to sleep and wake up in a better mood," she ordered.

Draco grumbled but decided to try and get to sleep anyway; he did feel awful after all…

***

_The moment Harry Potter opened his eyes he knew that something was very wrong. The first sign of this was that everything was too bright. The second sign was that he didn't remember how he got here and he didn't even know where 'here' was._

_After a minute or two his eyes had adjusted to the new lighting conditions and Harry realised that he was in the back garden of the house that he had lived in at Godric's Hollow. The grass was green, the sky was blue and the sun was beating down into the garden._

_Harry frowned as he heard laughter from inside the house. Moments later three teenagers emerged from the house, all of them wearing shorts and t-shirts and holding water guns. Amongst these three teenagers was himself but he looked very different. Harry's face was the same shape and his eyes the exact same shape, size and emerald green colour. However, this Harry had jet black hair that stopped at his shoulders but was styled and wet from the water fight that had obviously just happened._

_The other two teenagers were Draco Malfoy and Pansy Parkinson which in itself was entirely not right and didn't make an ounce of sense. Harry watched in bewilderment as this other him grabbed Pansy around the waist and kissed her while Draco jeered and sprayed them with water._

_What the hell was going on here?_

_"Are you kids' hungry?" Called an amused voice from the house._

_Harry watched in disbelief as his Mother walked out of the house. Her long red hair was pulled back into a ponytail and she was carrying a tray of food and lemonade. She levitated it with her wand and set it down on the garden table. She smiled fondly at them all, "Harry your Father is going to be home a little late tonight but he promised to make your birthday party,'" Lily said before she returned to the house._

_"So that's you 17 now mate," Draco said as he took a sandwich off the tray, "You're officially a man now."_

_Pansy giggled from where she was sitting on Harry's knee, "He's already a man," she said suggestively. Draco rolled his eyes and told them to get a room._

_The scene then began to fade away as a mysterious fog obscured it. Harry realised what must be happening. This was sort of like a pensieve but these weren't memories, they couldn't be memories because none of this had ever happened. Harry therefore concluded that this was some kind of illusion, a hallucination of sorts. It was then that he remembered the mirror charm that had hit him and for a moment he wondered if this was what his life would have been like if he had taken Draco's hand on the train to Hogwarts in 1st year._

_Then again, why would his parents still be alive? And why did he look different? The fog cleared away and the next scene came into focus. It was now dark and there were lanterns and real fairies lighting a long table in the back garden of the Godric's Hollow house. At the table Harry recognised Remus Lupin as well as Lucius and Narcissa Malfoy. His Mother sat at the end of the table with a vacant seat next to her._

_"He promised to be here Harry," Lily said with a sigh, "He mentioned something about an ex-Death Eater that they needed to find."_

_So James was still an Auror then, Harry realised._

_A pop came from the gate and Lily turned around with a smile, "Here he is!"_

_Lily hurried over to the gate and wrapped her arms around the man who had walked in wearing a thick travelling cloak, “I was so worried when you mentioned old Death Eaters!” Lily said as she pulled the hood on his cloak down and kissed him lightly on the lips._

_The man smiled, "I told you I was fine," said Severus Snape._

_Harry's jaw dropped as he watched the man kiss his Mother and smile at her like that. In this odd little world his Mother had fallen for Snape…this is how his life would have been if she had chosen Snape instead. They would have lived…Well of course they would have. Snape would never have heard the prophecy so Voldemort would never have killed the Potter's and if he was with Lily he wouldn't have joined the Death Eaters. But then who would kill Voldemort? Who would be the boy-who-lived? Could it have been Neville? _

_"I'm sorry I nearly missed his birthday Lil, but I promised I'd be back. It's not every day your only child comes of age," Severus said as he discarded the cloak and walked over to Harry._

_"Dad!" Harry exclaimed when he saw him, he jumped up and hugged the man he was calling Dad and a little part of Harry sort of wished for this easier, happier life, "I've not seen you all week."_

_"I know Harry I'm sorry, the mission was a difficult one but I made it back for your birthday, just like I promised," Severus said and with a grin he handed Harry a present, it was a small box and when he opened it he found a watch inside, "It was mine when I was your age, but it's yours now."_

_Harry put the watch on his wrist happily and hugged Severus once more with a, "Thanks Dad!"_

_Harry was so completely gob smacked that he didn't notice the scene was changing until it completely had. He felt sick at the sight of his Mother and Snape but he longed for the idyllic simple life that they would have had. All the same Harry would never switch his life for simplicity because everything that had happened had made him the person that he was._

_In the new scene Harry was now at Hogwarts. He was in a Defence against the Dark Arts classroom with a man that had to be an older James Potter. He was wearing glasses and his hair was as messy as ever but he had lost his boyish good looks and seemed slightly gaunt now._

_"Mr. Snape," Said James very unpleasantly to Harry who was sitting at the front of the class and looked to be around 7th year age now, "I have had enough of your cheek. You are just as stubborn as your Father was, detention with me on Friday!"_

_The bell rang and an annoyed Harry stomped off with Draco, "I hate him so much," Harry was saying to Draco who seemed to be his Ron in this warped version of his life._

_"I know," Draco was saying with a glance behind him, "He's hated you since he first saw you. He's just a bitter bastard Harry, no one likes him."_

_"But he hates me most of all," Harry said bitterly, "And he's so biased! He's always giving his precious Gryffindors points."_

_"Yeah well he is head of Gryffindor," Draco said with an amused grin._

_Harry growled irritably, "I'm going to go talk to Dad, I'll meet you in the great hall."_

_"Okay, see you!" Draco called as Harry diverted towards the dungeons. Harry followed himself as he walked through the dark corridors into Severus Snape's office._

_Severus looked up with a smile when his son walked in, Harry found this incredibly surreal to watch, "Ah, Harry, come to complain?" He asked fondly._

_"Yes!" Harry exclaimed as he slammed the door in annoyance._

_"Sometimes I think my job at the Ministry was easier than this one," Severus muttered jokingly as Harry began to pace the office._

_"Professor Potter hates me!"_

_"Yes, he does," Severus said thoughtfully._

_"He's hated me since he first saw me!" Harry added._

_"You're quite right," said Severus ever so casually._

_"For no reason!" Harry exploded._

_"Well you know there is a reason," Severus said as he gave an essay a D and placed it aside, "He hates you because you remind him of me and I'm the man who married the woman he was in love with."_

_"Yeah well he's an idiot," Harry said weakly and real Harry was watching this scene with mixed feelings. Severus and James had literally switched roles here and while Harry had half wished for this life he didn't like the fact that his Father was bitter and alone now because Severus had gotten Lily. Did that mean that James had become a Death Eater? Surely not._

_"Yes, James Potter is indeed an idiot," Severus said as he put his quill down and stood up, "Shall we go get some dinner?” he asked._

_Harry sighed, "Sure," he said as they left the office together._

_"Don't tell your Mother that I called him an idiot by the way. You know how she is," Severus said. Laughter echoed around the room as the scene faded away and Harry sat up with a jolt._

When he opened his eyes his breathing was incredibly heavy and he was clearly in the hospital wing at Hogwarts. He had known it wasn't real but for a dream it had been very vivid and realistic.

"Snape was my Dad…" Harry said in disbelief, more to himself than anything else.

A voice from his left said dryly, "And I thought mine was bad."

Harry turned to see Draco propped up in the bed next to his. It was quite dark outside and the hospital wing was lit by the gas lamps on the walls. By the quietness Harry assumed that visiting hours were over, the only people here were patients. Including Hermione who was sound asleep in the bed to Harry's right.

"What?" Harry asked Draco in confusion.

"Daphne said that the mirror charms that hit us made us have some kind of vision of an alternate world completely parallel to our own," Draco said matter of factly.

Harry wiped the sweat from his forehead and was glad that he had finally gotten his breathing under control now, "Well my Mum married Severus Snape instead of my Dad and they didn't die. I was a Slytherin…" Harry trailed off, "You were my best friend, Pansy was my girlfriend and my real Dad was the DADA Professor who hated me for being Snape's son!"

"Yeah, that's pretty fucked up," Draco agreed as he threw a bar of Honeydukes chocolate at Harry, "It was a tip from Weaslette, but it works."

Harry was too exhausted to tell Draco off for insulting his friend. He simply opened the chocolate bar and bit into. He sighed as the instant calming effect began to work its magic.

"What was your vision about?" Harry asked the Slytherin curiously.

"The opposite of yours pretty much," Draco said thoughtfully, "My parents were killed by Voldemort, I was raised by muggles and I was a Gryffindor,” he looked rather disgusted just saying those words, “And as if that wasn't bad enough Weasley was my best friend and I was dating Granger."

"So in some respects…we switched lives," Harry said slowly.

Draco nodded, "It seems so," he reasoned.

"In some ways I pity you and in others I envy you," Draco said honestly.

"I get why you'd feel sorry for me," Harry frowned, "The whole dead parents, abusive Muggles thing. But why would you envy me?"

Draco's eyes remained firmly fixed on his hands as he spoke, "You had some semblance of a family in the Weasley's. I may have had a real family but it didn't often feel like that."

"Your Mother seems nice," Harry frowned, "From the fact she saved my life in the war and from what Andromeda's told me."

"My Mother is nice," Draco said quietly, "But she wasn't always that way. When she was under the Imperius Curse things were different."

Harry looked sharply at Draco, "She was under the Imperius Curse?"

"For spells of time when my Father thought she was being problematic," Draco replied darkly, "For the majority of the war in fact. My Father is a difficult man to hate and a difficult man to forgive, Potter. He never used the unforgivables on me personally but he took my Mother away from me during periods of my life when I needed a Mother. He turned a blind eye when his Death Eater friends tortured me with the Cruciatus Curse and he just stood by and watched whenever the dark…whenever _Voldemort _did it."

"He did it more than once?" Harry asked quietly.

Draco nodded, he had not yet looked up from his hands, "I was 15 the first time. He punished my parents for their mistakes by torturing me. It was a standard practice of his."

"I'm so sorry, Malfoy," Harry said honestly, "I thought you were just this smarmy little git. I never thought about why you were acting that way."

Draco just shrugged and they fell into silence again. However, after a few minutes Harry said, "Why did you tell me all of that? What happened to us not being friends and not sharing?"

Draco frowned and looked up, "Seeing that today…it made me realise how similar we are Potter. I don't think I can carry on with the act. I've been too proud to admit that I need a friend…and that I want one."

Harry smiled slightly, Andromeda had been perfectly right about one thing anyway, that was for sure. Draco _did _need a friend and Godric knew Harry needed a change.

"Well I'll metaphorically shake your hand," Harry smiled, "In response to your offer of friendship in 1st year."

Draco smiled very slightly, "Better late than never," he joked weakly.

** _TBC! :)_ **


	8. The Concept of Reality

Harry, Draco and Hermione were allowed out of the hospital wing on Saturday morning, just in time for breakfast. Harry was incredibly relieved because he was holding Quidditch try-outs as of 10am that day and there was no way he was missing such a big, important day.

As they ate breakfast Harry filled Ron and Hermione in on his strange vision and Ron said that he was just glad that it hadn't hit him. Harry glared at the Gryffindor girl whose mirror had triggered the whole thing but if Annie noticed she didn't seem to care. Harry and Ron were both dressed in their Quidditch gear and Hermione had wrapped up in warm clothes so she could go and watch and be a supportive friend.

When they finished breakfast they all headed out to the pitch together and Hermione sat down in one of the stands, propping open her book on her lap. She had barely gotten any reading done as the bench shifted from someone sitting down next to her.

Hermione narrowed her eyes at the blonde girl who had joined her, "Are you spying?"

"Yes," Daphne Greengrass replied honestly, "Draco sent me to scope out Potter's Quidditch team."

"Well at least your honest about it," Hermione said irritably.

"You don't like me very much, do you Granger?" Daphne asked conversationally.

"I don't know you very well," Hermione said honestly, "And you did just admit to spying on my best friend."

"Spying on your best friend for my best friend, yes," Daphne said in amusement, "But it's better that I'm here than Draco or another of his cronies. I'll only pass on the odd piece of information. Somebody else would probably spill all."

"So why won't you?" Hermione asked suspiciously, "Surely you want Slytherin to win the Quidditch Cup too?"

"Yes, I do," Daphne agreed, "But I want us to win fairly, not because we used blackmail and spied on the opposition. What are you reading?"

Hermione frowned, "Oh, just a Muggle book," she said as she hid the front cover of the leather bound book.

Daphne had already seen what it was though, "Interesting," she said, "_"Pride and Prejudice." _It's about a man and a woman who love each other but can't be together isn't it?"

Hermione glanced at the blonde girl in surprise, "Not exactly. Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth Bennett are the two main characters. Everyone views Darcy as this romantic figure but in reality he's proud and condescending. Elizabeth sees how cold and horrible he is so she dislikes him at first."

"But they fall in love, right?" Daphne said with a raised eyebrow, "They always do in Muggle literature. It's awfully romantic in tone."

"Not all of the time," Hermione argued, "And I certainly wouldn't call Pride and Prejudice entirely romantic. After treating Elizabeth horribly, Darcy tells her out of the blue that he's in love with her and begs her to marry him. He cares so much about status and even though he claims to love her he insults her for her inferior position and her family's lack of status and money, but he still seems to think she'll say yes. She's stubborn though and she rejects him."

"You don't seem that keen on this Darcy guy," Daphne pointed out.

Hermione shrugged, "He does redeem himself, he explains the actions that made Elizabeth dislike him and she has to admit that she misjudged him and that she was wrong. He's nicer after that and Elizabeth finally admits that she's attracted to him. A lot of people think that Elizabeth is beneath Darcy but in the end they have their happily-ever-after."

Daphne was smirking slightly by the time Hermione had finished speaking.

"What?" Hermione asked self-consciously.

"Oh, just thinking," Daphne said, her smirk fixed on her face, “About that book of yours. Mr. Darcy is proud, arrogant, condescending and cares too much about status."

"And?" Hermione asked as she looked down at her book.

"And I think we both know somebody exactly like that," Daphne said matter of factly, "A certain blonde haired arsehole...goes by the name of Draco Malfoy."

Hermione frowned, "There are some similarities, I suppose."

"I'd say there were more than some," Daphne said slyly, "Elizabeth you said her name was? She was headstrong, beneath Darcy in status and constantly quarrelled with him...now that sounds _very _familiar."

A blush rose in Hermione's cheeks, "I don't know what you are insinuating-"

"Oh come on Granger, don't play games," Daphne chuckled, "You're twice as intelligent as I am. You know exactly what I am insinuating. That book is faded, the pages are ragged. It's clearly old and you've clearly read it several times. It reminds you of Draco, the entire situation reminds you of how you are a Muggle-born and he's a pureblood. Although none of that matters very much anymore."

Hermione was frowning but remained silent as Daphne spoke.

"Combined with the fact that both of you were dating each other in your parallel visions the other day after that mirror charm backfired...well I think, rather like Elizabeth Bennett, you're going to have to admit to yourself sometime soon that you are attracted to Draco Malfoy," Daphne finished.

Hermione's grip on her book tightened, "Is it that obvious?"

"Not to everyone," Daphne said with a slight smile, "But to those of us who pay attention, yes."

"Do you think Harry and Ron know?" Hermione asked as she chewed her lip anxiously.

"Merlin, no," Daphne laughed as she looked out at the two boys who were now flying around the pitch, "Weasley is totally clueless. Potter is a little more perceptive but not when it comes to romance it seems."

"Do you think _he _knows?" Hermione asked as she turned back to Daphne.

The blonde girl turned to Hermione and her eyes sparkled mischievously, "If Draco knew, you would know about it by now, trust me," she said as she got to her feet, "Let him work out how he feels about you first. Although that could take a lifetime without any nudging."

Hermione nodded weakly and Daphne smirked at her again as she raised a finger to her lips, "I was never here."

***

"Have you picked your team then?"

"I'm thinking it over, I'll tell them tomorrow," Harry said offhandedly as he, Ron and Hermione walked back to the school together.

"But I'm on it, right?" Ron asked.

Harry smirked, "Maybe, you'll have to wait till tomorrow like everybody else."

"I'm your best mate!" Ron retorted.

Harry grinned, "Just kiddin', yeah of course you're the keeper."

Ron grinned and hi-fived his best friend. Hermione shook her head at them but she was smiling too.

"Why were you talking to Daphne Greengrass earlier?" Harry asked in what he clearly thought was a casual tone of voice.

"Oh, I was just telling her about your massive crush on her," Hermione said matter of factly, and Ron roared with laughter at the look on Harry's face.

"What?"

"I'm kidding, she was spying on you for Malfoy," Hermione said in amusement, "Apparently he wanted to see how good your team were looking."

"Well it's good to know he's that concerned," Harry said with a grin, "If he's sending people to spy on us he clearly thinks we're good competition."

"And we will be," Ron said with a fervent nod, "Once you've picked the team!"

***

"So, who are you picking for the team?"

"Why don't you ask Greengrass since you sent her to spy earlier?" Harry retorted as Draco walked up to him in the common room.

"She won't tell me," Draco said irritably, "Apparently she has a moral compass all of a sudden. I've no idea why."

Harry smirked, "Godric forbid one of your cronies develops a moral compass. Well the fact you felt the need to send her says it all really Malfoy. You're worried that my team are going to be amazing this year and that we're going to beat you. And you're right to be worried."

Draco rolled his eyes, "Oh, I doubt it. I heard rumours Weasel King and Fatbottom were on your team."

Harry narrowed his eyes at the blonde, "They are and we're still going to kick your arse."

He had worked out his dream team. He was the star seeker, of course. Ron was the Keeper and he figured that he'd have lost his pre-Quidditch nerves after all he had done in the war. His key chaser was Ginny, no surprises there really. His other two chasers were Dennis Creevey and Natalie McDonald. As for beaters, surprisingly Neville and Seamus had excelled in that field.

"Potter, are you daydreaming about Quidditch?"

Harry was aware that he had rather rudely zoned out during his conversation with Malfoy. When he snapped back to reality the Slytherin was looking at him in amusement.

"Uh, yes," Harry said sheepishly.

Draco sniggered, "I thought so. You had a look on your face that indicated that you were either thinking of Quidditch or women."

Harry's face flushed and he felt rather hot all of a sudden, "Whatever, I mean it Malfoy. My team is going to trample all over your team this year."

***

"Right, what potion are we supposed to be making today?"

Draco smirked and replied, "It's called an "Alternis Mundi" potion," he informed Harry, "When you drink it, you are shown how your how your life would be different if you had made one decision differently. Slughorn told us not to try and sneak any out because it can drive a person insane seeing what would be different but knowing they can't change it."

That made Harry a little contemplative, truthfully if he could make one decision differently he didn't know what it would be. He had messed up more than once in his short lifetime and he didn't really know what he classed as his biggest mistake or misjudgement. He supposed it would have to be what happened in 5th year, he wouldn't have believed Voldemort and gone to the ministry and Sirius wouldn't have died. What would have been different if his Godfather had lived? Would he have perished in the final battle anyway? Or would he still be here today, would Harry be living with him in Grimmauld place? These were all silly questions as he knew there was no way to bring Sirius back. As he so often did in Potions Harry had been daydreaming and hadn't noticed Draco brewing both his potion and Harry's. The loud crash of Ron dropping all of his potion implements on the floor made him jerk suddenly and the unfinished potion spilled all over Draco and himself. The last thing Harry heard was Slughorn yelling anxiously and then a large white flash blinded him.

When the light appeared to have dimmed Harry opened his eyes and looked at Draco who was now standing on his left, the Slytherin looked utterly bewildered and Harry didn't entirely blame him as he looked around at his surroundings. They were still in Hogwarts, in the very classroom they had been in before but it was empty and wrecked. Cauldrons were lying upturned with old potions going off on the floor as they had clearly been spilled and not cleared up.

"What the hell just happened?" Harry asked cautiously as he stood glued to the spot in the middle of the room.

Draco had a small frown on his face, "I have a hunch but I hope it's wrong."

"Why?" Harry asked cautiously as he stepped out of the classroom into the deserted corridor.

Draco followed and said to his Gryffindor friend, "The potion wasn't finished so I'm wondering if this could be some alternate world we're stuck in."

Harry gulped, he was thinking about Sirius and his 'what if' as the potion had spilled. Draco noticed the look on his face and he narrowed his eyes at the boy who lived, "Potter," he said slowly, "What did you do?"

Harry bit his lip, "I was thinking about my 'what if' when the potion spilled," he admitted to the Slytherin who groaned and began to walk along the dungeon corridor.

"May I be so bold as to ask what your 'what if' was?" Draco asked.

"I was wondering how things would be different if my Godfather hadn't died in 5th year," Harry said, and for some reason he was slightly embarrassed to admit that.

"Well, I'd say there is a high chance that this is some distorted reality that your imagination has thought up about your Godfather, so this could be...interesting," Draco said, looking slightly amused, a little exasperated and frankly, worried.

Harry trailed along behind Draco as they made their way along the corridor, he wasn't sure what to expect in this version of Hogwarts but he had a strange feeling about this place. The two of them were silent as they made their way along the corridor and then suddenly a muffled noise stopped them in their tracks as they got to the last corridor in the maze of the dungeon corridors that led to the entrance hall.

"What was that?" Harry whispered as he looked at Draco with wide eyes.

This only caused the Slytherin to raise his eyebrows, "You defeated Voldemort and you wet your pants at the sound of one little noise, seriously?"

Harry glared at Draco, "I'm not scared!" He said indignantly and Draco just sniggered as another muffled noise came from their left.

"It's coming from that cupboard," Harry whispered as he pointed to the broom closet at the end of the corridor.

"Well, open it then," Draco said, raising an eyebrow at Harry, "To prove that you aren't scared of course."

Harry shot the Slytherin another glare and edged closer to the closet just in time to hear a muffled scream, worrying that someone was being hurt in there he blasted the door open with his wand. However, there was nothing incriminating in there, just two students who were half-clothed and who screeched in surprise before darting off towards the depths of the dungeons.

"Nothing too scary then," Draco said with a raised eyebrow at Harry.

"Come on, let's just go check out the Great Hall," Harry said with a frown, "I've got a weird feeling about this version of Hogwarts."

"I've no idea how your Godfather living could affect an entire school," Draco pointed out dryly but he followed Harry upstairs into the entrance hall anyway. It looked relatively normal, there didn't seem to be anything massively out of place anyway. They were cautious as they walked into the Great Hall which also looked the same, apart from a few pretty major differences, mostly the staff of the Head Table.

At the front of the hall, in the Headmasters seat sat none other than his Godfather, Sirius Black. He knew this must be in his imagination and not a true depiction of an alternate universe because in what universe would anyone allow Sirius Black to prune the minds of young people? He wasn't in traditional robes; he was instead wearing what appeared to be _leather _robes. He had replaced the chair that Dumbledore had sat in with his own. It looked suspiciously like a throne and as Sirius lounged on it casually he looked incredibly like a king.

Harry was torn between rolling his eyes in disbelief and bursting out with laughter.

"Is that your Godfather?" Draco asked in disbelief.

"Uh...yes," Harry replied sheepishly.

"Fantastic," Draco muttered dryly.

Harry glanced at the rest of the staff. McGonagall, Sinistra, Hagrid and Trelawney were all there. But so was Remus Lupin and Harry's stomach churned with guilt when he saw him sitting next to Sirius.

"Potter," Draco said quietly, "This has got to all be a figment of your imagination, right?"

"Right," Harry said, "Because the potion wasn't finished and the only place where Sirius Black could ever be Headmaster of Hogwarts is in my imagination."

"Interesting," Draco smirked, "Because if this is your imagination then it clearly shows certain inclinations of yours."

Harry frowned, "Uh, what are you talking about Malfoy?"

"I'm talking about the fact that everyone here is wearing normal school uniforms apart from Daphne Greengrass," Draco said slyly as he pointed towards the blonde Slytherin girl. Harry's cheeks began to transition very quickly towards scarlet as he realised that Draco was right. Practically everyone was dressed normally, apart from Daphne who was clad in a shorter skirt than the rest and a tighter white blouse, although in fairness that wasn't too different to her current school uniform. She pushed the boundaries of skirt length and blouse buttons but was normally caught by McGonagall and forced to either lengthen her skirts or do up another blouse button.

Harry cleared his throat, "But hang on a minute...the potion hit you as well so whatever you were thinking about at the time must have passed on to this weird...hallucination."

"Well I certainly wasn't thinking about Daphne Greengrass dressed like that," Draco said with a raised eyebrow.

Harry narrowed his eyes at the blonde boy, "What _were _you thinking about Malfoy?"

Draco blushed and opened his mouth to reply. However, before he could a very familiar face popped up next to them. Hermione Granger looked exactly as she did in real life but it was what she _did _that let them know things were different here.

"Hey Draco!" Hermione said brightly, "Where have you been? I've been looking for you all morning."

"Oh sorry, I was...busy," Draco said, completely bemused.

Hermione smiled and promptly leant up to kiss Draco. Harry's jaw dropped and Draco, although surprised, kissed the girl back. When she broke the kiss she said, "Anyway, I've got to run. This project isn't finished so I'm meeting Nev in the library. We still on for Hogsmeade tomorrow?"

"Uh, yes, of course," Draco said, he sounded very distracted.

"Great, see you later!" Hermione said with a radiant smile, before turning and leaving the hall.

"What was that?" Harry asked in disbelief.

"You tell me," Draco muttered, "This is your imagination."

"I think it must be a bit of yours too judging from _that. _What did you kiss her back for?" Harry asked.

"We've clearly replaced ourselves in this alternate world or hallucination, whatever it is," Draco remarked, "We can't act suspicious. We've got to play along with it."

"Yeah right," Harry scoffed, "You have feelings for my best friend, don't you?"

Draco shook his head in disbelief, "Feelings, for Granger? I don't think so, Potter."

"Well I'm hardly going to dream up you dating my best friend, am I?" Harry asked irritably, "_You _were clearly thinking about Hermione when that potion hit you!"

"I was not," Draco objected, "And that's not important anyway. We need to find a way to get back to our own reality."

"I thought we established that this was my imagination," Harry pointed out.

"I don't know what it is," Draco admitted, "But we must both be unconscious right now in the hospital wing. This is happening in both of our heads but we're experiencing the same situation."

"Have you ever heard of anything like that?" Harry frowned.

"I think because we got hit by the potion at the same time we're both experiencing the same thing," Draco said thoughtfully, "And hang on, were we touching?"

"Uh, yes," Harry replied, "I was trying to push you out of the way."

Draco rolled his eyes, "Trust it to be your noble heroics that got me stuck here with you."

"How is it my fault?" Harry asked defensively.

"Because since we were touching it must have bonded us temporarily. This is effectively just one big shared dream," Draco said with a frown upon his face, "So we can't get back. We just have to wait until we wake up."

"So we're stuck here," Harry realised.

"Until we wake up," Draco reiterated, "Which could be hours."

Harry opened his mouth to ask Draco what on earth they were supposed to do in that time. But before he could say anything Sirius had walked over to him and clapped him on the shoulder.

"Harry, good to see you!" Sirius said brightly, "You've been so busy this year with your N.E.W.T's and your new girlfriend you hardly ever come by my office for chats anymore. I've had to put up with Remus's company and all he ever does is read books. You'd know all about that, eh Draco!"

Draco smiled weakly, "Uh, yes," he said with a nod.

Harry was frowning slightly, his girlfriend?

"How is she anyway, Harry?" Sirius asked conversationally, "That Daphne of yours?"

The blush in Harry's cheeks began to rise again and Draco snorted in amusement as Harry said, "Oh she's fine, great actually."

"Fantastic," Sirius said cheerfully, "Do you fancy coming up for coffee? We could use a good old catch up."

Harry glanced at Draco. He couldn't really say no but Draco clearly didn't want to be abandoned in this odd dream world. Harry turned back to his Godfather and although he knew that this wasn't real he wanted that last chat with Sirius.

"Sure," Harry said.

Sirius's face brightened, "Perfect, I'll see you up there."

He walked away and Draco glared at Harry, "You can't just leave me alone here Potter! I mean, what am I supposed to do?"

"I don't know," Harry said under his breath, "It's just a dream Malfoy, you can do whatever you want. It's not like there are consequences, you'll forget it when you wake up."

Draco's eyes sparkled mischievously, "In that case I should probably take advantage of this-"

"Don't you dare go anywhere near Hermione," Harry warned.

"It's a dream Potter," Draco said, echoing his own words, "It's not like you're going to remember it long enough to curse me."

Harry cursed after the blonde man as he left the hall, wisely he did so as fast as he could. By the time Harry got to the entrance hall to make his way up to the Headmasters office Draco was out of sight. He shook his head irritably and made his way up to Sirius's office, the gargoyle was guarding the entrance however and Harry, being from an alternate universe didn't know the password.

"It's moonshine," Sirius's voice said from behind him. Harry jumped as the gargoyle moved aside.

His Godfather walked past him and Harry looked at him in surprise.

"I knew you weren't my Harry," Sirius said as he stepped onto the staircase, "I noticed something off about you the moment you spoke to me. But come on up anyway."

Harry was surprised but he stepped onto the staircase anyway and followed Sirius up to the office. When they reached it, Harry pushed the door shut behind him and surveyed the office. It looked different from the way it had looked in Dumbledore's day. There were posters of Quidditch teams and bands hanging on the walls. In addition to a desk there was a large, comfortable looking sofa.

Sirius sank into it and patted the spot next to him. Harry took the seat a little cautiously.

"How did you know it wasn't me?" Harry asked curiously.

"I could just tell something was up," Sirius said honestly, "So who are you?"

"I am Harry," Harry said with a frown, "But just not quite the Harry you think I am. I mean I don't know if this is a dream or a hallucination...but I accidentally spilled some 'what if' potion and I was thinking about you when I did. When I came to I was here and you were Headmaster of Hogwarts."

"So you're Harry from an alternate universe," Sirius grinned, "Wicked, what am I like over there then?"

"Dead," Harry frowned.

Sirius's face fell, "Really? Well, that sucks. What about Remus, was he devastated by my death?"

"Yeah," Harry said honestly, "But he got married and had a baby afterwards and…he's dead too now."

"What?" Sirius scoffed incredulously, "He moved on? How could he possibly move on after my horrific, bloody, tragic death? He waited _12 years _when I was in Azkaban."

"Yeah but when you were in Azkaban there was a chance you would get out," Harry pointed out, "And that he'd see you again. Once you were dead that was it, you weren't going to rise from the dead."

Sirius rolled his eyes, "That's not the point. Who did he marry anyway? Anyone I know?"

Harry glanced sheepishly at the man, "Uh yeah. He married a woman named Nymphadora Tonks."

"What?" Sirius barked, "My baby cousin, Nymphadora Tonks? That Nymphadora Tonks?"

"Uh, how many other Nymphadora Tonks do you know?" Harry asked in amusement, "Are you and Remus together here?"

"Yes," Sirius said somewhat huffily, "And Nymphadora Tonks is happily married to Charlie Weasley."

"Charlie's not gay?" Harry asked in surprise.

"Here he's not," Sirius said in amusement, "Is he in your universe?"

"I dunno," Harry admitted, "I always thought he was. Mind you, I always thought something was going on between you and Remus in my universe but I never officially found out and then you both died so I doubt I ever will."

"Ah you could easily enough," Sirius said in amusement, “What were you thinking about when the what if potion hit you?"

"Well it's complicated," Harry said as he glanced down, “In my universe it was basically my fault that you died. Voldemort tricked me into thinking he had you captive so I went to save you but it was a trap to lure me in. You came to save me and you were killed."

"Who killed me?" Sirius asked curiously.

"Bellatrix Lestrange," Harry replied honestly.

"Ugh," Sirius scoffed, "Always hated that bitch."

Harry smiled weakly, "So my 'what if' was basically what if I hadn't been so stupid and gotten you lured into that trap."

"And then you ended up here where I'm alive," Sirius realised, "Well in that case anything that I know that happened before my death is the same in this universe. And I happen to know that hidden in the back of your Mum and Dads vault at Gringotts is a safe, and "310780" is the passcode."

"My birthday," Harry frowned.

Sirius nodded, "There's a pensieve inside that vault. It will tell you practically anything that you want to know."

Harry's frown deepened, "But if this is happening inside my head how can you know that?"

"Because this isn't happening inside your head," Sirius said simply, "This is a genuine alternate reality. You must have had that potion finished or close to completion when it spilled. You'll remember everything when you wake up, this isn't a dream."

"If it isn't a dream, how do I get back to my own reality?" Harry frowned, "And am I still _in _my own reality?"

"Yes," Sirius replied, "In your own reality you will be unconscious. In your mind you are here but here really is a real place. You need to leave this reality to get back to your own reality though."

"Can't I just stay here?" Harry asked quietly.

Sirius smiled slightly at the boy, "I'm afraid not Harry," he said as a door at the back of the office opened and Remus walked in. He paused when he saw Sirius and Harry talking.

Sirius smiled, "Ah Remus. I'll just fill you in, this is a Harry Potter from an alternate universe. He used a 'what if' potion, I'm dead in his reality you see. I was just explaining why he couldn't stay here. Do you want to take over?"

Remus smiled kindly at Harry, "Well there are a lot of reasons. One of which is that we have our own Harry and while you are here he is not. You can't just step in and take his life, it isn't fair to him or to us, the people who love him."

Harry nodded glumly.

"And if you stay here you will die," Remus added sadly, "You are here in your mind but your body is not. Potions and spells can only keep you alive for a few months, then your body will perish in your own reality and you will disappear entirely from this one."

"Right," Harry said with a sigh, "So how do I get back to my own reality?"

"It's simple really," Sirius replied, "All you have to do is make the potion again. Be careful to make it correctly and take a sip each."

Remus nodded, "You must think of your 'what if'. Simply think "what if I woke up back in my own reality?"

"Right," Harry said with a nod, "Alright, well I have to go and find the guy I accidentally brought here with me. But...I'm glad you two are happy somewhere, even if it is in an alternate world."

Sirius smiled at the boy and hugged him, "I'm sorry that you lost so much in your own world, Harry. But it's the place you belong."

"I know," Harry said.

"But first of all," Sirius said, "When you get back to your own world, go and get that pensieve. Now, is there anything else I didn't tell you or that you want to ask me?"

Harry nodded, "There is one thing...why did you and Remus never tell me that you were together? I mean how long was this going on for?"

Remus chuckled, "Since I found out he had escaped from Azkaban, Harry."

"We didn't want to confuse you,” Sirius said with a smile, "And it was very difficult for us. Remus and I were together when we were in Hogwarts and while you were a baby. It was all very hush hush, nobody knew apart from your parents...We thought we could go back to normal after Azkaban but it wasn't that easy and we didn't want to mix you up in our mess, Harry."

"I'm sure that Sirius's death in your universe made me close up," Remus added, "And that is probably why I never told you."

"I understand that," Harry said honestly.

"Now Harry," Sirius said, "You should go."

Remus nodded, "The longer you stay here the more chance there is of the potion becoming permanent, meaning you would be stuck here until your body perished."

Harry had already gotten to his feet, "I'll go..." his eyes lingered on Sirius for a moment longer, "Goodbye Sirius."

Sirius smiled slightly as he realised what Harry was doing. He was saying the final goodbye that he never had a chance to say. The older man stepped forward and hugged him, "Goodbye Harry," he murmured.

When Harry reached the door he turned back and looked at them for a final time. Remus was now standing very close to Sirius and the darker haired man had his arm wrapped around his shoulder. It was selfish of him to want to stay here, but he had to console himself knowing that Sirius and Remus were content here. It was almost enough.

***

"Hey," Draco said as he sat down next to Hermione in the library. She was alone, even though she had said she would be meeting Neville.

"Hi," Hermione replied. She glanced around, "You're not my Draco, are you?"

Draco frowned, "I...uh-"

"No, I know you aren't," Hermione said in an undertone, "But I ran a diagnostics charm on you and you clearly _are _Draco. You just aren't anywhere near sarcastic and suave enough to be the Draco that I know."

"I'm from an alternate world, sort of," Draco frowned, "Or at least I thought I was. I thought this was just a dream but if it was a dream you wouldn't have noticed that I wasn't your Draco..."

Hermione was frowning too, "How did you get here?"

"It was a 'what if' potion," Draco said, his cheeks slightly pink as he glanced down, "In my reality you and I aren't together...and I was thinking what if we were? Then the potion spilled but it wasn't entirely finished."

"How close to finished was it?" Hermione asked in a whisper.

"Well, it was in the final stages of brewing," Draco replied.

Hermione chewed her lip slightly and Draco smiled, "I always thought it was cute when you did that."

Hermione chuckled, "Yeah? My Draco says the same thing."

"Does he also think that you're cute when you're angry?" Draco asked with a smile.

"Yes," Hermione laughed, "And I hate that he does because when I'm angry I want him to think that I'm intimidating not cute."

Draco chuckled and glanced down at the table.

"Listen, I'm going to grab a couple of books. I think I might be able to help but promise you'll stay here?" Hermione said.

Draco nodded, "Sure, I'll stay here," he promised.

Hermione smiled at him and got up to source out some books. While she was searching the shelves Draco frowned to himself. He liked the prospect of this universe, he liked the way things could have been. _Could still be_, his brain nudged. He had feelings for Hermione Granger. He had done for ages, she confused him, his feelings for her had confused him. He had admired her determination and her intelligence at first, but the fact she always had to be right had also downright annoyed him. As they got older he found her more and more beautiful and she really had taken his breath away when he saw her at the Yule Ball. She had grown into a beautiful, intelligent, logical woman over the years and Draco found himself being pulled towards her more and more. It was getting harder to push the feelings down now that they were sharing a common room and it also helped that the one person whose reaction he would seriously have feared, his Father, was in prison.

"Hey," Hermione whispered as she returned and opened up some old books. It blew dust everywhere but Hermione didn't seem to notice. Draco just watched her with a smile as she thumbed through the books and eventually stopped on an entry about the 'what if' potion which was also known as "_Alternis Mundi."_

"Okay," Hermione said calmly, "It says in here that on rare occasions the potion can partially transport someone to an alternate universe in its unfinished state. However, it may not work effectively."

Draco nodded slowly, "So when it works properly it transports the drinker to an alternate world. How do they leave that world?"

“Most of them don't," Hermione said as she glanced up at Draco, "They're driven mad by the life they could have there so they stay..."

"We could stay," Draco said, hope creeped into his voice slightly.

"No," Hermione said softly, "You can't, the potion was incomplete. In your own reality you are unconscious and this is all happening inside your head."

"Which means that if I tried to stay here my body would only function for a few months and I would die," Draco realised.

"Exactly," Hermione said as she caught his eye, "But morally you couldn't stay here anyway. If you stayed you would take the place of my Draco and I have 2 years’ worth of memories with him. I understand that in your own reality you have feelings for me but I'm not your Hermione Granger."

"And I'm not your Draco Malfoy," Draco said quietly.

Hermione nodded and put her hand on top of his, "I'm sorry but you need to go back to your own world, that's where you belong."

"I know," Draco said as he looked down at their hands, "What happened here? How did you and your Draco fall in love?"

Hermione smiled and glanced down, "Well, in our 5th year Harry had a vision from Voldemort about his Godfather being held captive. It all turned out to be fake but the ruse helped us get the Aurors to find out that Voldemort was back. A few people died, including Professor Dumbledore."

"He died at the end of our 5th year here?" Draco asked in surprise.

"Yes," Hermione replied, "And Sirius became Headmaster in his place. You told me before we left for summer that you had feelings for me and we kissed. We got together properly when we got back for 6th year."

"And did anything...odd happen that year?" Draco asked curiously.

"Not really," Hermione replied, “You were disowned when your Father found out about us and you knew you wouldn't be able to go home after 6th year. We told Ron and Harry, they accepted it after a few arguments...Harry duelled you as well but you both came out of that as badly as each other."

Draco frowned as Hermione continued, "At the end of the year Sirius called Harry up to his office and told him all about Voldemort's horcruxes. Snape was working for Dumbledore and Dumbledore had given him all of the memories he would need so that he could tell Harry what he had to do. So we left."

"I went with you?" Draco asked.

Hermione nodded again, "Yes and we found the horcruxes then returned to Hogwarts and there was a battle. Harry killed Voldemort and your Mother was killed trying to protect you...we decided to return to school for an 8th Year and your Father was sentenced to life in Azkaban."

"I wish things had happened like that where I'm from...although my Mother is alive in my world," Draco said.

Hermione didn't move her hand from where it was sitting on top of his, "What happened in your reality?"

"Well, at the end of our 5th year you, Potter, Weasley and the rest of your gang went to the ministry to save Potter's Godfather. In the battle that followed Sirius Black died and Voldemort escaped but it alerted the world to the fact that he really was back," Draco began, "Over the course of the summer I was forced to become a Death Eater and Voldemort told me that I had to kill Dumbledore or that he would kill me and my parents."

Hermione stared at him in shock, "Did you do it?"

"I tried," Draco said quietly, "My attempts were feeble...A cursed necklace and poisoned mead...but I found a vanishing cabinet that was connected to Borgin and Burkes so I tried to fix it so that I could bring Death Eaters to the school...it was all part of Voldemort's plan."

Hermione was watching him silently with a frown upon her face.

"Snape made the unbreakable vow with my Mother that he would protect me...so when it got to the point where I had to kill Dumbledore and I couldn't do it, Snape did it for me," Draco continued quietly, "That was at the end of 6th year. We had to flee the school, but then Voldemort took over and won the Ministry so the school toppled over too and Snape was made Headmaster. Muggle-borns weren't allowed to return and you went on the run with Potter and Weasley..."

"What happened after that?" Hermione asked gently.

"You were captured by snatchers," Draco frowned, "And you were brought to one of Voldemort's bases of operation...Malfoy Manor."

"And you were there," Hermione said, her gaze fixed on his.

Draco nodded, "Bellatrix Lestrange tortured you...she carved the word "Mudblood" into your arm and I tried to run forward to help you but my Father grabbed me and used a sticking charm on my feet. I couldn't help you...but you all escaped and I didn't see you again until the final battle. I threw Potter his wand when he jumped up after everyone thought he had died in the forest...and then I ran away with my parents."

"What happened to them after that?" Hermione asked.

"My Father was sentenced to life in Azkaban. We donated Malfoy Manor after everything that happened there and we moved in with my Aunt Andromeda and her grandson, Teddy," Draco finished.

Hermione was still frowning as she watched him.

"Just say what you're thinking," Draco said quietly, "I'm not a good person like your Draco is."

"You are a good person," Hermione countered, _“Just like _my Draco is. I think it just took longer for you to realise that in your own reality."

Draco scoffed, "I still haven't realised it and in my reality you and I will never be together. Who wants to be with the person who stood by and watched while they had "Mudblood" carved into their arm?"

"What did you do afterwards?" Hermione asked curiously.

Draco frowned, "What do you mean?"

"I mean after your Hermione escaped from your Manor, what did you do?" Hermione asked calmly.

Draco glanced around the empty library and then unbuttoned the cuff of his left arm. He pulled his sleeve up and showed her the fading dark mark on his arm, surrounded by scars. Her breath caught in her throat.

"Sorry," Draco said sheepishly, "I forgot your Draco never had one."

Hermione nodded, "You tried to cut it off?"

Draco nodded, "It didn't work," he said bitterly.

Hermione looked up at his face as he pulled the sleeve down, "Tell her that."

"How would that help anything?" Draco sighed, "I don't want her to like me because of my tragic past."

"No," Hermione agreed, "But that isn't why she would like you. She would understand that you hate what you did and that you regret it all. You can't undo the past Draco but that doesn't mean you can't rewrite the future."

Draco smiled slightly, "That sounds like the kind of thing my Hermione would say."

Hermione smiled back, "Tell her how you feel. You'll never know what could have been if you never say anything."

Draco nodded, and before he could say anymore the library door opened and Harry walked in. He walked over to their table quickly and said, "Draco, a word."

"It's fine, Potter," Draco said, "She knows that we're from an alternate world. And we really are in an alternate world this isn't-"

"- a dream, I know," Harry said quickly, "Sirius and Remus told me as much. We have to brew the potion again and take it while thinking about our own universe to get back and we have to do it soon because the longer we stay here the more chance there is that we're stuck here-"

"-and if we get stuck here our bodies will die in our own world," Draco finished with a nod. He got to his feet and glanced back at Hermione.

She smiled softly at him, "Good luck," she said gently.

Draco gave her one final nod before Harry grabbed his arm and dragged him down towards the dungeons and into the potions classroom. The potion wasn't incredibly difficult to make, so they worked together and were very careful and precise about it as they perfected it. However, it did take 15 minutes to settle, which meant that they had to leave it simmering for that amount of time before they could decant it into a phial and drink it.

"Will we remember this?" Draco asked after they had stood in silence for at least 10 minutes.

Harry nodded, "Yes."

"All of it?" Draco asked.

"Uh-huh," Harry replied as he glanced away from the stopwatch, "So yeah Malfoy, you and I are having a serious chat about Hermione when we get back to our own world."

"I guess I had that coming," Draco said sheepishly, "But if you get to lecture me on Granger then I'm talking to you about Daphne."

Harry frowned slightly, "What do you mean?"

"She's my ex Potter, not to mention my best friend," Draco drawled.

"Weren't you always with Pansy?" Harry asked, still frowning.

"Daphne and I dated briefly in 5th year," Draco said calmly, "It didn't work out but she's my best friend. She helped me through Pansy's death...I spent the majority of my summer at her house. I just…I couldn’t stay in the manor after…everything."

"So she's your Hermione," Harry realised.

"Precisely," Draco said firmly, "And since you seem so intent on asking about my intentions with Granger I'm going to give you the exact same treatment concerning Daphne."

"Ah, bugger," Harry cursed, "Why is nothing in my life ever simple?"

Draco smirked, "Touché Potter."

_PING._

Harry was grateful for the timer going off. He and Draco were silent as they decanted the potion into phials.

"Alright," Harry said with a deep breath, "We take one sip and think "what if I was back in my own universe?" Okay?"

"Yes, I understand Potter," Draco said sharply.

Harry nodded and held the phial to his lips, "Click your heels and think of home," he joked.

***

When Harry opened his eyes the world was incredibly bright. Considering the fact that he had taken the potion in the dark, dingy dungeons anyway. The world spun into focus briefly and Harry was aware that he felt incredibly sick. The next thing he knew he was emptying the contents of his stomach into a bedpan and the world was swimming.

"Hey, just lie back," A soft, familiar voice said.

"Mione?"

"Yeah, it's me," Hermione said gently, "Just close your eyes alright? The nausea should go away after a couple of minutes."

Harry took her advice and lay back with his eyes shut tight. He felt cold, clammy and shaky but the nausea did start to ebb away until it got to the point where he could open his eyes. This time the world didn't spin and Hermione's worried face swam into view.

"I should have known coming back to school was a bad idea for you," Hermione said weakly, "Are you determined to try and kill yourself?"

"It was an accident," Harry said weakly, "Can I have some water?"

"Yeah," Hermione smiled, she grabbed an ice cube from the container next to his bed and held it against his lips to moisten them, “You've been out for a good few hours. Madam Pomfrey had no idea what was wrong with you, but she said that whatever it was it was going on inside your heads. All she could do was wait for you to sort it out yourselves.”

The ice cube had gotten small enough that Harry could swallow it now. Hermione let go and wiped her hands on a napkin.

"How's Malfoy?" Harry asked as he looked around. A screen was drawn around his bed, so he had no idea what was going on around him.

The sound of retching came from somewhere to his left and Hermione glanced at Harry, "I think he's just woken up."

Harry chuckled weakly, "The 'what if' potion wasn't brewed properly so it took us to an alternate world. But it didn't work properly, it didn't transport us there completely only our minds."

"What happened?" Hermione asked curiously.

Harry chose to lie because he knew it would be difficult to explain and because he wanted his final moment with Sirius to be a memory for only himself. He also suspected that Draco didn't want Hermione to know about whatever had happened between them in the library.

"Well I don't remember," Harry said, "It was like a dream so it all faded away pretty quickly."

"Ah, that makes sense," Hermione said softly as she sat down next to his bed.

"How long have you been here for?" Harry asked.

"Since you were knocked out," Hermione yawned, "So probably about 3 hours."

"Where's Ron?" Harry asked curiously.

"He was here," Hermione replied, "But he had a dinner date in the kitchen."

"A date?" Harry asked in disbelief, "With who?"

"I have no idea," Hermione chuckled, "He wouldn't tell me."

"You should go to bed,” Harry frowned, “You seem exhausted.”

"It's only 8pm,” Hermione pointed out, “I just didn't sleep well last night.”

"Well you shouldn't have stayed here and watched over me, I'd have been fine," Harry said, but he was grateful that she had, "Go to bed, Mione."

"Alright," Hermione yawned as she got to her feet, "Pomfrey said you'd probably throw up when you woke up but that you'll be okay by tomorrow. You'll probably need a pepper up potion to get yourself back to full health though."

"So she's letting me out tomorrow?" Harry asked hopefully.

Hermione nodded, "You and Malfoy, yeah," she said as she pulled the curtains back. The curtains around Draco's bed had also been pulled back and he mostly looked back to normal, if a little pale.

"Hey Granger," Draco said politely when he saw her.

Hermione frowned slightly, "Hey Malfoy. How are you feeling?"

Draco shrugged, "I've felt better but I've also felt worse. How's Potter doing?"

"I'm okay," Harry said, glaring slightly at Malfoy, "Although I'm requesting a change in Potions partner."

Hermione rolled her eyes, but hid a smile, "Alright you two, don't try to kill each other when I'm gone. I'll see you tomorrow Harry."

"Night Mione," Harry said, waving at her as she left the hospital wing, pulling the heavy wooden doors shut behind her.

When Harry glanced over at Draco the Slytherin had shut his eyes and was feigning sleep. Harry shook his head in amusement, he would have that chat with Draco, whether he liked it or not.

**TBC :)**


	9. Can't Stop This Thing We Started

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Title comes from the song:  
Can't Stop This Thing We Started by Bryan Adams

When Harry woke up the following morning Hermione was waiting by his bed with fresh clothes and his school bag. Draco was gone and Harry got the distinct impression that the blonde boy was avoiding him.

"Malfoy left as I got here," Hermione said as she followed Harry's line of sight.

"Did he?" Harry asked, trying his best not to sound irritated.

Hermione nodded, "Yes...why do you sound angry about that?"

"I'm not," Harry lied, "I just wish I didn't keep ending up in here. We've not even been back for a month yet and this is my second time in this place."

Hermione chuckled, "Twice in the hospital wing in three weeks. Madam Pomfrey said she should just assign you a private bed."

Harry laughed at that and pulled the curtain around his bed shut to get changed. For the rest of that day he tried to corner Draco but he had no such luck. It was a Wednesday which meant the only class Harry shared with Draco was double DADA but he also taught that class which meant he couldn't talk to Draco during it. He was resigned to having to talk to him in the common room the second he could grab him alone but when Harry got there after dinner Draco was sitting with Theo doing 'homework'.

***

"Is she looking at me?"

"No."

"Theo!"

"What?"

Draco glared at his best friend, they had known each other since they were kids and they had always been close. They fought a lot but Draco knew that Theo was the closest thing he'd had to a best friend before he came to Hogwarts. He had always been there and he hadn't abandoned Draco at times when a lot of other people had. Theodore Nott was very similar to Draco but without the pride and the obsession with having pure blood. Theo's Father had also been an abusive Death Eater who had died in the line of 'duty' so in some respect he and Draco had more in common than they would admit to other people. Theo also happened to be smug and snarky but really rather funny. He was also very intelligent and could easily have been a Ravenclaw if it wasn't for the fact he was a sneaky little shit. He was fairly tall, around Draco's height in fact and he was skinny with the build of a seeker. When he was younger he had a slightly ratty face but he had grown out of that. He now had dark black hair which was usually messy but nothing like Potters mop and his eyes were a shocking colour of blue, similar to Dumbledore's. He was a bit of a heart throb amongst the 8th Year (and a lot of the 7th Year) girls.

"You didn't even check Theo," Draco whined to his dark-headed friend from where he sat next to him in the common room.

"I didn't need to," Theo said as he rolled his eyes, "She hasn't been looking at you the last 18 times you've asked me to look over."

Draco grumbled, "That's not the point," as he looked down at his Transfiguration homework and crossed something out, "Is it possible to transfigure an elephant into a mouse?" he asked sullenly.

"No!" Theo said incredulously, "Draco these questions are practically 4th Year level, what is _wrong _with you?" he asked, now worried as Draco jotted down the answer and glanced behind him to where Hermione Granger was sitting on the sofa in front of the fire with Daphne Greengrass. They were talking and Draco really wanted to know what they were talking about.

"Oh!" Theo realised, shutting his book and turning around to talk to Draco properly, "You aren't obsessed with her; you want to know what those two are talking about," he said triumphantly.

"Well done Theo, it only took you half an hour to figure it out," Draco said dryly as he looked away from the blonde and the brunette.

Being quite the teen heartthrob Theo called, "Daph!" and the Slytherin smiled and excused herself to come over to where Theo was sitting with Draco.

"Yeah?" Daphne asked when she reached their table.

"Do you wanna come to Hogsmeade with me next weekend?" Theo asked smoothly with a wink added in to the mix.

Daphne laughed, her blue eyes sparkling, "Why Theodore, do you want me to become another of your conquests?" she asked with a grin.

"Only if you want to be one," Theo said in that charming voice of his, he looked at her with a smug grin.

Daphne raised an eyebrow at him, "Never going to happen Nott, _never_ going to happen."

Theo smirked at her, "Ah you say that now."

"And I'll mean it forever," Daphne said pointedly, "Is that why you called me over here?"

"Well that and I wanted to know what you and Granger were talking about," Theo said with a grin.

Daphne snorted, "You mean Draco wants to know because he totally has the hots for Granger?"

"No, I don't," Draco said, probably a little too quickly, "But you're fraternising with the enemy so-"

"The enemy?" Daphne asked in amusement, "Draco, did you completely miss the whole part about this 8th Year thing being a chance to make new friends and rebuild all our bridges?"

"I think he was asleep for that part," Theo sniggered.

Draco glared at his friends, "Whatever. What are you talking to her about Daph?"

Daphne smirked, "Well if you must know we are discussing Muggle literature. Ever heard of _"Pride and Prejudice"_ Draco?"

"No, why would I have read Muggle literature?" Draco scoffed.

Daphne's smirk widened, "You should give it a shot Draco, I think you'd really relate to it."

"Daphne, what are you-" Draco began to ask. But Daphne just winked at him and strutted back over to the sofa where she sat down next to Hermione.

"Theo, what in Merlin’s name is _"Pride and Prejudice_"?" Draco asked in disbelief.

"How the fuck should I know?" Theo retorted, "Take a leaf out of the Gryffindor princesses book and go to the library."

"Oh screw you," Draco said irritably as he got to his feet and stalked out of the common room.

***

"Fancy seeing you here, Malfoy."

Draco jumped out of his skin when the disembodied but very familiar voice spoke to him on the third floor corridor.

"Potter, what the hell are you up to?" Draco asked irritably.

"We're having that chat," Harry said as he pulled off his invisibility cloak and pulled Draco into an abandoned classroom, "You can't avoid me forever, you know."

"I wasn't avoiding you and I _knew _you had an invisibility cloak!" Draco seethed.

Harry smirked, "So," he said as he locked the door and put a silencing charm on the room, "You and Hermione."

"You do know that there is literally nothing to tell, right?" Draco asked irritably, "_Nothing _has happened between us."

"But you want something to happen," Harry pointed out, "You practically admitted it over in AU."

"What?"

"The alternate universe," Harry said offhandedly, "It's a Muggle sci-fi term."

Draco frowned, "Whatever."

"Look Malfoy, I actually don't mind," Harry said honestly, "She's smart enough to make her own decisions. But I just want to make it perfectly clear that if you hurt her in _any _way I will-”

"- yes I know, hurt me beyond all belief and all of the rest," Draco drawled.

"No," Harry said darkly, "Because this isn't your usual protective speech Malfoy. This is you telling me you are interested in the person who you stood by and watched being tortured. This is you telling me you have feelings for the girl who you watched have the word "Mudblood" carved into her skin. So no, I won't just hurt you beyond all belief. I _will _kill you and I'll make it look like it was a revenge killing by a family member of someone your Father killed. I'll make sure there isn't a shred of evidence to connect me to it and I'll get away with it. It's as simple as that."

Draco was silent for a moment as he stared at Harry to try and figure out if he was being serious. But he gave nothing away as he stared Draco down.

"You're more fucked up than I thought, Potter," Draco said eventually.

"Yes well, you don't go through what I went through and emerge perfect at the end of it," Harry said somewhat bitterly.

"There's no way I'm going to let you date my best friend now," Draco said in disbelief.

"I've just said I'm okay with you dating Hermione, assuming she actually wants to date you mind you," Harry said irritably, "I mean you _were_ a Death Eater. You hurt people, tortured people, you nearly killed Katie Bell and Ron...You tried to kill Dumbledore and you watched her, this girl you supposedly have feelings for, being tortured and screaming in pain!"

"IT WASN'T MY CHOICE!" Draco practically roared and Harry actually took a step back. Draco's grey eyes flashed angrily, "I didn't want her to get hurt! I didn't want any of it to happen, I never wanted them to hold me down and force this fucking thing onto my arm but they did! If I could have helped her I would have done, I tried and he stopped me! He froze me there so that I was forced to stand there and watch helplessly! Do you think it was my choice Potter? Because it wasn't!"

"I never knew that," Harry said after a moment of tense, awkward silence.

Draco had turned away from Harry and was still breathing heavily, "Well you wouldn't because you always judge someone before you really know them," he said bitterly.

Harry spoke quietly again, "You know, Malfoy...I have misjudged you but can you really blame me after all you've done?"

Draco turned around and refused to look Harry in the eye, "No, but I'm not the person that you think I am Potter and I'm trying to show you that. I'm _trying _to let people in."

Harry nodded, "I know. I just don't want to see Hermione get hurt."

"And I don't want to see Daphne get hurt," Draco countered, "She's been through enough already."

Harry frowned, "I've barely even spoken to her...I haven't had the guts. How pathetic is that?"

Draco chuckled quietly, "I've practically been avoiding Granger since she gave me that ultimatum in the common room...I know how you feel."

Harry smiled slightly and held out his hand, "So we've got a deal?"

"Yeah," Draco agreed half-heartedly as he took the shorter man's hand, "If either us ever get the nerve to say anything to the others best friend we've got to treat them right upon threat of death."

"Perfect summary," Harry smirked as he shook Draco's hand and stalked out of the empty classroom.

***

It was Friday night and Draco felt incredibly creepy as he practically stalked Hermione during her Head Girl patrol.

It had all begun after his little 'chat' with Harry. He had remembered that their first Hogsmeade weekend was on Saturday and for a wild moment Draco had wondered about asking Hermione to accompany him. He had brushed the idea off as ridiculous but he hadn't been able to get it out of his head. He also happened to be aware that he only had a limited amount of time to ask her if he did want to go through with his crazy plan.

How that amounted to him following her along the 5th floor corridor on Friday night he had literally no idea. But it had seemed like a good idea at the time, he had planned to try and catch her alone to ask her and she was always surrounded by people apart from when she was on patrol. But Draco had chickened out every time he had gotten close to revealing himself. Her patrol was coming to an end however as she entered a secret passageway on the 5th floor that came out at the top of the Eastern Tower, close to the 8th Year common room.

Draco slipped quietly into the passageway after her and he had decided that he would take his disillusionment charm off and jog to catch up with her. _Then _he would ask her.

It didn't quite work out that way though because the moment Draco entered the secret passageway he was pressed against the wall by a booby trap that _she _had laid. He cursed as Hermione removed his disillusionment charm and leant against the opposite wall to the one that he was pinned to.

"How stupid do you think I am Malfoy?" Hermione asked calmly, "I went through a war, I can tell when somebody is following me. You need to discover masking charms; I can smell your cologne for miles."

Draco rolled his eyes, "I was just trying to catch up with you to talk to you."

"For half an hour?" Hermione asked in disbelief.

"I'll explain," Draco promised, "Just let me out of your bloody booby trap Granger."

"I think I like you better that way," Hermione smirked.

Draco glared at her, "I'm serious, I need to talk to you."

"Fine," Hermione said irritably as she waved her wand and the bindings broke. He fell rather ungracefully to the floor and ignored her sniggering as he got up and dusted himself off.

"Merlin Granger," Draco muttered, "You're not an easy person to talk to, do you know that?"

Hermione raised an eyebrow at him and her eyes sparkled mischievously as she did so, "What do you want, Malfoy?"

Draco knew what he was supposed to say. He was _supposed _to say that he wondered if she wanted to go to Hogsmeade with him. He wasn't supposed to be mesmerised by the mischievous look in her eyes and the smirk on her lips and he _certainly _wasn't supposed to step forward, close the gap between them and kiss her. Yet, that was exactly what he did. Hermione gasped in surprise as Draco’s lips pressed against hers and his body pressed hers against the wall. She didn't try to push him away however, in fact her hands snaked around his neck and she actually deepened the kiss. It was exactly what Draco expected it to be, it was hurried, hard and almost harsh in nature but he hadn't expected anything less from himself and Hermione who had spent the last 7 years sparring in one sense or another. Draco found himself feeling overwhelmed as all of his senses were flooded at once. Hermione smelled distinctly like old books and flowery perfume, yet she tasted like cherries which he could only assume was because of whatever she wore on her lips. Her fingers were entangled in his hair which he was glad that he no longer gelled back. As Hermione pushed herself onto her toes, because she was frankly quite tiny, she pressed herself against him and Draco gasped slightly and broke the kiss.

When he opened his eyes he was surprised to see something in _her _eyes that he had never seen before. Mixed in with the mischief was something akin to lust.

"What was that?" Hermione asked breathily.

Draco cleared his throat, "That was my answer to your question, about whether I insulted you because I hated you or because I liked you."

Hermione raised an eyebrow at him, "It's about 2 weeks late."

Draco caught her eye and smirked, “I didn't hear any complaints."

"I can't believe you just did that," Hermione said in disbelief, "You _happen _to be in luck because for some insane reason I've wanted you to do that for years. But if I hadn't, you would be in a world of pain right now."

"I had to take the risk at some point," Draco said as he caught her eye, "Or I would always have wondered."

Hermione's gaze didn't flicker, "I always thought you were more forward than me," she said in amusement, "But _I _was the one who initiated this, with my little rant in the common room."

"Yes, I didn't expect that," Draco said calmly, "But you returned from the war changed."

"So did you," Hermione said, her hazel eyes still fixed on his stormy grey eyes, "If you hadn't I would never have let you kiss me. Not after this."

Draco looked down at her left arm as she pulled up the sleeve of her cardigan. The word "Mudblood" was still carved there, although it had faded significantly.

In that moment he remembered what the alternate version of Hermione had told him, about showing _his _Hermione his own scars and telling her his version of events. He knew it was risky but kissing her like that had been much riskier so Draco pulled up his own sleeve and showed Hermione the dark mark. It was fading slightly and it no longer moved but it was still there and it was surrounded by scars that had once been deep knife wounds.

"You tried to cut it off," Hermione realised with a slight frown.

Draco nodded, "After you escaped the Manor. Do you remember what my Father did?"

"I remember that you tried to run forward and he stopped you," Hermione said as she pulled her sleeve down, "But I was kind of in a haze of pain. I can't remember how many times she used the cruciatus curse on me that night."

"I wish I could forget," Draco said darkly, "But my Father didn't just hold me back. He used a sticking charm on my feet so that I was forced to stand there and watch, completely helpless."

Hermione looked up at him, "I'm sorry."

Draco scoffed and looked away, "Don't apologise to me."

"I didn't realise," Hermione frowned, "I didn't realise that you were just as much a victim of the war as we were."

Draco frowned too as he looked back at her, "No, don't try and make me into a victim Granger. I was the bad guy, I wasn't a romantic hero. I was a coward who was controlled by his Father. I didn't do it all for love like they say Snape did, I did it for myself because I didn't want to die."

"Well," Hermione said with a slight smile, "At least you admit that you're selfish."

Draco frowned, "And you're not angry at me for it?"

"Draco," Hermione said in amusement, "I'd expect nothing less of the boy that they've called the Slytherin Prince for years. You may be a coward but that doesn't make you a bad person."

Draco surveyed Hermione with interest and admiration for a moment and then out of the blue he blurted out, "Do you want to come to Hogsmeade with me tomorrow?"

Hermione was taken aback by the question, "You want me to go to Hogsmeade with you? Publically? Where everyone can see us?"

"I know what publically means, Granger," Draco smirked.

Hermione narrowed her eyes at him, "That doesn't sound like you."

"Is that a bad thing?" Draco asked calmly, "I don't much like being called a coward. I've wanted to kiss you for years and I've had feelings for you for even longer. If _you're _scared of what your friends will say though then that's another story entirely."

Hermione raised an eyebrow at him, "If _I'm_ scared? Oh, I'm not scared Malfoy."

Draco's smirk widened, "Then come to Hogsmeade with me."

"Fine," Hermione said calmly as she ducked under his arm to get to the stairs that led to the other end of the passage. She turned around before she rounded the corner and smiled slightly at him, "Meet me in the common room at 10am."

Draco smiled at the mischievous, playful look on her face, "It's a date," he agreed.

***

"You did _what_?"

"I asked her to Hogsmeade," Draco said as he buried his face in his pillow.

"So did she punch you or slap you?" Blaise asked dryly.

"She said yes," Draco said, still sounding surprised about it as he lifted his head up from his pillow to look at the two people he shared a dorm with, his fellow Slytherins Blaise and Theo.

"What?" Theo asked in disbelief.

"Yeah I know," Draco frowned, "I didn't quite expect it either to be honest."

"So what are you going to do?" Theo asked his friend, "I mean she's Hermione Granger. Potter is going to _kill _you...oh shit, Weasley, Weasley fancies the shit out of Granger! You are fucking dead meat mate!"

"Potter isn't a problem, we've talked," Draco said honestly, "But you're right about Weasley..."

"What's he going to do, puke slugs all over you?" Blaise asked smoothly.

Draco rolled his eyes, "As much as I hate to admit it Blaise, he's been through a war now. I expect he could do a lot worse."

Theo nodded in agreement, "He'll go mental."

"He'll just have to go mental," Draco said firmly, "Because the other option is standing her up and I won't do that."

Blaise raised a singular eyebrow at the blonde, "You're serious about her, aren't you?"

"You could have picked any girl," Theo despaired, "Anyone Draco! But you had to pick Hermione Granger! She's the princess of Gryffindor, she's a Muggle-born _and _she's a war heroine!"

"And?" Draco asked calmly.

"And you're an ex-Death Eater," Theo said in disbelief, "With a great big fucking snake on your arm and a long list of sins that would make her toes curl. She's a typical good girl Draco and if you hurt a hair on her body Potter will hunt you down and kill you, and probably take all of us down with you!"

Draco scoffed "I'm not scared of Harry Potter and you shouldn't be either Theo. I'm taking her to Hogsmeade tomorrow and you can't persuade me not to."

"He's dead," Theo said as he turned to Blaise.

The dark skinned boy nodded solemnly, "Indeed."

"Well it was nice knowing you Draco," Theo said matter of factly as he lay back on his bed, "I can already hear your eulogy in my head…"

"Here lies Draco Abraxas Malfoy...gone and completely forgotten...he lived a dishonourable, shameful life and was a truly despicable person...until his final and only moment of glory when he died in a futile duel for the love of Hermione Granger and was henceforth murdered by our great, honourable, chivalric, enigmatic, handsome-"

"-Oh fuck off Theo!-"

"-Chosen lord of all greatness, Harry Potter!"

***

"What have I done? What have I done? Oh Merlin...what _on earth _have I done?" Hermione was muttering as she paced her dorm room. The dorm room that she thought was empty.

A head popped out from behind the curtains of one of the four poster beds, "Have you murdered someone?"

Hermione jumped and turned to the amused voice. She was grateful when she saw that it was only Lilly Moon. Of all the people Hermione had been lumped into a dorm with she was the only one who she actually quite liked. Sally Smith and Sally-Ann (known as Annie) were far too similar to Lavender and Parvati for Hermione's liking. So although she had shared a dorm with them since 1st year she rarely actually talked to them about anything of significance. Megan Jones, the Hufflepuff who had been thrown in here with them was also a gossip and Hermione didn't trust her with sensitive information either. But Lilly was different, she was a Ravenclaw and a Muggle-born who, like Hermione, was very intelligent. She had jet black hair and bright blue eyes which were always hidden behind glasses, at the moment her hair was pulled back into a messy bun and she was peering at Hermione curiously through her large thick-rimmed glasses.

"Uh no," Hermione frowned, "Draco Malfoy asked me to Hogsmeade on a date and I said yes."

"Woah, what have you done?" Lilly asked with wide eyes.

Hermione groaned and sat down heavily on her bed, "I don't know! It seemed like a good idea at the time!"

"He challenged you, didn't he?" Lilly asked as a smile played on her lips.

"How did you know that?" Hermione asked in surprise.

Lilly smiled cryptically, "It's what all boys do with girls like us. They challenge us because they know we can't back down from a challenge."

"Well yes, that _is _what he did," Hermione admitted, "But...I wanted to say yes. I mean the way he kissed me was like nothing-"

"-he kissed you?" Lilly interjected in surprise.

A blush rose in Hermione's cheeks, "Yes."

"And?" Lilly grinned.

"And it was amazing," Hermione mumbled under her breath, "I wanted to say yes. What is _wrong _with me? How on earth can I be attracted to him? He's an ex-Death Eater!"

"He nearly killed Katie Bell and your best friend Ron," Lilly added.

"I know!" Hermione said in disbelief, "And Dumbledore!"

“And he's generally a slimy, sleazy, arrogant little scumbag,” Lilly said matter of factly.

"Exactly!" Hermione exclaimed, "And the only thing I care about is what to wear tomorrow."

Lilly raised an eyebrow at her, "Woah, well...good luck with that."

Hermione pushed herself to her feet in frustration and opened her wardrobe rather violently.

"Are you meeting him in the common room?" Lilly's disembodied voice asked.

"Yeah, tomorrow morning," Hermione replied as she sifted through her wardrobe and only seemed capable of finding jeans, jumpers, black robes and bloody Gryffindor cardigans.

"Don't you think Ron will go mental?" Lilly asked matter of factly and Hermione froze for a moment.

"Ron?"

"Yeah, you know Ronald Weasley, the ginger dude who's had a thing for you since he was like 12 who you nearly got together with after the war but didn't."

Hermione snapped the wardrobe shut, "How do you know that?"

"Hermione," Lilly said in amusement, "Look at the 3 girls we share a dorm with. I hear about a lot of things I don't want to hear about but Ron and I are friends anyway."

Hermione chuckled slightly at that comment, "True but you don't think Ron still likes me do you? We seemed to be getting on fine again..."

"Maybe you are but doesn't he hate Slytherins?" Lilly asked pointedly.

"He isn't exactly keen on them," Hermione replied evasively.

"I'll repeat what I said earlier, good luck with that," Lilly said in amusement.

"Thanks for the encouragement Lilly," Hermione muttered as she fell back onto her bed once more.

***

When Hermione walked into the common room the following morning it was pretty crowded as most of the 8th Years got ready to go out to the little village. Hermione had eventually settled on a pair of jeans, boots and a warm jacket, thrown together with her Gryffindor scarf, a hat and gloves. She was far more nervous than she would either admit or let on when she walked into the common room that morning, but she was playing it as cool as possible.

"Hey Hermione," Harry said brightly as he and Ron walked over to her, "You all set? We're going to hit Zonkos first, we promised George we'd check up on their stock and make sure they weren't competing too much. Then we're going to-"

“Harry,” Hermione cut in, "I'm not going with you today."

Harry frowned slightly and Ron asked, "What? Why?"

Hermione swallowed, "Well, I said I would go with someone else."

"Who?" Harry and Ron asked simultaneously.

"That would be me," Draco's smooth voice said from behind Hermione. She felt the butterflies in her stomach start to flutter as he gently placed his hand on the small of her back. She could feel his warm breath against the back of her neck and it made her think about the kiss.

"Malfoy?" Ron asked in disbelief.

"Do you have a problem with that, Weasley?" Draco asked calmly.

"Do I have a problem with my best friend going on a date _alone _with a murderous Death Eater? No, of course not!" Ron said sarcastically, and loudly.

"Ron," Hermione cut in, "He's not a murderer and he's an_ ex_-Death Eater."

"There's no such thing as an _ex_-Death Eater. Does he still have the mark on his arm?" Ron asked calmly.

Hermione frowned, "That's not the point-"

"-which means yes," Ron cut in, "So he's _still _a Death Eater. And did he help kill Dumbledore?"

"Ron-"

"Yes!" Ron remarked loudly, "So unless he can go back in time and not become a murderous Death Eater he can fuck off," Ron finished, he turned on his heel after that and left the common room.

Harry and Hermione caught each other's eye the moment he had disappeared. Harry spoke first, "That was better than I thought it would have been."

Hermione nodded, "That was quite refined for Ron actually."

"That was refined?" Draco asked in disbelief.

"Oh yeah," Harry agreed, "That wasn't him properly angry. That's full on swearing, screaming, dodgy curses and really hurtful remarks about the things you're most insecure about."

"Yeah," Hermione said quietly, "That was definitely not him at his angriest."

"Then I don't think I particularly want to see him at his angriest," Draco remarked coolly.

"You definitely don't want to see him when he's angry," Harry agreed, "But anyway Malfoy, just remember that talk we had.”

"I'm not going to forget it anytime soon, Potter," Draco said as he narrowed his eyes at the Gryffindor.

"Excellent," Harry said with a slightly wicked smile, "Have a nice date then."

"Thank you Harry," Hermione said, sounding mildly confused as the Gryffindor darted through the common room, probably to follow Ron.

"Shall we go?" Draco asked politely.

"Yeah," Hermione agreed, the entire common room had watched that little fall out and were now whispering about it so the faster she could get out of there the better as far as Hermione was concerned. Draco kept his hand on the small of her back until they got outside and began their descent of the Eastern Tower. It was only then that Hermione said, "So Harry had a chat with you?"

"It was more of a death threat, but yes," Draco replied calmly, "I had no idea he was so..."

"Intimidating and terrifying?" Hermione suggested.

Draco paused for a moment, "Those words work remarkably well for that situation, yes."

Hermione chuckled, "He isn't. He's the biggest softie in the world and I happen to be one of privileged few people in his life who he loves which means he's really protective. He would never _actually _kill you though. Unless I asked him to or...well if you did something _really_ horrible to me he might consider it."

"Is this supposed to make me feel better, Granger?" Draco asked in disbelief.

"You know you should really call me Hermione," Hermione said thoughtfully, "Since you did grab me and kiss me in a secret passageway last night and since this _is _a date."

Draco raised an eyebrow at her, "I don't remember you being this witty. Don't get me wrong I remember you being witty and also sarcastic and even a little sassy. But not to this extent."

"I spent a year on the run with Harry Potter," Hermione said in amusement, "The king of sass. Did you hear some of his comebacks to you and Snape over the years? He was going to rub off on me at some point."

"He was a little sassy," Draco conceded, "But you've got to admit, I was far sassier."

"Does everything have to be a competition between you and Harry, Malfoy?" Hermione asked in amusement.

Draco thought about this for a moment and then smirked, "Yes, it does. And you know, you _could _call me Draco since we're on a date."

Hermione smiled slightly at that, "Touché."

***

Harry caught up to Ron about halfway down the path that led out of the school. He had been jogging so he walked silently next to his best friend until he caught his breath.

"Are you really bothered about this whole thing with Malfoy and Hermione?"

Ron blew out a breath, "Do you know what? I honestly don't care anymore. I was gutted when Hermione didn't want to be with me but I was over it by the end of the summer. I just think she's making some pretty poor decisions right now."

"Well they are her decisions to make," Harry pointed out.

"And I'm done with it," Ron said, "I'm done getting involved and trying to help people. She can make her own decisions and when it all ends in disaster _you _can be the one to pick up the pieces."

"Aren't I always?" Harry asked irritably, "I picked up the pieces after you left."

"Picked up the pieces by screwing her?" Ron asked bitterly, "Yeah, I wonder if Malfoy will still think she's an angel when he finds out about that one."

"That wasn't what happened Ron," Harry muttered angrily, "And I thought you said _weren't _bitter about that?"

"Well I lied," Ron said bluntly, "You knew I had feelings for her and the moment I was gone you were screwing her. First my sister and then the girl I loved, are you just trying to humiliate me?"

"That wasn't how it was Ron," Harry said quickly, "It was a mistake, I wasn't trying to steal her from you and I loved Ginny but things changed in the war, people changed."

"Yeah well I didn't!" Ron snapped, "And everybody else seems to have! I still can't stand scum like Malfoy and I'm sure as hell never going to be as forgiving as you and Hermione are!"

"Ron, where is all this animosity coming from?" Harry asked calmly.

"I don't know," Ron muttered angrily, "I just feel so angry all of the time."

Harry frowned slightly, "Maybe you should go see Pomfrey about that."

"Pomfrey?" Ron asked in disbelief, "So you think I'm insane now?"

"No," Harry replied firmly, "I don't but you did have the Cruciatus Curse used on you several times during the war and it can have long-term effects."

"I'm fine, Harry," Ron snapped, "I'm not going to go mental like Neville's parents. But can we just stop talking about Hermione and Malfoy, please?"

"Yeah, sure," Harry said as he watched Ron anxiously out of the corner of his eye.

**TBC :)**


	10. Feels Good at First

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Title comes from the song:  
Feels Good at First by Train

Neville had finally gotten the guts to ask Hannah Abbott to Hogsmeade after wondering whether he should or shouldn't for weeks. As a result, he was feeling pretty nervous about their first date as they walked down to the village together. In actual fact, he had nothing to be nervous about because he and Hannah clearly had loads in common. Hannah was very pretty, she had long blonde hair and blue eyes. On this particular day she was wearing jeans, furry snow boots and a heavy winter cloak. Neville had matured greatly since his childhood days and was taller than Harry now; he'd lost his puppy fat and had become a bit of an unexpected heart-throb since he'd lost his stumbling stuttering ways during the war.

Neville and Hannah already knew each other quite well, they'd spent a lot of time together in the room of requirement the year before when they'd been fighting Snape's regime and waiting for Harry to return. They had also fought together in the Battle of Hogwarts. So their date went quite well as they stopped by Honeydukes to stock up on chocolate. Neville then led Hannah towards their secret destination but they ended up stopping briefly on their way.

"Hannah, do you want to see Aberforth?" Neville asked suddenly as he came to a stop outside the Hogs Head. Although Abe taught DADA temporarily, he also still ran his pub at weekends.

Hannah smiled, "I thought you might want to," she said, looking a little sheepish as she delved into her bag and pulled something out, "That's why I brought this."

Neville frowned as she showed him a cardboard box. She opened it to reveal a box of 6 hand baked cupcakes. Neville chuckled, "He'll like that."

Hannah's smile widened, "I hope so. It took me so long to get the house elves to let me make them myself; they looked like they might explode," she told Neville and they both laughed as they made their way into the dingy little pub.

The pair immediately saw Aberforth who was standing behind the bar cleaning glasses. They approached him with smiles, "Good to see you again Abe," Neville said with a grin as the old man looked up at the pair of them.

He smiled back, "Hello Neville, Hannah," he said, "I see you two more than normal these days, teaching up at that bloody school."

"Well let's face it Abe, Harry does most of the teaching in our class," Neville grinned.

Aberforth laughed and poured them both a drink, "Well why bother when the little sod is so much better qualified? It's on the house folks."

"Thanks Abe," Hannah smiled.

"So why'd you two go back this year then?" Aberforth asked, sitting down behind the bar to talk to them.

Neville looked a little embarrassed to admit it but he said, "Well, I want to be an Auror so I need the grades."

Aberforth nodded, looking impressed but not surprised, "An Auror eh, like your parents."

Neville just nodded, the war had made him realise how much he did have in common with his parents and how much he wanted to become an Auror.

"And what about you Hannah?" Aberforth asked Neville's blonde-haired companion.

The Hufflepuff smiled and shook her head, "Not for me, I've had enough fighting for a lifetime. I do want to go into botany though."

"Hannah made you cupcakes,” Neville piped up, looking pointedly at Hannah who handed Aberforth the box, "There are some with lemon icing and some with strawberry," she said cheerfully.

The younger Dumbledore opened the box and smiled, "Well thanks you two. That's awfully nice of you."

They left the pub shortly after that and began an incredibly long hike...

"Neville, where _are _we going?" Hannah asked in amusement as Neville led her up the walking trail. They had been walking up it for at least 20 minutes now and Neville was glad he had told Hannah to wear warm clothes.

The Gryffindor smiled at the Hufflepuff next to him, he knew she was fit because he saw her jogging at ridiculous hours of the morning around the Hogwarts grounds so she wasn't struggling to keep up, "You'll find out soon," he promised, "We're nearly there."

Hannah rolled her eyes at Neville's enthusiasm and they walked a little further up the hill. As they did more snow began to fall from the grey skies overhead, scattering the already white mountains.

"Okay," Neville said as he stopped and turned to her, "We're here," he said as they reached what was almost the top of the large hill because it could hardly be called a mountain compared to the huge rugged mountains in the backdrop.

"Where is here?" Hannah asked in amusement but Neville only grinned and pulled her into a small cave. Inside there were all different types of plants growing on the damp walls and while Hannah moved closer to examine them Neville expertly waved his wand and set up a picnic in the middle of the cave.

Hannah grinned at him as he cast charms to make the roof of the cave invisible so they could see the snow falling over the picturesque village below them, "Oh Neville, this is so sweet," she said as she sat down next to him on the blanket. Neville smiled broadly and offered her a bottle of butterbeer which she happily accepted as she leaned back against the Gryffindor to enjoy the winter's day view.

"So Hannah, do you wanna be my girlfriend?" Neville asked causing the blonde Hufflepuff to turn to look at him in surprise.

Neville smirked as Hannah blushed furiously and took a few minutes to compose herself, "You're asking me out?" she asked in disbelief.

"Yeah," Neville said as if this was obvious, "Why is that so hard to believe?" he asked with a laugh, "I've fancied you for ages."

Hannah blushed again and said, "Well I mean you and Harry are the Gryffindor heartthrobs. All the girls want to be with you and you are this amazing war Hero and you're so strong and brave and I'm just me."

Neville shook his head in disbelief, "Hannah, I'm not a war Hero. So what, I killed a snake? Big deal! I don't care about being a heartthrob, it makes me kind of uncomfortable actually. I haven't changed just because I did one brave thing in the war, I'm still Neville Longbottom. And _just you _is amazing. You took down more Death Eaters than I could count in the final battle and you saved a couple of 2nd years from Greyback."

When Neville's speech finished Hannah bit her lip and asked, "Can I kiss you now?"

Smiling Neville replied, "Please do."

And she did.

***

Ron hadn't stayed in Hogsmeade for long. After investigating Zonkos and having a butterbeer he had gone back up to the school and left Harry alone in the little village. Harry didn't find that he minded much though. He had gone for a wander and just as he was heading back to Hogwarts he saw Draco and Hermione come out of Madame Puddifoots. He knew he was being over-protective and nosy but he pulled his invisibility cloak on anyway and silently padded behind them.

Draco put his arm around Hermione's shoulders to steady her as she slipped on a patch of snow. They were talking animatedly as Harry got close enough to hear titbits of their conversation.

"Seriously? They think we're green?" Draco was saying.

Hermione seemed to be having a fit of the giggles as she answered his questions, "Yes, some of them do."

"And they think we all fly on broomsticks all of the time?"

"Uh-huh."

"And they think we're all old and warty?" Draco asked in disbelief, "I'm offended Hermione! I mean, do I look old or warty to you?"

Hermione was still chuckling as she said, "No, you look incredibly young and handsome, Draco."

He grinned at her, "What else do Muggles think they know about us then?"

"They think if you weigh less than a duck you're a witch," Hermione sniggered.

Draco scoffed, "Honestly, they've got it all wrong. I bet they think vampires are bloody romantic heroes."

This sent Hermione off into another fit of the giggles, "Well it's funny you should say that because there is this series of books which does make them into romantic heroes. You know the story, Muggle girl, two incredibly hot vampire brothers. One who's quite a gentleman and the other who is a sexy badass."

Draco smirked, "And you read these books?"

"Yes," Hermione said with narrowed eyes, "Why?"

"Which brother did you have a crush on?" Draco asked knowingly.

"You think you've got me sussed out, don't you Draco Malfoy?" Hermione asked him in amusement.

"I think you had a crush on the incredibly sexy, but oh so bad one," Draco said smoothly, "I think you are drawn to danger, Granger."

"Was that meant to rhyme?" Hermione asked with a raised eyebrow.

"No, it was a clever coincidence. But _you_ are avoiding the subject," Draco smirked.

Hermione smirked back, "To be honest, I liked both of them."

"Well, well," Draco grinned, "They always say it's the quiet ones."

Hermione rolled her eyes, "Oh shut up, you know what I mean. A man who happens to be a gentleman but is also quite a sexy badass would be pretty nice. Don't suppose you've got any friends that fit the category, Malfoy?"

"Oh, you wound me Granger," Draco joked.

Hermione laughed and said, "So do you think we should turn around and tell Harry we know he's following us yet?"

Harry froze and Hermione and Draco turned around to face him. Hermione looked incredibly triumphant as she said, "Harry, you might have saved the wizarding world but you have yet to figure out that you still leave footprints in snow even when you have an invisibility cloak on."

Draco sniggered as he pulled Harry's invisibility cloak off, "I'm starting to think you really need a girlfriend Potter, if you have nothing better to do than follow people around all of the time."

Harry rolled his eyes and grabbed his invisibility cloak off of the blonde, "Well put in a good word for me then!" he said as he stalked past them.

"You'd have to actually have the balls to talk to her first!" Draco called after the Gryffindor.

Harry's response to this was to make a crude gesture behind his back.

"So he does _still _have a crush on Daphne," Hermione said in amusement as Draco placed his hand on the small of her back again.

"Oh yeah," Draco said with a shake of his head, "Not that he's said more than two words to her in any of the classes they share or in the common room mind you."

"Surprisingly enough Harry is quite shy," Hermione said matter of factly as they walked through the gates and were back in the grounds of Hogwarts once more.

"He saved the wizarding world but he can't tell a girl he fancies her," Draco said with a shake of his head.

"Yeah well it took you long enough," Hermione retorted, "I can't believe you've had feelings for me since the Yule Ball."

"Well there was no point telling you until the war was over," Draco said, "It was unlikely that both of us would survive it after all."

"Wow, you're just a bundle of laughs today" Hermione joked as they neared the castle.

***

Hermione managed to avoid being questioned that evening about her date with Draco. But she only avoided this by escaping to her dorm and literally locking herself in her four-poster bed. Draco wasn't so lucky because he was stupid enough to sit down in the common room next to Theo.

"So, how was the date?"

"The date you tried to make sure I didn't go on you mean?" Draco retorted.

"It was for your own safety," Theo said offhandedly, "I didn't know Potter would be so cool with you dating the princess or that Weasley wouldn't blow his top."

"Neither did I," Draco admitted as a smile crept onto his face, "But it was a risk worth taking. We had a great time today."

"Alright, I've heard enough," Theo said as he got to his feet, "Anymore romantic shit and I think I'm going to have to spew."

"Oh bugger off then you git," Draco said with a wave of his hand.

Theo disappeared promptly upstairs with a rather wicked laugh. Draco shook his head in amusement and glanced down at the book he was currently reading. He didn't get through another sentence though because Harry took it upon himself to sit down in the seat Theo had just vacated.

"How long have you been in love with my best friend for?" He asked calmly.

"Excuse me?" Draco asked in disbelief.

"It was a pretty clear question Malfoy," Harry said, "How long have you been in love with my best friend for?"

Draco narrowed his eyes at Harry and then realised that he was being deadly serious. So he sighed and glanced around the common room, there was nobody nearby and it had emptied significantly as the night went on anyway.

"I don't know...a while," Draco replied.

"I thought so," Harry said, "You do realise that you should have learned a vital lesson from your Godfather, right?"

Draco frowned, "What the hell are you talking about Potter?"

"Calling your favourite Muggle-born a Mudblood sure as hell isn't the way to get her to like you," Harry said matter of factly.

"Yes well…good lesson. Unfortunately, it's about 7 years too late," Draco muttered, "And I was brought up to hate everything about her so taking her out to Hogsmeade today and kissing her last night was-"

"You kissed her?" Harry asked, somewhere between shocked and pissed off.

"Right, she hadn't told you about that then," Draco realised quickly.

"No, she hadn't," Harry said with narrowed eyes, "That's a little forward, don't you think?"

"She didn't have any objections," Draco said, a smirk starting to make its way onto his face.

Harry rolled his eyes, "Alright, I've heard enough. I don't want to know the gory details."

"Fine by me," Draco said calmly.

"So are you two together?" Harry asked curiously.

"I don't know what we are yet," Draco replied, "All I know is that tomorrow seems like a brighter day because of her."

"Well, that's something I guess," Harry said as he got to his feet, "And you're actually being kind of pleasant towards everyone so long may it last."

"Oh fuck off Potter," Draco said half-heartedly.

Harry grinned, "You didn't even mean that Malfoy. You _must _be smitten!" he said as he disappeared up the stairs to his dorm.

***

"Are you ready for this week's gossip?"

Hermione sighed from inside her bed. The other girls in her dorm (minus Lilly) thought that she was asleep and she was going to keep it that way. Once a week they gossiped about what was going on in and out of Hogwarts. It was the usual who liked who, who was doing this, who was doing that. Hermione found it immature but she knew she wouldn't be able to sleep with all of them squawking.

The instigator was Sally and Annie was just as excited to take part in it all. Sally was the typical ditzy blonde. She was funny and practically everyone liked her, she generally kept herself to herself and didn't really put herself out there though. Annie was the daughter of one of Hogwarts governors so she thought a lot of herself but once you got past the rich girl walls she came across as a mixture of Slytherin and Ravenclaw, more so than Gryffindor. Annie wasn't exactly shy but she _was _rich so she didn't like to partake in tasks that involved dirty work. She had never joined the DA for that reason and when the war had started she and her rich Daddy had fled to their holiday home in Switzerland. Sally hadn't been a part of the DA either, Hermione had told her about it when it was all beginning. Lavender and Parvati had jumped at the chance but Sally was never very confident with spells or with herself and she said she'd rather not. Hermione knew that Sally also hadn't fought in the war because her parents were Muggles and they had fled to America to avoid Voldemort's regime. As for Megan Jones, she was a nice enough girl but she was another typical blonde girl who liked to party, be popular and do the trendy, cool things that everyone else was doing.

"So, anything interesting?" Megan asked eagerly.

"Lots of things this week. Apparently we're getting a new professor, he's young they say, he's only just graduated from Durmstrang," Sally told them all which caused the first round of 'oohs'.

"Oh, Durmstrang is like near Norway! Nordic guys are so gorgeous," Annie sighed and the other girls made noises of agreement.

"But in 8th Year news!" Sally said cheerfully, "Neville Longbottom likes Hannah Abbot _and _he took her to Hogsmeade! Theodore Nott asked Daphne Greengrass but she said no and went it alone with her girlfriends. Oh, and Dean Thomas took Tracey Davis!"

"And our own Annie went with Terry!" Megan interjected.

"How was it Annie?" Sally asked eagerly.

"It was great," Annie said and Hermione could tell that she was smiling. That was another thing about Annie, she was very pretty. She was tall with tanned skin, dark brown hair and deep brown eyes. She always wore a lot of make-up but she never looked like she had overdone it, she just looked flawless almost all of the time.

"I knew you two would get together soon!" Sally said happily, "I bet he realised after the final battle that he didn't want to lose you."

Annie said, “I'm just happy something good finally seems to be coming of it. Did you know by the way that Mandy Brocklehurst went to Hogsmeade with that Slytherin in 7th Year? You know the one she played Quidditch against a few times?"

"Really? Maxwell Harper? The sexy Slytherin 7th Year?" Megan asked in shock, "I thought they couldn't stand each other!"

"Uh-huh! They did hate each other at first! But they're in Ancient Runes together and they get on now so it seems," Annie informed them with a laugh.

"Wow that's a shocker! Any other 8th Year hook-ups?" Megan asked brightly.

"Well, I happened to have a very nice make-out session with Blaise Zabini at the post Hogsmeade party down in the dungeons last night," Sally said and Hermione could hear the smirk on her face.

"He's hot Sal!" Megan said.

Sally grinned, "I know, right?"

"Did you hear about Ernie and Justin?" Annie asked, "I can't say I'm really surprised but neither of them are interested in girls."

"Oh yeah," Megan chuckled, "They are _far _more interested in each other, duh! That's been obvious for ages!"

"But come on girlies, we're saving the best till last," Sally said with a grin in her voice and Hermione's heart sank because she knew what was coming.

"Our very own sweet little book loving Hermione," Annie said, "Went to Hogsmeade with Draco...Malfoy!"

"I know, he's _only _the hottest guy in our year!" Megan agreed.

"Theodore Nott is totally comparable," Sally added.

"But Draco Malfoy! What a catch!"

"Apart from the fact he was a Death Eater who probably like tortured a ton of people and who you know like murdered baby rabbits by breaking their necks when he was a kid," Lilly's voice said from her own bed and Hermione had to try her best not to snigger because she knew that Lilly was being sarcastic but she doubted that the other three girls did.

"What?" Megan asked in a high-pitched voice.

"Oh yeah," Lilly continued, "I mean come on guys. Only fucked up kids become Death Eaters. He was probably a little mini Damion, killing baby animals, controlling demons, summoning the devil, you name it.”

"Lilly," Annie said, her voice sounded very prim and proper (she was from Chelsea) compared to Lilly's (who was from Hackney and was very much an Eastender), "Are you doing this 'funny' thing again where you lie?"

Hermione was doubled over with silent laughter listening to this conversation.

"It's called sarcasm not lying, stupid," Lilly said matter of factly, "And it's none of your business who Hermione dates, or who anyone dates for that matter. Why don't you all try growing up instead of sitting in prayer circles talking about who kissed who? I feel like I'm at a sleepover with a bunch of 12 year olds."

Hermione grinned in amusement as the three girls objected very loudly to this comment, she took the opportunity to cast a silencing charm around her bed to drone them out so that she could get some sleep and she also made a mental note to thank Lilly the following morning. Hermione couldn't help but think she was right, sharing a dorm with those three was _exactly _like a sleepover with a bunch of 12-year-old girls.

***

"Are we together?"

Draco raised an eyebrow at Hermione, "Bit forward isn't it Granger?"

"Well you are never alone!" Hermione remarked irritably as she glared at Theo, "_He's _always with you! And you're an arsehole! You can't just kiss me then ask me to Hogsmeade and ignore me afterwards!"

Theo snorted in amusement, "I'll leave you to your _boyfriend, _princess," he said with a smirk.

Hermione rolled her eyes at Theo and his stupid nickname for her as he stood up and walked away. But Draco and Hermione were still in the common room which was a public space with practically no privacy.

"I wasn't ignoring you," Draco objected, "I was just...freaking out slightly."

"Because you realised that you were going to have to actually deal with this, now?" Hermione asked hotly as she crossed her arms, "If you had just kissed me I'd let it slide but you asked me out on a date Malfoy! So what exactly are we?"

"I've been asking myself that same question all week," Draco admitted, "All I know Granger is that I had more fun than I have done in years when I was with you on Saturday."

Hermione smiled slightly. She had grown fond of Draco, very fond actually. She enjoyed their chats in the library and it didn't matter at the moment that they weren't particularly personal. She didn't like to talk about herself, especially since the war but she did like to talk for hours about new potions and ground-breaking spell techniques. In Draco she had found someone whose intelligence equalled and even rivalled her own and she enjoyed that. She had broken up with Ron because he wasn't what she wanted or what she needed. He was still very immature and Hermione had grown up a lot faster than she should have because of the war. She wanted an adult, a man who she could relate to, who she could have intellectual conversations with, who would be there for her and who she could be there for. A man who she could envision some sort of future with. Despite the obvious pitfalls of Draco being a pureblood with a family who cared far too much about status, Hermione felt like he was far more of the person she wanted than Ron was.

"Draco, we all went through a war," Hermione said softly as she sat down next to him on the sofa, "We might be back at school but we're all adults. There isn't any point dancing around this like teenagers. I know you've made a lot of mistakes, I know you've got a cupboard filled with skeletons and I know that if you and I _were _to get involved with each other there would be a lot of arguments and misunderstandings. But I also know that I love being around you and that I had so much fun on Saturday. So the question isn't what we are, it's are you willing to take a chance on us?"

Draco surveyed her for a moment with a slight smile and then leant towards her and kissed her in the middle of the common room. It wasn't a long kiss or a passionate kiss, just a peck really, but it was his answer to the question.

"Yes," Draco said simply, "If the war taught me anything it's that I need to take risks more often."

Hermione's cheeks were faintly pink as the majority of the common room watched the scene. She was eternally grateful when Harry shouted, "Oi, you lot! Stop being nosy and mind your own business!"

Draco chuckled as chatter started up again around the room and Hermione breathed a sigh of relief, "Having the chosen one as a best friend does have its merits."

"Yeah," Draco frowned as Harry pointed at Draco from across the room. He then pointed to Hermione and then to himself. He made the motion of slitting his throat and disappeared up the stairs to his dorm with a wicked grin.

Hermione smiled in amusement at the look on Draco's face.

"He's quite unhinged isn't he?" Draco asked worriedly.

"He's only playing with you. It's his second favourite sport after Quidditch, Malfoy-baiting," Hermione chuckled.

"Yeah well he's quite scary," Draco said as he turned back to Hermione.

"Not when you get to know him," Hermione assured the blonde.

"The consequences of liking you, Granger," Draco said with a fake sigh of exasperation, "Having to befriend Pothead and Weasel."

"Hey, if you want to be my lover you've got to get with my friends," Hermione said and from behind her she heard a barking laugh which she instantly recognised as Lilly's.

"What?" Draco asked, somewhere between bemused and confused as Hermione turned around and accepted Lilly's hi-five.

"Spice," Lilly grinned, "Best album to _ever _grace this earth!"

"Oh I know!" Hermione agreed, "My Mum and I saw them live just before I came back for 8th Year. It was their Spiceworld tour in London, it was amazing!"

"What on earth are you two talking about?" Draco asked in disbelief.

"The Spice Girls," Hermione and Lilly echoed.

Draco looked blank, "Is this another Muggle thing? Like this "Wicked" thing you told me about with green witches?"

Lilly snorted in amusement, "You told him about Wicked?"

Draco rolled his eyes, "Right then ladies, I'll leave you to your Muggle talk and go chat Quidditch strategy with Theo..."

***

"Is there a new trend that I've missed amongst Slytherin house?" Theo asked loudly as he walked into the Slytherin girl’s dorm, “You know the sudden let's all date Gryffindors one?"

Daphne raised an eyebrow at the scruffy haired boy, "All?"

"Yes, _all_," Theo said as he flopped down at the foot of Sadie's bed, "I mean Trace, honestly!"

"What?" Tracey asked defensively, "You and Dean get on fine!"

"Yeah he's nice but I never thought you would date one of the Gryffindorks," Theo retorted, "And Blaise went to Hogsmeade with Sally bloody Smith! Yeah she's fit but she's still a Gryffindor."

"Blaise likes her Theo," Sadie piped up, "They sit together in Arithmancy."

Theo rolled his eyes, "Still! Then there's Draco, I mean don't even get me _started _on Draco. Did you see him casually kiss the Gryffindor princess in the middle of the common room?"

Daphne snorted, "Honestly Theo, you sound jealous. Are you worried Granger is going to get in the way of your bromance with Draco?"

Theo scoffed, "No but seriously Daph, why is _everyone _dating Gryffindors this year?"

"Because they aren't all bad Theo," Daphne said simply, "Maybe we _should_ try and be nicer to them with this whole house unity thing that McGonagall keeps talking about. Didn't you hear the announcement at breakfast this morning? As of next week we're going to have our own 8th Year table so we'll see even more of them."

Theo made a face, "Doesn't mean I want to bang any of the Griffins," he said simply. It was vulgar and crude but that was Theo for you, "Would you do any of them Daph?"

Daphne laughed, "Longbottom may be a war hero now but he still got stuck outside the common room for an hour last week because he couldn't figure out the answer to "Whenever you take one you leave more behind" which was obviously-"

"-Footsteps," Theo said at the same time as her.

"And I wouldn't touch the Weasel with a 12-inch pole, house unity or no house unity," Daphne added, making a face, "Dean's lovely but not my type and Tracey really is quite smitten with him-"

Tracey rolled her eyes, "Oh shut up Daph."

Daphne smirked and continued, "And the other one is an Irish slob. So out of them all Potter is the only one I'd even consider."

Theo grinned, "Oh, do you want a piece of the chosen one Daph?" he asked suggestively, "After all they must call him the chosen one for a reason."

"Oh shut up," Daphne said irritably.

"He's had a crush on you for ages, Daph," Sadie smiled, "Ever since 6th Year potions."

"How do you know that?" Daphne asked in surprise.

"She's friends with Granger," Theo said offhandedly, "And it was obvious anyways. He's not exactly subtle."

"He's completely clueless," Tracey snorted.

Daphne shook her head in amusement, "I didn't say I _liked _him anyway, just that he's the only Gryffindor I'd ever even consider screwing. But if you tell anyone that I said that, I'll let slip about _your _secret Theo."

Theo groaned, "Oh come on Daph, low blow."

"What secret?'" Tracey asked eagerly.

"Well it wouldn't be a secret if I told you Trace," Theo smirked, leaving the dorm as quickly as he had entered.

***

"You're not really going to tell her, are you?"

Daphne stared at Theo in disbelief, "Is _this _why you dragged me into a broom cupboard?"

Theo grinned, "Woah, why did _you _think I dragged you into a broom cupboard?"

Daphne snorted, "I thought you were going to try and conquer me again."

"No, I gave up when you said you wanted to screw Potter," Theo smirked, "Your standards are obviously a million times lower than mine."

Daphne rolled her eyes, "If you're trying to convince me _not _to tell Sadie you've had a schoolboy crush on her forever this is not the way to do it, Theo."

"Are you really going to tell her or this just emotional blackmail for all of the times I've tried to get you to sleep with me?" Theo asked her with narrowed eyes.

"Oh it's a bit of that," Daphne grinned, "But in all seriousness Theo, I know she's the only girl you want to _date _rather than conquer. Why don't you just ask her out already?"

"Because I don't want to mess things up with her," Theo said, flailing for an excuse.

Daphne saw right through him however, "You're just being a coward."

Theo looked up at her with a smirk and Daphne immediately frowned, "What?" she asked suspiciously.

"Fine, I'll make you a deal," Theo said. He was your atypical cunning, scheming Slytherin after all.

"You're on," Daphne said immediately.

"If you ever screw Potter, I'll tell Sadie that I like her," Theo said with a grin that caused Daphne to glare at him, "Fuck you Theo," she said in annoyance as she grabbed the door handle.

"Well you can if you want but I thought you'd rather have Potter!" Theo sniggered as Daphne yanked open the door of the broom cupboard, made a rather rude hand gesture in Theo's direction and stalked away down the corridor.

**TBC :)**


	11. A Literary Clue

"Potter, don't even come near me with that thing.".

"Malfoy, he's not a thing."

"Yes he is. Potter, stop it."

"Stop what?"

"Stop coming closer."

"Merlin Malfoy, just take him!"

“No! Get it away from me."

Harry glared at the Slytherin as he handed the baby to him and watched in amusement as Draco's nose crinkled, "Ew," he said, holding the baby as if it was something dirty and disgusting.

"He's just a baby," Harry said with an amused look as Draco held Teddy Lupin at arm's length, "He's harmless."

"I don't like small humans," Draco said distastefully, "And this is not your average harmless baby. This is a wolfchild."

"He's not even _half _werewolf Malfoy," Harry said in exasperation, "He's like a quarter werewolf. All it means is he likes to destroy fluffy things and that he bites occasionally."

"That's all?" Draco asked irritably.

"Normal babies destroy things and bite too," Harry pointed out, "And it's your fault I have to babysit him tonight anyway."

"My fault?" Draco asked in disbelief as he looked at Teddy, who he was still holding at arms-length. They were in the common room which was fairly busy and now that Teddy had been here for a little while everyone had stopped crowding around him saying that he was cute.

"Yes, your fault," Harry muttered as he looked down at the Charms essay that he was working on, "You sent your Mother tickets to a Celstina Warbeck show for her birthday and she decided to take Dromeda which is why _I _have to watch my Godson."

"Why couldn't Molly have had him?" Hermione asked as she closed her book and shoved it in her bag.

"She's also at the concert," Harry muttered, "Arthur thought it would be romantic."

Hermione chuckled as she took Teddy from Draco, "Well Celstina Warbeck is one of Molly's favourite singers, it _is_ romantic. Hello Teddy!"

Teddy giggled and grabbed a lock of Hermione's hair, turning his own hair brown and curly as he did so.

Hermione laughed at the motion and said to the little boy, "Is Draco being mean to you? You're not a little wolfchild, you're adorable aren't you?"

"That baby voice is ridiculous," Draco said dryly.

"Honestly, sometimes I wonder if you have a heart," Hermione said sarcastically as she moved Teddy to her hip, "I'll keep an eye on him while you finish your homework Harry."

"Thanks Mione," Harry yawned.

"Come on Draco," Hermione said with a pointed look at the boy, "He's your cousin's son. Come and say hello to him."

"He's a baby, he's hardly going to say hello back," Draco said as he looked suspiciously at Teddy.

"Yes, he will," Hermione said as she walked over to Draco.

Draco frowned and said, "Hello small multi-coloured child."

Teddy cocked his head at Draco and giggled then grabbed a strand of Draco's hair.

"Hey, not the hair wolfboy!" Draco objected.

This didn't put Teddy off, he closed his eyes tightly and turned his hair platinum blond, but he had failed to get the texture right and it was still curly like Hermione's.

Hermione laughed loudly, "Oh dear, we're confusing him. He's not quite at the point of understanding textures yet."

Draco frowned slightly at the boy who was still giggling as his hair gradually began to transition back towards its usual messy blue state.

"He's the easiest baby to take care of," Hermione said to Draco as Teddy began to grumble and his hair flashed red, "When he's happy his hair is sometimes pink or yellow and when he wants something his hair is red."

"How do you know what he wants though?" Draco asked in confusion, "And how have you looked after babies before, Granger?"

"My cousins have kids,” Hermione said in amusement, "And I'm guessing he wants his bottle looking at the time," she added as she glanced at the clock.

Harry looked over distractedly, "Yeah, it is time for his bottle. It's in the bag, Mione," he said, pushing the bag over to the sofa with his foot.

Draco was silent as Hermione pulled Teddy's bottle out of his bag and used a charm to make the formula milk mix itself as she bounced the little boy on her knee. She noticed Draco watching her and glanced over at him with a frown, "What?"

"Nothing," Draco said with a shake of his head.

Hermione narrowed her eyes at him, "What is it, Malfoy?"

"It's just a bit surreal," Draco admitted, "To see you two so..."

"Grown up?" Harry guessed.

"Co-raising a kid?" Hermione added.

"Well, yeah," Draco frowned, "I mean we're still so young ourselves. How do you do it?"

"Because Teddy needs us to," Harry said simply as he looked at the little boy, "He has no parents. His Grandmother, your Mother and you are the only blood family who he has left so as he grows up he's going to need people like Hermione and me as parental figures."

"But don't you find it hard?" Draco asked.

"Of course it's hard," Hermione replied, "It's horrible, watching him grow up when his parents should be here to do it. But occasionally watching him, feeding him and changing his nappies, no that isn't hard. Everyone needs a break and Andromeda did not expect to become a Grandmother and the sole carer of this little boy. She lost everything in the war and she needs our help as much as Teddy does."

Draco nodded and watched the boy with interest as the bottle finished stirring itself. Hermione picked it up and was about to start feeding Teddy when Draco interjected almost shyly, "Do you mind if I...feed him?"

Hermione smiled slightly and handed Teddy to Draco, "Of course not. Just hold him like this see? And hold the bottle like this, not too high up because the milk will come out too fast."

Draco nodded and handled Teddy like he was made of china. Hermione shot Harry an amused look as Teddy accepted the bottle happily. The dark haired boy smiled back, "Well there is a sight I never thought I would see."

"You and me both, Potter," Draco said, he was clearly trying to be his usual dry sarcastic self but the slight smile that had crept onto his face gave him away entirely.

***

"How was he, Harry?"

"Oh he was alright," Harry said with a smile. He was standing at the foot of the stairs in Andromeda's home, having just put Teddy down in his cot.

"I am sorry for leaving him with you," Andromeda said, “But it was lovely for Cissa and I to go out and enjoy ourselves again."

"It's alright," Harry yawned, "I had a lot of homework but Hermione and Draco helped out. I think he got commitment fears when he saw her with a baby mind you," he laughed.

"Draco and Hermione are together?" Andromeda asked in surprise.

Harry instantly realised his mistake and tried to go backpedal, "Uh...well...not...precisely-"

"Harry, don't lie to me," Andromeda said firmly.

"Yes, they are," Harry said quickly, "Only I didn't know that Draco hadn't told you yet. Don't tell him I told you, I didn't realise it was a secret. I mean they kissed in the common room last night-"

Andromeda was smiling as she interjected, "How serious is it?"

"Uh, well it's just started," Harry admitted, "They kissed and went on a date to Hogsmeade."

"Interesting," Andromeda said smoothly, "Well the cat is out of the bag now, so to speak. You really ought to be getting back to school, you look exhausted."

Harry nodded and yawned for the umpteenth time, "I am. I'm glad you had a good night though Andi."

***

"So much for an easy 8th Year," Draco grumbled as he walked into the Great Hall with Theo. It was Monday morning and there was now a long table parallel to the Head Table with several 8th Years already sitting at it.

"Yeah well if we'd actually started the project earlier than the night before it might have been okay," Theo said in amusement as they sat down on one side of the new table.

Hermione raised an eyebrow at them, "Did you get it finished?"

"Eventually," Draco yawned as he grasped at the coffee pot in the centre of the table, "And don't do your know-it-all thing and give me a lecture, I know I should have started it earlier," he said with a wave of his hand.

"I wasn't going to," Hermione said in amusement as Ron walked into the hall and sat down next to Hermione.

"Oh, hi Ron," Hermione said, a little surprised at this sudden gesture. They hadn't spoken a single word to each other since Ron had stormed out on Saturday.

"Morning," Ron said politely, "Did you think that potions project was a bitch or what?"

"Tell me about it," Theo grumbled, "We were up till 3am finishing it."

Ron yawned and reached for the coffee pot that Draco had just put down, "Yeah Harry and me barely slept either."

"Where is Harry?" Hermione asked as she glanced around the table, still frowning at Ron's apparent sudden forgiveness.

Ron sniggered, "He just happened to bump into Daphne Greengrass this morning on the way to the Great Hall so he ditched me to show her some cool secret passages."

Draco snorted, "Maybe he's finally going to have the balls to kiss her or at least tell her he likes her."

"Leave him alone," Hermione said defensively, "He's still very awkward around women."

"Who is? Ron?" Ginny asked as she sauntered over to their table and sat down on Hermione's other side, "Is he still acting like a 12-year-old boy in relationships?"

Theo snorted in amusement at this and Ron rolled his eyes, "Shut up Gin, unless you want the whole of my year to know about what happened before Bill and Fleur's wedding."

"Touché," Ginny said as she narrowed her eyes at her brother.

Hermione shook her head in amusement, "We were actually talking about Harry not Ron."

"And what's wrong with your own table, Weaslette?" Blaise retorted.

"It doesn't have coffee, Zabini," Ginny said smoothly, "And the company is terrible."

"Well if you will surround yourself with Griffins all the time what do you expect?" Draco said dryly.

"Says the guy who is _dating _the Gryffindor princess," Ginny said with a raised eyebrow at Draco.

"Excuse me? The Gryffindor _princess_?" Hermione asked in disbelief.

"That's what they call you, princess," Theo grinned.

"Who? Who the hell calls me that?" Hermione asked incredulously.

"Everyone," Ginny said in amusement, "You all have nicknames. Harry is the boy-who-lived or the chosen git depending on your viewpoint. Ron is _still _Weasel King after that one Quidditch success" (Ron grinned at this) "And you are the Gryffindor princess."

"Ironic really because they call Draco the Slytherin prince," Daphne said as she practically floated to the table with Harry at her heels. They sat down on the other side of the table.

"Do they?" Hermione asked in amusement.

"Apparently so," Draco replied with a smirk.

"Any other nicknames I should know about?" Hermione asked them all in general.

"Theo doesn't have nicknames as such," Tracey said thoughtfully, "He's just called a womaniser, or a general scumbag-"

"Oh very funny, Trace," Theo remarked, "You're just jealous that you don't have a nickname. The only other Slytherin who really does is Daph, she's the ice queen."

"Why?" Harry asked curiously.

"Because she's as cold as ice," Sadie said in amusement, "Or at least she _thinks _she is."

Daphne scoffed, "You think I care about the ice part? Draco is the Slytherin Prince and Granger is the Gryffindor Princess but honey I'm the _Queen_."

"Well by that logic, I'm the King," Ron pointed out in amusement, "So you're not that special, Greengrass."

"And who gives a crap what they call me?" Harry said with a grin, "Because I saved the wizarding world, _twice_."

"Potter, you were a baby the first time!" Draco remarked.

Harry opened his mouth to argue back but at that moment the post arrived and several owls dropped letters, newspapers and parcels at the 8th Year table which brought a stop to all conversations. Included in the post that morning was a letter addressed to Draco. A letter that made him pale significantly as he picked it up with slightly shaky hands.

"Oh shit mate, that's a howler," Theo said as he nudged him in the ribs, "You'd better open it."

"It's from my Mother," Draco said quietly, he recognised the handwriting.

"I'm not letting this blow up in our faces," Theo said as he grabbed the letter and broke the seal. Draco tried to stop him but it was too late. Contrary to the fact that 'howlers' were called 'howler's however, they didn't always howl. They were effectively a way to record your voice and replay it, so if the person spoke softly or normally it wasn't too bad _but _it was still amplified. So when Narcissa Malfoy's voice came from the letter it sounded relatively normal but it was still loud enough for the entire 8th Year table and the entirety of the Head Table to hear every word that was being said.

"_Draco Abraxas Malfoy,_

_I am ashamed that I had to find out about your new girlfriend through my sister who found out by accident from Harry Potter! You should have written to me right away! The poor girl will think that you are ashamed of her and that is no way to treat a lady! You are coming home for dinner in the Christmas holidays and you **will **be bringing Miss. Granger with you!"_

The letter burst into flames and Hermione let her head drop into her hands. She was absolutely mortified and Draco's cheeks were a brighter shade of red than Harry had ever seen.

Ron on the other hand was beside himself with laughter, "I'll definitely forgive you now,” he chortled to Hermione, "I think you've been embarrassed enough."

"Shut up Ron," Hermione despaired but her voice was muffled because her head was still in her hands.

Draco shot Harry a glare, "What did you tell Aunt Dromeda for?"

"How was I supposed to know you hadn't told anyone?" Harry retorted, "I didn't know it was supposed to be a secret! You kissed her in the middle of the common room for Godric's sake!"

"Harry," Hermione whined as she peered up, "Don't make this worse."

Draco and Harry both ignored this advice, they were staring each other down and everybody at the table was reminded of years gone by when this had been the norm rather than the exception.

"It wasn't a secret but I was reluctant to tell my Mother for _obvious _reasons!"

"Yeah like being ashamed of the fact she's a Muggle-born!" Harry said hotly, "Look Malfoy, if you can't get over her blood status-"

"Potter," Draco snapped as he pushed himself to his feet, "If I gave a shit about her blood status would I have asked her out?"

Harry pushed himself to his feet too, "I don't know Malfoy! How am I supposed to know what goes on in your warped and twisted mind?"

"ENOUGH!" McGonagall interjected as she suddenly appeared at the foot of the 8th Year table.

A barrier was thrown up between Draco and Harry before an inevitable duel could begin. Hermione was shaking her head in despair as the entire school listened into _her _business.

"Come on," Daphne murmured as she got to her feet, "Let's get out of here while the vultures are watching those two get eaten alive by McGonagall."

Hermione nodded and let Daphne link her arm into her own. They slipped out of the hall as the chaos kicked off.

"I have said it **_several _**times! This year is about uniting the houses and letting go of all prejudices and **_grudges_**! I do not care about what happened in the war! I do not care about who is dating who! Neither of you seem capable of learning to get along so you will **_both _**be serving detention together until you can!"

McGonagall's voice droned out as Hermione and Daphne escaped out into the entrance hall and then out to the snowy, icy grounds.

"Thanks," Hermione breathed, her face was still flushed.

"You looked like you needed out," Daphne said with a slight smile, "I can't imagine it's easy, having to try and reconcile two conflicting parts of your life like that."

Hermione frowned, "It's not but the irritating thing is that they both like each other. They have so much in common but they just won't admit it."

"Some people find it harder to let go of the past than others, Hermione," Daphne pointed out, "Especially people who have a tendency to hold grudges and Draco and Potter _both _have that tendency."

"They aren't the only ones," Hermione said quietly as they stopped by the lake.

"What happened to you in the war?" Daphne asked as she cast a warming charm on the ground and dropped down. She patted the spot next to her and continued, "You came back different. I mean, don't get me wrong a lot of people did...but I notice it in you more than anybody else."

"You didn't even know me before, so how can you tell that I'm different?" Hermione asked quietly as she sat down next to the blonde girl.

"I didn't know you but that doesn't mean I didn't notice you," Daphne said, "Draco and Pansy, I think they probably were in love in their own way. But that didn't stop him having feelings for you at the same time and I was his best friend through it all. I picked up on things."

Hermione frowned, "Things like?"

"Things like you never used to swear," Daphne said, "And you would never have let a guy like Draco just kiss you like he did. You would never have agreed to a date with him off the cuff like you did. You were cautious, you thought about everything several times before you delivered a decision and now...well now you seem impulsive."

Hermione's frown deepened as she thought about this, "I suppose I am more impulsive."

"But what happened Hermione?" Daphne asked calmly, "Because something clearly snapped inside you. Something happened and you decided that you were going to live your life and act on your impulses instead of doubt them."

Hermione was silent as she considered that. She barely knew Daphne so she really didn't have to tell her anything. After all, Hermione hadn't spoken to anyone about the majority of the war. She had spoken to Harry about the odd thing yes, but she had never talked to him about what happened at Malfoy Manor. He assumed that she didn't want to talk about it and Hermione had assumed Harry was happy to push the memories of that dreadful experience aside. She knew talking about it would open up the old wounds again but at the same time she doubted that they would ever heal properly if she didn't talk about it.

"A lot of things happened in the war that I'm not proud of," Hermione said quietly as she frowned down at her hands, "The world was different. Being on the run was surreal, like one long dream...although it was more of a nightmare really."

Daphne nodded and watched Hermione with interest as the dark haired girl continued, "Ron couldn't take the pressure. He and Harry had a huge fight and he left...he asked me to go with him and I was forced to choose."

"Between leaving with Weasley or staying with Potter," Daphne realised.

Hermione nodded, "And I stayed, not out of any sense of loyalty I don't think. Harry needed me more than Ron did, Harry had nobody out there and even in the real world he didn't have much. I knew Ron would run back to his family so I did what I thought was the right thing and stayed with Harry."

Daphne, like Hermione, was very perceptive, "And you two were intimate, right?"

Hermione wasn't surprised that Daphne had seen where she was going with the story. She didn't say anything at first, she just looked down at her shaking hands, "I had values before the war," she said in a whisper, "I might be a Muggle-born but my parents are respectable people. I went to Church growing up and I had always promised myself that I would...well, that I would get married first."

Daphne smiled slightly, "Well sweetheart if it makes you feel any better, that hardly ever happens in this day and age."

"It's the principle though," Hermione said quietly, "At the very least I wanted my first time to be with somebody that I loved, somebody that I had been dating for a little while. I wanted it to mean something...I never imagined it would be-" her voice caught in her throat.

Daphne reached over and took Hermione's hand. Hermione appreciated the gesture as she continued weakly, "I never imagined it would be in a dirty old tent in the middle of winter...with my best friend."

"I think you did love him, in your own way," Daphne said thoughtfully, "Maybe not in the conventional way that you are supposed to love someone. But then again conventional love doesn't always work out either. But you and Potter were always closer than you and Weasley weren't you? I always thought you'd get together actually...I remember you running the length of the great hall to hug him in 2nd year and I saw you with him after the Triwizard tournament."

"I suppose we've always gotten on better than Ron and I," Hermione admitted, "But that was only because Ron and I were so volatile. We fought about everything and then didn't speak for weeks sometimes. Harry and I had less falling outs and I did have a schoolgirl crush on him when we were younger but I grew out of it."

"So how did you end up sleeping with him?" Daphne asked curiously.

"I don't know," Hermione frowned, "I've still not worked it out. We were both lonely and Harry was practically dying from a venomous snake bite. I nursed him back to health and then one night when he was better we danced. I felt normal again for the first time in months and when he kissed me it just escalated. I didn't even try to stop it and Harry..." she bit her lip.

"It's okay, you can talk to me Hermione," Daphne said gently, "I know you don't know me very well yet but I'm a nice person despite all the ice queen stuff. I don't let people in very easily, that much is true, but when I like someone I'm a great friend and I like you."

Hermione smiled weakly, "Harry was perfectly considerate. He asked me so many times if I was okay and if I was sure...I had chances to back out but I didn't. We said the morning after that we would talk about it after the war and we did briefly. But it didn't seem to change anything oddly enough."

"I can understand why that would make you change your view on life," Daphne said thoughtfully, "But I think you can find some comfort in the fact you did love Potter even if it was only as a friend. It wasn't a drunken one-night stand, it did mean something."

"I guess," Hermione agreed.

"But I understand," Daphne added, "Why you feel the way you do. Your morals were questioned and you feel ashamed of yourself. I just hope this whole thing with Draco isn't a case of you feeling ashamed and incapable of dating decent guys."

Hermione shook her head, "No, it isn't. Don't ask me how or why but I've always known there was a good person in Draco Malfoy. I could see how afraid he was, I just didn't know what he was afraid of. But now I know, or at least I think I do...I think he's terrified of his Father."

Daphne looked away, "Well, that wouldn't be my place to say."

"I'm not asking you to," Hermione said honestly, "I saw it during the war. Did Draco ever tell you about what happened at Malfoy Manor?"

Daphne shook her head, "No, I asked but he refused to talk about it. All he said is that you, Potter and Weasley were captured and taken there."

Hermione glanced away from the blonde girl, "They took Harry and Ron and put them in the cellar underneath the drawing room and they kept me upstairs. Bellatrix Lestrange tortured me,” A darkness overcame Hermione then as she gritted her teeth, “She used the cruciatus curse on me until I stopped fighting her and then when I was weak enough she held me down and carved this into my arm with her knife."

Daphne frowned as Hermione pulled up her sleeve and showed the girl the thin, white scars.

"Draco and his parents were all there on the side-lines when she did it," Hermione added, "And Draco was the only one who tried to help."

"He tried to help you?" Daphne asked in surprise.

Hermione's eyes snapped up, "Yes, why do you sound so surprised about that?"

Daphne's calm expression flickered slightly, "The way he flinches when I mention it...the way he talks about you like you're so delicate I thought...well, I didn't think he had done anything. He's wracked with guilt."

Hermione glanced down at the frosty ground again, "Well he was forced to watch. His Father used a sticking charm on his feet when he ran forward. By the time we were escaping he had taken the charm off but by that point Draco couldn't have done anything to help anyway. He just stared at me in horror and then shut his eyes to block it all out...I wish I could have done the same."

Daphne squeezed the Gryffindor girls hand gently, "I'm sorry."

"See, that's why I hate talking about it," Hermione sighed, "Why are you sorry? Why is Draco sorry? The only people who should be sorry are Bellatrix Lestrange and Lucius Malfoy and they are both suffering now."

"But is that enough?" Daphne asked quietly.

"Yes," Hermione replied in a whisper, "It's enough."

***

"I can't believe you got us stuck in detention all night," Harry grumbled as he kicked the ground irritably. They had been charged with cleaning up debris from the final battle in the forbidden forest.

"You think this is _my _fault?" Draco asked in disbelief, "You are the one who spilled to Andromeda, Potter!"

"Which I apologised for!" Harry snapped, "I didn't know it was a secret! And the fact you didn't tell your Mother or Andromeda only proves that I was right about you Malfoy! Your Mother is okay with you dating a Muggle-born so your only reasons for not telling her are shame or embarrassment."

Draco groaned in frustration, "I'm not ashamed or embarrassed Potter! For once I just wanted to tell my Mother in my own time, in person not via floo or a letter! For my entire life my Father had people checking up on me! He knew from Snape or Crabbe or Goyle about everything that went on in my life! He _knew _if I stepped out of line and he punished me for it! I never got to tell my Mother anything and it was important to me to tell her about this myself!"

"Well I'm sorry, I didn't know," Harry muttered guiltily as he leant against a tree, "About any of that."

"I don't like to talk about my past Potter," Draco said irritably.

"Why?" Harry asked curiously.

"Because talking about it doesn't change it," Draco said darkly, “It doesn't take away the pain or erase the bad memories."

"It doesn't change it but a burden shared is a burden halved, Malfoy," Harry said honestly, "It helps, talking about it."

Draco looked up at Harry with stormy eyes, "You think I'll feel better by telling you about the corporal punishment my Father used on me to get me to obey the rules? Do you think I'll feel _better _by letting you know about the fact he spied on every single aspect of my life?"

"Is that what you're so terrified of?" Harry asked quietly, "Because anyone with eyes can see that you were always afraid of something...ever since the war kicked off again in 4th year. I mean if it is him you can't hide behind that anymore because he's locked up in the high security sector of Azkaban."

"I'm not scared of my Father, Potter," Draco said as his eyes flashed dangerously, "I'm scared of becoming my Father."

Harry surveyed Draco with interest, "You aren't going to become your Father, Draco."

"I'm scared one day everything he did to me is going to make something inside me snap," Draco said as he looked away from the Gryffindor, "I've been on the verge of darkness so many times and every time it's harder to pull myself back from the edge... I think one day I'm going to fall into the same dark pit that my Father did and that fucking terrifies me, Potter."

Harry sighed half-heartedly, "You won't. I know that you won't," he said as he sat down on a tree stump, "Make sure this information stays between us but I knew that Ron and Hermione wouldn't last. I knew that he wasn't good enough for her, I knew his temper would scare her...and I knew that he wouldn't be intelligent enough for her."

Draco sat down next to Harry on the stump, "What does this have to do with me?"

"You are good enough," Harry said softly, "Despite everything that you've done, you are good enough. You make her smile and laugh and that's been hard since the war. You stimulate her, you challenge her and you kind of scare her but not in a bad way," he glanced up at Draco's perplexed face, "I know you might find it hard to believe, especially coming from me but I never hated you Malfoy. You irritated the hell out of me and I felt quite sorry for you in 6th year but the only person I have ever truly hated is thankfully dead and gone. Hermione is your light amongst the darkness, she's the reason that you won't become your Father because you love her and love is the purest emotion there is."

Draco glanced at the boy to his right, "That was really deep."

Harry smiled slightly at the blonde, "Yeah well I try and be the tough guy but I'm not really."

"Hermione wasn't kidding when she said you were a big softy," Draco said as he chuckled.

"Nah she wasn't," Harry agreed and as he glanced at Draco they caught each other's eyes.

"I think we just became friends," Draco said, sounding remotely disturbed at the prospect.

"That's what happens when you share Malfoy, people understand _why _you're a dick," Harry said sarcastically.

Draco laughed, "What do we do now? A handshake?"

Harry grinned in amusement as he got to his feet, "Come on, let's hug it out."

"Friends or not, I'm not hugging you Potter," Draco said dryly.

"Oh come on Malfoy, that's what friends do," Harry smirked, "They hug it out!"

***

"I just saw the _weirdest _thing on my way back up here from the greenhouses," Neville said in amusement as he walked over to Hermione in the busy common room.

Hermione glanced up from where she was sitting with Daphne and Susan Bones. She smiled at Neville, "Oh yeah, what did you see?"

"Harry and Malfoy," Neville said with a raised eyebrow, "Hugging in the forbidden forest."

Daphne snorted in amusement and glanced at Hermione, "Do you reckon you should be worried?"

Hermione laughed, "I'm just relieved to be honest. I hate it when people can't get along, especially when I'm at the centre of it."

"He's not actually too bad," Neville agreed, "I thought he might still be a bit of a dick but-"

Hermione cut in, "You can be honest around me Neville, he's still a dick."

Neville sniggered, "Well yeah he's still a dick but he's a nicer dick."

Daphne snorted again and Neville's cheeks reddened, "That came out wrong, didn't it?"

"Just a bit," Daphne grinned.

Neville shook his head in amusement and exasperation, "I'm going to go find Han, see you guys later."

He walked off and Hermione chuckled as she closed her book.

"Are you going to bed?" Daphne asked in surprise, it was still early.

"No," Hermione replied, "I've just finished my book, I'm going to grab a new one," she said as she absentmindedly waved _"Pride and Prejudice" _in front of the Slytherin girl.

"You should try some wizarding fiction," Daphne commented, "I've got a few books I could lend you."

"What are you reading at the moment?" Hermione asked casually as she picked up Daphne's book, which she had left sitting on the sofa.

"Nothing important," Daphne said quickly as she snatched the book from Hermione.

It was too late however because Hermione had seen the title of the book and she smirked as she looked up at the Slytherin girl, "Well, well, Daphne Greengrass. Was that a copy of "_Wuthering Heights" _that I saw?"

Daphne rolled her eyes, "Alright, so I sometimes read the Muggle stuff, I admit it!"

Hermione grinned, "You psyched me out for my choice of book so I think it's only fair that I do the same for you. After all, there must be some parallels right?"

"Wrong," Daphne said as she crossed her arms and smirked at the Gryffindor, "But by all means give it your best shot."

"Well let's see, the main characters are Catherine Earnshaw and Heathcliff," Hermione said calmly, "A woman expected to marry for status and a poor boy who came from nothing. You're expected to marry for status aren't you?"

"That doesn't mean anything," Daphne objected.

"So let me see. The basic plot summary then...Catherine is in love with Heathcliff but he's too poor, hes uncouth. She doesn't care when she's younger but as she gets older things begin to change and she makes the decision to marry for status, she marries Edward Linton. But she always loves Heathcliff more. Their love is destructive though, it's strong and passionate but it's not necessarily the best thing, for either of them."

"Good plot summary," Daphne smirked, "What does it have to do with me though? I'm not in love with anyone and I haven't married for status."

"No, but you do like romantic heroes," Sadie, her best friend, smirked.

Hermione grinned, "Ah, in that case I've _definitely _worked you out!"

Sadie shot her friend a grin, "Oh yeah, it's easy really. What does Daphne love in a man? A hero, a slightly dark, twisted hero. A _broody _hero with scars and a dark past, a man shrouded in mystery."

Daphne glanced between the two girls warily and Hermione smiled gently as she asked, "So how long have you returned Harry's crush for, Daphne?"

Sadie had to hide her smirk behind her book as Daphne stiffened, "I don't know where you got that idea from Granger. You certainly couldn't have gotten it from the book-"

"You figured out that I had feelings for Draco because of a book," Hermione said pointedly, "I don't know why you won't admit it. Are you completely oblivious to the fact that he's had a crush on you since 6th Year?"

Daphne rolled her eyes, "I don't have a _crush _on him. I do not do crushes, alright? I find him attractive and he has an alluring personality...and a nice smile."

Hermione grinned and Sadie cut in, "But?"

"But _I'm_ not going to make a move," Daphne scoffed, "He's the man and he's the bloody chosen one! If he doesn't have the balls to make a move he's forgotten, simple as."

Hermione chuckled at her logic as she got to her feet, "Well that sounds reasonable enough to me Daphne so I'll drop it. Now, what were you saying about those books of yours I could borrow?"

**TBC :)**


	12. Trouble in Paradise

"Hey, can I talk to you guys?"

Harry and Hermione both looked up from the sofa they were sitting on. The common room was practically empty as Ron stood awkwardly in front of them.

"Sure," Hermione replied and she scooted along so that Ron could sit down next to her.

Ron did so and then he smiled at them, "I'm sorry for losing my temper. I suppose I was a little jealous...I know that you didn't want to be with me but I couldn’t get my head around you being with Malfoy after everything that’s happened.”

Hermione glanced down guiltily.

"Don't feel guilty about it," Ron said when he saw the look on her face, "I get it now. You and I wouldn't have worked as a couple, we argue way too much."

"Are you feeling okay mate?" Harry asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Yeah, why?" Ron asked in confusion.

"This is really mature of you," Harry said as he narrowed his eyes at the redhead, "Who are you and what have you done with Ron Weasley?"

Ron snorted in amusement, "I'm still me. I'm just doing what everybody else seems to be trying to do and letting go of these old grudges. They'll get me nowhere in life, you're right. I'm not going to become friends with Malfoy or start calling him _Draco_ mind you."

Hermione laughed, "That sounds like a reasonable idea," she said happily.

Ron nodded, "Yeah well, I'm alright with you and Malfoy. I suppose there are worse blokes out there. I can't think of any right now but I'm sure there must be."

"Tony Blair," Harry said fervently, "He's definitely worse."

"Ugh," Hermione agreed, "Definitely."

"I have no idea who Tony Blair is," Ron said as he got to his feet, "But I’m going to bed, you coming Harry?"

"Nah, I'll be up soon though," Harry said nonchalantly, "Night Ron."

Hermione got to her feet and hugged Ron, "Thanks Ron, it means a lot that you're okay with this."

Ron smiled sheepishly at her as he pulled back from the hug, "You're my best friend Hermione. I'm not going to let that go because of your poor decision making."

Hermione swiped her arm at him playfully. She tried to smack him around the head but he ducked with a grin and headed in the direction of the boy’s dorms. When he was gone Hermione glanced back at Harry, "That was a shock."

"That was not Ron," Harry said in disbelief as he pulled the Marauders Map from his robes and murmured, "Mischief Managed."

Hermione rolled her eyes as she leant on the back of the sofa and looked at the map over Harry's shoulder, "Merlin Harry, you really are paranoid."

Harry glanced over the map and said, "Okay...that was Ron."

"Who else would he be?" Hermione retorted, "Did you think Draco would just take some polyjuice and pretend to be Ron for a laugh?"

"Honestly, I wouldn't put it past Malfoy," Harry said, his voice laced with amusement, "I'm telling you something though, there is something very odd about Ron right now. He's too calm and forgiving, that's just not him at all."

"Here's a shocking idea for you Harry," Hermione said as she kissed her best friend on the cheek and walked towards the staircase to her own dorm, "Maybe he's just growing up."

"Not possible!" Harry called after her. Hermione just shook her head in amusement and continued up to her dorm, grateful that the conflicting pieces of her life seemed to be coming together.

***

"What _are _you doing?"

Harry shoved the Marauders map into his robes and looked up sheepishly at Daphne, "Nothing."

Daphne raised an eyebrow at him and sat down on the edge of his armchair, "You were looking at a map."

"Uh, no I wasn't," Harry lied.

"It had moving objects on it," Daphne added, "I'm not blind Potter and you are being sketchy. What are you up to?"

Harry glanced around the common room and shuffled to the left, "Come closer and I'll show you," he said quietly.

Daphne smirked and promptly sat down on Harry's lap, "Close enough for you Potter?"

Harry was taken aback but nodded, "Uh...yeah," he said, without realising that he was still whispering.

Daphne glanced playfully at him, "It must be a big secret if we have to whisper."

Harry laughed and pulled the map out of his robes, "It is a big secret I don't just show this to everybody. This is map of Hogwarts, it shows every person in this school, where they are and what they are doing, every minute of every day."

Daphne gazed at the map in amazement, "Wow...that's an impressive piece of magic. Why were you staring at it so intently?"

Harry looked sheepish again, "Well, ever since Ron made up with Hermione and I last week he's been really nice...he even said he was okay with Hermione and Draco dating. Then he had a conversation with Draco at breakfast yesterday."

"And?" Daphne asked in amusement, "Have you ever considered the possibility that he's finally matured?"

Harry rolled his eyes, "You sound exactly like Hermione! It's more than that, somebody doesn't just change overnight so I've been watching him on the map. I think he's meeting up with a girl but he won't give anything away when I ask him who."

"So you're effectively stalking your best friend?" Daphne asked in disbelief as the common room door opened and Draco and Hermione walked in. The blonde had his arm around her, and Hermione was chuckling, they had just returned from the library.

Harry attempted to hide the map behind his back when he saw them walking over. Hermione grinned and Draco raised an eyebrow when they saw Daphne on Harry's lap.

"Well, that happened quickly," Draco said smoothly.

"What?" Harry asked sharply, "Nothing happened. I was just...showing Daphne…something."

"In public?" Draco joked.

Hermione narrowed her eyes at Harry and reached behind him in a flash. She pulled the map out and sighed, "Harry! We have talked about this! Stalking people on a map is an invasion of privacy!"

"Oh sweet Salazar," Draco despaired, "How many times Potter? I keep telling you this, you need a girlfriend."

"I'm not stalking him," Harry said as he grabbed the map back from Hermione, "He _must _be meeting a girl but he won't say who!"

"It's Ron's business," Hermione said irritably, "And if he doesn't want to tell you that's his choice. It doesn't mean you can spy on him; this is like 6th Year all over again!"

"Who did you stalk in 6th Year?" Daphne asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Draco," Hermione said with a pointed look at her boyfriend.

Draco looked over at the Gryffindor girl, "Yeah?"

Hermione laughed, "No, I mean Draco was who he was stalking."

Draco looked at Harry in amusement, "Well Potter, I never knew you felt that way about me."

"I wasn't _stalking _you Malfoy. For the last time Hermione-" Harry began irritably.

"- you followed him all of the time. You lay in bed watching him on that map and at one point you said you were becoming so obsessed with Draco Malfoy that you were losing interest in Quidditch," Hermione interjected.

Daphne smirked, "Somebody has obsessive tendencies."

"I was doing it because I knew he was up to something and I turned out to be right," Harry said offhandedly, “But that isn't the point anyway. The point is Ron is clearly seeing someone and he doesn't want to tell us who it is."

"Hermione's right, it's not your business," Daphne cut in.

"Is anyone on my side here?" Harry asked, almost huffily.

"You are kind of invading everyone's privacy," Draco pointed out.

Harry nudged Daphne gently to the side and stood up, stuffing the map into his robes as he did so, "Fine! Then I'll just stalk - I mean, follow - him on my own!" he said as he left the common room and shut the door rather loudly behind him as he did.

***

Harry was left frowning, and feeling guilty, after he _had _followed Ron that evening. He had stayed a reasonable distance behind him and had ended up following him all the way to the Hospital Wing. Harry didn't have his cloak so he didn't go inside but he was instantly worried when he realised that this was where Ron had been sneaking off to, not to meet a girl. So he had decided to sit in the corridor outside and wait for Ron to come out, aware he'd probably go mental when he found out that Harry had been spying on him.

When the door finally opened and Ron walked out he saw Harry instantly. The redhead froze and then frowned, "What are you doing?"

"I was following you," Harry admitted sheepishly.

Ron didn't go mental, he just snorted, "_Why_?"

"I thought you were meeting a girl," Harry said as he pushed himself to his feet, "I thought that was why you kept sneaking off. I was nosy."

Ron shook his head in amusement and laughed loudly, "I've been taking your advice. I've just had my third meeting with Pomfrey about my anger. She was giving me _therapy _can you believe? Apparently things I didn't realise bothered me have really fucked me up."

"Yeah like?" Harry asked curiously as they fell into step with each other.

"Gin nearly getting killed in 2nd year," Ron shrugged, "And my own guilt for abandoning you in the war."

"You still feel guilty for that?" Harry asked in surprise, "Hermione and me forgave you."

"I know," Ron said as he looked down at his feet, "Doesn't mean I forgive myself though, does it? You must know what that's like."

"All too well," Harry sighed as he glanced at his best friend, "So it's helping then?"

"Yeah," Ron said honestly, "It's just talking…and learning to think about things rather than act on impulse."

"Ironic really," Harry said with a grin, "You're learning not to act on impulse too much and Hermione's doing the opposite."

Ron shook his head in amusement, "I know, before the war Hermione would never have snogged Draco Malfoy."

"She snogged Krum," Harry pointed out, "He was sort of a 'bad boy' as well wasn't he? A famous Quidditch player with a womanising reputation from Durmstrang. He's actually quite like Malfoy."

Ron frowned, "Bloody hell, I never noticed that! D'you reckon she's liked Malfoy for that long?"

"Who knows?" Harry laughed as he clapped Ron on the shoulder, "I'll never understand girls."

Ron snorted, "You and me both mate. It's funny you know, that you were following me because you thought I was meeting a girl."

"How come?" Harry asked conversationally.

Ron grinned, "Cause there is a girl too."

Harry returned his grin, "Who?"

"I'm not gonna tell you," Ron said with a laugh, "I mean I _was _going to tell you but if you're gonna go to the extent of stalking me to figure out who she is I'll let you work it out for yourself."

Harry could have kicked himself, "Alright, I suppose I deserve that one. Are you really not going to tell me who she is?"

"I'm really not gonna tell you," Ron grinned, "_And _I'm going to start meeting her in unplottable locations," he added as he jogged ahead of Harry.

"Oh come on, I'm your best mate!" Harry called after the redhead, but alas it was futile.

***

"So you and the Weasel have made up then?" Draco asked conversationally.

September had now become October, and it was a late night which meant that the common room had been virtually empty when Harry slipped in from a midnight wander to the kitchens.

"Yeah," Harry said cheerfully, "The golden trio is golden once more."

Draco nodded thoughtfully, "You three are really close, like family."

"I suppose we are family in a way," Harry agreed as he sat down next to the blonde, "What are you getting at here?"

"You know her really well, Hermione that is," Draco said.

Harry shrugged, "She's my best friend and I've known her for years. I might have met Ron first but Hermione's stuck with me through everything, she's always believed in me even when Ron didn't and she's never given up on me."

"What do you mean?" Draco asked.

"Right, do you know what I was doing last year?" Harry asked bluntly.

"Destroying his horcruxes," Draco replied, "I assume that's what it was from the conversations I overheard afterwards. It's not public knowledge though, is it?"

Harry shook his head, "Nah, it isn't. Anyway we found the first one easily enough but we didn't know how to destroy it. So to keep it safe while on the run we had to take turns wearing it and it brought out the worst in all of us. When Ron wore it he got paranoid about me and Hermione and he started complaining about the fact we didn't have a plan. Eventually we had a massive argument and he left so for a good while it was just Hermione and me on the run and we didn't need Ron, we managed fine without him. Hermione cried a lot mind you and I missed him but we got used to each other's company."

Draco nodded, he was listening intently and nodding in all the right places, he was intrigued by the tale.

"I know that Ron came back in the end but it doesn't change the fact that he left in the first place. He redeemed himself by saving my life and I do still trust him but not as much as I trust Hermione, I don't think I'll ever trust him as much as I trust her," Harry admitted looking as though he felt riddled with guilt, "Truthfully that's why I don't think Ron was good enough for Hermione. If he really loved her he would have stayed, he would have protected her."

"I understand that," Draco said after listening to Harry's tale, "After all, how can you trust someone who left you in a time when you were vulnerable? As for fucking off and leaving the woman he supposedly loves, well it's not very romantic is it?"

Harry chuckled and shook his head in amusement at Draco's view on the situation, "No, it isn't and to be entirely honest I don't think Hermione's quite forgiven him yet. But she will, just like I did. I guess that's why I know Hermione so well, I was the one who comforted her through the time in her life when she was most vulnerable...and she's done the same for me over the years. I don't think we have any secrets actually; we know everything about each other."

"And you've never thought about her as anything more than a close friend?" Draco asked, he narrowed his eyes at Harry as he spoke.

Harry glanced down awkwardly, "Honestly Malfoy, that's not my place to say."

Draco's eyes flashed, "What?"

"You heard me," Harry said as he cleared his throat, "All I can tell you is that it's complicated but these days I view her as a very close friend but not quite like a sister like I used to. All I know is that she'll always be in my life.”

"Now?" Draco asked dangerously, "Potter, does that mean that something has happened between you and Hermione?"

"I told you Malfoy," Harry said, a little snappishly, "That isn't my place to say. You'll have to ask Hermione."

"Potter!" Draco hissed as Harry walked swiftly towards the stairs up to the dorms, "Potter, you better not walk away from me!"

"It's not my place, Malfoy!" Harry snapped for a final time before he disappeared from view.

***

"Granger," Draco said darkly as he caught up to her in between classes.

Hermione frowned, "Granger? Merlin, what have I done to piss you off today?"

"A word," Draco said as he looked around the empty corridor and pulled her into a broom cupboard.

Hermione's frown deepened, "You're scaring me Draco."

"Potter and I had a chat last night," Draco said coolly, "And I asked him about you."

Hermione's heart sank, she had a feeling that she knew what was coming, "Draco-"

"-he hinted that something had happened between you both but _insisted _that it was your story to tell, not his," Draco continued, "So do tell, Granger."

Hermione fixed him with a hard look, "If you must know… I slept with him during the war and you really have no right to be angry about it. It has _nothing _to do with you, it was well before any of _this _started," she said with an angry hand motion.

"It might have escaped your notice but Potter and I have always been at odds because we want the same things," Draco said hotly, "So knowing he got the one thing I wanted more than anything else before me does piss me off!"

"Thing?" Hermione asked loudly, "So I'm a thing now? An object to be won!"

"No, Hermione," Draco cut in, "I didn't-"

"-No Draco," Hermione snapped, "That's exactly what you meant! Frankly the fact your _ego _is all you are worried about says it all! You don't care about the fact I struggle with the guilt every single day about what happened, I had values before the war you know! But no, all you care about is the fact that Harry slept with me before you got a chance to, so fuck you Malfoy!"

"Hermione-" Draco said feebly as he tried to grab her arm.

Hermione pushed it away however and yanked open the door. She stalked away before Draco had a chance to try and say anything more to make her stay.

***

"Oh hold up, trouble in paradise," Dean said in amusement as Hermione stalked into the great hall for dinner a few minutes before Draco walked in looking huffy.

Harry glanced down at his food guiltily and made an excuse to leave. Daphne frowned as he darted out of the hall via the Slytherin table so he didn't have to walk past Draco or Hermione. The 'couple' reached the 8th Year table and sat down at opposite ends which didn't go amiss by the rest of the table.

Theo whistled, "First fight?" he asked loudly.

"It wasn't a fight," Draco muttered irritably.

"Looks like it was a fight," Blaise pointed out as Hermione stabbed a sausage angrily.

Theo snorted, "She's definitely taking her anger out on that sausage," he said.

"What did you fight about?" Dean chortled.

"Nothing," Draco mumbled, "I suppose it was just inevitable that we'd both have secrets."

"Uh, yeah," Theo said as if this was obvious.

Draco rolled his eyes and got to his feet, "Screw this, I'm not even hungry," he said irritably and he left the hall as quickly as he had entered it.

***

"What happened?"

"I _don't _want to talk about it," Hermione said through gritted teeth.

Daphne raised an eyebrow at the brunette, "Hermione, the pig is already dead," she said as Hermione stabbed her sausage for the 4th time.

Hermione sighed and let her fork drop onto the plate, "He found out, alright?" she said as she caught the blonde's eye.

Daphne immediately understood and nodded, "Got it. Do you want to go for a walk and talk or something?"

"I want to come on this walk, I feel like I'm missing out on so many girly chats," Sadie piped up from Hermione's other side.

Hermione smiled weakly, "Yeah, come on," she agreed. After all, Draco had already stormed from the hall and Hermione didn't have much of an appetite anymore anyway. So she left with the two Slytherin girls and they settled on an abandoned classroom on the 1st floor for a convenient chatting spot.

Hermione pushed herself up onto the dusty teacher's desk, "I slept with Harry during the war and Draco found out."

Sadie frowned, "So?"

"So Draco's an idiot," Daphne said as she rolled her eyes, "And he probably got pissed off even though it has literally _nothing _to do with him."

"You know your best friend well," Hermione said sarcastically, "He also called me a thing! He was only pissed off because Harry got to me before he did!”

"He said that?" Sadie asked in disbelief.

"Yeah," Hermione replied.

Daphne shook her head, "He's my best friend but he really can be such a dickhead."

Hermione kicked the table absentmindedly, "So I told him to fuck off and then I stormed out."

"Good for you!" Sadie said hotly, "You show him whose boss Hermione!"

Hermione smiled in amusement at the girl, "Thanks Sadie."

"Did you break up then?" Daphne asked, "Already?"

"No," Hermione admitted, "At least I don't think we did...I've never broken up with someone so I wouldn't know."

"What are you going to do now?" Sadie asked.

"Give him the silent treatment until I get a decent apology," Hermione said irritably, "And possibly for a bit longer."

Daphne smirked in amusement, "He'll come grovelling, _mark my words_."

***

"Sorry."

Harry had been avoiding Draco so he was surprised when the Slytherin walked into his dorm. The only other person here was Ron who knew about Harry and Hermione's fling in the war.

"What?"

Draco rolled his eyes, "Don't make me say it again," he said irritably, "I was wrong to shout at you for what happened."

"Well, it does have nothing to do with you," Ron pointed out, "If anyone should have been pissed off it was me."

Harry looked at Ron in amusement, "And you were pissed off, I remember."

Ron shrugged, "I had reason though mate, he doesn't."

"As much as I hate to admit it, Weasley you have a point," Draco said dryly, "My ego was the only thing affected."

"Because I slept with her before you did?" Harry asked in disbelief, "Seriously Malfoy?"

"Does everything have to be a competition between you two?" Ron asked conversationally.

"It shouldn't be," Draco said irritably as he sat down on the edge of Ron's bed to which Ron looked remotely disturbed.

"Oi, contaminate somebody else's bed!"

Draco rolled his eyes and moved to Neville's vacant bed, "I just hate you being better than me at anything. But I inadvertently called Hermione an object."

Ron snorted, "Wow, nice one Malfoy."

Harry shook his head in exasperation, "Yeah well, that wasn't very clever of you. Have you apologised yet?"

"No, I've been avoiding her until I can work out how to do it," Draco said with a deep sigh as he lay back on Neville's bed, "I mean normally I'd just buy a girl flowers and chocolate but that won't work with the bloody princess will it? She'll just scoff and say "Draco, you can't buy my affections" or something equally Gryffindor-ish."

Harry raised an eyebrow at the Slytherin man, "Well done, you've got an excellent grasp on your girlfriend."

"Not that she'll be your girlfriend for much longer if you keep screwing up," Ron retorted in amusement.

"Maybe I should buy her a book," Draco pondered.

"You'd still be buying her affections dumbass," Ron muttered.

Harry sniggered at the interplay, he opened his mouth to agree when the door opened and Neville walked in. He frowned as he stood in the doorway, "Uh, why is Draco Malfoy in my bed?"

"Because I have fucked up immensely Longbottom," Draco said irritably.

"Yeah the whole great hall saw," Neville said as he sat down on the edge of his bed, "That's got to be a record. It's even shorter than Ron's relationships in 6th year."

"Oi!" Ron objected half-heartedly.

"And we haven't broken up," Draco added, "At least I don't think we have. She said "fuck you Malfoy", not "I'm breaking up with you" so..."

"They kind of mean the same thing," Neville snorted.

"No, "I'm breaking up with you" means she's breaking up with me," Draco said matter of factly, "But "fuck you Malfoy" could mean something else entirely."

Ron scoffed, "Oh come on Malfoy, we all know that _isn't _what she meant."

"She meant go fuck yourself Malfoy," Harry said in amusement, "Which is pretty similar to a break-up. Although Ginny just sort of cried when I broke up with her..."

"Lavender cried and then hit me," Ron said with a frown.

"I've never broken up with anyone," Neville said with a shrug, "So I couldn't comment."

"Helpful guys," Draco muttered.

"I think the moral of this conversation Malfoy is that you need to apologise," Harry said, looking mildly amused, "With words and _affection _not objects bought with money."

"Good luck with that one then," Ron sniggered.

"Just quote Muggle literature," Neville said with a sly smile, "She'll fall into your arms. Her favourite book is "Pride and Prejudice" so try something like I'm sorry Hermione but angry people are not always wise."

Harry, Ron and Draco looked at Neville with a mixture of amusement and surprise until Harry said, "This is why I thought you were gay for years Nev."

"You thought I was gay?" Neville snorted.

"You _love _dancing, you danced with yourself for weeks before the Yule Ball! And you just quoted Muggle literature at us," Ron sniggered, "Can you blame us?"

Neville rolled his eyes, "I was raised by my bloody Grandmother, I had a lack of male role models in my life. But I'll have you know, girls _love _it when guys quote Muggle romantic literature. Just ask Ginny."

"Woah, fucking hell Neville!" Ron exclaimed, "That is my _sister_ you're talking about!"

Harry snorted in amusement, "Come on Ron you already knew they slept together when we were on the run.”

"Knowing about it is one thing, it doesn't mean I want to know the gory details," Ron said with an upturned look on his face, "Listening to you and Ginny through the wall was bad enough!"

Draco sniggered, "Never thought you had it in you, Potter."

Neville grinned in amusement, "I think it was actually Ginny who had it in-"

"That is my fucking sister, mate!"

***

"Good morning," Draco said tentatively as he sat down next to Hermione at the 8th Year table.

"Is it?" Hermione asked coolly, "It's raining."

Draco glanced at the enchanted roof, torrential rain was pouring down outside, "Yeah well it was figurative, Granger."

"Good to know, Malfoy," Hermione said without taking her eyes off of her textbook.

"Do you want a cup of coffee?"

Hermione raised an eyebrow at the blonde, "The coffee in the middle of the table that I can reach over and grab whenever I want?"

Draco resisted the urge to roll his eyes, she was not an easy woman to please, "Yes I know, but let me get you a cup."

"I can get one myself," Hermione said simply.

"I know, but let me get you one," Draco said again.

Hermione looked at him irritably, "Fine!"

He nodded, somewhat triumphantly and poured her a cup of coffee then mumbled something as he slid it over to her. Hermione narrowed her eyes at him and lifted the coffee mug up, she sniffed it tentatively and Draco really did roll his eyes that time.

"You think putting cinnamon in my coffee is going to make me forgive you?" Hermione asked in disbelief as she objectively put the cup back on the table.

"You love cinnamon in coffee," Draco said fervently.

"Yes and the fact you know that is slightly disturbing," Hermione said shortly, "And not enough to make me forgive you either!"

Draco groaned amidst the laughter from much of the table, "Then what am I supposed to do to get you to forgive me Granger?" he asked over the noise of hundreds of owls entering the great hall.

"You'll have to work _that _out for yourself," Hermione said firmly as the latest edition of The Daily Prophet was dropped in front of her. She unrolled it and immediately gasped as her eyes scanned the front page and the headline that came with it.

"What?" Draco asked anxiously as he peered at the paper.

"The Ministry have introduced a new act," Hermione said quickly, "The Magical Persons Registration Act...under this new legislation _all _Witches and Wizards must register with the Ministry of Magic, detailing their names, addresses, blood status..."

"Fuck off," Harry muttered angrily, "That sounds suspiciously like what they tried to do to the Muggle-borns in the war!"

"They can't force us to disclose that!" Theo objected.

They weren't the only ones objecting and reacting with shock to the headline. There was an uproar throughout the great hall which caused McGonagall to stand up and shout, "SILENCE!"

Their respect for the Headmistress was such that the hall fell deadly silent instantly as all of the students looked to McGonagall, "I would like to address the front page of today's edition of The Daily Prophet. I understand that it looks similar to the Muggle-born Registration Act that many of you witnessed during the war. _However, _that is not what this is at all. All documents held by the Ministry were destroyed during the war, therefore the Ministry require all Witches and Wizards to give their information again. The first time this information was given was during the last census in 1991. All of you were underage, so this information was submitted by your parents if you were living in the wizarding world. However, if you are a Muggle-born this information would have been supplied to the Ministry when you received your Hogwarts letter. If you are under the age of 16 you do not have to give this information because it will be provided by your parents or guardian. If you are between 16 and 17 you will be able to submit this information on Saturday when Ministry officials will be here at the school. If you are over 17, which I am afraid means the 8th Years and perhaps some 7th Years, you must go to the Ministry on Saturday and submit this information. The professors must also do this so we will be transporting you in groups to the Ministry. This is simply a way to resupply the Ministry with your information, it is _not _a way to keep tabs on you. Is this understood?"

"Sounds like great fun," Theo muttered sarcastically, “We have to spend our whole Saturday at the Ministry answering questions about ourselves?"

"Stop being a whiny baby about it Theo," Sadie said as she reached over the boy to grab a slice of toast, "It won't take the whole day and if you behave and answer all the questions I'll buy you a pint afterwards."

"Alright, done," Theo replied quickly, probably a little too quickly.

Daphne snorted in amusement at the exchange, "I wonder if we'll be able to slip away from the teachers and nab a Saturday in London."

"Oh we can, easy," Harry smirked, "Mione, Ron and me know the Ministry like the back of our hands-"

"- yeah, because we illegally stormed it," Ron snorted.

Hermione narrowed her eyes at them both, "Yes, we did and I still feel guilty about it. We shouldn't slip away from the teachers, it would-"

"- oh come on Granger," Draco said as he nudged her, "Live a little. It might be _fun_."

"Not if you're going to be there it won't be," Hermione said without even looking at Draco.

"So you still haven't forgiven me then?" Draco said with a sigh.

"I don't forgive people overnight Malfoy," Hermione said pointedly, "Just ask Ron."

Ron nodded and swallowed his mouthful, "If you're lucky it'll be a couple weeks’ mate, if you're unlucky we're talking months."

**TBC :)**


	13. The Registration Act

As Saturday rolled in, Harry's guessing game of who Ron was dating got more elaborate. Every time he passed his friend in the corridor or saw him in the great hall or the common room he would try and guess who his mystery girlfriend was. When he had exhausted the 'usual' culprits his guesses began to get more and more ridiculous.

"Hey Ron," Harry said conversationally as he passed him enroute to Charms, "Sally Smith?"

Ron blanched, "What? No _way _mate!"

...

Over dinner that evening, "Hey Ron. Is it Susan Bones?"

"Uh, no," Ron grinned.

...

In the common room one night, "Right then, how about Luna Lovegood?"

Ron laughed, "Nah, Luna's great but she's a bit wacky."

...

Over a breakfast of porridge and coffee, "Angelina Johnson?"

"She's dating my brother!"

...

Whispered at the back of Divination, "Gabrielle Delacour?"

"I've not seen her since the wedding and she's my sister-in-law,” Ron said in amusement, "Anyway, isn't she like 16?"

"I dunno," Harry frowned, "I suppose she did look quite young when we were in 4th year..."

...

While they were writing a Transfiguration essay in the library Harry suggested, "Sinistra?"

"_Professor _Sinistra?" Ron asked in amusement.

Harry shrugged, "Yeah there's only like what a 10-year age gap?"

"I wish," Ron smirked, "Sinistra is _hot_."

"She is, although I'm not that keen on brunettes myself," Harry said offhandedly.

Ron grinned, "Yeah you prefer blondes," he muttered as Daphne walked into the library.

Harry shot his best friend a half-hearted glare, "Oh shut up."

***

On Saturday morning the great hall was bustling. Harry yawned over his toast and poured out his second cup of coffee as Daphne slung herself in next to him.

"Rough night Potter?"

"That bloody Potions essay," Harry yawned, "Want coffee?"

"Sure," Daphne said with a slight smile.

Harry poured her a mug and put the coffee pot back in the middle of the table, "I hope this thing at the Ministry doesn't take too long today."

"I'm sure it won't," Daphne said as she sipped the coffee, "Mmm, cinnamon."

Hermione, who was sitting on the other side of the table, snorted because she knew exactly what Harry was doing but nobody seemed to notice apart from Draco. Hermione had kind of forgiven him, they were talking but she was still being a little icy around him. Apparently his attempt at an apology had been pretty pathetic.

"It's just a standard census sort of thing," Sadie added, "Do they have them in the Muggle world?"

"Yeah, once every 10 years," Hermione replied.

"It's every 15 years here," Sadie said with a nod, “But that's all it is. It's so the owls know where to send letters to and stuff like that. I think St. Mungo's get supplied with it too for emergency contact details."

"What information do they ask for then?" Harry asked curiously.

"Your full name," Sadie replied, "Your current address, your blood status and your blood type for St. Mungo's benefit...your occupation, date of birth...they sometimes need official documents too like a birth certificate or your parents' marriage certificates."

"Well they'll have fun with me," Harry said with a shake of his head, "This does feel pretty pointless."

"Well it has to be done whether we like it or not," Hermione shrugged, "The sooner we get it out of the way the sooner we get our Saturday back."

“Are we all going together?” Ron asked as he sat down on Harry's other side, “I didn't hear what the allocated groups were."

"We go in groups of 8," Hermione replied, "The first group goes with Professor Sprout and Professor Flitwick. That's you, me, Harry, Neville, Draco, Daphne, Theo, and Sadie.”

"Alright that's cool," Ron said, "Are you lot still planning on breaking free?"

"Yeah," Harry said eagerly, "It’ll be easy with Sprout and Flitwick. You up for it Ron? Nev?"

"I'm up for it," Neville grinned, "I could use a day off in London."

"I'm definitely up for it," Ron smirked, "Surprised Hermione's alright with it though."

"Yeah well my boyfriend is a very bad influence," Hermione muttered, an amused smile slipping onto her face.

"So I am your boyfriend then?" Draco joked, "I wasn't sure this week."

"You did call me an object," Hermione reminded him.

"And I said I was very sincerely sorry, several times," Draco said smoothly.

Hermione rolled her eyes, "You still said it."

Harry glanced down in amusement, some things really never did change.

***

The first thing that Harry noticed when he walked into the Ministry was the fact that the atrium was very different from the way it had been the last time he had seen it. It had been restored to the way that it had looked before the war with the exception of the statue which was now a golden phoenix. Around the base of the phoenix were the names of all those who had died in the first and second wizarding wars. Hermione smiled slightly at Harry and brushed her hand against his.

"I'm alright Hermione," Harry said gently as he pulled his eyes away from the statue. The group of 8 promptly followed Professors Sprout and Flitwick into one of the golden elevators. They zoomed down to the lower courtrooms where there were several interview rooms conveniently set up for this purpose. When they got to the lower levels they were split up and told to wait in separate cues. This left Harry, Hermione, Ron and Neville in one cue, and Draco, Daphne, Theo and Sadie in another.

Harry was the first in line so as a result was the first to enter one of the interview rooms. It made him uneasy to see that it looked _very _much like an interrogation room. There were very few objects in the room, chiefly a desk with two chairs and a lot of paperwork lined up on it. The woman at the desk looked to be middle-aged with greying blonde hair in an unflattering bob. She gave Harry a false smile and said, "Please take a seat."

Harry sat down across from her and looked up expectantly.

"Full name please."

"Harry James Potter."

"Mr?"

"Uh, yeah," Harry said with a frown, surely the fact he was a man was obvious enough?

"Date of birth."

"The 31st of July, 1980," Harry replied calmly.

"Blood-status?"

"Half-blood," Harry said to the terse woman.

"Which parent is a pureblood then hmm? Mum or Dad?"

"My Dad," Harry said irritably, "Or at least he was."

"And Mum is a muggle?"

"She w_as _a muggle-_born," _Harry corrected her.

The woman nodded and continued to scrawl on parchment, "So what are Mum and Dad's dates of death then?"

"The 31st of October, 1981," Harry said darkly.

"Both of them?"

"Do you know who I am?" Harry asked in disbelief.

The woman frowned, "Now Mr. Potter there is no preferential treatment here."

Harry shook his head in disbelief, "You know that I'm Harry Potter so you know that my parents are dead and you know when they died so why are you bothering to ask?"

"I have to ask all of the questions Mr. Potter, it is the legal procedure," The woman said as if she was talking to a small child, "Now what were Mum and Dad's occupations before they died?"

"My Dad was an Auror," Harry replied, "And I don't know what my Mum did."

"I'm afraid you need to supply us with an occupation-"

"- she died when I was a baby and everyone who _knew _her is also dead," Harry cut in irritably, "So I can't give you an occupation if I have no idea what it was. All I _do _know is she wanted to be an experimental potions brewer but she had me instead."

"So she was unemployed," The woman sighed.

"Unemployed?" Harry shouted, "As if being a full-time Mother wasn't enough she _also _fought for the Order of the Phoenix! She and my parents defied Voldemort _three _times!"

"But she didn't have an official occupation Mr. Potter," The woman said slowly, "Which means she was unemployed.

Harry was seething and he literally wanted to kill this woman as she sighed for the umpteenth time, "Let's move on then. What is your current address?"

"I don't have one," Harry said bluntly.

"Now Mr. Potter," she said condescendingly, "You must live _somewhere_."

"Yeah, I live at Hogwarts," Harry said.

"But that is your _term-time _address, we need a permanent address," The woman said with an exasperated sigh.

"And I don't _have _a permanent address. I spent my summer staying with friends and before that I lived at my Aunt and Uncle's house which was destroyed by Death Eaters during the war," Harry said, he was struggling to contain his temper and this woman was infuriating him.

"There are always some awkward ones," The woman said under her breath, "What is the name of this place you stayed with friends then?"

"The Burrow," Harry replied.

"And where _is _The Burrow?"

"Uh," Harry frowned, "Dorset...it's near a village called Ottery St. Catchpole."

"Postcode?"

"Do wizarding addresses have postcodes?" Harry asked in disbelief, "What's the point? We have owls."

"We still have to be contactable by Muggles, Mr. Potter," the woman said, "So you do not know the postcode of the house?"

"Well no because whenever I wrote to them I did it via owl," Harry said irritably.

"Alright that will just _have _to do then," The woman said with a deep sigh, “Now then we will be needing you to owl some official documents to us since you have not registered with the Ministry Census department before as an adult. We will need both of your parent’s birth certificates and their marriage certificate and we will also need your birth certificate."

"Well I don't have any of those," Harry said with a raised eyebrow.

"How can you _not _have any of those?"

"Well it's quite simple really," Harry said slowly, "My parents were killed by Voldemort and their house was blown up meaning that everything _in _that house was destroyed."

The woman sighed again, "Well it is quite easy to get these documents Mr. Potter. Once you turned of age you should have gone to St. Mungo's and requested these documents. They hold all birth certificates and if you submit all three that will be quite enough without the marriage certificate."

"Well let me see," Harry said sarcastically, "The day _after _I turned of age the war started and I was a wanted criminal because Voldemort had spies all over the bloody Ministry and none of you lot were smart enough to notice! So when exactly was I supposed to do this? And also, I was raised as a Muggle so why on earth do you think I would know to do that?"

"Now, don't take that attitude with me Mr. Potter-"

Harry got to his feet, "Oh screw this. I'm leaving," he said as he grabbed the door and yanked it open. Hermione was the next to go in and Harry said, quite loudly to her, "You better watch yourself, she's a moody cow who seems to think it's possible to salvage birth certificates from the smouldering wreck of a house filled with corpses!"

Hermione stared with wide eyes as Harry stormed down the corridor to the waiting area where they had agreed to meet up once they had all finished submitting their information.

***

The first person to join Harry in his little waiting area was Daphne. When she walked over Harry launched into a rant, having been silently fuming for at least 15 minutes.

"Were they as fucking stupid with those questions with you as they were with me? It's ridiculous asking those questions. I mean who they hell do they think they are? I bet they just sat there and watched while we did all of the fighting in the war! I mean-" Harry cut himself off as she reached him, "- are you crying?"

"No," Daphne said unconvincingly. Her cheeks were very slightly red and her eyes were a little bloodshot. Her voice had caught in her throat when she had spoken.

"What's wrong?" Harry asked quickly.

"It was horrible," Daphne said weakly and without any warning she threw herself at Harry. He was completely taken aback but he wrapped his arms around her and hugged her back. Harry was fairly certain that she was crying from the movement of her body but he had no idea what to say to comfort her.

"What did they ask you?" Harry asked gently, "I was only annoyed because they were asking for documents about my parents that were destroyed when they died."

"Did they cuff you to the chair too?" Daphne asked, her voice was muffled because she was close to his chest.

"What?" Harry asked sharply, he pulled back from the hug to look at her, "They cuffed you to a bloody chair?"

Daphne nodded and wiped her eyes, she was embarrassed about her involuntary show of emotions, "They cuffed me and used Legilimency to extract the information. I don't know occlumency and I couldn't push them out, they saw everything, all of my secrets," she said shakily.

"That is _illegal!" _Harry hissed.

"Draco's in there now," Daphne said quietly, "And if they do it to him it won't be pretty. He pushes everything down, if they try and force it up he'll lose control of his magic."

"I'm going in there," Harry said angrily. He rolled up his sleeves as he walked towards the interview room that he had seen Daphne come out of, then he pushed the door open and walked in, snapping it shut behind him.

The motion made the man in the chair jump. It was clear from his clothing that he was an Auror and he had clearly been in the process of using Legilimency when Harry walked in. The shock had force ended the spell but Draco already seemed to be suffering from his exposure to it. He was breathing heavily and was covered in sweat, his hands were shaking uncontrollably. Harry wasn't a Healer but he wasn't stupid either, shaking hands was the first sign of accidental or uncontrollable magic and when that explosion came it could be deadly especially if the caster was a powerful witch or wizard.

"What the hell is going on here?" Harry asked in a low, dangerous tone of voice.

"Excuse me, who do you think you are?" The Auror asked hotly.

Draco laughed weakly, "Who do you think he is? He's Harry Potter, have you been living under a rock for this whole war?"

Harry tried not to smirk at the Slytherins comment, "Now, answer my question. What the _hell _is going on? This is meant to be a simple registration not a bloody torture session!"

"Legilimency is not torture-"

"- alright, so forcing someone to relieve the worst moments of their life isn't torture?" Harry asked angrily, "Do you know what it is though? It's _illegal _and I know your bloody legal system is corrupt as hell but even you should know that!"

"I don't care whether you defeated the Dark Lord or not Mr. Potter but-"

"Incarcerous!" Harry snapped. The Auror was pushed back into his chair and bound to it, "Stupefy," he added as an afterthought, better safe than sorry at the end of the day.

"I appreciate you trying to protect me Potter but attacking an Auror is a bit extreme, don't you think?" Draco asked, he looked very pale.

"Didn't you hear what he called Voldemort?" Harry asked calmly, "Nobody calls him the Dark Lord unless they either followed him or sympathised with him."

Draco frowned, "Yes, you're right. I'm impressed, that's actually quite perceptive of you."

Harry rolled his eyes, "With anything to do with wars and dark wizards yes," he said as he waved his wand around in circular motions, "With women, no."

"What are you doing?" Draco asked with a frown.

"Picking the lock on the air vent up there," Harry replied nonchalantly.

Draco narrowed his eyes at the Gryffindor, "Why?"

"Because that way when I send my patronus to Kingsley it will get there faster," Harry replied simply.

"Uh, hate to point out the obvious but a great big stag isn't going to fit in the vents," Draco said in amusement.

"Good thing my patronus isn't a stag at the moment then really," Harry said evasively.

Draco raised an eyebrow at the Gryffindor, "What is it then? And can you please un-cuff me?"

"Oh right, sorry," Harry said sheepishly. With the hand that wasn't moving his wand in circles Harry pointed at the cuffs and clenched his fist.

The cuffs instantly unclicked and Draco looked up in surprise, "Okay, that was quite impressive," he conceded.

Harry chuckled, "Practice."

"So what is your patronus?" Draco asked again.

Harry didn't reply right away. Instead he focused on the vent and it unlocked with a pop. Harry levitated it out of the way so that he could cast his patronus and when he did Draco laughed out loud.

"A snake?" Draco asked in amusement as the patronus slithered into the vents.

"Go on, slag me off," Harry said as he leant against one of the walls.

"Well, your obsession with my best friend clearly goes further than I thought," Draco said in amusement.

"I'm not obsessed with-"

"- what was it you said when you were teaching us that class again? Oh yeah, patronuses change form if you are suffering from a deep loss or a deep _obsession," _Draco smirked.

"Alright show me your patronus then Draco," Harry said as he crossed his arms, "I know you can cast one so go on, let me see."

"That is completely irrelevant," Draco said irritably.

"Maybe you're just worried you won't be able to do it," Harry smirked.

Draco rolled his eyes and grabbed his wand from the table, "Fine! Expecto Patronum!"

"An otter," Harry grinned, "That looks familiar...oh yeah that's because it's _Hermione's _patronus!"

Draco leant against the opposite wall almost huffily, "Yes but she is my girlfriend, Potter! You haven't even kissed Daphne yet, let alone asked her out!"

"Well can you blame me?" Harry asked in disbelief, "She's smart, witty and attractive! How am I supposed to have the guts to ask a girl like that out?"

"I don't know but you have to do _something_," Draco said in exasperation.

"What like ask her out then call her an object and have her ignore me for weeks?" Harry asked as he cocked his head at the blonde.

Draco rolled his eyes, "That wasn't my intention, you know it wasn't."

Harry shook his head, partly exasperated but mostly amused. He didn't have a chance to say anymore because the door was pushed open and the Minister for Magic, Kingsley Shacklebolt, walked into the small room. He shut the door gently behind him and surveyed the scene with interest then he looked up at Harry, "Would you care to explain why you have stunned and bound one of my Aurors Harry?"

"Well I'm pretty sure your Auror is a Voldemort sympathiser so I've done you a favour really," Harry said.

"A Voldemort sympathiser? We vetted everyone very carefully after the war," Kingsley said.

"Hmm," Harry hummed, "With paper and contracts and background checks?"

"Indeed," Kingsley replied.

"Interesting idea, next time just ask them who I killed in May," Harry said matter of factly, "And if they say the Dark Lord like that idiot did, fire them Kingsley."

Draco watched the interplay between the young Gryffindor boy and the Minister for Magic with interest. Kingsley smiled very slightly and said, "I will take that into account when I hire the next batch. If you had only accepted my offer, I would happily have allowed you to take the lead."

"Yeah well I've said it once and I'll say it again," Harry said darkly, "I like you Kingsley and I know you're doing your best here but I'll not join this place until it stops being corrupt as hell."

"Understandable," Kingsley said, "Now why is he bound?"

"Because he was illegally torturing my..." Harry frowned, "My friend here. Illegal use of Legilimency on at least two people. Don't tell me that you authorised this."

"I did not," Kingsley said firmly, "I suggested gentle prodding of those who seemed high risk shall we say of trying to back another dark lord in the future. However, I meant gentle questioning and I certainly did not condone the illegal use of Legilimency on school children."

"I managed to fight back because I know Occlumency Minister," Draco said, "So I know that he was looking for memories about the war and the Death Eaters."

"What he was looking for is irrelevant," Kingsley said darkly, "The fact this happened under my very nose is. I am incredibly sorry Mr. Malfoy, I do not condone this behaviour and I will ensure that this man is punished accordingly."

Harry nodded firmly, "Good," he said, "Because we all came here to register ourselves, not to be tortured and cuffed to chairs."

Kingsley bowed his head, "I will personally oversee your registration myself, Mr. Malfoy," he said with a kind smile, "And I will source the certificates that you need Harry. I am told you were difficult during registration."

Harry rolled his eyes, "Your staff are difficult," he countered.

***

Harry was still fuming when he relayed the events of the past hour to the others when he saw them in the waiting room. Draco and the other Slytherins had their registration overseen by Kingsley as promised so there were no further problems. The others were just as angry as Harry about what had happened though. When they had all finished registering Daphne was still quite shaken up and Draco was still very pale.

"I don't think it's a good idea to sneak away for a day in London," Neville said in a whisper as they followed Sprout and Flitwick to the elevators, "I mean, I hate to be the voice of reason but Greengrass is clearly upset and Malfoy looks like he's going to pass out."

"We could always throw a party in the common room instead," Ron whispered, "It's a Saturday night, I mean why the hell not?"

"That sounds like a great idea," Harry grinned, "And I think I know how to cheer you up Daphne. Do you want me to show you my secret passage to Hogsmeade? You can help me sneak a few kegs of butterbeer back to the common room? Oh and you haven't seen my invisibility cloak yet have you?"

Daphne smiled at Harry as he got excitable, "That sounds cool Potter, I'm in," she said, she sounded a lot brighter already.

Hermione shot Draco an amused look and he smiled back at her, albeit weakly. Her smile faltered a little and she reached down and took his hand.

"I thought you were still angry?" Draco asked with a raised eyebrow.

Hermione shrugged and looked up at him sheepishly as they approached the elevators, "Do you want to know a secret?"

"Go on," Draco said.

"I stopped being angry at you a couple of days ago, I was just punishing you," Hermione admitted as she chewed her lip.

Draco couldn't help but smile slightly because he still thought it was cute when she did that, "I knew you were, but I was letting you get it out of your system."

Hermione chuckled and said, "I'm sorry for you know..."

"I'm sorry too," Draco admitted in a whisper, "For calling you an object. I was actually trying to give you a compliment but I kind of screwed it up."

"Well, at least you tried," Hermione chuckled.

***

"Okay so I admit it, you have the coolest toys."

Harry grinned, "Come closer and I'll throw it over us both," he whispered as they stood in an empty classroom close to the statue of the humpbacked witch on the 5th floor. Daphne edged closer and Harry threw the cloak over them both.

"Woah," Daphne said as she blinked a little, "It’s like wearing beer goggles."

"I'm not going to ask how you know what that's like," Harry said in amusement as he checked the Marauders map to make sure the area around the witch's statue was clear.

"Ugh it stinks in here," Daphne said, crinkling up her nose as they walked very close together under the cloak, "Don't you ever wash it?"

"It's an invisibility cloak," Harry said in amusement, "It’s not exactly machine washable.”

"Is that blood?" Daphne asked in disgust.

Harry glanced at the patch, "Probably, the last time I wore it was in the final battle so there was quite a lot of blood."

"Merlin Potter, I never knew you were so unhygienic-"

"Shh!" Harry hissed. They came to a stop as Mrs. Norris rounded the corner. They froze and held their breath as the cat slinked past them and disappeared around the corner.

"It isn't soundproof," Harry said, sounding mildly amused as he tapped the humpbacked witch and said the password. The passageway opened and Harry pulled the cloak off and threw it into the passageway as he always did. He then turned to Daphne, "Slide down after me," he whispered as he slipped into the passageway.

Harry didn't expect Daphne to slide down _literally_ right after him, so as it happened he landed at the bottom of the passage and she landed on top of him a few seconds later. There was a soft scraping from above as the entrance to the passageway shut and shrouded them in darkness.

"If I didn't know any better Potter I'd say you planned it this way," Daphne said suggestively through the darkness.

"Uh," Harry said weakly, "I didn't I swear. I wouldn't take advantage of you on a day like today...I mean you're clearly upset and-"

"-well that's very honourable of you Potter," Daphne said as she slid to the side, "By the way I do hope that was your wand in your pocket."

Harry flushed in the darkness and then smirked, "Lumos," he said, lighting up the dusty old passageway. He glanced at the blonde girl who looked very pleased with herself and said calmly, "I keep my wand in my back pocket actually."

Daphne raised an eyebrow at him, "Good answer. You weren't kidding about being a hat-stall."

"No, I wasn't," Harry said in amusement as he set off along the passageway, "You sure you can keep up Greengrass? It's a pretty long tunnel."

Daphne scoffed, "If I can keep up? We'll see what you're saying after Slytherin have kicked your arse in the first game of the season."

"You're on the team?" Harry asked in surprise.

"Are you kidding?" Daphne asked in amusement, "Am I on the team? I'm the star chaser, Potter."

Harry grinned, "Well you might have some competition then. Ginny is mine and she is bloody brilliant."

"Ginny is yours?" Daphne asked in amusement, “And here was me thinking you two had split up."

"You know what I mean," Harry chuckled, "Ginny and me did split up. Well we didn't even really get back together after the war actually."

"Does she know about you and Granger?" Daphne asked calmly.

Harry frowned, "You know about that?"

Daphne shrugged, "Granger and I are sort of friends...she got emotional about the whole thing and I was there so...yeah."

"She knows," Harry said quietly, "What's your take on the whole thing? Do you think it makes me a sleazy bastard?"

"No," Daphne replied calmly, "Just like it doesn't make Granger worthless like she seems to think. To be honest Potter, I think a lot of people did a lot of bad things in the war, things a lot worse than sleeping with their best friends."

"Well, that is true," Harry agreed, "I didn't know Hermione felt that way though...I feel like I should have talked to her about it properly."

"I doubt it would have helped," Daphne said honestly, "sometimes girls just need to talk to other girls about things. I think it's been hard for her you know, not really having any girlfriends."

"I think you're right," Harry agreed, "I'm glad she's making new friends this year."

"She isn't the only one," Daphne smirked, "You are warming to Draco awfully fast."

Harry snorted, "I know, I'm surprised by how much I actually like the guy. But please don't tell him I said that."

"I won't, his ego is already big enough," Daphne grinned and they both laughed. The sound was a very pleasant one and it echoed around the old tunnel as they continued on their way.

***

"What did he force you to see?"

Draco glanced up from where he was casually lounging on Hermione's bed. It was the middle of the day and it was Saturday so naturally nobody was in the dorms apart from those who were shying away. Hermione was sitting on the window ledge watching the snow fall, but she turned her head to look at Draco.

"Why do you want to know?" Draco frowned.

"Because I want to know you," Hermione said honestly, "And how am I supposed to know who you are if there are huge parts of your past that I don't know about?"

Draco sighed, "I just don't want to tell you a sad, tragic story to make you feel sorry for me."

"I get that," Hermione said gently, "But I want to know, Draco."

Draco glanced up at the top of her four-poster, "You remember what my Aunt did to you in the war, at my home?"

Hermione nodded darkly, "I'm hardly going to forget anytime soon."

"Well it was like that," Draco said quietly, "Only it wasn't always my Aunt. Sometimes it was her Husband...and sometimes it was Rosier or Dolohov. They all had their own tricks, their own little twists that made things hurt more or that made the victim all the more humiliated. And it wasn't just once, it was once a week when I was at home…it was every time my Father made a mistake and Voldemort decided he needed to punish me for it."

"How do you live?" Hermione asked weakly and her voice broke as she spoke again, "How do you put one foot in front of the other without it all just breaking you into a million pieces?"

Draco smiled sadly at her and stood up, "It isn't easy," he said softly as he stood behind her and placed his hand on her shoulder, "But with each day that passes its pushed further into the past. It hurt and it makes it hard for me to trust people but the future is looking surprisingly bright and that makes the past seem insignificant."

Hermione nodded, she had tears rolling down her face but she didn't even try to wipe them away as she reached up and put her hand on top of Draco's, "Sometimes I wonder if we'll ever stop being so screwed up...Harry...me...you...Ron."

"We will," Draco said confidently, "It just takes time and patience for the wounds to heal. I'll tell you what helps though, I don't know about you but I've got good medicine."

Hermione laughed despite herself and let Draco pull her to her feet, "Medicine? I thought I was your light?"

"You're both," Draco smiled, "And I still don't understand why that apology pissed you off so much. I thought telling you that you were my light in the darkness was pretty fucking romantic."

Hermione chuckled as she pushed herself onto her tiptoes and kissed him lightly on the lips, "I suppose it would be, if Ron hadn't said something similar to me when he came back in the war after leaving us."

Draco's eyes flashed, "Well, I really screwed that apology up then didn't I? I should have just bought you flowers and bloody chocolates like a typical deadbeat arse eh?"

"I do like chocolate and flowers," Hermione laughed, "I also like books."

"I told them I should buy you a book!" Draco said in amusement as he kissed her again, "But bloody Weasel said I'd be buying your affections."

"Hmm, I suppose you would have been," Hermione smiled, "But you can buy my affections with chocolate, flowers and romantic Muggle literature. Nothing else though mind you."

"Good to know," Draco said softly.

Hermione pushed herself onto her tiptoes to kiss him again but before she could the door to the dorm was pushed open and Lilly walked in. She grinned as Hermione and Draco pulled apart and tried to look innocent.

"Did I totally just interrupt this session?" Lilly grinned.

"We were just talking," Hermione said sheepishly as a blush rose in her cheeks.

"Oh yeah, it really looked like talking," Lilly smirked, "I was coming up here to get changed for this party everyone is talking about but if you two are busy I'll just..."

"No, I'm leaving," Draco said as he shot Hermione an amused glance, "I promised _your _best friend I'd break into my secret firewhiskey stash."

"Oh Merlin," Hermione said with a shake of her head, "Good luck with that, _my _best friend is the world's biggest lightweight."

Draco grinned brightly, "Thanks for the information. Now I know I'll be able to get Potter drunk so he can divulge his deepest and darkest secrets to me," he said cheerfully as he left the dorm.

"What have I let myself in for?" Hermione asked in exasperation.

"An interesting party!" Lilly grinned.

***

The combination of the four kegs of butterbeer Harry and Daphne had brought back from Hogsmeade and the bottle of firewhiskey from Draco's stash meant that the party got going pretty quickly. Being in this 8th Year common room totally had it perks, it meant they had people from all different walks of life with lots of different neat tricks. The Slytherins knew the best ways to mix drinks, the Hufflepuffs knew the best drinking games and the Ravenclaws could hack Wizarding radios so they could tune into Muggle stations which had much cooler dance tunes. The Gryffindors didn't do much really, apart from having supplied the butterbeer but then again that was a pretty vital aspect of any good party.

Once the party had been on the go for a few hours Harry finally managed to grab Ron alone. His best friend was quite tipsy, and Harry thought there was a fair chance he might tell him who his mystery girlfriend was.

"Hey Ron," Harry said as he sat down next to the redhead on the sofa, "Want to play a game?"

"That didn't sound creepy at all," Ron said sarcastically.

Harry smirked, "Here's the thing, give me 20 questions and let me see if I can guess who your girlfriend is."

Ron grinned, "Alright, you've got no chance but on you go."

Harry's smirk widened, "Brilliant! Right then...is she a _she_?'

Ron snorted in amusement, "It's not a bloke Harry!"

"Hey, I wouldn't have judged if it was," Harry said in amusement, "And you were being very secretive about it..."

"Yeah but I'm not gay," Ron said, torn between amusement and disbelief.

"Alright then, is _she _a blonde?" Harry asked.

Ron shook his head in amusement, "No, what is it with you and blondes?"

Harry scoffed, "I've no idea what you're taking about. Is she a redhead?"

"Nope," Ron replied.

"Right so brunette then?"

"Yep," Ron replied as he surveyed Harry with interest.

"Oh, was she in our year?" Harry asked as an afterthought.

"Yes," Ron replied.

"Is she still at school?" Harry asked as he glanced around the common room.

"Yep," Ron said.

"So she's an 8th Year?" Harry asked eagerly.

Ron grinned, "Yeah and that counts as another question by the way."

"Oh come on!"

"Don't ask the same question twice then," Ron sniggered.

Harry was still glancing around the room as he said, "Is she a Gryffindor?"

"Nope."

"Slytherin?"

"Definitely not."

"Hufflepuff?"

"Nah."

"Wait, she's a _Ravenclaw_?" Harry asked in surprise as his eyes snapped back to Ron.

"Yeah," Ron said in amusement, "Why do you sound so surprised?"

"I dunno I just didn't think you'd go for the intelligent...hang on a minute, actually yeah. Your first crush was Hermione," Harry said in amusement, "Okay so that _does _makes sense. Right well there only are two Ravenclaws in our year...is it Mandy Brocklehurst?"

"No," Ron replied.

"So it's Lilly?" Harry asked eagerly, "Lilly Moon? The pretty Ravenclaw with the glasses that shares a dorm with Hermione?"

"Yeah," Ron replied, a little sheepishly.

"Wait," Harry frowned, "Why do you sound so worried about admitting it? She's really nice, I talk to her in the library quite a lot. Is it because she's a munchkin?"

"A _what_?" Ron asked in confusion.

"Munchkin, they're a race of people in a Muggle book," Harry said with a wave of his hand, "The point is that they are tiny. Lilly has to be like 5 foot, she's shorter than _me."_

"A difficult feat I know, but her height has nothing to do with it and she's 5 foot _2 _for your information," Ron grinned.

"Oh shut up," Harry said in amusement, "So why are you keeping her a secret? She's awesome."

"I know," Ron said, "But I thought you'd do the whole she's so much like Hermione thing."

"Well I guess you have a type," Harry grinned, "Pretty, intelligent, witty..."

Ron chuckled, "Yeah I guess so," he said as he glanced at Lilly who was laughing at something Hermione had said as they danced together. He turned back to Harry, "Mind you, I'm not the only one."

Harry scoffed, "I don't have a type mate come on. I mean I dated Cho who was a brunette and Ginny who was a redhead and yeah I like Daphne who’s a blonde. There is no argument for a type there."

Ron grinned at his best friend, "Really? Cause you had a huge crush on Fleur and then you went to Slughorn's party with Luna in 6th year and now-"

"Everyone had a crush on Fleur, she was stunning, she still is," Harry pointed out, "And I didn't have a crush on Luna, she's sweet and all but we're just friends."

"All the same," Ron grinned, "Looking at your interests this year your type is clearly blonde...Slytherin...sarcastic...and sexy."

At that moment Daphne appeared from behind the sofa and smirked, "Thanks Weasel, I'm honoured," she said smoothly as she sat down on the arm of Harry's chair and said, "Hey Potter, nice party."

Harry was baffled by this, "Uh hi Daphne," was all he could manage to say.

Ron snorted into his butterbeer, "I'll leave you two alone," he said as he waggled his eyebrows and walked away.

"So you've got a bit of a crush on me Potter," Daphne grinned.

"Oh come on," Harry laughed, "You've known for ages, I don't make it half obvious do I?"

"Yeah since about halfway through 6th year," Daphne chuckled, "I started to get suspicious when you started spilling potions ingredients all down yourself whenever I glanced over at you and when you kept cutting yourself in alarm when I accidentally brushed against you."

"To be honest that could just have been my inability at Potions," Harry grinned.

"That is true but it happened to coincide with me accidentally touching you," Daphne said in amusement, "And sometimes even touching you on purpose."

Harry's cheeks flushed and Daphne chuckled, "You're pretty modest Potter, for the heroic saviour of the wizarding world."

"Ugh, don't call me that," Harry muttered jokingly, “Instant turn off."

Daphne laughed and Harry realised that they had somehow gotten closer as they spoke. Daphne was now very close and certainly within kissing distance and they had both noticed it. She initiated the kiss by capturing his lips in something that was the start of a _very _good kiss. Harry forced himself to pull back from her before it could really become anything more though and Daphne frowned in surprise when he did. He felt immediately guilty when the surprise in her eyes turned to rejection.

"Am I that repulsive to you Potter?" Daphne asked bitterly.

"No," Harry said quickly, "No, it's the opposite. I actually like you Daphne and you are drunk right now and emotionally volatile after whatever they forced you to relive earlier. I don't want to kiss you and take advantage of you right now."

"Like you did with Granger in the war you mean?" Daphne asked irritably.

"That's exactly why," Harry said with a frown, "I hurt her because of my lack of a moral compass and I don't want to hurt you."

Daphne rolled her eyes as she got to her feet a little shakily, "Screw you and your stupid heroics and morals Potter!" she remarked as she stalked off in the direction of the girl’s dormitories.

**TBC :)**


	14. A Step Too Far

When Harry walked out onto the Quidditch pitch on Sunday afternoon he saw the person that he was meeting there right away and he couldn't help but snigger at the pickle Draco Malfoy had gotten himself into.

"How the hell did you end up like that?" Harry called as he jumped on his broom and soared over to the spot where Draco was tangled in a Slytherin tapestry with his broom hovering in the air next to him and his wand in one of the nearby stands. He was struggling to try and get out but he was well and truly stuck.

"Daphne, Tracey and Sadie," Draco said irritably by way of explanation and Harry laughed. He had agreed to meet Draco for a seekers match after the Slytherin training session had finished that morning. He knew the Slytherin girls loved to play pranks but seeing the result of those pranks was still hilarious.

Harry shook his head in amusement and untangled Draco who fell gracefully back onto his broom and promptly retrieved his wand.

"Thanks Potter," Draco said a little grudgingly. Harry suspected he was probably embarrassed about the situation but Harry just laughed and flew over to the other side of the pitch waiting to release the snitch for their match.

"Right simple rules, first to the snitch wins!" Harry called, "No dirty tactics though Malfoy!"

"Deal!" Draco called back, "What's the winner's prize?"

Harry grinned, "If you win I'll let you have a go on my new firebolt, I know you want to!"

Draco didn't even bother denying it; he was jealous of Harry's new broomstick which was a fairly new model, "Deal!" he called back.

Harry smirked and released the snitch. The two boys waited for a moment with their eyes shut and the snitch darted off into the murky sky.

"Go!" Harry shouted after a couple of minutes. They both sped off in different directions as their eyes searched for the snitch in the misty air. The match lasted for about 30 minutes and then Draco caught the snitch which worried Harry very slightly. He didn't want the Slytherin to think that he was losing his touch before the first match of the season in November.

Harry delivered on his promise and let Draco have a go on his firebolt. Then the two boys began their walk back up to the school together.

"So," Draco said as he slung his broom over his shoulder and tried to kick the mud off of his feet before they entered the castle, "You've been quiet today, Daphne has been grumpy today and neither of you have said a word to each other."

"And?" Harry asked irritably.

"And that implies something happened at the party last night," Draco said simply, "Did you sleep with her?"

"What?" Harry asked sharply, "No! I kissed her…well actually she kissed me and I sort of rejected it."

"Am I missing something here? Because I thought you liked her?" Draco said in disbelief.

Harry sighed, "I do…the problem is that I have too many morals! She was drunk and she had literally just had an emotional breakdown on me a few hours earlier. I didn't want to take advantage of her, not like I did with..."

"-with Hermione," Draco finished quietly, "Yeah, she's still pretty cut up about that whole thing. Apparently it compromised her values."

"She was going to wait till marriage apparently," Harry said glumly.

Draco sighed, "Wouldn't have lasted anyway, nobody ever sticks to promises like that. But I get that she wanted it to be with someone she was dating. Not that my track record is much better to be honest, I've not even talked to her about my past."

"You should," Harry said, "Before it seems like a secret and causes _another _argument."

"I know," Draco said honestly, "But that's not the point right now anyway. Did you tell Daphne that you were only pushing her away because of your morals?"

"Yeah and she still stormed off," Harry sighed, "Now she's ignoring me, well flat out avoiding me actually."

"She's probably just embarrassed," Draco said offhandedly, “Because she let you see her vulnerable. Try and catch her alone and explain."

Harry nodded absentmindedly, "Yeah, I'll try."

***

"Was he annoyed when he got into the common room?" Daphne asked eagerly when Tracey and Sadie walked into the dorm that they shared.

"Not as much as I thought he would be," Tracey said, sounding a little disappointed.

"It was still funny the way you left him Daph," Sadie giggled.

"I know, upside down and everything," Daphne grinned.

"I bet he was so embarrassed when Potter showed up for their seekers match," Tracey laughed.

"Who cares about Potter," Daphne said with a roll of her eyes as she kicked a pillow off the edge of her bed absentmindedly.

"You have been passively aggressive towards everyone today," Sadie said matter of factly, "Especially when someone mentions Harry Potter."

"That's because all everyone ever talks about is Harry _bloody _Potter," Daphne remarked.

"When did he change his middle name from James?" Tracey snorted.

"Ugh," Daphne groaned, "Would you two quit talking about him?"

"What on earth happened last night?" Tracey asked in disbelief, "You two seemed quite chummy earlier on."

"Chummy?" Daphne snorted, "Me and Harry Potter seemed _chummy_? What were you on Tracey?"

"Oh come on Daphie," Sadie sighed, "You're being mean for no reason. What happened?"

"I kissed him, that's what happened," Daphne said irritably, "I kissed him and he totally rejected me."

"What?" Tracey and Sadie asked simultaneously.

"He totally likes you!" Tracey said in disbelief.

Daphne rolled her eyes, "He tried to be all noble about it by saying that he didn't want to 'take advantage' of me because I was drunk and emotionally volatile, apparently."

"Well there's no apparently," Tracey said with a raised eyebrow, "You _were _drunk and you _are _emotionally volatile."

"And you're being quite a drama queen at the moment too," Sadie piped up.

“I am not a drama queen!” Daphne objected as she flailed about dramatically on her bed.

Sadie and Tracey shared an exasperated glance.

"He was just doing the right thing," Sadie pointed out, "He was being a _nice, heroic, sweet _guy like you say you want a guy to be!"

"I don't want him to do the right thing though," Daphne said irritably, "I want him to charge in and be commanding and just sweep me off my feet and-"

She was cut off by the opening of the door and she froze when she saw Harry standing in the doorway. Tracey and Sadie grinned at each other as the boy walked into the room.

"Right, I'm not going to let you play mind games with me. I like you and you like me, we both know that. I was being noble because I don't like taking advantage of people and also because the first time I kissed a girl she started crying and trust me it was a massive turn off," Harry said offhandedly, "So I'm laying down an ultimatum right now. You either meet me on the 5th floor by the statue of the humpbacked witch tonight after curfew or you don't. Alright?"

Daphne stared at the Gryffindor boy, "Alright," she said weakly.

"Good," Harry said with a nod. He glanced over at Daphne's grinning friends, "Sorry for barging in ladies."

"No problem Harry," Sadie said as she tried very hard not to laugh.

Harry nodded again, "Right, bye then," he said somewhat awkwardly as he left the dorm room.

The moment he was gone Tracey turned to her best friend and grinned, "So you wanted him to do something like that then?"

"You set this up didn't you?" Daphne asked with narrowed eyes.

"We didn't actually," Sadie giggled, "His timing was just perfect."

"Or he stood outside the door listening," Tracey said in amusement.

Daphne rolled her eyes, "He's Potter, I wouldn't put it past him."

Sadie giggled again, "You might have to start calling him _Harry _soon," she teased.

Daphne scoffed, "Now we're definitely taking this too far."

***

Harry and Daphne spent the hours leading up to curfew making eyes at each other across the common room. It was driving their respective friends mad and they found themselves hoping curfew would hurry up so they could meet up and get it out of their system. They had been getting closer as a friend group so as the night went on and the common room emptied they found themselves sitting closer together and talking with the same friends which just complicated the situation even further.

They had been talking amongst themselves or reading when a snort from Lilly made them all look up. Harry was still the only person who knew about Ron's relationship with the Ravenclaw girl and he was doing his best to keep it a secret.

"What could possibly be that funny in Witch Weekly?" Blaise asked dryly.

They were all sitting around the common room apart from Draco, Hermione and Theo. The latter were on Head Boy and Girl patrol, Draco on the other hand had been getting in some extra Quidditch practice after having his spies observe one of Harry's team practices the previous week.

"It's their latest bachelors list," Lilly said in amusement, "They don't take into account recent relationships because they have to have it all written up and published for the start of the month but it's still pretty funny."

"Who's top of the list?" Sadie asked eagerly.

"Well it's between Harry and Malfoy," Lilly said in amusement.

"Am I on there?" Ron asked anxiously.

"You're number 9, you just made it on," Lilly teased.

"And Harry and Malfoy did?" Ron grumbled.

"Who's number one?" Harry asked with a grin.

"You obviously Potter," Daphne said in amusement, "You kinda saved the world this year and Draco you ran away a few times, cried a lot and hugged Voldemort. Which one is more attractive to women?"

Draco rolled his eyes and Dean sniggered, "That hug with Voldemort made me fucking laugh mate.”

Tracey grinned into her hand, "It looked so warming," she said sarcastically.

"It was a horrible experience, if you must know," Draco said turning up his nose, "And I really don't see how Potter can be top of the list, he's a skinny runt!"

Harry made a face at Draco and said, "You're not exactly buff Malfoy."

"Look at you Pothead, you're so bony you make skeletons jealous."

"Yeah well you're so slimy you make the giant squid jealous!"

"Yeah well, your patronus is a stag!"

"That makes no sense and it's not even a stag anymore," Harry objected in amusement, "It's cooler than an eagle anyway which is what yours is _supposed _to be. I mean it's a bloody _otter _at the moment!"

"Eagles are birds of prey and otters are cute!"

"Stags are symbols of solitude!"

"Yeah well it's not even a stag," Draco said, going back to Harry's _own _point, "It's a snake now so _you're _the slimy one!"

"Boys!"

Both Harry and Draco stopped arguing and turned to Daphne who was looking at them in amusement, "Are you quite done?"

Harry flushed as he realised what had inadvertently come out during the argument. Neville grinned, "Since when was your patronus a snake, Harry?"

"Since recently," Harry said evasively, "It's no big deal, happens all the time. Tonks’ changed to a wolf."

"Yeah when she was in love with Remus," Ron said in amusement.

Lilly smirked, "What so you're in love with a snake? As in a _Slytherin_?"

"I didn't _say _that," Harry retorted.

Daphne chuckled somewhat nervously and glanced at the clock on the wall, curfew was fast approaching.

***

"You came," Harry whispered from underneath the invisibility cloak when Daphne rounded the corner.

The blonde girl jumped out of her skin, "Sweet Salazar Potter! You need to think of a better way of announcing yourself."

"Sorry," Harry said sheepishly as he lifted up the cloak and pulled her under it. He unlocked the passageway and they slid inside. Once the stone had slid shut Harry pulled a jar out of his robes and used a fire charm Hermione had taught him to effectively turn it into a lamp and a mini heater.

Daphne smiled slightly and Harry said, "Sorry, it's just easier to talk down here. Filch has no idea where it is so there's not a chance of him catching us and giving us detention like there is anywhere else."

"I kind of like it down here," Daphne admitted as she sat on the concrete floor and leant against one of the walls, "It's like those secret hideouts you had as a kid in the woods."

"Can't say I know that feeling," Harry chuckled.

"Why did you ask to meet?” Daphne asked.

"To clear the air and to talk alone," Harry said honestly, "I didn't mean to hurt your feelings last night I swear. I just didn't want to take advantage of you."

"I know," Daphne said, "But I don't like getting spurned regardless of the reason."

"I get that," Harry admitted, "But the thing is Daphne...I know that we don't know each other very well but I really want to get to know you better...Merlin I'm dreadful at this sort of thing."

Daphne chuckled and turned her head to the side to look at him. He turned his head around too and the moment her eyes caught his they both moved in at the same time. Their lips connected and this time Harry didn't pull away. It was a surreal sort of kiss; it was unlike anything that Harry had ever experienced. It was both hot and cold, soft and hard, fast and slow, it was everything all at once and the moment Harry closed his eyes and brought his hand up to rest on the side of her face his mind was completely flooded with a million sensations at once. She smelled of expensive perfume and she tasted like vanilla. When she broke the kiss Harry had to blink a couple of times to get his bearings again.

"Wow."

Daphne laughed, “What? Never been kissed before Potter?”

“Not like that,” Harry said honestly, “I can’t see why they call you the ice queen.”

Something flashed in Daphne's eyes, "Maybe not _yet_."

"I can't see anything beyond a beautiful, intelligent girl," Harry said honestly.

Daphne scoffed, “Merlin, could you get any sappier if you tried?”

Harry laughed, "It’s one of my many flaws."

“If sappiness is a flaw I guess that makes you one of the better guys,” Daphne admitted, a little grudgingly.

"I'm not all good," Harry admitted with a frown, "In fact I can be pretty horrible. I have a temper, a rotten one and I get bitter and angry when I have to talk about my past."

“I think everyone has a temper,” Daphne mused, “And I side with you on the whole bitterness and anger thing, trust me.”

“I’m just saying,” Harry said as he looked up at her, “I don’t want you to think I’m a saint. The war changed me and not entirely for the better.”

“I’d be surprised if it hadn’t Harry.”

Harry's eyes snapped up and he caught her piercing blue eyes, "I think that's the first time you've called me Harry."

"Well if we're going to get closer," Daphne said with a raised eyebrow, "I really ought to start using your first name.”

“Closer?” Harry asked with a slight frown.

“You know enough about me and my rules,” Daphne said calmly, “So you know that I don’t do relationships. This is just us acknowledging that there are mutual feelings here that we could have a bit of fun with, right?”

"Right," Harry said, feeling his heart sink a little with her words.

***

"Are you dating Daphne?" Ron asked in a whisper that night.

"Nah," Harry replied, "We kissed but she doesn't do relationships so I guess we're just sort of friends..."

"...with benefits," Ron grinned.

"I guess," Harry said, although he felt a little uncomfortable with the idea if he was honest.

"Nice one Harry," Ron chuckled, "I guess the whole boy-who-lived thing is a turn on for girl's right?"

"I suppose so," Harry agreed as he climbed into bed.

As it was Harry's mind was in overdrive and he didn't get much sleep at all that night. He drank a lot of coffee the following morning and was apparently having 'eyesex' with Daphne according to Draco and Theo.

After breakfast the rest of the day dragged by slowly. Harry's exhaustion gave way in 1st period which happened to be Divination class. When Trelawney cottoned on she slammed the table to wake him up and Ron sniggered until Harry put his smartest idea yet into motion.

"Professor!" Harry gasped, "I think I just had a vision!"

Trelawney, as was her way, got up close in his face and whispered, "Tell us what you saw Harry my child!"

Harry tried his best to look slightly demented and made up his 'vision' on the spot because in reality he had been dreaming about Daphne, "I saw a snake trying to escape from a lion in the forbidden forest! The lion caught it and ate it, but then a giant mammoth ate the lion!"

Trelawney gasped and hurried to the front of the class, nearly falling over her beads in her haste, "We have a true seer in our midst!" she said loudly as the table behind Harry and Ron where the Slytherin girls sat was filled with laughter.

"My boy! Your vision...it means that a person you believe to be a friend will betray you! But the mammoth...yes it means that justice will prevail!"

Harry nodded eagerly and Daphne leant forward and whispered in his ear, "Nice story, but what were you _really_ dreaming about, Potter?"

Harry flushed at this and Ron, who had already been doubled over with laughter, was set off once more at the look on his best friend's face.

***

2nd period that day _also _turned out to be a rather amusing class. The plant they had been working on in Herbology happened to be the sort that sprayed puss if you weren't careful. Naturally everyone was paying extra attention in that class so it was bloody hilarious when about halfway through the lesson purple puss sprayed all over Tracey, Daphne and Sadie who shrieked in horror.

Harry was at the other end of the long table from Theo and Draco but the three of them shared an amused grin. They had planned the prank; it was Draco's payback for the prank that the girls had played on him the previous day. Harry and Theo had really just been Draco's accomplices.

However, the most interesting announcement that day came in DADA. Aberforth normally had a quick chat with Harry about what the class tactic was and then sat and dozed while Harry actually _taught _the class. The hilarious thing was that McGonagall knew and had no objections, she had actually said to Harry that she expected the 8th Years were learning more than any other year group as a result.

On this particular day though Aberforth actually addressed the class, "Right Minerva has _finally _found a decent replacement which means that I'll be out of here soon, thank _Merlin _for that. Those snotty little 1st years were _really _testing my patience."

Harry chuckled as Aberforth continued, "Apparently he's not fully qualified, but he's on a training year or something. He's a foreign bloke, Professor Poliakoff she said he was called, he went to school at Durmstrang but he's doing his training in Britain. So enjoy your cushy classes with your chosen one here while they last, alright?"

There was a sea of nods then Aberforth nodded to Harry, indicating that he was free to take over whenever he wanted. Harry sat down on the teacher's desk as had become the norm, "Well if this is going to be one of my last classes I reckon we should do something a bit fun. Let's have some fun with a boggart!"

***

Later that evening in the dorm room Seamus smirked to himself and said to the only other person in the room, "Wanna have a bit of fun with a prank?"

Dean glanced over at his best friend, "Who you thinking of pranking?"

"Malfoy," Seamus said with a slightly malicious grin, "The Slytherins have been pranking each other, why don't we get in on the action?"

"What have you got in mind?" Dean asked.

"Something that will _really _embarrass him," Seamus said in his thick Irish accent, "We should use that levicorpus spell of Harry's and hang him up somewhere."

Dean frowned, "I dunno Seamus, we're supposed to be doing this house unity thing this year aren't we? The Slytherins doing it to each other is fair enough but if we do it's going to look like bullying isn't it?"

Seamus scoffed, "It's just a bit of fun Dean. Come on!"

"It's not a bit of fun if we get suspended for it," Dean retorted, "McGonagall said there would be hefty punishments for breaking the house unity rules Seamus."

"Like she's going to follow through on that," Seamus remarked, "We’re war heroes! She's not going to suspend us for having a bit of fun is she? Anyway it's not like I'm gonna hurt him or anything."

Dean still looked unsure, "What are you planning on doing then?"

"Suspending him above the lake," Seamus grinned, "It'll be hilarious, everyone will come out in the morning and he'll be hanging there."

"You can't leave him suspended over the lake overnight," Dean said in disbelief, "It's October, he'll freeze to death!"

"It's not that cold," Seamus objected, "He'd be fine. It'd be a right laugh Dean."

"Yeah well you can laugh on your own," Dean frowned as he got to his feet, "Because I don't think its funny Seamus."

"Fine, be a spoilsport!" Seamus called after him as Dean left the dorm.

***

Draco was sneaking back up to Hogwarts after a late night Quidditch practice on his own. He knew that it was well past curfew but tonight was the second patrol of the week run by the Head Boy and Girl so Draco knew he wouldn't bump into any teachers. And if he bumped into Theo and Hermione he knew he could easily get away with it so he wasn't particularly concerned.

The grounds were dark and quiet. There were no streetlights so Draco was winding his way through the darkness by the light of his wand. The dark hadn't particularly scared him before the war but now he felt like there were always eyes and figures watching him in the darkness. The occasional sound made him jump, like the hoot of an owl or the flight of an animal distantly in the forest, but he suspected that was only because of how late and dark it was. Draco found himself shivering slightly as he neared the shores of the lake, it was blacker than normal in the darkness of the night.

He jumped when he saw Peeves shoot out of it, spluttering. That alone was odd, because Peeves was already dead so it wasn't like he was going to drown anytime soon. He frowned as the poltergeist spotted him.

"Ooh naughty student!" Peeves cackled, "Sneaking around in the dead of night he is!"

Draco resisted the urge to roll his eyes, "What are you doing Peeves?" he asked calmly but his heart was still racing.

"Making a mess I was," Peeves said with a cackle, "Headmistress loves messes but then cry baby Myrtle flushed me down the u-bend!"

Draco shook his head in amusement, he didn't know why Peeves had been on the 2nd floor in the first place. Peeves usually haunted the 3rd floor, the trophy room in particular, and Draco had never seen him in the grounds before. The poltergeist flew off towards the castle and Draco made to follow him when he was violently pulled into the air.

"Levicorpus!"

He groaned as the spell tugged him and flipped him over at high speed. He felt dizzy and disorientated as he tried to get his bearings back. He recognised the voice instantly, the thick Irish accent needed no introduction.

"Finnigan!" Draco spat angrily as he realised that he was suspended above the black lake, the water was only a few inches away from his head and that concerned him because of creatures that lived in the lake which were dangerous and which could bloody _jump_.

The Irish boy was already running away however. Draco saw a figure in black robes darting back to the castle and he groaned in frustration. He didn't know this spell very well, which meant he didn't know how to end it but even if he wanted to he couldn't because his bloody wand had fallen onto the sandy shore of the lake when Seamus had spun him upside down. It wasn't just irritation that bothered Draco though, he couldn't swim and he was suspended above a very deep lake filled with dangerous creatures. On top of that it was past curfew, nobody patrolled the grounds at night and it was the middle of October. With no wand to cast any warming charms and only his fairly thin Quidditch gear on, he knew he would freeze to death out here.

***

Harry was sitting in the 8th Year common room which was practically empty. He was taking part in a favourite hobby of his that he hadn't acted on in a while; people watching, Marauders style. Harry didn't gossip but he did find it amusing when he spotted Ernie MacMillan and Justin Finch-Fletchley in close proximity to each other in their dorm room, so close in fact that they surely had to be touching. He sniggered as he looked around the castle at all the dots, seeing Filch and Trelawney together at the top of the North tower gave him images that he was sure would torture him for life.

"Harry?"

Harry glanced up from the map, "Hey Dean," he said, instantly noticing the frown on his friends face, "Whats up?"

"I think Seamus is doing something really bloody stupid," Dean admitted, "He was going on about playing a prank on Malfoy, suspending him above the lake with that spell you showed us."

"Levicorpus?" Harry asked quickly.

Dean nodded, "Yeah, I told him it was a stupid idea. I mean he'd freeze to death if Seamus left him out there all night. The idiot went off about half an hour ago and I think he was trying to find Malfoy."

Harry got to his feet anxiously and Daphne noticed from her spot on the armchair. The blonde girl got to her feet and began to walk over to them as Harry cursed angrily, "Dean, don't you remember the dangerous thing about that bloody curse?" he asked.

Dean looked a little alarmed, "No... what does it do?"

"It cancels out after 38 minutes," Harry said as he glanced at the clock, "Which means in about 10 minutes’ time, assuming Seamus got to Draco pretty quickly...the spell is going to cancel out and plunge him into the lake."

"Who?" Daphne asked as she reached them.

"Draco," Harry replied, he was already walking towards the door.

"Draco?" Daphne asked anxiously as she followed him, "Potter, Draco can't swim!"

If Harry had been worried before, this only worsened things, "Come on then," he said quickly as they left the common room and he pulled out his map, "We better hurry."

Daphne took the map from him and scanned it as Harry pulled the invisibility cloak over them both.

"I'm glad you're quite short," Harry said as they set off at a reasonable pace down the tower stairs, "It makes it so much easier to run under this thing."

Daphne ignored this as she continued to scan the map, "We're all clear apart from the entrance hall, Filch and his bloody cat are hanging around there."

"That's not a problem," Harry said calmly, "They're easy to slip past, Snape was always the most difficult obstacle to run into in the middle of the night."

Daphne frowned and glanced over at the Gryffindor boy, "What if we don't get there in time?"

"We will," Harry said firmly.

"But we don't know when Finnigan found him," Daphne pointed out, "What if it was right after he left Dean? That would give us like 6 minutes to get there."

"Which is possible," Harry said as he glanced at the girl, "Besides _worst case scenario _the water in the lake isn't freezing yet but it is cold and the average person can survive underwater in cold water for about 3 minutes before their organs start to shut down and the risk of brain damage kicks in."

Daphne stared at him in disbelief, "What?"

"I said worst case scenario," Harry pointed out as they reached the bottom of the steep, winding staircase, "It’s probably not going to be that bad but we've got to run. Come on!" he grabbed her hand and she gripped it tightly as they began their jog through the castle.

***

"God, this is so boring, why do we have to do this?"

"Because we are the Head Boy and Girl Theo," Hermione said with an eye roll, "It's our responsibility."

"I don't know why McGonagall made me Head Boy," Theo said, shaking his head as if it was some incredibly absurd idea, "I hate responsibility."

Hermione couldn't help but think the same thing, Theo was irresponsible and immature. There were much better candidates but she supposed that if McGonagall had been trying to promote house unity a Gryffindor Head Girl and Slytherin Head Boy was probably a good start.

"It will look good when you apply for a job," Hermione informed him.

Theo still continued to grumble, "Patrols are only fun when you bust people having sex and that's only happened once this year."

"The year is young," Hermione said with a laugh, "I was a prefect, trust me by the end of the year you'll be catching them in broom cupboards and empty classrooms at least once a week."

Hermione shook her head in amusement at Theo's delight at this news, "I can't wait!" he said with a slightly wicked grin.

Hermione smacked him gently on the arm, "You're such a pervert Theo," she said but he only grinned and said, "Yes, I am!"

Hermione shook her head again, but before she could say anything else they heard footsteps from further along the corridor. They were patrolling the main 1st floor corridor, having made their way down from the top of the castle as they always did on these patrols. They stopped in their tracks at the sound and on instinct they both pulled their wands out as they waited for the person to round the corner. They held their breath as the footsteps got even closer and louder and finally the person walked around the corner.

"STOP!" Theo and Hermione yelled at the same time. The culprit turned out to be a girl in green silk pyjamas who jumped out of her skin at the shout and dropped the spoon that she had been holding.

Hermione breathed a sigh of relief when she noticed that it was just Sadie, tiptoeing back from the kitchens and holding a tub of ice cream close to her chest.

"What was that for?" Sadie asked with wide eyes as she picked up her spoon and held her ice cream closer to her.

"Sorry," Theo said as he slipped his wand in his pocket, "The war made me jumpy."

"Me too," Hermione admitted as her heart pounded in her chest, "Sorry Sadie."

"It's okay," Sadie said, still a little shaky after the encounter, "I think I had a mini heart attack though."

Hermione laughed quietly and Theo smiled, "You shouldn't be out this late on your own anyway Sadie," he said softly as he took a step towards the girl, "Granger, do you mind if I take her back to the common room?"

Hermione glanced down at her watch and shook her head, "Patrol only has 15 minutes left. I'll check the cupboards along the corridor and do a brief scout of the entrance hall, then I'll head back to the common room."

"Be careful," Sadie said with a frown as Theo put an arm around her, "The school is still dangerous at night isn't it?"

"Don't worry, I'll be fine," Hermione said with a smile, she had a sneaking suspicion that Theo was quite soft on Sadie Cauldwell, "I've wandered these halls with Harry Potter for years," she added as she flicked her wand and mumbled, "Lumos."

Sadie and Theo disappeared into a secret passageway behind a tapestry and Hermione continued along the corridor checking the broom cupboards as she went. This corridor and its broom cupboards were particularly popular with snogging Hufflepuff students and on the odd occasion a Hufflepuff-Slytherin hook up occurred on the 1st floor. They were empty tonight so Hermione proceeded down into the entrance hall which she still didn't like to be alone in at night. She found it spooky, the way the moon shone through the large bay window, it made reflections look different and it made it seem like things were lurking in the shadows. For some reason it reminded her of the first few times she had let Harry and Ron entice her into sneaking out and with those memories came the thoughts of how terrified she had been in this big old spooky school as an 11-year-old girl.

Hermione had only just walked into the entrance hall and was tempted to dart back towards the safety of the grand staircase when a loud noise startled her. She jumped out of her skin and cursed loudly as a suit of armour behind her fell down with a clatter.

"Revelio!" She said quickly and the charm lit up an area on the floor in pink. Hiding from sight were two figures, who were now tangled up on the floor. Hermione frowned and walked over to them, she reached down and immediately recognised the silky feel of Harry's invisibility cloak. When she pulled it off, Harry and Daphne untangled themselves and glanced at the large clock on the wall, "1 minute at best!"

"What the hell is going on?" Hermione asked as they darted down the entrance hall stairs.

"Seamus played a prank on Draco," Harry replied, he was slightly out of breath as they jogged, "He suspended him over the lake and the Levicorpus spell cancels out after 38 minutes."

"And Draco can't swim," Daphne added breathlessly.

Hermione was instantly worried as they pushed open the large oak doors and darted off into the grounds. They saw Draco hanging above the lake the moment they emerged into the grounds. They were only halfway to the lake when the spell hit the 38-minute mark and cancelled out, plunging Draco into the water.

They sped up and when they reached the water Harry didn't hesitate in removing his glasses, pulling off his robes and wading in. He sucked in a breath and then disappeared into the lake for what felt like hours but was likely not even minutes. Hermione and Daphne held their breath subconsciously as they waited for Harry to surface. When he eventually did he was gasping for air and dragging Draco to the shore with him.

Both Hermione and Daphne sighed in relief as Harry got them both to the shore of the lake and collapsed on the icy ground.

"Warming charms," Hermione murmured as she reached them and knelt by Draco who looked barely conscious, his lips were blue and his face was very pale.

"I'll sort Potter out, just take care of Draco," Daphne said gently.

Hermione nodded and cast a warming charm on Draco which stopped him from shivering but he had still swallowed quite a lot of water which meant one thing really, "You swallowed a lot of water," Hermione said gently, "And it was salt water so it has to come out of your system Draco."

The blonde groaned weakly, "Not the spell that makes you throw up."

"That or salt poisoning," Hermione said with a pointed look, "Alright?"

Draco nodded and Hermione cast the spell which promptly caused Draco to throw up the contents of his stomach, including a hell of a lot of salt water, onto the banks of the lake. When he had stopped throwing up he looked slightly better but Hermione knew that they still had to get him to the hospital wing.

"Finnigan did this," Draco said weakly.

"That's not important now," Hermione said as she helped the blonde to his feet, "Seeing Madam Pomfrey is."

Harry nodded as he got to his own feet a little shakily, "We'll talk to McGonagall in the morning," he agreed as he leant on Daphne.

"I think you need to see Pomfrey too Potter," Daphne said with a slight frown, "I'm not sure you were entirely right about that water not being freezing."

"It isn't yet," Hermione said as she let Draco lean on her, "But it's pretty close. Around 1 or 2 degrees I'd say at this time of year. It's lucky that you got here when you did," she added.

"Dean told us that Seamus was up to something," Harry said, "So we ran down here knowing we had limited time."

"Did Seamus know the spell would cancel out after 38 minutes?" Daphne asked with a frown.

"Yes," Hermione said irritably, although she was clearly holding back all of her anger for Draco's sake, "You told him the catch when you taught him and Dean the spell."

"He probably just wasn't listening to that part but I should never have taught him the stupid thing anyway," Harry muttered guiltily.

"Hey," Daphne frowned, "You couldn't know he'd be a bloody idiot and use it like this, it's not your fault."

"She's right Harry," Hermione said as Draco walked along beside her, only half-conscious, "This really isn't your fault."

Harry nodded but he didn't seem entirely convinced as they continued silently towards the hospital wing on the 1st floor. By the time they got there Hermione was struggling to support Draco as he had been getting weaker and weaker. Daphne pushed open the heavy doors and Pomfrey came rushing out of her office. When she saw the four people standing there she sighed as she forced Draco into a bed, "Why is it always you and your friends Mr. Potter?"

"It wasn't his fault this time Madam Pomfrey," Hermione said quietly, "Somebody played a prank on Draco. They suspended him above the lake and when the spell cancelled out he fell in. Harry jumped in to save him."

Pomfrey just tutted and ordered, "Potter, get in that bed now!"

**TBC :)**


	15. I'll Stop the World and Melt With You

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Title comes from the song:  
Melt with You by Modern English

When Draco woke up it was early in the morning and Hermione was dozing beside his bed. He smiled at her and gently reached out to push her hair out of her face. The small movement woke Hermione up and she looked at him through bleary eyes, "Morning," she yawned as she reached for the coffee pot next to his bed.

"Hey," Draco said quietly, "What the hell happened last night? All I remember is bloody Finnigan pulling me into a bind above the lake and then being stuck there freezing for hours."

"It wasn't actually hours," Hermione said, "Only half an hour but I understand why it would seem like longer. Seamus played a prank on you according to Harry," she continued as she glanced at the bed next to Draco's where Harry was sleeping, "Dean told Harry and Daphne so they ran down to the lake to save you and bumped into me in the great hall. You fell in as we got there, Harry jumped in and pulled you out."

Draco rolled his eyes, "So Potter saved my life again?"

Hermione chuckled, "Try not to resent him too much for it," she joked, "It's kind of what he does."

Draco still looked irritated about the fact Harry was always saving him but before he could object any further Madam Pomfrey had bustled over to his bed, "Good morning Mr. Malfoy. I can tell you that you are going to be just fine. You had a mild case of hypothermia but nothing a few pepper up potions and a good night's sleep didn't solve. I'll give you this just in case you start to feel a little cold later on."

Draco accepted the pepper up potion gratefully, "Thank you Madam Pomfrey, am I free to leave then?"

"Yes, whenever you like," Pomfrey agreed with a small smile, "And I will say the same to Mr. Potter when he decides to wake up."

Hermione chuckled, "I'll wake him up, otherwise we'll be waiting for a long time."

"Do give him this for me Miss. Granger," Pomfrey said as she handed the girl a pepper up potion.

"I will," Hermione promised as the Matron returned to her office.

Hermione yawned and said to Draco, "I really thought this would be a drama free, fun, relaxing year."

Draco raised an eyebrow at her as she got to her feet, "How naïve of you."

"Clearly," Hermione said as she shook her head in amusement.

"Hermione," Draco said quickly before the Gryffindor girl could make her way over to her best friend. She turned around and was surprised when she saw him looking sheepish and unsure of himself, "I thought I was going to die when I hit the water and all I could think about was you.”

Hermione smiled slightly as she leant down to kiss him, "I care about you a lot too Draco," she said softly as she read the subtext in what he had said.

Draco returned her smile and kissed her again, "Good," he said simply.

***

"Time to wake up, sleepyhead!"

Harry groaned as he forced his eyes open, "Mione, why are you so bloody happy in the morning?"

"It's a gift," Hermione said in amusement, "Madam Pomfrey has given you and Draco permission to leave, with an extra pepper up potion in case you need it later."

"What time is it?" Harry asked as he pushed himself into a sitting position and squinted at the light coming through the large windows.

"It's 7am," Hermione replied, "But we'll have to get a move on if we're going to catch McGonagall before breakfast and tell her about what happened last night."

This made Harry more alert and ignited his anger with his fellow Gryffindor for his stupid antics the night before. He and Draco both got dressed and once they were ready they set off for McGonagall's office with Hermione.

"Thanks Potter," Draco said grudgingly, "For saving my life, again."

Harry snorted, "You don't have to sound so angry about it. It's not like you owe me anything."

"Except a life debt," Draco pointed out.

Harry waved his hand at that, "No, that's a stupid pureblood thing. You're my friend now Draco and people help out their friends."

"There should never have been a situation where you needed to save him _anyway, _Harry," Hermione said hotly, "Seamus should never have done what he did!"

"And he'll get punished for it," Harry said calmly, "McGonagall warned us all that the penalty would be hefty for disobeying her house unity rules. I'd say a Gryffindor nearly bloody killing a Slytherin counts as disobeying those rules."

"This is why I hate pranks," Hermione said, "They aren't funny, they are dangerous!"

"Not all of the time," Draco said as he put his arm around the shorter girl, "Only when idiots like Finnigan are the ones behind them."

"As much as I hate to say it, Draco's right," Harry said honestly as they trekked through the school to McGonagall's office. Harry didn't actually know the password because he hadn't been to the office since it had been Dumbledore's, or Snape's as it were.

"It's Loch Lomond," Hermione said when she saw Harry pause.

"How do you know that?" Harry asked in surprise as the gargoyle jumped aside noisily.

"I'm the Head Girl," Hermione reminded her best friend in amusement.

"Oh, right," Harry said sheepishly, "Of course you are.”

He led the way up the stairs to the Headmistresses office then knocked on the wooden door. A few seconds later McGonagall called, "Come in!"

Her eyes narrowed immediately when she saw Harry walk in, and when Draco and Hermione followed him she actually sighed, "What on earth have you done this time, Mr. Potter?"

"I haven't actually done anything this time Professor," Harry said honestly, "Did you hear from Madam Pomfrey that Draco and I were in the hospital wing overnight?"

"No, I hadn't heard," McGonagall replied as she looked between them, “Would you care to tell me why you ended up in that predicament?"

"Finnigan tried to play a prank on me Professor," Draco spoke up, "He suspended me above the lake on my way back from the Quidditch pitch. The spell cancelled out and if Potter hadn't found me I'd have drowned."

"How do you know it was Mr. Finnigan?" McGonagall asked, "And how did you know where to find Mr. Malfoy, Potter?"

"I heard his voice and I recognised his accent," Draco replied as he glanced at Harry.

Harry nodded, "It was definitely Seamus Professor. Dean Thomas was the one who told me. He said he was worried Seamus was going to do something dangerous down at the lake so myself and Daphne Greengrass ran down there and we bumped into Hermione in the great hall."

"Alright," McGonagall sighed after a moment, "Well I am afraid Mr. Finnigan is going to have to be punished for this. I swore to enforce the new rules about house unity and I intend to follow through on that promise. However, I must ask you to stay quiet about this matter until an announcement has been made."

"An announcement?" Harry asked with a frown.

"Yes," McGonagall said simply, "I am afraid Mr. Finnigan is going to have to be suspended for this Mr. Potter."

***

The news of Draco's near death experience spread like wildfire around the school and as a result Draco was questioned by the 8th Years over dinner that night. The identity of the person who had played the prank on Draco remained secret however, a secret kept between Draco, Harry, Hermione, Daphne and Dean. Seamus had been a little shifty all day but McGonagall had clearly not spoken to him yet or his suspension would have been activated. He was absent from dinner that night and so was McGonagall which didn't go amiss by those who knew what had really happened.

"Are you alright?" Theo asked Draco in an undertone when he finally got a moment to talk to him at dinner that night.

"I'm touched Theo," Draco chuckled, "But I'm fine."

"You could have died last night," Theo said quietly, "And if you had...I don't know what I'd do."

"Theo," Sadie said gently from Theo's other side, "Draco's fine."

Draco smiled slightly, "I'd have been worried too, if it had been you," he said to his best friend.

Theo nodded, "Let's hug it out?"

"We're not hugging it out," Draco said in amusement, "Potter made me do it once and I am _not _doing it again."

"I'm not Potter, I'm your best friend. You nearly died Draco, I'm gonna hug you," Theo said as he edged closer.

"Don't you bloody dare," Draco said to the boy.

Theo grinned and launched himself at Draco, clinging onto him like a limpet much to the amusement of the rest of the table.

"Ugh, Theo!" Draco objected, "Get off me! You bloody head case!"

Theo finally let go of Draco who looked thoroughly red in the face but he was also trying desperately hard not to laugh or smirk. Dean chose that moment to lean across the table and say in an undertone, "I'm really sorry mate-"

Draco shook his head, "It's not your fault. If you hadn't told Potter I'd probably be dead now."

"Still," Dean muttered, "I didn't realise he was that bloody thick."

Tracey snorted, "I did. Personally I've never liked him."

"Nah, I never liked him much either," Harry said honestly, "He was one of the ones who was a right dickhead when the Ministry were writing all those lies about me in 5th year."

"He's impressionable," Hermione said irritably, "It’s surprising he didn't become one of Voldemort's lackeys really, he's good at doing exactly what people tell him."

"That sounds awfully bitter coming from your sweet innocent mouth, Princess," Theo smirked.

"He nearly killed my boyfriend Theo," Hermione said pointedly, "So I apologise if I'm not entirely complementary about his character."

Theo grinned, "I'll be honest I wasn't sure about you when Draco said he was dating you but I now totally approve. Hit me with a hi-five, come on."

Hermione shook her head in amusement as she hi-fived him over Draco's head and said sarcastically, "Wow Theo, it means _so _much to me to finally have your approval."

Draco looked between them with a mixture of amusement and disbelief, "This could be a dangerous friendship..."

Theo and Hermione only shared a grin in response.

***

"That was a bloody amazing practice!" Draco was saying cheerfully as he and Daphne traipsed mud through the castle on their way back from the Quidditch pitch.

"Potter has no idea what competition he's facing," Daphne smirked, "That cup is definitely ours this year."

"I told you we'd kick his arrogant arse," Draco said in amusement.

"Well it is a lovely arse," Daphne joked.

Draco snorted, "Can't say I've ever looked to be honest. What's the situation with you two anyway?"

"What's the situation in general?" Daphne retorted, "This year is the weirdest thing."

"Tell me about it," Draco said, "I never thought Potter would save my life and not expect anything in return because I was his friend. I'd have expected him to hold it over me or something...but I actually kind of like him."

"You've always liked him and don't even bother denying it," Daphne said in amusement, "You've wanted to be his friend since 1st year Draco. You were only horrible to him because he rejected you, this is like a bloody dream come true for you."

"Look I admit he's not as arrogant as I thought he was," Draco said, "But you should know better than me what he's like. You spend more _time _with him."

"I have no idea how you can make such simple words sound suggestive," Daphne snorted.

"Well it happens to be a talent of mine and you are avoiding the question Daph," Draco pointed out.

Daphne rolled her eyes, "It wasn't a question _Draco, _it was a statement. I mean what do you want me to say? Yeah Potter is a nice guy, he admits that I'm attractive but he doesn't just like me because I'm hot. Do you get what I mean?"

"You mean he's not a complete scumbag like the rest of the losers you've dated," Draco said matter of factly, "Well you had to gain a sense of taste at some point I suppose..."

"You just inadvertently called yourself a scumbag and said Potter was tasteful," Daphne grinned.

"Well he has saved my life a few times, I guess I ought to give him some compliments," Draco joked, "Are you dating him then?"

"I don't date, Draco," Daphne pointed out.

"So you say," Draco said simply, "Does he know that?"

"Yes," Daphne replied calmly.

"And is he okay with that?" Draco asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Yeah, he said it was fine," Daphne replied.

"Then he was lying through his teeth," Draco said, “Because Harry Potter doesn't do hook-ups. He does relationships and flowers and snuggling...all of that bloody sappy Gryffindor shit."

"And you know this how?" Daphne asked, sounding mildly amused.

"Have you completely missed the fact that I'm dating his best friend?" Draco asked the blonde girl in amusement.

"How does that automatically translate into you knowing that he snuggles?" Daphne asked through her laughter.

"I have _not _snuggled with Harry Potter if that is what you are implying Daphne Greengrass," Draco said in amusement, "But Harry Potters best friend shared a bed with him for the best part of 3 months and _she _knows that he snuggles."

Daphne rolled her eyes, "Oh whatever, you arse."

"I'm just saying," Draco said calmly, "A guy who likes to snuggle and buy girls flowers does not seem compatible with the self-confessed ice queen who favours sweaty hook-ups in broom closets over sex in a lovely comfortable bed-"

"- I know what you are saying Draco," Daphne snapped, "On paper, yeah it doesn't really work but that doesn't always mean it won't in real life. If Potter isn't okay with it then he can break it off."

"Oh right and you really wouldn't care if he did that?" Draco asked in disbelief, "Come on Daphne, you actually like him. Why not make this one a relationship instead of a conquest?"

"I don't know how," Daphne admitted quietly, "I'm scared of starting something."

"Why?" Draco asked pointedly.

"He'll probably just lead me on and throw me away like every other guy," Daphne said irritably, "Just like Hermione and you are going to crash and burn inevitably...there are too many sins and too many skeletons in our pasts."

"That's not true," Draco said firmly, "Just because people are different and have secrets, it doesn't doom them."

"It dooms people like us," Daphne said bitterly, "Because when people find out about our secrets they leave. Hermione might have stuck with you for the moment but more dark secrets are going to spill out and it’s going to get harder for her to justify her feelings for you. As for Potter and me, we would never work. As soon as he found out about my past it would be over."

"Has anyone ever told you that your glass is always half empty?" Draco remarked.

"Yours used to be too until you and Hermione bloody Granger started dating," Daphne retorted, “And now you're all optimistic and happy. Sunshine and rainbows are shining out of your fucking arse. I mean what gives Draco?"

"It's called love, Daphne," Draco said pointedly, "You should try it sometime. It has this crazy side effect though; it actually makes you a better person."

"Oh fuck off Draco."

***

"I can't believe this."

Harry looked up at Hermione, they were sitting together in the common room as they waited for Draco and Daphne to get back from Quidditch practice. Harry was sitting on the sofa surveying the Marauders Map and Hermione was leaning against him as she read her latest piece of Muggle literature, _"Jane Eyre"._

"What can't you believe?"

"A month and a half ago we were at The Burrow," Hermione said, "Mucking about in paddling pools with the Weasley's and playing Quidditch...and now we're back at school and I was bloody distraught over the prospect of Draco Malfoy nearly dying a couple of days ago. I mean what the hell has happened to me, Harry?"

"We grew up and realised that the world isn't black and white," Harry said honestly, "There isn't a clear line between good and evil Hermione, Sirius taught me that. We've all got good and bad inside of us but the circumstances of our lives mean that one side always wins out over the other. For Draco, being with you is helping his good side win out.”

Hermione frowned slightly, "But how can it ever work Harry? I know his Mother is alright with it but he's still a pureblood and I'm a muggle-born. We're so different and there are so many secrets...there are so many things I haven't told him about the war and about Voldemort and I bet he's got a lot of secrets too."

"Look Hermione," Harry said, "You can't worry about the future because that will just destroy what you do have. Focus on the present, focus on how he makes you feel _now_."

Hermione smiled slightly, "He makes me happy Harry. He makes me laugh, he makes me feel like I'm part of something. I love spending time with him, whether it's to read or talk...I just enjoy his company."

"Then that's all you need to think about for the moment," Harry said honestly, "You deal with the problems as they come in relationships or you'll rip it apart by worrying about things that might never have been a problem otherwise."

"That was wise of you," Hermione said in surprise.

"Why the tone of surprise?" Harry asked in amusement, "I've had a successful-ish relationship with Gin. This is your first serious relationship."

"True," Hermione agreed, her eyes sparkled as she added, "Speaking of relationships, what's going on with you and Daphne?"

"Not much," Harry admitted, "We kissed and admitted that we both had feelings for each other but she famously doesn’t do relationships so..."

"So what are you? Friends with benefits?" Hermione asked with a frown.

"No," Harry replied quickly, "No, I haven't slept with her. Wait, have you slept with Malfoy?"

"No," Hermione scoffed, "No, it's only been a couple of weeks."

"Right, that's what I thought," Harry said with a shake of his head, "And that's the thing. If I was one of her 'conquests' I would have thought she'd have tried to sleep with me and she hasn't...I feel uncomfortable with the idea of us being friends with benefits to be honest."

"Maybe she doesn't want to be friends with benefits either," Hermione suggested, "Maybe she's just afraid and doesn't know what to do."

"Afraid?" Harry asked in surprise, "Of me? Why?"

"Not afraid of you, afraid of men in general," Hermione said, “Maybe she thinks you'll let her down like everybody else has and maybe she's just too scared to make a move because of that."

"Yeah well I don't want to make a move and screw everything up with her," Harry sighed.

"Oh Harry," Hermione sighed softly, "Are you ever going to have things easy?"

"Nope," Harry replied irritably, "Fate of being the chosen one, everything has to be complicated as hell."

Hermione smiled at him as the door opened and the two people they had been discussing walked in, dripping with mud.

"Well aren't you two cosy," Daphne said in amusement.

"Force of habit," Hermione yawned, "We spent months on end together."

Draco raised an eyebrow at Harry, "If I didn't know about your...arrangement...with Daphne, Potter I'd accuse you of trying to steal my girl."

Harry chuckled, "Well I'm definitely not doing that, I'm just a convenient pillow for her."

Hermione grinned and said, "Well you're a bit bony to be honest."

Daphne chuckled at the comment as Hermione pulled her legs up to let the other two sit down. The blonde girl yawned as she leant back on the sofa and then said, "Hey Potter, I've been meaning to ask you something. How the hell did you know how long an average person could survive underwater for?"

Harry frowned, "What?"

"The other day, when we were on our way to save Draco," Daphne reminded him, "You told me that."

"Oh," Harry realised, "Yeah well I did my research in 4th Year when I realised I would have to be underwater in a giant lake for hours.”

"Well I guess that makes sense," Daphne chuckled.

“It makes more sense when I say that _he _didn’t do most of the research,” Hermione said, shooting Harry an amused smile.

Draco snorted in amusement, “Yeah, that definitely makes more sense,” he agreed.

***

When Dean walked into his dorm room late that night, he found Seamus packing up his belongings. He paused in the doorway for a moment and then walked into the room fully, “So you really are leaving then?”

“Yeah, I'm not sitting here putting up with this,” Seamus said irritably, “We're the ones who won the bloody war and if that doesn't give us a right to play pranks on Slytherins what does?”

“Pranks?” Dean asked in disbelief, “You nearly killed him Seamus! A couple more minutes and he'd have been brain dead, or just dead!”

“Since when did you give a shit about Draco Malfoy?” Seamus retorted angrily.

“Don't get me wrong, I don't mind Draco,” Dean said honestly, “But that isn't what this is about Seamus. Have you totally not noticed that I'm dating one of the Slytherins that you seem to hate so much? And it's not just because she's fit or because I'm desperate, it's because she's an amazing person and I love being with her so yeah, I'm sick of you trying to justify being a dickhead towards the Slytherins!”

“Why don't you just bugger off with your new friends then?” Seamus bit angrily, “And your bloody Slytherin girlfriend! It's not like our friendship matters or anything, it's not like we've been mates for years!”

“No listen to me a minute Seamus,” Dean said angrily, “This has nothing to do with our friendship. This is because you nearly killed someone, you could have gone to Azkaban-”

“Azkaban?” Seamus snorted, “Come on, I'm a war hero-”

“So?” Dean said, raising his voice, “You're not Harry Potter! You didn't defeat Voldemort! You're not Neville Longbottom, you didn't behead a bloody snake! You're not Ron Weasley are you? You didn't mobilise a bloody house elf army to fight in the final battle! You destroyed a bridge, alright? You _could _have gone to Azkaban and fighting in the war doesn't make you special, it doesn't make you any better than anyone else!”

“Who do you think you are?” Seamus spat.

“I'm the person whose stood by you and calmed you down since we were 11 years old,” Dean replied, “I'm the person who’s apologised to people like Harry on _your _behalf when you've been a fucking dickhead! And do you know what? You've finally gone too far this time and I'm sick of being the idiot standing there making your apologies!”

Seamus stared at Dean for a moment but he didn't say a word.

The dark skinned boy sighed, “Do you know what? I hope you have a good life out there doing whatever you decide to do. If you ever calm the hell down, come and find me and we'll talk.”

Seamus nodded and shut his Hogwarts trunk with a snap that resounded throughout the room. He picked it up and walked towards the door, “See you around then,” he said simply.

“Yeah,” Dean said calmly as Seamus walked out of the dormitory.

***

Dean stayed quiet about Seamus's punishment but he didn't have to keep the secret for very long because as it so happened the following morning an announcement was made.

McGonagall stood up and hushed the hall then said, “I am sorry to say that I had to make true on my threats relating to the punishment inflicted for inter-house bullying. I warned you all that there would be consequences and when a Gryffindor almost killed a Slytherin because of a foolishly dangerous practical joke, I had to take action. The student in question was suspended but chose to leave Hogwarts upon hearing this news so let this be a warning to all of you.”

“A Gryffindor?” Sadie asked in a whisper as McGonagall sat down, her eyes scanned the table and she gasped, “It was Seamus Finnigan wasn't it Draco?”

“I think we can talk about it now,” Harry frowned as he glanced at the blonde boy, “McGonagall asked us to stay quiet until the announcement but yeah, it was Seamus.”

“And he's left?” Tracey asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Apparently he seemed to think he was due something more as a war hero,” Dean said irritably, “Seemed to think he was exempt from all the rules, like he was Harry bleeding Potter - no offence Harry.”

Harry chuckled, “None taken Dean.”

Hermione shook her head angrily, “I know you're friends with him Dean but it serves him right! He could have killed Draco!”

“Nah I'm with you here Hermione,” Dean said honestly, “He's a bloody idiot and he's one of the few people who doesn't seem to have picked up on this whole inter-house community thing.”

“Even Ron's making friends in Slytherin,” Harry added in amusement.

Ron scoffed, “Friends? I'm _tolerating _them yeah but I'm not friends with them.”

“The feeling is mutual Weasley,” Draco said dryly.

Hermione rolled her eyes, “The point is Ron, you wouldn't try and kill Draco.”

“Only because you're all loved up with him and I wouldn't want to hurt your feelings,” Ron pointed out.

Hermione shot him a pointed glare, “Ron.”

He grinned sheepishly, “Sorry Hermione, I know I get it. Seamus was a bit of an idiot, I mean pranks are one thing like how Fred and George did them but not like that.”

“It reminded me of what my Father and his friends did to Snape,” Harry admitted in a whisper so that only Hermione and Ron could hear him.

Hermione nodded and a frown began to knit itself onto her face, “Yeah, I think there are a few too many similarities there,” she agreed.

***

In Divination that day Trelawney was in a very good mood for several reasons. The first being that she was convinced they had a true seer in their midst.

“Harry, my dear!” Trelawney squawked, “I heard all about your friend Mr. Finnigan. He betrayed you but justice prevailed did it not? Just like you predicted!”

Sadie gasped, “Oh Merlin Harry! You really are a seer!”

“I'm really not,” Harry muttered so that only Ron could hear.

“Lucky guess,” The redhead sniggered.

“Have you had any other visions my dear? Or has your inner eye become clouded?” Trelawney asked eagerly.

“Yeah, it's really misty,” Harry said with a fervent nod.

“Ah alas,” Trelawney sighed, “It happens to the best of us,” she patted him on the shoulder and walked to the front of the class once more.

Daphne leant forward and whispered in his ear, “Either you are a true seer or a very lucky liar Potter.”

“I'm a man of many mysteries Greengrass,” Harry whispered back with an amused grin at the girl whose eyes flashed mischievously.

Their attention was drawn back to the class after that however because they found out the second reason that Trelawney was so cheerful. As she did every year she had made a dramatic prediction in September. The prediction had gone along the lines of;

"_In October one will leave us. In November one will join us and in March one will suffer a terrible injury - it will probably be you Harry my dear, you are so very accident prone after all."_

It was October and Seamus had left so her prophecy was looking pretty accurate which surprised the entire class, not least Harry and Ron. As she was so pleased with herself she decided to join the 4 tables into 2 tables and give them the task of reading tealeaves which was an O.W.L level activity. Harry, Ron and Susan's table therefore got combined with Daphne, Tracey and Sadie's table and Harry was lucky enough to swap cups with Daphne.

“You go first then,” Daphne grinned, “After all you are a wonderful, mysterious _true _seer.”

Harry snorted in amusement as he looked in her cup, “Alright then...let's see. You have a dagger which means you're going to sacrifice something and a skull which means beware...oh and there's a harp which means you're going to fall in love shortly…and an apple which signifies happiness.”

Trelawney was hovering by their table as Harry looked up and caught Daphne's eye, “So Daphne the thing is, you're going to fall in love and you are going to have to sacrifice something in that relationship. You should be careful because falling in love might hurt but at the same time it could make you very happy.”

Daphne swallowed as Harry held her gaze, unaware of Ron shaking his head in disbelief at the sight.

“Well done!” Trelawney cried, throwing herself at the table and making Harry and Daphne both jump in surprise. She looked at Harry with watery eyes and exclaimed, “You are my best student, Harry!”

Daphne pulled her gaze away from Harry's and Ron nudged him in the ribs, muttering that he was a cheesy bastard.

***

The rest of the day was interesting too, double Herbology in particular turned out to be amusing. The exercise they were doing involved mandrakes so they had to split into groups which meant that the long table was replaced by several smaller circular ones. Daphne, Hermione, Tracey and Sadie were in a group together as were Harry, Draco, Theo, Neville and Blaise.

“Alright, everyone put your earmuffs on, very tight; you don't want to pass out. Extract the fluid from the mandrakes using the tools provided but do not hurt them,” Sprout informed the N.E.W.T level students who all put their earmuffs on and pulled the mandrakes out of their pots.

About 5 seconds later all the mandrakes started screaming. Following that were 4 loud thuds which came from the corner of the greenhouse where the boys had been working. The girls were trying to hide their hysterics as they watched Harry, Draco, Theo and Blaise faint like girls.

Neville looked around in surprise and said to Hannah, “For once, it wasn't me!”

***

Last period Potions turned out to be an interesting hour too. Due to Seamus's sudden absence Ron was told to take his place which left Daphne without a partner. So Slughorn had put her with Draco and Harry for the day. This meant that Draco spent the whole period in between the flirting 'couple.'

“Potter, you aren't doing it right,” Daphne said, glancing at what he was doing, “You need to squeeze it harder.”

“Stop,” Draco said, glaring at them and ignoring Hermione's laughter from a few tables in front. That girl had amazing hearing.

“Knead it more gently Potter.”

“Seriously?” Draco exclaimed.

Daphne grinned at Draco who groaned. He was sure she and Harry were just _trying _to get on his nerves now and it was working very well.

***

That night was Thursday which meant two things. 1. The Gryffindor Quidditch team were training tonight and 2. All the girls used this as a chance to gossip.

The team was made up of a mixture of 8th Years and 7th Years. Harry, Ron, Neville and Dean were the 8th Years that were out of the common room which left Hannah, Tracey (and company) to talk about their love lives without their boyfriends over-hearing. Sally, Annie and Megan joined in of course as they always did. Daphne listened discreetly from where she was writing up a charms essay.

“I heard today that Harry and Daphne kissed but nothing else,” Sally told them eagerly, “And everybody knows that Daphne sleeps with guys within like a couple of days.”

Daphne frowned at that comment, _bitches_, she thought to herself.

“Oh shut up,” Tracey remarked, “You make her out to be a total slut. She's slept with like two guys, are you in double figures yet Sally?”

Sally scoffed, “Hardly Tracey!”

Daphne smiled slightly, she was grateful that Tracey was sticking up for her at least.

“So what anyway? Maybe Harry didn't sleep with her yet because he's just a total gent,” Annie grinned.

“Or maybe there are other reasons,” Megan said sneakily.

“Like what?” Hannah frowned.

“The latest rumour _I _heard,” Megan said, “Is that he swings the other way.”

Daphne grinned as she listened more intently to the girls.

“He _could _be gay!” Annie agreed.

“He hasn't had many serious relationships,” Sally added.

“Well that settles it, he _must _be gay!” Megan chortled.

Daphne, being the devious Slytherin she was, decided to spice things up a little. She sauntered over to the girls and leant over the couch, “Sorry for interrupting your bitchy gossiping session ladies but I couldn't help overhearing you discussing Potter's sexuality.”

Sally, who had never gotten on with Daphne, frowned, “What's it to you if we were Greengrass?”

Daphne smirked, “Well I'm _so _sorry to burst your bubble but a guy who kisses the way Potter does definitely isn't gay,” she said simply before standing up and walking to her dorm room, leaving Tracey laughing at the pathetic reactions of Hogwarts gossiping bitches.

***

“I kind of accidentally announced our...thing today,” Daphne said in amusement when Harry sat down next to her in the common room later that night.

Harry snorted, “Do elaborate.”

“Well the gossiping wenches were discussing your sexuality,” Daphne grinned, “Saying they were pretty sure you were gay. I just assured them that I knew for certain you weren't.”

Harry grinned back, “Interesting. Our thing you say? What exactly is our thing?”

“I don't know, it's a thing,” Daphne replied evasively.

“Yes, Potter is a thing,” Theo agreed matter of factly as he leant over the sofa, “Couldn't help overhearing.”

“Eavesdropping,” Daphne and Harry corrected in unison.

The Slytherin boy grinned, “Very cute. So your thing then, is it a relationship thing? Is Daphne Greengrass actually dating?”

Daphne rolled her eyes, “Oh shut up Theo. It's none of your business.”

“I'm just here to offer my advice,” Theo said in amusement.

“Yeah well your advice isn't very well founded,” Daphne pointed out, “Since you haven't told the girl you like that you like her yet, after _years_.”

“Yeah you should talk to Ron about that one mate,” Harry grinned, “He knows _all _about that.'

Theo snorted, “I will have you know that I am planning on telling her, I'm just waiting for the opportune moment.”

Harry shook his head, “There is no opportune moment Theo, you've just got to do it. I think you're hiding behind excuses, the truth is that you're too scared.”

“I am not,” Theo objected, “I could do it at any time.”

“Fine,” Daphne smirked, “Do it at breakfast tomorrow.”

“In the great hall?” Theo faltered.

“Uh-huh,” Daphne grinned and Harry cut in, “Unless you're too scared that is?”

“Not at all,” Theo said as he pushed himself up, “I'll do it, just you wait and see!” he called as he walked away from them.

“About bloody time too,” Daphne chuckled as she risked another glance over at Harry, what he had said in Divination had gotten her thinking and she was starting to wonder if everyone was right about how this might be a good time to try a relationship again.

“So what are we Daphne?” Harry asked again as he caught her eye.

Daphne wanted to say that they were a couple, that they could be a couple but instead she just frowned and said quickly, “We're a thing, alright Potter?” before rushing to the safety of the girls dorms.

***

“Sadie, do you think two really good friends can ever be anything more?”

“Sure,” Sadie replied, “If they want it enough, why?”

Theo shrugged and looked back down to his breakfast, “Oh I was just wondering.”

It was breakfast time on Friday morning and so far this was Theo's 4th subtle attempt to show Sadie how he felt. Daphne and Harry had filled Draco and Hermione in on the deal they had made with their friend and for the most part they were finding his failed attempts amusing. Daphne however was getting increasingly frustrated with Theo.

He lost the chance again as the subject of conversation changed tact and they ended up talking about the latest charms essay for a while. Then Theo tried for a 5th time, “Hey Sadie, do you like anyone at the moment?”

Sadie shrugged, not looking up from the book she was reading and before she could answer Daphne stopped her, “Theo! Stop fooling around and tell her!”

“Tell me what?” Sadie asked with a frown as she looked up from her book, she had no idea what was going on.

Theo glared at Daphne before turning back to Sadie, “I like you Sadie; I've had feelings for you since 3rd year.”

Sadie gaped, Draco and Harry sniggered, Hermione grinned and Daphne muttered, “Finally!”

“But Theo...” Sadie said, still in shock, “You're a complete womaniser!”

Theo seemed to forget that the entire 8th Year table, some of the teachers and half of the great hall, were watching him. He nodded and said firmly, “I act like that with other girls because the only person I've ever wanted anything serious with is you.”

“Really?” Sadie asked with wide eyes, it was hard to interpret how she felt about Theo's confession. Theo nodded, not hearing Draco, Harry and Ron's muffled laughs as they held each other up.

“Stop it!” Hermione hissed to the boys but it was just too funny, they _couldn't _stop laughing. Hermione shot them glares and Daphne quite happily went back to her breakfast.

“That's so sweet Theo,” Sadie eventually said and Theo grinned in relief. Sadie was quiet and not very outgoing and Theo was the complete opposite so it came as a complete surprise to _everyone _when Sadie was the one who kissed Theo in the middle of the great hall, amidst cheering and wolf-whistling.

Hermione watched them both with a smile, she hoped beyond hope that they wouldn't end up like she and Ron. She knew from experience that if you were very close friends with someone for a long time it was difficult to make a relationship work.

When Theo and Sadie finally broke apart they heard the crowd going wild. Even up at the Head Table McGonagall was hiding a small smile behind her goblet of pumpkin juice. Sadie blushed deeply at the reaction to the kiss. Theo, on the other hand, was anything but shy and he reminded Harry very much of his own Father as he stood up on the 8th Year table, bowed to the great hall and then jumped back down to put his arm around Sadie.

The way they were, Theo and Sadie that was, it was how Harry had always imagined his parents to be. The way Theo had reacted was how Harry had imagined that James would have reacted. In a way Theo reminded him of both his Father and Sirius, he just had a playful attitude to life and it was incredibly refreshing.

**TBC :)**


	16. Father and Son

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Title comes from the song:  
Father and Son by Cat Stevens

When Draco received a note in Ancient Runes instructing him to go directly to the Headmistresses office he was instantly worried. His first thought was that something had happened to his Mother or his Aunt but when he walked into Professor McGonagall's office he discovered that the reality was far worse than his imagination.

She looked grim as she sat behind the desk and said, "Please sit down Mr. Malfoy."

"I'm fine standing," Draco said stiffly.

McGonagall fixed him a stern look, "I must insist that you are sitting down when you hear this Mr. Malfoy," she said more firmly.

Draco sighed and sat down at the other side of her desk. He looked up pointedly and McGonagall quietly said, "This information has not been released. It is very sensitive in nature and I must ask you to keep it entirely to yourself. I received word early this morning that your Father escaped from Azkaban in the middle of the night."

Draco paled significantly at that news, "What? How could he escape? He was in the high security sector!"

"The Ministry believe there is a leak," McGonagall said calmly, "A mole within the DMLE."

"One mole? There are hundreds of them!" Draco said as he angrily got to his feet, "Where are my family? My Mother, my Aunt and my nephew?"

"The Ministry assured me they would be sending officials to ensure that they were safe," McGonagall informed the boy, "And that the search for your Father is using all of the manpower they have."

Draco shook his head angrily, "The Ministry? The same department of the Ministry that you just admitted has a mole? You and I both know that won't be good enough Professor. Am I excused?"

McGonagall hesitated before she eventually nodded, "On the condition that you promise to stay within the grounds of this school Mr. Malfoy."

"I promise," Draco said, but he was lying through his teeth and McGonagall _knew _that he was lying through his teeth. He gave the Headmistress a brief nod and swept out of the room, he was consumed with anger and fear as he bypassed Arithmancy and headed straight for the common room. He had to grab a few things but then he would be leaving, he would be going to save his family from his Father.

Draco had gotten far enough without being caught until he stepped onto the staircase to the boy's dormitories that was. He literally bumped into Harry as he made his way down the stairs with Blaise who he had been working on a Charms project with.

"Hey Draco, do you-"

"Get lost Potter," Draco barked at Harry as he pushed him to the side and stormed up to his dorm room.

Harry frowned and glanced over at Blaise, "Was it just me or did old Draco come through a bit there?" he asked the Slytherin.

Blaise nodded, "That's what Draco was like during the war...grumpy, short-tempered, and snarky."

"A bastard," Harry summarised and Blaise chuckled, "Pretty much. He's probably just upset and that's his way of dealing with it."

"Why would he be upset?" Harry asked with a frown.

Blaise shrugged, "How am I supposed to know? He wouldn't close up if he wasn't upset about something though."

"Maybe Theo knows," Harry mused, "Those two are really close."

Blaise nodded his agreement but raised an eyebrow at the boy, "It also isn't really your business, Potter."

Harry sighed, "I know but I take it upon myself to try and fix things. Do you think we should go up and talk to him?"

Blaise shook his head, "No, he would just bite our heads off. Leave him alone and he'll come out of in his own time," he advised Harry as he walked away in the direction of the common room.

***

When Hermione walked into the common room 10 minutes into what was supposed to be her Arithmancy class she expected it to be empty. However, Harry, Theo and Daphne appeared to have a free period as they were all sitting around a large desk working on essays.

Hermione laughed when she saw them, "Well look at you working hard Harry."

"Hey! I actually have to do well this year," Harry chuckled, "But shouldn't you be in class?"

"I left my Arithmancy book in my dorm," Hermione said sheepishly, "I was just going to grab it. Oh while I remember, have any of you seen Draco? He got a letter in Ancient Runes saying he had to go to McGonagall's office urgently."

Harry frowned, "Uh…well that's weird because I did see him just a few minutes ago and he was pretty horrible, you know like old Draco horrible."

"I already told Potter, he's probably just upset about something," Theo said offhandedly, "And his way of coping with pain is to shut people out."

Hermione frowned, "What's he upset about though? McGonagall must have given him some kind of bad news...has anyone spoken to him?"

Harry shook his head, "I told you he was a bit of a dick so we thought it would be best to let him calm down-"

"Oh, there he is," Hermione said, cutting Harry off when she saw Draco appear at the bottom of the stairs with an overnight bag in his hand. Hermione paused in front of him, "Where are you going?"

"Stop talking to me Granger," Draco said coolly as he began to walk away. Hermione frowned and followed him across the common room.

"Draco," Hermione said firmly, "Where are you going?"

"It's none of your business, Granger," Draco said icily and he started to walk away again but this time Hermione didn't let him. She grabbed him and pushed him up against the stone wall by the fireplace.

"You don't get to walk away from me Draco Malfoy," Hermione said calmly as Harry appeared behind her.

"She's right, you don't get to walk away because you're clearly up to something," Harry said.

"Let go of me Granger," Draco said angrily as he tried to wrestle free, but he underestimated Hermione's strength.

"Not until you tell us what's going on," Daphne cut in, "Because you are clearly upset about some news that you heard and as your friends we are here to help, Draco."

"Because friends hold friends up against walls," Draco hissed sarcastically.

"What's going on Draco?" Theo asked as he frowned at his best friend.

"I'm not telling you!" Draco objected.

"Alright then," Harry sighed, "Are you good to keep holding him there while I go grab some veritaserum from Slughorn's secret potions cabinet?"

"I'm fine, I can hold him like this for hours," Hermione replied calmly.

Harry nodded, "Perfect," he said as he turned around and began to walk towards the common room door.

"Fine!" Draco said when Harry was about to grab the handle. Harry smirked and turned around to face the blonde boy who said, "My Father escaped from Azkaban last night."

"What?" Hermione asked, nearly letting go of his arms in her surprise.

"How the hell can he have escaped from the high security sector of Azkaban? That's the most secure place in the UK! It's underground, on an island, in the middle of the North Sea!" Theo said loudly.

"Because the Ministry is fucking corrupt,' Harry said darkly, "That's how. Somebody helped him escape."

"A leak or a mole, whatever you want to call it, in the DMLE," Draco said with a slight nod, "But that's not important Potter! The fact is that he'll have gone to confront my Mother, she's in danger and so are Andromeda and Teddy."

Something dangerous flashed in Harry's eyes, "Then I'm coming with you."

"This is my family Potter," Draco barked, "It is _my _business!"

"Teddy is _my _Godson!" Harry retorted, "So it's my family and my business as well Malfoy!"

Draco knew that he was right so he sighed and nodded, "Fine."

"I'm coming too," Hermione said hotly.

"No, you aren't," Draco said firmly and he finally had the strength to break free from her grasp.

"Yes I am!" Hermione said angrily, "You can't go into that situation on your own!"

"I won't be on my own, I'll have Potter with me," Draco said irritably, "And you are not coming. If he sees you he will kill you! This isn't the war when you were a valuable asset Hermione, in the war he would have spared you and handed you over to Voldemort so that he could punish Potter by hurting you. But the war is over and the second he sees you he _will _fire a killing curse at you so you _cannot _come."

Hermione stared at Draco, he was breathing heavily and he looked terrified and guilt-ridden. Her voice was lost in her throat so she nodded and stepped forward, throwing her arms around Draco as she did.

Hermione whispered, "Just remember that your Father is a sick bastard who made all the wrong choices but that doesn't mean you have to do the same. Whatever he says to you, whatever he tries to tell you...you may share some of the same personality traits but you aren't him Draco. You are a good person."

When Hermione pulled back from the hug she caught Draco's eye. They were oblivious to the other people in the room at that moment. In that gaze Hermione saw just how vulnerable he was and all she wanted to do was hold him and tell him that she would be there and that it would all be alright. But she couldn't do that because he had to go and because she didn't know if everything was going to be alright. She had seen first-hand what Lucius Malfoy was capable of after all. What happened next surprised Hermione though, without saying a word Draco walked forward and leaned down to kiss Hermione whose eyes fluttered shut automatically. The kiss was different to any of the others, it was fast, hard and needy but Hermione didn't mind one bit. When Draco broke the kiss he rested his forehead against hers and Hermione whispered, "Just come back, Draco."

Draco fixed his gaze on hers and Hermione looked into his grey eyes for a moment. He then spoke quietly, "I'll try my best," he promised. She wished he could _really _promise, but she knew that he couldn't and she knew that he didn't want to tell her he would come back and then not deliver on that promise.

He took a step back and glanced over at Harry who had been tactful enough to avert his gaze, "Ready then Potter?"

Harry nodded silently and together they left the common room.

"That was intense."

Hermione glared at Theo, "This isn't funny Theo! Draco's father is dangerous, somebody could get hurt! Somebody could..." she trailed off.

Daphne sighed as she sat down on the sofa, "Hermione is right Theo, this isn't a laughing matter."

"I didn't mean that it was," Theo admitted, "I just meant that the whole thing was intense."

"Yeah well Hermione and Draco are probably both wondering if they're going to see each other again so it would be intense," Daphne said with a pointed look at the Slytherin who got the hint and promptly disappeared upstairs.

Hermione began to pace the common room silently. She was either unaware of Daphne's gaze or she was ignoring it but Daphne eventually spoke up anyway, "You're lucky, Hermione."

Hermione frowned and looked over at the blonde girl. Her usual carefree smile was replaced with a soft frown and there was a deep thoughtful look within her eyes, "Lucky?"

"To have Draco," Daphne said quietly, "Well not Draco in particular, but somebody who loves you as much as he does."

"How do you know he loves me?" Hermione asked with a sigh, "He hasn't said it."

"Not in so many words maybe," Daphne smiled, "But it looked to me like he said it without words before he left."

Hermione smiled very slightly at her friend, “I know."

"Watching you two saying goodbye," Daphne frowned, "Like it was the last time you would ever see each other...it made me wonder if somebody could ever love me like that."

"Oh I think they could," Hermione said honestly as she sat down next to the girl, "But you have to let someone in first. Someone who's crazy about you, someone like Harry."

Daphne swallowed and shook her head, "Forget it Hermione, we've got far bigger things to worry about, like Draco and his family."

***

"You don't even know that he'll be here, Draco," Harry said quietly as he walked up the path towards Greengrove House, Andromeda's home.

"I know," Draco said darkly.

"How?" Harry asked the blonde pointedly, "Your Mother hadn't spoken to her sister in years. Why would he even think to look here?"

"Because he knows the way that my Mother thinks," Draco hissed, "The second he realised she wasn't in the Manor he'd have come here. He'd have known she'd have reconciled with her sister at the first chance she got, he'll be here Potter."

"And then what do we do?" Harry whispered as they reached the front door, "Kill him? Is that the plan? For you to get your revenge and a lifetime in Azkaban along with it?"

"No," Draco said as he reached out for the door handle, "We make sure he goes back to Azkaban where he belongs and we make sure my family are safe."

"Come on then," Harry said, his gaze lingered on Draco's hand which was resting on the door handle. The blonde nodded and he opened the door with a soft click. They walked into the empty entrance hall carefully, both holding their wands up and treading carefully. Draco took the lead because he clearly knew his Father and the way he thought better than Harry did. He was heading for the small living room, rather than the drawing room, but Harry's priority was Teddy so he branched off upstairs in the hope that his Godson was safe and that he could get him out of here.

When Draco walked into the small room he had to fight to contain his fear. His Mother and his Aunt both had their hands bound behind their back and their feet bound together as they sat on the sofa. Draco also suspected that they were under silencing charms. Lounging in the armchair in the darkest corner of the room was Lucius Malfoy. His legs were crossed, his old cane stood behind him and he was watching Draco with a smirk on his face.

When Draco saw him he simply drawled, "Hello Father."

Lucius Malfoy was a shadow of the man he had once been. His good looks had faded with age. The war, and probably Azkaban, had aged him beyond his years and his eyes were dead, it was as if he was incapable of expressing any emotion.

"What do you want with my family, Father?" Draco asked coolly, he sounded and looked far calmer than he felt.

"Your family, Draco?" Lucius asked with interest, "I was under the impression that I was the head of the family."

"I assumed the title legally after you were imprisoned," Draco said simply, "And I somehow doubt you will win it back considering the fact you are a wanted felon."

"Indeed," Lucius said smoothly as he got to his feet, "Now isn't that odd? My wife and my son escape all punishment, no time in prison, no community service, indeed not even a fine. Yet I am sentenced to a lifetime in Azkaban."

"You were a Death Eater," Draco said through gritted teeth, "Through two wars! You murdered people, you tortured people! Mother was controlled by you and your wicked ways Father, so it is natural she did not suffer."

"Perhaps, but you Draco," Lucius said as his eyes bore into his sons, "You were of age when the war ended. You should have been tried as an adult and you _were _a Death Eater too. I know what the court said about you being only 16 when you took the mark but I do not think that is why you and your Mother escaped punishment. I think the reason is Harry Potter. I believe that he vouched for you both, but not for me."

"So what if he did?" Draco challenged, "Why should he have vouched for you? You deserve to be rotting in Azkaban, it's where you belong!"

"Now, now Draco," Lucius said with a dangerous smile, "That's no way to talk to your Father."

Draco fixed the man with an ice cold stare, "I have no Father," he spat.

***

Harry breathed a sigh of relief when he walked into Teddy's room and saw the little boy sitting in his cot chewing on a teething ring. He didn't know how long he had been left alone for but it didn't seem to have done any damage which was what Harry had been concerned about.

"Come on Teddy," Harry whispered as he picked the boy up carefully. He gurned slightly and Harry tiptoed towards the fireplace in his bedroom. He threw some floo powder into the dying embers and whispered, "The Burrow," then he gently held Teddy and covered him with his robes before stepping into the green flames.

When Harry stepped out of the flames into the kitchen of the Burrow he was not at all surprised to see Molly preparing lunch. She jumped when she saw the fire flash green but relaxed when she realised that it was only Harry.

"Harry," Molly frowned as she took in his school uniform, his robes and the baby inside them who was now gurning even more than he had been when they left the house, "What on earth is going on?"

"Lucius Malfoy has escaped from Azkaban," Harry said quickly, "And I think he's holding Andromeda and Narcissa hostage back at Greengrove. I got Teddy out but I left Draco back there to deal with it all and I have to get back. Can you take Teddy?"

"Of course," Molly said as she took the boy from Harry and frowned, "He's so hungry, when did he last eat?"

"I don't know," Harry said honestly, "Lucius escaped last night, Teddy could have gone without a bottle for a few hours."

Molly sighed, "I'll try and drip feed him so it doesn't upset his stomach. You had better get back and Harry...please be careful."

"I always am Molly," Harry said with a wry smile as he stepped forward and kissed her on the cheek, "Take care of my Godson."

***

"I thought you would be interested to know that before I silenced your Mother she talked an awful lot," Lucius said cruelly, "Then again that is what a combination of veritaserum and the imperius curse will do to a person."

Draco's eyes darkened, "Don't you dare hurt her."

"Oh she's perfectly fine," Lucius said nonchalantly, "But she told me all about you and Miss. Granger."

"And what of it?" Draco spat.

A darkness completely came over Lucius as he took a step forward, "How dare you soil yourself with her kind? How _dare _you drag our family name through the mud? You have contaminated yourself by laying with a _filthy _Mudblood!"

"Oh and you didn't contaminate yourself by raping Muggle women during the war?" Draco hissed, "That's alright though is it? You disgust me!"

“Muggle women are mere creatures, Draco,” Lucius said calmly.

"They are still human beings," Draco said coolly, "Their blood status doesn't make them any less human."

"You truly have become a Mudblood lover," Lucius said with disdain.

"Yeah, I probably have," Draco agreed, "And do you know what? I'm proud of it, because it makes me different from you."

Lucius smirked, "On the contrary Draco, you are _just _like me. You are cold, you are calculating and you are a criminal. That will not change, no matter how many pardons you get from the _great _Harry Potter. Do you recall torturing the Muggles Draco? Do you still remember their screams or the sound their bones made when they snapped? Do you recall how many times you stood by and watched while we killed Mudbloods? Do you recall helping fellow Death Eaters dispose of their lifeless corpses?"

Draco had paled significantly and his wand hand shook slightly. Lucius smiled wickedly, aware that his plan was working, "You may think you are a better person all of a sudden because Harry Potter wants to be your friend and Hermione Granger wants to be your girlfriend but would they still care if they knew about what you had done? You are not a good person Draco and you never will be. You are a monster, _just like me_."

"Don't listen to him Draco."

Draco jumped at the sound of Harry's voice. He looked towards the doorway where Harry leant against the wall casually, "You are not a monster and you are definitely different to your Father. You have too many people who care about you, too many people who won't let you slip into that darkness again. You have Hermione, your Mother, Andromeda, Teddy, Theo, you have me," he said calmly.

Draco swallowed and Lucius smirked as he turned to look at Harry, "Ah Mr. Potter, how nice of you to drop in."

"Just looking out for a friend, Lucius," Harry said coolly.

"A friend?" Lucius asked with that same wicked smile, "You heard what I said I presume?"

"I heard," Harry said firmly, "And I don't really care to be honest. Draco didn't kill anyone, but I have so by your logic that makes me a monster too. I've tortured people and I've killed Death Eaters. But I was on the other side so the murders I committed were justified. Your actions do not define you, how you overcome them though, that does."

Lucius shook his head and laughed bitterly. He opened his mouth to speak, but before a single word came out of his mouth a shout came from behind him.

"Stupefy!"

Lucius's eyes rolled into the back of his head and he fell to the floor. Harry looked up from his unconscious form to Draco, whose wand hand was shaking and who had tears in his eyes. Whether they were from fear, anger or sadness Harry had no idea.

Draco said darkly, "Isn't it ironic that he always told me to watch my back?"

Harry smiled slightly, "You just prove that you aren't him, that you are a better person. You prove it by having the strength to stun your own Father after everything he's done to you and that’s something to be proud of Draco."

Draco nodded weakly and turned around in a slight daze to his Mother and Aunt. Harry followed his line of sight and they quickly worked together to unbind them and cancel the silencing charms.

"Where is Teddy?" Andromeda asked the moment that she could speak.

"At the Burrow with Molly," Harry said gently, "I got him out of here the moment I arrived. Are you alright?"

"Fine," Andromeda said as she rolled her head, "Just a little stiff."

"Mother, are you okay?" Draco asked as he hugged her.

"I've had far worse Draco," Narcissa said softly.

"I know," Draco said with a dark look at his Father.

"We have to get him to the Ministry," Harry said simply.

"The same Ministry that helped him escape and didn't send _anyone _out here to check on my family?" Draco asked angrily.

"Well what else can we do?" Harry retorted, "Kill him? Chuck him into the North Sea and hope he drowns?"

"We would be doing everyone a favour," Draco muttered.

"No," Narcissa said as she reached out and gripped Draco's hand, "My Husband was a murderer, I cannot handle my son becoming one too."

If Draco had been thinking of doing something along those lines the desperation in his Mother's voice convinced him otherwise. Harry added, "Besides I was going to take him directly to Kingsley. He's one of the only people that I can actually trust in that bloody place."

"Alright," Draco said simply as he got to his feet, "Let's get him out of here."

Harry nodded, "Yeah let's do that."

"I have to change the wards on this house," Andromeda said darkly, "If he got in here anybody could. Would you mind picking Teddy up for me, Cissa?"

"From the Burrow?" Narcissa asked anxiously.

Harry smiled, "You'll be fine Mrs. Malfoy. The Weasley’s don't bite and they don't hold grudges anymore, not since they lost their son."

Narcissa nodded, "Of course," she said softly, "Yes, of course I will go and fetch him for you Andromeda."

Harry looked away from the two women, he got to work binding and levitating Lucius's body then he turned to Draco, "Are you ready?"

"Let's just get this over with," Draco sighed.

***

"Hey Kingsley," Harry said calmly as he stepped out of the fireplace in the Ministers office, "I have a little present for you."

Kingsley narrowed his eyes at Harry and looked at the active fireplace just as Lucius Malfoy's unconscious body was flung unceremoniously through it. Draco stepped out after it and the fireplace returned to normal.

"Do explain, Harry," Kingsley said simply.

"Well how's this for a story?" Harry began, "A convicted Death Eater escaped from the high security sector of the most secure prison in the British Isles. To get out of that prison he needed to get through three magically sealed doors. Magically sealed doors that only open when they recognise the retina, fingerprint _and _wand signature of a Ministry official. To get _off _of the island he needed access to a boat, access that he would only have found in the heavily guarded bay of the island. To get back into the country he needed to go through an immigration and a security stop. So Kingsley, I count not one mole in the justice department but somewhere in the region of 5 to 10 moles. How exactly does a convicted murderer walk off an island and board a boat without a single person blinking an eye?"

Kingsley's eyes darkened, “I am aware of how corrupt this institution is Harry but I do not entirely know what you expect me to do about it. I cannot simply fire every single person here. Every single employee has already been vetted thoroughly."

"Obviously not that thoroughly," Harry said irritably, "You've got moles everywhere! There are dozens in the DMLE, the most important department in this place! There are probably still some in the Department of Magical Transport and in the Department of Magical Co-operation, not to mention the sorry state of the Wizengamot."

"Again Harry," Kingsley said firmly, "How do you propose we solve this because I am happy to hear any ideas?"

"Veritaserum," Harry said simply.

"It would take gallons," Kingsley replied, "And we do not have the resources after the war. Our economy is in pieces; our resources are shockingly low. We would not have been able to reopen Hogwarts this year if Minerva had not used her own life savings to fund the school year."

"McGonagall did that?" Harry asked and he suddenly felt a wave of gratitude towards her.

"Yes," Kingsley said calmly, "Harry, you cannot just walk in here and expect things to be better. It does not work like that, things are not going to change overnight. There are people here that I don't want to be working here but I can't fire them without cause because I can't afford to. We are understaffed, low on resources and low on funds, we have lost vital alliances with other wizarding Ministries because we simply cannot afford to keep up with the standards of trade. The war may be over but the aftershocks will be felt for years yet. The Ministry will not change in weeks or months; it will take years."

"Well it can change," Harry said hotly, "Bit by bit, department by department. And when I join the Aurors I'll start that."

Kingsley smiled slightly, "So you are joining us then?"

"After I finish school," Harry admitted sheepishly.

"Good," Kingsley said, "You are right, it will change with the right people in charge. We'll slowly weed out the old corrupt officials and replace them with graduates like yourselves, people with new ideas for this place. It will be reinvented but as I said it will take time. But for now Harry, what happened?"

"He took my Mother, my Aunt and my cousin hostage," Draco said as he stepped forward, "McGonagall told me he had escaped and I told Harry, we left for my Aunt Andromeda’s house because I knew that was where he would be. When we got there Harry took my cousin to safety and we confronted and stunned my Father."

"And which one of you actually did it?" Kingsley asked curiously.

Harry smiled somewhat proudly at Draco, "Draco did."

Draco glanced down and Kingsley said, "Very well. I will have him shipped off to Australia tonight. In fact, I will take him myself to ensure that he cannot escape."

"Australia?" Draco asked with a frown.

Kingsley smirked slightly, "Yes, Harry was right about Azkaban being the most secure place in the British Isles. However, it is not the most secure place in the British Colonies and Australia is still part of the Commonwealth. They are one of the few Ministries who have not abandoned us in the course of the war, along with the Ministry of New Zealand and the Canadian Ministry of course. All three countries allow us to use their land on occasion and I doubt that Lucius Malfoy could escape from a prison in the middle of The Bush."

"So I'll never see him again?" Draco asked hopefully.

"Correct," Kingsley replied.

"Minister, may I leave him a note?" Draco asked curiously.

"Feel free," Kingsley said as he motioned to a memo pad and a quill on his desk. Draco nodded and wrote a quick note.

_"Lucius,_

_You have shamed our entire family through your actions to the supposed Dark Lord. May you rot in prison and regret every single terrible decision that you ever made while Mother and I move on now that we are finally free of you."_

Draco breathed a sigh of relief as he slipped the note into Lucius's pocket and straightened up. Harry smiled slightly at the blonde, "I think we ought to get back to Greengrove, Draco."

"And then Hogwarts," Draco said calmly, "Hermione will be going mad with worry."

**TBC :)**


	17. Change is Going to Come

When Molly heard a knock at the front door of the Burrow she frowned. Nobody ever used the front door, everybody knew to use the backdoor or the floo. More to the point, nobody knocked because they were all family here so everybody just walked in. She was wary as she left Teddy sleeping in an old travel cot that had once been Ginny's and edged towards the door. She peered through the peephole and was surprised to see Narcissa Malfoy standing on her doorstep.

"Mrs. Weasley?" Narcissa asked a little nervously.

Molly frowned and unlocked the door, she pulled it open and surveyed the woman.

"I'm here to pick up my nephew," Narcissa said in a whisper, "Andromeda sent me."

Molly nodded and took a step back, "Come in," she said.

Narcissa stepped into the hallway but looked afraid to walk any further into the house. As Molly shut the door Narcissa looked around, she didn't even notice the rickety old staircase going up as far as the eye could see. Her eyes found only one thing, a wall entirely filled with framed pictures haphazardly thrown up wherever there was room. There were over 100 photographs of the family, sometimes the entire family, sometimes only certain members.

"You have a beautiful family," Narcissa said, her voice caught in her throat.

Molly smiled slightly, "129 photographs," she said softly, "One for each birthday one of the children has had," her own eyes scanned the wall. They told the story of each child, of the entire family, they charted their lives from babies to toddlers, from children to teenagers, from young adults to full blown adults. They were all magical and the hallway was filled with dusty smiles and cheerful waves. It was so warm and it made Narcissa regret her own life and her own decisions. It made her regret her coldness towards Draco and her decision to marry the man who had belittled him for his entire life.

A few silent tears slid down Narcissa's face and she drew in a shaky breath, "I only have this photograph of Draco," she said as she reached into her handbag and pulled out a photograph. It was worn and ragged at the edges and it showed Narcissa holding a tiny blonde baby in her arms, "I was still in St. Mungo's when Andromeda took this...she visited me when Lucius left and she owled me the photograph...all we have beyond that are paintings and they aren't the same, they are posed and harsh and stiff. But these photographs are so soft and warm and... breath-taking."

"Your son is growing up to be a good man," Molly said gently, “Regardless of what you believe."

Narcissa looked down, "I fear I have been a terrible Mother," she whispered, "I failed to protect him as a Mother should have done. I could not protect him from his Father or from the Dark Lord."

"Nobody could have," Molly said softly as she placed her hand on Narcissa's back and guided her towards the kitchen, "Harry's own parents could not protect their son against Voldemort and I could not protect my son against him."

"I am so sorry," Narcissa breathed, "I am ever so sorry for what happened to your son. I feel responsible-"

"- You were not responsible," Molly said firmly as she gently nudged Narcissa into a chair at the kitchen table and set the kettle on the stove. She turned back to the blonde woman and continued, "I lost one son in the battle but you saved another."

Narcissa frowned, "I am afraid I do not understand what you mean."

Molly smiled slightly as she looked at the clock on the wall next to Narcissa, "You told Voldemort that Harry was dead. You saved his life and he is as much my son as those that share my DNA. Just as Hermione is as dear a daughter to me as Ginny is."

Narcissa smiled slightly as she also looked at the clock. It showed Molly's hand as at home, Arthur, Bill, Charlie, Percy and George were shown as at work. The hands of Ron, Ginny and Hermione pointed to "school" and Harry's hand was pointed towards "travelling".

"I suspect we may see each more frequently," Narcissa said softly, "Now that my son has befriended Harry and now that he is dating Hermione."

Molly smiled, "It makes a lot of sense, that relationship. Hermione wrote to me the other day, she seems very happy."

"I do believe Draco loves her," Narcissa said with a smile, "He writes fondly of her and he tells me that he cannot wait to introduce her during the Christmas holidays."

"You will have to come around one evening," Molly insisted, "You, Draco, Andromeda and Teddy."

Narcissa smiled, "I would love to and I am honoured that you would invite me into your home in such a way. I thought because of the way my Husband treated yours and the way my son treated your children you would perhaps think lowly of me."

"The war is over and the new world is just beginning to bloom," Molly smiled, "I am happy to let go of the past and look towards the future. If Draco and Hermione are serious about their relationship then that future may be very much intertwined."

Narcissa chuckled as Molly set a steaming cup of tea down in front of her, "Indeed."

The redheaded woman smiled and said, "Now do drink some tea my dear, you are shaking like a leaf."

***

"Mother, is that you?"

Narcissa stepped into the large drawing room with Teddy in her arms. Draco was sitting on the sofa, clearly waiting for her which made her smile, "Should you not be back at school?"

"I wanted to make sure that you were okay first," Draco admitted.

"Do you think me a terrible Mother, Draco?" Narcissa asked weakly.

"No," Draco frowned, "No, of course not! Why would you think that?"

"You had such a lonely childhood Draco and your Father forced you into such horrible situations," Narcissa said quietly, "I should have stopped that, I should have protected you."

"You tried to protect me," Draco said darkly, “You spent long periods of time under the imperius curse because you were trying to protect me. You risked your life to protect me during the war. I did have a lonely childhood and I hated Father, that much is true. But it is thanks to you and your bedtime stories, it is thanks to our secret days out in the Muggle world when Father was away, our picnics and the novels you read to me. It is because of you that I have any concept of love, Mum."

Narcissa embraced her son and cried silently as she held him close to her, she had done so only once recently. When the war had ended and the guilt had flooded Draco he had sobbed in her arms like a child and she had rocked him as she had done when he was small to calm him. This time however she was the one crying and as she held her son close she whispered, "I am sorry Draco and I love you. I do not tell you that often enough."

"You don't have to," Draco said with a slightly watery smile, "I know."

Narcissa nodded and pulled a handkerchief out of her bag to pat away her tears. She took a shaky breath and said, "There is something that I have been meaning to tell you Draco. I have begun the process of an annulment of my marriage to your Father. When it is complete I will go back to my maiden name."

"Black?" Draco asked curiously.

"Yes," Narcissa said softly, "And if you wish, I can change your name at the same time."

Draco frowned at the prospect, 'So I would become Draco Black?'

Narcissa nodded, "It is entirely your choice. If you prefer to remain as a Malfoy, I will not hold it against you."

"If I changed my name wouldn't we lose everything? The money and the lands and the trust funds?" Draco asked with a deep frown.

"No, only the name and the title," Narcissa replied, "The Malfoy family name would die out. We would have no status, no title and no place in the Wizengamot. It would also cancel out all existing marriage contracts.”

"There are existing marriage contracts?" Draco asked in alarm.

"Yes," Narcissa said cautiously, "Only one. It pertains to a Malfoy marrying a Greengrass before the year 2006."

Draco's eyes flashed dangerously at that news, "Daphne?"

"Or her younger sister, Astoria," Narcissa reasoned.

"But wouldn't I become head of the Black house if I changed my name?" Draco asked, "I mean the last person to be head would have been Sirius Black and he's dead."

"Yes, but he left an heir to the name, title and estate in his will," Narcissa said calmly.

"Potter," Draco murmured irritably.

"You can have it if you want."

Draco jumped and he glared at the Gryffindor who was standing in the doorway, "Potter! How long have you been standing there for? My Mother and I were having a private conversation!"

"I literally just got here as you mentioned the Black family name," Harry said honestly, he walked further into the room, "I am the head of the Black family but I'm also the head of the Potter family. The Blacks have more money and they probably had more influence once upon a time too but I don't really want the title or the house. You can _definitely _have the house, it's a dump."

"You can't be serious," Draco said in disbelief.

"Nah he's the dead Godfather, I'm Harry remember?" Harry joked as she sat down on an armchair and surveyed his blonde friend.

"I mean it Potter," Draco said as he stared at the dark haired boy, "You don't just give away a title, a house and a seat on the Wizengamot."

"Maybe not," Harry shrugged, "But I _have _a title, I _have _a seat on the Wizengamot and I _have_ a house. It's pretty much destroyed but if Hogwarts can be brought back to life so can Potter Manor."

"Potter Manor?" Draco echoed.

"Of course," Narcissa smiled, "A house does not simply disappear Draco. However, Potter Manor has not been inhabited since the death of your Grandparents in the late 1970's Harry and is it on the Dorset coast so I expect there to be much erosion and structural damage. It may not be so easily fixed."

"I've got enough money to at least try," Harry said with a slight smile, "And I think I owe my family that. So do you accept the offer Draco? Because if you do I'll write to Gringotts and square it with the goblins."

"Why are you doing this?" Draco asked.

"Because we're friends now," Harry said, "And also, to be perfectly honest, because if you give up the Malfoy title it cancels out that pesky marriage contract. Let's face it, you like Hermione a lot and you're looking at this thing like you're in it for the long haul. Plus, I don't want you having to marry the girl I've been trying to ask out for the last two weeks, do I?"

"There's that Slytherin inside of you again," Draco grinned, "I kind of like it."

Harry laughed, "Well there's a reason why I have so many different friendships. My inner Gryffindor's best mate is Ron, and my inner Slytherins is you."

Narcissa chuckled at the two boys, "I am glad that you seem to have helped my son this year Harry but I do have to be a Mother right now and urge that you two get back to school."

"You're right to worry about my education Mum," Draco said in amusement, "Being friends with _him _has landed me in trouble way more this year than in the last 7."

"Hearing about you getting into trouble for pranking and doing heroic things is a lovely thing for me Draco," Narcissa said softly, "Compared to the trouble you were in last year."

Draco nodded and stepped forward to hug her again, "I'll write soon," he promised, “And I'll see you at Christmas."

***

When Draco and Harry walked into the common room Hermione and Daphne both sighed in relief. Hermione darted across the now fairly busy room and launched herself at Draco with such force that he lifted her off of her feet when he caught her. She wrapped her arms around him and whispered, "I'm so glad you're okay. I've been worried sick!"

Draco was going to pull back from the hug and kiss her when another set of arms enveloped both Draco _and _Hermione. They instantly knew it was Theo before he even said, "I missed you too bro."

"Ugh Theo, get off," Draco said through his laughter and Hermione chuckled too as she wrestled out of the middle, leaving Theo clinging onto Draco like a limpet again.

Hermione glanced to the side where Harry was talking in undertones with Daphne and she hid a small smile, today was progress for them as far as she was concerned...

***

“For what it's worth I'm glad you're okay," Daphne said to Harry.

"I was fine," Harry smiled, "Nothing more dangerous than I've faced before."

"Still, Lucius Malfoy could have done so much worse," Daphne said, "Was everyone alright?"

"Everyone is fine," Harry assured her, "And Lucius Malfoy is being sent off to The Bush forever."

"As in Australia?" Daphne asked with a raised eyebrow.

Harry nodded, "Apparently that's where one of the world's most secure prisons is."

"Well it makes sense," Daphne mused, "I'd assume there are anti-apparition wards for miles, so if someone _did _escape they'd probably die of dehydration or get bitten by a scorpion...or maybe get eaten alive by a kangaroo..."

"You're a very morbid person," Harry said matter of factly and Daphne only chuckled in response.

Harry smiled at her, "I need your help with something. What happened today...well I need to discuss it with some people that I know we can trust. I'll spread the word to my lot but if you could make sure Draco, Theo, Blaise, Sadie and Tracey could hang back until the common room empties tonight I would appreciate it."

"Sure, I can do that," Daphne said with a soft smile, "And by the way Harry, in the future if you're about to run off on a potentially life threatening mission at the very least a hug would be nice."

Harry grinned at those words as her eyes sparkled playfully before she turned away to find her friends.

***

"This year is turning out to be a bit mad," Neville said matter of factly as he sat down next to Harry in the crowded common room.

Harry nodded absentmindedly, "It hasn't exactly been quiet."

"I blame you," Neville snorted, "What happened today?"

"I'll explain to everyone later," Harry sighed, "If you can stay in the common room until everyone leaves."

"Sure," Neville said simply as he glanced over at Draco and Hermione, "Can you believe it?"

"That they're together?" Harry asked in amusement, "It’s still a bit surreal but I do understand it. Gryffindors and Slytherins do actually work very well together. I mean yes we are different but we're not always _too _different and frankly it's better than being too similar. As for Draco...well he was actually quite brave today. I think we always saw the worst of him but now we're seeing the best of him. It has a lot to do with Hermione, to be honest."

Neville seemed to agree with this, "I think they work far better together than Hermione and Ron ever did," he said quietly in case Ron overheard, "They just seem to fit."

"They make each other happy," Harry said, thinking of all that Hermione and Draco had gone through in such a short period of time, "And I think for now that's enough."

"Isn't that enough for anyone right now?" Neville asked as his own eyes found Hannah sitting at the other side of the room. Harry remained silent because he knew that Neville's question was rhetorical. The taller boy added, "After what we all went through in the war I think we all just want to be happy."

"Yeah, I guess we do," Harry said as he looked back down at his Transfiguration essay.

"Are you happy Harry?" Neville asked, his eyes surveying his close friend, "With Daphne?"

Harry gave Neville a weak smile, "You see right through me Nev,” he said.

Neville merely shrugged his shoulders, "I've known you for a long time."

"You have." Harry agreed thoughtfully, Neville had been around for as long as Ron and Hermione after all and he had never been anything less than a great friend. Harry looked down again to avoid searching the common room for Daphne, "And I am happy in a way. Daphne's fun and beautiful and funny. I haven't had fun in such a long time and I just feel lighter when I'm with her, like all of my cares have disappeared. Sometimes I just..." Harry trailed off shook his head.

Neville understood though, he nodded and said gently, "Sometimes you just want more."

He hadn't admitted that to anyone yet, not really. Everyone knew but they were all tiptoeing around the subject with him. He was happy and they didn't want to ruin that, Ron and Hermione in particular. But Neville understood Harry in ways the others didn't because of the situation with their parents. He knew that Harry couldn't keep letting it stew inside. He knew that Harry had to talk about it eventually. So Harry swallowed hard and then nodded, "Yeah...sometimes it's just not enough."

"Well you never know," Neville said quietly, "It could become something more. It could become something great if you both just give it the chance to grow."

"I don't know how easy it would be to convince Daphne of that," Harry admitted, "You know, Daphne Greengrass a.k.a the ice queen? The girl who doesn't do relationships."

"Nobody completely quits on relationships forever Harry," Neville smiled, "They just give up for a little while until the right person convinces them to try again."

"You think I'm the right person?" Harry asked, half joking and half serious.

Neville shrugged, "I think you'll never know unless you try. You have to let her know how you feel, if she chooses to run away from things after that then it was never going to work and if she accepts that things need to change then it could be the start of something great."

"When did you get so good with relationship advice Nev?" Harry chuckled.

Neville grinned cheekily, "See, I told you that those romance novels of my Grans that I grew up reading came in handy for something."

Harry laughed loudly, "Alright, fair play."

***

The clock ticked on past 1pm and the common room had finally emptied apart from the people who Harry wanted to remain there. The people in the common room were Hermione, Draco, Daphne, Neville, Theo, Sadie, Tracey, Dean, Blaise, Ron and Lilly.

When Harry glanced pointedly at Ron in a way that said, Lilly ought to go, Ron’s ears reddened and he got to his feet, "Lilly stays," he said firmly.

"Why?" Draco asked irritably.

Ron faltered and Lilly rolled her eyes. He then said, "Because she's my girlfriend."

Hermione's jaw dropped, "When did that happen?"

"A couple of weeks ago," Lilly replied matter of factly, "But he wanted to keep it super-secret."

"Did you know Harry?" Hermione asked when she realised that Harry didn't seem surprised.

"Uh, yes," Harry admitted, "But Ron asked me to keep it quiet."

"What were you being secretive for?" Dean snorted, "Everybody loves Lilly."

Lilly grinned, "Well thank you Dean."

Tracey laughed, "It's true though Ron. She's lovely, what were you keeping it secret for?"

Ron sat back down and said quietly, "Because I knew how everybody would react. The way Harry did and the way you all are, you think she's too good for me. You're wondering why on earth a Ravenclaw would want to date me."

"No, I'm not thinking that," Hermione said with a soft smile, "Because I am a smart girl so I understand exactly how they think. We're always thinking, the cogs in our head are always whirring and we can't let go so we love guys that make us laugh, guys that help us let go," she shot a radiant smile at Draco who returned it softly.

"That is exactly it," Lilly smiled.

"And I didn't think that either Ron," Harry said, "I was just surprised because I didn't even know that you knew each other."

Neville nodded, "I've got to admit, I'm not surprised. Lilly tends to like funny guys and when I saw you in the library so much over the last few weeks I _did _wonder Ron."

There was laughter at that comment, especially from Ron, and Harry smiled at that. He was glad that there was happiness in the world again, "Well then Lilly stays," Harry said as he got to his feet, "The reason I wanted to talk to you all was because of something that I noticed today...something that I want to try and do something about."

Hermione frowned, "To do with Draco's Father?"

"Sort of," Harry admitted, "I want one or two words from all of you as the answer to this question. How does a convicted criminal walk out of Azkaban, board a boat and walk into England without anyone batting an eye? Draco you can't answer because you know the answer."

Draco nodded and glanced to the person on his left, Hermione.

"With help," Hermione said darkly.

Daphne nodded in agreement and said, "Death Eaters."

"Dark magic," Tracey said quietly.

Dean frowned, "Dirty Aurors?"

"Political sway," Theo said instantly.

Sadie nodded slowly, "Inside job?"

"Connections," Blaise said simply.

Neville hesitated and then said, "Powerful allies."

"Corruption," Ron said irritably.

The last person to speak was Lilly who said, "Voldemort sympathisers."

Harry nodded and spoke up once more, "Do you see how many of those answers revolve around the Ministry being corrupt? In particular, the DMLE being corrupt? How can we rely on our Ministry if we can't rely on our justice department? And it's not just that, there are still moles monitoring and controlling the floo network in the Department of Magical Transport. There are still moles negotiating hugely important treaties with countries that could prove to be vital allies in the Department of Magical Cooperation. Hell, the Wizengamot is a sorry state of affairs. Some of the most influential families in the wizarding world don't have an active seat."

"Well there probably won't be a Malfoy seat anymore," Draco pointed out, "Which will open up a new spot."

"Why won't there be a Malfoy seat?" Hermione frowned.

Draco glanced at his girlfriend, "Because my Mother is divorcing my father and when the divorce goes through I will be dropping the Malfoy name and becoming the head of the house of Black."

Hermione's frown deepened, "But Harry is-"

"- I told him I'd sign it all over to him," Harry cut in, "I've already got the Potter name with all its land and status. I don't need the Black name and Draco needs a new start."

"That's very noble of you Harry," Hermione said softly.

"Well to be honest with you Hermione it was a win, win, win, win situation," Harry said in amusement.

"Why _four _wins?" Daphne asked with a raised eyebrow.

"There is a contract stating that a Malfoy has to marry a Greengrass before 2006. By Draco dropping the Malfoy name, it cancels out that contract which means that 1. Draco doesn't have to be in an awkward marriage contract situation. 2. Daphne doesn't have to marry Draco. 3. I don't have to stop pursuing Daphne so that she can marry Draco and 4, Hermione doesn't have to be dumped by Draco because of a marriage contract."

"Alright, fair enough," Theo snorted, "Now get back to your Ministry thing."

"Right," Harry said sheepishly, "The point I'm making is that the Ministry is corrupt as hell. At least one person had to help get Lucius out of Azkaban prison itself. Then at least two _more _people must have helped him get off of the island but those boats hold 6 people and there are 12 guards at the bay at any point so there could have been a hell of a lot more people helping him. Then when Lucius got into the country at least 2 people must have helped him bypass immigration and security."

"For Merlin's sake," Hermione breathed, "That isn't a small leak."

"No, it's a bloody waterfall pouring out of the side of the Ministry," Draco agreed.

"I don't see what we can do about it," Sadie frowned, "We're still at school."

"At the moment," Harry agreed, "But if we join the Ministry we can push for reforms, department by department. I practically agreed to join the Aurors today, after school has finished."

"But for the moment we're just stuck at school," Ron said, "So we can't do anything can we?"

"Would raising awareness help anything?" Tracey asked.

"Yeah like in the Muggle world where they get people to sign a petition?" Dean added with a nod.

Hermione frowned, "I don't think that will change much here Dean. I mean yes the Ministry is essentially a democracy. But obviously in the Muggle world every person over the age of 18 votes every 4 years to elect a Prime Minister."

"Really?" Daphne asked in surprise, "Here the _Wizengamot_ select the Minister for Magic."

"Exactly," Lilly cut in, "The Minister for Magic has to get a majority vote from the heads of the most prominent wizarding families so obviously the number changes over time as families die out and gain prominence."

"It started with the Sacred Twenty-Eight," Theo said matter of factly, "My ancestor wrote a book all about purebloods and these 28 families were the last to be considered entirely pure. It wasn't accurate mind you, the Ollivander's were on there and there had been a half-blood born into that family when the book was written."

"We were in there too," Ron said in amusement, "Until we started breeding with Muggles a few years after the book came out, so my family had a brief seat on the Wizengamot but we don't anymore."

"A lot of the families in the 28 are still in the Wizengamot though," Sadie said thoughtfully, "But then again some new families have come forward since the book was published in the 1930's. The 28 were largely prominent families in England since the Norman invasion of 1066, they had risen through service to the Muggle Kings and wizarding lords. There were a few families in there who came to Britain around the time of the British Empire though like the Shacklebolt's and the Shafiq's."

"There are the even newer seats too though," Draco added, "Like Cauldwell, the seat Sadie's brother currently sits in. Her family rose to prominence only in the last 30 or so years."

"The Potter's are a new family too in terms of the Wizengamot," Daphne said as she caught Harry's eye, "Despite rumours of their descent from Godric Gryffindor and even one of the famous Peverell brothers. Rather than coming to Britain from France they were probably Saxons originally who converted and rose in the service of the Normans. They should have been in the 28, they were a very pure, very loyal and _very _rich family. But then Charlus Potter, your Great Great Grandfather Potter, pissed off the Wizengamot not long before this book was published. The Wizengamot have to approve every piece of legislation of the Minister for Magic's before it can be passed and like with the election of the Minster it's all to do with the majority. The Minister was trying to pass the segregation act which would essentially have meant muggle-borns lived separately, worked separately and so on from half-bloods and purebloods. Because of the whole majority thing they got to Charlus and the way he voted swayed the whole thing, he voted against the motion and he was thrown off of the Wizengamot, hence why the Potter's aren't in the 28."

"Wow," Harry said in amazement, "How did you know all of that?"

"There are lots of record books in the manors of pureblood houses," Draco said in amusement.

Daphne nodded and added with a slight smile, "And the administrator of that parliament happened to be _my _Great Great Grandfather. All of his notes of the court and parliament proceedings are in the library in Greengrass House."

"As interesting as this history lesson is we've swayed from the point," Tracey cut in with a raised eyebrow.

"Yes the point is that the general public do not vote in the wizarding world," Hermione said, "So a petition doesn't necessarily do anything. I'm aware an outcry from the people can force the Minister for Magic to step down but in this case that will actually make things worse not better."

"So you don't think there is anything we can do?" Harry asked, sounding disheartened.

"No, I didn't say that," Hermione said with a smile, "But I don't think a petition will work. I think it might just make things worse. However, you hit the nail on the head with the Wizengamot. What needs to happen to change things is that new legislation has to be passed and at the moment that will never get through a corrupt Wizengamot with lots of empty seats. In the 1980's legislation was passed to fix the Wizengamot at a maximum 25 seats and of those seats only 8 are currently filled including Kingsley's own seat. That means to get a majority for anything to go through he has to get the votes of at least 5 people, including himself."

Ron frowned, "Yeah but if only 4 other people have to vote for it then doesn't that make it easier to pass laws?"

"Not necessarily," Hermione replied, "Those 8 seats on the Wizengamot that are filled belong to the Shacklebolt's, the Abbott's, the Boot's, the Zabini's, the MacMillan's, the Cauldwell's, the Slughorn's and the Longbottom's. Now if Kingsley tried to pass a law that meant that the head of every department had to undergo veritaserum testing for example, the Cauldwell's, Zabini's, MacMillan's, Slughorn's and Boot's would vote against it because they believe that veritaserum testing is not ethical. That would mean that only the Abbott's, Longbottom's and Kingsley himself would vote for the motion so it wouldn't get passed."

"Bloody hell politics are complicated," Ron muttered.

"I know," Harry laughed, "But the problem is Ron that the Wizengamot is a complete sham. The majority of those who have seats are older people and they have the prejudices that our generation are shaking off."

"People like my Father," Hannah said quietly.

"And my Uncle Archibald," Neville added.

"And Slughorn," Draco said, "because as good a teacher as he is you can't deny he has prejudices and political leanings."

"Out of date political leanings," Daphne added in an undertone.

"Why is it so empty anyway?" Dean asked in confusion, "I mean 8 seats out of 25, how can it be so low?"

"Because, of the empty seats 11 belong to families where no clear heir can be found," Draco replied smoothly, "The problem is that the requirements for representing your family on the Wizengamot are that you must be a Witch or Wizard, you must have adequately passed your N.E.W.T's and you must be at least 18 years old. But the small print also says you must not be incarcerated or implemented in any way with dark magic or dealings."

"So 11 seats belong to families affiliated with Death Eaters and Voldemort sympathisers," Tracey added, "Which means there is no clear heir who isn't imprisoned. It's the case for the Avery's and the Bulstrode's, the fact Millicent fled with her family immediately implements her with dark magic you see?"

"It's also the case with the Carrow's, Lestrange's, Parkinson's, Rosier's, Rowle's, Traver's, Selwyn's, and Yaxley's," Draco continued, "They are either on the run, in Azkaban or dead. The last seat, the Ollivander's, is vacant for similar reasons, Ollivander himself is not deemed mentally capable of occupying his seat and he has no heirs to take it for him. It means these seats will be abolished and 11 new families will be able to represent the Wizengamot. But the Wizengamot is fighting over who these families should be."

"Yeah well what about the rest of the seats then?" Ron asked, "Because 11 plus 8 makes 19."

"The other 6 seats are vacant until the heirs can legally take them and this is where my plan comes in," Hermione said eagerly, "Those 6 seats belong to the Potter's, Malfoy's, Black's, Bone's, Greengrass's and the Nott's. Now Draco if you drop the Malfoy name then that seat will disappear, meaning 12 new families will be introduced to the Wizengamot. But of the 5 seats left the people who will take them are Harry, Draco, Susan, Daphne and Theo. That's a whole lot of new blood being added into the mix and there are rumours that the Weasley's are amongst the new families to be incorporated. I imagine Percy would fight to head the family but his views are in line with ours anyway so that would be good for us."

"Why Percy? It should be Arthur, he's the oldest living male," Dean pointed out.

"Yes but that doesn't make him head of the seat," Draco said with a wave of his hand, "The person who heads the family on the Wizengamot has to be elected by the rest of their family. Way back when this meant people would literally kill for seats but now the family as a whole decide on the person who should take it."

"Right, makes sense it would be Percy then," Ron said in amusement, "He's mad about politics."

Hermione nodded, "Exactly and as I said I think he would share a more modern viewpoint on things like veritaserum testing."

"What are you saying here?" Neville asked slowly.

"I'm saying that we can bring about change," Hermione told him, "Neville you're a far better candidate for the Longbottom seat, it will be easy for you to fight to get the seat from your Uncle. Once you have your N.E.W.T's you can take your seats and suddenly it's a whole lot easier to get through the legislation Kingsley is creating."

Harry's eyes lit up, "Hermione, have I ever told you that you are a _genius_?"

Hermione positively beamed at that and Draco nodded slowly, "You really are Hermione and you are entirely right. All we have to do is get through this year and pass our N.E.W.T's. After that we take our seats and suddenly legislation will be rolling out like wildfire."

Harry grinned at the prospect, "Viva la revolution," he joked and the joke elicited laughter from the majority of the group. As he stood there with them all he suddenly felt hopeful. Change was going to come, he was sure of that now.

**TBC :)**


	18. The Ice Queen

"What's going on with you and Daphne?" Draco asked Harry over breakfast.

Harry groaned at the girls name and Draco raised an eyebrow at him, "That bad?"

Harry nodded, "I just can't do it anymore," the Gryffindor admitted, "I'm so fed up with it."

"I thought you knew what you were getting into," Theo said from Harry's other side, "Didn't Draco warn you?"

"I did," Draco said quietly, "I told him that she doesn't do relationships."

"I know," Harry said with a slightly annoyed eye roll, "And at first I thought I could handle it but I do relationships, not flings."

Draco looked at Harry with concern in his eyes that he couldn't quite mask. He was paler than usual as if he was under a lot of stress, "This is eating you up Harry, you can't carry on this way unless you want to ruin your friendship with Daph. You need to end it, she'll understand."

"It's not that easy," Harry grumbled, "She's amazing and I really like her. I don't want to just be her friend, I want to be more.

"She'll never go for it," Theo remarked.

"I don't know, she might," Draco said with a slight frown, “There's something different about you. I can see it when she talks to me, you've got her thinking about relationships not conquests."

"She hasn't even tried to sleep with me yet," Harry told them in a whisper.

"Really?" Theo asked in surprise.

Harry nodded, "That's got to mean something, right?"

"Probably," Draco admitted, "But you'll never know unless you act on it."

Harry rolled his eyes at that comment, "Yes I know, everyone keeps telling me that!"

***

Harry dwelled on the situation all day and tried his best to avoid Daphne. When he went to bed that night he tossed and turned and woke up several times. On one occasion he knew that it couldn't be morning yet because it was still dark outside. He sighed and closed his eyes in an attempt to get some sleep. He was quite awake though so sleep wasn't coming easily to him and then he heard an odd sound coming from the bed next to his. He frowned and listened, it was the sound of somebody sobbing and it was coming from Neville's bed. Harry didn't know what to do, he didn't know whether Neville needed to be left alone or whether approaching him would help. He waited for a little while to see if the sobs would subside but they seemed to get worse. After 10 minutes Harry couldn't just lie in bed and not do anything about it anymore. He ducked out of his own bed and slowly padded across the floor to Neville's.

"Nev?" Harry called out softly. There was a gasp and the sobs stopped.

"H...Harry?" Neville said quietly.

"Do you want...to talk, or anything?" Harry asked, he felt useless but he wanted to do something to help.

Neville opened the curtains to his four-poster and Harry saw his friend's tear-stained red, blotchy face and bloodshot eyes, "Come in if you want."

Harry took Neville's invitation as a plea for a friend and climbed up to sit across from his fellow Gryffindor on his bed. Harry pulled the curtains shut behind him and cast a muffliato charm on them. Neville weakly thanked him and they didn't speak for a little while but Neville had stopped crying at least.

"Everyone I love is gone Harry," Neville said quietly, eventually breaking the silence. Harry wasn't too sure how to respond so he didn't say anything. Neville spoke again, "I just got back from McGonagall's office. My Grandmother is dead."

Harry's heart sank, "Oh...Neville, that's horrible. I'm so sorry."

Neville shook his head and the tears began to fall again, "She fought in both the Wizarding wars and then not even a year after it's all over she falls down the stairs and breaks her neck."

Again Harry was at a loss for words but he did understand Neville's pain, he'd lost Sirius who'd been like a Father to him and shortly after he'd lost Remus who had loved him like a son.

"It probably won't help Neville but just before I went to Voldemort to sacrifice myself I saw my parents," Harry confided in his friend but he knew he couldn't tell him about the resurrection stone because that was a secret that was to remain strictly between Harry, Ron and Hermione, "And it was probably just a hallucination because of the pain and the lack of sleep. But the point is that I know how much it hurts and I know that the wound is raw but there is something more, something beyond life and you'll see her again one day, her and your parents."

Neville managed to smile weakly at Harry as his way of saying thanks because Harry understood that he wasn't capable of speaking after the horrible news he'd just received. They sat in silence, just keeping each other company, until the sun began to rise and penetrate through the thick curtains of the four-poster bed.

"You'll come to the funeral, won't you Harry?" Neville asked out of the blue as the sun rose higher in the sky.

Harry was taken aback by the question but answered, "If you want me there then of course I'll be there."

Neville seemed satisfied with this answer because he gave a small nod to Harry then said, "Thank you."

The two words were simple but the meaning behind them was all that Harry needed to hear to know he'd done the right thing by approaching Neville instead of ignoring his sobs. They'd been a cry for help, he'd needed someone and Harry didn't blame him at all.

***

Harry's issues with Daphne went out of the window as he devoted all of his energies into helping Neville get through the haze of pain he was hiding behind. Neville had 1st period off and Harry didn't think it was a good idea to leave his friend alone so he decided to skip Divination.

"Potter!"

Harry knew who had called before he even turned around, hardly anyone called him Potter these days and besides, he would recognise that voice anywhere. Harry turned from his spot at the bottom of the boys' staircase to look at Daphne who was standing by the door to the common room.

"Are you coming to Divination?" Daphne asked and Harry didn't know if he'd imagined it or not but he could have sworn that there was something different about her. She seemed less cheery and more serious, she never waited for him, they never walked to class together, she always went with Sadie and Tracey.

"No," Harry said honestly.

Daphne frowned, "No as in you aren't coming or you don't want to walk with me?" she asked and Harry was sure she looked hurt. Harry sighed; he had bigger issues to deal with right now but he couldn't just leave Daphne wondering what was going on with him, that wasn't fair.

Harry crossed the room and said quietly, "I'm skipping class; tell Trelawney I'm helping a friend."

"What's wrong?" Daphne asked speaking more softly than he'd ever heard her speak.

Harry grimaced, his head was pounding, "Neville's Grandmother died last night Daphne. He needs me right now."

There was a moment of silence in which Daphne looked down at the ground, "Give him my condolences. I'll see you later?"

Harry nodded, "Yeah, maybe," he said with the best smile he could manage but he could tell that Daphne knew it was fake and forced. She gave him a small nod and left the common room. Harry tried to push her from his head as he made his way up the stairs to the dorm room, he needed to be there for Neville right now, he could think about his issues with Daphne later.

The others suspected that something was wrong when Neville and Harry didn't turn up for Herbology and they could tell that Daphne knew something but when she was asked she said nothing. Draco suspected Harry had told her not to talk about it until the right moment so he left the issue alone. After Herbology Hermione, Draco, Daphne, Theo, Sadie and Tracey all sat in the courtyard with one of Hermione's excellent fire jars keeping them warm.

"Do you think they're okay?" Draco asked, more concerned than he would have liked to admit.

Hermione nodded and smiled at her boyfriend, "Harry does this, he disappears for a while and then comes back again, I'm sure we'll find out whats wrong soon enough."

"Potter's fine," Daphne said, speaking up about the conversation that morning, after all she didn't want them to worry about the wrong person, "It's Longbottom, but I don't think I should say whats wrong until he tells you himself."

The others understood and stopped asking Daphne questions about it, besides the bell had rung before anymore could be said on the matter and the group made their way to DADA where they would be meeting their new Professor for the first time. Everyone was excited to see who this new guy was and the corridor outside was buzzing with chatter as they waited for the door to the classroom to open.

"What do we know about him?" Daphne asked the group as a whole and got several replies back.

"He's called Professor Poliakoff."

"He went to Durmstrang."

"He's young."

"He's gorgeous."

Draco and Theo rolled their eyes at the girls as the door to the classroom swung open. They figured that with a new Professor they could shuffle the seats around a little so Draco and Theo sat down at a table for 4 at the back of the room leaving two seats in the middle which they were saving for Harry and Neville. Daphne, Hermione, Sadie and Tracey took the table for 4 in front of the boys and once everyone was seated the new Professor walked out of his office.

He _was _gorgeous. He looked fairly young, only a few years older than the 8th Years themselves and he had a very Scandinavian look about him. His hair was the same colour of white-blonde as Draco's but it was naturally messy like Harry's. He had blue eyes, very vivid blue eyes, like Dumbledore's. Sadie and Tracey were whispering about his cheekbones and Draco and Theo were sharing looks of amusement and bemusement.

"Good Morning," he said with a smile that showed off white teeth that could have rivalled Lockhart's. He descended the stairs and leant against the desk at the front of the room, "My name is Professor Poliakoff and I'm with you for the rest of the school year to complete my training. Today I'd like to familiarise myself with you all and get up to speed with where you are in the N.E.W.T course."

The Professor then picked up a register and began to read out names, "Hannah Abbott, Terry Boot, Susan Bones, Mandy Brocklehurst, Sadie Cauldwell, Michael Corner, Tracey Davis, Justin Finch-Fletchley, Hermione Granger, Daphne Greengrass, Megan Jones, Neville Longbottom-" Poliakoff stopped and looked up with a frown. His eyes found the two empty seats at Draco and Theo's table.

"He's absent from classes today Sir, as is Harry Potter," Daphne spoke up and the Professor smiled at her, "Thank you Miss-" he consulted his list, "Greengrass."

Poliakoff marked off the two names on the list and then got back to the attendance, "Ernest MacMillan, Draco Malfoy, Lillian Moon, Theodore Nott, Sally-Ann Perks, Harry Potter is absent, Sally Smith, Zacharias Smith, Dean Thomas, Ronald Weasley and Blaise Zabini."

With the attendance taken Poliakoff stood up and said, "Now, I'd like to rearrange the classroom a little.”

He asked everyone to stand up then with a few flicks of his wand replaced the tables with a circle of comfier chairs, "If everyone would like to take a seat."

It was a strange and different way to start a class but everyone did as the Professor said. Once they were all seated Poliakoff took the seat closest to the desk, "I want to find out a little more about you all so we'll go around the circle and I'd like you to state your name, your house and an interesting fact about yourself."

There was some mumbling and exchanges of looks at his words but this felt familiar to Hermione, it was very similar to what Muggle primary school teachers did to find out a little about everyone and get more comfortable with their students.

"We'll start with you Miss Abbott and continue around clockwise," Poliakoff said kindly as he smiled at Hannah. However, Hannah didn't get to speak right away because the classroom door burst open and in walked Harry and Neville looking a little more tired than usual but other than that fine.

"Sorry we're late Professor," Harry said as he walked over to the new DADA Professor and handed him a note, "The Headmistress gave us a note to explain."

Poliakoff took the note, quickly read it and smiled, "Not a problem boys, take a seat in the circle."

With another flick of his wand two more chairs appeared between Draco and Theo so they took their seats.

"I was just telling your classmates that we're going to go around the circle. If you'd just like to state your name and house then tell us an interesting fact about yourself," Poliakoff told them, catching them up on the class. He then politely asked Hannah to start again.

"My name's Hannah, I'm a Hufflepuff and I have an owl called Rumpelstiltskin," Hannah said blushing a little but Neville grinned broadly and Harry was relieved to see his friend smiling again. There was some laughter around the circle.

"I'm Susan, also a Hufflepuff and I play beater on the Quidditch team," Susan said with a smile, she'd gotten very pretty over the years, her hair was a dark red and she had green eyes, she reminded Harry slightly of his Mother. He hadn't known she'd played as beater, it was unusual because it was usually a male position.

"I'm Megan and I'm a Hufflepuff," Megan said, apparently struggling to find a fact about herself that was interesting, "Uh and I'm Welsh."

"I'm Sally, I'm a Gryffindor and I have a birth mark on my back that looks exactly like the outline of Washington state!" Sally said proudly, causing some sniggering from other members of the class.

"I'm Terry, I'm a Ravenclaw and my parents are Muggles so before I knew I was a wizard I wanted to be a rock star," Terry admitted with a sheepish grin, Harry chuckled.

"I'm Michael, I'm in Ravenclaw and I'm a member of MENSA," Michael told them all.

"I'm Annie, I'm a Gryffindor and my Great Great Grandfather was the Minister for Magic," Sally-Ann said proudly with a hair flick which made Daphne and Hermione turn to each other and share a subtle look of exasperation.

"I'm Hermione, I'm in Gryffindor and I like Muggle literature," Hermione said simply.

"I'm Daphne, I'm in Slytherin and I'm trying desperately to get_ her _to start reading quality wizarding literature," Daphne joked as she grinned at a chuckling Hermione.

"I'm Sadie, I'm in Slytherin and the only time I've ever gotten detention was when I was caught sneaking to the kitchens for ice cream," The blonde girl said a little shyly which made Theo grin widely.

"I'm Lilly, I'm in Ravenclaw and I have a tattoo on my ankle of a lark," Lilly said brightly.

"I'm Tracey, I'm a Slytherin and I'm lactose intolerant," Tracey said.

"I'm Mandy, I'm a Ravenclaw and I'm part seer!" Mandy said cheerfully, there was some chuckling at this and Poliakoff even looked a little sceptical as his eyes went to the next speaker.

"I'm Zacharias, I'm in Hufflepuff and I'm a descendant of Helga Hufflepuff herself," Zacharias puffed his chest out and Harry rolled his eyes in Hermione's direction.

"I'm Ernie, I'm also a Hufflepuff and I can see Stonehenge out of my bedroom window," Ernie said.

Justin raised an eyebrow at his friend and said, "I'm Justin, I'm a Hufflepuff too and my Dad is a Muggle Lord and Politician."

"My name is Blaise, I am in Slytherin and I have 9 brothers and sisters," Blaise said smoothly. Harry was taken aback by that and made a mental note to quiz Draco about it at some point.

"My name is Draco, I'm a Slytherin and I will soon be changing my second name to Black," Draco said matter of factly to much surprise from the rest of the class. He smirked, it had been his intention to cause chaos of course.

"Settle down," Poliakoff said firmly, "Who's next?"

"I'm Harry, I'm a Gryffindor and I have a 6-month old Godson," Harry said simply, nothing about the war or his achievements because that wasn't what was important to him, Teddy was.

"I'm Neville, I'm also a Gryffindor and I secretly like Muggle music," Neville said, to chuckling from Muggle-borns such as Hermione and Lilly. He blamed Lilly for dragging him to concerts and blaring her Muggle radio loudly in her room when he had visited her in the summers. They had been friends since 1st Year and after enduring 90's pop for a couple of years Neville had actually started to like it.

"I'm Theo, I'm a Slytherin and I've always wanted a pet snake," Theo said with a grin.

They had reached the end of the circle and the last person, "Well I'm Ron, I'm a Gryffindor and I've been told I'm world class good at Wizard Chess."

Poliakoff smiled broadly at them all, "Perfect! I'm Alfons Poliakoff and I was educated at Durmstrang. We had houses there too, named after places in Norse mythology. I was in house Midgard as a student. Now that we are acquainted however, let's get on with this class!"

***

"That was a good class," Harry said as they walked to the great hall for lunch.

"He's a good teacher," Hermione agreed cheerfully.

"And so dreamy," Hannah breathed.

Neville chuckled, "Hey, you're taken remember?"

"I remember," Hannah said with a cheeky smile.

"Muggle music, huh?" Lilly asked as she walked by them with a book in her hand, "After all of these years?"

"You forced all your dreadful Muggle music into my head at such an early age it's stuck there Lilly," Neville joked, "You practically brainwashed me."

Lilly scoffed, "Says the boy who sung along at a Boyzone concert. See you around Nev!"

"What was that about?" Harry asked in surprise as Lilly walked away.

"We were really close when we were younger," Neville said offhandedly, "We used to visit each other in the summer and stuff. Sort of changed as we got older though...Lilly and I don't talk as much as we used to."

"Probably a good thing," Hannah piped up, "With her dating Ron and all. It could be awkward."

Neville failed to see how it could be awkward but before he got a chance to voice that opinion Draco spoke up, "Anyway, are you two okay?"

"My Grandmother died last night," Neville said, "I wasn't exactly fit for classes so Harry stayed with me until I felt human again."

"Merlin that's horrible, I'm so sorry Neville," Hannah said immediately.

Draco and Theo both nodded and the former solemnly said, "Yeah, sorry mate."

Neville shrugged, he didn't like people making a fuss of him which was why he was telling as little people as possible even though he knew everyone would know soon when it appeared in the Daily Prophet, "I'll be fine, I've just got to get on with it I guess. The funeral is on Sunday."

"Well at least you have Hannah by your side," Draco said.

Neville put his arm around the blonde girl, "Yeah, that I do," he said softly.

***

Harry knew that he couldn't avoid Daphne forever, she'd let him be for the most part on Wednesday because she understood he was upset about Neville's Grandmother, after all he'd known her too. On Thursday Harry got up early and ate before Daphne had even woken up but they had classes together and he knew he'd have to face her eventually. He had 1st period off and knew Daphne would be in the library so he took to the common room to study. His mind was filled with thoughts of Augusta though and how unfair it was that she had died so soon after the war. It got him thinking about how the war really had touched so many people, almost every 8th year had been touched by it with the exception of the two Sally's who hadn't even been in the country when it was fought. Every other Gryffindor had fought though. Neville, Seamus, Lavender and Parvati had even kept the DA going, they'd camped out and practically starved rather than surrendered to Snape's Hogwarts. Dean had spent a year on the run, Neville had destroyed a horcrux and Lavender and Parvati had paid the ultimate price, they had died taking down Death Eaters in the final battle.

The Slytherins hadn't been affected in the same way but they had been marked by the war too. Draco had suffered at the hands of Voldemort and he had been forced to watch other people suffer too. Daphne had lost her Father when he refused to join the Death Eaters and she was left with a lonely Mother and a little sister to look after. Astoria Greengrass was a 7th Year, like Ginny, and she and Daphne were close. Sadie's Father had been sent to Azkaban for choosing to join the Death Eaters over the other choice, the death of his entire family. Tracey's parents had both died in the war, Blaise had lost 2 brothers and Theo had lost his Father in the battle of Hogwarts. All of them had seen their parent's torture people or be tortured, they were mentally scarred and some of them were physically scarred too.

The Hufflepuffs had paid heavily too. Susan Bones had lost her Aunt Amelia in 5th year and her parents had died in the First Wizarding War. Ernie Macmillan, Zacharias Smith and Hannah Abbott had fought in the battle of Hogwarts and had defied Snape's regime to the extent that the Cruciatus curse was used on them by the Carrows. Hannah had also lost her Mother in the war. Justin, like Dean, had spent the year on the run from Voldemort because of his blood status.

The Ravenclaws had played their part as well. Padma had fought and defied Snape. She had lost her sister and her best friend on the same evening and Harry couldn't even begin to imagine how heart wrenching that must have been for her. He couldn't bear the thought of losing Ron and Hermione at all, let alone within a few hours of each other. Terry Boot had returned in secret and Michael Corner had openly fought the Snape regime. Harry didn't remember Lilly particularly but Ron said that she hadn't returned to school but had instead hopped from youth hostel to youth hostel to avoid being caught during the war. He understood how hard it must have been to be a muggle-born during the war, they must have lived in constant fear of being caught and killed as if they were animals being hunted.

"Hey Potter."

Harry jumped when Daphne walked into the empty common room shortly after 1st period had started. He was pulled out of his mournful thoughts as he looked up at the blonde girl. He didn't respond right away and she frowned, looking at him like he was mad. Eventually Harry cleared his throat and said, "Sorry I was just lost in thought. Why aren't you in the library with Sadie and Hermione?" he was trying to sound casual but truthfully he was just nosy.

Daphne walked over to his table and leant against it, "Because I knew you'd come here thinking I'd be in the library and I want to talk to you."

He had known it was going to happen, better to face it now than later.

"You've been avoiding me," Daphne stated and Harry wondered if he heard hurt in her voice, but he shrugged it aside.

Not wanting to lie to her and make it worse for them both Harry nodded, "Yeah, I have been."

"Are you going to explain why?" Daphne asked as she pushed herself up on the desk and crossed her legs, she was looking down at him with narrowed eyes like she was trying to read his mind, it was very unsettling.

Harry groaned and rubbed his eyes, he hadn't been sleeping well with everything on his shoulders again, "It's complicated."

"I don't think it is," Daphne said lightly, "I think it's not what you were expecting."

"You're right," Harry agreed, not looking at the Slytherin, "It isn't what I was expecting which is both good and bad."

"You Gryffindors," Daphne teased, “You never did make any sense."

Harry managed a weak chuckle and he eventually looked up at the girl. He really looked at her for a moment, in fact he studied her. She was so beautiful, more beautiful than he'd ever really appreciated. Today she was in her school uniform, the same as everybody else but she still managed to stand out. It wasn't her body that attracted Harry to her though, it was her brain because he knew underneath the beauty that she was intelligent and witty. Her face was heart-shaped and her long hair was white-blonde and reached the middle of her waist. It was Daphne's eyes that Harry loved so much though, they were the colour of the ocean and when she let her guard down they swam with so much emotion. What saddened Harry was how little that wall came down and he knew it was because she hadn't had an easy upbringing, he understood that better than she knew.

"Do you want me to come to the funeral tomorrow?" Daphne asked, interrupting Harry's thoughts. He was surprised, they'd never really done anything as friends or as a 'couple'. They were so in the middle that Harry never really knew where they were. Due to his surprise Harry didn't answer straight away and Daphne seemed to worry she'd said the wrong thing, "I just thought you'd appreciate the support, I know it won't be easy."

Harry smiled to himself, so she really did care after all. Maybe there was hope for them yet, hope that whatever they had was developing into a relationship. Harry looked up at Daphne, he'd never seen her look unsure of herself and even now she just looked slightly hopeful but the mask was up and he couldn't read her thoughts, see her emotions or tell what she was feeling.

"I'd like that," Harry said simply. He smiled at Daphne as he spoke, he really would like the company because he knew Sunday wasn't going to be easy. He'd already been to far too many funerals. Dumbledore's, Moody's, Remus and Tonks's, Severus Snape's and the worst one, Fred's. The thought of another funeral when all the fighting was over was unbearable to Harry and it meant a lot to him that Daphne was willing to be there for him in a time like that, "Can you apparate?"

Daphne nodded and Harry was glad, he hated side-along apparition, he didn't want to get to the Church and realise Daphne was missing any of her body parts, "I'll meet you in the common room at 8am then."

"Okay," Daphne said smiling at him. She reached down to where Harry's hand lay by his quill on the desk and grabbed it taking him by surprise. She squeezed his hand and said, "I'll see you in Divination later?"

Harry nodded, feeling a lot lighter, "Yeah, if I can finish this damn dream diary," he joked.

Daphne chuckled as she jumped down from the desk, she stood very close behind him and grabbed her bag, "Why don't you just write down your real dreams?" she asked.

Harry couldn't help but grin at that because it brought back images from the dreams he'd been having for the last 2 weeks, "Because most of them involve you in compromising situations."

Daphne laughed, "Well I'm flattered Potter," she said as she swung her bag over her shoulder and walked towards the door with a quick, "See ya later," and then she was gone and Harry was alone again.

**TBC :)**


	19. Better than Revenge

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Title comes from the song:  
Better than Revenge by Taylor Swift

Sunday morning rolled around slowly but when it finally arrived Harry just wanted it to be over. Harry had been invited to the funeral on the basis that he had known Augusta through the Order of the Phoenix and Ron and Hermione got invitations for the same reason, as did many of the teachers at Hogwarts. Harry was bringing Daphne with him and Hermione was bringing Draco, everyone wanted to be there to support Neville. When Harry and Neville got up they didn't speak to each other as they dressed in their smartest dress robes, they both wore black robes with a white shirt and a black tie.

Hermione, Daphne and Hannah joined the 3 boys in the empty common room looking smart and stylish in black dresses. All three girls were looking as solemn as the boys when they made their way into the common room.

No one was particularly hungry so they headed towards the entrance hall, bypassing the great hall entirely. Neville hung back from the group a little and this was how he bumped into Lilly. She was dressed in black and she looked as miserable as the others did. She came across Neville as she stepped off of the marble staircase.

"Lilly, you're coming," Neville said, he would have smiled if he had it in him.

Lilly nodded, "Of course I am Neville. I know we haven't been as close as we used to be but we've been friends for years and I loved your Grandma."

"I know you did," Neville said with a sigh as they stepped out into the grounds.

"Ron isn't coming today, he asked me to apologise...he just hates funerals," Lilly explained.

"I don't blame him after the war and his brother..." Neville trailed off and shook his head.

Lilly bowed her own head and said quietly, "She always seemed so strong, your Grandma. I mean to survive all of that and then..."

"It's like fate is being twisted and cruel," Neville said as he cleared his throat.

"It reminds me of stories I heard at Muggle school...about people who were prisoners in concentration camps for years during World War Two and who died a few months after being freed," Lilly said softly, "It is twisted and it is sick."

"Seems that's just the way the world is," Neville remarked.

Lilly shook her head and looked up at him, "Not all of the time Nev. There is happiness and fun and love. There are a lot of good things in the world but sometimes the bad things hurt so much we can't seem them."

Neville smiled ruefully at her, "Lillian Moon and her words of wisdom...I have missed you."

Lilly smiled, "I've missed you too. I've been steering clear a little, Ron gets jealous and Hannah can be a bit...territorial."

Neville frowned, "Hannah, territorial? I don't know what Hannah you see."

"The Hannah that only other girls see," Lilly shrugged, "I just don't want to put any noses out of joint. People don't seem to believe that a guy and a girl can just be friends.”

"Harry and Hermione are just friends," Neville pointed out as they neared the rest of the group.

Lilly raised an eyebrow at him, "Yeah and look how that turned out."

Neville smiled slightly and Lilly gave him a brief hug, “Anyway, I just wanted to let you know that I'm here if you need someone to talk to."

"Thanks Lilly," Neville said honestly, "And I'm sorry for neglecting our friendship."

Lilly shook her head, "It's alright, people sometimes grow apart as they grow up. I'm really sorry about your Grandma, Neville."

Neville nodded at her again as she walked away. He jogged on a little to catch up with the rest of the group and noticed Hannah's eyes narrowing slightly, "I didn't realise you and Lillian Moon were still close."

"We've been friends since 1st year," Neville shrugged, "She met my Grandmother a few times, she was just saying she was sorry about her death."

Hannah nodded but didn’t say a word. None of them did because they were each lost in their own thoughts. Neville was thinking about his Grandmother, Hannah about the pain her boyfriend was going through, Harry and Daphne about what this meant for their relationship, Draco about the fact he hated funerals and Hermione about how grateful she was to Draco for accompanying her despite his dislike of funerals.

When the little group reached the gates they spun and apparated to the church in Godric's Hollow where Augusta's funeral was to take place. The little square they arrived in was very familiar. It was the square with the statue of Harry's parents holding him as a tiny baby but it had been expanded and was now a war memorial for the people from Godric's Hollow who had died in both the Wizarding Wars. Harry hadn't known until Augusta's death that she and Neville had stayed in Godric's Hollow. In fact, Neville had grown up living in his Grandmother's house just two streets away from Harry's parents destroyed cottage. What was even more chilling though was the fact that Neville's parents had lived next door to Lily and James. The house was intact though and it still technically belonged to Frank and Alice. Augusta must have had some hope that they would recover one day because she had kept paying the mortgage on the house until it had been paid off and she employed someone to keep the house and garden pristine. Neville had told Harry that he didn't like going there because he found it creepy, it was preserved so that it looked exactly as it had before his parents had been tortured to insanity 17 years ago.

Daphne didn't know Harry anywhere near as well as Hermione did and she would never claim to know what to do or say when she saw him freeze and stare at the statue. She glanced away and caught Draco's eye as Hermione slipped her hand into Harry's and stood next to him. Daphne had no right to know anything about the war because she and Harry weren't even dating and there were clearly things that Draco didn't know either. It was clear however that this place meant something to them, that they knew something about this place that Draco and Daphne didn't, more to the point that Draco and Daphne probably couldn't understand. The two Slytherin friends therefore linked arms and walked towards the church with Neville and Hannah, leaving the two friends alone to talk.

"Their funeral was in this church," Harry said softly.

Hermione nodded, "I know Harry," she said, hugging her friend. Harry hugged her back, closed his eyes, took a deep breath and pulled himself together.

"Okay," he said quietly, not letting go of Hermione's hand, "Let's do this."

Hermione nodded, she was impressed and proud at how well he was coping with the situation. As Halloween creeped up on them she imagined that he was thinking about his parents once more as he so often did. Hermione kept her hand in Harry's as they hurried to catch up with the others who were waiting for them by the door of the Church. Hannah and Neville stood by the door to welcome the guests and with a few words of encouragement Draco, Harry, Hermione and Daphne walked into the small Church to take their seats. It was very small with only 4 rows of pews; it looked like it might only hold 40 people. The roof was high and the walls were lined with large stain glass windows so that it made the little space very bright. The front row of pews was where all Neville's remote family were sitting, uncles, cousins, etc. The second row was reserved for close friends and this was the row where many of the teachers were sitting including McGonagall with her handkerchief at the ready. The quartet took their seats in the 3rd row with the likes of Augusta's fellow Order of the Phoenix members, old school friends and colleagues.

They didn't speak as they sat and waited. Harry's eyes found the coffin at the far end of the room which was closed as Augusta had requested in her will. Harry sighed as he looked around the room while the guests all filed in, everyone was wearing black and holding handkerchiefs. In the row in front of them Kingsley seemed to be comforting McGonagall. Harry had never seen them speak before and didn't even know that they were friends but he supposed it made sense, they had been in the order together through two wars after all. Eventually all the guests had arrived and Neville and Hannah walked into the Church last. They took their places in the front pew with the rest of Neville's family and the service began.

Harry zoned out a little as the words were spoken by the preacher. He talked about how Augusta had been a sister, a mother and a grandmother. He spoke of how she had been loved by many, of how she had lived a long and full life, how she had brought up Neville all on her own, how she had fought in two wars. He talked of the impact she had on so many lives. It was the usual speech, the time to talk about how great the dead person was and Harry had heard it so many times. There had been nothing like that at Snape's funeral, only a handful of people had attended, the preacher had said the basic lines then put the coffin in the ground. Harry supposed it was to be expected after the life Snape had lived. He understood why he had been the way he was now and he no longer hated the dead man but he was of the opinion that Snape had frankly been obsessed with his Mother and that he had only done what he did out of that obsession and guilt. It wasn't an act of love like that his Mother died for and it wasn't an act of bravery like his Father's when he tried to ward off Voldemort without a wand to save his wife and son.

Once the preacher had finished talking it was Neville's turn to stand up and speak. Harry could see him visibly take a breath, Hannah squeezed his hand and smiled gently at him. Neville smiled back very weakly, and when he stood up there was an air of confidence about him that made Harry proud.

"My Grandmother raised me from a very young age after my parents were no longer able to," Neville began, his voice only a little shaky, "I don't remember my parents much but every day the pain of missing them bears down on me. My Grandmother must have felt that pain every day too because she did know them. She had so many years with them and so many happy memories of them, it must have hurt all the more for her. But she never once let it show, she was always strong and she did an amazing job of raising me on her own. It wasn't easy for either us at times but despite our arguments at the end of the day she loved me and I loved her. Rest in peace Grandma," Neville managed to hold back the tears until he took his seat again next to Hannah. The preacher said a few more words and then it was time to carry the coffin into the graveyard.

This job fell to Neville, his Uncle and his 2 cousins. Draco and Hermione found each other's hands as they walked behind the coffin out of the church. Poor Hannah walked at the front with one of Neville's female cousins. Harry's eyes were on Draco and Hermione's intertwined hands in front of he and Daphne, the motion was simple but it was their way of saying they were there for each other and that it would all be okay. Harry was startled when he felt a hand in his and he glanced to his right to see Daphne give him a weak smile, her hand felt strange in his, it was so small and soft compared to his hands which were rough and calloused from years of playing Quidditch. They walked the rest of the way to the burial plot without saying a word to each other and Harry's heart broke a little as he watched Neville break down as the coffin was lowered into the ground. The grave was filled in and the crowd dispersed to make their way to the wake which would be held at what had once been Augusta's house but which now belonged to Neville. After everyone had left the graveyard only two people remained standing by the burial plot.

"The pain doesn't ever go away," Harry told Neville as he stared at the graves of his own parents, just a few plots over. He swallowed and turned to Neville, placing his hand on his friend’s shoulder, “But it does fade with time, in a year it will hurt when you think of it, in 2 years it will hurt when you see something that reminds you but in 3 years you'll be able to live with it. That doesn't mean you won't still miss her though."

"How did you deal with it Harry?" Neville asked, not taking his eyes away from the newly marked gravestone, "Getting your Godfather back only to lose him again so soon?"

Harry sighed, "Honestly Neville, at first I didn't deal with it. I pushed everyone out and hurt my friends, I didn't want to be close to anyone and feel that kind of pain again, but then I realised that he was probably in a better place. Sirius hadn't been truly happy since the night my parents died and I knew he was with them again."

"I don't even have the comfort of knowing that she's with my parents," Neville said slowly, turning to face Harry with bloodshot eyes and a tearstained face, "I know it's horrible but at least you know your parents are dead and in a better place."

Harry shook his head, "It's not horrible, it's understandable."

"Thank you, for being here through this," Neville said as he began to take shaky steps towards the kissing gate out of the graveyard. Harry placed his hand on Neville's arm and steadied him as they walked, "You're one of my best friends Neville, you don't need to thank me for being here to support you."

Harry couldn't have known how much that meant to Neville but it meant a great deal and it helped him feel strong enough to hold his head up high and walk on his own out of the graveyard. Together they silently walked towards the house around the corner where Neville would have to make niceties with people that he barely knew. Harry understood how hard that was; he'd been the one who had played that role at Remus and Tonks's funeral. He knew better than Neville realised how it felt to carry the coffin of a loved one, he'd carried Remus's coffin after all.

Snape's funeral had been different. It had been at the end of May; it had taken longer to bury the dead because there was so many of them. The funeral had been in a small Muggle church close to where Snape had grown up, close to where Lily had grown up too. There had only been 12 guests, those included Harry, Ron, Hermione and Draco. They hadn't talked to the Slytherin at the funeral, Draco had merely nodded to them politely. The war had just finished; tensions were still very high at that point after all. But Draco was mourning his Godfather so he had a right to be there. They had all known, even if they hadn't said it in so many words, that it wasn't the time or place to start a fight or attempt to broker a truce. Narcissa and Andromeda had also attended the funeral as had some of the teachers, including McGonagall, Sprout, Flitwick, Hagrid and Trelawney. It had surprised Harry to see Trelawney at the funeral but he had established that she had gone to school with him. The most surprising guest was Harry's Aunt Petunia who said she wanted to pay her respects to Snape for what he had done for Lily and for Harry. Harry had shared a slightly awkward moment with his Aunt and she had cried and hugged him after apologising for the way she treated him. Harry had established that although he doubted they'd ever be close they were now at least on a birthday and Christmas card basis. Harry had received a present from them in the Muggle mail a few days after his 18th birthday, along with a card signed _"Lots of love, from Aunt Petunia and Dudley." _There had been no mention of Uncle Vernon.

Harry and Neville managed to catch up with the main group and Neville walked a little further up ahead with Hannah. This left Harry lagging behind the group until Daphne spotted him and fell back to join him. She slipped her hand into his once more with ease and said, "When this is all over do you want a sneaky one in the Hogs Head?"

Harry smiled, she knew him better than he thought. He had been thinking exactly the same thing, he had been thinking that a firewhiskey (probably a double) was definitely needed after today. Not worrying about what they were or what boundaries there were between them Harry put his arm around Daphne and said, "I think that's a great idea."

***

It was difficult for Neville after the funeral but he got through it with the help of his friends. He went to class and he did his homework and he kept himself busy. It helped that Neville had made the Gryffindor team and was playing as a beater alongside Dean (who had now replaced Seamus) because having practice 4 times a week seemed to be helping him get through. He survived the first few days without any major catastrophes and he was getting more and more back to his ordinary self with much thanks to Hannah.

One evening Harry and Neville found themselves to be the only ones left in the common room. Neville wasn't tired and had been having trouble sleeping. Harry on the other hand had an essay to finish that he really didn't want to work on at the weekend. They had been sitting in comfortable silence, the only sounds being the fire crackling, Harry's quill scratching against his parchment and the pages of Neville's book turning.

All of a sudden Neville spoke, breaking the silence and making Harry jump a little, "There's one thing about my Grandmothers death that I don't understand."

Harry frowned, examining the strange expression on Neville's face, "What's that?" He asked.

"McGonagall told me she died around 3am in the morning by falling down the stairs and breaking her neck," Neville explained, "But her bedroom is downstairs, I can't think of a reason for her to be upstairs at that time in the first place, all that's up there is my room and the attic."

Harry put his quill down, that _was _suspicious, why would a woman of her age be upstairs at that time of night, especially if there was no reason for her to be?

"Are you sure McGonagall said it didn't seem suspicious?"

Neville nodded, grateful to Harry for hearing him out, "She said the Ministry ruled it as accidental death."

"So they didn't investigate it any further?" Harry asked, he had now abandoned his essay and had turned to face his friend.

Neville shook his head, "They closed the case at accidental death."

Still frowning Harry stood from the desk where he had been working on his essay and moved over to the sofa to sit by Neville, "I think you have reason to believe that her death was suspicious."

"Really?" Neville asked, he was surprised that someone was listening to him and not just calling him crazy.

Harry nodded, "How many Death Eaters escaped capture or death?" he asked.

Neville frowned, "I'm really not the right person to ask," he admitted, "You should ask one of the Slytherins."

Harry 'hmm-ed' thoughtfully then stood up and walked to the girl's staircase.

"Harry! What are you doing?" Neville asked as Harry made his way up the staircase. He wasn't sure what McGonagall's logic was but in the 8th Year common room the girl's staircase was climbable by boys. Maybe she had naively thought that they were all responsible adults now.

"Getting the girls," Harry said simply, "Get Draco and Theo and bring them down here," he added as he disappeared from view. He climbed to the first door and slipped in, he whispered to Hermione that he needed her in the common room. He then continued up to the top dorm where only the three Slytherin girls slept.

"Daphne, Sadie, Tracey!" Harry called after knocking on the door. He heard some groaning and mumbling from inside the room followed by, "What do you want Potter? It's 2am."

Harry smirked; he liked getting under Daphne's skin, "It's important, come to the common room as soon as possible.'"

With his mission complete he made his way down to the common room where Neville was waiting by the fire with Draco and Theo, both of whom were in their boxers, their Slytherin green boxers, Draco's even had a snake on them.

"Seriously?" Harry asked with a raised eyebrow.

Draco only rolled his eyes, "Whats the big deal?" he asked.

Harry shook his head, "Wait till the girls get here."

Just after he spoke Hermione walked into the room wearing pyjamas that only Harry had seen before, they were full length white lace pyjamas that only hid what needed to be hidden. Draco, Theo and Neville all gaped when Hermione entered the room but she didn't seem to notice, "What's going on Harry?" she asked sleepily as she dropped down onto Draco's lap on the sofa.

"I'll tell you when Daphne, Sadie and Tracey are here," Harry said, trying not to laugh at Draco's reaction to Hermione's pyjamas; and the three Slytherin girls eventually appeared.

Harry addressed them and told them the reason he'd woken them up, "Neville and I have reason to believe that his Grandmothers death wasn't accidental, it's looking like someone murdered her.”

Harry then explained to them why they were suspicious and the others agreed that something didn't seem right.

"We need your help figuring out how many Death Eaters escaped capture or death," Harry explained to the Slytherins who then realised why they were there.

"My Father is rotting in a remote prison in Australia," Draco said dryly.

Harry nodded, "I know, there is no way your Father can be behind this, for once."

Hermione agreed with a small nod and said thoughtfully, "The prime suspects would be the Lestrange's of course because of what they did to your parents Neville. But I think they all died in the Battle of Hogwarts."

"We know Molly killed Bellatrix," Harry said but he didn't know what had happened to Rodolphus and Rabastan Lestrange.

"Rodolphus was killed by Tonk's just before Bellatrix killed her," Neville added.

"Rabastan is dead too," Sadie said, causing all eyes to turn to her slightly pale face, "He was one of the Death Eaters who came by my house to recruit my Father. The first time my Father refused Rabastan tried to attack my Mother and... my brother killed him."

Harry had known that Sadie didn't have Death Eater parents, but he hadn't known that she had a brother.

"What about Greyback?" asked Tracey from her spot on one of the armchairs, "You know, the werewolf?"

Harry shook his head, "He's dead. Hermione blasted him off a cliff with the killing curse after he killed Lavender."

"My Father is dead," Theo said quietly, sounding completely unlike his usual confident self, "He insisted on fighting in the final battle, he was killed by your friend's brother, Bill."

Harry hadn't known that but made a note of it and thanked Theo.

"My two brothers are in Azkaban," Tracey informed the group, "And my Father is dead too."

Harry hadn't realised how much the war had affected the Slytherins, he hadn't realised how terrible their lives must have been, living with Death Eaters, people so cruel they got a rush out of hurting others.

"Pettigrew is dead and so is Yaxley," Hermione told them, "Yaxley was killed in the final battle."

"I can't think of many people who did escape capture or death to be honest," Draco said with a frown, "The Carrows, Crabbe and Goyle Senior and Junior, Travers, Mulciber...they're all either dead or in Azkaban."

"Add Rookwood, Avery, Wilkies, Jugson and Selwyn to that list," Theo said, "They were all injured in the Battle of Hogwarts and rounded up by Aurors."

Harry sighed in frustration, "But there must be some, the Aurors are good but some must have fled before they could round them up. Can't you think of anyone?"

There was silence as everyone in the room wracked their brains, "What was the name of the executioner who tried to kill Buckbeak? He was a Death Eater, wasn't he?" Hermione asked.

"MacNair," Draco asked, "Yeah he was a Death Eater and I have no idea what happened to him."

The others all agreed that they didn't think he'd been on the list of deceased or captured.

"Rosier and Rowle?" Theo suggested with a frown, "They both fought in the final battle and I don't know what happened to them."

"What about Dolohov?" Harry asked, the look in his eyes hard to read, "He killed Remus but what happened to him after that?"

Hermione's eyes swam with pain at the mention of Remus's death, "I don't know," she answered and neither did anyone else in the room.

"I think we just found our murderer."

***

No one slept very well that night, there were too many thoughts drifting through everyone's heads. However, Harry and Neville didn't sleep at all, they sat up all night both lost in their own thoughts about what was going on. Neville was consumed by anger and had a thirst for revenge. He was determined that he was going to find the person who did this and kill them, he was sure of it. Harry was anxious about the fact that Death Eaters were still out there hurting people, he had thought it was all over, he had thought they had put an end to the suffering.

Once they had realised that Dolohov was the most likely killer they needed to figure out what to do next. Neville had been all for going out and finding him and killing him but Harry, who had been backed by the others, calmed him down and told him that revenge wouldn't help anyone. They had decided instead to take the information to McGonagall and hope she would take it to the Ministry or to the Order.

When the sun finally began to rise Harry and Neville got up, dressed silently and made their way to the common room where they weren't surprised to find the others all dressed and waiting. Amongst them were those who had been present last night plus two other people; Ron and Hannah.

Hannah looked at Neville with pain and sorrow in her eyes and hurried over to him, throwing herself into his arms. As hurt as he was he couldn't push her away so instead he closed his eyes, pulled her close and took a deep breath.

"I'm so sorry," she whispered as she let a few tears fall, she didn't stop hugging him and without opening his eyes he whispered, "Thank you."

The others had turned away to give them some privacy, they knew this must be killing Neville. He had just been coming to terms with the fact that his Grandmother was dead when all of a sudden it turned out that she might have been murdered. He was going through it all again and the others were glad that he had someone grounded like Hannah next to him through it all.

"Are you ready?" Hannah asked, pulling back from the hug and looking into his eyes. It was hard to see what he was feeling because there were so many emotions there, anger, fear, pain. Neville nodded, he was ready. Hannah took his hand and they led the way out of the common room followed by the others. No one spoke as they made their way to the Headmistresses office.

"Loch Lomond."

Nothing happened, "It changes every week," Hermione said simply before adding, "Glencoe."

The gargoyle immediately jumped to the side.

"Oh," Harry said slowly, "I keep forgetting you're the Head Girl."

"It's because I've corrupted her," Draco said with a wink as they followed Neville and Hannah up the spiral staircase to the wooden door at the top.

Harry snorted while Hermione scoffed and muttered, "You wish."

When Neville and Hannah reached the top of the staircase they paused in front of the wooden door. Neville took a breath, then he knocked and after a moment McGonagall called, "Enter!"

They all glanced around at each other, and after a few nods to confirm that they were definitely doing this Neville pushed the wooden door open. He then led the way into the circular room to face McGonagall.

The Headmistress seemed surprised at the amount of people making their way into the relatively small office.

"What can I do for you so early on Saturday morning?" McGonagall asked looking tired.

"We need to talk to you about my Grandmother," Neville said confidently, more confidently than he felt.

McGonagall frowned but before she could say anything Harry said, "We have reason to believe she was murdered."

McGonagall raised an eyebrow at Harry, "I know you defeated Lord Voldemort Mr. Potter but I didn't realise that made you Hogwarts personal detective."

Harry rolled his eyes, he knew it was disrespectful to McGonagall and usually he wouldn't have dreamt of it but this was serious and he needed her to listen, "I'm serious Professor, something is wrong."

McGonagall sighed and leaned back in her chair, "Alright," she said, "I'm listening."

Neville breathed a small sigh of relief at this and told McGonagall what he'd told Harry the night before, "My Grandmother fell down the stairs and broke her neck but she shouldn't have been upstairs in the first place. Her bedroom, the bathroom and the kitchen are all downstairs, all that's upstairs is my room and the attic. She wouldn't have had any reason to be upstairs at that time of night."

Harry nodded, adding some facts into the mix before McGonagall could pass judgement, "And Dolohov is one of the Death Eaters who evaded capture, Augusta killed his best friend Yaxley, he had motive."

McGonagall's lip tightened and she didn't speak for a moment but when she did it was to disappoint them all, "I agree that it's suspicious, however it is out of my hands. It did not happen at Hogwarts therefore it is out of my jurisdiction. I'm afraid you will have to take it up with the Department of Magical Law Enforcement."

"But Professor, can't you do anything?" Neville asked, almost begging.

"You know as well as I do Professor that the DMLE is corrupt," Harry said hotly, "You know they won't do anything. They'll just lie, even if they do know what really happened."

McGonagall seemed to wish that she could do more, but she simply sighed, "Augusta was my friend and I am truly sorry Longbottom."

Feeling disappointed, disheartened and pretty damn angry the group left McGonagall's office. They trudged back in the direction of the 8th Year common room with their heads hanging, feeling like they had failed Neville.

"I'm sorry we couldn't do more Neville," Hannah said sadly once they were clear of the corridor in which McGonagall's office resided.

Neville merely shrugged, "Thanks for trying."

But they weren't done yet. Harry, Ron, Draco and Theo had been sharing glances since they had left the office and they were slowly hatching a plan between them, "We aren't finished trying yet Neville," Harry said with a gleam of determination in his eyes.

Neville looked up with a frown, "What do you mean?" He asked.

Ron shared a knowing grin with his best friend, "We aren't giving up just because McGonagall won't help us."

Neville seemed at a complete loss as to what was going on but the girls seemed to understand where the boys were going with this. Harry grinned and said, "Between us we've hunted down horcruxes, taken down Death Eaters and generally kicked a lot of arses. If anyone can find Dolohov, it's us."

Neville's eyes lit up, "Seriously? We're going after him on our own?"

"We're not alone," Draco pointed out, "There are 10 of us and only 1 of him."

"When do we leave?" Daphne asked with a grin. They were all up for doing this because they all wanted the same thing. They _were _going to hunt down Dolohov and they _were _going to make him pay.

"Well it's a Saturday which means no classes and I don't know about you guys but I've got nothing better to do today," Theo said mischievously. He glanced around at the group who all agreed with this notion and they changed their route immediately. Rather than walking towards the common room, they set out for the entrance hall. Between them they had every strength they needed to find Dolohov and they were going to succeed.

**TBC! :)**


	20. Those Meddling Kids...

"So what do we do first?" Sadie asked when they reached the gates of Hogwarts and were ready to apparate to their first destination.

"First of all we _have _to make sure that we're right," Hermione said simply, "We need to get your Grandmothers wand Neville and find out what the last spell she performed was."

Neville nodded, he knew why. If they found her wand they could work out if she was defending herself before she died, "It's at the house, back home."

"Neville and I will go back to Godric's Hollow and find out what the last spell was," Harry informed the others, "Once we know that we are right we need to start looking for Dolohov...that means that we're going to have to split up."

"Right," Theo said, gearing up for the search and then asking, "Uhh, how _are_ we going to find Dolohov?"

Harry chuckled, “I was just getting to that part,” he said and then he turned to Draco and Hermione, "I know one person who will know where he is and that's your Mother."

Draco's face fell, "Harry..." he said quietly, trailing off and looking Harry straight in the eye.

Harry knew that look well, it was fear and Harry felt horrible for making his friend do this, "I know you're scared for her safety Draco but she and Dolohov were friends when they were at Hogwarts. She'll know hideouts, she might even know where he is."

Draco sighed deeply, he _did _understand. His Mother and her connections might be their only hope of finding Dolohov and getting the justice that Neville needed so badly, "I could be putting her life at risk."

"I know," Harry said, "But she will want to help and she can defend herself against poxy ex-Death Eaters. Your Father was different; he had a hold on her..."

"I know perfectly well what hold he had on her," Draco said darkly, "I'll do it alright? But if _anything _happens to her Harry, I won't be able to forgive you."

"I'll go with you," Hermione said quietly.

Draco nodded but didn't take his gaze off of Harry as he awaited his response, "I understand," Harry eventually said.

Draco gave him a slight nod and the Gryffindor said, "Alright then Sadie, Theo and Tracey I want you to go to the Ministry of Magic and check the public records. We need to find out where he lived before he was sent to Azkaban because he might be hiding out there. Just tell them you're there on behalf of me and they should give you access."

Sadie, Theo and Tracey nodded and twisted on their heels. With a loud crack they had vanished. Harry turned to Daphne, Hannah and Ron, "If I was a Death Eater on the run I'd hide in plain sight, I'd hide in the most obvious place because people would think it was too obvious to look there. I want you guys to look around Hogsmeade, you know what Dolohov looks like, check all the obvious places and talk to Aberforth."

Hannah nodded sincerely at Harry's words and Ron just acknowledged them but Daphne grinned, saluted him and said, "Yes Sir, Auror Potter, Sir!"

Harry grinned, "Get to work Greengrass," he teased and with a laugh she, Hannah and Ron waved goodbye and headed into Hogsmeade.

"Good luck," Harry said to Draco and Hermione as they prepared to apparate to Wiltshire. Draco nodded stiffly and they both spun around and vanished leaving only Harry and Neville standing outside the school gates.

"To Godric's Hollow then," Harry said and with a nod Neville apparated away from the gates with Harry close behind him. As Harry didn't know exactly where Neville lived he apparated to the first place in Godric's Hollow that came to mind; his parent's house.

When Harry arrived he couldn't help but briefly look at the house with half of its upper floor blasted into oblivion. He sighed and pulled his eyes away from the miserable ruin. He glanced around and then he saw Neville wave to him from the gate of the house next door to Harry's parents. With a frown Harry made his way over to the gate which had inscribed on it _"Frank and Alice Longbottom (+ baby Neville)"._

"My Uncle moved my Grandmothers things out of the house, he said it was too hard to see them everywhere, he lives there now," Neville explained as he pushed open the gate and walked down the garden path towards the front door. As in many wizarding houses the door to Neville's parents’ house didn't require a key, it was blood locked so the moment Neville placed his hand on the door it swung open.

Harry felt like an intruder when he walked into the house, it really did appear to have been left untouched since Frank and Alice were tortured 17 years ago. The walls of the hallway that Harry and Neville walked down were lined with wizarding pictures. The first picture was of Alice and Frank at the beach, Frank was lifting her up and she was wearing a red swimsuit, they looked like they were just out of Hogwarts, they were so young and carefree. The second picture was of Neville's parents on their wedding day, they were dancing the first dance and were holding each other incredibly close, they were both smiling widely. The next picture was another wedding photograph but this one was of the entire wedding party. Frank and Alice stood in the middle of the photo holding hands and to Frank's right stood 3 familiar men. Wearing black dress robes and looking very smart stood James Potter, Sirius Black and Remus Lupin. James and Sirius had even tamed their hair for the event. To the left of Alice stood her 3 bridesmaids, Lily was there, red hair flowing and smiling happily at her friend, on her hand an engagement ring twinkling but not a wedding ring, not yet. Next to Harry's Mother was a woman Harry recognised from an old Order of the Phoenix photograph, Marlene McKinnon, but the 3rd woman he didn't know. The next picture in the hallway was of Neville when he was only hours old, Alice was smiling as she held her baby boy, she looked exhausted but still managed to look beautiful. The final picture in the hallway was of Neville again on his 1st birthday, he had a cake in front of him and a party hat on his head. Alice and Frank stood behind him and behind them Lily and James were smiling. Harry looked closer and saw that he was sitting next to Neville at the little table, Neville's parents and his parents had been closer than he'd realised.

While Harry had been examining the photographs Neville had walked up to where the corridor split, to the right there was a kitchen, directly ahead was a living room and to the left there were stairs going up to the second floor. Harry was taken aback by the fact that the layout was exactly the same as his parent's house. When Harry walked into the living room it was to see Neville sitting on the sofa with his Grandmothers wand in his hand as he looked absentmindedly around the room.

It felt like Alice and Frank were going to walk back in at any moment, like they'd just stepped out to get some groceries. The only thing that really showed how much time had passed since they had left the house for the last time were the photographs on the mantelpiece. They were similar to the photographs in the hall but they were mostly of Neville. The pictures showed Neville as a baby, Neville sitting up for the first time, crawling for the first time, walking for the first time, then there were photographs of his 1st birthday and they stopped after that. Harry couldn't help but think of how the mantelpiece should have looked; there should have been pictures of Neville's first time on a broom, of all of his birthdays, of his first day at Hogwarts, of him before the Yule Ball, a picture of him and Hannah. Harry sighed and turned to his friend, "Shall I do it?"

Neville only gave Harry a nod and held the wand out for him to take. Harry did so and holding Augusta's wand at arm's length in his left hand Harry readied his own wand. He took a breath, carefully used the correct arm movement and said, "Priori Incantatem!"

Neville had never seen this spell being used, not as Harry had back in the graveyard in his 4th year. Neville watched in amazement as smoke began to come out of the wand, it seemed like a cloud at first but it began to twist and then it formed a shape, the shape of Neville's Grandmother. When the smoke was finished forming there stood an eerily familiar figure in front of them. She was looking behind her with fear on her face as she cast a spell behind her, "Avada Keda-" but she could not finish the partial spell and the smoke vanished instantly.

"Harry..." Neville said slowly, unable to believe what he had just seen. For a moment he was left speechless. Harry had seen it before but it still gave him shivers, he placed the wand back in its case on the table.

"Your Grandmother was definitely murdered Neville," Harry said. Normally he would feel guilty for being the bearer of bad news but they had suspected as much already, this merely confirmed their hunch. Neville was silent so Harry gave him a moment to recover.

As Neville calmed himself down Harry walked around the room and his eyes were drawn to one particular picture on the mantelpiece. Harry couldn't resist picking the picture up, he was amazed by it. It was a picture of his parents wedding. Just like in Frank and Alice's wedding photo the bride and groom stood in the centre. To the right of James stood his laughing best man, Sirius, and next to Padfoot stood Remus smiling fondly at his best friend in a way that confirmed what Harry had always suspected about his Godfather and his Professor. Anger bubbled in Harry as he saw Pettigrew standing next to Remus in the photo, had he already been on Voldemort’s side when this was taken? Was he already plotting to kill his best friends? Pushing these thoughts out of his mind he looked to the bridesmaids to the left of Lily. Just like in the other picture Marlene McKinnon was there and right by Lily's side was Alice, they had clearly been best friends. The 3rd person was the same woman he'd seen in Alice and Franks wedding photo, at first glance he hadn't recognised her but it was clearer in this picture who she was. Her hair wasn't as big as it was now and she didn't have her crazy bug-eye glasses yet but it was Sybil Trelawney and she looked around the same age as both Harry and Neville's parents. She looked almost normal as she smiled for the camera like everyone else, Harry couldn't believe she'd been friends with his parents.

"You can keep it, if you want," Neville said from a spot close behind Harry.

Harry jumped, he'd been so lost in the photograph he'd momentarily forgotten about Neville. Harry turned around, still clutching the photo in his hands, "Really?" he asked.

Neville nodded, even managing to muster a small smile, "Yeah, I'm taking this one back to Hogwarts with me anyway," he told Harry, holding up a picture to show him. Harry grinned broadly when he saw the picture. It was a picture of him and Neville. They both looked extremely young, only months old because they couldn't even sit up yet. In the photograph they were both lying on their tummies facing the camera, even Harry had to admit that it was cute; they looked like they could be brothers.

"I didn't realise," Harry admitted as both he and Neville safely secured their photographs in their robes, "That we lived so close together or that our parents were such close friends."

"I did," Neville said sheepishly, "Grandma told me all about it when I was growing up, she showed me all of the pictures. My Mum was a Hufflepuff and even back then they had Herbology with the Gryffindors, that's how she met your Mum," the two boys stopped after Neville had locked the door, Harry was intrigued, "And my Dad was a Ravenclaw but he was a bit of a prankster so he was always close with the Marauders."

"Why didn't you tell me before?" Harry asked Neville curiously as the two friends walked down the garden path and out of the gate.

Again Neville looked a little sheepish, "You were the boy-who-lived and I thought you'd think I was making it up so you'd think I was cool."

Harry shook his head in exasperation, "Don't be stupid," he said to Neville, "Of course I'd have believed you."

The two boys stopped before apparating partly because they both knew the conversation wasn't over and partly because they didn't know where they were going next.

"It makes you wonder though, doesn't it?" Harry asked sadly, looking from Neville's parents’ house to his parents ruined one, “We might have grown up like brothers if things had happened differently.”

"We would have," Neville said thoughtfully, his eyes also on the house with the blown apart roof, "The night your parents died was horrible for the entire neighbourhood. Sirius turned up and realised what Pettigrew had done, he ran after him and by the time my Dad called Remus it was too late for him to stop Sirius. Apparently there was something between your Godfather and Remus," Neville added, "Well so my Grandma always said."

Harry nodded, "I suspected it for a while," he admitted. He in fact _knew _because of his conversation with alternate Sirius but he didn't want to share that experience with anyone.

Neville nodded and continued with his story, "My parents were on the scene with Remus straight away, Grandma said you were crying really badly so my parents and Remus calmed you down until Dumbledore arrived," Neville never took his eyes off of the house while he spoke, "They were talking about taking you in, you know raising you and me together? Remus said he loved the idea because it meant he could see you more. My Grandma said he wished he could have taken you in but he wasn't allowed because of his condition."

Harry nodded; he understood that, he'd always understood that Remus would never have been allowed to raise him. Neville continued, "Dumbledore arrived and the Aurors arrived and Sirius was arrested, everyone really fell apart after that. Dumbledore said that you could stay with us for the night until things calmed down and he could figure out what to do next," Harry frowned, he'd assumed that he'd been taken to the Dursley's on the night of his parent’s death's.

"So my parents took you to our house and put you down in my cot with me," Neville said, his voice starting to shake for the first time, "Then the Death Eaters showed up in the street outside to laugh at your parent's house and gloat. My Dad got so angry that he stormed out of the house and started to duel them but he got hit and they started to torture him so my Mum went out to help and you know what happened from there," Neville finished the story and wiped his eyes hurriedly.

"I didn't realise Neville, I'm sorry," Harry said softly, placing his hand on Neville's shoulder. However, it didn't help that Harry's comforting hand was shaking too, he'd never known any of that. In fact, there was so much about the night of his parent's death he hadn't known.

"I suppose we should just be grateful," Neville said; his voice strong again, "That the Aurors turned up before they could get into the house."

Harry nodded, managing a small smile, "We're survivors Nev, we always have been."

***

"Draco, your hands...they're shaking."

Hermione was looking at Draco with a small frown of concern on her face as they stood in the cold morning air outside Greengrove House.

"I'm concerned for her," Draco said quietly as they walked up the gravel path, "All I have left is her, Hermione."

"You have Andromeda and Teddy too," Hermione said softly, "And she's going to be fine Draco. This isn't the war where your house was filled with listening charms. This is Andromeda's home, it was a safe house for the Order for crying out loud, it's _safe_."

"I hope you're right," Draco said darkly as they reached the door. It opened the moment he touched it because of the bloodlock. He took a breath and slipped his hand into Hermione's as they headed for the drawing room, "And I'm sorry, this isn't the way I wanted to introduce you to my family."

Hermione smiled at him, "It's a necessary evil, Draco. Sorry I spoiled whatever fancy plans you had for Christmas-time."

Draco managed a chuckle at that as he knocked on the drawing room door twice before walking in. As he had suspected his Mother and Aunt were sitting on one of the sofas chuckling about something and drinking tea. They both got a shock when they saw Draco walk into the room hand in hand with Hermione.

"Draco!" Narcissa exclaimed, “You never told us you were bringing Hermione over!”

"It's not a planned visit Mother," Draco admitted sheepishly, "But before I get into it… Mother, Aunt Dromeda, this is my girlfriend Hermione. Hermione you know Andromeda, and this is my Mother."

Hermione smiled a little nervously and her hand shook as she held it out to Narcissa, "Pleasure to meet you."

"You too sweetheart," Narcissa smiled as she took her hand, "There is no need to be nervous."

Hermione laughed nervously and glanced over at Draco who still looked pretty grim. Narcissa cottoned onto this very quickly too and sighed, "Heavens Draco, what have you gotten yourself into this time?"

"I need your help catching a murderer," Draco said quietly.

"A murderer?" Andromeda asked in disbelief, "Dear me, you have changed since you befriended Harry Potter. Catching murderers in your spare time now, are you?"

"Just this one," Draco frowned, "He killed someone close to my friend."

“Who?” Narcissa asked.

"Augusta Longbottom," Draco replied, "My friend Neville's Grandmother."

Narcissa frowned, "Well that's dreadful and I'm very sorry for him. I fail to see how I can be of any help however."

"We're fairly certain she was killed by Antonin Dolohov," Draco said as he caught his Mother's eye, "Augusta Longbottom killed Yaxley and you know as well as I do Mother that he and Yaxley were best friends ever since their 1st year of Hogwarts."

"Draco, do we have to revisit this?" Narcissa asked quietly.

"Mother, he _needs _justice," Draco said firmly, "He needs to know who killed his Grandmother."

"And when he finds out he will kill Antonin," Narcissa said, and her eyes flashed.

"Maybe," Draco agreed, "But he's a criminal, he was a Death Eater and he murdered people."

"Draco's right Cissa," Andromeda said as she placed her hand on her sister's shoulder, "Antonin is not the boy you knew at Hogwarts, he's not even the man you knew before the war. He's a criminal now and he has murdered people, you can't protect a man like that."

"And if I give him up I am putting my life at risk," Narcissa said darkly, "He still has influence and allies."

"They won't know you told us anything," Hermione said gently, "Nobody knows we're on the lookout. The Ministry don't even have a clue we're looking into it, they filed it away as a simple accidental death."

"Yes because they are corrupt and Antonin's allies still have sway there," Narcissa said, she looked afraid.

"I know you are scared Mother but this could be our only chance. _You _could be our only chance of catching Dolohov and regardless of how you felt about him in the past he deserves to be punished for this," Draco said hotly.

Narcissa shut her eyes tightly, "It pains me to do this Draco."

"I know," Draco said softly. He reached out and took his Mother's hand and she took a deep, shaky breath.

After a moment Narcissa spoke, it was very quiet, almost a whisper and her blue eyes were swimming with emotion, "He has been in the wind ever since the final battle. The last thing I heard was that he was staying in the Leaky Cauldron under an alias."

"Thank you Mother," Draco said gratefully, he walked forward and hugged her. Despite the fact she was clearly annoyed with him for dredging up old memories she hugged him back.

Hermione frowned and glanced down, "I'm sorry we had to meet in these circumstances Mrs. Malfoy."

"It is perfectly alright, I do understand,'" Narcissa said honestly, "But I look forward to a more informal setting at Christmas time."

"So do I," Hermione said honestly.

"Great," Draco said as he glanced between them, "But we've got to go. Thank you _so _much Mother," he said again as he grabbed Hermione's hand and led her back into the entrance hall and out of the front door.

When they were walking back along the gravel path Hermione said, "That was intense Draco, what on earth happened with her and Dolohov?"

Draco lowered his voice and whispered, "My Mother and Dolohov were in the same year at school, my Father was actually a couple of years older than her. They were good friends and they dated. My Mother loved him actually but he was a half-blood and Druella Black, that's my Grandmother, refused to let her marry him."

"That's why she doesn't mind my blood status," Hermione realised softly.

Draco nodded, "It broke her heart but she broke it off and married my Father as soon as she finished school. Her and Dolohov had a permanent on-off fling for as long as I can remember. He used to bring me birthday presents because he was at the house so often and he wasn't a bad guy back then. He had a temper but nothing like my Father's and I really liked him."

"But?" Hermione pushed.

"One night my Father came home and found out," Draco said quietly, "When I was about to go into 6th year but before I'd been forced to take the mark. Dolohov didn't want to be a Death Eater and they don't normally take half-bloods but my Father talked Voldemort around and forced Dolohov to take the mark. I don't know what it was that happened, whether the guilt drove him insane or the power went to his head but he changed and my Mother avoided him throughout the entire war. I'm guessing she probably hasn't seen him since either."

"And she effectively just gave him up," Hermione said sadly, "Because he'll go down for this."

"For life," Draco agreed with a nod, "And she'll never see him again. Do you see why I was annoyed at how much Potter asked of me?”

"He didn't know," Hermione said with a frown, "Don't get me wrong Draco, I understand. But Harry didn't know."

Draco sighed but said no more on the subject, "Anyway, can you believe he's stupid enough to stay at the Leaky Cauldron? I thought he'd have more sense than that."

"He's probably changed his facial features," Hermione said, "You know shaved his beard off and changed his hair or whatever and he's under an alias too. It's like Harry said he's hiding in plain sight."

"Well that didn't go to plan for him, did it?" Draco retorted as they reached the end of the driveway, turned on their heels and apparated back to the gates of Hogwarts. When they reached their location they were met by a sign tacked to one of the walls saying _"meet at 3brooms_." Despite the intensity of what had just happened Draco and Hermione chuckled and made their way into the three broomsticks where they immediately saw everyone else at a table at the back of the pub.

"Did anyone get anything?" Hermione asked, gratefully accepting the butterbeer that Harry slid across to her.

Draco chuckled as Harry handed him a firewhiskey and said, "Thought you might need something stronger, questioning your Mother couldn't have been easy."

"We didn't find anything at all," Sadie said, sounding disappointed in herself.

"It's because of Voldemort," Ron shrugged, "All of the records got destroyed when he took over so there wasn't a record to find."

"Of course," Hermione said, "The reason we all had to go and submit our information to the Ministry. I should have thought of that."

"Don't worry about it Hermione, I should have thought of it too," Harry told her.

Daphne then said, "Sorry to make bad news worse but we had no luck asking around Hogsmeade either."

"Well fortunately we _did _have luck," Harry informed the others, "We recovered the last spell from Augusta's wand and she was trying to cast Avada Kedavra so we know that she was definitely murdered."

"That's good to confirm but we still don't know where he is," Tracey said, stating what everyone else was thinking. Well, almost everyone else.

"Yes we do," Hermione said quietly as she glanced over at Draco. The blonde boy nodded, "He's staying in the Leaky Cauldron under an alias and we can probably assume he's changed his appearance too."

"What a bloody idiot," Ron said with a shake of his head.

"I told you he'd be hiding in plain sight," Harry said as he finished his butterbeer in one gulp and stood up, "So come on, let's go get this bastard."

***

"Hey Tom," Harry casually greeted the bartender as he walked into the Leaky Cauldron with Hermione. They had decided if they all went in it would only bring attention to them and if Neville went in and Dolohov saw them he'd grow wise to their plan and flee so Harry was going in first with Hermione to figure out what room Dolohov was staying in.

"Mr. Potter!" Tom greeted, hurrying over to Harry, "What can I get you and your lady friend? A drink on the house? A room, on the house?"

Harry smiled and shook his head, "I just need to see your guest list Tom."

Usually this would be a hard thing to come by but Harry knew Tom would pretty much do anything for him, he was one of those people who had adored Harry before the war and even more now he'd defeated Voldemort for good.

"Of course," Tom said, leading them into a little room behind the bar and showing them a book of names. He left them to have a look while he went to tend the bar and Harry and Hermione both searched the page for anything unusual.

"There!" Hermione realised, alerting Harry with a loud whisper. Harry looked to where her finger was pointing; he frowned and read the name aloud, "Bruce Dickinson."

Hermione nodded, "Dolohov is half-blood," she explained, "And Bruce Dickinson is the lead singer of a heavy metal band called-"

"Iron Maiden," Harry finished, looking at Hermione in surprise, "_You_ like Iron Maiden?"

Hermione shrugged, "How do _you _know about Maiden?"

"Dudley," Harry said simply, then he glanced back down at the book, "According to this Dolohov is in room 2C."

"So what do we do now?" Hermione asked quietly as she and Harry made their way out of the room, thanked Tom and left the bar.

Once outside in Muggle London Harry addressed everyone, "Alright, two of us go in through the pub but no more than that."

"We'll go in from the roof," Draco said, referring to himself and Theo.

Theo nodded, "We can climb up to it from the Diagon Alley side of the pub."

"Alright," Harry agreed, "Neville and I will go in through the pub. Ron do you reckon you can climb up with Draco and Theo?"

Ron nodded, "Yeah, easily."

"Great," Harry said quickly, "Right then, can you five keep guard out here? Two on this side and three on the Diagon Alley side?"

Daphne, Hermione, Hannah, Sadie and Tracey nodded but Daphne added, "But if we hear a scream or a shout for help we rush in."

"Deal," Harry said, looking at Neville, "You ready?"

Neville looked up with determination burning brightly in his eyes, "I'm ready."

The group split up and once everyone was in position it began. Harry and Neville made their way up to the room Dolohov was staying in and waited for 30 seconds, the amount of time Draco had said it would take for them to catch up and be ready outside the windows.

Harry and Neville reached the count of 30, shared a glance and kicked the door down. At the exact same moment Theo, Draco and Ron smashed through the two windows into the room. Dolohov was completely taken by surprise in the middle of it all and was hit by five stunners at the same time. He didn't stand a chance and he fell down with a loud crash. The five boys shared grins, Slytherins and Gryffindors had never before worked so well together, it was like a different world.

"Wow Potter, nice house," Daphne said as the group apparated to the doorstep of number 12 Grimmauld Place with Dolohov being carried by Draco, Theo and Neville. They'd bound him up magically so that he couldn't escape.

Harry snorted, "Not on the inside," he said as he walked into the corridor and turned the lights on with a flick of his wand. There was a lot of coughing and sneezing as the group walked up the dusty corridor into the wider section of the hallway where they could all stand together.

"Where should we take him?" Neville asked. Dolohov was a big guy and he was heavy even with all four boys carrying him.

Harry paused for a moment and then looked behind him at the open door to the kitchen, "Through here," he said, leading the group into the large kitchen. Between them they got Dolohov in a chair, and bound him to it so there was no way he could so much as move one of his fingers.

"Is everyone ready?" Harry asked, looking around the group. Hannah was the only one looking a little pale, everyone else was fine with capturing and questioning a Death Eater. With nods from all round Harry said, "Remember, this is a matter of life and death, if he moves stun him."

They all nodded sincerely and Harry then he pointed his wand at Dolohov, "Enervate!"

He started to stir instantly and when he opened his eyes it took him a moment to figure out what had happened and where he was, then he remembered he'd been attacked and captured by a bunch of school kids. They had a plan already hatched so Draco and Harry held Dolohov's mouth open while Daphne poured Veritaserum down his throat. A terrible choking noise came from Dolohov's throat, but he seemed to be alright so Harry and Neville took charge with their interrogation.

"Are you Antonin Dolohov?"

"Yes."

"Are you a Death Eater?"

"Yes."

"Are you still loyal to Voldemort?"

"Yes."

With the standard questions out of the way Harry stepped back to allow Neville to ask the more personal questions.

"Did you murder my Grandmother, Augusta Longbottom?"

"Yes," Dolohov replied and Harry could see that Neville wanted to kill him, his wand hand twitched but he knew that his fellow Gryffindor wasn't that stupid. He would turn Dolohov in and he'd still get his revenge.

"Did you get that Hermione?" Harry asked, turning to his friend who nodded with a triumphant smile.

"Got it," Hermione had used a spell that acted as the Wizarding version of a tape recorder, all she needed to do was say the incantation, and then the code for the recording and it would magically come out of her wand. They had their proof for the ministry but they knew that they would take Dolohov and put him in Azkaban anyway; he was a known and wanted Death Eater.

"You used the killing curse on her and then you broke her neck with your bare hands and pushed her down the stairs to make it look accidental. Correct?" Neville asked, he was understandably angry and bitter.

"Yes," Dolohov said; his eyes unfocused as the potion affected him. Hermione showed her thumb to say that she was still recording.

"That's all we need," Neville said, turning around and leaving the room. Hannah followed him and the others decided to give him time and space to recover.

"Well, the potion worked a trick," Harry said happily, "So, now we take him to the ministry and hand him over, I'll make sure I give him to Kingsley so that he doesn't slip through their dodgy, rotten net," he added, casually turning around and stunning Dolohov again.

"Mission accomplished," Daphne said, opening the cupboards and looking around the kitchen, "Man I'm starving, don't you keep food at your place?"

Harry rolled his eyes, "I don't know if you noticed but it's a dark magic dump site, I don't tend to spend a great amount of time here."

"Really?" Daphne asked sarcastically, "I could have sworn it was a palace."

Harry cracked a smile at that then clicked his fingers and shouted, "Kreacher!"

With a loud crack the house-elf appeared looking as well-groomed as he ever had. With a smile Kreacher bowed to Harry, "What would Master Harry be liking for Master Harry's nice friends?"

Harry smiled fondly at his house-elf, "We've got a quick errand to run at the Ministry of Magic," Harry informed his elf, "But while we're away could you start dinner for 10?"

Kreacher nodded, "Of course. Would Master like Masters favourite meal of steak pie and treacle tart?"

Harry grinned, "That would be perfect Kreacher," he said happily, "Oh and would you mind cleaning the kitchen up a little?"

Kreacher happily said that he would not mind at all and with that he vanished to get supplies for dinner. Harry turned to the others, most of them weren't surprised that he had a house-elf because they were all pureblood. Harry knew Draco had lost his house-elf a few years ago but he was almost certain that Theo, Daphne, Tracey and Sadie all had house-elves. He ignored Hermione's glares, he already knew her opinion on house elves _very _well.

"Alright, time to rid the world of another Death Eater," Harry said, clapping his hands together. He, Ron, Draco and Theo managed to get Dolohov out of the chair and they then levitated him out of the kitchen and into the hallway where Hannah and Neville were awaiting them. Hannah had obviously done something to calm Neville down because he was smiling weakly when the other boys reached him and he helped them carry Dolohov out of the house too.

"You know, I realised today that we work well together under pressure," Theo said to the other boys who nodded their agreement.

"Who would have thought Gryffindors and Slytherins would make such a good team?" Harry asked jokingly sharing a grin with Draco.

"Definitely not me," Ron said with a grin, "But it kinda worked today, yeah."

"I enjoyed today," Neville admitted, "Hunting down bad guys and making them pay, it’s fun and it's rewarding."

Draco nodded his agreement, "I wanted to be an Auror when I was a kid you know? I want it even more now, it's a pity I'm an ex-Death Eater with a criminal record mind you."

Harry waved his hand, "That's a minor detail. You're friends with Harry Potter; you'll become an Auror if you want to be an Auror."

Draco wasn't entirely sure if Harry was being serious.

"Can you imagine that?" Theo asked with a grin, "Potter, Longbottom, Malfoy, Nott...and Weasley I suppose," his voice was very theatrical, "Gryffindors and Slytherins working together to rid the Wizarding world of all evil."

They all laughed but Ron said, "Yeah I've had enough action for a lifetime to be honest. I don't think I'll bother with the Auror thing after school. I might just try and help George open up a couple of new branches of the joke shop."

Neville glanced at the redhead and said, "That's a shame, I bet we'd make the best team of Aurors the Wizarding world had ever seen."

The other four boys agreed as they left the old dingy house. It had begun as a joke but that joke had planted a seed in at least 4 of their heads because they really would make a great team of Aurors. Today had proven that they worked well together; it had proven that they could catch killers _without _training and it had shown them all how much they would enjoy being Aurors. Maybe one day, Harry thought with a smile.

"Dinner is served."

Harry joked as the food appeared on the long kitchen table from the basement below. As at Hogwarts Kreacher prepared the food downstairs and it was magically sent up to the kitchen table.

Kreacher had outdone himself this time with two large steak pies and a keg of butterbeer. It was Saturday night and they didn't have school to worry about the next morning, just Quidditch practice. So they decided to have a late night at Grimmauld place and actually use the sordid old house for a change.

The table had been set for 10, with 5 on each side of the table. They all talked happily as they ate about how the day had gone well and how they'd gotten what they wanted from it. Kingsley had rolled his eyes when Harry showed up with yet another Death Eater and he had tried to recruit him _again. _Dolohov had been immediately transported towards Azkaban without trial because of his war crimes. Karma was a bitch.

"Technically this will be yours soon," Harry said to Draco over dinner, motioning around him at the house. Draco frowned and asked Harry what he meant by that. Harry replied, “Well you're going to be Draco Black once the papers are legalised.”

"True," Draco said as he took in their surroundings.

Harry nodded and swallowed a chunk of steak, "I don't understand why Sirius got it instead of anyone in your family," he'd never understood how the Manor had fallen into Sirius's hands.

Draco took a sip of butterbeer, "Oh it's all very complicated. I'm sure you're aware that in Muggle Royal families there are laws of succession. It's the same in pureblood families."

Harry asked Draco to elaborate so the Slytherin rolled his eyes, "Your Godfather's Great-Grandfather had 4 brothers and sisters. His Father was descended through the oldest sibling and his Mother was descended through the 3rd oldest sibling, the 2nd oldest was disowned for supporting Muggle rights. My Mother is descended through the 3rd sibling but because your Godfathers Father was descended through the eldest he is the heir to everything."

Harry shook his head as he tried to get that straight in his mind, "Pureblood families are so complicated."

"And so inbred," Daphne said with a chuckle, "I can tell you right now that almost everyone in this room is related."

Hermione laughed, "This is when I don't mind being a muggle-born," she joked.

Hannah joined in with her laughter, "Well, I'm a half-blood and my Mother was a muggle-born so I'm out already."

The remainder looked around each other in amusement. Harry chuckled, "Well, I'm a half-blood too."

"But you're related to all of us through your Father," Daphne said, "And technically you're a Black because you're the heir to the Black family."

"Briefly," Harry pointed out, "I told you, I signed everything over to Draco."

"All the same for the moment you are the Black heir which makes you related to me for sure," Draco said, looking thoughtful for a moment, "If we treat it like your Godfather was your Father then you and I are second cousins. We're also related through the Peverell family line."

"My Mother is the sister of Rabastan Lestrange," Sadie piped up, "But she was disowned for running away from her marriage contract."

"So that makes Sadie and I cousins because Rabastan's brother Rodolphus married Bellatrix," Draco said, he'd known that beforehand anyway but he was sure Daphne was right about them all being related in some way.

"And because I'm related to Draco I'm distantly related to you too Harry," Sadie said with a laugh at the expression on Harry's face.

"We're related to you too Neville," Draco said, surprising the Gryffindor, "Our Great Great-Grandfather's brother's daughter married your Great-Grandfather so we're fourth cousins, or something like that."

Neville looked bewildered and said, "I didn't think I'd had _that _much butterbeer."

"Technically that distantly relates you and I too Neville," Sadie said with a laugh at the look of complete bemusement.

"And you're my second cousin Neville,” Theo added, just to confuse the poor boy more, "Because we have the same Great-Grandparents. My Grandmother and your Grandfather on your Father's side were brother and sister."

Neville poured himself more butterbeer as Hermione and Hannah shook with laughter next to him, they were finding this hilarious.

"That makes me related to you guys too, fourth cousin again, I think," Theo said to Harry and Draco as he knocked back his 6th butterbeer of the night.

"Tracey and I are second cousins," Daphne piped up with a smile to her best friend, "We have the same Grandparents, like Neville and Theo."

Tracey added, "And Daphne and I's Great-Grandmother is the sister of Neville and Theo's Great-Grandmother which makes you guys our 3rd cousins."

Neville just shook his head and continued with his mission to finish an entire keg of butterbeer on his own.

"I'm related to you all distantly," Daphne said to the group as a whole, excluding Hermione and Hannah who were increasingly amused by this conversation, "Sadie, Draco and you, Potter, are my third cousins and Weasley we're all related to you too because you, me Theo, and Neville have Great Great Grandparents who are related."

Ron scoffed and helped himself to another butterbeer, "I'm so glad I'm a blood traitor," he grinned, "None of this dating my cousin shit _Theo._"

Sadie cringed and Theo grinned in amusement, "Part of the pureblood lifestyle mate!"

Harry made a face, "That is _so _wrong and incestuous," he went to the cupboard behind the table and pulled out an old bottle of firewhiskey, "I think we need it," he joked as he poured it out into glasses.

Sadie laughed as she accepted the glass, "I'm a pureblood and I'm dating my third cousin."

There was laughter all around the table as Daphne put on her best 'actress voice' and said, "I'm a pureblood and I'm kind of romantically involved with, but not officially dating my third cousin."

Hermione and Hannah couldn't contain their laughter. Tracey said, "Well my boyfriend's a muggle-born so the incest ends here for me."

Neville shook his head and said to Hannah, "Have I ever mentioned how much I love the fact you're not pureblood?" Hannah chuckled in response to this.

Draco grinned, sharing in Neville's amusement, "I'm proud to say that I'm going to end the family tradition of marrying my cousins," he grinned at Hermione who was sitting next to him.

Hermione and Hannah raised their glasses and said together, "Muggle-born pride!" There was even more laughter around the table as Harry offered everyone another drink. He had the feeling it was going to be a good night.

** _TBC :)_ **

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I slaved for hours over the how everyone is related part at the end, I don't know why I felt the need to add that in, I definitely regretted it! 
> 
> But I got a real family tree and tried to figure out how all the ones we know about are related (Draco, Harry, Neville, Ron & Theo) then I added in Daphne, Sadie and Tracey and figured out how they were all related so hopefully I got it as accurate as possible and didn't mess up! It was so hard to figure out especially considering how incestuous the Black family is!


	21. Sick Little Games

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Title comes from the song:  
Sick Little Games by All Time Low

Quidditch practice at 9am on Sunday morning had not been fun. Harry, Neville and Ron had turned up extremely hung-over and Dean had told them that next time they decided to go on a secret mission with his girlfriend they should invite him too. Neville had been atrocious in practice, he had missed every single bludger. Harry could hardly see the snitch and Ron had let the quaffle in about 30 times. The rest of the team did their best without the three players, and truthfully they found it quite amusing.

Ginny teased Harry as she sped past him on her broom, "Come on Harry, catch me."

Harry glared at her and she laughed wickedly as she threw the quaffle to Natalie McDonald, "Potter, the snitch is by your head," the girl said. Harry hopelessly swiped for the snitch but he swiped to the wrong side and toppled a little and had to steady himself on his broom. Ginny and Natalie laughed as Natalie threw the quaffle to the 3rd chaser, Dennis Creevey. Dennis still adored Harry too much to tease him so he threw the quaffle which soared straight past Ron through the goalposts.

Further up the pitch Neville was hovering near the ground with Dean keeping an eye on him, "Bloody hell Nev, how much did you drink last night?" Dean chuckled.

Neville groaned, "Too much," he replied simply, his head was pounding.

Eventually the team made it through practice and Harry, Neville and Ron couldn't be more relieved because they couldn't wait to get back to their beds. When the three boys trudged into the common room they'd expected to meet the Slytherin team in the doorway as they usually did, but this time no one came.

Harry frowned when he saw Draco lounging on the sofa in the common room, "Don't you have Quidditch practice now?" he asked with a yawn.

Draco shook his head, "Nope," he replied, "Four of the Slytherin team are hung-over thanks to your extra strength firewhiskey," he said with a chuckle, "And I really can't be bothered so I cancelled practice."

Harry laughed and said, "Remember that when we kick your arse in the first game of the season."

Harry heard Draco make a comment about how they'd be kicking the Gryffindors arses as he made his way up to his dorm room to curl up in bed and sleep the rest of the day away.

***

Reality was restored by Monday morning after a lazy day of sleeping off hang-over's the day before. The group were laughing about Saturday night as they made their way into the great hall and took their seats at the 8th Year table.

"Silence, please!"

The hall fell silent as McGonagall stood up at the head table to make an announcement. She smiled around at the students, “I would like to inform you all that for the first time in 17 years Hogwarts will hold a Halloween Ball,” this statement was met with lots of excited whispering as teenage girls all over the hall shared looks and glances, “This ball will be themed which means everyone has the option to wear fancy dress,” there was even more excited whispering, “The Ball will be held on Friday the 31st of October from 7pm to midnight. However, it is for 4th years and above only,” this sent grumbles and groans around the hall from the students younger than 4th year.

McGonagall thanked them for listening and sat back down again causing the 8th year table to explode with chatter.

"A Halloween Ball! How cool is that?" Sadie said to the others who seemed to agree, but Harry had to admit that his mind was elsewhere.

"It hasn't been held for 17 years," Harry said quietly to Neville, "The same amount of time my parents have been dead."

Neville looked up at the look of pain on Harry's face, "It says in _"Hogwarts: A History"_ that Dumbledore stopped the Halloween balls after your parents died as a mark of respect."

Harry nodded, he had guessed as much. He didn't realise that Neville's hand was on his shoulder until the other Gryffindor squeezed it a little, "I'm sure McGonagall doesn't mean anything by it, I think it's part of her plan to raise moral and encourage house unity."

Harry knew that McGonagall hadn't meant anything by it; he just found it a little hard to deal with. He took a deep breath and turned to the conversation the others were having. Only Daphne and Hermione noticed that his smile didn't quite reach his eyes. Until the end of breakfast everyone talked about what it would be like, speculated on whether it would be similar to the Yule Ball and so on. The girls had already started to talk about their outfits.

Harry was fairly quiet and pretended to be busy reading the Daily Prophet while they discussed it. The group eventually got up from breakfast and began to make their way towards their first class which was Potions.

"We should all go to Hogsmeade on Saturday and get our outfits," Hermione suggested to the others who all agreed that it was a good idea but Harry remained fairly quiet.

"So what do you say Hermione, be my date?" Draco asked Hermione seriously once they were outside the classroom.

Hermione grinned, "Why of course Draco," she said, kissing him lightly on the lips and chuckling.

Tracey was standing nearby with Dean and they also agreed to go together which was natural as they were dating. Ron glanced at Lilly, "Fancy going with me Lil?"

"So long as you don't force me to wear a ridiculously over-sexy outfit," Lilly said with a raised eyebrow.

"I'm disappointed but it’s a deal," Ron joked. Despite his bad mood even Harry had to laugh at that as Lilly tried to hit him but he ducked in time to miss it.

"Sadie, think you can put up with me in public like that?" Theo asked teasingly.

Sadie laughed, "Yes Theo, I will be your date," she said happily.

Harry smiled at the exchanges between his friends, he'd be going to the ball alone but he was happy that everyone else had someone to accompany them.

"Hey Potter, want to be my date?" Daphne asked as she snuck up behind him.

Harry had been lost in his thoughts and jumped when he heard the Slytherins voice. He turned to face her and saw that she was smiling, "Just for one night?”

Harry looked at her in surprise, "Really?"

Daphne smiled at him, she really smiled instead of smirked and it cheered Harry up to no end, "Yeah, really."

Harry grinned, "Course I'll be your date," he said. Things were different between them now; they had been ever since Neville's Grandmother had died. Harry was beginning to hold out some hope now that maybe, just maybe, she had feelings for him too.

***

"Are you okay?"

It was the first thing that Draco asked when he and Harry had set their cauldrons up and started working on their potions. Harry knew that Draco had seen that he was upset and he assumed that the Slytherin knew why so he didn't try to hide it from him.

Harry shrugged, "I will be," he said honestly.

"I know your parents died on Halloween," Draco said quietly.

Harry swallowed hard and Draco sheepishly said, "Sorry, that’s probably not helpful.”

Harry just shook his head but he didn't say anything, not right away. After a moment of silence, he said, "It was just a shock but I'll be fine…Daphne asked me to the ball."

Draco watched as Harry smiled at the thought of Daphne, "You're falling in love with her," Draco stated.

"I don't know about that," Harry admitted, "But I like her a lot yeah."

Draco frowned, "You're my friend now Potter and I don't want to see you get hurt when she says she doesn't want what you want."

"If that's what she decides then I'll be fine with that," Harry informed Draco as he threw some armadillo bile into his potion, "I'm a big boy Draco, I can handle a little heartbreak."

Draco didn't know Harry as well as many of his other friends but he did know the Gryffindor well enough to know when to leave him alone. So he nodded and got back to brewing his potion silently.

***

By the time Saturday rolled around Harry had gotten over the fact that there would be a ball on the anniversary of his parent's deaths. This was due to a comforting word from Hermione, Daphne asking him out, Ron saying that they couldn't stop the world on Halloween forever and that it had been 17 years after all, and Neville informing him that it was the anniversary of a bad night for his parents too but he was still looking forward to the ball. Now that he had pulled himself out of his rut he was actually looking forward to the ball a great deal.

"So Potter, what are we going as?" Daphne asked Harry as they walked down the snowy path to Hogsmeade. Everyone was split into couples which left Daphne and Harry as the only 'singles' so they had been talking a lot more lately. It made sense to go together, as friends, just for one night.

Harry had been thinking about that all week and he had a few ideas, "Vampires," he said teasingly, "I could suck your blood."

Daphne raised an eyebrow at him and he laughed causing her to shake her head in amusement, "Vampires could be cool though, do you think I'd make a hot Vampire countess?"

Harry laughed and said honestly, "Daph, you'd make a hot anything."

Daphne scoffed, "Oh Potter, I'm blushing," she said sarcastically as they reached the end of the path where the others were huddled and waiting for them.

"We'll split up to get our costumes for the ball and meet back at the Three Broomsticks at 3pm?" Draco asked the others who agreed on the time and split up into little groups. Neville and Hannah had been hatching a secret plan for their outfits with Blaise, Luna and Ginny so they wandered off in one direction. Draco and Hermione were also secretly planning something, as were Ron and Lilly and they headed off into narrow side alley's mysteriously. This left Harry, Daphne, Theo, Sadie, Tracey and Dean standing at the entrance to the village.

"What are you guys thinking of going as?" Harry asked the group as a whole as they made their way through the village.

"Vampires," Sadie and Tracey said at the same time making Daphne and Harry laugh, "That's what we were thinking of going as," he told them.

"We should all go as Vampire couples!" Sadie suggested and Tracey nodded, her eyes widening, "We'll all pick different costumes but we can all be Vampire couples!"

"That would be pretty cool," Dean said, agreeing with his girlfriend who beamed at him.

Theo grinned, "I'm up for doing it Vampire style," he said winking at Sadie who blushed a deep red. The others laughed and decided that the best place to look would be the old thrift store because if they found old dresses and robes they could do their make-up and hair with magic.

When the little group walked into the shop Harry smiled at the elderly woman who worked there, he'd met her before when Hermione had dragged him into the shop, she liked it here.

"Harry dear, you brought friends," the little old lady said with a smile, "What can I do for you?"

Harry smiled at the woman, "We're looking for costumes for the Halloween Ball, Hogwarts is holding it again for the first time in 18 years."

The woman nodded, "Oh I remember those balls, they had them every year when I was a young student, all the costumes and dancing," her face fell a little and darkened, "But then of course those poor people were murdered and the dances stopped."

Harry's eyes found the floor, he wasn't sure why this whole Halloween ball thing was making him so emotional, it was pathetic, he felt like a girl. Thankfully the elderly lady said no more about Harry's parents and started to look through dresses and tuxes from different eras. Hoping no one had noticed his little meltdown Harry looked up and smiled and shopped with the others and laughed and joked and no one was any the wiser, or so he thought. Daphne had seen it all and sighed sadly, she'd tried to cheer her friend up all week and although most of the time he was fine there were moments when it got too much. She was glad she'd decided to ask him to the ball, she had a feeling he was going to need a friend.

"Dean, this is so us!" Tracey called from where she was buried under a pile of dresses in a corner of the little shop; Dean laughed and rolled his eyes in the direction of Harry and Theo as he walked over to his girlfriend. Tracey emerged from the pile of clothes holding a dress in one hand and velvet robes in the other. Both were black and purple and Dean had to admit, they were pretty awesome. The dress had a black skirt with a purple trim; the bodice was again largely black with purple trimming the edges and a purple strip down the back where it tied together. The robes Tracey was holding were black with a purple velvet collar.

"Perfect," Dean admitted to Tracey who squealed, "I can't wait!" Before the others had even found an outfit Tracey and Dean had picked out purple velvet gloves to go with Tracey's dress and a black and purple top hat for Dean.

"Oooh, Theo, how about this?" Sadie asked from behind a rack of dresses, she coughed a little as she pulled the dress from its box. It definitely needed cleaned if she was to wear it to the ball but it was perfect, she could just see herself in it. Theo, who had been sitting playing pocket chess with Harry, looked up and realised he'd have to go over and look at what she'd found. Harry sniggered as Theo trudged across the shop to his girlfriend.

"Wow," Theo said, blown away by the dress that Sadie had picked out. It was a ball-gown with a fairly large skirt and it was black and red. The skirt had a red centre with black up the sides and at the back. The bodice was again red and black, red in the centre and black on the edges. The neckline was square and the dress had long sleeves that turned to lace at the elbow. Theo could see his girlfriend in the dress; he could see her looking amazing in it.

"You like it?" Sadie asked with a grin.

Theo nodded, "Love it."

Sadie's grin widened, "I think I found something for you too," she said, ducking down and vanishing from sight as she pulled robes out of the same box and held them up for Theo to see. They were black with a high red velvet collar and matching red cuffs. It was very old-fashioned and cool. Theo managed to help with the costume hunt a little because he found a red velvet collar for Sadie and a black hat with a velvet strip for himself.

"You are brilliant Sadie," Theo said with a grin, leaning over the clothes to kiss his girlfriend, "We're going to be the hottest Vampires Hogwarts has ever seen."

Sadie laughed, "Oh I don't know, I think Daphne and Harry might upstage us."

Theo made a face, "How many four-eyed Vampires have you seen?"

"Oi!" Harry shouted with a mock glare to Theo who just laughed. From her spot behind a large pile of dresses Daphne chuckled. Harry found himself looking around at them all then wondering how his friend circle had changed so much so quickly. He was still as close as ever with Ron and Hermione but their friend group had seriously expanded and he was glad that it had.

"We're going to head back to the Three Broomsticks," Tracey informed the others once they had bought their outfits. Sadie and Theo who were also done said they'd go with them and meet Harry and Daphne back at the pub so they left Harry and Daphne alone in the little shop.

"How long does it take to find an outfit Daphne?" Harry asked in exasperation as he appeared behind her by one of the shelves.

Daphne glared at him, "For your information Potter, I had just found something promising. Do you want to win the best costume prize or not?"

"There's a best costume prize?" Harry asked, completely clueless.

Daphne rolled her eyes and pulled a dress out of the box, "So, what do you think?"

Harry thought it had been worth the wait, the outfit she had picked was perfect. It was black and red like Sadie's dress but it was in a completely different style. The skirt was floor-length but from mid-calf it was see-through black lace. Like Sadie's the sleeves were long and from the elbow there was the same black lace that lined the bottom of the dress. The bodice could be tightened with black string pulled over red silk in a criss-crossed pattern. Daphne was going to look amazing in the dress.

"I think it's perfect and I think I'm going to look like a potato standing next to you," Harry told Daphne which made her grin. She pulled out some robes from the box and said, "Nah I think you'll look pretty good in these."

The robes were black on the outside but had a high red collar. The really cool thing about them was that the inside was entirely lined with red velvet. Harry grinned, "We’re going to look like luxurious pureblood Vampires."

Daphne laughed, "That was the vision," she teased.

Harry smiled at her "Right then, since you did all the hard work, I'll pay."

Daphne smiled, "Aren't you a gentleman?" she said brightly as Harry put the outfits back in the box and made his way over to the counter to pay for them. This was what he loved about little thrift stores like this one, you found some real gems if you looked hard enough and you got them for a damn good price. Since Harry had paid for the outfits Daphne picked up a black collar with a red centre gem for herself and a black cane with a silver top for Harry insisting that he couldn't wear a hat like the others because of his strange shaped head.

With their outfits bought and bagged Daphne and Harry made their way back to the rendezvous point at the Three Broomsticks where they realised they were the last ones back. When the duo sat down Draco slid two butterbeers across to them and asked how they'd gotten on.

"We got perfect outfits in the end," Harry said, leaving it there and not giving anymore away, "Did everyone else get what they needed?"

Draco and Hermione shared a grin, "We got what we were looking for," Hermione said happily. Although Blaise, Luna and Ginny had departed Neville and Hannah had said their shopping trip had been a success but they gave nothing away.

"Where are the rest of your merry little band?" Daphne asked conversationally.

"Luna said something about it being the right time of year to feed the kelpie she thinks lives in the lake," Hannah said with an amused smile, "And Ginny and Blaise both said they had places to be."

"Mysterious," Lilly grinned, "We got our costumes too you know."

"And they're wicked," Ron grinned at the girl.

"And top secret," Lilly added as she tapped her nose.

"It sounds interesting," Harry said as he eyed his best friend in amusement.

"Course it is, it was my idea," Ron said cheerfully.

Lilly laughed, "Do you know we found out a funny thing about your Dad, Draco?" she asked, "The woman in the shop knew him when he was at school. Apparently he was a _total _womaniser."

"Didn't surprise me," Ron admitted, "I mean no offence Malfoy but that's kind of what pureblood marriages are like."

"No offence taken this time Weasley," Draco said dryly, "I know all about my Father's ways and the woman he would bring back to the Manor."

"It isn't funny you know Lilly," Theo said angrily as he pushed himself to his feet, "It's wrong and it's disgusting and it destroys lives. He was a cheating, playboy bastard, just like you Draco," Theo spat bitterly and stormed from the pub leaving his friends shocked to silence in his wake. Sadie jumped up and hurried after her boyfriend out of the pub.

"What the hell?" Draco asked, in complete shock and feeling very hurt by his friend's words, he'd unjustly insulted him after all.

"Almina Nott," Tracey said quietly, "She was Theo's Mum and she ran in the same circles as your Father."

Draco swore, "Shit! And she's dead isn't she? I hadn't known she'd had an affair with my Father...should I go and talk to him?"

Daphne shook her head, "You know how Theo is, he gets fired up and then he cools right down. Just leave him alone for a while to calm down."

Hermione nodded in agreement with, "Daphne's right Draco. Besides Sadie's with him, he'll be okay."

***

"Theo!" Sadie rushed to catch up with her boyfriend on his way up the path from Hogsmeade to the castle. When she reached him she had to catch her breath for a moment so they walked in silence until they reached the gates to the castle.

"Are you going to talk to me?" Sadie asked once she'd gotten her breath back.

Theo shook his head, "Just leave me alone Sadie," he said coldly but Sadie knew him better than to just accept it and walk away.

"No," Sadie said, not moving from his side, "Because as much as you say you want to be left alone I know you well enough to know you don't. You're just angry and pushing people away is your way of dealing with it."

"I wouldn't need to push you away if you left me alone and let me deal with it," Theo said angrily, the coldness was gone. Sadie didn't say anything back but she didn't walk away either, she stuck by his side as they walked up the path to the black lake.

"Theo, just talk to me, please," Sadie said, she wasn't begging but the harshness to her tone of voice was gone and it must have done something to Theo because he sighed and said, "Fine."

He stomped over to a tree stump by the lake and sat down on it despite the fact it was raining and cold. Sadie made her way over and sat down next to him. She didn't say anything; she didn't want to push him.

"My Mother's dead Sadie, you know that," Theo said and Sadie nodded. Theo had lost his Mother when he was very young and shortly after his Father had remarried but Sadie had always gotten the impression that Theo was close to his step-mother Salvadora.

"What does that have to do with Lucius Malfoy?" Sadie asked softly, being careful not to make him angry again. He just sounded sad and resigned now that the anger had bubbled away.

Theo looked down at his hands, they were shaking; he took a deep breath, "My Mother was 21 years old when she died Sadie, the same age as Harry's parents. They were so young, they never got a chance to live," Theo's voice was shaking, "But at least Harry has the comfort of knowing his parents died for something, they died to save him, they died to save the Wizarding world."

Sadie took Theo's hand and squeezed it but she didn't speak, she didn't want to interrupt him now that he finally felt able to talk to her, "My Mother died because she fell in love with someone else. Just like so many purebloods she was forced into a marriage contract by her parents, she married my Father and hated him. He treated her the same way he treated me, like I was something to be ashamed of. He hit her and abused her," Theo was shaking his head, anger burning in his eyes, his voice dripping with bitterness.

"So, along came an older man who was in an equally unhappy marriage and they fell completely for each other," Theo said and Sadie slowly began to understand where the story was going, "My Mother was the only woman that Lucius Malfoy truly loved apart from his wife and the rumours were that he was going to leave Narcissa for her. My Mother was going to run away with him, they were going to take me and Draco and leave," Theo shook his head again, this time it was as if he was shaking away bad memories.

"What happened to her Theo?" Sadie asked quietly, her eyes welling up with tears at the tale. Theo turned to look in Sadie's eyes, she'd never seen him cry until now and she'd never seen him look so vulnerable.

"My Father found out and he couldn't take the embarrassment of his wife running away from him," Theo said, the tears behind his eyes spilling out, "So he murdered her then he attended the funeral and said he loved her so much and he'd miss her," Theo was shaking with rage, "And do you know what the worst part is?"

Sadie shook her head, completely stunned and saddened by the story of Theo's Mother. Theo took a deep breath, "I was in the room when he did it. I was about 1 and a half, it was just after Voldemort had been supposedly defeated."

Sadie cried with Theo as she wrapped her arms around him, "I'm so sorry Theo, I never knew."

Theo shook his head and held her close, "It's not your fault, I was scared to tell you, I was scared I'd breakdown like this," he wiped at his wet eyes, "I'm sorry you had to see me like this Sadie."

Sadie pulled back from the hug, "Don't be stupid Theo; relationships are about seeing the best and the worst in people. If I can see you at your worst and still love you then we have good prospects."

Theo smiled, "Thank you."

"You really shouldn't have taken it out on Draco though," Sadie added, now that Theo had calmed down enough to think clearly, "He _isn't _a womaniser at all, in fact you were the womaniser and you know it."

Theo grimaced, "I know, I said some pretty shitty things to him."

Sadie nodded and glanced at him, "He's your best friend Theo, you better give him a proper apology."

They both stood up from the wet tree stump, they were soaked through from the rain which was getting heavier and heavier, "If I promise to apologise to Draco will you keep me company in the shower?" Theo asked, he was teasing her which meant that he was definitely back to normal.

Sadie laughed through her shivering and said, "Yeah, I think I can manage that."

"Good," Theo said with a grin, he leant down and kissed Sadie but this kiss was different to any others they'd shared. The kiss was soft, slow and sweet, it made her weak at the knees. When Theo pulled away he grabbed his petite girlfriend and pulled her against his side to keep her warm as they made their way back to the castle. Theo hadn't realised how much he'd been missing out on when he refused to date but now he finally had Sadie all to himself he was never letting her go.

***

Draco knew something was up the second he walked into the great hall for dinner. He'd gotten back from Hogsmeade in a bit of a rut about things with Theo, he knew it wasn't his fault but he still felt guilty, Theo _was _his best friend. He'd gone up to the common room hoping to find Theo but he wasn't there and all Sadie would tell him was that Theo was busy doing something else. Draco of course assumed this was her polite way of telling him that Theo was avoiding him so Draco played wizard chess with Harry and Dean and sulked until it was time to go to the great hall for dinner.

The hall looked different. There were red rose petals lining the pathway from the door to the 8th year table. Draco frowned and walked suspiciously down the hall, he heard Harry and Hermione sniggering behind him. This entire thing reeked of Theo.

When Draco reached the 8th Year table the boy himself jumped out from behind the table holding a rose in his hand, "Draco Malfoy, you have been my friend since we were tiny little baby slime balls. I'm sorry for calling you a playboy but I still think your Father's a dick."

Draco shook his head in amusement at the boy in front of him, "Theo, you are such a bloody prat."

"But you forgive me, right?" Theo asked with a cheeky grin.

Draco laughed as the rest of the hall chuckled at the scene they had just witnessed. The Slytherin sat down at the 8th Year table with Theo next to him, "Maybe."

Theo looked down at the table sadly and Draco eyed him suspiciously, what was he up to now?

Theo frowned, "Oh, wait, I forgot I had this," he pulled a broom out from under the table and Draco's eyes widened, "Theo, is that a firebolt?" he asked excitedly.

Theo's frown deepened, "Oh, I guess it is. Well I don't need one; it's all yours," he handed the broom to Draco who gaped at it in surprise.

"Forgive me yet?"

"Forgive you?" Draco asked with an ecstatic laugh, "Theo, I _love _you."

Theo smirked and the others shared amused looks, trust Theo to buy Draco a firebolt just to gain his forgiveness in what had really been a petty little fight. Slytherin minds just didn't work the same way as everyone else's.

**TBC :)**


	22. Halloween

The entire school had no classes on Friday the 31st of October so they could prepare for the Halloween Ball that night. The girls were extremely grateful for this because according to Daphne it would take 6 hours to get them all perfectly done up. Daphne had taken it upon herself to do all of the girl's hair and make-up as well as her own.

Harry had been of the opinion that it took 5 minutes to get dressed and a couple of minutes to cast some glamour charms so he'd ordered the whole Gryffindor Quidditch team to the pitch. The first weekend of November was fast approaching and so was the first game of the season. The big game against Slytherin.

Dean, Neville, Ron and Dennis had turned up to this practice with no issues, like Harry they couldn't see how it took 6 hours to get ready for a ball. Ginny and Natalie however, had refused to come so they had to make do without them. Harry remained as seeker and Ron as keeper. They switched things around so that Neville was the only beater however and therefore Dean was playing as a chaser alongside Dennis for the purposes of the day. It was a good practice and Harry then insisted that they bring the snitch out. He caught it 10 times in 8 minutes, he was confident the game was going to be an easy win.

"Harry, can we go back to the common room yet?" Dean called from his spot hovering by the goalposts. They'd been out here since 9am and it was now well past lunch-time.

"Do you want to win the Quidditch cup?" Harry asked, he was determined to win; he was pushing them harder than any other captain was pushing their team (he knew how Oliver had felt now). No one else was dedicated enough to practice on the day of the Ball but Harry saw it as an extra day, a day that they held over the other teams.

"Harry," Neville sighed, a little exasperated, "We've trained for weeks, we're going to beat Slytherin. Can we have a break now?"

Harry sighed, "Fine!" he conceded.

***

"You've been playing Quidditch for 5 hours!"

"Good to see you too," Dean said jokingly to his girlfriend when he, Neville, Harry and Ron walked back into the common room. It was 2pm and he was surprised that the girls hadn't started to get ready yet. After all, the ball started in 5 hours and Daphne had said getting ready would take 6.

Hermione smiled from the book she was reading, her hair was in curlers, "It took 4 hours to get ready for the Yule Ball apparently, they're getting worse."

Harry rolled his eyes, "I'm not going to let my team get beaten by Slytherin. We've got to train hard."

"Ah you wish Potter," Draco said with a smirk.

"Why aren't you getting ready anyway?" Harry asked the girls as he sat down next to Draco on the sofa.

Hermione didn't look up from her book as she pointed at the curlers in her hair. Harry nodded, "Fair enough, but what about you Trace?"

"Daphne is doing Sadie first then she'll do me," Tracey said simply, not looking up from the paper she was reading.

Harry sniggered, "Well, I know Daphne likes to do everyone but isn't that taking it a bit far?"

Hermione, Draco and Tracey all made a face at him and Harry bit his lip, "She's behind me, isn't she?" the other three nodded.

Harry stood up and turned around, "Hey Daphne," he said sheepishly.

"I don't like to do everyone for your information Potter," Daphne said, glaring at him, "I don't care what you think about my reputation. I haven't slept with anyone this year because I thought you and I were together."

Harry gaped, "What? But you kept saying you didn't do relationships and I-"

Daphne cut him off with a cold stare, "Tracey, I'm ready for you."

"Daphne-"

Tracey shot Harry a dirty look before following Daphne up the stairs to the dorm room.

When they were gone Harry kicked the sofa and cursed, "God! Why am I such an idiot?"

"Because you're a Gryffindor?"

"Because you're male?"

These responses from Draco and Hermione didn't help. Harry groaned and sunk back down into the sofa, "I thought you said Daphne did flings, not relationships!"

"She does," Draco said, "But she clearly likes you a lot more than she lets on."

"Of course she does," Hermione said as she rolled her eyes, "It's obvious, she's just scared of getting hurt which is something Harry's very good at in relationships."

"Wow, thanks Hermione," Harry said sarcastically.

"Well mate she's right," Ron chuckled, "I mean your tendency to date the ex-girlfriends of dead guys-"

"Tendency?" Harry exclaimed, "That was one time! She was the one who bloody hurt me in that relationship, always crying."

"Because her boyfriend had just died, Merlin Harry!" Hermione exclaimed, "Have a bloody heart."

"Or some tact," Draco suggested.

Ron snorted, "He definitely doesn't have that."

"Oh fuck off Ron," Harry said huffily. He kicked the sofa again for good measure and asked them in general, "What am I going to do about Daphne? We're supposed to be going to the ball tonight."

Hermione looked up at him with amusement in her eyes, "Harry, don't you know Daphne at all? She wanted to make a scene. She's probably not as angry as she looked, by the time we're ready to go to the ball she'll flounce into the room and smile at you like nothing ever happened."

It was worrying how well Hermione knew Daphne, because that was almost exactly what happened 4 and a half hours later.

***

When the clock struck 6.30pm the girls made their way down the staircase from their dorm rooms to meet the boys in the common room. Harry had already seen a few 8th years come and go but he hadn't been able to determine their outfits from brief glances.

Daphne made her way down the stairs first. The red and black dress she'd chosen back in Hogsmeade looked just as good on her as Harry had imagined it would. It was very figure-hugging and Daphne had an amazing figure. She had lightly curled her long blonde hair and left it down so that it flowed over her shoulders. Her make-up was amazing, her face was paler than usual and her lipstick was blood red, she had dark eyeliner on and had heavily applied mascara.

"Wow," Harry said, not managing to get any other words out of his mouth as she walked over to him and linked her arm through his.

Daphne whispered, "You better make up for what you said earlier, Potter," she said.

Harry nodded, "I will, I'm sorry."

Daphne shrugged but he could see that she was still annoyed with him and he didn't blame her.

The next person down the staircase was Sadie and Theo's reaction was similar to Harry's. In addition to her red and black ball-gown she'd styled her hair. It was pulled up into a loose bun at the back of her head and the only hair left out was her fringe. Like Daphne she had the signature red lips, pale face and dark eyes of a vampire.

Theo smiled and told her that she looked amazing.

Sadie grinned and replied, "I know, right? Daphne is _so _good at glamour charms!"

Next down the staircase was Tracey who looked just as striking as her two best friends in the purple and black figure-hugging dress she had picked out. Tracey was wearing a black choker with purple jewels and had left her long hair down, it was usually poker straight but like Daphne's it had been lightly curled. Again, like the other girls, her face was pale, her lips were red and her eyes were dark.

"Definitely worth the wait," Dean said, smiling and kissing his girlfriend as she walked over to him and put her arm through his.

Next to come down was Lilly and Ron emerged from the boy’s staircase at the same time. Harry snorted in amusement when he saw them, Lilly was wearing a black skin-tight catsuit and Ron was very clearly...

"Are you two seriously Batman and Catwoman?" Harry laughed.

"Lilly gave me some DC comics," Ron grinned, "They're really neat! How _cool _are these costumes? You look great by the way Lilly!"

"You both look really cool," Harry agreed, "Although only the muggle-borns will have any idea who you are."

Lilly chuckled, "So? We know our costumes are ace.”

"McGonagall will have a fit when she sees you in that though," Daphne said to Lilly, "As hot as you look."

The Ravenclaw smirked, "Why thank you Daphne, and don't worry I can deal with McGonagall. Are we ready to go?"

"Just waiting for Hermione," Draco said as he glanced back to the girl's staircase.

Draco gaped when he saw her even though he knew what her outfit was. Harry and Ron's jaws dropped and they glanced at each other in disbelief. They'd expected Hermione to dress up and have a bit of fun but they hadn't expected her to be half naked. Her costume was clearly an angel, she was wearing a white dress that stopped mid-thigh and the sides were held together with white ribbon, meaning that a lot was visible. The dress was low-cut with silver stars scattered across it and white fur trimming the bust and the hem of the dress. Hermione's legs seemed to go on forever and on her feet she wore white high heels. On her arms were matching open finger white gloves with the same fur trim, she had white wings attached to her back and to complete the outfit floating above her head and obviously held there by magic was a white glittering halo. Hermione's hair was left down and was slightly curled; her make-up was subtler than theirs because she only wore a little bit of lip-gloss.

"Merlin," Draco said with a smirk as Hermione walked over to him, "You look amazing."

Hermione grinned and it was then clear that Draco and Hermione's costumes were meant to match because Draco was clearly the devil. He was wearing black trousers, a red vest and a red cape; he would have looked like a Vampire if it wasn't for the red horns on his head and the trident in his hand.

There was some whispering from the top of the stairs and then Hannah, Luna and Ginny walked down together. Luna and Ginny's costume had been chosen to match Hannah, Neville and Blaise's so they had snuck them into the 8th Year common room to get ready. Luna didn't have a date to the ball and as far as Harry was aware neither did Blaise or Ginny. The two boys were already in the common but Harry didn't know what their combined costume was yet. Neville was wearing scarlet trousers, a white shirt with a gold tie and a red suit jacket. Next to him Blaise was wearing dark green trousers, a white shirt with a green vest over it, a silver tie and a dark green suit jacket. He thought they were just dressed up in their house colours but then the girls came down...

Hannah looked stunning in a floor length yellow ball-gown. It was strapless and there were silver flower embellishments along the bust of the dress. Luna was wearing a similarly styled ball-gown, only hers was navy blue and much more elaborate. There were silver embellishments on the skirt and around the bust which again was strapless. Ginny was dressed like a female version of Neville in an elaborate red ball gown with gold embellishments. Harry finally realised who they were meant to be when he saw crests on four out of five of their costumes. On the bust of Hannah's dress there was the Hufflepuff crest and in the same place on Luna's dress was the Ravenclaw crest. The Gryffindor crest was attached to Neville's jacket, and the Slytherin crest attached to Blaise's. Luna was also wearing a strange creation on her head that Harry supposed was her version of the lost diadem of Rowena Ravenclaw. It was a very clever idea; they were the founders of Hogwarts. But why was Ginny included in the mix?

Harry only realised when she walked up to Blaise and linked arms with him that she was clearly his date for the ball. Ron's eye's popped at that, "You _cannot _be serious!"

Lilly grabbed him before he could walk over to the 'couple' and said, "Oh no way Ron. She's not a baby, she can go to the ball with whoever she wants."

"But he's a Slytherin!"

"And I'm a Ravenclaw," Lilly countered, "Nice observational skills, now leave your sister alone or you'll be going to the ball on your own."

"Fine," Ron grumbled as his eyes remained fixed on his sister and Blaise until they left the common room, "But I'm not dropping this Lilly."

"I'm sure you aren't," Lilly said calmly as she shot an exasperated glance back at Harry and Hermione who were struggling not to smirk at the way Lilly was keeping Ron under control.

"Come on, let's get a move on before Weasley tries to kill someone," Draco said with a slight smirk.

***

By the time they reached the great hall the doors were just opening and Harry gaped in amazement as he looked around the large room. He'd never seen it look this good for Halloween before.

The enchanted ceiling gave off the impression that there was a storm outside. The room was lit by orange and red lights which gave off a very cool vibe and the house tables and head table were gone. The dance floor was in the middle of the hall and the tables were positioned around it. Each table had a white table cloth over it that appeared to be ripped, there were fake spider webs all over the hall and skulls as centrepieces on the tables. There were even floating Jack-o'-lanterns above every single table. At the end of the hall where the head table usually was there was a drinks table filled with completely non-alcoholic drinks of course. The table was decorated to look like it was table cloths laid over several coffins and whenever someone approached to get a drink one of the 'corpses' in the 'coffins' attempted to grab their legs. The windows all had the appearance of being dusty or broken and the music playing was eerie, it felt like the ballroom of an abandoned haunted house.

"Wow, they went all out decorating the hall," Daphne said as she looked around the place in amazement. The others were all awed by the decoration too; McGonagall had really pulled this one off.

The group got a large table near the dance-floor and the girls sat down while the boys went over to the drinks table to grab something for themselves and their girlfriends (or friend, in Harry and Daphne's case). When they reached the table the 'corpses' all grabbed their legs. Dean just raised an eyebrow at Harry until the 'corpse' let go and Theo only laughed, Ron swore loudly and was told off by a passing Professor but Draco’s reaction was the best, he jumped and squealed like a girl. Harry grinned at his friend's reaction and looked down to realise that the fake corpses were actually house-elves.

"Kreacher, hey!" Harry said, he knelt down to talk to his house-elf and Kreacher climbed out of the coffin to bow to Harry, "Kreacher is helping Headmistress McGonagall, Master Potter."

"That's pretty cool," Harry said, looking along at the other house-elves, "Hey, you're sharing a coffin with Winky!"

Kreacher got a little flustered as Winky climbed out of the coffin and bowed to Harry, "Winky cleaned herself up after she lost poor Dobby, Harry Potter Sir. Winky is a good elf now."

"Well that's great Winky," Harry said happily, glancing between the two elves and their embarrassed faces, "Hang on a minute...are you two...do house elves…?"

Kreacher bowed his head, his nose was nearly touching the floor, "This will not affect Kreacher's work Master Potter, Kreacher is a hard working elf, Kreacher promises."

Harry laughed and shook his head, "Don't worry about it Kreacher," he said, grabbing two glasses of punch, "Just have fun."

As the four boys made their way back over to their table the others laughed at Harry. Ron in particular was red in the face from laughter, "Your house elf has a better love life than you mate."

Harry shook his head in amusement, "Shut up Ron," he said half-heartedly.

"Hermione, you'll never guess what we just saw,” Ron said, still chuckling as they sat back down at the table, "Kreacher and Winky! Sharing a coffin together," he winked at her, "If you catch my drift."

"Aw!" Hermione coo-ed, "That's so sweet, I'm glad that Winky and Kreacher are happy!"

Harry, Ron and Draco shared a look of exasperation and Harry said, "Excuse me I think I'm gonna S.P.E.W."

Hermione shot him a dirty look but the others choked back laughter at the comment.

***

The decorations outside the castle were as good as the ones inside. There was a small rose garden, as there had been at the Yule Ball so that people could slip outside for air, but this time it was decorated like an old abandoned graveyard. All along the hedges there were gravestones and floating jack-o'-lanterns lit up the little garden. The hedges were covered in fake spider webs and a nearby tree had a skeleton hanging from it in a noose as if the ‘victim’ had been hung. At certain points in the pathway there were skeletons half buried so that they looked like they were climbing out of the ground.

"Did you see the look on my brother's face?" Ginny asked with a grin, "He's going to kill you."

Blaise scoffed, "I'd like to see him try," he said smoothly.

"I'd watch yourself if I were you Zabini," Ginny said with a smirk, "I have 5 older brothers and they are all incredibly over-protective."

"Then I presume I will just have to be the perfect gentleman," Blaise said with a sly smile.

Ginny grinned, "Well I didn't say that now, did I?"

They were sitting together in the creepy Halloween garden after dancing for a little while in the great hall. Ron had been constantly staring at them or glaring at them and Ginny was sure the only reason he hadn't come over was because his sensible, _lovely_, girlfriend was stopping him.

"You are an intriguing lady, Ginevra Weasley," Blaise said thoughtfully, "I cannot quite work you out."

"Is that a good thing or a bad thing?" Ginny asked the dark-skinned boy.

"A good thing for certain," Blaise said with the smallest of smiles.

"You're so sincere Blaise," Ginny laughed, "I'm going to teach you lighten up, you know live a little?"

"By all means try," Blaise said and he even chuckled slightly, "I'll be interested to see your efforts."

"My _efforts _will be successful," Ginny grinned.

***

The night was actually incredibly fun, Daphne convinced Harry to dance with her and he really enjoyed himself. It was far more fun than the Yule Ball but he wasn't sure if that was because of the company of his great friends or because he was there with Daphne.

"McGonagall is about to announce the awards!" Daphne said eagerly towards the end of the night. She dragged him back to the table they had all been sitting around and gradually everybody else trickled back off of the dance floor. McGonagall stood at the front of the hall and called for silence.

"It is time to announce the costume prizes," McGonagall said with a smile, pretty much everyone had made an effort. Dennis had dressed up in a suit and cape and worn a half mask, it was clear to Harry and Hermione that he was the Phantom of the Opera but no purebloods had any idea who he was meant to be. He had gone to the ball with a girl in his year, Astoria Greengrass. She also happened to be Daphne's little sister and when Daphne had found out about this she'd cornered her sister and said they'd talk about this later. Astoria had responded by rolling her eyes and saying, "You're practically dating the guy who saved our entire world Daph, calm down.

Zacharias Smith and Megan Jones had gone as Merlin and Morgan le Fay which was pretty un-original and Mandy Brocklehurst had gone as the Muggle version of a Witch. Terry had gone as Zeus and Sally and Annie had teamed up to come up with the most revealing outfits they could think of. Sally was a 'sexy Death Eater', she was wearing very short robes that were cut open to show her stomach. Annie was an Auror with a short black skirt and a cut off white blouse with "AUROR" written across the back in thick black writing.

"The first prize is for the overall best costume," McGonagall announced, holding up a gold trophy with a figure on it. She glanced at the bit of paper in her hand, "The prize is joint and goes to Neville Longbottom, Hannah Abbott, Blaise Zabini and Luna Lovegood who came as the Hogwarts founders."

Everyone clapped as the group walked up to McGonagall to collect their trophy. When they were there McGonagall made four copies of the trophy and when she handed it to each person the figure took shape of the person who'd won the award and the costume they were wearing.

When Neville, Hannah, Blaise and Luna sat back down and the clapping had died down McGonagall announced the winner of the second prize, "The next prize is for the scariest costume,” she consulted her sheet of paper, “And it goes to...Tracey Davis and Dean Thomas!"

Tracey and Dean grinned, their vampire costumes were the most realistic. They collected their trophies from McGonagall and once they had sat down she announced the next award.

"The next prize is for the most original costume and it goes to...Ronald Weasley and Lillian Moon!"

They cheered as Ron and Lilly hi-fived each other before getting up to retrieve their trophies. Their superhero themed costumes had been really neat, Harry definitely thought they deserved the award.

"And last but not least," McGonagall said, still smiling around the hall, "This prize goes to the best dressed couple of the night," her eyes fell on the table that Harry and his friends were sitting at and she said, "And the prize goes to Harry Potter and Daphne Greengrass."

The table erupted in laughter because Daphne and Harry were the _only _two people at the table who _weren't _in a relationship. The colour in Harry's cheeks rose but Daphne grinned because she found the funny side in the situation. She grabbed Harry's hand and dragged him over to McGonagall.

"Very impressive costumes," McGonagall said to them both as she held out a trophy. Daphne and Harry both touched it at the same time so that they appeared on the trophy holding hands in their Halloween outfits. Daphne smiled and thanked McGonagall, she took the trophy and she and Harry made their way back over to the table to applause.

"You two might as well just get together properly now," Theo cackled, causing Sadie to glare at him.

Daphne scoffed, "Yeah right, after what he said to me earlier.”

Hurt flickered across Harry's face but the second Daphne looked at him his mask was back on, "I did say sorry for that," he pointed out.

Daphne smiled cryptically at him, "I know you did," she said.

The rest of the night passed smoothly, Harry danced with lots of girls, he danced with Daphne a lot but it could have been better. The whole best dressed couple thing had brought it all back to him, he didn’t want to be some idiot on Daphne’s arm, he wanted to be her boyfriend and he wasn’t sure how much longer he could hide that for.

The longer the night went on the more Harry just wanted it to end; he wanted to be alone in the confines of his dormitory so he took his leave of them all fairly early and managed to slip out of the hall at around 11.30pm. He hurried up to the common room which was empty because everyone was still downstairs at the ball.

He took solace in his dorm room and pulled off his stupid Halloween costume and threw it onto the floor. He got into his bed and grabbed a box from underneath it then he drew the curtains around the bed and put a muffliato charm on them. He pulled the picture he'd gotten from Neville out of the box and stared at it for a while then he grabbed a stack of photos he'd gotten from Grimmauld place; he'd found them in Sirius's room.

Harry let his tears fall on the old faded pictures as he looked at pivotal moments in the lives of his long dead parents.

A picture of James feeding Harry and Lily standing behind him as she smiled at the camera.

A picture of James and Sirius with their arms around each other, just out of Hogwarts. They were grinning happily.

A picture of Lily and Sirius dancing at her wedding to his best friend.

A picture of Lily and James sitting under an oak tree at Hogwarts, James playing with a snitch and Lily reading a book.

A picture of James, Lily and Sirius at the wedding, Lily in the middle of her two boys.

A picture of Sirius and Remus holding Harry with Lily and James watching their baby from the side-lines.

A picture of James on the Gryffindor table on one knee in front of everybody in the great hall as he proposed to Lily in their 7th year.

Harry cried harder at every picture. He might have been an 18-year-old boy who was strong enough to save the entire Wizarding world but he was still human and he still hurt. He still missed his parents every single day and today more than most days. It had been 17 years, they'd been dead 17 years and it still hurt as much as it had when Harry had been a little boy. He still missed them with all of his heart, he still longed for them every day. He closed his eyes tightly and sobbed his heart out, he sobbed like he'd never sobbed before. He cried for them, for his parents.

**TBC :)**


	23. Divided Loyalties

When Harry woke up on the 1st of November he had never before been so glad to see the month of October end. His eyes were red and sore, his head ached and he felt like he hadn't slept for days. Truthfully it hadn't been days of sleepless nights, just the one, but last night had been his worst night since Sirius had died.

He knew he'd cast spells around his bed so he wouldn't be discovered but he must have fallen asleep sometime in the early morning and during that time the spells wore off and someone found him.

"Harry..." the voice said gently, as a hand came through the curtains and pulled them apart slightly to peek at the boy-who-lived.

"What do you need Neville?" Harry asked weakly, trying to hide his reddened face from his friend.

"You helped me out Harry, when I needed it the most," Neville said slowly, “And right now you look like you need to talk,”

Neville was right, Harry did _need _to talk but that didn't mean that he wanted to. Talking meant bringing up old memories and feelings and all that did was cause more embarrassing tears, "Thanks for the offer Neville, but I'm fine."

"No, you aren't," Neville said, narrowing his eyes at his friend, "Because you do this thing when you're upset, you push people away with that cold attitude. Why do you do that when people are just trying to help you?"

Harry sighed, his head was pounding like someone was repeatedly hitting him with a hammer, "I don't know Neville," he admitted, sounding dejected, "I suppose I used to do it because the people I love got hurt and if I pushed them away then Voldemort wouldn't hurt them," he paused thoughtfully and shrugged, "I guess now I do it out of habit."

Neville climbed into Harry's bed and sat cross-legged at the end of it, "So, I assume your breakdown last night was because of your parents?"

"It doesn't matter Neville, you wouldn't understand."

The moment the words were out of Harry's mouth he realised what he'd said and with a glance at Neville he knew he had said the wrong thing. Neville's eyes flashed dangerously, "I wouldn't understand? Your parents might have died that night Harry but I lost mine too!"

"I know, I didn't think, I'm sorry," Harry said quickly.

Neville looked at him for a moment as if trying to gage whether he really was sorry but all he could see was a boy who looked extremely fed up and depressed, like he'd been through a war, or two. Neville sighed, he knew Harry hadn't meant it; he was in one of those moods where he didn't think about anybody else's feelings, "I know but I'm just saying, you aren't the only one who had a tough night last night. All I could think about last night when I was trying to have a good time with Hannah was that she was never going to meet my Grandma now and she would never meet my parents either,” Neville looked down and shook his head, “I mean sure she _can _meet my parents but it would be more like meeting corpses than people."

Harry felt it was safe to confide in Neville, he felt like he could tell Neville anything, they'd both been through so much together and they were so similar that he knew he could trust Neville to be there and not tell anyone about it later. He trusted Hermione and Ron that much and he was getting to trust Draco in such a way too. But for the moment when it came to talking about his parents he trusted Neville because his fellow Gryffindor understood better than most did.

"Last night I tried to have a good time and I did, for a while,' Harry admitted, he'd enjoyed himself for the most part, “But then Daphne made that comment about us as a couple and I know it had nothing to do with my parents but it just triggered something in my head," Harry shook his head as if to rid the thoughts from it, “I haven't looked through the pictures of them I got from my Godfathers house since I found them after the final battle and when I looked at them last night-" Harry's voice broke and he shook his head, angrily wiping his eyes.

Neville understood how he felt, "Harry, how do you think I felt when I went back to my parent's house that day?" he asked although Harry knew it was a rhetorical question, "I know it's hard, especially on days like yesterday but we have to accept that they are gone and they aren't coming back."

Harry nodded, pulling himself together enough to manage a weak smile, "Thanks Neville."

Neville nodded and got up, "No problem," he said, smiling at his friend, "I just don't want you to end up like Snape did."

Leaving him with that thought Neville closed the curtains and Harry heard his footsteps fade away as he made his way downstairs to the common room. Harry sighed, he didn't want to become like Snape either, cold and bitter and lonely. He knew breaking things off with Daphne was the right thing to do but it wouldn't make him happy, then again things staying as they were would make him miserable too. Harry pulled himself out of bed and got dressed, yes he was miserable but he couldn't stay this way forever, he'd had enough misery for a lifetime in the last few years. As he pulled on a jumper he decided to do something to get him out of his rut so with a smile at his idea he grabbed a piece of parchment and a quill and scribbled out a quick letter. Once he was done he looked over it;

_"George,_

_I hope you are doing better now and that things are good with the shop. Things here aren't great, October brings back bad memories so I wanted to do something to raise moral on the 5th of November. In Muggle tradition its bonfire night so we have firework displays and a huge bonfire and there’s a big party. I thought it would be perfect but we need someone to do the fireworks, up for it?_

_Hope to see you soon,_

_Harry."_

Happy with the letter Harry folded it and put it in his pocket then made his way out of the dorm room on route to the owlery.

He got halfway across the common room without being noticed, but unfortunately he didn't make it to the door.

"Potter!"

Harry recognised her voice straight away so he didn't turn around, he continued to the door without even glancing at her but she followed him out of the common room anyway.

"Harry, I know you're ignoring me."

That made him stop, she'd called him Harry. She only did that when she really wanted to talk to him or when she wanted to get his attention.

"You just called me Harry," he said, turning to the blonde girl.

Daphne shrugged and said, "Yeah, it's your name, isn't it?"

"It is," Harry agreed with a smile, “But you never call me it."

Daphne rolled her eyes but she was smiling too, "Wow if I knew all it would take to cheer you up was calling you by your first name I'd have started months ago"

Harry was still grinning as he said, "I'm on my way to the owlery, what did you want to talk about?" he turned and started to make his way down the spiral staircase giving Daphne no option but to come with him if she wanted to talk.

"I wanted to apologise for last night," Daphne said, hurrying after Harry and walking by his side as they made their way down the stairs and out of the tower, "I realise I gave the impression that I'd never date you because of what you said."

"It did seem that way," Harry said honestly, "But at the same time my joke was uncalled for. I know you aren't your reputation and even if you are, I don't care. Honestly Daphne I've made some bad decisions in my life and I like you so I don't care how many guys you've dated or..."

"Slept with?" Daphne finished with a pointed look, "I can tell you if you want."

"Only if you're comfortable doing that," Harry said.

"Two," Daphne said calmly, "Same as you."

"Well I've not slept with two guys," Harry joked with a playful smile.

Daphne laughed, "You know what I mean Harry. I know I have a reputation and yes I have kissed a lot of guys but I'm not some dirty slut like the rumour mill makes out."

"I never thought that," Harry said softly, "Would I be trying to get you to go out with me so bloody much if I thought that?"

"I suppose not," Daphne smiled.

"You just don't want to though, do you?" Harry asked her quietly.

"Potter," Daphne sighed, making Harry's face harden, "No, it's not...well, it's just that I-"

"Don't do relationships," Harry finished for her, "I know, you've told me several times."

"You used to be fine with it," Daphne said, not angry or annoyed, just confused about what had changed.

"I never used to have feelings for you Daphne," Harry said as he spun on his heel to look at her.

Daphne's eyes widened and she froze. Harry's eyes burned, "I'm not going to hide it anymore. Before it was simple and I didn't mind the flirting and the skating around the edges. But now it _is_ complicated and this little game isn't enough anymore, alright?"

Before Daphne could answer Harry turned away and slipped into a secret passageway, leaving her standing alone on at the bottom of the tower.

***

Harry and Daphne didn't talk all weekend. Harry got back from the owlery after sending his letter to George and then sat at the opposite side of the common room from the Slytherin and her two best friends. He took out his homework diary and started to write up a DADA essay about the unforgivable curses; their effects, the damage they caused and the consequences of using them.

"Harry-"

"No, I would not like to talk to her. Yes, I did tell her I have feelings for her. Yes, I know she only does flings but I still feel betrayed," Harry said to Hermione.

His best friend smiled in amusement as she sat down next to him, "I was going to ask if you knew the 6th consequence of the Imperius curse actually."

"Oh," Harry bit his lip, "Sorry?"

Hermione rolled her eyes but smiled, "Forgiven. You have me intrigued now, whats happening with Daphne?"

Harry put his quill down and glanced over his shoulder to make sure that the girl wasn't within hearing distance, "This morning she apologised for last night and said she didn't understand what was wrong because I used to be fine with her 'I don't do relationships' thing so I told her that before I didn't have feelings for her and walked away."

"Wow," Hermione said, frowning a little as she did when she was concentrating, "So you really put yourself out there for her."

At this Harry just shrugged and Hermione shook her head, "I like her, she's becoming one of my best friends but she's being stupid about this. I know she likes you, I really don't understand why she's being this way."

"Whatever the reason I don't think I can wait around for her much longer," Harry said, picking up his quill and changing the subject, "The 6th consequence of the Imperius curse is that the victim can be imprisoned or killed for what they were forced to do under the curse, by the way."

Hermione understood where Harry was coming from and why he needed time to think about everything that was going on so she didn't push. She just smiled and said, "Thanks Harry."

***

At dinner time on Saturday Harry and Daphne sat as far apart as they could within their small friend group. Harry was sitting by Theo and Draco when McGonagall walked into the hall with a very attractive blonde girl who looked very familiar to Harry for some reason. The girl smiled around the hall as she walked towards them with the Headmistress, her smile was mesmerising. Her long blonde hair flowed behind her and most of the boys in the hall gazed at her with admiration.

McGonagall said something to the girl who nodded and smiled as the Headmistress stood up and called for silence. The hall fell silent gradually and then she made her announcement, "We have a new student starting this year, she's a little late but I'm sure she will catch up. Miss Gabrielle Delacour is a 7th Year but she will be staying in the 8th Year dormitory because there is a lack of space in the house dorms. She was sorted earlier today and is in Ravenclaw. I would ask you all to help her in any way you can."

With the announcement over McGonagall made her way over to the 8th Year table with the girl and Harry gaped at her, "Gabrielle!"

Gabrielle turned her dazzling blue eyes to him, "Harry!"

They both grinned as Harry jumped up from the table and hugged her, “Wow you've changed so much since I last saw you!"

Gabrielle laughed, "I know! The last time we met was at Fleurs wedding, right?"

They had met briefly at the wedding but even in a year Gabrielle had grown so much, he couldn't believe she was 17; she must have been about 13 when they first met in Harry's 4th year.

Harry nodded, "Yeah, we danced together," he remembered, "I'm sorry that the Death Eaters wrecked the place."

Gabrielle shook her head, "Oh don't be silly, it was still a lovely night."

McGonagall cleared her throat and Harry blushed a little, "I see you two remember each other," she said with a slight smile.

Harry simply nodded, "Yes, Gabrielle's older sister Fleur is married to Bill Weasley, Professor."

McGonagall just nodded as she said to the others, "Gabrielle will join you in your common room and she has the choice to eat at your table or at the Ravenclaw table. She will be in several of your classes as well so please make her feel welcome."

They all nodded obligingly and McGonagall turned to Harry, "Since you two already know each other you can show Gabrielle around the school, Mr. Potter."

With that McGonagall left and Gabrielle grinned at Harry as she sat down in an empty seat next to him, "Wow, you look great Harry, I can't believe it's only been a year."

"Same to you," Harry said as he tucked into his dinner.

Gabrielle laughed as she took some food and started to eat as well, "Well, I have an excuse," she admitted, "Because I'm part Veela I age differently. Up until the age of 16 Veela's don't change much but then in a short space of time they mature to the age of around 18 or 19."

"That's...different," Harry said as he tried to get his head around it all, "What brings you to Hogwarts then?"

"Oh I moved in with Fleur and Bill," Gabrielle said excitedly, "I wanted to pursue a political career and my parents thought it would be best if I finished school in the UK so that I could get used to the place."

"So you're staying here once you've finished school?" Harry asked her conversationally, unaware of Daphne's cool glare on him from the other end of the table.

***

"_Who_ is she?"

"Who _is_ she?"

“Who is _she_?”

Sadie, Tracey and Daphne were glaring in the general direction of Harry and the new girl, the new _French _girl.

"Look at them!" Daphne hissed, "Look at them grinning and laughing!"

"You're jealous Daphne," Hermione said from her spot across the table from the Slytherin girl. She knew that Gabrielle had probably turned up her Veela charm for Harry but Daphne didn't and Hermione wasn't going to tell her that. Maybe it was vindictive but she thought that the Slytherin deserved a little bit of payback for the way she had been treating Harry.

"I am not!" Daphne said, a little too loudly. She lowered her voice and added, "I am not jealous. Potter can do whatever he wants. But I mean look at her, she's a cheap French version of me."

"Woah Daphne, I have _never _seen you like this," Sadie said, staring at her friend in disbelief.

Tracey snorted, she'd known Daphne longer and they'd always been closer than Daphne and Sadie had been, "I have, at the end of 6th year when-"

"Tracey, shut up," Daphne said, her eyes flashing dangerously as she looked at Tracey, her friend got the hint and shut her mouth.

"I'm going for a walk," Daphne said, standing up and making her way out of the hall.

Draco sighed and kissed Hermione on the cheek, "I'd better go after her, I'll see you later," he said before standing up and following Daphne out of the hall.

***

The following day was Sunday and when Harry got up and didn't see Daphne in the common room he was pleased. He was trying to avoid her after all and he suspected she was also trying to avoid him. He smiled as he met Gabrielle in the common room, ready for her tour of Hogwarts.

"Good morning tour guide," Gabrielle teased.

Harry offered her his arm. She smiled broadly and took it and Harry asked "Ready for your tour Mademoiselle Delacour?"

Harry and Gabrielle walked around Hogwarts catching up, Harry pointed out things like their classrooms and the library as they did so.

"So, did you ever get back together with Ginny?" Gabrielle asked conversationally.

"No," Harry said with a slight frown, "We're still great friends but our feelings changed during the war."

Gabrielle seemed pleased about this, "So you're single then?"

Harry thought about this for a moment as they walked along the 3rd floor, "That's our Defence Against the Dark Arts classroom, and yes, I'm single."

For all intents and purposes he was single. He hadn't slept with Daphne, in fact all he had done was kiss her a few times and he sure as hell wasn't in a relationship with her. Gabrielle didn't say anymore on the subject and Harry continued to show her around the school but then they went out for a walk in the grounds and because she had come from France Gabrielle's winter cloak was far thinner than those worn by the students of Hogwarts.

Harry chuckled, he took off his own cloak and wrapped it around her shoulders when she started shivering, "So how is Fleur? Ron said that she was pregnant."

Gabrielle smiled happily at the thought, "She's 3 months along now, and she still looks gorgeous. Did you hear her due date is the 4th of May? The baby might be born on the anniversary of the final battle."

Harry smiled, "That would be nice wouldn't it? Something to celebrate on that day rather than something to be sad about."

Gabrielle nodded absentmindedly as they walked around the grounds a little more and Harry pointed out Hagrid's hut and the lake. Soon though Gabrielle was shivering with the cold, she turned to Harry with lips that were slightly blue and jokingly said, "Do you think you can warm me up, Harry?"

The way she said his name alerted him to the fact that this wasn't an innocent conversation anymore. When Harry looked at her his eyes went straight to her lips and he felt guilty just at the thought of kissing her. He owed Daphne nothing, as far as he was aware he meant nothing to her so why couldn't he kiss Gabrielle? He certainly wanted to, Gabrielle was as beautiful as her sister and Harry got on very well with her. He moved slightly closer to the girl who was only a little shorter than him. Her age didn't cross his mind because he had dated Ginny who was the same age but he did briefly worry about what Fleur would say. They were so close now that he could feel her warm breath on his lips so he stopped arguing with himself and closed the small gap between them, capturing her lips with his own. She wrapped her icy hands around his neck and Harry's own cold hands gripped the side of her face. Her lips were so soft and Harry completely melted into the kiss until he realised what he was doing. He stopped and pulled back, breathing a little heavily, "Gabrielle...that...well we...we can't..."

Gabrielle smiled slightly, "What's the problem, Harry? You said you were single."

"I am," Harry said honestly, "Trust me, I am. But it's just...you're Fleur's little sister, I mean I remember you as this little girl who I saved from the lake."

She raised an eyebrow at Harry, "And you didn't remember Ginny as the little girl you saved from a Basilisk when you dated her?"

"Well," Harry floundered, "I mean that was different because I saw her all the time _between _saving her from the Basilisk and dating her. But with you I mean, I saved you in that task, then I danced with you briefly at the wedding and now you're...well now you've grown up."

"Is it too weird?" Gabrielle laughed.

"I think so," Harry admitted with a sheepish smile, "And I'm really sorry about that because you're lovely Gabrielle, you really are."

"I'm just permanently the little girl you saved from the lake," Gabrielle chuckled, "Pity, I've always had a bit of a crush on you Harry."

"I'm sorry," Harry admitted as he cringed, "I feel like such an idiot now."

"Don't worry, I get it," Gabrielle said honestly, "But if you don't mind can we get back to the castle now? I'm freezing."

Harry laughed and linked his arm through hers, "Yeah, come on let's go."

***

Daphne was writing up a Charms essay about the Fidelius charm and its complications when she looked up to check the time and instead saw something that made her want to scream. She had caught a glimpse of Harry and the new French girl walking in the grounds. Harry took his cloak off and gave it to her and they walked around for a little longer before stopping by the lake and then...no way, they were not going to kiss.

"Ugh!" Daphne stood up and stomped from the common room to the dorm that Draco shared with Theo and Blaise. When she burst the door open it was to find Draco lounging on his bed with a suspiciously Muggle looking book titled _"The Lord of the Rings." _Ever since he'd started dating Hermione he'd been reading Muggle literature.

"He kissed her! He actually kissed the little French slut!"

"Hey Daphne," Draco said calmly.

Daphne began to pace the circular room, "I mean I've not kissed any other guys this year, do you know that? Nobody, I was only with him and even then I wasn't with him apart from a few kisses but I thought he had feelings for me and now he's off snogging some French slut!"

"Daphne," Draco sighed, "You and Harry aren't together. You said it yourself. Maybe he does have feelings for you, in fact you and I both know that he does. But that doesn't mean he's going to wait forever does it? He's Harry Potter, there will be plenty of other girls out there and he wants a relationship. He's a Gryffindor, they like to snog and do romantic things and all that chivalric crap. He isn't happy with the way things are between you two and you know it."

"What do you mean?" Daphne asked irritably.

"I mean you know that he likes you and _I _know that you have feelings for him too. Those feelings scare you and I get that but you can't expect him to wait forever. You'll just have to accept that maybe you've missed your chance," Draco said, he had to tell her the harsh truth because nobody else was going to.

"So what do you suggest Draco?" Daphne asked with a deep sigh.

"You have to stop being so afraid and tell Potter how you feel," Draco said, "It's that simple Daph. You swallow your fears and you tell him you want a relationship."

"Simple?" Daphne asked angrily, "It's never simple Draco. You'd know that better than anybody else!"

Draco's glare was just as vicious as Daphne's as he said, "Just because I broke your heart doesn't mean that everyone else is going to Daphne. You've got to get over the past."

"Don't you even try to talk to me about that Draco," Daphne spat as she stormed from the room.

***

Harry was standing outside of the portrait of the Fat Lady.

"I'm Harry Potter; I saved the Wizarding world, _twice_! Let me in please."

"I don't care how many times you saved the Wizarding world, if you don't have the password you are not getting into the common room."

"Oh come on! You know me!" Harry whined, "You know I'm a Gryffindor!"

"This isn't your common room anymore," the Fat Lady said.

"Yes, but I'm still a Gryffindor!" Harry exclaimed. He was about to start getting irritated but luck was in his favour because the portrait swung open and Ginny climbed out, "Harry! What are you doing here?"

"Ginny!" Harry said, hugging the redhead, "Thank God!"

"Um, are you okay?" Ginny asked, looking worried.

Harry shook his head, "Are you in a hurry?"

Ginny smiled, "No, I was on my way to the library to write an essay so please feel free to distract me."

Harry pulled her into the nearest empty classroom and said, "Ginny, you know how Gabrielle showed up at Hogwarts?"

Ginny narrowed her eyes at him, "Yes, she was sorted into Ravenclaw. She's staying with Bill and Fleur...what's the problem Harry?"

"I kissed her," Harry admitted, "And I didn't know who else to talk to."

"You kissed her?" Ginny asked in surprise, "Are you interested in her?"

"See that's why I wanted to talk to you, I don't know!" Harry said irritably, "I like Daphne, you know the girl in Slytherin?"

"I know who she is," Ginny said in amusement, "Daphne Greengrass the Slytherin ice queen. The Daphne Greengrass who doesn't do relationships."

"Exactly!" Harry said, "She doesn't do relationships and I want a relationship. I think she likes me as well and I can't just flick a switch and stop liking her. But I do like Gabrielle, she's a lovely sweet girl. Only I don't want to ask her out just because she's like a nicer version of Daphne."

"No that wouldn't be fair to anyone," Ginny said firmly.

"I know," Harry groaned, "But I do like her, Gabrielle that is. Except I still sort of see her as that little girl she was when I first met her which is-"

"-weird," Ginny cut in.

"Weird, exactly!" Harry nodded, "So I don't know what to do!"

"Definitely _don't _ask Gabrielle out," Ginny said, "Because she is lovely and she is sweet. It's not fair to ask her out because she reminds you of somebody else, you'd only hurt her in the end. As for Daphne, are you sleeping with her?"

"No," Harry replied, "I've kissed her a few times but that's it. She knows I like her, she just doesn't seem to care."

"Well it sounds like she's not worth your time," Ginny said honestly, "You either give her an ultimatum and risk ruining your friendship with her or you say you want to break things off because you're clearly stressed out of your mind with this at the moment."

"Yeah," Harry agreed, "I am."

"Cut her loose then," Ginny shrugged, "And move on. Then if you still like Gabrielle ask her out."

"Right," Harry said with a nod, "Thanks Gin."

Ginny smiled, "Agony Aunt Ginny, here to help."

Harry laughed, "Are you still avoiding Ron?"

"Hell yes," Ginny said with a shake of her head, "I know I'll manage all weekend but tomorrow I'm sure I'll have to face his wrath."

"Not if Lilly has anything to do with it," Harry grinned in amusement, "I'm happy for you and Blaise by the way, he's a nice guy."

"Yeah," Ginny agreed, "If mysterious and brooding."

"Well that's part of his charm isn't it?" Harry joked as he opened the door of the empty classroom.

"I guess so," Ginny laughed, "See you later Harry."

"See you Ginny."

***

When Harry walked into the 8th Year common room he was glad that Daphne and Gabrielle weren't around. He made his way over to the chair where Hermione was sitting and said, "Hermione, I sort of just kissed Gabrielle."

Hermione's head snapped up, "What?" she asked sharply.

Harry sighed, "I was giving her the tour of Hogwarts and we got talking. We were having a good time you know? Catching up and all…and I kissed her. I knew it wasn't a smart move, but I did it anyway."

"And?" Hermione asked, "Is that it? Or are you going to ask her out?"

"No and I told her as much," Harry said, "I mean I talked to Gin about this. The thing is I do like Gabrielle, she's just such a lovely person. But as great a kiss as it was I still see her as a little girl like she was when we first met."

"Right and does _she _know this?" Hermione asked as she crossed her arms.

Harry nodded, "Yeah, we laughed about it afterwards and walked up the school and I did some thinking on whether maybe I should ask her out but Ginny was right I'd be doing so because she's like a nicer version of Daphne."

"That's not a fair thing to do at all," Hermione agreed.

"I know which is why Ginny is _also _right about Daphne. I either have to completely end things or tell her that I'll only do a relationship, not all of this skating about and if she says it's out of the question then that's it," Harry said quickly.

"She likes you Harry but she might not be so willing to say yes if she finds out about you and Gabrielle," Hermione pointed out.

"Yeah well how would she find out anyway?" Harry asked, "And if she did I'd explain. It's not like we're together or anything, I don't _owe _her anything."

"I know, Harry," Hermione said, "I know nothing is official but you heard what she said before the Halloween Ball about how she thought you were together. The lines are blurred here."

"Yeah but at the Halloween Ball she said we weren't together," Harry exclaimed, "I was going to try and fix things with her. I was going to try and make things official at the fireworks display on Wednesday...but if she finds out about this..."

"She already knows."

Harry turned to where Sadie had been eavesdropping, the blonde blushed and apologised, "I'm sorry, I couldn't help over-hearing. Daphne saw you and the new girl kissing out of the window earlier, she rushed off and we haven't seen her since."

"Great," Harry muttered, hitting his head off the table.

Hermione grabbed him by the scruff of the collar, "Harry, hitting your head off a table isn't going to do anything except make you lose even more brain cells."

"What am I supposed to do now?" Harry whined, he had hoped that if he said something with the bonfire in the background and fireworks going off the romance would rub off on Daphne and she'd tell him she had feelings for him too.

"You're just going to have to grovel and beg for her forgiveness and explain that the kiss didn't mean anything," Hermione said, "You're right though, you weren't even sure if you were together."

"Right, grovel and beg," Harry said with a nod. Mission get Daphne to stop hating him _again_, was on.

** _TBC :)_ **


	24. Baby, You're a Firework

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Title comes from the song:  
Firework by Katy Perry

Harry had wanted to talk to Daphne in 1st period Potions on Monday but that hadn’t gone to plan. She had been working in a group of 3 with himself and Draco since Seamus had left but now that Gabrielle had joined the class Daphne had been paired with her and she hadn't looked happy about it either.

Gabrielle frowned as Daphne glared at her and began to set her cauldron up, "I'm sorry but I don't quite know what I've done to upset you?"

"I know what you're trying to do with Potter," Daphne said coolly.

Gabrielle's frown deepened, "What I'm trying to do with Harry? We're friends, we have been for years."

"And how's that exactly?"

"He is a great friend of my older sister Fleur," Gabrielle replied, "They competed in the Triwizard Tournament together and then she married his best friends brother, Bill, so he was at the wedding and everything."

"Well how come you don't sound French?" Daphne asked, a little too viciously.

"Because my brother-in-law and his family are English," Gabrielle shrugged, "So my English is pretty good and I can lose the accent easily enough. Honestly what have I done to offend you?"

"I just don't like you," Daphne said harshly, "And I saw you kissing Potter the other day so I know you have an agenda!"

"An agenda?" Gabrielle said, laughing in disbelief, “He kissed me and then freaked out about the fact he remembers me as a little girl who he saved when he was in 4th Year so whatever agenda you think I have, it doesn't exist. Are you his girlfriend or something? Because he told me he was single and I'd have never have let him kiss me if he had told me that he had a girlfriend."

That hurt a little but Daphne did her best to cover it up. He _was _single because they weren't together and that was Daphne's fault, as much as the rejection stung. Instead of crying or moping though she got snappy because that was how she dealt with pain, "His girlfriend? As if!" she scoffed just a little too loudly so that Harry could hear her, "Now if you _don't mind _can we brew our potions silently Frenchie?"

"Fine by me," Gabrielle muttered.

Draco glared at Harry from their spot a few tables away, "Hermione told me what happened. Not to mention Daphne bloody ranted at me. If you liked Daphne so much why are you dating some French girl?"

"I'm not dating her," Harry muttered irritably, "I just kissed her."

"Why kiss another girl when you supposedly like Daphne?"

"Because I was having fun with Gabrielle," Harry said honestly, "She's sweet and funny and just so nice. I wish I could have had instant romantic feelings for her instead of Daphne because she's exactly the kind of person I'd like to have a relationship with but Daphne is just..."

"...the one you can't stop thinking about," Draco finished with an amused smile, "Trust me, I know that feeling. I spent my entire time at this bloody school pining for Hermione while dating other people. You've got to sort this situation out with you and Daph, it's getting ridiculous."

"Tell me about it," Harry sighed.

"On the bright side," Draco said, lowering his voice, "Daphne's jealous as hell so she obviously likes you."

"Ironic that I find out for sure that she likes me by making her hate me," Harry grumbled, putting too much doxy wings into the cauldron and making it go up in flames.

Draco rolled his eyes as he lazily cast aguamenti and put the fire out, "You really need to make up with Daph."

***

Harry spent his free period that day trying to find Daphne but he had no luck in the common room or the library and after checking all of the empty classrooms she usually hid in he gave up and met Draco and Theo for break in the covered courtyard. He spent the next 10 minutes whining about how Daphne was avoiding him and wouldn't even give him a chance to explain then the bell rang and the group made their way to Transfiguration.

Harry was disheartened when they walked into the room and there was no sign of Daphne, he'd hoped he'd get a chance to talk to her before the lesson started but the second bell rang and McGonagall walked into the room and there was still no sign of Daphne. It was just as McGonagall was going to shut the door and start the lesson that she walked in, apologised for being late and took her seat next to Harry.

After everyone had their books out and McGonagall had started the lesson, Harry whispered, "Daphne, I'm sorry about kissing Gabrielle-"

"Potter! No talking."

"Do I look like I care Potter?"

"Greengrass! _No _talking."

"Well, yes because you are clearly jealous-"

"Potter! I have already warned you once, no talking!"

"Jealous? I just thought you had better taste than little French sluts-"

"Greengrass! If you speak once more, you are going to be spending the lesson outside of my classroom!"

"Slut?" Harry hissed, "Gabrielle is a lovely-"

"POTTER! GREENGRASS! OUTSIDE!"

Harry and Daphne groaned as they made their way out of the classroom amidst giggling from their classmates. As the door slammed shut behind them Ron raised his hand.

"Yes, Mr. Weasley?"

"Professor, did you do that on purpose?" Ron asked causing laughter from Hermione and the rest of their friends who knew what was going on between Harry and Daphne.

A small smile tugged at the corners of McGonagall's mouth as she replied, "Of course not Mr. Weasley. Now, get back to work before I throw all of you out of my classroom!"

***

“Look Daphne, I'll be perfectly honest with you about what happened. I had no idea what we were, I sure as hell didn't think we were together or that you wanted us to be together," Harry said irritably, "So I was having fun with Gabrielle and then we kissed-"

"Yes, I'm aware of what you did," Daphne said coolly.

"It honestly meant nothing," Harry said, "I realised straight away how weird it was because she was so young when we met and she's Fleur's little sister. I told her that and we laughed about it."

Daphne was still watching him suspiciously and Harry continued, "And she's not a little French slut. She's a bloody lovely person, she's far too nice to everybody and I don't appreciate you being nasty to her."

"Are you _sure _you aren't dating her?" Daphne asked sarcastically.

"I'm sure Daphne," Harry said through gritted teeth, "Because as nice as she is I can't be with her because something is missing. That something is the fact she's not you. Alright you're a bitch, you're cold and you jump to conclusions. You drive me fucking mad but for some reason it's you that I want to be with and I mean in a relationship because I'm fed up with being on the fence here! We either cut things off _completely _or you just agree to bloody go out with me!"

Daphne opened her mouth to speak but then the door flew open and McGonagall appeared in the doorway, "Potter, Greengrass, back to work."

Harry glared at the Headmistress for interrupting at the wrong moment and made his way back into the classroom. He had barely been sitting back down for a minute when Daphne pushed a piece of parchment into his hands that said, "_We'll continue that conversation later," _Harry looked up at the girl who smiled briefly at him before looking back down to his textbook, maybe there was some hope yet.

***

They didn't get a chance to talk until much later that day, they worked at separate tables in Herbology. Then in DADA Professor Poliakoff paired them all up to duel. The day ended with double Divination in which Harry sat in front of Daphne but never got a chance to talk to her. Even at dinner they were surrounded by the others so it wasn't until late that night that they found themselves alone in the common room.

"Hey," Harry said, somewhat shyly as he sat down next to Daphne on the couch.

The Slytherin smiled at him, "Hey."

"So like I said earlier, this either ends or becomes something more because I can't continue with things the way that they are."

Daphne nodded, looking down at her hands, "I understand," she admitted, "It's not enough for me either; it hasn't been for a while."

"Then why pretend?" Harry asked, he really didn't understand it, "You know that I've felt more for you, you know I'd have accepted it."

"Honestly, I'm afraid," Daphne said, looking up at him and for the first time he saw how vulnerable she was, for the first time the mask was completely down, "I dated someone who broke my heart and I didn't want to feel that pain anymore so I kept everyone at arm's length."

"How am I different?" Harry asked gently.

Daphne laughed quietly, "I don't know. I just know that you are, you get under my skin in a way that no one has since..." she trailed off.

Harry smiled, "So you do have feelings for me?"

Daphne rolled her eyes and mumbled something about Gryffindors being impatient but then she looked him in the eye and said, "Yeah, Harry, I have feelings for you but they confuse me and I just need time to work through that."

Harry nodded, "I understand that, take as much time as you need."

"Thanks," Daphne said, she stood up and hugged him, "I'll see you tomorrow...Goodnight."

Harry smiled, "Goodnight," he said as he watched her go up the stairs. He was ecstatic really, she had admitted that she had feelings for him. Everything in the world felt right for a change, he made his way up to his own dorm with a bounce in his step that night.

***

For the following couple of days’ things progressed much the same as they always had but Harry was in a better mood and Daphne was less likely to snap at passer-by's. At breakfast on Wednesday McGonagall stood and made an announcement.

"Mr. Potter has come up with a proposal for tomorrow night. In Muggle tradition the 5th of November is called 'Bonfire night' and the Muggles have a large bonfire and a fireworks display so to raise moral we are having such a display tomorrow at 7pm by the lake. You are permitted to have an after-party in your common room as all morning classes are cancelled on Thursday. _However _these parties must end by midnight and must not be so loud that they disrupt members of staff. The common rooms will be periodically inspected by staff and if anyone is found to be in possession of alcohol or other illegal goods they will be punished."

Everyone looked excited about the display and the prospect of a party except Daphne who was frowning as her friends discussed it. Harry asked her if she was okay in an undertone as they walked to class but Daphne just smiled and said that she was fine.

When it hit 7pm on Thursday the entire school was out by the lake. It was cold, as it always was in November, but it wasn't raining so everyone was huddled up in winter cloaks, gloves, hats and scarves. Draco, Daphne, Lilly, Theo, Sadie, Tracey, Dean, Neville, Hannah and Blaise were huddled together by the water while Harry, Hermione, Ron and Ginny helped George set things up on a barge in the middle of the lake. When they were finished the group flew off of the barge back towards the mainland and touched down next to the others. mainland where they touched down next to the others.

"Hey," Draco said, smiling at Hermione and kissing her as she got off the broom shakily, she really hated flying.

“You haven’t gotten any better at that over the years,” Ron joked.

Ginny scoffed, “Leave her alone Ron, not everyone is suited to flying.”

“I was just saying!” Ron snapped.

Harry rolled his eyes and put his arm around Daphne, “Can we have one night without a Weasley argument please?”

Blaise smirked in amusement at this comment but quickly wiped the smile off of his face when Ginny turned around to look at him.

"They're about the light the bonfire," Harry said to the others, "When it gets going the fireworks are going to go off."

The bonfire was in the centre of all of the students and there was a stuffed figure that was supposed to be Voldemort at the top. On each side of the bonfire a teacher stood with their wand raised in the air. After a minute or two they all shouted, “Incendio!”

Daphne flinched as a loud roar sounded and the fire began to lick its way up the stack of wood towards the figurine of Voldemort. They were close enough to feel the intense heat coming off of the bonfire too. Harry frowned when he felt Daphne flinch and when he looked down at her he noticed that she was watching the bonfire with haunted eyes and tears were filling those eyes.

"Daphne-" Harry began; he was just about to ask her what was wrong but before he could she shrugged his arm off of her and hurried away from the bonfire. It worried Harry that she had just shot off like that so he ran after her, pushing through crowds of annoyed students as he followed flashes of blonde hair.

By the time he finally caught up with her she had reached the large oak tree that Harry knew well. It was where his Father had tortured Snape, it was where he had spent his last golden days with Ron, Hermione and Ginny before the war.7

Daphne had sunk down onto the cold, wet ground and she had her head in her hands. Harry suspected that she was crying but he had never seen her like that before.

"Daphne," Harry said gently, he sat down next to her and placed his arm around her shoulder, “Are you alright?”

She didn't speak, she just shook her head. Harry frowned, "What's wrong? Was it the fire?"

Daphne nodded then she wiped her eyes and looked up, "I'm scared of fire," she admitted quietly.

"Oh," Harry realised, he kicked himself for not realising sooner. She had seemed anxious about the whole bonfire and the fireworks display but he hadn't put two and two together, "I'm sorry, I didn't realise."

Daphne shook her head and wiped her eyes with the sleeve of her jacket, "It's okay, you didn't know."

"Do you want to talk about it?" Harry asked; he was unsure if she would share with him or not.

"It was my Father," Daphne admitted as she looked back down at the ground, “He may not have been a Death Eater but he wasn’t a nice man. He abused my Mother and I, my sister managed to escape the worst of it. When the Death Eaters killed him for not joining them…it was kind of a blessing in disguise.”

"Merlin," Harry muttered, "What did he do?"

Daphne sighed and looked back down, her hands were shaking. Harry followed her line of sight and grabbed her hands to steady them, "My parents were forced into an arranged marriage, like most purebloods were back then. My Mother hated my Father and she fell in love far too easily, she had a lot of affairs over the course of their marriage. When I was around 6 years old, my Father finally worked out that she had been betraying him for years. He wanted her gone before anyone could find out and use it against him and he wanted to make it look like an accident so he set the house on fire and left all of us in it,” Daphne's voice shook uncontrollably as she continued, "My Mother managed to get my sister and I out with minor burns and she begged my Father to take her back. He beat her within an inch of her life but promised he would continue to provide for her and my sister and I. I've been scared of fire ever since."

"I'm so sorry Daph," Harry said, he pulled her closer and hugged her. He let her cry as he held her and when she finally stopped shaking she pulled back and smiled at him. Her face was all red and her eyes were puffy but somehow she still managed to look beautiful, "Thank you Harry."

Harry shook his head, "Don't thank me, I know how it feels, trust me. I grew up with Muggles who wanted to beat the magic out of me. My Uncle forced me to sleep in a cupboard, I had to cook and clean for them. I was basically their slave and when I didn't do what they wanted my Uncle would hit me or get my cousin to beat me up."

"I had no idea," Daphne said with a frown, "I always assumed you were raised like a hero, being Harry Potter and all."

"Yeah, no one would believe that the great Harry Potter was raised by abusive Muggles," Harry joked as he pushed himself onto his feet.

Daphne’s frown deepened as she got to her feet too, "Don't joke about that Harry."

Harry was going to apologise when the fireworks started and although they were slightly further away from the lake and the crowd they still had a great view. Harry put his arm around Daphne as the fireworks shot up into the air. There were all different types of fireworks, the ones that lit up huge circles of the sky, the ones that whistled as they shot into the heavens, the type that changed colour, the type that formed a dragon flying above the lake. Daphne, who had rarely seen fireworks, watched them all with fascination as the crowd ooh-ed, aah-ed and cheered.

Once the last firework had fallen from the sky Daphne turned to Harry to tell him how beautiful they had been, but then another set went off and Harry grinned, "Daphne, look."

Daphne watched in amazement as the fireworks in the sky took form and spelled out, "Go out with me Daphne?"

Daphne turned to Harry with wide eyes and Harry's grin widened, "So, will you?"

Daphne flung herself at Harry and kissed him like she had never kissed him before, there was so much passion, hope and happiness in that kiss. When she pulled back she said, "Yes, I'll go out with you."

Harry grinned and kissed her again, "Thank Godric, if the fireworks didn't do it I was gonna give up."

"Who knew you were such a romantic?" Daphne joked as she grinned broadly.

"There are many hidden sides to me," Harry said, he pulled her in and kissed her once more, he was ecstatic that she had finally agreed to be his girlfriend.

***

When Daphne and Harry made their way into the 8th Year common room they were greeted with applause as everyone saw that they were holding hands. Draco, Theo and Blaise wolf-whistled, Ron and Neville cheered and Hermione shouted, "Finally!"

The party was already in full swing and someone had snuck out to Hogsmeade for butterbeer, Neville had apparently indulged them all with his secret stash of firewhiskey too.

Daphne and Harry shared amused grins as they made their way over to the others, Harry with a firewhiskey and Daphne with a butterbeer.

"Told you the fireworks would work!" Draco said with a grin.

Harry chuckled, "Yeah, well it _was _my idea, you just expanded on it."

Hermione, Sadie and Tracey all made their way over to Daphne, “So, are you together now?”

"Yes," Daphne said with a small smile.

"Officially anyway," Hermione chuckled.

Sadie added, "Yeah you've been together unofficially for months."

The others laughed at this because it was very true. Daphne and Harry just beamed at each other with delight.

***

McGonagall might have been crazy about house unity in this post-war world but she wasn't stupid. On Saturday morning the 8th Year table was divided, literally, by a magical barrier.

It was the first Quidditch game of the school year today and Gryffindor were playing Slytherin. On the Slytherin side of the table Draco, Theo, Blaise, Daphne, Sadie and Tracey whispered and schemed. Whereas on the Gryffindor side of the table Harry sulked because he didn't get to sit next to Daphne.

All of the Gryffindors were on their own team's side but the Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws had been made to pick sides in order to eat their breakfast. Lilly was on the Gryffindor side to support Ron and Terry Boot sat on the Gryffindor side because he was dating Annie. Michael was joining the Gryffindors to support Ginny since they were good friends. Hannah was with them to support Neville in his first ever Quidditch match and Justin and Ernie always rooted for Gryffindor in these matches too. Zacharias & Megan had taken seats at the Gryffindor side but only because it was where the majority of people were sitting. Mandy Brocklehurst was with the Slytherins because her boyfriend was their 7th year keeper.

Susan Bones walked into breakfast late and frowned at the table.

"McGonagall thinks we're going to try and sabotage the Gryffindors but we don't need to sabotage them to win," Draco called to her.

Harry glared at his friend through the barrier, "Just you wait Malfoy!"

Susan shook her head at the ongoing fight and instead of taking sides she grabbed a slice of toast from the Gryffindor side of the table and smiled at Harry, Ron, Dean, and Neville, "Good luck guys!" she said as she flounced over to the Slytherin side and grabbed a flask of pumpkin juice, "Good luck guys!" she said again then she made her way over to the Hufflepuff table. Even McGonagall shook her head in amusement at the quirky Hufflepuff girl.

"So…tactics," Draco was whispering to his team over breakfast, well most of his team. The Slytherin team was made up mostly of 8th Years because Draco was biased and thought his friends were the best. The keeper however was a 7th Year. Draco himself played seeker and the 3 girls were chasers. Theo and Blaise made an excellent duo working together as beaters.

"We've been over it Draco," Daphne said as she rolled her eyes and tucked into some breakfast, “Tactics – kick Potters arse.”

Draco grinned, "I have taught you well young one."

"Stop quoting Muggle films," Blaise said in amusement from his seat next to Draco, "You must be nervous."

"Hah!" Barked out Draco, "Blaise, I don't get nervous. I know we have the best team this year, we're going to win."

"It might help if you distracted Potter mid-game though Daph," Theo said with a wink at his friend.

Daphne shook her head, "Theo, that's cheating and while we might be slimy Slytherins we aren't going to win this game by cheating."

"Correct," Draco said with a smug grin at them all, "We're going to win on merit."

"For a change," Tracey piped up causing the others to laugh.

"Brute force and ignorance isn't going to help us this time," Sadie said sensibly, "The team is made up of 3 girls, a fairly competent keeper and 3 scrawny gits."

"Hey!" Draco, Theo and Blaise echoed causing the girls at the table to laugh. They were in high spirits because even if they didn't win today they knew they'd play a good game; they always did against Gryffindor.

Once breakfast was over McGonagall let the teams leave one by one, and of course she let Gryffindor leave first. She even said good luck to Harry and smiled at him so as a result, Harry, Ron Neville and Dean stood up from the table with smug grins at the Slytherins.

"See you on the pitch Malfoy," Harry said, his eyes sparkled playfully but there was determination in those eyes too.

Draco narrowed his eyes at the boy he had come to consider as a friend, "Oh you're on Potter."

Meeting their other team members by the door to the great hall the scarlet clad team proudly marched out of the hall to cheering from the Gryffindor table. Draco made a face, "Ugh, Potter."

Daphne giggled, "Draco, I feel like we've gone back in time."

Sadie and Tracey joined in with her giggling and Theo grinned, "You did seem a bit like your old self there."

"I thought there was quite a lot of sexual tension there," Blaise said with an amused grin.

Draco who made a face, "Ugh, Potter? Please Blaise, I do have some taste."

"I think he's quite the catch," Daphne smirked.

"Well you would," Theo grinned.

"Uh-huh," Tracey said in amusement, "Now that he's your boyfriend."

Daphne just grinned at them as they met the Slytherin keeper, Maxwell Harper, at the doors to the great hall and walked out to cheers from the Slytherin table.

***

The Gryffindor team stood with their brooms in their hands, ready to march proudly onto the pitch. Harry had given them the usual speech, the one he'd taken from Oliver. "We can do this, this is our last chance to beat Slytherin, come on team!"

The Slytherin team were ready too, Draco had given a different sort of speech. He'd told them that they were going to kick Harry Potter's arse and prove that just because he was a war hero he wasn't invincible on the Quidditch pitch.

When the two teams made their way onto the pitch the line-up would have been funny if the situation wasn't so tense. The two captains facing each other with glares were none other than Harry and Draco. Next to them were the chasers. Directly across from Ginny was Daphne. Natalie McDonald and Dennis Creevey faced Sadie and Tracey. Further down the beaters were an amusing sight. Dean and Neville faced their Slytherin twins; Blaise and Theo. Harry hadn't really noticed the resemblance until now. Ron on the other hand faced the scrawny 7th year Keeper.

Harry couldn't help but smile as Madam Hooch narrowed her eyes at the two teams and said, "Now I want a nice fair game, from all of you."

Those were the same words she had spoken in his first ever Quidditch game against Slytherin. It was fitting since this would be his last one.

Harry and Draco's eyes met and they both narrowed their eyes at each other and nodded curtly. The team all mounted their brooms and then Madam Hooch and all 14 players sped off from the ground. Madam Hooch blew loudly on her whistle to signify the beginning of the game. The box on the ground was opened and the balls were released. The quaffle was thrown up into the air and it was taken immediately by Ginny, Harry grinned because it was a great start.

Ginny sped up the pitch with the quaffle, she threw it over the heads of Sadie and Tracey to Dennis who caught it and threw it under arm to Natalie who was hovering underneath the goalposts. The moment she caught the quaffle she sped up and turned at breakneck speed throwing the quaffle as she spun around. It soared the short distance to the goalposts and Harper dived to catch it but missed.

"Gryffindor score!" Hermione called happily from her spot next to McGonagall, she'd been allowed to commentate this year after Luna's disastrous commentary in the past. Hermione had cast sonorous on herself for the job. Luna still played a part in the game though, McGonagall had authorised music in Quidditch games and had put Luna in charge of it. Despite being raised by a Wizard Father Luna was very into Muggle music and gadgets.

As Hermione announced the score a song blared out from the newly installed magical speakers positioned around the pitch_, "Three lions on a shirt! No more years of hurt, no more need for dreaming!"_

Harry laughed loudly from his spot high up looking for the snitch. It was the England song for the football world cup that year, it had captured the Muggle world by storm and apparently even the Wizarding world too because a lot of the crowd seemed to know the words. Although, the words were slightly different.

"_It's coming home; it's coming home, its coming. Quidditch is coming home!"_

Most of the Slytherins didn't get the funny side to it but they were annoyed that Gryffindor had made the first goal of the day and they upped their game.

Natalie threw the quaffle to Ginny but Daphne sped in-between them and caught it, throwing it with great precision into Sadie's arms. Daphne flew up the pitch and she and Sadie passed the quaffle between each other a few times until eventually Sadie was close enough to the Gryffindor goals to score. She threw it so that it looked like it was going to go over the post rather than through, Ron was sure it had missed and barely attempted to save it but it soared through the golden hoop and the Slytherin stands erupted with applause.

"And Slytherin score!" Hermione called out, "Which means at this early stage Gryffindor and Slytherin are tied!"

Music came out of the speakers again, this time it was the Slytherins scoring song and again, it made Harry laugh.

"_I'm bad to the bone, b-b-bad, b-b-bad, bad to the bone."_

Draco smirked at Harry and sped off to the other side of the pitch. They weren't losing yet, it was tied, there was no cause for concern at such an early stage.

"Gryffindor has the quaffle, Ginny passes to Natalie and back to Ginny and to – oh no, Tracey catches the quaffle – Slytherin in possession. She heads for the goalposts, passes to Sadie who passes to Daphne, back to Sadie and it's Daphne again and oh no she's going to – what an excellent save from the Gryffindor keeper Ron Weasley!"

Harry breathed a sigh of relief. That had been a great save from Ron.

The song that blared out of the speakers at Ron's save made Harry snort, it was a Quidditch chant and he had no idea who had recorded it.

"_Weasley is our King! He never lets the quaffle in, Weasley is our King!"_

Even Hermione was chuckling next to McGonagall in the stands but she got back to the job at hand, "Slytherin is still in possession of the quaffle, Tracey passes to Sadie, back to Tracey and now Daphne and Sadie again and – oh she's dropped the quaffle! Gryffindor in possession, Ginny is making her way up the pitch, she passes to Dennis and its Ginny again and Dennis, now it's Ginny and she's going to score, come on Gin! YES! Gryffindor score! 20-10."

The Gryffindor crowd cheered loudly and started to sing 3 Lions on a Shirt again. Harry pumped the air happily, they were no longer tied with Slytherin, they had the upper hand now.

"Gryffindor is still in possession of the quaffle! Ginny passes to Natalie and now Dennis, and now Ginny again, she's heading for the goal posts – but oh! She's hit by a well-placed bludger from Theo and she drops the quaffle!"

Another song began to play at this point, Ginny cursed and glared at Theo who grinned and hi-fived Blaise.

"_Hit me with your best shot! Why don't you hit me with best shot? Hit me with your best shot, fire away!"_

Harry was more than a little embarrassed to find himself singing along.

"Nice voice Potter," Draco called from a little way behind him. Harry steered his broom around and flew over to the Slytherin.

"Seen the snitch yet Malfoy?" Harry asked with a raised eyebrow.

"If I had I wouldn't tell you," Draco said, it felt like they'd gone back to their old rivalry, it was quite funny actually.

"You aren't going to find it before me," Harry said and his eyes glittered excitedly.

"Just you wait Potter."

Their conversation was over so they flew to opposite ends of the pitch, both searching for the snitch as they did so. Harry's attention went back to the game and in the next few minutes Gryffindor scored twice more, putting the score at 40-10. Harry was positive that they had this game in the bag.

"Oh, I think Draco's seen the snitch!" Hermione called out in excitement as Draco began to speed along the pitch with his eyes on something.

"Shit!" Harry cursed, he'd been too busy watching the game below him. He sped after Draco; it was harder to catch up with him now that Theo had bought him a firebolt but he managed. The two of them sped along next to each other with their arms reached out.

"Oooh, who is going to catch it?" Hermione was jumping up and down in her seat now with McGonagall biting her nails next to her but no one caught the snitch.

"Draco got hit in the arm with a bludger!" Hermione called out, "I hope he's okay," she added, sounding concerned. Neville had stopped Draco from getting the snitch but in the process Harry had lost it too. With a glare to Harry and Neville the Slytherin boy sped off up the pitch.

In the next 10 minutes Slytherin scored again so that the score stood at 40-20.

"Oh no! Natalie McDonald is down after a bludger to the head! What did you do that for Theo?" Hermione was getting annoyed now, she glared at Theo as he sped past the stand and shouted, "Sorry!"

At the loss of Natalie from the game another song started to play, "_Another one bites the dust! And another one, another one bites the dust."_

"Gryffindor is down to two chasers! But they still have possession, oh no, not anymore. Daphne's got the quaffle and now Tracey, Sadie, Tracey, Sadie, Tracey again and she's heading for the goalposts, come on Ron save it! No! Slytherin have scored again!"

"Yes!" Draco pumped the air, 40-30. They were catching up after an abysmal start.

Natalie McDonald was being tended to on the ground by Madam Pomfrey; Gryffindor had a real disadvantage with one chaser less than Slytherin.

"Oh no, Slytherin are still in possession and it looks like they're going to score again! Wait – Ginny has the quaffle! She passes to Dennis, back to Ginny, Dennis, Ginny, Dennis, he's going to score – but no, nice save there from Harper. Slytherin are in possession, Daphne passes to Sadie, back to Daphne and to Tracey, Sadie again, Tracey and she's going to score, come on Ron, save it! Ugh no, Slytherin score again!"

Harry cursed; Slytherin and Gryffindor were tied again. Now would be a really good time to catch the snitch. On a mission Harry darted around the pitch looking for the tiniest gleam or glitter of gold. Then he saw it…fluttering by the Hufflepuff stands but Draco had seen it too. Both boys put that extra burst of speed on as they flew as fast as they could, bumping into each other and trying to push each other out of the way.

"It's mine Potter!"

"You wish Malfoy!"

Two hands reached out and clutched at the air but only one of those hands tightened around the snitches struggling wings.

The crowd went wild with applause.

The game was over.

***

It was 4am.

_4am._

The birds began to sing at 4am because they were waking up. The sun started to rise at 4am because a new day was dawning. Normal people were supposed to be asleep at 4am, people like Minerva McGonagall who had a busy day ahead of her.

Minerva McGonagall's office was in the Headmasters tower which was entered via the gargoyle on the third floor. It was nice, it was secluded. It was away from the hustle and bustle of the main school. It was away from the noise. However, there was a balcony in the room above the office which Minerva slept in, an open air balcony. Usually it brought sweet sounds like birds singing or the wind whistling. Usually it didn't carry the noise of a party on the other side of the school.

Unfortunately, the wind had been blowing in the wrong direction on this particular Saturday night because the 8th Year party in the Eastern tower had been keeping her up all night and she had already told them to quieten down, twice.

McGonagall was a woman on a mission as she stormed towards the common room, a walk that took her almost 20 minutes because it was so far away. With hindsight she supposed that she really shouldn't have installed an open air roof above the dormitories. There were barriers of course so no one could fall off. She had thought it would be a nice idea for the summer, the Eastern tower had beautiful views over the lake and the mountains after all. She hadn't thought the students would use it as a party location, she had expected Miss. Granger to keep them all in line but then again she seemed to have been corrupted by her new Slytherin boyfriend and his friends.

As McGonagall reached the door to the 8th year common room the party was so loud that she could barely hear herself thinking. There was music blaring out of a Wizarding radio and there were shouts, whistles and screams.

"Let me in," McGonagall said angrily to the door which spoke to her in the voice of Dumbledore, "Ah Minerva, at last. I was doubting I'd get any sleep tonight."

The wooden door swung open and at first no one even noticed. It was complete chaos. Someone (her guess was Potter) had snuck out to Hogsmeade and brought back several kegs of butterbeer. There was firewhiskey doing the rounds too. In every corner of the room there were couples making out with no shame whatsoever. Longbottom was dancing on a table with the Hufflepuff girls Abbott and Bones.

"SILENCE!" McGonagall roared and immediately the laughter and the shouts died down to silence as all eyes turned to the Headmistress who was in a rage now, "I have to get up in 3 hours and work! I have to send away paperwork so you ungrateful students can sit your N.E.W.T's! I have to arrange careers meetings so you can all get jobs when you leave this school!"

If her aim was to make them all feel bad, it had worked. All heads were hanging in shame but there was always that one person who couldn't keep their mouth shut. This time that person was Theo.

"And you've got a hot date with the Minister for Magic."

McGonagall turned to stare at Theo with a gaze that looked as though it might turn the Slytherin boy to stone.

"Detention Nott, every night for the next month," McGonagall said coolly. She turned on her heel and walked to the door of the common room, "And if this party doesn't stop now you will all be joining him!"

With that she stomped from the room and for a moment after her departure the room was completely silent, as if everyone was frozen.

"She's just pissed that Slytherin won," Draco said with a grin that got the other Slytherin boys laughing.

The room was decked in Slytherin green to celebrate the win, the Gryffindors had been pissed off but after copious amounts of butterbeer and firewhiskey everyone was getting on again. The party had been wild and had been getting a bit out of control so Hermione insisted that McGonagall was right and sent everyone to bed.

***

"Ugh."

This was the first word out of Harry's mouth when he opened his eyes on Sunday morning. He felt terrible; he couldn't remember anything from around midnight the night before. He squinted against the sunlight coming in the window and flopped back down on his bed with a groan.

"Here," said an amused voice from beside him. Harry jumped as Daphne appeared next to his bed and handed him a vial of sober-up potion.

Harry sighed, "You are amazing," he said and he swallowed the entire potion in one gulp. He closed his eyes and lay back down in his bed for a moment as the potion began to spread throughout his body. He felt the aches and pains vanish and the sickness in his stomach disappear. His head felt clear again and when he opened his eyes the sunlight didn't burn.

"I know I am," Daphne said with a grin, "You told me often enough last night."

Harry chuckled as he stood up, "I don't remember much," he admitted.

"Yeah well it was a fun night," Daphne chortled, "You coming down to dinner?"

"Dinner?" Harry asked in disbelief.

"Yeah, it's 5pm Harry," Daphne said in amusement.

"Shit, no wonder I'm starving," Harry said as he got to his feet a little shakily. Once he had transfigured his clothes from the night before into fresh ones they walked through the fairly empty common room down to the great hall for dinner. The Slytherins grinned smugly at him.

"Still upset about yesterday's loss Potter?" Blaise asked with a smug grin.

Harry made a face, "Don't even get me started. I can't believe you caught the snitch Draco. I caught it like 10 times in 8 minutes at practice."

"Well clearly you're going to have to practice harder or that big shiny cup will be mine," Draco grinned.

"Ours," Theo, Blaise, Daphne, Sadie and Tracey shouted from various parts of the table.

Draco glanced at them sheepishly, "Right yes, ours."

"I don't think so Malfoy," Harry smirked, "It's going to be _mine_."

"Ours!" Ron, Dean and Neville objected.

Harry rolled his eyes, "Alright, _ours_," he agreed but he smiled anyway because the loss was annoying but it wasn't the worst thing that could have happened. After the events of the last few days and the fact Daphne was _finally _his girlfriend he could definitely tell that his 8th year was going to be a great year.

**TBC :)**


	25. Happy Birthday

The days following the eventful bonfire night passed quickly and happily for almost everyone involved. Harry hadn't been as happy as he was now since the carefree weeks he had spent with Ginny in his 6th year and Daphne was glad to break free of the chains she had shackled for herself by being afraid to fall in love. What _was _interesting was what happened in Divination on Friday afternoon. After Seamus's sudden departure a new student had joined them; Gabrielle. Trelawney's predictions had been true so far, for once. No one had died in her standard start of year prediction but maybe that was just because she was happier now that Voldemort was gone. However, Seamus _had _left and Gabrielle _had _joined them. So who was going to be injured? Probably him, Harry thought to himself. He was unlucky, especially in Quidditch matches, and he wouldn't be surprised if he ended up in the hospital wing at least one more time this year.

The class had just gotten into the room and settled down when Trelawney started her usual dramatics. She threw her hands up into the air and looked around the room with her huge bug eyes, "Ah! I sense something!" she walked around the room, stopping nearby Harry and Daphne. She pointed at the new couple and smiled, it was a strange sight but it looked like a genuine smile, "My dears, you have found young love! Wonderful!" she floated away again leaving Harry a little embarrassed and the rest of the class, Daphne included, in fits of laughter.

At the weekend the rest of the 8th years threw a party for Daphne and Harry to celebrate the fact they had finally gotten together. Harry suspected that it had been planned by Draco, Hermione, Theo, Tracey, Dean and Sadie. He also suspected that it had very little to do with himself and Daphne and that it was just an elaborate excuse for a party. All the same, Harry didn't mind. Neville had snuck to Hogsmeade for butterbeer and snacks from Honeydukes and this time Draco had indulged the others by going into his super expensive firewhiskey stash, of course it was ultra-expensive, it was _his_. The party had ended up on the roof as it tended too, even though it was still only November and it was freezing. McGonagall had turned up to tell them to shut up but they had only moved from the roof to the common room so she couldn't hear them.

Sunday had been fun because a lot of the 8th years had gone out for a friendly Quidditch game to brush up on their skills, it always helped playing with the opposition. Neither Slytherin nor Gryffindor had matches soon but Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw did. Harry and Draco joined forces to be joint seekers and created the 'Slythindor' team and Ernie and Terry did the same with the 'Ravenpuff' team. Daphne, Sadie and Tracey were the chasers for Slythindor. The keeper was Dean, and Neville and Theo were the beaters. On the Ravenpuff team the chasers were Justin, Lilly, and Michael. The beaters were Hannah and Susan and the Keeper was Zacharias Smith. It was a fun game (especially because Ron decided to referee it) and it was surprisingly close. It allowed the opposition to assess the faults and strengths of the other players for the upcoming games, it put them on a bit more of a level playing field and Harry was surprised by how good the Hufflepuff team was. The game was at 140-160 to the Ravenpuff team when Harry caught the snitch and won victory for the Slythindor team.

The week after that flew by. Harry and Daphne got more comfortable with each other as they finally managed to sneak off and get some time alone. They loved their friends but it was so hard to break away from the group at times and as a young new couple they needed time alone. The others understood and although they spent less time as a large group their friendship did not suffer in any way.

On Monday Harry and Daphne got split up in Transfiguration when Harry got distracted and transformed his squirrel into a large piece of chipped wood instead of a chipmunk. He was sent to sit next to Neville and Hannah was moved away from Neville to Harry's old seat next to Daphne. When Harry grumpily sat down next to Neville his fellow Gryffindor smirked, "I didn't think I was that bad."

Harry chuckled and said, "Sorry for getting Hannah moved away," but Neville only shook his head and said it was fine. They got back to work on their transfiguration and by the end of the lesson Harry had managed to produce a creature with the head of a squirrel and the body of a chipmunk. McGonagall shook her head, trying to hold in a smile, "Mr. Potter, thank goodness you only need an A in Transfiguration to be accepted into the Auror programme."

When Friday the 14th of November came around Harry wasn't as happy as usual, in fact he was feeling extremely down and it had everything to do with the date. If Sirius had been alive today he would have been 40 years old and that depressed Harry. He hadn't said anything about it to Daphne but he knew he was going to have to at some point. She could see right through him and she would know that something was wrong. Harry got up earlier than usual and had a look through the photographs he'd found at Grimmauld place, the ones of his Godfather with his Dad and Remus, if Peter had been in the photos Harry had cut him out, he didn't deserve a place in those happy memories after what he had done. They ranged from pictures of 12-year-old boys to 20-year-old men because their friendship had lasted that long and had been that special. After trying extremely hard not to cry Harry put the photographs away, pulled himself together, got dressed and went down to the common room. It was still earlier than most people got up so it was empty. Harry walked down to the great hall, sighing as he looked around the school, he wondered how Sirius would feel seeing it now. If Sirius could see how it had changed what would he think? Slytherins and Gryffindors were friends, dating even. He'd probably have hated it; would he have been angry at Harry for dating Daphne or would he have accepted it? In his heart Harry knew that his Godfather would have been happy as long as Harry was.

When Harry reached the great hall there was a small spattering of students but it was early on a Friday morning so he hadn't expected it to be busy. Harry was about to sit down at the empty 8th year table when Hagrid motioned for him to come over.

"Harry, I've got summat ter show yer," Hagrid said, he looked excited. He stood up and motioned for Harry to follow him. Harry was confused but curious so he grabbed some toast off of the 8th year table and followed Hagrid out of the hall. He took such long strides that Harry wasn't walking alongside him until they got out of great oak doors and into the grounds.

Harry hadn't put his cloak on and it was freezing outside, the ground had started to ice over and when he breathed it made impressions in the air. Harry shivered, "Hagrid, what is it?" he asked.

"It's a secret," Hagrid said, winking at Harry, "It's a present from Sirius."

Harry frowned, he was even more confused, Sirius had left him something? Wouldn't he have gotten it when he got everything else that Sirius left for him in his will after his death? Why now on what would have been Sirius's 40th birthday?

Harry had to jog to keep up with Hagrid as they made their way through the grounds towards Hagrid's hut, he was kind of glad because it kept him warm but he was extremely curious about what Sirius had left for him and why it had Hagrid so excited. After what felt like an age the giant and the Gryffindor reached the hut and Hagrid finally stopped. He turned to Harry and grinned through his beard, "Sirius told me if he didn't make it I was ter give it ter yeh on his 40th birthday when yeh were mature enough ter use it properly. Come on, it's round the back."

Harry's heart was beating out of his chest as he walked around the hut to the area where the pumpkin patch was. Then he saw it…gleaming in the early morning sunlight next to the pumpkin patch…

"Wow," Harry said, entranced as he made his way over to the amazing machine, "Sirius's motorbike."

Hagrid nodded, "I've had my fair use o' it. It's yers now."

Harry grinned, this was _so _cool. Hagrid seemed to revel in Harry's reaction to the bike, "Do yeh want to try it out?"

"Yes!" Harry responded immediately and he quickly climbed up onto the huge bike. Hagrid stepped forward, "This here is yer accelerator an' this is yer brake. Yeh press this button here ter start the engine and this one ter fly it. Jus' tilt the handles ter steer, alright?"

Harry nodded and Hagrid stepped back as Harry pressed the start button, the engine roared into life and Harry assumed it was the same as a plane so started to pick up speed on the ground before pressing the flight button. The bike instantly raised off the ground and got higher and higher until Harry managed to steady it out.

"Woohoo!" He yelled as he flew the bike around the grounds in circles. A small crowd had gathered outside the great oak doors to the school and Harry could see faces pressed against windows. He flew around the school, passing the Gryffindor common room where Ginny was grinning out of the window. Then he passed the 8th year common room where Draco and Neville looked on enviously. Daphne was gaping in complete shock as she watched her boyfriend on his _flying _motorbike. Harry flew the bike back around and landed by Hagrid's hut. The giant clapped with his dustbin sized hands, "Yer a natural Harry!" he praised as Harry jumped off of the bike and ran a hand through his windswept hair.

"Can I keep it?" Harry asked causing Hagrid to laugh, "Course yeh can, I'll keep it tethered up by the pumpkins fer yeh."

Harry grinned broadly and thanked Hagrid with a large bear hug before making his way back up to the school for some more breakfast.

***

Harry was only a little bit smug that Friday.

He had needed to fight through admiring crowds telling him how great he was and how cool he was but that he could handle, he had needed to do that since his defeat of Voldemort. When he finally got into the great hall he had barely eaten two bites of his bacon and egg sandwich when the others burst in and shot question after question at him.

"Where the hell did you get a flying motorbike?" Draco drawled.

"What the hell _is _a motorbike?" Theo asked excitedly.

"Bloody hell Harry; is that Sirius's old bike?" Ron asked eagerly.

"How on earth could you fly that thing with no training? You could have crashed!"

"Can I have a ride?" Daphne smirked.

Harry stopped for a moment and addressed them all one by one, "Draco, it was my Godfathers so yes Ron, it is Sirius's old bike. And Theo; a motorbike is a Muggle way of getting around like a car."

"No wonder you got 'troll' in Muggle studies," Sadie mumbled, getting a glare from her boyfriend, "Oi, just cause you got straight O's in everything, geek."

"The only person to ever get an O in Muggle Studies," Tracey laughed, causing Hermione to blush and mutter that she got an O too.

"I didn't get straight O's anyway," Sadie piped up, defending herself, "I got an A in DADA and an E in Transfiguration."

Harry shook off the couple bickering and turned to Hermione, "Are you sure it's safe?" she asked anxiously.

"Hagrid showed me how to use it but it's easy anyway," Harry said as he glanced at Daphne and added, "And of course you can have a ride, by the way."

Daphne smirked at this; she was such a thrill seeker.

"I'm so jealous mate," Neville said, shaking his head, "I'd love a flying motorbike."

"Me too," Draco admitted with a look of longing in his eyes.

Theo made a face, "I wouldn't, it's just a rubbish Muggle version of a broomstick!"

"Are you kidding Theo? I'd love a flying motorbike, it would be bloody wicked!" Ron exclaimed.

"Until you fell to your death then it would just be bloody," Lilly said with a raised eyebrow.

"And Neville you'd be a disaster on a flying bike!" Hannah exclaimed, "Look how much damage you did to yourself when you fell off a _broom _in 1st year!"

Draco sniggered and Hermione raised an eyebrow at her boyfriend, "I don't know why you're laughing Draco. You know _nothing _about Muggles, how the hell do you think you would be able to ride one of those?"

"I could learn!" Draco objected.

Theo snorted, "I bet I could learn to ride one."

"You just said it was stupid," Sadie said in amusement.

"Yeah well it is compared to a broom but it would _look _cool," Theo conceded.

Sadie rolled her eyes, "You'd kill yourself on one of those things Theo," she said matter of factly.

Over breakfast the others continued to pelt questions at him about the bike and what it could do and how Sirius had gotten it and why he had it now. Harry happily answered all of their questions, he had a plan brewing but he couldn't implement it straight away. The day passed agonisingly slowly but eventually lunch time came and Harry snuck off, the others noticed he wasn't around but didn't think too much of it. He appeared back at Hogwarts for Divination but he was 5 minutes late. No more was said on the subject.

***

Friday came and went and on Saturday morning Ron was rudely awakened by Harry shaking him. He groaned and covered his face with a pillow.

"Come on Ron its 10am, I gave you plenty of sleep."

"What is it?" Ron mumbled; his voice muffled through the pillow.

"I want to show you my new bike; you can even have a ride if you want."

This got Ron moving and Neville smirked at Harry, "You were right that did wake him up."

Harry laughed, he had already woken Neville up for the same reason, "Told you," he grinned.

"Really?" Ron asked eagerly as he emerged from his bedsheets.

Harry nodded and grinned, "I'm going to go wake Draco so get dressed."

Ron jumped out of bed at top speed and Harry and Neville made their way out of the dorm room and up to the very top of the staircase to the room Draco shared with Theo and Blaise.

"Wait here, I'm going to go in and wake him up," Harry said in amusement to Neville.

"Good luck with that, apparently he sleeps with his wand under his pillow," Neville smirked.

Harry didn't seem concerned about this as he tiptoed across the room to Draco's bed and poked the boy in the ribs.

"What the...Harry!" Draco was startled when he saw the grinning Gryffindor standing over his bed bouncing up and down on the balls of his feet.

"Morning Draco," Harry said brightly.

Draco glanced at the time and asked, "What the hell are you doing in my room?"

"Waking you up. Ron, Nev and I are going to the grounds to have another look at my bike, I said they can have a go, you can too if you want to come."

Just like with Ron these words seemed to magically awaken Draco who was out of bed quicker than Harry could say, "Cool." Harry made his way down to the common room, grinning like a Cheshire cat as he awaited his friends. It didn't take long for Ron and Draco to appear. When they did Harry led them and Neville down to Hagrid's hut where Fang was snoring loudly on the doorstep.

"Okay, now, I want you guys to know that you are my best friends so don't feel bad about this," Harry said, leading them around the hut to where not one, not two, not three, but four motorbikes were tethered up by the pumpkin patch.

"Holy Mother of Merlin..."

"Sweet Salazar..."

"Merlin's hairy bloody ball sack!"

Harry grinned as the three boys walked towards their new bikes in complete awe, Harry would have felt lonely without anyone to accompany him when he was out flying his new bike. Plus, he knew how much his friends wanted their own and he _was _a teenage millionaire. If he ever ran short on cash he just had to give an interview or let someone write a book about him.

The bike Harry had picked out for Ron was Gryffindor red with black wheels and a black seat. Neville's was very similar to Ron's, but it was red and white rather than red and black. Draco's was much more elaborate than the others which were made for cruising and long distance rather than speed but Harry felt it matched the Slytherins personality. The smooth bike was black with hints of green when the light shone a certain way, even the black tires were tinted with Slytherin green, it was a racing bike but Harry thought Draco would have fun with it. All of the bikes were modified in the classic style of Harrys, with a start button and a flight button. You locked your bike by placing your wand in a small hole next to the start button, they were all set to the boy’s wands, it was clever.

"I bloody love you mate!" Ron grinned, "I mean I actually _bloody _love you! This is the coolest thing ever! Mum is going to go bloody mental though..."

"Harry, you are _amazing_, I can't believe we didn't become friend’s sooner. How did I not know how _cool _you are?" Draco asked, jumping on the bike to get a feel for it.

Neville was a little more reserved, "Harry, this must have cost so much...you shouldn't have."

Harry shook his head, "I wanted to Nev but if it bothers you that much I'll take it back for you."

"No!" Neville blurted out, "I mean, uh, thanks Harry," he climbed up onto the bike and like Draco got a feel for it.

Harry grinned and jumped on his bike, "So, where are we going?"

"First of all," Neville said, waving his wand a few times, "We make sure we're geared up."

Instantly the 4 boys were kitted out in biker jackets with pads at the shoulders and elbows. Amongst the 'gear' were pads for the knees and shins.

Harry said, "Oh, I almost forgot," he jumped of his bike and made his way over to a small box outside Hagrid's hut. He pulled out 4 biker helmets from it and handed them to his friends.

Ron and Neville's helmets were red like their bikes, Ron's had gold throughout it and Neville's had white, both also had a transparent visor. Next Harry threw Draco his helmet which was as smooth and elaborate as his bike. It had several different shades of green throughout. He put the helmet on reluctantly complaining that he was a Malfoy and Malfoys didn't need protection. Lastly Harry placed his own helmet on his head, in his opinion he had the best one, it was black to match his bike and it was so shiny it gleamed. Unlike the others he had a black visor that he could see out of but others couldn't see into. He grinned and turned to the others as he climbed on the bike, "Let's test these babies out," he said, pulling his visor down and taking the lead. Once he was up in the air he realised that Ron, Neville and Draco weren't far behind him.

Draco decided to try out the speed of his new racing bike and shot ahead of the others with a rather girlish scream. When Harry, Ron and Neville caught up with him Draco had slowed down using the excuse that he 'didn't want to get too far ahead' of his friends. They spent a few hours flying around the grounds and the surrounding mountains and when they got back to school around 1pm, they were all starving.

***

"You bought all of them bikes, just like that?"

Harry rolled his eyes, "Whats the pobwum Hamione, I can awword it."

Hermione made a face at her friend as he talked through a large mouthful of food, “That's not the point Harry.”

"It kind of _is _the point Hermione," Draco said, smirking at Harry but the smirk disappeared upon Hermione's glare, "Draco, I know you're used to getting everything handed to you on a silver platter but you better think again, life isn't always going to be that kind."

Draco made a face at his girlfriend, "I am not used to getting everything I want, you make me sound like a spoiled little brat."

There was an echo around the table of, "You _are _a spoiled brat."

Draco just rolled his eyes, "Whatever."

"If you get my boyfriend killed with that death machine I expect life insurance for him to be paid to me," Lilly pitched in matter of factly.

"I think that's a fair deal," Harry joked.

Lilly grinned, "10 Galleons a day."

"Oi is that all I'm worth?" Ron joked.

"It's the only way you'll get money out of Weasley, through his death," Draco retorted.

"Oh shove off Malfoy," Ron complained half-heartedly.

"I do agree with Lilly though," Hannah said quietly, "Not about the life insurance I think that's a little excessive-"

Lilly laughed, "It was a joke Hannah."

"Oh," Hannah realised with a blush, "Right well the thing is Harry. I don't want this thing to get Neville killed."

"I'll be fine Han," Neville assured her, "This isn't 1st year me, this is 8th year me. I've beheaded snakes since then."

"It was only the one snake, actually,” Lilly retorted.

Neville scoffed, “It was still pretty cool though.”

“Yes but that doesn't actually mean you won't fall to your death on a flying motorbike," Lilly pointed out.

Dean grinned, "Yeah, I fail to see a connection between giant snakes and flying motorbikes mate."

Harry snorted in amusement and said to the girls in their group, "But anyway, what are you girls doing today?"

"Library," They echoed.

Hannah elaborated, "We have that new project from McGonagall to finish by Monday."

The boys sniggered and were glared at by the girls in return. McGonagall had issued the girls with a task; they were to write up an essay all about the responsibilities of motherhood as a way to reduce the amount of teen pregnancies. It was amusing to the boys because they didn't have to do it.

"You do realise _you _all have to do an essay next week about the responsibilities of fatherhood and the pitfalls of the contraception charm, right?" Hermione asked them with a raised eyebrow.

Their faces fell, "Really?" Draco asked in disbelief.

Daphne smirked, "Not so funny now, is it boys?"

***

"Do you think we should do something tonight with the girls?" Neville asked, thinking about Hannah's reaction when she saw his new bike.

"Yeah, why not." Harry said and Draco nodded his agreement, "Although I think we should keep it a surprise, otherwise Hermione would _never _agree to it."

"Deal."

"Daphne?"

"Yes, Harry?"

Harry was smirking and that was never a good sign, "Do you want to sneak out? There’s something we want to show you."

Draco, Ron and Neville were standing behind him looking suspicious. Daphne stood up, her arms crossed and her eyes narrowed, "What's going on?"

From behind her Hermione stood up and assumed the same pose, "Why do you lot look so shifty?"

"Yeah have you murdered someone or something?" Lilly asked, popping up from nowhere.

Hannah appeared from the other side of Daphne, looking at them curiously, "Okay, is it a surprise?"

Neville grinned, Hannah loved surprises, he nodded, "It's a surprise but we have to sneak out first."

"Harry, you have had a bad influence on him," Hermione said, she was amused but she shook her head all the same.

"So, will you come?" Harry asked the four girls.

Daphne of course just shrugged and said, "Sure," and Lilly agreed easily. Hannah reluctantly and cautiously said yes but Hermione wasn't as easily convinced.

"Tell me what you're doing first," Hermione said.

Draco grinned, "But love, then it wouldn't be a surprise," he mocked.

Hermione scowled and Harry said, "Oh come on Hermione, I promise it will be fun."

Hermione sighed and then reluctantly said, "Oh, _fine_!"

Mission accomplished.

"Some of us should go under my invisibility cloak," Harry added in an undertone so that the rest of the people in the common room wouldn't hear, "I mean we could probably fit 3 of us under there and 3 people sneaking out looks less suspicious than 8."

"I agree," Hermione said, "But who goes under the cloak?"

"I will but you, Ron and Neville shouldn't," Harry said, "Because if McGonagall saw us 4 together she'd know something was up."

"Yeah and let's face it me and you under that cloak these days is a struggle ever since I had my growth spurt and you didn't," Ron teased.

Harry laughed, "That's true," he agreed as he glanced at Hermione, "So are you happy being out of the cloak too then?"

Hermione nodded but she didn't look happy to be one of the ones to get caught if someone saw them. Neville didn't seem too bothered and Hannah piped up, "I'll stay with Neville, Ron and Hermione."

Lilly nodded too, "And I'll stick with Ron."

"Well its settled then, I'll go under the cloak with Draco and Daph," Harry said, realising how awkward that could be considering how close you had to stand together with 3 under the cloak and Draco was pretty tall. In reality it would have made sense to put 3 of the 4 girls under the cloak but if anyone saw a combination of Draco, Harry, Ron and Neville together they'd know for sure that they were sneaking out.

The group grabbed new clothes and put them in Hermione's magic bag to get changed into when they reached their destination and then they made their way out of the common room and started to walk out of the castle.

Under the cloak Daphne was sandwiched between Draco and Harry who were holding one end of the Marauders map each, they had to detour twice, once to avoid Filch and Trelawney who stumbled down the corridor together, Filch with a firewhiskey bottle in hand and Trelawney with a sherry bottle. The second time was to avoid Professor Sprout who was on patrol duty that night. They got to the grounds with no issues though and they could take a breath of fresh air, literally.

Once in the grounds the problems started. The gang stopped a little way from the front doors to regroup before making their way to Hagrid's hut, unfortunately while they were muttering to each other nobody under the cloak saw McGonagall approaching them from behind on the map.

"Longbottom, Weasley! What is going on?"

Neville jumped and turned around, Hermione and Hannah were startled and Hermione looked slightly terrified. Ron and Lilly didn't seem particularly scared at the prospect of being caught.

"Oh, Professor… well, this is awkward," Ron said slowly.

McGonagall narrowed her eyes at the trio, "Why is that Weasley?"

"Well, you know Lilly and I are a couple and so are Neville and Hannah. We were just enticing Hermione to join us for a wild night down at -"

McGonagall looked shocked and her cheeks flushed pink, "I think I've heard enough Weasley! You are aware that Hogwarts students are not permitted to leave the grounds without permission; are you not?"

"Kind of," Neville cut in, "I mean the rule book states that students between 1st and 7th year are not permitted to leave the grounds without permission but as we're 8th years it doesn't apply to us so we'll see you tomorrow Professor," he smiled at McGonagall and turned around, walking towards the gates with the rest of his friends (including the invisible ones). McGonagall stood still for a moment then recovered from the shock and shook her head in exasperation as she made her way back into the castle.

As the exchange had been going on Harry and Draco had been forced to stand extremely close to Daphne under the cloak and when the coast was clear Daphne said, "That _better _be your wand Draco."

Draco frowned, and looked down, "Oh! It is," he pulled his wand out of his front pocket and Harry sniggered, "I wouldn't put it there unless you want to accidentally blow something off."

Draco looked horrified and put his wand in his jacket pocket, Daphne giggled and with the coast fairly safe they took the cloak off and hurried to catch up with the others who were waiting by Hagrid's hut.

"So, why are we out here?" Hermione asked as they all stood outside the hut.

"Oh, just a moonlight stroll," Harry said casually causing the girls to give him strange looks.

"It's 6.30, it's not even dark yet," Hermione said with narrowed eyes.

"And why would we go on a moonlight stroll with two other couples?" Daphne asked her boyfriend.

Hermione sighed, "Harry, if you plan to take us somewhere on those bikes you can think again, I am _not _getting on one of those death machines."

"You're such a muggle," Draco joked; which he got slapped for. He muttered, "Yeah, I probably deserved that."

Harry led the others around to where the bikes were and the reactions were mixed. Daphne grinned, "Cool! I cannot _wait _to ride this thing!"

Hermione glared between Harry and Draco and said there was no way in hell she was getting on it. Hannah surprised them all by running over the bike and saying, "Wow! This is a Harley Davidson!"

"Yeah, you know bikes Hannah?" Neville asked, completely shocked.

Hannah nodded, "Yeah my Dad was a biker," she said casually as she examined the bike, "But wow his bike wasn't this cool. He had a Triumph like Harry's but it was much older and it always broke down."

They were all stunned into silence for a moment and then Harry dived into the helmet box and brought out helmets for the four girls. He handed Hannah hers first, it was very similar to Neville's; the excited Hufflepuff put it on straight away. Next Harry handed Hermione a helmet, she narrowed her eyes at him, "Protected or not, we're still flying, I _hate _flying."

Draco rolled his eyes, "Aw come on baby, I'll buy you that new book you want, the one about the different uses of dragon blood."

"Draco, are you bribing me?" Hermione asked, more amused than annoyed now.

"Maybe a little," Draco admitted, "Come on, you'll enjoy it, I promise."

Hermione sighed in defeat and put the green helmet on. Harry grinned in amusement and handed a deep blue helmet to Lilly who eagerly put it on and climbed up behind Ron on his bike.

Finally, Harry placed a black helmet on Daphne's head. When they had all mounted their bikes and had their girlfriends behind them with their arms wrapped around them they were ready to go.

Hermione was the most hesitant. She came closer and closer to the bike and eventually she was close enough for Draco to grab her. He lifted her up despite her protesting squeals. She gave in and wrapped her arms tightly around Draco, "I hate you," she whispered.

Draco just grinned, "I love you too," he said, adding, "So where are we actually going?"

"Edinburgh?" Harry suggested, glancing at the air and saying, "We could get there in an hour, maybe an hour and a half if it rains."

"Sounds good to me," Draco said.

Neville nodded, "Me too but how are we going to get there?"

"A four-point spell?" Hannah suggested.

Harry nodded, looking thoughtful, "Or we could do it the muggle way and follow the train line?"

"Would that actually work?" Draco asked, sceptical of muggle technology as usual.

Harry nodded, looking at the time, "Well, Hogwarts is between Inverness and Aviemore, and the 6.45pm train just left Inverness, so if we get lost we can follow it to Edinburgh."

"How do you know so much about trains?" Daphne asked in confusion.

Hermione replied, "He got bored in the summer between 5th and 6th year so he jumped on trains all around the UK."

Harry shrugged, not particularly embarrassed about this, "I know where the railway line is and I know it will work. It was how Ron and I flew his Dads car to Hogwarts in 2nd year."

"And look how well that went," Neville said in amusement.

"I seem to recall you crashing that car into the Whomping Willow," Draco smirked.

"Well the landing didn't go to plan but that wasn't our fault," Ron objected, "And I think that car is still wild in the forest you know."

"I think the bloody thing is feral, let alone wild," Harry laughed.

"It was a good little car while it lasted," Ron reminisced fondly and Harry snorted in amusement.

They got ready to leave after that, the guys told the girls to hold on tight for the take-off. They all started at the same time, gathering speed and then lifting off into the air. Hermione screamed and kept her eyes shut tightly until they were flying at a steady speed and height. She opened them and took a deep breath.

"See! That wasn't so bad!" Draco shouted over the rush of the wind. Hermione didn't look convinced but she stayed quiet.

They made their way through the Cairngorm Mountains until a railway line appeared and surely enough there was a train there, rumbling along beneath them. They overtook it and Harry said they would be fine because he knew the line anyway. Occasionally they flew closer to the ground to check that they were on the right track. They passed Aviemore, then Kingussie, Newtonmore, Dalwhinnie, Blair Atholl, Pitlochry, Dunkeld and then they reached Perth. Harry stopped, hovering in mid-air as the others caught up.

"Whats up?" Ron shouted to his friend.

"The line splits here!" Harry yelled back, "One track will take us to Edinburgh and the other to Glasgow!"

"Which one do we follow?" Draco shouted.

"I'm not sure!" Harry said, "Hang on!" he flew to the ground, landing out of eyesight and rode the bike on the ground to the front of the station. He jumped off and ran inside. They couldn't see what was happening through the roof of the station but Harry quickly reappeared, hopped on the bike, drove it away from the station and took off again, in seconds he was by their side in the air.

"What did you do?" Hannah asked loudly over the wind.

"He asked the station guard!" Daphne called back, clearly amused by this.

Harry rolled his eyes, "Don't worry I obliviated him after! And it's that line by the way!" he informed them, pulling his visor back down and taking off. The others followed him, amused at their small pit stop.

They followed the line that Harry had said was the right one and sure enough they passed the right stops to know they were on their way to Edinburgh. They passed the small towns of Ladybank, Markinch and Kirkcaldy, then they were following the coast and passing small coastal towns and villages such as Kinghorn, Burntisland, Aberdour and Dalgety Bay.

"That's Edinburgh!" Harry said to the others after they had passed Inverkeithing and the tracks turned into the iconic Forth rail bridge. They avoided the bridge, flying high to not be seen they flew between the rail bridge and the road bridge. They followed the track again and decided to touch down near Haymarket station. They landed the bikes and got onto the road, driving the last part as not to arouse suspicion. Harry really needed to look into an invisibility booster.

They arrived in Edinburgh shortly after and parked their bikes as near to the Royal mile as they could. Once they were safely locked up they found the nearest bathroom and changed into their 'party' clothes.

"Where now?" Hermione asked as they stood in a huddle on Princes Street.

“The underground wizarding club obviously,” Harry said, surprising the others. Draco knew about it but he didn't know that Harry did. The others had no idea that there was such a thing. They followed Harry as he made his way along an alley and knocked 3 times on the door. Something scanned him and then he was asked, "I fly, I dive, I catch things when the time is not right; who am I?"

"Viktor Krum." Harry replied and the door opened, he walked in and the others followed him.

"Harry! You're back!" A small Asian wizard said; looking at the group he'd brought with him.

Harry grinned, "Hey Kimball, this is my girlfriend Daphne and my friends Draco, Hermione, Neville, Hannah, Ron and Lilly."

The man smiled, "Friends of Harry Potter are friends of mine. Free entry!" he opened a door and motioned for them to go down the stairs beyond it. Harry led the way and the others followed. They arrived in what appeared at first glance to be a standard club but when you looked closer you could see the tell-tale signs of wizards. There were two men at a table using their wands to lift up girl's skirts as they danced. There was a man at the bar talking to his pet meerkat, and it was talking back.

"This is awesome," Daphne said as she looked around.

Neville grinned, "I've got a feeling it's gonna be a good night."

"Tonight's gonna be a good, good night," Harry agreed with a smirk.

***

It was lunch time on Sunday when the group of 8 did the walk of shame into the castle. They were starving after their hour and a half flight home.

They had left the club in the early hours of the morning and crashed at Draco's Edinburgh penthouse which no one had known anything about it until that night. In the usual Malfoy style, it was grand and luxurious with a large open plan kitchen, living area and dining area. There was even a wall entirely made of glass that looked out onto the city. He and Hermione had made their way into the bedroom and the others had crashed on the sofas or on the floor.

They were all knackered as they landed, tethered the bikes up by the pumpkin patch and locked them. They trudged up to the castle and walked into the great hall just in time for lunch. They were hoping to blend in with the crowd so they wouldn't get in _too _much trouble. They'd had the sense to change out of last night's party clothes for travelling.

When the group walked through the large oak doors from the entrance hall into the great hall they were relieved. McGonagall was absent from the head table, they'd avoided being caught. Harry breathed a sigh of relief but then disaster struck. Behind them someone cleared their throat.

"Mr. Potter, I see you had a good night."

Harry turned around slowly, wincing when he saw an extremely strict looking McGonagall standing there, "Oh, Professor we-" he was about to think up an elaborate lie when Draco cut in, "Yeah, we did Professor!"

McGonagall turned her steely gaze to Draco who swallowed and dropped his grin, "I trust you understand that this is not personal and has everything to do with the fact that as Headmistress of this school I must enforce the rules. All 8 of you, heroes or not, will spend every night this week in detention with Mr Filch, cleaning the _entire_ castle."

McGonagall walked up to the head table looking quite happy with herself as the others groaned and trudged over to the 8th year table to whistles and applause.

"It was worth the detention," Draco admitted as he tucked into bacon and eggs like a starving man.

Harry laughed and Ron grinned in agreement, "Thanks for the bike mate!"

**TBC :)**


	26. Something Doesn't Add Up

The next week was hell on earth for the 8 troublemakers. By the end of the week they had cleaned the entire castle between them in spells of 4 hours every night. They had come to the decision that they were either never going to sneak out again or that if they did they were going to be much more careful about it.

Monday was a day of relief for most because the detention was finally over and they could have a social life again but it wasn't that way for everyone. Things between Dean and Tracey seemed strained; they hardly spoke to each other during breakfast and as the day went on they didn't seem as close as they usually were. When Daphne and Harry asked Tracey about it she just shrugged and said Dean didn't seem himself today. However, Tracey didn't find out what was going on until much later that day.

"Dean, do you want to talk about it?" Tracey asked him gently in the common room that night.

Dean sighed and didn’t look up, "What do you know about my parentage Tracey?"

The question threw Tracey and she frowned, "Uh, not much, just that you're a Muggle-born. You were raised by your Mother and Step-Father and that your Father left when you were young."

Dean nodded, he took a deep breath, "It was 19 years ago today that he left."

Tracey frowned, "19 years...but that would mean..."

"I never met him," Dean finished with a nod, "He left when my Mum was 7 months pregnant with me."

Tracey frowned, she wasn’t really sure what to say, “Do you know why?”

Dean shook his head. He looked up and finally made eye contact with Tracey, "I don't know much about him," he admitted, "All my Mum told me was that they were both 18, they met in April of 1979 and I was conceived in May, I was an accident but they agreed they wanted a baby. It was a whirlwind romance but she really thought it was love. Then he started to disappear at night and make up excuses and he stopped sleeping in the same bed as my Mum and slept downstairs. She thought he was cheating on her because he was acting so strange. Then one night he said he needed to leave to keep her and me safe and she never saw him again."

Tracey’s frown deepened as Dean’s story continued; it was sad but it also didn't quite add up. She had grown up with Death Eaters so she knew the signs: the sneaking out in the middle of the night for the secret meetings, being afraid to be intimate because of fear of your other half seeing the dark mark. It sounded very similar to her story but Dean thought he was Muggle-born...

"Did your Mother ever tell you his name?"

Dean nodded, "She said he was called Reginald Blacklaw, but everyone just called him Reg. I knew he was born in 1961 but I couldn’t find any information about him in the census because my Mum didn’t know any more than that."

Dean’s words had made Tracey even more uneasy but she didn't let on. Instead she smiled at Dean and said, "Well your Step-Father was always there for you so at least you had some kind of Father figure. Mine was a Death Eater who was never around and my Mother didn't like children, I was raised by nannies."

Dean nodded thoughtfully, "Thanks Tracey, you always make me appreciate the little things in life," he said as he leaned over, kissed her lightly on the lips and said goodnight.

Tracey smiled and bid him goodnight but she knew it was going to be an uneasy night. Everything Dean had told her was swirling through her head and something just didn’t seem right.

***

The next day Tracey decided that she needed to corner Daphne. The annoying thing was that it shouldn’t have been a hard thing to do, given that Daphne was supposed to be her best friend. Lately though Tracey had been finding it hard to talk to Daphne without Harry also being around. She was happy that Daphne had finally found happiness with someone but she missed her best friend too. In Herbology they were paired up and ended up on opposite sides of the classroom but they both had a free period after Herbology so Tracey hurried to catch up with Daphne after class and found her walking with, surprise surprise, Harry.

"Daph, can we talk?" Tracey asked as she fell in line with them.

"Sure, walk with us," Daphne smiled.

Tracey sighed, "I meant in private Daph...no offence Harry."

"None taken," Harry said with a smile.

Daphne smiled at her friend, "Of course we can Trace. I'll see you during break Harry," she said, she kissed him goodbye as he made his way to the library.

Daphne then turned to Tracey and asked, "Do you want to go up to the common room?"

Tracey nodded and the girls made their way throughout the school talking about mundane things like classes and homework. When they finally reached the common room they sat down in a couple of comfy armchairs and Daphne asked, "What’s up Trace?”

"Us," Tracey sighed, "We used to be as close as sisters Daph. Now look at us, I can't remember the last time we hung out just the two of us. I'm happy for you and Harry but you spend all of your time with him. You spend so much time with Harry and the others and the thing is…I just feel left out because Dean isn’t as big a part of the group as the others."

Daphne really seemed shocked at this, Tracey knew she hadn't been shutting her out on purpose but she'd gotten so caught up in her new romance that she hadn't noticed what she was doing, "Tracey, Merlin...I'm so sorry. I never wanted to push you away, I swear I'll do whatever I can to make you and Dean a bigger part of the group, I'm so so sorry."

She walked over to the armchair and squeezed in next to Tracey to give her a proper hug. Tracey smiled, she knew she could always count on Daphne to be there, even if she needed to give her a bit of a kick before she realised it.

"So how are things with you and Dean?" Daphne asked as she snuggled into her friend.

Tracey could have lied but she was always honest with Daphne so she told her the truth, "Well, yesterday it was 19 years to the day his Father left and something just doesn't add up."

Daphne was curious now; she sat up properly to look at Tracey, "Okay?"

Tracey continued, "His parents met in April 1979 when they were both 18, he was born at the start of February 1980, and his Father left in November 1979 when his Mother was 7 months pregnant."

"Was his Father magical?" Daphne asked. Tracey could see the cogs in her head whirring.

"He doesn't know, if he was he never told Deans Mother. The thing is, it gets weirder because Deans Dad started to sneak out at night and get jumpy, he stopped sleeping in the same bed as Deans Mother," Tracey said, she watched Daphne's face as she came to the same conclusion that she had.

"That sounds very much like a Death Eater who doesn't want his spouse to know what he's up to..." Daphne said with a frown.

Tracey nodded, "That's exactly what I thought and it gets weirder, his Father went by the name of Reginald Blacklaw."

Daphne’s jaw dropped, "Is it just me or does that sound very similar to Regulus Black?"

"It's not just you," Tracey said, she was glad that she and Daphne could still bounce ideas off of each other so easily. Now that someone else agreed with her theory Tracey was no longer doubting her own sanity.

"Wow, I mean, whoa, should we tell Dean?" Daphne asked.

Tracey quickly shook her head, "No, not yet. We need proof first."

Daphne’s frown deepened as she asked, “How are we going to get that?”

"Your boyfriend," Tracey realised with a jolt, "I mean his Godfather was Regulus's brother right? Shouldn't we see what he knows?"

Daphne nodded and got to her feet, "He's in the library, I'll go do some recon."

Tracey laughed and stood up too, "While you're doing that I'll see if I can find a way to prove that Regulus is Dean's Father."

The two girls joked about being on a mission as they walked to the library together to get some answers. Once they reached the door they split up, Tracey went to the research section at the back and Daphne made her way over to Harry who was sitting alone at a small table in a quiet corner of the library.

"Hey," Daphne greeted him as she sat down.

Harry looked up and smiled, "Hey, what was that about?"

Daphne shrugged, "Tracey and I grew up like sisters but lately I've been neglecting her, ever since I got together with you and became friends with Hermione. I promised to integrate her and Dean into the group more but does it make me a bad person that I didn't even realise I was pushing my closest friend away?"

Harry shook his head, "Of course it doesn't Daph, you're growing up and in that process you'll make mistakes. Your friendship circle has gotten bigger but that doesn't mean you and Tracey's friendship is any less important, just because you don't spend every minute of your day with someone doesn't mean you love them any less. Take Ron and me, we don't spend half as much time together as we used to, but it's not as bad as 6th year when he was always off snogging Lavender. The point is that our friendship doesn't change, regardless of how often we see each other."

Daphne smiled slightly, "You're right Harry, thanks."

Harry chuckled, "No problem."

"I do need to talk to you about something though," Daphne said; her voice took on a much more serious tone with those words.

“Go ahead," Harry said as he put his quill down and shut the book he was reading.

Daphne sighed and began to tell the story, "Tracey thinks Deans Father might be Regulus Black. All Dean knows is that his parents met when they were both 18 in April 1979 and that his Father left in November 1979 when his Mother was 7 months pregnant. Apparently during the last few months, he snuck out at night and was jumpy, he also didn't sleep in the same bed as Deans Mother. It all screams Death Eater trying to hide his identity to me and Dean's Father went by the name Reginald Blacklaw."

Once Daphne had finished there was silence for a moment, apart from the scratching of quills and the flicking of book pages.

"That does sound very like Regulus," Harry agreed, "He was a Death Eater but he actually turned against Voldemort and started the mission I finished, the mission to destroy all of Voldemort’s horcruxes. He stole a horcrux in November 1979 but couldn't destroy it and was killed in the process by Inferi."

"So it's not a coincidence?" Daphne asked with wide eyes.

"I doubt it," Harry said as he tried to process all of this information, "There are too many similarities between Reginald Blacklaw and Regulus Black."

"So," Daphne said slowly, she waved Tracey over, "What do we do?"

"Tell Dean," Harry said immediately.

Daphne was about to say that it wasn't that easy when Tracey slid into a seat next to her and said, "I think I've found a way to get proof before we talk to Dean."

Daphne and Harry shared a glance then Harry asked what her proof was. Tracey smiled a little, she looked rather proud of herself, "Whenever a Witch or Wizard is born they are registered in a magical book here at Hogwarts and a letter is automatically sent when the book detects their 11th birthday approaching. Like most things magical it sees through all disguises so it will show Deans date of birth, his blood-status and it will list the name of his magical parent or parents."

"That's genius," Harry said in amazement.

Daphne nodded eagerly but then they Harry realised there was something Tracey had not told him, "How do we get access to this book?"

Daphne and Tracey shared a look that Harry didn't quite like the look of.

"It's in the restricted section."

"I have an invisibility cloak, that will be-"

"- in a locked room-"

"- protected by 10 different enchantments-"

"- and sealed with 17 different locking charms."

Harry gaped at them for a moment, "Seriously?"

Tracey grinned, "Nah, it's in that little room off of the great hall."

Harry rolled his eyes but laughed, "You nearly had me there."

The two girls laughed but Daphne then said, "We will need McGonagall's permission to see it though."

"And you two aren't her favourite people right now so I guess I should be the one to sweetly ask her," Tracey pointed out; McGonagall was still pissed off at Harry and the others for sneaking out before.

"Good luck!" Daphne and Harry called as Tracey walked out of the library with determination in her strides.

***

When Tracey approached the Headmistress at her desk in the circular room at the top of the Headmasters tower she used every skill her Mother had taught her in how to succeed in business. She greeted McGonagall with a polite smile and a handshake and took her seat opposite the woman.

"What can I do for you Miss Davis?" McGonagall asked politely.

Tracey put on another sweet smile, "I'm not sure whether or not you are aware but Dean and I have been dating since our return to school. I recently discovered something about his Father, I believe he was a Wizard by the name of Regulus Black and I'd really like to be able to prove this before telling Dean."

McGonagall frowned and asked Tracey to elaborate so she told the Headmistress exactly what she had told Harry and Daphne. McGonagall nodded and listened intently to the tale, she seemed intrigued by it and when Tracey was finished she remarked, "Yes, it does seem very likely that the younger Black sibling was Mr Thomas's Father."

"I have a theory, to prove it," Tracey said as she tried not to sound too eager, "But I need your help."

McGonagall gave the Slytherin a small smile, "You may view the book, come with me."

Tracey was surprised by how easy it had been but she didn’t complain as she accompanied McGonagall through the school. They walked in comfortable silence through the empty corridors, most people were in class, Dean included. When they reached the great hall McGonagall placed her hand on the doors to unlock them as the hall was always kept locked during classes. As she walked through the hall with the Headmistress Tracey was stunned, she had never seen it so quiet and empty, it made it seem so much bigger and the walk from one end to the other seemed to take forever.

When they reached the door at the other end of the hall McGonagall took out a set of keys and searched through them for a moment before unlocking the door and leading Tracey into the room. She had never seen it before but it seemed to be used for storage now, it looked like it had once been a grand lounge at some point. There were portraits on the walls and boxes lying around the place that obviously hadn't been cleared since the battle.

McGonagall saw Tracey looking at the boxes and she frowned for a moment as her eyes fell on them, "These boxes contain the possessions of students who died in the battle of Hogwarts, if they had family they took them but some of these children were the last of their families."

A lump caught in Tracey's throat, she swallowed it and McGonagall got a little glassy eyed but she turned away to hide it. She walked over to a book on a golden stand, it was shining a little and it was protected by a magical barrier that looked like glass but sparkled in a way that glass didn't. McGonagall performed a few spells and then said in a loud clear voice, "Dean Thomas."

Tracey edged towards the book and frowned as the pages seemed to sparkle and light up, then a strange voice said, "No student by the name of Dean Thomas, apologies Headmistress."

McGonagall tried again, "Dean Black."

Immediately the book came to life and the pages magically flew open then settled. McGonagall searched the entries and at the same time she and Tracey spotted Deans entry. It read, "Dean Black: half-blood. Mother: Ella Danfield. Father: Regulus Arcturus Black."

"So, I was right," Tracey breathed, suspecting it had been one thing but then to actually see the proof with her own eyes was something entirely different. For the first time she began to worry about breaking this news to Dean.

"Would you like a copy of the entry?" McGonagall asked kindly.

Tracey replied, "Yes, please."

She took out her wand again and mumbled a spell; it was extraordinary what happened next. The words on the page seemed to lift off and were sucked into McGonagall's wand. Then a small piece of parchment appeared at the tip of her wand and got larger until it was a scroll. She opened it and showed Tracey the copy, the Slytherin was amazed but grateful as she hurried off to find Daphne and Harry; they had their proof, now they just needed to figure out how to tell Dean.

***

When the others had left the common room Harry, Daphne and Tracey tentatively approached Dean as he sat reading a book full of chess tips. He looked up at their anxious faces as they stood around him and joked, "Who died?"

They shared uneasy looks and sat down, Tracey next to Dean on the sofa and Harry and Daphne in nearby armchairs.

"We know something about your Father."

Dean frowned and put his book down, "What do you mean?"

"He was a wizard," Tracey chose her words carefully.

"Really?" Dean asked, his eyes were wide and hopeful but then he realised what his girlfriend had said, "Wait, what do you mean _was_?"

"He died in 1979," Harry said in an attempt to break the news gently, "A few days after he left your Mum."

Dean seemed to be struggling to process this but there was so much more to come, "So he's been dead all these years, that's why he's never come looking for me."

Daphne nodded, "Dean, your Father died to save you and your Mother...from Voldemort."

There were so many questions in Dean's eyes and the others could see he needed an explanation. Harry took the lead because he knew the most about the story and the man, "He was a Death Eater and he came from a family that were very particular about what should be done to muggles and muggle-borns. He was the favourite son out of two, he had been a Slytherin like his parents had wanted and his brother had become a Gryffindor and got himself disowned. He fell in love with your Mum and from what I gather kept it a secret. His Father was already dead by this time and his Mother was going insane. He decided all of a sudden to go against his Master and try to destroy him, I had no idea what could have pushed him to do that but I think it was the fact your Mum was pregnant."

"My Father was a Death Eater?" Dean asked in disgust.

Tracey sighed, "Dean, he was a good man, he changed. Daphne and I grew up with bad men who never changed and they are the kind of people you should be ashamed of. You should be proud of your Father."

Before a fight could break out Harry spoke up again, "I'm sure by now you've read all about the horcruxes?"

Dean nodded and Harry continued, "Well I destroyed most of them but your Dad stole one but couldn't destroy it. Voldemort needed a house elf and asked your Dad for his, he took the house elf to test the defences on his horcrux. Your Dad then returned to the place with the elf and to get to the horcrux he needed to drink a potion that made him insane, he ordered the elf to go back to his home, with or without him and he was dragged into a lake by Inferi and killed."

There were tears in Dean's eyes as Harry reached the climax of the tale. There was silence around the group for a little while as Dean wiped his eyes and tried to steady his breathing, "Who was he?"

"He was called Regulus Black," Daphne informed Dean, Harry added, "He was the brother of my Godfather Sirius."

Dean shook his head in disbelief, it was so much to take in, all in one night, he couldn't believe it, "So he was a good Death Eater, like Snape?"

The other 3 nodded, towards the end of his life Regulus had been a good person. All of a sudden Harry had an idea and clicked his fingers. In an instant Kreacher appeared and bowed to Harry, "Master Harry," he greeted.

Harry smiled at the house-elf, "Kreacher, I want you to meet someone," he said, "This is Dean, his Father was Regulus."

Kreacher raised his head to look at Dean with watery eyes. Kreacher then bowed extremely low to Dean, "Kreacher is at your service Master Dean."

Harry chuckled, "Technically he's your house-elf; I guess the house is kind of yours to, but Sirius left it to me in his will and Draco is supposed to be becoming the heir to the Black house but you have a better claim-"

Dean shook his head and smiled, "I don't want it, I don't want any of it. Let Draco be the heir and keep your house elf Harry. As great as it is to finally have closure, my Dad will always be the man who raised me, my Step-Dad Daniel."

"I understand that," Harry said smiling at Dean who seemed to be brightening up now. Kreacher bowed once more to Dean then Harry and vanished back to the kitchens.

"I'm going to head to bed… this has just overwhelmed me," Dean admitted, "But thank you for doing this for me," he said as he headed up the staircase towards his dorm room. Back in the common room Harry, Daphne and Tracey could breathe a sigh of relief. They felt like they had done the right thing by giving Dean the closure that he needed.

***

Ron had been acting shifty and he seemed to think that nobody had noticed but his friends knew him better than he thought.

"What's gotten into Ron these last couple of days?" Hermione asked Harry in a whisper during Charms.

"I don't know," Harry whispered back, "But he's been acting jumpy."

"He does that when he's hiding something," Hermione pointed out.

"I know he does," Harry said. He narrowed his eyes at the back of Ron's head, "I think we should corner him tonight in the common room."

"Under threat of Veritaserum," Hermione joked.

Harry shot his best friend a grin, "Nice touch, I like it."

Hermione laughed, “I _was _joking," she whispered as Flitwick began to walk over to their table. They fell back into silence but their plan had been hatched.

The common room emptied fairly quickly that night and when it was sufficiently empty Harry and Hermione promptly sat down on either side of Ron on the sofa.

"What's going on Ron?" Harry asked calmly.

"Yeah Ron, what are you hiding?" Hermione agreed.

Ron's eyes went shifty again, "Hiding? I'm hiding nothing, are you two bloody mad?"

"Ron, you're our best mate," Harry said in disbelief, "We _know _your hiding something so you might as well cut to the chase and tell us."

"Or we'll have to use the veritaserum we stole from the potions store cupboard," Hermione added.

Ron paled slightly, "Nah don't do that. It's just...well don't get mad alright?"

"That's never a good start to a sentence with you," Harry said cautiously.

Ron sighed, "I've been offered a job, alright? And I don't know whether I should take it or not."

"You mean quit school?" Hermione frowned.

"As shocking an idea as that may seem to you Hermione, yeah," Ron said bluntly, "I mean it's a really good job."

"What is the job?" Harry asked curiously.

"Manager of the Hogsmeade branch of Weasley's Wizard Wheezes," Ron said and excitement crept into his voice, "It's opening for the December Hogsmeade visit and George wants me to start pretty much immediately so we can stock the store and get the promotional stuff out there. I mean, how can I turn down a job at that level when I’m only 18?"

"You can't," Harry said eagerly, "That's a brilliant job Ron! I mean you'd be perfect at it, you'd love it."

"I know!" Ron said excitedly.

"But what about your N.E.W.T.'s?" Hermione asked in disbelief, "What about Auror training?"

"If I really wanted to do it I could," Ron shrugged, "I don't need N.E.W.T's. They said they would take on anyone who fought in the war. Harry's just getting his N.E.W.T's to prove himself."

"Exactly," Harry laughed, “And to have a bit of a year off.”

"I get that,” Ron said with a smile, “But the thing is, I don't want any more fighting, not really. I've never been sure if I wanted to do Auror training but I do _really _want to take this job.”

"Take it then, if it's what you want," Hermione said after a moment of silence.

Harry nodded, "It's a great opportunity and it's not like you'd be far away is it? We'd see you all of the time, we could even sneak you in for the odd party through Honeydukes."

"Sounds wicked," Ron grinned.

"If a little unethical," Hermione said sternly but her smile gave her away.

Ron laughed, "Right well I'm glad you're both alright with it. I suppose I better get packing."

"I suppose you should," Hermione agreed as she got to her feet, "Don’t go without saying goodbye though, okay?”

"Alright, night Hermione," Ron said.

Harry nodded, "Yeah night Hermione."

When she was gone Harry and Ron made their way up to the dorm where their other dorm mates were asleep. As Harry lay in his bed and Ron quietly packed he asked his friend, "What does Lilly think about the whole thing?"

"She's a bit sad that I'm leaving," Ron said honestly, "But she also said she wanted a grounded, hardworking boyfriend and that she couldn't deny I was that."

Harry chuckled, "Well it will be easy enough for you to see her at weekends so I suppose it's not that bad."

"It's hardly long-distance," Ron added in amusement.

"I'll be a bit sad to see you go too mate," Harry admitted, "This dormitory is getting quieter by the month..."

"Yeah but you've got Nev and Dean, not to mention the Slytherins," Ron said with a shrug, "And don't get me wrong I can get along with them well enough but I'm never going to be best mates with Malfoy like you."

"I know," Harry said, "And I get that. But that's not why you're leaving is it?"

"Nah, I mean maybe a part of it is that a lot has changed around here," Ron said, "But I can't turn down a job offer like this, it's never going to come again you know? Maybe I could be Manager at a later time but opening up a brand new store as Manager is just wicked."

"Yeah, it is," Harry agreed as he smiled at his best friend, "I'm really proud of you mate, and happy for you."

Ron returned Harry's smile at that, "Thanks Harry, that means a lot," he said genuinely.

**TBC :)**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is slightly AU. I know Deans Dad left when he was young, but in this fic he left before he was born to make the canon dates work.


	27. The Failed Romantics

"Okay you're right, this _is _pretty," Daphne remarked with a slight smile, "But what's your agenda?"

"Why do you always assume I have an agenda?" Harry asked the blonde girl in amusement.

"Because what kind of guy brings his girlfriend to a secret room to stargaze if they _don't _have an agenda?" Daphne countered.

Harry smirked and glanced away from her to the said stars, "Maybe I'm just a romantic."

"Maybe," Daphne agreed, "But I doubt it."

They were lying in the room of requirement. Well it wasn’t _the _room of requirement because the fiendfyre had damaged it forever. This was a similar room that had been created by Flitwick after the war. It wasn’t sentient yet, it had taken hundreds of years for the room of requirement to become that way. This room had the same purpose however, it transformed into whatever you wanted.

Tonight it was a forest (without the bugs and the cold wind of course). Harry and Daphne were lying on the soft forest floor and looking up at a perfect image of the night sky above Hogwarts.

"I don't have an agenda Daphne," Harry said calmly as he tried to seek out the Dog Star in the sky, "These things happen when the time is right, they shouldn't be hurried."

"These things?" Daphne asked with an amused grin, "What's that supposed to mean?"

"I mean I didn't jump into bed with Ginny as soon as we started dating," Harry said honestly, "It happened when the emotions were heightened…when the mood was right.”

“So you aren't attempting to heighten my emotions with your romance?" Daphne asked him with a raised eyebrow.

"I'm really not," Harry said in amusement as he turned his head to look at her.

"That's a pity really," Daphne said and her eyes flashed playfully, "Because I had an agenda for tonight."

“Well I suppose that's another story then,” Harry chuckled as he propped himself up on his elbow.

"Funny how quickly you changed your tune there," Daphne laughed as Harry moved closer to her and captured her lips in a kiss. They had kissed several times of course and Harry thought he had experienced every kind of kiss with Daphne. There were the passionate, angry kisses when they were having an argument. There were the slow soft ones when they had precious alone time and they could afford to take their time. And then were the rushed, secret ones in broom cupboards which were probably Harry's favourite. But this one was different from all of the rest. It was passionate but it wasn't fast or rushed which was a refreshing change.

They were silent as they kissed but there seemed to be an unspoken agreement about what would follow when Daphne pointedly began to unbutton Harry's shirt. Not a word was spoken as clothes continued to be discarded. When Daphne moved to straddle him, the world around Harry began to blur and he only focused on Daphne as he ran his hands down her back. Her own hands were tangled in the mess that was his hair. Their kisses got faster and things got more heated until Harry couldn't take the teasing anymore. He groaned slightly into the kiss and bucked his hips. It made Daphne break the kiss abruptly and Harry frowned when he saw something akin to fear in her eyes.

"What's wrong?" Harry asked gently.

Daphne sighed and cast her eyes downward, "Harry, I know you think I'm a slut but-"

"I don't think you're a slut," Harry frowned, "I've never thought that Daphne."

"Well, I know _everyone else _thinks I'm a slut then,” Daphne corrected, she was muttering slightly, “But apart from Draco a couple of years ago I've not really...you know."

"Oh,” Harry realised, "Do you not want to then?"

Daphne rolled her eyes at him, "I didn't say _that. _Just don't necessarily expect a porn star in the bedroom or something-"

Harry cut her off with laughter, "Daph, when are you going to realise? I don't want a porn star, I just want you."

She glanced at him, her eyes smiling even if her lips weren't, "Alright," she said simply.

***

"Honestly Harry, I think you need to go to bed," Hermione laughed.

Harry frowned across the sofa at his best friend, "What? It's only 8pm."

"I know but that's about the 10th time you've yawned in 5 minutes," Hermione said in amusement.

"I didn't get much sleep last night," Harry said and he was unable to stop the slight smile that slipped onto his face with these words.

Hermione raised an eyebrow at him, "Ah, I see what's going on here. It happened last night then did it?"

Harry nodded through another yawn and then said, "Yeah. Did you know about Daphne..." he trailed off but he knew Hermione would understand.

Hermione nodded and lowered her voice, "All of the girls did Harry. She acts tough but Daphne's a massive softy underneath that façade. You better not hurt her because if you do I think Tracey and Sadie will actually kill you."

Harry laughed, "They won't have cause to do that, I promise."

"I know," Hermione smiled, "And I'm really happy for both of you."

"Thanks Hermione," Harry said cheerfully, "Hey that reminds me have you and Draco..."

"That is none of your business," Hermione said simply.

"Hey I just told you my business!" Harry objected.

"I didn't force you to tell me, you just did!" Hermione exclaimed.

"That's not fair," Harry said with a shake of his head, "In fact I feel really duped. I bet Draco would tell me."

"He wouldn't," Hermione said smugly.

"Are you sure about that?" Harry asked with a grin as he cast his eyes across the common room and saw Draco studying with Theo at the far side, "Oi, Draco!" he shouted.

"Harry!" Hermione hissed.

"I thought you were sure he wouldn't say anything?" Harry asked her with a smirk as Draco rolled his eyes and sauntered across the common room to the two best friends.

"Potter, I know we are friends now but do you really have to shout my name from the other side of the room to get my attention?" Draco drawled.

"It was easier than walking over there," Harry said offhandedly, "And it reminds me of when we used to shout across the great hall to get each other's attention."

Draco smiled slightly in amusement, "Yes, those were the days," he joked, "Now what do you want?"

"I have a question to ask you," Harry said matter of factly.

"Alright, go ahead," Draco said, crossing his arms and surveying the Gryffindor boy.

"Have you and Hermione slept together yet?" Harry asked simply.

"Harry!" Hermione objected.

Draco raised an eyebrow at the boy, "I have no idea why you feel that it concerns you, but no we haven't. Some people have more self-control than you and Daphne," he added with a smirk.

Harry rolled his eyes, "I have self-control, the moment was just...right."

"Yes well the moment has not been right yet," Draco said offhandedly, "So butt out of everyone else's business and focus on your own, alright?"

"Alright," Harry said with a slight frown as Draco stalked back to Theo.

Harry turned back to Hermione who was now glaring at him, "What did I say?"

"You and I are going for a little walk, Harry," Hermione said irritably. She grabbed Harry by the wrist and dragged him out of the common room. They were silent until they reached the main school because Harry knew that it wasn't wise to question Hermione when she was pissed off.

Eventually Hermione spoke but not until they were safely walking through a secret passage to the 3rd floor, "How can you be so stupid?"

"Stupid?" Harry asked in disbelief, "It was a simple question!"

Hermione rolled her eyes, "Draco's right Harry this isn't your business! But I know you and I know that you don't leave well enough alone until you know exactly what's going on."

"Force of habit, sorry," Harry said sheepishly, "But since you know me so well, you might as well just tell me what the issue is."

"We haven't slept together yet because he's self-conscious about the giant snake on his arm," Hermione snapped irritably.

Harry bit his lip, "Shit, of course he is."

Hermione threw him a pointed glare, "And I have told him that I don't care but he doesn't believe me."

"Why hasn't it disappeared now that Voldemort has gone?" Harry asked, "And can't he just use concealment charms on it or something?"

"No magic can cover it up," Hermione sighed, "He's tried everything he knows and I've tried everything that I know. As for whether it should be gone, well it _is _fading slowly. At the rate it's fading it will take a good few months more until it's gone. And even then it might remain as a scar like on my arm."

"Well I mean he's going to have to get over it at some point," Harry pointed out, "Because yes sex isn't everything. I mean it's good don't get me wrong but having stuff in common with a person and loving spending time with them is far more important, but sex still has to be a part of a functioning relationship."

"Yes I am aware of that, when did you become Hogwarts personal love guru?" Hermione snapped.

"And also, you have been very snappy lately," Harry said thoughtfully, "So you clearly need to get-"

"- finish that sentence and I will hex you," Hermione threatened him.

"Alright, I won't finish that sentence then," Harry said quickly.

"I don't know what I'm going to do, I can't force him to stop feeling self-conscious about it," Hermione sighed, "So what can I do?"

"Tell him he's been a stupid prick?" Harry suggested.

Hermione rolled her eyes, "Definitely not Hogwarts personal love guru," she muttered.

Harry grinned in amusement as he put his arm around her shoulders, "Honestly Mione, just talk to him about it."

"Easier said than done," Hermione sighed.

***

"I think you're being completely stupid!"

"What was that for?" Draco asked in disbelief from where he was sitting on his four-poster bed reading a book.

Hermione had literally just walked into his dorm room, shut the door behind her with a loud snap and then insulted him. She was now leaning against the door, they were alone in the dorm because Theo and Blaise were downstairs in the common room.

"This whole thing about the dark mark!" Hermione exclaimed, "I think you are being _so _stupid Draco! I mean honestly, it's basically just a tattoo, it's not like Voldemort is going to pop up if you touch the bloody thing!"

"It's what it _symbolises _Hermione," Draco said darkly.

"Do you know what it symbolises Draco?" Hermione asked hotly, "It symbolises your past. It doesn't symbolise _anything else, _just your past. It's a reminder of the shitty decisions that you made, just like the scar on my arm is a reminder of the fact that I was willing to sacrifice _so _much to help Harry win the war!"

Draco sighed, "Your scar is heroic, mine...isn't."

Hermione actually groaned in frustration, "Oh for the love of Godric! Don't let it remind you of all the bad stuff then Draco! Let it remind you of the good things, like the fact you saved Harry's life in the Manor. You turned the tide of the _entire _war, we'd never have won if you hadn't done that! Just like Harry would have had no chance if you hadn't thrown him his wand in the final battle! Maybe you aren't a hero but you aren't a villain either. I can't hate you for the past even though everyone tells me that I should. Do you know why that is?"

"I honestly have no idea," Draco said quietly.

"It's because I love you Draco," Hermione said simply, "I love who you are in the present. Who you were in the past doesn't matter. Right now you are caring, gentle, kind and funny. Right now all I know is that I'm happier than I've ever been because of you and that's all that matters. So when I say that I don't care about the mark I really mean it, you bloody idiot!"

Draco smiled slightly at her and Hermione narrowed her eyes at him, "What?"

"Nothing," Draco grinned as he reached out and grabbed her hand, "It's just that you're really hot when you're riled up," he said as he pulled her towards his bed. She wasn't expecting it and she toppled down on top of him.

Draco laughed as he pushed her mass of hair aside and looked up at her, "Now this is interesting," he smirked.

Hermione raised an eyebrow at him, "You've changed your tune."

Draco grinned, "What can I say Hermione? Your moving speech inspired me."

Hermione glared at him, "You're still a giant bloody dick. You do know that, don't you?"

Draco chuckled as he pulled Hermione towards him and kissed her. He knew she had no real objections because she kissed him back with just as much fervour. Against her lips he mumbled, "Now about that giant dick-"

"-oh shut up you insufferable arse," Hermione half muttered, half laughed as she captured his lips in a bid to end his ego trip.

***

"Do you think we should play a nice prank on the girls?"

"A nice prank?" Draco snorted, "Is there such a thing?"

"Not that I've ever heard of," Theo remarked.

"Of course there is," Harry said eagerly, "I just think it would raise morale you know? Hermione has been kind of down since Ron left and with all these big essays due in at the moment all of the girls have been tetchy."

"So you want to play a 'nice' prank to raise their morale?" Neville asked in amusement, "Why does that sound dangerous to me?"

"Probably because it would be a disaster," Dean laughed.

"What kind of prank do you have in mind?" Draco asked.

"I dunno, something like making it rain flowers," Harry said thoughtfully.

"Hermione and Hannah both have hay-fever," Neville pointed out with a raised eyebrow, "So I doubt they'd appreciate that."

"Well what else do girls like? They like flowers...and?"

"Chocolate?" Dean suggested.

"Yeah, chocolate!" Harry said with a nod, "We can make chocolate appear in front of them all at the breakfast table tomorrow!"

"Why do I have the feeling that's a bad idea?" Draco asked with narrowed eyes.

"Because it's one of Harry's plans so it will inevitably go wrong," Neville said matter of factly.

"Oh come on, that's not fair!" Harry said, "It will be great! They'll all love it and they'll be sufficiently cheered up!"

"I'm in," Theo said with a grin, "Anything to get Sadie to spend more time with me instead of in the library."

"Yeah I'm in too," Dean piped up.

"I think this is going to fail epically," Neville admitted sheepishly, "But I'm in anyway."

Harry grinned, "Sound logic there Nev. Draco?"

"Fine," Draco replied, "But if it all goes wrong I'm not taking the blame."

Harry grinned, "Nothing will go wrong, it will be great! Trust me!"

***

It turned out that trusting Harry was a _very _bad idea because the following morning the prank went wrong, _very wrong. _The boys were sitting at the 8th year table waiting for the opportune moment and when all of the girls were sitting down they put their plan into motion. The charm was _supposed _to make a box of chocolates appear in front of every girl. However, when Harry said the trigger word for the charm, chocolate didn't appear in front of the girls. No, instead the chocolate had melted and it rained down _on top of them_.

There was a stunned silence and then the hall erupted into laughter. The girls fled from the hall as fast as they could and Draco looked at Harry in disbelief, "Trust me, it won't go wrong? Isn't that what you said?"

"Sorry," Harry said sheepishly, "Do you think we should go after them?"

"Definitely not," Theo said with a shake of his head, "They'd kill us."

"Or castrate you," Lilly said with a raised eyebrow.

"Or that," Theo said, he swallowed hard at the very thought.

"I'm never trusting you again Harry," Neville said with a shake of his head, "I mean don't get me wrong I'll follow any order you give me about DADA or catching dark wizards but never again when it comes to pranks…or women."

"I think that's fair," Harry said, he bit his lip and looked at the remnants of the chocolate which had now set on the table and benches. He jumped when a squeaky amused voice from behind him at the Head Table said, "I think you need to pay more attention in my class, Mr. Potter."

Harry cringed upon his friend's laughter. He turned around and looked at Professor Flitwick, "Yes Professor, I think I do," he conceded as McGonagall shook her head in amusement and concealed a small smile.

***

"Are you talking to me yet?" Draco asked Hermione for the umpteenth time in the common room that night.

"I'm talking to you," Hermione said bluntly, "I've been talking to you all day."

"Alright know-it-all, have you _forgiven _me yet?" Draco corrected himself.

"No," Hermione said simply.

Draco rolled his eyes and groaned which set Daphne off, "Well you bunch of idiots did shower us in chocolate! What did you expect?"

"We've told you, it was an accident," Harry complained, "It wasn't supposed to be melted, I don't know what went wrong."

"Your charm work _clearly_," Daphne said irritably.

"How many more times are we going to have to apologise?" Dean asked the girls in general.

"Several more times at least, Dean," Tracey said coolly.

Neville sighed and said, "They'll calm down eventually Dean."

Hannah shot her boyfriend a brief glare but said no more. She and Sadie in particular had been giving their other halves the silent treatment all day. Draco glared at Harry for the millionth time that day and Harry resisted the urge to roll his eyes as the common room door opened and Annie pushed her way in irritably.

"What's got your knickers in a twist Annie?" Dean called.

Annie rolled her eyes and sat down on the arm of Tracey's chair, "Filch! He's gotten one of the teachers to put all sorts of stupid charms on the popular make out spots! The Astronomy tower, the Trophy Room, you name it! It starts screaming if you go into those areas after curfew now!"

"Caterwauling charm," Harry said in amusement, "No such luck Annie."

"It sucks!" Annie exclaimed, "I mean where am I supposed to hook up with people now? All of the other towers are patrolled, except the Dark Tower and it's totally haunted, ugh!"

"The Dark Tower isn't haunted," Draco scoffed after Annie had sulked away.

"Yes it is," Daphne said in disbelief, "Honestly Draco, don't you know anything about this school?"

"I know who all of the ghosts in this school are and the only two that are malicious at all are Peeves and the Baron, neither of which go anywhere near the Dark Tower," Draco said simply.

"You don't know about all of the ghosts then, do you?" Hermione remarked, "Just the wizarding sort."

"They are the only sort, princess," Theo cut in.

"Quit calling me princess," Hermione snapped, "And you're wrong Theo. There are the muggle sort too. The ones who do things but can't be seen. You can just feel their presence."

Harry scoffed too "That's a load of rubbish Hermione."

"She's telling the truth," Daphne said firmly, "The Dark Tower _is _haunted. Don't you know what happened there?"

"Nothing happened there Daphne," Neville said, "It was used as a prison when torturing students for misbehaving was acceptable. That's all."

"No that isn't all," Hermione said with a shake of her head, "It was called the Dark Tower _before _it was a prison. Salazar Slytherin had a wife and two kids before he left Hogwarts you know but he couldn't take them with him so he locked them in the Dark Tower. The wife was a Muggle and the kids were squibs so he didn't want the other founders to know. They died of starvation up there, people say their scratch marks are still on the doors because they tried to claw their way out."

"Very funny Hermione," Draco drawled, "But I'm not going to bite."

"It's just a horror story," Harry agreed with a nod.

"Fine," Daphne said, crossing her arms and staring he boyfriend down, "If you're so sure it's not true I dare you to spend a night in the tower, _locked _in."

Draco faltered slightly and so did Theo. Harry and Neville glanced at each other briefly and Harry was the first to say, "Fine."

"What?" Neville exclaimed, "Harry, what if it _is _true?"

"A minute ago you were sure it wasn't, are you wimping out on me already Neville?" Harry asked his friend with a raised eyebrow, "I mean I'd expect that from those two Slytherin cowards but you're a Gryffindor and so are you Dean. This will be a walk in the park."

"Hey I believe in Muggle ghosts mate," Dean said as he raised his hands, "And I'm not ashamed to admit that they bloody terrify me. You won't catch me anywhere near that tower."

Neville had a look of determination on his face now, "Nah you're right Harry, it's just a story. I'm up for it."

"So am I," Draco said, sounding more confident than he looked or felt.

"Yeah alright," Theo said warily after a moment, "I'll go."

Hermione smirked, "We'll lock you in just before curfew so you have about 10 minutes to gather anything you think you'll need in there and we'll let you out at sunrise so that's probably going to be around 8.15am."

"What?" Theo barked, "Granger that's like 11 hours!"

"I thought you said you weren't scared Theo," Daphne smirked.

"I'm...I'm not," Theo objected feebly.

"Well go get your stuff together then," Hermione said, sharing Daphne's smirk as the boys disappeared upstairs to their dorms. The moment they knew that the boys were out of earshot Daphne and Hermione informed Hannah, Sadie and Tracey of their plan.

"Daphne and I set this whole thing up," Hermione whispered, "We asked Annie to do some acting for us."

"And we put nail marks and creepy stuff into the Dark Tower earlier today. We've rigged up loads of booby traps up there too," Daphne continued with a grin.

"Genius," Tracey said in amusement.

Dean chortled, "I'm glad I refused."

"It did make you look a bit like a coward though," Sadie laughed, "But honestly girls, poor Theo! He's going to be terrified."

"They all are, I mean this is wicked," Hannah whispered.

"This is payback," Daphne and Hermione chorused.

***

"This is fucking creepy."

Despite the fact that they had been adamant that the Dark Tower wasn't haunted, Harry, Neville and Draco were inclined to agree with the words that came out of Theo's mouth after the girls had locked them into the singular prison-like room at the top of the Dark Tower. The wooden door was riddled with long thin scratches, as if someone had tried to claw their way out. The stone walls were filled with scratches too and stains that looked particularly like dry blood. The word _"HELP"_ was scrawled out shakily in that same substance on one wall at least five times too. There were three old rickety wooden beds with moth eaten blankets and mattresses and four tiny slits that were clearly meant to be windows. It got worse though, on one of the beds lay a small ceramic doll, the sort that a little girl would have as a toy, it was decayed from the years it had lain there so it had no eyes, just empty sockets where they should have been.

"Wait..." Draco frowned, "There are three single beds and _four _of us. I'm not sharing!"

"You can have the floor then," Harry smirked.

"What? No," Draco said, darting over to one bed and claiming it. There was a mad rush to do the same, and in it Theo ended up with the bed that had the creepy doll on it and Neville ended up without a bed.

"I'm not sleeping on the fucking floor," Neville said darkly, "So one of you idiots better let me share your bed."

"You can share mine," Harry said in amusement, "But you better not try and creep me out in the middle of the night."

"Deal," Neville said, sitting down on the other end of the bed that Harry had claimed. Draco and Theo snorted in amusement and looked at them across the dimly lit room. There were a few candles on the walls but they didn't provide much light.

"Always knew there was something funny about you Gryffindorks," Draco joked.

"We just stick together," Harry said, "The floor is disgusting. There are spiders everywhere."

"These beds aren't much better," Neville said as he cast a cleaning charm on the mattress and about a hundred dead bugs fell out of the bottom of it. In horror Draco and Theo did the same on their beds. They had barely been sitting down when a gust of wind blew in from nowhere and extinguished all of the candles. The room was thrown immediately into darkness and Theo let out a rather high pitched scream.

"Lumos," Harry said calmly. The spell spread a dome of light across the room, and Harry snorted when he saw that Theo had hidden underneath the covers.

"It was just a draft," Draco said in amusement.

"We're inside," Neville said a little shakily.

"Inside an old drafty tower in an old drafty school," Harry said, "The windows are old and cracked, it's nothing out of the ordinary."

"If you say so," Neville said, although he looked thoroughly unconvinced.

"I can't keep this up forever," Harry pointed out as he waved his wand, "Should we relight the candles or create a fire in the middle of the room?"

"The candles clearly aren't working, try a fire," Theo said from beneath the covers.

Harry shook his head in amusement, "I'll keep my lumos charm up so you can see what you're doing with the fire Draco."

Draco nodded and within a few minutes they had a magical fire set up in the middle of the room, allowing Harry to drop the lumos charm. The fire kept the room lit and warm and nothing else out of the ordinary happened. They were lulled into a sense of security and Harry actually nearly drifted off. Things seemed to be fine until another gust of wind blew in out of nowhere. This time it extinguished the _magical _fire.

In the darkness Theo panicked, "The magical fire is extinguished! Why is the magical fire extinguished? Wind shouldn't extinguish a magical fire!"

There was a lot of creaking then, "What is that sound?" Neville asked quickly.

"It's Theo climbing into my bed," Draco said dryly, "Get off of me you big baby!"

"Lumos," Harry said in the darkness but nothing happened.

"Lumos!" Neville tried.

"Why are our wands not working?" Draco asked, panicking a little himself now.

"I don't know," Harry said, "And I don't know why the fire went out. Wind can't extinguish a magical fire."

"And wands don't just stop working!" Neville said shakily.

"Wait...did you here that?" Harry asked quietly and the others fell silent to listen. It sounded like somebody was whispering in the darkness.

"It's just the wind," Draco said firmly.

"It sounds like whispering," Theo said weakly.

"Who would be up here?" Draco asked, "It's just the wind Theo."

If they could have believed this before they couldn't for much longer. The whispering got louder and words could be made out.

"_Let us out. Let us out. Let us out. Don't let us die, we're starving please. PLEASE!"_

Neville shrieked as the whispering got louder and louder until eventually it was shouting. High-pitched blood curdling screams filled the room and echoed off of the walls, and the sound of scratching against the door filled their ears.

"I can't do it, I can't do it! I want to get out!" Theo exclaimed, now completely terrified.

"Theo, be a man," Draco said, although he sounded quite scared himself.

"I don't want to be a man, I want to be out of here," Theo shouted.

"Shut up!" Harry said, "I think we can use magic again. My wand just started vibrating...lumos!"

It worked, the room was filled with light once more. They all swallowed hard when they realised that new scratches and blood stains had appeared on the walls and on the door.

"This is too fucking much," Theo said, and Neville looked just as pale as he did. In fact, Theo was now gripping onto Draco and Neville had gotten as close to Harry as possible.

"Sidekicks," Draco joked weakly, "Who'd have them?"

"Tell me about it," Harry said in amusement, "Make another magical fire."

Draco nodded and did so and again Harry dropped the lumos charm. They were wary of how long it would stay lit for but all seemed quiet and calm again. There was no way they were going to sleep now so they all watched the fire warily and once more a gust of wind blew in and extinguished it. When they were plunged into darkness their wands stopped working again and once more the screaming and the scratching could be heard. It was worse this time, the screaming was female and it was almost demented. When bits of junk began to get thrown around the room, smashing off of the walls right behind them it really did get too much. Theo was screaming and Neville was gripping Harry's arm so tightly he was drawing blood. Harry sighed, he wasn't going to let this continue, "FINITE INCANTATEM!"

The screaming and scratching ended, the candles along the walls roared into life, the scratches and the blood on the walls disappeared, and Peeves appeared in the middle of the room holding several pieces of china.

"Peeves what are you doing?" Neville asked in disbelief.

"Making messes," Peeves said wickedly before disappearing through the keyhole.

Harry got to his feet and picked up his wand, "Alohomora," he said as he pointed at the lock on the door. It creaked open straight away and Theo and Neville were the first to dart out of it. Harry and Draco followed and they didn't talk again until they came out of the tower on the 6th floor.

"What the hell was that?" Draco asked, slightly out of breath.

"That was the girls trying to prank us," Harry said simply, "Hence why it all went away the second I cancelled all of the spells and booby traps they had set up."

"How did they get Peeves to help them?" Neville asked irritably.

"They probably just told him he could smash things," Harry shrugged, "He'd have agreed in seconds."

"You make a good point there," Draco said with a shake of his head, "But for a prank that was pretty realistic. I mean they must have put up timed magical limitation wards."

"Static ones I think," Harry said with a nod, "So that they glimmered in and out. The wards were designed so that we couldn't use magic after each gust of wind. It was very cleverly done."

"Bitches," Theo muttered as they climbed the stairs to the 8th Year tower, "I'm going to give Sadie hell for this."

"I wouldn't," Draco said darkly, "I've got a feeling this was mostly Hermione and Daphne."

"Yeah I have that feeling too," Harry said.

"So because you two have psychotic girlfriends we all have to suffer?" Theo asked in disbelief.

"You're friends with Harry Potter now," Neville joked weakly, "That's what his friends do, suffer because of all his stupid plans."

"How is this my fault?" Harry asked irritably.

"It was your stupid prank that went wrong," Draco agreed, "If that hadn't happened they wouldn't have wanted revenge."

"Well it was an accident," Harry said hotly, "It was supposed to make them happy!"

"Try telling them that!"

"I did tell them that!" Harry remarked, "They wouldn't believe me!"

"Shut up and listen to the riddle!" Neville snapped as they argued outside of the door.

_"The more you have of me, the less you see. What am I?"_

"Oh that's fucking low Dumbledore," Theo said irritably.

"_Apologies Mr. Nott. I simply found it appropriate."_

"Why is it low?" Harry asked, as clueless as ever.

"Because the answer is darkness," Draco replied.

"_Correct_."

The door swung open and immediately they picked up the argument as they stormed into the room.

"Anyway, I did tell them that it was an accident! How is it my fault if my charm was a little bit off? It's tricky when you're handling food!"

"Then why did you decide to do a prank that involved food?"

"Because you said my original idea of flowers wouldn't work because Hermione and Hannah have hay fever!"

"BOYS!"

They all stopped and froze, the shout had come from Daphne. She was sitting on the sofa with the rest of the girls, (minus Tracey who had disappeared upstairs with Dean).

"How did you get out?" Sadie asked with a frown, "We locked you in."

"Luckily Harry realised what was going on and ended the enchantments," Draco said irritably.

"Ended the enchantments?" Hermione frowned, "How did you do that? There were magic limitation wards up."

"Yeah which limit magic by affecting the conduit, in other words the wand," Harry said matter of factly, "Something you taught me Mione."

"Are you saying you used wandless magic?" Daphne asked in disbelief.

Harry simply nodded and Hermione cut in, "Wait, you used wandless magic? To destroy the magic limitation ward so you could use your wand?"

"No," Neville said with some amusement, "He used finite incantatem to end all of the enchantments."

"With wandless magic?" Hermione asked and her jaw dropped.

"There were like 20 enchantments on that room!" Daphne exclaimed, she was just as stunned.

Harry smirked, "Well, I'm getting better at that than I thought then," he said.

"How did you even know that it was a prank?" Hannah asked curiously.

"Oh it didn't take me long to work it out," Harry said casually.

"You _knew _the whole time?" Theo asked angrily.

"No," Harry said honestly, "I had suspicions. I didn't actually _know _until I heard Peeves giggling. But I had an idea of what was going on when the magical fire was extinguished. I've only seen one spell that does that and it happens to be the one Hermione uses to extinguish her magical fires in jars. My suspicions grew when I was pretty sure I recognised Daphne's voice with the creepy whispering too. Then Peeves giggled and I knew what you were up to. How did you get Annie to be in on it?"

"She wants to be an actress," Daphne said with a wave of her hand, "We said it would be good practice so she agreed."

Hermione sighed, "We thought we were really careful. Trust you to figure it out though, Harry."

"Sorry to ruin your fun,'" Theo said coldly, "I'm going to bed, I'll see you tomorrow."

"Theo-" Sadie tried to interject.

"Goodnight Sadie," Theo said firmly as he disappeared upstairs.

"What was that about?" Hannah asked with a slight frown.

"Oh I don't know," Draco said angrily, "Maybe it's the fact that he saw his Father knock his Mother unconscious when he was a child or maybe it's because the basement his father locked him up in when he misbehaved has scratch marks all over its door from where his Mother desperately tried to escape while she starved to death in there!"

"What?" Sadie said weakly, "I didn't know that."

"Well maybe you should make an effort to get to know your boyfriend better then," Draco practically spat, "You can't know somebody inside out after dating for a few months after all."

It was clear this was directed at Hermione because he glared at her briefly before disappearing up the stairs after Theo.

Neville sighed, "I'll admit that it brought bad back memories for me too. The screaming...I know I was only a baby but I still have nightmares about my parents screaming as they were tortured..."

"I was only a baby too and I had nightmares for years about screams and flashes of green light," Harry said quietly, "It's not surprising Neville, it was a traumatic event."

Hannah burst into tears, "I knew it was a bad idea! It was Hermione and Daphne who came up with it."

"Wow, so much for a loyal Hufflepuff," Daphne said dryly.

Hannah got to her feet and walked to Neville, "I _am _loyal but to my boyfriend more than you two! I told you that plan was wicked, it wasn't funny!"

"Hannah's right," Sadie said quietly, "It was a little bit on the mean side."

"Well it didn't bother me," Harry shrugged, "But I can see why it would affect the others. I do think it was pretty inventive as far as pranks go mind you and if that lot want to become Aurors then they'll have to get used to things like this."

"Why?" Hermione asked weakly, she looked incredibly guilty.

"Part of Auror training is simulated situations," Harry replied, "Kingsley told me about it. They take your fears and they warp situations from your past to try and break you. They would have to deal with something like this eventually."

"It wasn't malicious," Hermione said tearfully, "We didn't think you would all be so terrified."

"I know it wasn't, Hermione," Harry said gently as he sat down next to her and put his arm around her, "But you do have to remember that you and Draco are different. He's a pureblood and you're a muggle-born so while you had a fairly ordinary childhood with primary school and all, he probably had a very miserable one."

Daphne smiled slightly as she watched them, "You two really are like a big brother and his little sister."

"They've always been like that," Neville said in amusement, "As long as I can remember."

"Even though I'm the older one," Hermione chuckled as she wiped her tears away.

"Yeah well I had to grow up fast," Harry said simply, "Don't worry about it too much though Hermione, you know what Draco's like. He'll have cooled down by tomorrow morning."

***

The following morning Hermione cornered Draco the second he got out of his dorm room.

"I'm sorry that I don't know you well enough to know when something will hurt you," Hermione said instantly.

Draco sighed half-heartedly, "No, I'm sorry for snapping at you. You do know me; you don't know _everything _about me but you do know me Hermione. I was upset because it hurt Theo and he's my best friend."

"I understand," Hermione said as she bit her lip, “It wasn't supposed to hurt anyone."

"I know that," Draco said with a slight smile as he grabbed her hand and they began to walk towards the common room, "I don't think you have a malicious bone in your body Hermione."

Hermione frowned, "I probably do."

"Well I don't think you do," Draco said calmly, "I mean you can be hot-headed yes, but malicious? No."

Hermione smiled weakly, "I'm still sorry."

"I appreciate that," Draco said honestly as they walked into the common room where the rest of their group were already gathered. The air was slightly tense and icy but from the way Harry had everybody gathered by the fire he clearly had a plan to fix that.

"I want to show you something," Harry said when Draco and Hermione joined the rest of the group.

"Okay," Draco said with narrowed eyes.

"I feel bad," Harry admitted sheepishly, "That this all kicked off because I tried to give the girls chocolate and failed miserably. So I want to take you somewhere really cool to apologise."

"We agreed to go out of curiosity," Daphne said with an amused smile.

"I'll agree for the same reasons," Hermione chuckled, "I thought I knew about all of the secret places you had found."

"Nope, I kept a couple secret," Harry said cheerfully, "Come on then! Let's go!" he added eagerly.

Harry had decided to show them somewhere he'd found a while ago while exploring the castle after curfew. He led the group of 8th years all the way down to the bottom of the school. They passed the Hufflepuff common room and the kitchens. Then they reached a tapestry of an apple tree. Harry paused and touched each apple on the tree individually, they fell from the tree into a basket. The tapestry then rolled up away from the wall and Harry led his friends down a narrow, steep passage which came out into a large room filled with a huge bath.

The group gaped at the room and Hermione tentatively put her hand in the bath, "It's hot!" she exclaimed in surprise.

Harry grinned, "The founders built it when they built Hogwarts. It was supposed to be for the founders and their heirs but it got forgotten about and lay underneath the castle for years. I found it in 5th year when I used to walk around at night exploring the castle and it needed a bit of a clean but it still works fine."

"Wow, this is amazing Harry," Daphne said, she took off her socks and dipped her feet into the water, "How is it hot?"

"It’s based on Roman design. They built two floors, the bottom one supports the top floor and in-between the two floors there is hot water and steam so that the water above is always hot," Harry explained, "So who wants to go for a swim?"

"We don't have bathing suits," Hannah said.

Draco rolled his eyes, "Can't you do clothing transfiguration?"

"Uh, no," Hannah said.

Draco made a noise of disgust, "Honestly, people these days have no idea what to do with themselves."

He and Harry had already transfigured their clothes into swimming trunks and Daphne was already in the pool with a bikini on. Sadie and Theo easily did the same and got into the hot water. Everybody who could do clothing transfiguration did so and got into the pool leaving only a few people standing awkwardly. Hermione, of course had learned how to do so, after all if Harry had been able to learn it he knew that she could. The only person standing in their normal clothes was Hannah. Neville transformed Hannah's jeans and t-shirt into a bikini and she jumped into the water.

"Good call Harry," Daphne said, swimming over to him and standing up to hug him.

Harry smiled at his girlfriend, "Glad you think so," he said.

Daphne only laughed. Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves in the hot water and all of the tension was thoroughly defused. However, Harry did make a mental note to stay away from pranking for a little while...

**TBC :)**


	28. Time for a Change...

As Harry sat in a small classroom looking into McGonagall's rage filled face he sighed and wondered how on earth they had wound up here. They were all beaten up with dark marks around their eyes because they had been kept awake all night while they awaited their punishment. Everyone had minor injuries; the likes of cuts, bruises and scratches. No one had said a word since they had been led to this classroom and a teacher had always been present to keep an eye on them.

Harry looked around at the faces. Some were stoic and poker faced like his, some had tears running down them like Hermione's, some were pale with nerves like Sadie's and some just looked plain bored, tired and fed up like Draco and Theo's.

Dawn was breaking outside of the 4 walls that they were imprisoned in and Harry hoped that they would be allowed out of here soon. He sighed once more and shook his head, they had been so stupid.

**14 HOURS EARLIER**

"I swear, I think she's a real seer!"

Harry was trying to convince the others over dinner but they were not in the slightest bit convinced. However, Harry was sure that underneath the facade there was something real about Trelawney.

"Harry, real seers are incredibly rare," Hermione said logically but of course _she _wouldn't believe him, what with her track record for Divination.

"They are rare but I see your point," Sadie said, ever the diplomat, "She is much better this year than she's ever been before."

Tracey nodded and said through a mouthful of apple pie, "Her predictions _are _much better, almost all of them come true."

"Really?" Draco asked sarcastically, "I personally never took Divination, always thought it was a bit of a woolly subject myself."

Harry and Hermione shared a grin. Sometimes Harry could really see that Draco was perfect for his best friend; she'd described Divination exactly the same way many years ago.

"I think it's a load of rubbish," Theo said, "How can anyone tell the future? It's made up by lots of things you don't expect to happen. Someone can make a prophecy that someone will die in a few days but then the next day a miracle cure for their sickness could be found."

"But you can agree that _real seers _can make small predictions?" Harry asked, understanding Theo's point.

Theo shrugged, "I guess, I just think it's a very temperamental magic really."

Hermione nodded and said, "Yes, I quite agree with you Theo but I must give Trelawney the benefit of the doubt. After all she made two predictions that came very true."

The others didn't know about this so Harry briefly explained, "Trelawney made a prophecy about me. The prophecy said a boy born at the end of July whose parents had thrice defied Lord Voldemort would be a threat to him. Snape overheard it and told Voldemort who then killed my parents. He’d been friends with my Mum and he felt guilty for causing her death, that's why he came to the side of the light."

The others knew parts of the story but it was good to fill in the gaps. Hermione added, "And she made a prediction in our 3rd year that Voldemort’s most loyal servant would return to him and that he'd be resurrected. Then a year later Voldemort came back."

"Okay, so she made a couple of predictions but mostly she's a fluke," Dean chuckled.

Harry sighed and gave up; nobody was going to believe him. The conversation had moved on when Daphne said quietly, "I believe you Harry. This year she's been so much happier and her predictions _are_ much better."

Harry smiled, he knew Daphne wouldn't say something she didn't believe just to make him happy, that wasn't who she was, "Thank you," he said. He kissed her lightly and turned back to the conversation which was now about Quidditch.

In the last game Hufflepuff had surprised everyone by beating Ravenclaw, the score had been 70-50 when the snitch was caught. It put Hufflepuff in the lead with 210 points, second were Slytherin with 190 points, third were Ravenclaw with 50 points and last were Gryffindor who had a mere 40 points. Harry was determined to redeem himself but their next game wasn't until February.

***

Later that evening, everyone was gathered in the common room. Harry and Draco were lazily playing chess by the fire, Hermione had her nose stuck in a book, Neville and Hannah were engrossed in a book about rare plants of the Scottish Highlands and Daphne, Sadie, Tracey and Susan were working together on a Transfiguration essay. The common room was quiet and peaceful. Theo and Dean were playing gobstones and occasionally shouting out false moves to Draco and Harry to distract them. Mandy and Gabrielle were quietly reading in a corner of the room and Michael and Terry were discussing why the Tornadoes were the best Quidditch team ever. Ernie and Justin were helping each other with homework by a desk and Zacharias was huffing around nearby having being dumped by his girlfriend Megan that morning. Overall though, there was a good atmosphere in the common room.

Then the door burst open and 2 very pissed off girls stormed through it.

"You are a lying bitch! You're supposed to be my best friend!" Annie was shouting.

"It takes two to tango, Annie!" Sally bit back, "I didn't exactly force your boyfriend to sleep with me!"

Terry jumped up to hold back his girlfriend and Harry quickly intervened and held Sally back before a fight could break out.

"You think you are so perfect Annie!" Sally spat, “With your perfect life and your perfect boyfriend! Well he's not perfect because it was easy to get him in bed and I saw him snogging Megan too!"

Annie fought as Terry held her, "Let me go you fucking bastard!" she shouted tearfully.

"No, you'll only get yourself hurt," Terry said quietly, "And it's bullshit, I didn't sleep with Sally, I swear."

"Oh so I should listen to you instead?" Annie asked hysterically, "The serial bloody cheater?"

"I'm not," Terry said helplessly, "Megan did kiss me but I didn't kiss her back.”

By this point Zacharias had targeted Megan, "Was this before or after you split up with me?" he asked bitterly.

"Before," Megan said quietly.

Zacharias laughed humourlessly, "You are such a slut Megan, you should have been a Slytherin, you would have fitted in perfectly!"

"Shut your fucking mouth Smith!" Tracey shouted angrily, she jumped up to punch the Hufflepuff but Dean held her back.

Sally sneered at them, "It's true! The war might be over but you are all still evil bastards like he was!"

"How _dare _you compare us to Voldemort?" Daphne hissed, she grabbed her wand and got held back by Harry who muttered at her to rise above it.

"Yeah because you Gryffindors are such saints," Draco said bitterly, "You might have fought for the light in the war but it was a _Gryffindor _who resurrected Voldemort!"

Harry let go of Daphne and turned on Draco with fire burning in his eyes, "Fuck you Malfoy! Pettigrew is the reason that my parents are dead!"

"Like I have it any better! My Mother is homeless and my Father is in Azkaban!" Draco spat back.

"Which is where he deserves to rot, just like the rest of your sick family!" Harry yelled, then both boys had their wands out and were duelling.

"Leave my family out of this!”

Neville was on his feet at that, "How can you defend them? Your aunt tortured my parents!” he shouted as he joined Harry in his duel against Draco.

Back by the portrait hole the fight was still ongoing about the cheating situation.

"Who else did you sleep with Sally? Theo? Probably, he'd do anything no matter how ugly it was," Zacharias said nastily.

"Theo would never cheat on me!" Sadie snapped as her temper flared up, "Leave him out of this!"

"He isn't the saint you think he is," Sally said, "He tried something with me."

"Why would I want anything to do with you?" Theo asked in disgust, "You flirted with me and I told you to leave me alone."

"You're such a lying bitch, Sally," Sadie muttered under her breath.

"If you have something to say, say it to my face!" Sally snapped, "Oh I forgot, you're a cowardly Slytherin."

"Better than being a chronic liar of a Gryffindor," Sadie remarked coldly, "And I called you a lying bitch, by the way."

It seemed that was the final straw because shortly after that Sadie was duelling Sally, and Annie had joined in _against _her former best friend.

"Why would you tell Sadie that I'm cheating on her when I'm not?" Theo asked angrily, his wand was now at the ready and he pointed it at Zacharias.

"Because you're the biggest man slut at this school!" Zacharias said simply.

"Alright then Smith. You are clearly jealous that I could have any girl I wanted and everyone thought that you were gay," Theo remarked with an evil smirk.

Zacharias cursed and drew his wand. In seconds flashes of red and blue light were flying between them, "I don't even know why I came back for this stupid year, I hated you all before and I hate you even more now!" he shouted as he duelled Theo.

"None of us were exactly best friends with you either," Michael Corner remarked, glaring at the guy.

"Even Justin and I can't stand you and you're in our house," Ernie said to the red faced Hufflepuff.

"Fuck off, like I ever wanted to be friends with a couple of pansies anyway," Zacharias said with a nasty laugh.

Ernie and Justin turned on him immediately and Michael joined forces with them and Theo.

"This is all your fault Megan!" Terry shouted at the distraught Hufflepuff, "You just had to try and kiss me didn't you?"

"So much for Ravenclaws being clever," Megan said nastily, "If you were clever you'd have told Annie what happened so she didn't have to find out like this. Like she'll _ever _believe that you aren't a lying cheat now!"

"Hey!" Came shouts from Mandy and Lilly, Terry's fellow Ravenclaws.

Lilly remarked, "Leave our house out of this. Anything is better than being a Hufflepuff, what are you good at?"

"I can think of one thing they're good at," Mandy said nastily, "Dying."

"You bitch!" Susan said as she rose from her chair, "Cedric died for the cause, he was one of the bravest people who fought in the second war!"

Hannah had risen to agree with her fellow housemate, "And some Hufflepuffs are smarter than Ravenclaws, _clearly!_"

In the next few seconds several flashes of light flew between the two groups as Terry, Lilly and Mandy turned on Megan, Susan and Hannah.

Hermione had been trying and failing to split the fights up when eventually she shouted, "Can we please stop fighting and just talk about this?"

Blaise smirked, "Oh do shut up, you bushy haired freak."

Hermione glared at him, "Impressive Blaise, like I’ve never heard that one before. You can insult my looks all you want but at least I _have_ a personality."

Blaise glared at Hermione and shot a spell towards her which she narrowly dodged but she had to send another one back for self-defence. As a result, she found herself locked in a duel with Blaise who proceeded to call her a mudblood.

Draco and Harry upon hearing this stopped fighting each other and turned on Blaise with shouts of "Leave my girlfriend alone!" and "Shut up about my best friend!"

There was only one part of the room not filled with the light from duels. Daphne, Tracey and Dean were watching in shock as Gabrielle stood close by watching the sight, "I don't know why I wanted to come to this school. It's horrible," she sighed.

"You can't just come into our school and start slagging things off," Daphne said irritably.

"So I can't comment on the fact that you all seem to hate each other?" Gabrielle asked angrily, "You should be united and grateful of each other after a war, not fighting!"

"What the hell do you know of the war?" Tracey bit, "You were hiding away in France while we were the ones suffering!"

"Suffering?" Gabrielle said coolly, "You were on his side!"

"On his side?" Daphne hissed, "Oh that is a step too far!"

It all happened very quickly because Gabrielle turned out to be excellent at duelling but in a flash she was duelling both Daphne and Tracey. Then Dean came to his girlfriend’s rescue and helped them out.

The entire common room was full of shouts and insults and flashes of red, blue, yellow, white, purple and orange light. No one saw or heard the door open. No one saw or heard McGonagall enter the room and stop and stare in horror at the scene around her.

However, everyone did hear the Headmistress shouting at the top of her lungs, "SILENCE!"

Immediately the fighting stopped. Wands fell from hands and everyone turned to look at the Headmistress. Nobody had ever seen her so angry before, her face was bright red and horribly contorted.

She spoke in what was barely a whisper but they heard every threatening word, "Give me your wands and go to the empty classroom at the bottom of the tower. Wait there for your punishment."

Everybody did as she said, they handed over their wands and walked in silence down the staircase to the classroom. They all took seats and waited as teachers came in for an hour or so then left and this cycle continued all though the night.

Nobody said a word until McGonagall finally re-entered the room at around 6am in the morning.

"I have tried many things to unite the houses of this school. I do not do it for fun, I _do not _do it for the good of my own health. I do it for you, I do it to give you a better experience at Hogwarts. I do it to help you see past your childish grudges but no matter how hard I try you are determined to let your houses divide you. This is my last attempt to create house unity in the 8th year," McGonagall said, she spoke with a low, dangerous tone of voice as she pulled out the sorting hat and placed it on the table at the front of the room.

They were silent and a little scared as they waited to be told what was going to happen, "I am going to re-sort you into new united dorm rooms and they will _not _change. However, before I do that I want to make an example of a couple of people. I want Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy to come up here right now."

Neither of them questioned McGonagall, they simply walked to the front of the room warily. Once they had reached the Headmistress she said, "I'm going to show you exactly how alike you all are and I'm going to do that by putting this hat on the heads of these 2 people. It has been instructed to tell you all the thinking process it went through when it sorted them."

Harry paled slightly because he knew exactly what the hat would say.

"Starting with you Mr. Potter," McGonagall said tersely as she pointed to the stool in front of the desk. He took a shaky breath as he sat down on the stool and grimaced as McGonagall placed the old hat on his head. He felt quite sick as it began to recount what it had told him as an 11-year-old boy. It was sort of disjointed though, like a slightly faded memory.

"_Difficult, very difficult...plenty of courage...Not a bad mind...There's talent...and a thirst to prove yourself. Now that's interesting but where to put you? Not Slytherin eh? Are you sure? You could be great you know, it's all here in your head and Slytherin could help you on your way to greatness! No? Well if you're sure...better be GRYFFINDOR!"_

"Woah," Neville breathed, "I knew you were a hat-stall but you were actually _really_ nearly a Slytherin."

"Yes, I'm aware of that," Harry said a little irritably as everybody stared at him.

"I mean you actually had to persuade it not to put you there," Daphne said, she was just as surprised, "You were literally seconds away from being a Slytherin."

"And he saved the entire wizarding world and killed the darkest wizard of our time," Dean said firmly, "So nobody can say that Slytherin is just a house for dark wizards, can they?"

"Precisely Mr. Thomas," McGonagall said firmly, "Thank you Mr. Potter, you may return to your seat."

Harry nodded and did so, he was still slightly shaken from having to relieve that experience. When he sat down he saw Draco get onto the stool, he looked just as pale and nervous as Harry expected that he had. The rip that was the hats mouth opened and it began to speak.

"_Ah, not the usual Malfoy! A desire to prove yourself, just like your Father. Oh, I see, not like your Father are you? Well he had a malicious side of course. No, I don't see that in you...But there is intelligence, yes...and lots of it...and defiance, oh and you are a witty one, a fiery one! You have the fight within you. Not Gryffindor eh? You could be great there, you could shine! No? Well then I suppose it better be SLYTHERIN!"_

"Draco, seriously?" Harry said in amusement.

"Oh shut up Potter you were nearly a Slytherin," Draco said sheepishly.

"Yeah and you were nearly a Gryffindor," Harry grinned.

"You two literally nearly switched places," Neville said as he looked between Harry and Draco, "I mean to think I could have been best friends with Draco Malfoy."

Draco rolled his eyes, "Never would have happened Longbottom."

"However," McGonagall said curtly, "You are all aware that Draco Malfoy made mistakes during the war. Yet he was very nearly a Gryffindor, I hope this is teaching you to look further than the cover of the book. Thank you Mr. Malfoy, you may take your seat."

Draco was thoroughly red-faced as he walked over to his seat and sat down.

"Now as I said these dorm rooms will not change for the rest of the school year. Am I understood?" McGonagall asked coolly.

There were nods from around the room, but nobody spoke.

McGonagall glanced down at her list, "In the first female dorm; Hermione Granger, Daphne Greengrass-"

The two girls had brief eye contact and communicated that they were glad to share a room.

"-Susan Bones and Gabrielle Delacour."

McGonagall continued, "In the second female dorm; Tracey Davis, Hannah Abbott, Sadie Cauldwell and Sally-Anne Perks."

This group seemed happy with their new dorm although Tracey and Sadie were sad to be separated from Daphne who they'd always shared a dorm with.

"Finally in the third female dorm; Sally Smith, Megan Jones, Lillian Moon and Mandy Brocklehurst."

"In the first male dorm; Neville Longbottom, Theodore Nott, Dean Thomas-"

Under normal circumstances Neville and Theo would have shared grins at being in a room together, but they were too scared of what McGonagall might do to them if they smiled.

"- Ernie MacMillan and Justin Finch-Fletchley."

"In the second male dorm; Michael Corner, Terry Boot, Blaise Zabini and Zacharias Smith."

The conflict in that room was going to be endless considering the cheating scandal.

"Now as the numbers are incredibly uneven the final male dorm will simply consist of Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy," McGonagall said as she glanced up from her list, "The reasoning behind this being that there has always been conflict between you two and it needs to be resolved for good."

Draco and Harry gaped at each other; they were sharing a room, just the two of them? This could be hell. They might have become friends but Harry didn't know if he could handle sharing a dorm room with the Slytherin.

"That is all, dismissed!" McGonagall said sharply and everyone left the room silently. It was only when they reached the common room that all the complaining started.

"I can't believe we have to share with Justin and Ernie!"

"I wish we were still sharing with Daphne."

"I don't want to share with Potter!"

And so on, and so on. Although, it did encourage some apologies. Sally and Annie still weren't talking to each other and despite his excuses Annie had broken up with Terry. Zacharias still hated everyone so he kept to himself which suited everyone fine. Harry and Draco had shared an awkward make-up hug and even Gabrielle and Daphne had shaken hands and agreed to a new start. It seemed the fight was what everyone had needed to put their issues to rest and start over.

***

The change-up of the dorm rooms had occurred early on Thursday morning and the group had gotten through the day with difficulty after having no sleep the night before. By the time the day was over they didn't care who they were sharing a dorm with because they just wanted to sleep. The dorm rooms were a neutral white and the drapes on each bed were the colour of the person's house.

Daphne tutted when she walked into her dorm room, "Red, green, yellow and blue do not go at all, this is so tacky."

Hermione had rolled her eyes and collapsed onto her bed fully clothed, "Who cares about the interior design? Just go to sleep," she mumbled.

Most of the dorms were the same as any other dorm but when Harry and Draco reached their dorm room at the top of the stairs and walked in they were happily surprised. This was no ordinary dorm room. Instead of 5 small four-poster beds there were two large double four-poster beds and French doors leading out to a patio with a view of the black lake. It was really rather luxurious. Harry noticed a note on one of the dressers; he picked it up and read it aloud;

"_Mr Potter and Mr Malfoy, _

_If luxury cannot bring you together as firm friends, I do not know what can. I am invested in this friendship, should it succeed it sets an excellent example for your own year and future students. I am sure we understand each other just fine. _

_Sincerely, Professor McGonagall."_

Harry and Draco laughed and agreed that they could definitely get used to this.

***

The next morning at breakfast Harry and Draco may have boasted a little about their room and everyone complained apart from Daphne and Hermione who claimed as girlfriends they had 'visiting rights' to the luxurious dorm room. That day actually passed quite peacefully and McGonagall had eventually calmed down enough to not shout or glare at every 8th year that passed her. Harry was looking forward to getting back to the common room later and having an early night as he tucked into dinner, everybody was still catching up on their night of missed sleep. Nobody expected the announcement that came at dinner time until McGonagall stood up to give it.

"I would like to announce that there will be a Yule Ball this year. It will take place on the 24th of December from 7pm to midnight, in memoriam of Cedric Diggory. The theme is masquerade which means masks, dress robes and beautiful dresses. I am sure you will all have fun shopping for your outfits which you can do this weekend as I have decided to make it an extra Hogsmeade weekend. The 8th years," she added, looking to the 8th year table, "Are lucky to have been invited at all and should not need to be reminded to be on their best behaviour."

The 8th years must have looked sufficiently ashamed because McGonagall seemed pleased with their reaction to her intense glare, or maybe she just liked scaring people. McGonagall thanked them for listening and sat back down. As soon as she had the hall began to buzz with excitement as everyone talked about what they were going to where or who they would bring as their date.

***

On Saturday morning everybody ate and walked into Hogsmeade together before splitting off into groups to do their shopping. Daphne, Harry, Draco, Hermione, Sadie and Theo went off to a designer shop at the top of the village. Tracey, Dean, Neville, Hannah, Susan and Lilly went to a much cheaper shop at the start of the village. Theo and Draco were paying for both their dress robes and their girlfriends dresses so it had been their choice to go to the expensive shop so they could treat their other halves and themselves. Harry was the one paying for everything for himself and Daphne but he didn't particularly like designer clothes personally. However, he was smart enough to know that this was one of those occasions where he had to bite his tongue and remember that he was dating a high maintenance Slytherin pureblood.

When they walked into the expensive shop a very gay shop assistant came over and gushed over the girls amazing figures then ushered them over to the dress section. Thankfully there were exceptionally comfy chairs that Draco, Harry and Theo fell into, then they opened a pack of cards to pass the time by playing exploding snap.

Daphne looked at dresses for 2 hours before eventually trying on 6 and deciding on the last one. Harry sighed in relief when she came out with a smile on her face; he was _starving _and wanted to get out of this bloody shop. The dress was beautiful though; it was aqua blue and looked perfect with her blonde hair. The dress was long, silky and figure-hugging. The straps and bodice were silver sequined and the back was open, it was sexy, revealing and very Daphne. Harry told Daphne that he thought it was beautiful and she said to the shop assistant that she'd have it. He said it was an excellent choice and bagged it for her. Daphne then took another half an hour to pick out matching dress robes for Harry. The shop assistant smiled and said, "That will be 230 Galleons, 34 Silver Sickles and 8 Knuts please."

Harry muttered under his breath and summoned Kreacher. The elf appeared at once and bowed to Harry.

"Kreacher, take this receipt immediately to Gringotts and have them transfer the funds to the account on the receipt," Harry informed his elf. As most Wizards didn't carry that kind of money around with them; this was how rich Wizarding families did things. The elf vanished immediately and 5 minutes later the wizard at the desk smiled, said that the funds had been transferred and handed them their purchases. Harry muttered to Draco that he had just paid an extortionate amount of money to look like he was from bloody Beauxbatons.

Hermione complained about the prices of the dresses and said it was ridiculous for Draco to buy her something that expensive. Draco rolled his eyes, "Hermione, you could buy any dress in here and it would hardly make a dent on my bank account."

Hermione glared at him, "Just because you're a rich bastard doesn't mean you have to buy me the best of everything."

"Actually, it sort of does," Draco joked, "Now pick a dress or I'll let Harry pick one for you."

"Oh God no," Hermione muttered which caused both Harry and Draco to laugh as Hermione looked through dresses and found 2 to try on. Unlike Daphne she tried them both on and said she liked them both and asked Draco which one he preferred.

He examined them both and said, "The green one is nice because its Slytherin colours but the blue one makes your boobs look bigger, go for the blue one."

Hermione glared playfully at her boyfriend, "I was going to go for the blue one anyway but thank you very much Mr. Sarcastic."

Draco did a fake bow and Hermione laughed and did one last twirl for him. The dress she had chosen was a subtle blue and was floor length and figure-hugging. It had a silver sequined strip under the bust and matching silver sequined straps. The neckline was very low but it worked for Hermione and it didn't look particularly revealing. Once Hermione had her dress sorted Draco looked through robes and came strutting out of the changing rooms wearing silver robes, Harry and Theo laughed but the robes actually kind of worked for him. He decided he looked marvellous, Hermione said she liked them and as easily as that they bought their items. Draco had used Kreacher, which was what gave Harry the idea, but by that point Daphne hadn't even tried a dress on yet. They then left to do their own shopping and agreed to meet up before going to find a mask.

Sadie was rather like Hermione, although she came from a high class pureblood family and was used to shopping in places like this one so it didn't seem unusual to spend so much money on clothes for her. She looked through dresses for a while with Daphne; about an hour after Draco and Hermione had left she tried on the first few. She described them all as depreciating to her figure in some way until finally she came out in a simple classical style dress that suited her perfectly. The dress was cream with a corset bodice. The bodice had a gold strip up the middle with gold ribbon tightening the corset at the front. It was pretty much strapless with sleeves that fell to the sides for decoration rather than to hold it up. The skirt also had gold strip down it matching that on the bodice. Theo had grinned when she'd bought it and had bounded out of the changing rooms wearing gold robes, just to outsmart Draco. Like his Slytherin counterpart he really pulled them off so with their items bought by Theo's house elf Konky they left after an hour and a half in the shop. Poor Harry was stuck in the place for another 2 hours with his high maintenance girlfriend who had promised she would make it up to him later.

***

Things had been much easier in the cheaper dress shop for the others. Neville and Dean sat down in hard, un-comfy chairs and brought out a game of pocket wizards chess to pass the time but they had been surprised at how fast the girls had picked out dresses.

Hannah had only tried a few on when she came out in a beautiful lemon yellow dress; it looked lovely against her tanned skin and blonde hair. The dress was floor length with a halter neck. It had a silver sequined strip under the bust and the halter neck strap was also silver sequined. Neville bought a new set of black dress robes that were flecked with silver and at just 24 Galleons, 13 Silver Sickles and 3 Knuts, much less than Harry had paid at the designer shop.

Dean was surprised when Tracey came out after only trying on 3 dresses and he had to admit the one she had chosen was very her, it was unique. Unlike everyone else who seemed to be buying long dresses, this dress stopped just above the knee. The dress was very figure hugging at the waist and was strapless. The skirt was dotted with black sequins and the hem of the dress was adorned with gold sequins. Dean, like Neville, picked out a new set of black dress robes with gold fastenings and they sat down and waited with Neville and Hannah for Susan and Lilly.

Susan didn't take too long either, she came out after trying on 5 dresses and said she was pretty sure the one she had on now was the one for her. Susan's dress was like her, sexy. It was floor-length with a slit that started mid-thigh. The dress was strapless and very revealing, but Susan had the chest to pull it off. It was made up of lots of tiny gold and silver squares arranged like a mosaic and there was a cream strip under the bust.

Lilly took the longest because she lived in jeans and hated wearing dresses so it took her forever to find one. When she eventually found a dress and tried it on though, it ended up being the one that she bought. It was a simple knee length white dress, it was strapless and had a deep blue ribbon just below the bust that tied at the back. The entire dress was covered in dark blue and light blue flowers and it looked lovely with Lilly's dark hair.

With everything bought the group left the shop after only an hour and decided to go grab a drink and some lunch in the Three Broomsticks because they knew the others would take much longer.

***

As it so happened, they all ended up meeting up in the mask shop. Harry, Daphne, Draco, Hermione, Theo and Sadie had stopped for lunch at a cafe and made their way to the shop just as Neville, Hannah, Tracey, Dean and Susan were entering. Luckily this didn't take as long as it had taken to get the dresses. The boys left the girls to get both masks since apparently they had to match their outfits. They set themselves up in the corner for a massive game of exploding snap.

Daphne picked out a blue and white eye mask for herself with a blue jewel in the centre. She picked out a silver and black eye mask for Harry, it was silver and glittery and around the eyes were two black swans facing each other. He grumbled that it was a bit girly but told Daphne he would wear it.

Hermione picked out a blue and silver eye mask for herself. It was silver mainly and like Harry's it had two swans facing each other around the eye holes but the swans were blue instead. She picked one out for Draco that was perfect, it was mainly metallic silver but the nose and above the eyes was a dark navy blue.

Sadie got a simple eye mask for herself that was lined with white lace. For Theo, to match his robes, she bought him a white mask with a gold trim that was adorned with stars and moons.

Hannah picked out a beautiful gold eye mask. It was speckled with gold sequins and had a gold lace trim. For Neville she picked out a mask similar to Theo's. It was black with a gold trim and gold stars and moons.

With everything bought they happily made their way back to the castle after what had been an exciting day for the girls and a boring day for the guys (as shopping for these events always was). Thank Merlin it was over, again.

**TBC :)**


	29. Potter Manor

Harry was lying on his bed reading a book when a thought struck him about New Year's.

"Hey, Draco..." Harry called out.

"Yeah?" Draco called back.

"You decent?" Harry asked and when Draco said he was, with a flick of his wand Harry pulled back the curtain that Draco had erected to separate their halves of the dorm room.

"I was thinking of having a New Year's party."

"That's a good idea," Draco said thoughtfully, "Here? At Hogwarts?"

Harry shook his head, "Nah, that's where I was struggling...I was trying to think of somewhere to have it. Grimmauld Place has a ballroom but it probably hasn't been used in about 20 years."

Draco nodded, "Hmm," he said, "Do you mind if I go get Hermione and Daphne?"

"Sure," Harry said as he watched Draco get up and stretch, "Why?"

Draco shrugged, "Well if we're going to brainstorm this properly we need them."

Harry chuckled and said Draco was probably right then the Slytherin vanished from the room. Harry went back to his book but he was too busy thinking about the possibility of the party to really read it. Draco returned to their dorm room with the two girls about 15 minutes later.

"Here's the thing Harry, I have an idea but it would involve giving you your Christmas present early," Hermione said with a mischievous glint in her eye.

"Okay," Harry said, "I don't mind."

Hermione smiled at Draco and Daphne, were they all in on this?

"Well, we can go now…if you'd like," Hermione suggested.

Harry nodded eagerly, "Are we apparating there?"

Hermione nodded and Harry said, "We'll go from the balcony then."

"Harry," Hermione sighed, "You can't apparate in or out of Hogwarts."

"You can from our balcony," Draco said with a grin as he explained, "Did you not notice that this balcony just suddenly appeared?"

"That's right," Daphne realised, "It wasn't here before this became your dorm room."

Harry nodded and elaborated, "Some theorists believe that after having magic used on her and inside her for so many years Hogwarts has become sentient, so for some reason we can apparate from this balcony."

Hermione didn't believe them until she stood on the balcony and held Harry's hand then twisted to apparate thinking nothing would happen. Then she opened her eyes and they were standing outside the building where she had wanted to take them.

Harry gaped, "Potter Manor," he breathed. He could tell that something was different about the house, he had been here only once and it had been a ruin. It hadn't been completely destroyed but the roof had large parts missing from it and all of the windows had been blown out. It was by no means as good as new but the roof was repaired, as were the windows. It still had a slightly wild look about it though, with the garden entirely overgrown and ivy still creeping up the walls.

"It isn't entirely finished on the outside,' Hermione said quickly, "But the inside is finished. It's not huge of course, not like Malfoy Manor. But there are about 10 bedrooms in there and a big ballroom, oh and there's a drawing room and a tapestry room."

"I've never been inside," Harry said as his feet began to carry him towards the house, "I just looked at it from the outside the last time I was here."

"Well we tried our best to restore all of the furniture that we could," Draco said, "But the stuff in the flooded wing was beyond repair."

“So we replaced it all instead,” Daphne said with a smile.

Harry sped up and paused at the door, "Did you install blood wards?"

"Yeah," Draco said, "At the moment I can access the house too because I'm a distant relative, same with Daphne. But you can lock us out if you want."

Harry shook his head and placed his hand on the door. It immediately recognised him and swung open. He took a slightly shaky breath and stepped into the modest entrance hall. There was a large staircase in front of him, and the walls were lit by candles in golden chandeliers. The stairs were made from marble and had golden railings. There were three doors leading off of the entrance hall. One to the right, one to the left and one behind the stairs.

"That little door there goes to the elves kitchen," Draco said as he pointed to the door behind the stairs.

"This one goes to the drawing room which also doubles as a ballroom," Daphne said as she pointed to the right.

"And that one goes to a huge library with a little study inside it," Hermione finished as she pointed at the door to the left.

"What's upstairs?" Harry asked eagerly.

"There are three more floors. There is a living room and a dining room on the next floor. There are a couple of bedrooms up there too," Hermione said.

"And the third and fourth floor are basically filled with bedrooms," Draco added, “But there's a basement too, a huge one."

"And we decked it out for you," Daphne grinned, "Come on. We'll give you the tour."

They led Harry through the house which felt foreign to him even though it was _Potter _Manor. The first room he saw was the drawing room/ballroom which had white walls and a large marble fireplace at the end of the room. On one wall was his own family tree. The background was white and the tree and all of its leaves, including the writing was golden. Harry didn't even bother hiding his tears as he admired the wall. The only furniture in the room were a few gold and red sofas and some oak coffee tables. The other room on this floor was the library which was probably about half the size of the Hogwarts library. There were high bookshelves lining every wall and it also doubled up as a study with a few oak tables and chairs dotted around the room.

On the second floor there was the formal dining room which also had white walls and a large oak table with matching oak chairs. The portraits on the walls all had names under them and were his ancestors going right back to Ignotius Peverell. Also on the 2nd floor was a small bedroom that had its own bathroom attached to it, with white walls and a four-poster bed with gold hangings. There was also a smaller living area than the downstairs drawing room. This floor was minimal though because the drawing room/ballroom had a high ceiling which took up the majority of the 2nd floor. There was a kitchen area too though, a far grander one than in Grimmauld Place. It had a marble floor and marble counters, there was a huge range cooker and also a large oak table in the centre of the room with matching oak chairs.

The 3rd floor was mostly filled with bedrooms, all of which had ensuite bathrooms. The 4th floor had a large master bedroom which Hermione had decorated with the same white walls and four-poster, this one had red and gold hangings however. There was also a small coffee table and a red and gold sofa, as well as a large oak wardrobe and chest of drawers. There were several other bedrooms filling the floor too.

As they stood in the master bedroom Harry swallowed a lump in his throat and said, "I can't thank you enough for this Hermione-"

Draco cut in, "We aren't done yet, you haven't seen the basement."

Harry frowned, he wondered how much work you could do to a basement as he followed the others back down to the bottom of the house. All of the floors that didn't have carpets were marble and all of the candleholders and railings were gold, it certainly looked like a grand manor. When they reached the entrance hall Hermione led them through the small door at the back. There were stairs to the basement and a door to the right of them which clearly led to the house elves kitchen. They walked down the stairs and when they reached the basement Harry was amazed. It was a duelling room and it looked amazing. This room was long and thin with a large platform in the middle. The platform was wooden with a red mat adorned with gold stars. At the end of the room was a bar, Hermione knew Harry so well.

Harry, suffice to say, broke down into tears and hugged Hermione, Draco and Daphne in turn. Draco got them all a glass of firewhiskey and they sat at the bar.

"How did you do all of this?" Harry asked as he hurried wiped his eyes.

"Well, I organised it all with Kreacher. Draco funded it but Kreacher and I did the hard work, Daphne helped too but this room was all Draco's idea," Hermione said.

Harry grinned at the Slytherin, "Thanks mate."

Draco shrugged with a sheepish smile and sipped from his glass of firewhiskey, "So, are we having this party or what?"

Harry grinned, "Definitely," he said, raising his glass and saying, "To the most amazing friends in the bloody world!"

The others echoed this sentiment and drained their glasses of firewhiskey.

***

"So when's Ron picking you up for the Yule Ball, Lilly?" Hermione asked her friend cheerfully as December marched on rapidly.

"He isn't," Lilly said miserably as she stared blankly at her Ancient Runes translation worksheet.

Hermione frowned, "Did McGonagall say he couldn't come? That's a bit harsh, I mean he was an 8th year up until-"

"No, she said he could come," Lilly sighed, "But he said no when I asked him."

"He said no?" Hermione asked in disbelief.

Lilly nodded, "He said he wanted to spend Christmas Eve with his family."

"He said that?"

"Yep," Lilly said, "And got quite snappy about it too...it's a long story."

"Well I've not got anything to do tonight," Hermione said honestly.

"Alright," Lilly frowned, "Well this is how it started..."

"_What do you mean no?"_

"_I mean I actually want to spend Christmas Eve with my family this year after all that happened last year!" Ron said irritably._

_Lilly watched him with a frown from where she stood leaning against the gates that separated Hogwarts from Hogsmeade. The snow was falling all around them and they were both wrapped up to keep the cold out._

"_Well I understand that," Lilly said honestly, "But won't you just come for an hour or so?"_

"_No," Ron said simply, "I don't want to waste my time at some stupid ball Lilly! Why don't you come to the Burrow me?"_

"_I've already bought my dress," Lilly frowned, "And I really want to go to the ball Ron. I never went in 4th Year because I didn't have a date. I don't want to miss this one."_

"_Go on your own then," Ron said irritably._

"_Fine!" Lilly snapped, "Enjoy Christmas with your bloody family!"_

"_Wait, Lilly-" Ron called as Lilly turned on her heel and began to head back up to the castle. She responded by sticking her middle finger up at him behind her back..._

"Well it sounds like he was being selfish and inconsiderate, as usual," Hermione said with a shake of her head, "Have you two broken up?"

"I don't think so," Lilly admitted, "But that did happen two days ago and he hasn't written since so I don't know. Do you think I should write to him?'"

"No," Hermione said, "He's stubborn...he would just ignore your letter. He'll come crawling back when he cools down."

"Yeah and how long does that take?" Lilly sighed.

"Days if you're lucky and weeks if you're not," Hermione admitted sheepishly.

"I can't be bothered with this," Lilly admitted with a shake of her head, "I wanted an adult relationship."

"With Ron?" Hermione asked in surprise, "Well I hate to break it to you Lilly but I think he'll always be a little immature, as nice as he is."

"I'm starting to think so too," Lilly said as she touched her head with a groan, "This stress is not helping my migraines."

Hermione sighed, "I'm sorry, I feel like this is my fault. I feel like I should have warned you about Ron."

"No, don't be stupid Hermione," Lilly yawned, "I'm big enough to make my own mistakes."

"Are you saying dating Ron is one of those mistakes?" Hermione asked curiously.

"Yeah," Lilly said as she gathered her books and got to her feet, "I'm beginning to think so."

***

Classes ended on Friday the 19th of December and at dinner that day an announcement was given that shocked Harry and Hermione. McGonagall called for attention and stood up, "I would like to pass over to Hagrid who has an announcement to make."

Hagrid stood up, he looked a little embarrassed as he nodded to the hall, "I just thought ter let yer all know that I'm stepping down as Care of Magical Creatures Professor and that ye'll have a new teacher after Christmas."

Hermione and Harry had gaped at each other as the students politely applauded and Hagrid sat back down. They silently agreed to get the invisibility cloak out later and go visit him, for old times' sake.

There was a party planned for that night which was set to kick off at 8pm so as Neville and Draco were sneaking alcohol into the common room Harry threw the cloak over himself and Hermione and they made their way through the empty castle and across the freezing cold grounds to Hagrid's hut. They knocked on the door and when he opened it and saw nothing but air he said, "Come in Harry."

Harry shot Hermione a grin under the cloak and they took it off and walked into the warm hut. They sat down at the table instinctively and Hagrid asked them if they wanted a cup of tea. They said yes and he got to work boiling the kettle.

"Hagrid, you're not leaving, are you?" Harry asked rather vulnerably, Hagrid had been a constant figure in his life. Every year he'd been there to give him tea or talk to him when he felt alone, no matter what role he played in Harry's wizarding life he'd always been there.

Hagrid turned around to face them with a frown, "No, o' course not!" he seemed appalled at the suggestion, "I'm stayin' as gamekeeper. I'm jus' retiring from teachin'."

"Why?" Hermione asked curiously.

Hagrid blushed as he set down two large mugs on tea and some rock cakes in front of Harry and Hermione, "Well ter be honest, it's so I can spend more time with my fiancé."

Harry and Hermione gaped some more, "Fiancé?" They asked, in unison.

Hagrid nodded, his face went pink and he said, "Olympe has been comin' over every so often and I asked her ter marry me and she said yes."

"Oh Hagrid!" Hermione gushed, "That's brilliant! Congratulations!" she bounded at the half giant and hugged him, embarrassing him even more.

Harry just smiled and said, "That's great Hagrid, congratulations."

They sat and talked over tea and rock cakes for a little longer and then they made their way back up to the castle to get changed and have a damn good party.

***

The party that night didn't get out of hand too quickly but it _did _get out of hand. Professor Sinistra, who taught Astronomy, was the first to come up to put an end to their partying. Sinistra, however, was one of the youngest teachers. She was around the same age, Harry assumed, as Charlie Weasley. Harry and Ron had often talked about how she was the only teacher in the school they would ever consider an illustrious affair with because she was extremely attractive. Sinistra had tanned skin and long brown hair; she had brown eyes and high cheekbones, as well as Angelina Jolie lips.

"Guys, I know it's the end of term," She called over the noise, "But I think you should quieten down a little."

They solemnly agreed but the moment Sinistra had left the common room the party was in full swing once more. Her appearance had sparked an interesting discussion however.

"She's in my top 5," Draco said casually.

Harry grinned, "Oh I know, mine too…and Ron's I bet."

"And mine," Theo piped up in amusement.

Hermione was frowning at them, "And what exactly is that?"

"You've never heard of a top 5?" Draco asked in astonishment. Hermione shook her head so he explained, "The 5 people you would have sex with if you had the chance. Who are yours?"

Hermione didn't actually look annoyed. In fact, she linked her arm through his and gently pulled him towards the boys dorms rooms as she whispered, "Draco Malfoy, Draco Malfoy, Draco Malfoy, Draco Malfoy."

Draco grinned, "That's only 4 love."

Hermione smirked, "Oh yeah, and Harry Potter."

"Oi!" Draco objected, sounding mildly offended.

Hermione grinned as she pushed him into the dorm room and kissed him.

***

After the party the group decided to do their Christmas shopping so they got up, got dressed, ate and made their way to the gates to apparate to Diagon Alley. Once they arrived via the Leaky Cauldron they split up into men and women, to get their other halves presents first. Harry, Draco, Theo, Neville and Dean went off in one direction and Daphne, Hermione, Sadie, Tracey, Hannah and Susan (who had joined them, because she was fast becoming a close friend of Daphne and Hermione's) went off in another direction.

They shopped for a while, taking a long time to pick the perfect gifts but when the boys made their way to the Leaky Cauldron for lunch they were satisfied. The girls took a bit longer but when they came back laden with bags they seemed happy too. They were all about to sit down and eat some lunch when they heard a familiar voice a few tables away.

The voice rasped, "Can I get you a drink?"

An unfamiliar voice replied, "Yes, a sherry please."

The raspy voice of Filch gave the order to Tom, the barman, and Harry glanced behind him to get a quick look. He didn't recognise the woman with Filch. She had long, wavy blonde hair and dark black rimmed glasses. She was wearing pale lilac robes and a dark violet cloak.

"How are you holding up today?" Filch asked the woman and Harry had to admit, he barely recognised the caretaker. He was wearing black trousers, a black shirt and his dark brown overcoat, he had combed his hair and it looked browner and less grey, he looked 10 years younger.

The woman replied, "I'm okay, all things considered. I still miss Marlene and Matthew every day."

Filch nodded, "The McKinnon’s were good people."

It seemed that everyone at their table had gone quiet to listen to this conversation which was kind of unfair but it was interesting and they were all nosy.

"It takes me back to it all," The woman said, sounding sad and fed up, "Marlene and Matthew were the first to go and I still had Alice and Lily…but then in one night I had lost my closest friends and my fiancé."

Filch looked sympathetic but they couldn't really see the woman's face because of the way she was sitting. This woman, she had been friends with his parents…and Neville's parents.

***

Trelawney sipped at her sherry as there was silence at their table.

"Is that why you..." Filch trailed off but Trelawney nodded, "I locked away that part of me to protect myself and everyone thought I was crazy."

She couldn't stop the flashbacks as she told her story properly for the first time. She remembered the night she had turned up at Godric's Hollow to find Lily and James dead, Alice and Frank being shipped off to St. Mungo's and their two baby boys being sent off to different parts of the country. She remembered the guilt; she had given the prophecy that had killed two of her friends. She remembered how angry he had been, how much he had blamed her.

_Trelawney was sitting with a cold cup of coffee in her hands when Remus Lupin walked into the small cottage they shared together._

_He had clearly just come from the wreckage. He looked distraught, angry, tired and fed up. He had just lost everything, all of his friends in 24 hours… just like she had. _

_She stood to hug him, to find comfort in him but that wasn't what she received. He pushed her back when she tried to hug him and screamed at her at the top of his lungs. This was a man who she had never seen angry before. She could smell the firewhiskey on his breath, his eyes were red and bloodshot and he looked terrible, like he had just spent hours in a pub trying to drink away his misery._

"_YOU KILLED THEM! YOU KILLED THEM ALL WITH YOUR STUPID PROPHECY! YOU KILLED OUR CLOSEST FRIENDS!"_

_Trelawney shrunk back as he magically packed everything he owned in the house into a suitcase in the space of 5 minutes._

_She begged with him, tried to reason with him, "I didn't know! When I gave it I didn't know and I didn't realise Snape was listening. Remus please, I lost everything tonight too. Please Remus, don't go! Remus, don't leave me like this, Remus, REMUS!"_

_In the end she was left in the pouring rain on her knees watching him walk briskly away with his suitcase in his hand. He apparated when he reached the gate and she didn’t see him again for several years._

"What happened to you?" Filch asked, he sounded curious but not just in a nosy way. In a caring way, like he wanted to find out more about her.

Trelawney sighed and looked down as she took a breath to compose herself, "I'm not quite sure. I know that Dumbledore found me and that he took me to St. Mungos."

_When Albus Dumbledore arrived at the cottage Sybil Trelawney shared with Remus Lupin he was shocked and horrified at the sight. The entire house was gone. All that was left of it was ashes and bits of blackened timber. In the middle of the wreckage sat Sybil Trelawney, curled up into a ball, rocking back and forth with a picture of herself, Lily, Alice and Marlene. She kept repeating the same phrase over and over again._

"_I killed them. I killed them. I killed them."_

_Dumbledore had gone over to her and she had jumped when he touched her face. She was covered in soot and ash as Dumbledore picked her up and carried her down the path, away from the burnt wreckage. She was as light as a child and he felt truly sorry for her. A tear fell down his face as he apparated to St. Mungo’s._

_The healers took her away and performed tests and Dumbledore waited for hours until they were done, he sat in the waiting room and read magazine after magazine._

_When the healers finally came out, they had bad news._

Trelawney continued, "The healers told Dumbledore that I had locked a third of my brain away, it wasn't functioning anymore. I could still live and perform everyday tasks but the part of my brain that contained my memories and emotions was shut off and because of that I was no longer a seer."

Filch nodded, he was intrigued by her story, "So when you made those few real predictions? Was that the part you locked away coming back?"

Trelawney smiled, she was glad that he understood, "To an extent yes. After I made a real prediction 5 years ago little bits slowly began to come back but then something changed. Once Harry Potter defeated Voldemort it was as if I had closure and the part I had locked away came alive again."

"So, when you weren't yourself and Lupin taught at Hogwarts, you didn't recognise him?" Filch asked.

Trelawney shook her head, "No, I had no idea who he was."

_Remus Lupin approached her cautiously when he got the first chance to talk to her alone, in a corridor somewhere on the 5th floor._

"_Sybil?"_

_Trelawney smiled at him, "Yes? Do I know you?"_

_Remus frowned, "I'm Remus Lupin."_

_Trelawney thought very hard and shook her head, "No, I don't think I remember you," she said._

_Remus had been told all about her breakdown so he just nodded a little sadly and said, "We went to Hogwarts together."_

"_Oh, yes," Trelawney said, "I recognise your face." _

_They didn't speak much for the rest of the year and Remus was in love with Nymphadora Tonks when Trelawney regained enough of her memories to understand who he had been to her._

Trelawney smiled and pushed the thoughts of Remus away, "Anyway, that's enough about me," she said, "Whats your story?"

Filch sighed and looked embarrassed, "I never knew my Father; he was imprisoned when I was 4 months old. Dumbledore was close friends with him so he took me in but he realised I was a squib when I never got a Hogwarts letter. So he sent me to Muggle school and when I left at 18 he gave me a job at Hogwarts," he gave her a wry smile, "He thought it would stabilise me."

Trelawney chuckled, "He's good that way," she said, "He gave me the job at Hogwarts to keep me in a stable environment so I didn't relapse and shut off any other parts of my brain."

Filch gave her another wry smile and they sipped their drinks silently for a moment before Trelawney spoke again, "That can't be all there is to your story. I might have been a fake for years but I _am _a seer and I can tell something happened that left you bitter and angry."

Filch shrugged, “Nobody knows it apart from Dumbledore but my Father was Grindelwald. He'd have been so ashamed if he ever found out his son was a squib, he probably would have killed me. My second name was changed by Dumbledore to protect me from the inevitable hate that would come my way if anyone knew of my true parentage.”

“I can understand why you would need protection,” She said as she glanced thoughtfully at the opposite wall.

Filch sighed and drank deeply from his glass of firewhiskey. Now that he had started talking he couldn't stop, “I met an incredible witch when I first started working at Hogwarts. She was called Miranda Norris and she was the flying coach before Rolanda took over.”

"Norris," Trelawney said, smiling too, "Like your cat."

The smile fell away as Filch's face darkened. He nodded, "We got married and she fell pregnant. She was 7 months pregnant when she got dragon pox and the baby had to be delivered premature. The process killed Miranda and I was left on my own with a baby girl."

"I never realised you had a daughter," Trelawney gasped, he had never mentioned it and she had never seen a girl with Filch.

"She's gone now," Filch said, his voice was raspier than usual, "She went to Hogwarts and became a Ravenclaw like her Mother. She was about to sit her N.E.W.T's in 7th year when she got dragon pox…like her Mother."

"I'm so sorry Argus," Trelawney said, "It must be awful, your child dying before you."

"She isn't dead," Filch said, his eyes darted from the table to the floor and back again, "But she might as well be."

At the look of shock and confusion on Trelawney's face Filch elaborated, "Abraxas Malfoy offered me a miracle cure to save my daughter. He told me it was ground-breaking new magic that would pave the way for St. Mungo's. That much was true but what he didn't tell me was that it was still very much in the experimental phase. He transformed her into a cat because they are immune to the virus and after a week he realised that he couldn't change her back."

Trelawney looked horrified, "So Mrs. Norris is..."

She didn't need to finish the thought because Filch nodded, he was unable to look at her, "So I understand your pain, it's my fault my daughters imprisoned the way she is. It wasn't accidental that Malfoy couldn't change her back. He found out that I was Grindelwald's son and he was enraged that I was a squib; he decided to punish me by taking the magic out of my skilled daughter. She'd gotten an O in every single one of her O.W.L's.”

"That's disgusting," Trelawney said, she was close to tears at the end of his tale.

Filch shrugged, he had clearly grown accustomed to the fact his daughter was a cat.

"How long has it been?"

"13 years."

"Is that why you hate magic, because of what it did to your daughter?"

Filch only gave her a nod as he drained his glass of firewhiskey.

"What was her name?" Trelawney asked softly.

"Melody," Filch replied and his eyes swam with tears.

"That's a beautiful name."

"It was."

***

Everyone was silent when they got back to Hogwarts. They didn't talk as they trudged up the snowy path to the warmth of the entrance hall. Nobody wanted dinner so they made their way to the common room where they split off into smaller groups.

Draco made his way upstairs and although Hermione knew he wanted to be alone, she also knew he needed someone to talk to so she followed him up the stairs and into his room.

"I'm sorry…about your Grandfather."

Draco just shook his head. He was angry but not at her, "I thought he was perfect. You know how it is, you can point out the faults with your parents but it seems like your Grandparents can do no wrong."

Hermione nodded, she did understand. Draco seemed close to tears as he had been in the pub, “He taught me how to fly, he took me to every Quidditch match…he used to sit up all night with me and tell me stories."

Hermione gently placed her arm on Draco's as he said, "I can't believe he did that to someone, a girl our age, just to advance medical magic."

"He was ambitious and would do anything to achieve his ends. Draco, isn't that how Slytherins are described?" Hermione asked, although the question was rhetorical.

"I always thought he was different," Draco mused, "I didn't think he was pure evil, like I thought my Father was."

"He wasn't a Death Eater," Hermione said, not sure if it helped or not, "He wasn't exactly a nice person and Melody Filch wasn't the first person sacrificed in the name of research but if it helps you sleep at night, he wasn't a Death Eater."

"How do you know all of this?" Draco asked, he sniffed and pretended to stretch as he dried his eyes.

Hermione looked sheepish, "I researched you a little, before we started dating."

Draco's eyes widened, "You did what?" he asked in a dangerous whisper.

Hermione shrunk back slightly, "Draco, the war had just ended. Nobody really knew if you actually had reformed, I had to be careful. You dating me could have been some big plot for revenge."

"You thought I'd do that?" Draco asked; the hurt in his voice was painful to Hermione. She didn't get a chance to speak as he continued, "You thought I would pretend to love you? And what do you think now? Do you still think it's just a big plot for revenge?"

Tears began to fall from her eyes as she said, "No, no of course not! But everything changed, Draco! I was falling in love with someone I had hated for years. We were becoming friends with people we hadn't spoken to in 7 years and it was all so confusing and I was scared!" she said all of this very quickly and flung herself at Draco who held her close and hugged her tightly.

"I'm sorry, I do understand," Draco sighed gently as he hugged her.

***

When Harry came downstairs on the 21st of December the common room was in the middle of a massive transformation. There was a huge Christmas tree in the middle of the room that most of the 8th years were helping to decorate. There were banners all around the room and Daphne was whistling a Christmas tune to herself as she hung mistletoe over various doorways.

Harry grinned, he walked up behind her, grabbed her around the middle and pulled her off of the stool she was standing on. She squealed as he spun her around, set her down on the ground and kissed her, "Good morning," he said.

Daphne giggled, "Good morning," she replied, “What do you think?"

Harry grinned, "I think it looks fantastic and you are brilliant."

"I know, I know," Daphne joked, she kissed Harry again and climbed back up onto her stool to finish the mistletoe she was working on. The common room did look fantastic, it reminded him of the way Muggle’s decorated their fake Santa's grotto.

***

Harry, who had gotten up closer to lunchtime than breakfast, had made his way to the kitchens for brunch and then spent the rest of the afternoon helping the others finish off the common room. When it was finished they all had dinner and sat down to relax in their new winter wonderland that night.

Daphne and Harry were snuggling on the couch when the conversation started that caused them to have their first argument as a couple.

"I can't wait until the New Year's party," Harry was saying to Draco as he sat with one arm around Daphne and the other writing a list of invitations to be sent out after Christmas to the guests.

"Me either," Draco agreed as he thought about who else they needed to put on the guest list. He leaned over and tried to make out Harry's scrawled list. It read:

"_Weasleys + partners._

_8th year._

_McG, Flitwick, Sprout, Tree, Sinistra, Polia, Hagrid._

_Luna & Ginny._

_Daph fam._

_Mr + Mrs G. _

_Draco fam._

_Sad fam._

_Theo fam._

_Trac fam._

_Andy + Teddy._

_King Shackle._

_Krum._

_Cho?_

_Dud + Pet._

_Wood, Spin, Bell._

_Abe."_

"Harry, your writing is unbelievably bad. What is sadfam?"

"What?" Harry asked, he then looked to where Draco was pointing, "Its Sadie family, fam means family and the names are shortened."

"Who is King Shackle?"

"Kingsley Shacklebolt."

"Why have you put Trelawney down as Tree?"

"Because Trelawney is too long and I can't spell it."

"Why is McGonagall called McG?"

"Because I know she prefers it to Minnie."

Draco raised an eyebrow at him but before anymore could be said Daphne interrupted, "Aren't you going to be excited about Christmas before you get excited about New Years?"

Harry shrugged, "I prefer New Year, I've never really been big on Christmas."

"Why?" Daphne asked, she seemed to take it as a personal blow.

Harry shrugged, "I just don't think it's worth all the fuss."

"But _why_?" Daphne asked, she was getting more annoyed by the second.

"I just don't see why it's such a big deal, alright?" Harry snapped, her tone was making him a bit annoyed too.

"Whatever," Daphne said, she stood up, slammed her book shut and stormed up the girl's staircase.

"Daphne, what the hell?" Harry called, he hurried up the stairs after her into her dorm.

"Maybe _you _don't like Christmas Potter but _I _do!" Daphne shouted and Harry couldn't fathom why she was so angry.

"Okay fair enough, you are allowed to like Christmas! Calm down!" Harry shouted but not angrily, just so she would listen to him.

Daphne glared at him and sat down on her bed.

Harry rolled his eyes, "Just because you like something doesn't mean everyone else has to,” he explained, “Now what the hell is the big deal about Christmas with you?"

Daphne was silent for a while and Harry didn't think she was going to speak so after 10 minutes of silence he turned to leave. Daphne chose that moment to start speaking.

"When I was a kid my Dad hated Christmas. He didn't let us celebrate it. We got one present every year and apart from that it was treated as a normal day. There was never a tree or decorations or a fancy meal, it was just an average day," Daphne said quietly. Harry sat down next to her on the bed and put his arm around her.

"So when I got to Hogwarts and saw how it was celebrated I loved it and I threw myself into it and every year I enjoy Christmas like it's the last one I'll have because it only comes around once a year," Daphne explained, she leaned into Harry and hugged him.

"Do you know what age I was when I got my first Christmas present?" Harry asked Daphne who shook her head.

"I suppose I got one for my first Christmas, before my parents died but I don't remember it. So excluding that time, I got my first Christmas present when I was 11 years old."

"Really?" Daphne asked in surprise.

"You know all about the Muggles I lived with," Harry said, "They used to give their son piles of presents every year but I never got anything. They used to sit and watch television and phone their family members and friends while I slaved all day in the kitchen cooking their Christmas dinner and after all that hard work, I didn't even get a proper meal. I got the odd potatoes that were burnt and the bits of turkey that were too chewy or had too much fat on them. Then they had a huge trifle after, enough to feed 6 but they ate it all. I didn't ever get offered a tiny portion."

"Is that why you don't like Christmas?" Daphne asked, she suddenly felt very sorry for her boyfriend.

Harry nodded, "It did get better when I came to Hogwarts and don't get me wrong, I do enjoy Christmas day but this year especially I can't wait for New Year. I've always preferred celebrating the day the old year dies and the new one starts with so many fresh starts and new possibilities over the birthday of some incredible religious figure called Jesus."

Daphne smiled, she leant over and kissed him, "I'm sorry."

"So am I," Harry said as he kissed Daphne once more for good measure.

They agreed not to argue about stupid things again but all arguments and disagreements were soon forgotten about as the Yule Ball loomed ever closer...

**TBC :)**


	30. The Yule Ball

It was Christmas Eve and Hogwarts looked beautiful, both inside and out. The grounds had been coated with a covering of fluffy new snow the night before, the mountains in the distance were pure white and the sky was bright and wintery. Inside the castle there were several large Christmas trees covered with fake snow and decorated with multi-coloured baubles, the halls were freezing but the air was alive with Christmas spirit and excitement.

Several people were staying for the Yule Ball this year so the Hogwarts Express was leaving at 12.30 that night, meaning that it would be an overnight train and it would arrive in London in the early hours of the morning on Christmas day. That meant that everyone got to spend Christmas day with their families. It had taken a while but Harry had finally decided what to do for Christmas, he along with Draco, Daphne, Hermione, Neville, Hannah and Susan would go to Potter Manor after the Yule Ball. On Christmas day they were having a big dinner at the Manor, Harry was nervous because he had invited Daphne's Mother and sister to this dinner. Andromeda, Narcissa and Teddy were also invited, as were Hermione's parents. He had already told Kreacher of the plans and the elf was excitedly awaiting their arrival.

Being 8th years who didn't obey the rules very much they didn't intend on spending the whole night on the Hogwarts Express. Instead they were going to apparate straight from the ball to Potter Manor where they could sleep in real beds. The day of the ball ended up being very similar to the day of the Halloween ball. They all had a long lie then a Christmassy brunch and after that the girls asked nicely if they could use Harry and Draco's dorm to get ready then they vanished. Harry, Draco, Neville, Theo and Dean were at a loss of what to do for the next few hours because it was only going to take them half an hour to put their dress robes on and sort their hair, well if Harry tried to flatten his out it could take forever.

"Why don't we have a snowball fight?" Harry asked and the others agreed, just because they were bored and wanted something to do. They all geared up and headed outside to a part of the grounds with lots of fresh snow. It started out fairly Muggle, they were just making snowballs and throwing them at each other but after 30 minutes it became very much a wizard's snowball fight. Harry had 'built' a large tower shaped fort out of snow, complete with cannons which were occasionally sending out huge snowballs in all directions. Not to be outdone by the Gryffindor Draco was sitting on an icy throne in his own snow palace while cannons magically shot out snowballs for him. Only Harry really understood Dean who had given himself a snow machine gun which was rapidly shooting smaller snowballs at everyone. Neville and Theo had not wanted to be left out had formed their own snow creations. Neville had built himself a snow tank, Harry knew he had been raised by a Witch so he had no idea how he knew about tanks but it was effective, he was shooting everyone and trying to run them over at the same time. Theo had tried to outdo Harry's fort and Draco's palace by building himself a snow watchtower with cannons _and _machine guns, even though he didn't know what a machine gun was until Dean told him. He was much higher than them so his aim was better and in the end he won after he had demolished Harry's fort, Draco's palace and Neville's tank, Dean had long since been knocked out by two large snow cannonballs. With the game over they had shaken hands, made their way back into the castle and showered.

They still had some time to kill but Harry and Draco couldn't get into their room so they all ended up hanging out in the room that Neville, Theo and Dean shared with Ernie and Justin. The two resident Hufflepuff lovebirds were away for a 'pre-ball' bath in the prefect's bathroom so they had the room to themselves. Harry quickly made himself at home by falling onto Neville's bed with a groan, "I can't believe McGonagall wants us to open the ball with a dance, I thought I'd never have to do that again after 4th year."

"Whats the problem?" Dean asked from where he was lounging on his own bed, "You can dance; you did it at the last Yule Ball."

Draco snorted, “He can't dance. Did you _see _him at the Yule Ball?”

Harry didn't bother getting offended because he knew it was true, "See! I was terrible! I was stepping on Parvati's feet and making a right idiot of myself."

"Why did you go with Parvati?" Theo asked curiously.

Harry frowned, that had come out of the blue, "Um, because I couldn't find anyone else to go with and I needed someone to dance with."

"Wow Potter, you're such a romantic," Draco teased.

Harry groaned and let his face fall into his hands, "Ugh, what am I going to do! I can't believe she only told us this yesterday."

Only the day before McGonagall had told Harry, Hermione and Neville that as war heroes they, along with Ginny, would be opening the ball with a dance. Hermione could dance and so could Draco so they weren't particularly bothered. Neville and Hannah could also dance so there were no issues there and Harry knew that Ginny was a good enough dancer to cover it up if Blaise was terrible. Then again, he highly doubted that Blaise would be a terrible dancer since the other pureblood Slytherins were good. No, the issue here was with Harry.

"How's Daphne when it comes to dancing?" Harry asked absentmindedly.

Theo and Draco shared an amused look; Harry knew that was never a good sign.

"Well," Theo began.

"She's a pureblood-"

"- who was brought up to be the perfect woman-"

"- so that she could be presented to a man suitable for her."

"Which means she went to etiquette school before Hogwarts-"

"- where they teach you how to hold a knife and fork properly-"

"- and how to curtsey properly-"

"- and how to speak when speaking to men-"

"- and how to dance like a true lady."

Harry grabbed Neville's pillow and put it over his face, "I am _so _fucked!"

Neville chuckled in amusement at Harry's despair and lifted the pillow from his face, "First of all, stop getting your drool on my pillow."

"Hey, you could sell that now!" Theo commented.

Dean laughed loudly, cottoning on, "You'd get millions for a pillow with the saliva of the precious boy who lived!"

Harry glared at them both, "Shut up you two! Neville, whats second?"

"We can teach you how to dance," Neville said as he looked around their group of friends.

"I can't," Dean said, he raised his hands, "I don't dance man."

Theo shook his head, "I dance but I'm not teaching you."

"Draco and I will teach you then," Neville said and Draco opened his mouth to say that hell no, he wasn't dancing with Potter but instead what came out was, "I suppose."

He cursed his own brain for defying him like that and sighed as Harry grinned, "Great! Where do we start?"

Dean and Theo shared a grin as Neville put some music on. They had a feeling this was going to be fun to watch.

"Draco, you're the woman," Neville said once he had gotten both Harry and Draco to stand facing each other in the middle of the room.

Dean and Theo giggled in the background, "What! Why?"

Neville rolled his eyes, "Because Harry needs to learn how to dance with a woman, not a man."

"But _I _am a man!"

"So pretend to be a woman," Neville said simply, "Shouldn't be too hard for you," he teased which caused Dean and Theo to giggle even more.

"Can't believe you're making me do this fatbottom," Draco mumbled as he cautiously took a step closer to Harry.

"Okay, that's not original at all and I'm the same weight as you now Draco," Neville told the Slytherin, he looked both amused yet slightly exasperated.

"Don't give me that look Neville," Draco warned.

Neville frowned, "Uh, what look?"

"That one!" Draco said as he glared at the Gryffindor, "The exasperated look, I get that _all the time _from Hermione."

"Why does that not surprise me?" Harry asked himself in a whisper.

"Oi shut up pothead."

"Wow Draco, your insults are so imaginative today," Harry said sarcastically.

"Ladies! Stop flirting and dance please," Neville said through his laughter.

Both men shot daggers at him but Neville was unfazed as he continued, "Right, now Harry place your right hand on Draco's waist."

Harry made a face as he stepped forward and put his hand on Draco's waist. There was a wolf whistle from behind them and in unison they yelled, "Shut up Theo!"

"Draco, put your left hand on Harry's shoulder," Neville ordered and Draco did so but both boys were keeping as far apart as they could. Neville rolled his eyes at his two friends and said, “Harry put your left hand in Draco's right hand.”

"I'm not holding hands with that slimy git!"

"I'm not holding hands with scarhead!"

"OI!"

"Children, please," Dean teased from his spot on his bed, he was watching them with extreme amusement.

"It's just a dance Draco," Theo said with a wink.

"Just get on with it," Neville said as he tried to conceal his amused smile.

"When did he get so assertive?" Draco asked, he narrowed his eyes at Neville suspiciously.

"Since he reformed an army, took on an evil regime and killed a giant snake which turned out to be a horcrux," Dean said, as if this was something casual and no big deal at all.

Draco rolled his eyes, "Whatever, let's just get this over with."

"You need to stand closer together," Neville said, he pushed Harry with one hand and Draco with the other.

"This is so awkward," Harry muttered as he tried not to look at Draco who was doing the exact same thing, "Yeah, just a bit," he said sarcastically.

Dean had taken out his wizarding camera and was snapping pictures silently, "How much do you think I'd get if I sold these to the prophet?" he asked in a whisper.

Theo grinned, "About 1,000 galleons I reckon. What do you say we half the profit?"

Dean nodded and made sure the pair weren't looking before he shook the Slytherins hand, "Deal," he said.

"Draco, you know how to dance, don't you?" Neville asked.

"Of course I know how to dance Longbottom," Draco said with an eye roll. He then took charge.

"Alright Potter. Take two steps back then two steps forward then two to the left and two to the right."

The only part Harry remembered was two so he ended up stepping on Draco's feet every couple of seconds. There was a lot of cursing from Draco and a lot of laughter from the other 3 boys in the room but Neville wouldn't let them give up. In the end, it paid off.

After an hour of dancing and prancing around the room they finally had it and they decided to give the whole dance a go at full speed. Draco and Harry elegantly swept around the room and when they had done the last step Harry whooped.

Dean and Theo shared mischievous looks as Dean stashed the camera with the pictures on it under his bed. It looked like they were going to have a windfall in the future.

***

The boys found themselves waiting for their girlfriends in the common room once more that night. Just like they had at the Halloween ball, all of them looked beautiful.

Daphne came down first, she wasn't wearing make-up and her hair had been left down. Harry kissed her, "You look beautiful," he said with a genuine smile.

Daphne grinned and eyed Harry's blue dress robes and mask, "You look extremely charming yourself."

When Hermione came down the stairs Draco's breath caught a little even though he had already seen her dress. She looked very similar to Daphne; Harry would be lying if he said he hadn't noticed the resemblances. Hermione was slightly shorter, her hair was darker and naturally bushy but today her hair had been straightened and left down. Her mask, like Daphne's looked fantastic with her outfit and the two friends looked like they could be sisters.

"Looking even more gorgeous than usual," Draco said, he kissed Hermione and held his arm out to her.

Hermione grinned, "You look like a Slytherin prince in those robes," she teased as she took his silver clad arm.

Next to join them was Sadie who looked fantastic in her classical style dress and mask. She had put her hair up and curled it slightly, like Hermione's had been at the Yule Ball in their 4th year. When she reached the bottom of the stairs Theo bowed deeply to her and offered her his arm, "M'lady," he said with a cheeky grin.

Sadie laughed and took his arm, “Why thank you Mr Nott,” she said in an old fashioned posh English accent that made the others chuckle.

Theo looked extremely grand and king-like in his golden robes and when Sadie commented on it he winked at Draco and said, "You know me, I don't like to be outdone by anyone."

Draco rolled his eyes, he was a bit miffed that Theo had stolen his idea but they both pulled off their wacky dress robes. Harry had complained that they got to wear cool robes while he had to look like a Beauxbatons sissy.

Hannah was the next down the stairs in her pale yellow and silver dress and her stunning gold mask. Her naturally wavy hair had been curled and left down so that the gold strands from her mask looked like beads in her hair. Neville smiled at her when she reached him and took his arm, "Looking amazing as always," he said which made her blush.

"You look great," Hannah said, her eyes darted from his new black and silver robes to his black and silver matching mask, "Very enchanting."

Neville winked, "I try."

Lastly Tracey descended the stairs in her short black dress with the gold and silver sequins. She looked as good as she had when she had tried it on in the shop. Her matching mask was black and in the centre at the top there was a swan with a gold beak. Two feathers came out of either side of the mask as it came up to meet at the top in the centre with silver beads. It was elaborate and fancy, like Tracey.

"I swear you get prettier every day," Dean remarked as his girlfriend took his arm and grinned mischievously at him.

"I'm not telling you my secret," She joked with a wink.

"Are we ready?" Draco asked on behalf of the group.

When the reply was a resounding "Yes" from all present the group began to make their way down to the entrance hall.

"How are you feeling about the dance?" Daphne asked Harry, she didn’t understand why Neville, Dean and Theo had to hold back sniggers at this comment or why Harry and Draco glared at them.

"Fine actually," Harry said, “Draco and Neville taught me earlier.”

"Well, Neville told you what to do," Dean said, "Draco physically taught you," he winked at Harry.

Daphne burst out laughing, "You two danced together? Seriously?"

Harry and Draco both looked sheepish and embarrassed as they nodded, which caused a new bout of laughter to go around the group which echoed around the grand staircase.

For the rest of the 10-minute trek to the entrance hall Harry and Draco got teased and mocked senselessly by the others. They both made a mental note to get Dean and Theo back for this later. Neville had only tried to help; the other two were exposing them. Although in the end, they had to admit that there was a funny side to it and if it had been anyone else they would have laughed and mocked them too.

***

When they reached the hall it was packed with excited students and McGonagall ushered Harry, Daphne, Hermione, Draco, Neville, Hannah, Ginny and Blaise to the large doors leading into the great hall. She briskly put them in position so that on one side stood Harry with Daphne next to him and across from them stood Hermione with Draco next to her. Next to Harry and Daphne stood Neville with Hannah by his side and across from them stood Ginny with Blaise by her side. The only person in the group of 8 who looked at all nervous was Harry.

The doors to the hall slowly opened and all of the students filed in, smiling and wishing luck to the war heroes as they passed. Daphne kept her head down and Harry thought he knew why. She didn't think she deserved this position of honour, she had been at Hogwarts the year before but she hadn't fought, she had just gotten on with it, she hadn't helped anyone or done what was right like the others had. Harry noticed that across from him Draco was similarly staring at the ground, after all he had done in the war he knew he didn't deserve to be standing here with the war heroes.

Once all of the students were lined up in the hall McGonagall motioned for the 'heroes' to make their way into the hall. Harry was first, Hermione second, Neville third and Ginny fourth. They walked down the hall, smiling at everyone and getting applauded and then when they reached the dance floor the music started and Harry took a deep breath and placed one hand on Daphne's waist and the other in her hand. She smiled encouragingly at him and then they started to dance. Daphne didn't say anything but Harry could tell she was impressed, both with the way he danced and the fact he got the timing perfect.

Truthfully when it ended he couldn't have been happier. Other couples made their way onto the floor and the focus was off of him. He breathed a sigh of relief and slowed down a little.

Daphne grinned broadly at him, "That was amazing, _you _were amazing!"

Harry smiled at his girlfriend, he was glad that he hadn't made a complete fool of himself like he had thought he would earlier. He shot Draco and Neville a grin, he was really grateful to have such amazing friends. As the first dance finished everyone made their way off the floor to get drinks and as they stood in line to the non-alcoholic punch bowl it became a game to try and guess who everyone was through their masks.

Daphne quickly recognised Astoria in a long white dress and a white and black mask. She smiled and hugged her sister before telling her that she looked fantastic. Astoria's date was Dennis Creevey and Harry seriously suspected that he was her boyfriend since this was the second dance they had attended together. Apparently Daphne did too from the look she gave the boy when he walked over to her with her sister. Dennis was wearing white robes and a silver mask.

They spotted Blaise easily enough too who looked dark and broody in black dress robes and a black gothic style mask. Next to him was Ginny who was wearing a floor length strapless black dress, it was very tight and figure hugging with a black skirt and a black bust dotted with gold spots. Her matching mask was black with gold outlines around the eyeholes and the edge. It had an elaborate butterfly on the right hand side above the mask and it was enchanted to move its wings.

Luna looked more beautiful than Harry had ever seen her. She was wearing a strapless silver ball gown which was fitting to her figure and was subtle but beautiful. Luna's matching silver mask was decorated with silver glitter, a multi-coloured beaded outline and a silver flower on the right hand side of the mask.

Justin and Ernie had gone to extremes which didn't surprise anyone at all. Ernie was dressed in bright red dress robes which a very over the top mask. It was red and covered in sequins with huge feathers coming out of the top and big feather outline around the whole thing. Next to him Justin was wearing bright green dress robes and a white mask which again was covered in sequins and had two huge green feathers coming out of it as well as white feathers around the whole mask. The group got on well with Ernie and Justin but even they had to shake their head at their chosen outfits. Gabrielle had come to ball alone and she looked perfect as usual in a dress which was strapless, floor length and primarily dark blue but it had lots of different colours throughout the skirt and the bust was covered in multi-coloured sequins.

Susan was fluttering around the room in her sexy dress flirting with any single man she could find. Lilly was with her and she looked positively miserable about the fact she was dateless at the last ball she would ever attend at Hogwarts.

Sally arrived alone, she wore a red, strapless dress which stopped mid-thigh and had a band around the waist with a silver jewel on it. Coming from that band were silk drapes that came down to her feet. Her mask was simple; it was the same colour of red as her dress with silver outlines around the eyeholes and the edge of the mask.

Annie and Terry came separately and didn't wear matching outfits. Annie was wearing a floor length sequined purple dress with straps that criss-crossed at the back which was very open. With it she was wearing a simple purple sequined mask with a white feather at the right side that had a purple feather coming out of it. But by far, the most boring of the night was Zacharias Smith who simply wore black dress robes with black fastenings and a black cotton eye mask, no effort whatsoever.

Their attention didn't stay on the outfits for long because their minds were on other things like dancing and having fun. So that was exactly what they did, they danced, they laughed and they certainly had fun. Rita Skeeter was sneaking around taking pictures of the event and she definitely got front page news when McGonagall danced with Kingsley who was _only _the Minister for Magic after all. Skeeter grinned and snapped pictures and Harry actually smiled because he found himself feeling happy for McGonagall and Kingsley. Something odd had been happening though, as the night went on Harry felt himself getting fuzzier and fuzzier. He knew it couldn't be alcohol because there was no alcohol at this ball, in the punch or otherwise. He assumed it was the heat of the hall with all of the people dancing so he made a mental note to grab a few minutes outside in the rose garden at some point to cool down.

Harry had a brief moment of awkwardness on his way to the rose garden however, because he bumped into the honorary guest of the evening nearby the doors of the great hall. That honorary guest happened to be the ex-girlfriend of Cedric Diggory who this ball was of course in honour of. The awkward part was that Cho Chang also happened to be _his _ex-girlfriend.

"Hey Harry," Cho said with a friendly smile.

Harry smiled, "Oh hey Cho, how are you finding tonight?"

"The memories are flooding back," Cho admitted, she looked around the hall which was decorated with snow laden Christmas trees and snowflakes and fake icicles, just like it had been the first time.

Harry nodded, "I can imagine."

"It's getting better now though," Cho admitted, "It's getting bearable."

Harry smiled genuinely at her, "I'm glad. I hear you've kind of dropped out of the wizarding world."

Cho shrugged, "I've been at Muggle University. I'm studying History actually, it's interesting to get a Muggle take on it all."

"What university are you at?"

"Exeter," Cho replied, "I love it there, it's so far away from home in Scotland but I like the independence."

"I can't say I really know the feeling," Harry said wryly, "I'm pretty sure my cousin goes to Exeter University though. I think he's studying economics; he wants to make it big in business."

Cho nodded as he spoke, "I work with a lot of economics students, they cross over a lot, history, economics, politics, those kinds of subjects. I don't know anyone with the second name Potter though."

"Oh he's not got my name; his name is Dursley, Dudley Dursley."

"Dudley is your cousin?" Cho asked, quite alarmed by this news.

Harry frowned, "Yeah, you know him?"

Cho nodded, "He's a really good friend actually."

Harry was taken aback by this at this, "Wow, that's surprising."

"Is it?" Cho asked curiously, "I was bullied when I started at Exeter. Dudley stuck up for me and we've been friends ever since."

Harry smiled slightly. So Dudley had stuck up for the victim of bullying instead of being the bully? Well he was glad to see that the boy was maturing, "That's great. You two should come to my New Year's party, you can introduce him to some of our wizarding friends."

Cho's face fell and Harry realised, "Oh...he doesn't know you're a..."

He trailed off and Cho nodded, Harry sighed, "Well he's alright with me being one, even though his Father hated it. He doesn't talk to him anymore though, does he?"

Cho shook her head, "No, he's moved to London and Dudley lives on campus in Exeter now. It's just his Mum back in Surrey."

"You should probably tell him. He's changed but he used to be a pretty bad person and after everything that happened...I had nightmares about Cedric and I talked in my sleep. He teased me for it, you'll need to explain everything to him," Harry said, he was aware that he sucked at giving advice but Cho smiled gratefully at him and thanked him anyway.

Harry was about to say it was no problem when someone pushed past him, she was snivelling as if she was crying. He frowned as he saw Lilly dart away into the grounds, "Sorry Cho, that's Ron's girlfriend do you mind if I...?"

"No of course," Cho said with a wave of her hand, "It was nice talking to you Harry."

"You too Cho," Harry said honestly, he shot her a smile and then he followed Lilly into the rose garden.

***

"Lilly, are you okay?" Harry asked gently as he sat down next to the girl on a wooden bench in the rose garden.

Lilly had clearly been crying, her eyes were bloodshot and her makeup was streaky from tears, "No, I'm not okay! Nobody asked me to the first Yule Ball so I stayed in my dorm room alone feeling miserable! This time I had a boyfriend, I thought somebody wanted me but nobody ever does Harry."

"Why didn't Ron come tonight?" Harry asked, "Did you two break up?"

"I don't know what we did or what we are," Lilly said bitterly, "He wouldn't come because he wanted to spend the whole night with his family. He wouldn't even show up for an hour, that was all I asked for, an hour!"

"Look Lilly, his brother died in the final battle. This will be one of the first times in a while that they will all be together," Harry told her, "He's probably not thinking straight because of that. He'll be thinking about his family and not you which I agree isn't right but he's sort of a one track guy. He doesn't do multiple trains of thought and that's not me saying he's stupid because I'm the first to admit that he's not. He's bloody brilliant but he's also a bit clueless and he's definitely a scatterbrain."

"It clearly has something to do with me too," Lilly said quietly, "I know it's his family but what's an hour, Harry?"

"Yeah, he should have given you that hour," Harry said with a nod, "He's my best friend Lilly but that doesn't mean I agree with all of his decisions. Do you want my honest opinion here, are we being frank?"

"We're being frank," Lilly said.

"Then I don't think this is going to work out between you both," Harry said with a slight frown, "Just like it wouldn't have worked out between Ron and Hermione. I think in a lot of ways when he goes into relationships he's looking for someone to have his children, cook his meals and keep his house clean because that's what _his _Mother does. But you are brilliant, just like Hermione. You want more from life than that, let's face it, you're never going to want to settle down and pop out 7 children. You're going to want a career and that's exactly how you should think because otherwise you'd be completely wasting all your brilliance."

"Thanks Harry," Lilly said and with no warning at all she leant over and kissed him. Harry pulled away in seconds.

"Woah Lilly," Harry said, his head spun once more, "No, I know you're upset with all this Ron stuff but this isn't the way to fix things."

"I'm sorry, I don't know what came over me," Lilly said tearfully.

"It's alright, it's fine," Harry said gently, "But I'm with Daphne, I'm very happy with Daphne actually. Like, pretty much in love with her."

Lilly smiled weakly, "I know, I know you are. I'm so sorry Harry, I think I'm just going to hit the sack."

"Will you be alright?" Harry asked her as he got to his feet and helped her up.

Lilly nodded, "I'll be fine," she said and she disappeared from the rose garden.

***

When Harry re-joined the others in the hall he felt a little awkward but it wasn't the time or place to tell Daphne what had happened so he tried to act normal. As honorary guests Fleur Delacour and Viktor Krum had been invited to the Yule Ball. Fleur was pregnant and had brought Bill along with her.

Viktor Krum had gotten softer and less grumpy over the years. He scanned the ball for any single ladies to talk to or dance with and found only one that caught his eye. She was leaning against the wall by the food table watching the couples dancing when he walked over to her.

"Hello beautiful lady."

Susan Bones raised an eyebrow at the pro Quidditch player, "Hi," she said simply.

"You are by far the most attractive woman at this event," Viktor flirted which made Susan laugh, "You flatter me but no I will not sleep with you."

Viktor frowned, "I was going to ask you to dance with me, not sleep with me."

"I don't date Quidditch players," Susan said, walking away towards the drinks table. She left Krum standing in her wake in complete shock; no one had ever refused him before.

He hurried after her and she turned around in amusement, "Are you stalking me?"

"Why do you not date Quidditch players?"

"Because they're intimidated by the fact I'm better than them," Susan said simply.

"You play Quidditch?" Viktor asked in surprise.

Susan nodded but said no more so Viktor asked, "In what position do you play?"

"I'm a beater," Susan said, she surveyed him and waited for the inevitable reaction of disgust.

Instead Krum seemed impressed, "A female beater?"

Susan nodded, "Does it turn you off?"

Viktor shook his head and eyed her with sparkling eyes, "Not at all."

"Really?" Susan asked, she raised an eyebrow at the Bulgarian man.

Viktor nodded, "But as you already said you won't sleep with me I suppose it is redundant,” he smiled, “So, do you care to dance?"

Susan's facade broke and she smiled, "Fine, one dance," she agreed, she took his hand and made her way onto the floor with him.

They ended up dancing all night.

***

After the last dance of the night nobody really wanted the ball to end because they had all had such a good time. The students were all told to go to bed if they were staying for Christmas or to begin to board the Hogwarts Express if they were going home. The 8th years made their way back to the common room to grab their things and in the process of doing this they hit a small snag in their plans.

"Uh guys," Sadie said as she poked her head into the room Hermione, Daphne and Susan shared with Gabrielle. Draco and Harry were there too because they were helping the girls pack.

"What's up?" Harry asked the girl.

"Something's wrong with Lilly," Sadie said quickly, "She's throwing up in the bathroom."

Harry frowned and shared a glance with Hermione. They were the only two who knew about the Ron situation so they were the first up the stairs and into the bathroom where Lilly was literally hugging the toilet.

"She's drunk," Daphne said with a frown as she cast a diagnostic charm.

"How?" Hannah asked, "There wasn't any alcohol."

"There was a little bit," Theo said sheepishly, he had been helping Sadie pack in her room, "Dean and me spiked one of the punch bowls."

"How much punch did you have, Lil?" Hermione asked gently as she knelt down next to the girl.

"A lot," Lilly said weakly.

"Theo!" Daphne hissed, “Why would you and Dean do that? You've made Lilly really ill-"

"We just thought-"

"Ugh, get out!" Tracey snapped, she pushed him out of the dorm and snapped the door shut.

Harry sighed as he sat down on the edge of the bath, "Sorry Lilly, I should have realised earlier and given you a sober up potion."

Lilly just shook her head as Hermione brewed up some strange concoction in the sink. Daphne frowned at the interplay between Harry and Lilly but didn't say anything.

"What are you doing?" Harry asked Hermione as Lilly began to throw up again. He made a face and held her hair.

"Homemade sober-up potion," Hermione said offhandedly, "Does anyone have any aspirin?"

Hannah threw Hermione a packet and she dissolved an aspirin into the potion before throwing the packet back to Hannah, "Alright Lil, I'm going to have to force this down your throat."

"Go for it," Lilly croaked.

Hermione tipped her friends head back and forced her to drink the entire potion. She wretched but didn't throw up and colour returned to her cheeks slightly after a few minutes.

"Feeling any better?" Harry asked as she grabbed her wand and muttered a cleaning charm.

"Slightly," Lilly said shakily, "I just feel freezing."

"It's an after-effect," Hermione sighed, "I'm going to kill Theo and Dean for spiking that punch."

"I'm going to kill Ron for being the prick that didn't show up," Harry said irritably.

"What's going on here?" Daphne asked, looking between them.

"Ron being a dick is what's going on," Harry sighed, "He and Lilly have sort of broken up because he wouldn't come to the ball with her."

"Oh," Daphne frowned, "That sucks Lilly."

"It is what it is," Lilly said as she leant against the bathroom wall.

"Well we're heading back to Potter Manor for the night," Daphne said carefully, "Do you want to come with us? I think you could use a roommate tonight."

"I could use someone to snuggle with," Lilly said as she got to her feet shakily, "But my ginger prick of a somewhat boyfriend isn't available."

"I'm ginger," Susan piped up, "I'm not male but it's close enough right?"

Lilly laughed and let the redhead steady her on her feet, "Yeah, you'll do Suse."

Harry chuckled, "Come on then, let's get out of here."

They easily snuck through the school which was empty now that the Hogwarts Express had left. Once they reached the gates they apparated to Potter Manor, Susan took Lilly via side apparition just in case. After the ball everybody was exhausted so they got in and Harry showed everyone to their rooms. The lights went off, heads hit pillows and everyone was asleep instantly. Well, almost everybody.

In the darkness Harry held Daphne close to him in their comfortable bed, "Lilly kissed me earlier," he whispered.

"I knew something had happened," Daphne whispered back through the darkness.

"I was trying to be comforting about the whole thing with Ron and she was probably pretty drunk by that point too," Harry admitted, "You can use Legilimency right?"

"Yeah," Daphne replied, confusion in her voice, "Why?"

"The memory is at the front of my head, just pop that lamp on and have a look," Harry yawned, "I can't be bothered recounting the whole thing and this way you see the truth."

"You're so open about things anyway," Daphne yawned as she turned the bedside lamp on and grabbed her wand, "So the fact you're telling me is enough but if you insist."

"I insist," Harry said, "I want you to know that you can trust me."

"Alright," Daphne said, she looked in his eyes and said the incantation. All of a sudden Harry could feel her inside his head watching the memory as he relieved it. He shut his eyes and found himself watching the memory back with Daphne standing next to him. She said nothing, she simply watched with interest until the point where Harry told Lilly that he loved Daphne. Her eyes widened and she cut the spell short, disappearing from Harry's head.

In the real world she looked at him in surprise, "You love me?"

"Yeah," Harry said honestly as he looked at Daphne. She was lying next to him in her pyjamas, her hair was down and wavy, she wasn't wearing any makeup and as he looked at her he could only concur that he loved her more like this than ever.

"Yeah?" Daphne chuckled, "That's all you've got to say?"

"Well yeah," Harry said in amusement, "I love you Daphne. What more is there?"

"I was expecting some grand speech," Daphne admitted in amusement.

"Sorry," Harry said sheepishly.

"It's okay," Daphne laughed, "Simple is good. I just thought you'd give me some big speech about how you love me and then I'd just ruin it all by going, yeah me too."

Harry raised an eyebrow at her, "Yeah me too? Is that all I'm getting?"

Her eyes sparkled playfully and she propped herself up on her elbow to look at him, "No, it's not. Of course I love you Harry. Honestly, I don't think I've ever loved anybody like I love you and I understand what you were trying to do tonight with Lilly."

"I just wanted to make her feel better about it all," Harry sighed, "I feel like Ron is my responsibility. It's stupid but I feel like it was the fact he was my best friend for years and that he was always in my shadow that made him bitter. I feel responsible for all of his fuck-ups."

"Well you shouldn't," Daphne said matter of factly, "His fuck-ups are just that, _his. _You can't spend the rest of your life fixing his messes."

"I know," Harry sighed.

"But you will anyway," Daphne smiled, “Because that's just who you are.”

"Does that bother you?" Harry asked her.

Daphne laughed, "I just told you that I love you, wasn't that a dead giveaway of how I feel?"

"I suppose," Harry grinned, "And it was very nice to hear, by the way."

"Good," Daphne said simply as she leant over and kissed him, "Now can we please go to sleep? I'm bloody knackered."

"Definitely," Harry murmured as he snuggled up with her, "Night Daph."

"Night Harry," Daphne said sleepily as she got closer to him.

Harry smiled slightly as her hair tickled his face. In that moment despite all of the little difficulties, he really felt that his life had been changed, and entirely for the better too, by Daphne Greengrass.

**TBC :)**


	31. Merry Christmas

Harry had assumed, since the previous night had been so busy, that he would get a bit of a lie in on Christmas morning. After all, their guests weren’t arriving until 1pm.

However, Harry had forgotten how excited his girlfriend got for Christmas and as a result when he woke up at around 9am he realised he was alone in bed. He trudged down to the kitchen where Daphne was patiently waiting for him.

"Morning," Harry said softly as he kissed her on the cheek.

"Morning," Daphne smiled, "You're the last to wake up. Everyone else is down in the drawing room waiting to open their presents. Apart from Lilly, she went to her parents early this morning."

"How is she?" Harry asked his girlfriend.

"She's upset but that's to be expected," Daphne said simply, "We had a chat about what happened and I promised her she had nothing to feel guilty about."

"That was good of you," Harry said.

"Well it _is _Christmas," Daphne said with an amused smile.

"I know," Harry laughed, "Merry Christmas Daph."

"Merry Christmas, Harry," Daphne said and her smile widened, "Now can we go and join everybody else downstairs and open our presents?"

Harry chuckled, "Of course we can," he said as he let Daphne drag him downstairs to the drawing room. It had undergone a transformation since he had last seen it. There was mistletoe around the walls and a huge Christmas tree in the centre that nearly touched the roof which was impressive because the ceiling was the height of two floors.

Underneath the tree were all of their presents. He smiled around at his friends as Daphne dragged him over and pushed him onto the sofa next to Draco who also looked half asleep.

Kreacher appeared with a crack that startled them all and handed out plates of toast with butter and jam to everyone. Then he poured them all out tea and coffee. Draco and Harry savoured the coffee; neither of them were used to early mornings, despite being Quidditch players.

"Okay, present time!” Daphne said happily as sat down by the tree and took it upon herself to hand out the presents to everyone. She started with parcels that were all wrapped in the same purple paper. She passed one to Harry, one to Neville and Hannah, one to Draco and Hermione and one to Susan and said, "These are from Sadie and Theo."

Harry and Daphne took an end each and ripped the paper off of the parcel. Harry grinned; there were three things in the parcel. He could tell that Theo had picked his present, it was a scarlet hooded top with Hogwarts written at the top and Quidditch at the bottom. In the middle there were two wands crossed over with a snitch over them and it said _"Team Captain."_ He glanced over at Draco and saw that he had the same present but his was a dark green. For Daphne, there was a golden bracelet engraved with a quote from none other than Albus Dumbledore. It read, _"Differences of habit and language are nothing at all if our aims are identical and our hearts are open."_ There was also a box of chocolate frogs to share between them.

Neville and Hannah had both gotten individual presents from Sadie and Theo, as well as a box of chocolate frogs. Neville had gotten a small jar of gillyweed on a necklace. He gasped and said it was the extremely rare kind and that it was on a necklace so it wouldn't get stolen. Apparently this kind of gillyweed could be sold for thousands of galleons and was only found in the Aegean Sea. Neville commented on this and Draco whispered to Hermione, "Theo has a house in Crete; his family practically farms the stuff. How do you think he's so rich?"

Hermione hid a small smile at this fact but regardless of how much Theo had in abundance the small amount of the rare plant pleased Neville immensely. Hannah had gotten a bracelet, like Daphne's but the quote was different. It read, _"Happiness can be found, even in the darkest of times, if one only remembers to turn on the light."_

Draco got a hooded top similar to Harry's and Hermione received a bracelet like the other girls. Hers was another Dumbledore quote and it read, _"It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live."_ She smiled and put it on like the other girls had. Like everyone else they got a shared box of chocolate frogs too.

The couple had gotten something for Susan too, a box of chocolate frogs and a bracelet that was engraved with the words, _"I solemnly swear I am up to no good,"_ made famous as the Weasley’s new slogan for their joke shop. Susan chuckled, it was perfect for her. They all made a mental note to thank Sadie and Theo who were spending Christmas with their families.

Next Daphne handed out the presents from her and Harry to everyone. Neville and Hannah opened their parcel first. For Neville there was a small vial filled with sparkling white liquid that wasn't even really liquid, it was more like fog. It said _"Memories"_ on the front and Neville frowned because he didn’t really understand what it was.

"It's the memory of your parents wedding," Harry explained to Neville, "You need a pensieve to view it but I thought this way you could carry it around with you."

Neville nodded and tried to conceal his emotions, "Thanks Harry," he said shakily, "How did you get it?"

Harry smiled, "I got it from Trelawney. Her and my Mum were your Mums bridesmaids."

Neville smiled and held the vial tightly, he thanked Harry again. For Hannah they had gotten a bracelet, similar to the ones that Sadie and Theo had bought everyone. Hannah's read, _"For Hufflepuff, hard workers were most worthy of admission."_ Like the others they had gotten sweets for the couple to share but rather than chocolate frogs they'd gotten everyone a box of Bertie Botts every flavour beans.

Draco and Hermione also got a box of beans and Hermione got a bracelet, hers said, _"For Gryffindor, the bravest were prized far beyond the rest."_ Draco had gotten a small vial of Felix Felicis on a chain and he grinned and thanked them, he knew it was probably the work of Daphne because he had first-hand experience of how bad Harry was at potions.

For Susan they had gotten a box of Bertie Botts beans and a Divination themed necklace. It had a small real crystal ball on it with white smoke swirling around inside it.

Next came the gifts from Neville and Hannah. Each couple got a large parcel and Susan got a smaller one. Harry and Daphne were both pleased with their presents. Harry got a t-shirt; it was Gryffindor red and had the DA symbol at the top with the words _"Dumbledore's Army"_ written underneath it. Hermione got a similar top in the same colour and Susan got a yellow one. Neville and Hannah said they had bought their own tops too and they had sent one to Ron as a Christmas present. Harry thought it was a very cool idea. Daphne's present was alive, it was a tiny blue pygmy puff in a small cage, it was dying to get out and when Daphne let it the cute little thing began to bounce around and squeak, it was adorable. Draco had gotten a silver ring with a black front that had the Hogwarts crest and logo stamped onto it in silver. Everyone had also gotten a large bottle of butterbeer.

Hermione insisted that everyone open their presents from her and Draco next so Daphne passed them out. Neville had gotten a necklace with a miniature remembrall on it and he chuckled, "The irony, that you got me this," he remarked to Draco who looked guilty for a moment.

"Well I felt guilty for everything that happened with your last one so I got you a new one, plus it's around your neck so you won't be able to lose it this time,” Draco joked.

They all chuckled as Neville thanked his friend for the gift. Hannah had gotten a little yellow pygmy puff.

Harry had gotten a miniature Hungarian Horntail in a miniature cage. It moved around and occasionally blew fire out of its nostrils. Draco assured him, "The cage is impenetrable so it can't set fire to anything, and you don't have to feed it, we just thought it would be a nice souvenir from the tournament." Harry thought it was very cool and thanked them. Daphne had gotten a necklace that was a 3D rectangle with 4 sides. On one side it said _"Slytherin"_, and then the other sides said,_ "Ambition,"_ _"Power Hungry,"_ and,_ "Cunning."_

Susan had also gotten a pygmy puff but hers was purple. Everyone got a box of sugar quills from the couple too.

The last presents from people spending Christmas at Potter Manor were from Susan. She got Hermione a necklace with a small time turner on it, saying it was a little bit illegal but it only turned back time to a maximum of 5 minutes anyway. Daphne got a bracelet with the quote, _"You have nothing to fear, if you have nothing to hide."_ The wise words of Albus Dumbledore once more. These sorts of things were in fashion now that the war was over. Hannah got a small bottle of Herbology themed perfume and Draco, Harry and Neville all got a goody bag from Weasley’s Wizard Wheezes full of pranks.

The presents left under the tree were from people who, like Sadie and Theo, were spending Christmas elsewhere. Everyone got handed a parcel from Dean and Tracey. Hermione got a necklace with a miniature fake philosopher's stone on it and Draco got a ring engraved with the word _"Slytherin"_ Harry and Neville got similar rings engraved with the word _"Gryffindor."_ Daphne got a bracelet shaped like the golden snitch and Hannah got a necklace with a golden snitch pendant. Susan got a small vial of polyjuice potion on a chain which made her eyes glint mischievously. Dean and Tracey had also given them a large box of 20 butterbeer flavoured cupcakes which they decided to share out amongst their guests later.

The couples had all gotten presents for each other, but these were to be opened in private so they split up. Harry and Daphne stayed where they were in the drawing room, Draco and Hermione went to the opposite side where the tapestry was, and Neville and Hannah went to their bedroom. Susan skipped happily downstairs to bother Kreacher for some more food.

From Daphne, Harry got a pocket watch, a very unique, beautiful antique looking pocket watch. On the front the Hogwarts express was engraved beautifully and once opened the clock face had roman numerals on it. Daphne blushed, "It was my Great Great Grandfathers," she explained, "That's why it says Crouch not Greengrass, I'm descended from the Crouch's. Anyway, I was supposed to give it to the man I'm going to marry but I thought I'd give it to you instead."

"Oi!" Harry said jokingly as he kissed her and looked at the watch once more, "It's brilliant Daph, I love it. Thank you."

Daphne grinned, she was glad that Harry liked the gift. He then handed over a present to Daphne for her to unwrap. Harry had gotten her a locket, a golden locket with a deer's head elevated on the front. Daphne smiled when she saw it and then she opened it, inside was a picture of them from the Halloween ball. She grinned, "I get it and it's such a clever idea. Although if I hadn't known your patronus was a stag I'd have been confused." They both laughed as they kissed, both relieved the other had liked their gift.

At the other side of the room Draco had just unwrapped his present from Hermione which was a potions set. She knew he wanted to be an Auror but she also knew of his love for potions, something she had discovered was greater than she first thought when he told her he’d had his own potions lab in Malfoy Manor. The set included a brand new golden cauldron and golden scales to match; there were also several ingredients, a full bottle of Veritaserum and dragon's blood.

Draco gaped, "Hermione...this must have cost so much, it's amazing, thank you!"

Hermione grinned as he kissed her; she had hoped she had done the right thing. Draco handed her a present and she eagerly ripped it open. He had obviously teamed up with Harry because he had gotten her a locket. It was real silver and was in the shape of a heart with a real red ruby in the centre. Hermione smiled broadly as she opened the little locket and found a picture of herself and Draco at the Halloween Ball. "It's perfect," Hermione said, she kissed him and put the necklace carefully back in its box. He had also given her two rare books from Malfoy Manor but as he hadn't bought them he would have felt it cheeky to only give her those as her present.

Upstairs in their bedroom Neville and Hannah were busy opening their gifts for each other too. Neville gave Hannah two presents, a photo frame which had the Gryffindors red on one side and the Hufflepuffs yellow on the other. In the frame was a picture of them from the Halloween ball. His second present was a set, there was a ring with the word _"Hufflepuff"_ engraved on it, a braided bracelet in yellow and black stripes, earrings with little badgers and a necklace with the Hufflepuff crest. Hannah loved it as much as Neville knew she would, being as patriotic to her house as she was. From Hannah, Neville received a new Mimbulus Mimbletonia since his original one had died and a unique silver hipflask. It was circular with his name engraved in the centre. Neville appreciated the personal aspect of it and thanked his girlfriend with a kiss.

Once they were all back downstairs again there were only a few stray presents to open. Harry had sent Ron a copy of the new Chudley Cannons book and Ron in return had sent him a skiving snack box and some Peruvian instant darkness powder. Ron had also sent Hermione a new book and a small box of Bertie Botts every flavour beans. Mrs Weasley had sent them a large box of wizarding cookies shaped like broomsticks, snitches and cauldrons and there was also a large parcel for each of them from Mrs Weasley. Once they had opened the parcels they realised that she had knitted each of them a Weasley sweater, even Daphne, Draco and Susan. Harry and Hermione's were both scarlet with a H on them, while Draco and Daphne's were both green with a D on them. Neville had a scarlet one with an N, Hannah had a yellow one with a H and Susan also had a yellow one with an S.

Harry read the accompanying letter,

"_Dear Harry,_

_We would all like to wish you a lovely Christmas. I knitted sweaters for you all and I thought you might like to know why. I will always see you and Hermione as children and for that reason you will receive sweaters every year for as long as I live. _

_Draco, I know you caused my children a lot of pain over the years but I believe everyone can change and if there was ever a time to do it then it would be after the horrendous war we went through. If Hermione can forgive you after all she was put through by your family, then by Merlin of course I can too._

_Daphne, I have never met you and I don't know anything about you apart from the fact that Harry is completely smitten with you. If you have done enough to win his heart you have definitely done enough to win mine._

_Neville, I knew your parents and your Grandmother well and I know you've been with Harry, Hermione, Ron and Ginny every step of the way and for that I'll be eternally grateful. Hannah, I was very sorry to hear about your parents. Your Mother and I were at Hogwarts together and there couldn't have been a nicer woman alive. I'm sorry you won't be spending Christmas with your family. That goes for you too Susan, your Mother was a member of the Order and was truly a very brave Witch. I'm glad you can all spend Christmas together when you don't have family to spend it with._

_I hope you have a lovely holiday, each and every one of you._

_P.S: we are having a family get together on the 1st of January. You are all invited but I understand if you have other plans. There will be an afternoon meal served at 4.30pm._

_All of our love,_

_Molly, Arthur, Charlie, Bill, Fleur, Percy, George, Ron and Ginny."_

It was horrible at the end of the letter…seeing all those signatures and not Fred's, it tore Harry's heart a little and he could tell from the look on Hermione's face that she felt the same. They were all so grateful for what Mrs Weasley had done as they looked once more at the sweaters. Hagrid had also sent them a large box of fairy cakes (instead of rock cakes) which was a nice surprise, Harry expected Olympe was behind it.

Harry had sent a large portrait to Hogwarts to be put up before the 8th Years arrived back. It was a gift to the whole year. The backdrop was black and the words changed colour, they flashed between red, green, blue and yellow. The words on the portrait read,_ "We are only as strong as we are united. As weak as we are divided."_ In each corner there was a house crest. Once the 8th years had left Harry intended to give it to McGonagall to be put up next to the house points vials in the great hall.

With all of their presents finally opened the group made their way to their separate bedrooms as they realised they only had a couple of hours until the rest of their guests arrived. While the girls got ready and Draco and Neville entertained each other, Harry nipped out briefly by floo. He took a stack of presents with him to the Burrow and he emerged into the busy, bustling kitchen.

"I come bearing gifts!" Harry shouted over the noise.

Ron laughed, "I already got mine, cheers mate."

"Thanks for mine too mate," Harry said as cheerfully as he could muster. As much as he was annoyed at Ron for everything going on with Lilly, it _was _Christmas.

"Oh Harry dear!" Molly said as he put the present down and hugged her, “Did everybody like their sweaters?"

"They loved them," Harry said honestly, "They were honoured. Thank you so much for making them."

"It was my pleasure," Molly said with a wave of her hand, "Will you be coming to the meal on New Year's Day?"

"Daphne and I certainly will," Harry said with a smile, "And I expect Hermione and Draco will too. I think Neville, Hannah and Susan will be spending New Year with Hannah's family though."

"Oh of course, I completely understand," Molly said, "Will you stay for a spot of breakfast?"

"I can't," Harry said with regret, "I've got Andy, Teddy, Daphne's family, Hermione’s family, Draco's family...the whole lot coming over for Christmas dinner."

Molly chuckled, "Well have fun and Merry Christmas."

"Yeah Merry Christmas Harry!" The Weasley's chorused.

"Merry Christmas," Harry called back.

"And thanks for the presents!" Charlie piped up.

Harry chuckled, "I really should be getting back but I'm having a New Year’s party at Potter Manor on New Year’s Eve. It starts around 7pm and you are all welcome if you don't have any other plans."

"It sounds lovely," Molly said simply as she kissed Harry on the cheek, "Now you best be getting back to your guests. Have a good Christmas, Harry."

"You too Mrs. Weasley, and same to the rest of you," Harry added, having to raise his voice a little.

There was a chorus of, "We will!" and Harry found himself chuckling as he stepped back into the fireplace. When he got back he just had time to clean himself up and get changed then the girls began to arrive downstairs because they had finally finished getting ready. By that point it was time to greet their guests so everyone stood by the door waiting for the doorbell to ring. The first people to arrive were the Blacks. Narcissa and Andromeda walked through the door, Andromeda was holding 7-month old Teddy Lupin. Both women were wearing long black dresses and Teddy was in a cute little Christmas outfit. Narcissa smiled and greeted them all with a handshake. When she reached Draco she kissed him on both cheeks and did the same to Hermione which made Draco chuckle at the look of surprise on Hermione's face. Draco and Harry led Narcissa, Andromeda and Teddy to their seats at the large table in the formal dining room (Teddy’s ‘seat’ was a high chair).

"This is very modern and sophisticated," Narcissa remarked, looking around at the marble floors and white walls of the room, "Although I don't agree with the gold curtains."

Andromeda chuckled, "The boy is a Gryffindor Cissy, what do you expect?" She asked.

"I'm pleased to see that Hermione seems to be doing you a lot of good, Draco," Narcissa said as she sat down, "I can't recall the last time I saw you so cheerful."

"No, neither can I," Draco smiled, "She's a miracle worker, clearly."

Andromeda laughed, "Well the combination of a heroic Gryffindor and a slightly bitter Slytherin seems to work rather well Draco. Given Harry's latest catch."

Harry chuckled, "My latest catch? You heard about that then?"

"Yes," Narcissa smiled, "We had heard that you and Daphne were together. How does Lareina feel about it all?"

"You can ask her yourself later," Harry said in amusement, "She'll be here, along with Astoria."

"As will Hermione's parents," Draco said with a slight frown, "Who are Muggles so don't say anything you know...offensive...Mother."

"Offensive," Narcissa scoffed, "This is me Draco, not your Father. I will be perfectly polite."

"Good," Draco said with an awkward nod.

At that point the doorbell rang once more and Draco made his way back into the hall. He was incredibly nervous about meeting Hermione's parents and he didn't want his Mother to mess it up by saying something that could be taken the wrong way.

The door opened and two very ordinary people walked in. Draco could see where Hermione got her looks from. Her Mother was attractive for her age and had the same brown bushy hair as Hermione.

Hermione hurried over and hugged them then brought them over to Draco, "Mum, Dad, this is my boyfriend Draco Malfoy."

Draco bowed to them, as in wizarding culture a pureblood man did, "Very nice to meet you," he said before shaking both of their hands. They looked very surprised by this as Hermione led them into the dining room.

"He's very posh dear," Elizabeth Granger whispered to her daughter who chuckled and sat her parents down across the table from Narcissa, Andromeda and Teddy.

"He's not posh Mum, he's a pureblood. They are the types of Wizarding families who uphold all the old traditions so he just seems a bit old fashioned to you," she smiled, "This is Draco's Mother, Narcissa. His Aunt Andromeda and his cousin Teddy."

"What unusual names," John said with a smile.

"Our family have a tendency to name their children after star constellations," Narcissa said with a slight smile, "Hence my son being named Draco."

"And my daughter was called Nymphadora," Andromeda added, "It's a tradition that really needs to end."

"Quite," Narcissa laughed, "It's incredibly out of date."

Elizabeth chuckled, "Well, at least you have a unique name. I meet hundreds of other Elizabeth's every year and heaven knows how many Johns there are in the world!"

Narcissa smiled, "Yes, indeed. So, Draco tells me that you are both dentists?"

Hermione smiled slightly and ducked back out into the hall where she took her place next to Draco once more. The next people through the door were Daphne's family which had Harry breaking out into a nervous sweat. Astoria was wearing a simple silver and green dress and Daphne's Mother, Lareina, was looking glamorous, just as Daphne said she would, in a green sequined dress.

Lareina walked over to Daphne and kissed her on both cheeks, "I've missed you my love, have you been well?"

"Very," Daphne said, she smiled happily at her Mother, "Mother, this is my boyfriend, Harry-"

Lareina interrupted, "Oh Daphne, he needs no introduction," she said, she shook her head and took Harry's hand, "My Slytherin bred daughter dating the boy who lived," she joked, "I nearly had a heart attack when I heard the news."

Harry chuckled and shook her hand, "It's nice to meet you Mrs. Greengrass."

"Lareina," She corrected, "I'm a widow and Mrs Greengrass makes me sound so old."

Daphne caught Astoria's eye and they both rolled their eyes as they walked into the dining room. Daphne seated her mother and sister next to Narcissa, Andromeda and Teddy.

"Oh it is lovely here," Lareina said as she looked around the dining room, "Potter Manor restored to its former glory."

"You've been here before, Mother?" Daphne asked in surprise as she took her seat, along with the rest of the hosts.

"Oh yes darling," Lareina said, "In fact so have Narcissa and Andromeda. Do you remember the ball they had here?"

"I remember quite well," Narcissa nodded, "It was a ministry ball and it was held here. It was as splendid then as it is now. You did a fabulous job of restoring it," she added for the benefit of Draco, Hermione and Daphne.

"You helped restore this?" Astoria asked in surprise, "For Harry?"

Daphne looked a little sheepish, "Yes," she said, "It was a Christmas present."

"What a lovely thing to do," Elizabeth said with a smile, “It’s very romantic.”

Daphne's blush darkened and Lareina laughed, "My daughter a romantic, I don't think so."

"She's a complete romantic," Harry said in amusement, "She just hides it well."

"Yes let's not let all of my secrets come out in one day," Daphne said, she sounded mildly amused as well as exasperated, "Don't you have a toast to be getting on with?"

Harry chuckled and got to his feet, "Indeed I do, thank you for reminding me. I would like to make a toast to my friends, most of which are practically my family, for being here to celebrate Christmas day with us. It means a lot that you were all able to come today."

"It was our pleasure Harry," Andromeda said softly.

Lareina nodded, "It was an honour to be invited," she agreed.

"Well, I see no point in delaying the inevitable," Harry said as he sat down and clapped his hands, "Let's have a Christmas dinner!"

With his words their starter was served, which was a soup of their choice. As they ate they made small talk and several topics of conversation were raised.

Elizabeth accidentally set something off when she said, "I was rather surprised when I heard about Hermione and Draco dating. Not in a bad way, it just seemed like you were at odds during your time at school."

"We were," Hermione laughed, "I punched him in the face in 3rd year."

“Goodness knows he deserved it back then," Narcissa said with a raised eyebrow towards her son. She glanced to the Grangers, "My son was an egotistical, arrogant little diva for the majority of his time at Hogwarts. Thankfully that has changed, largely due to the war."

"Little diva?" Draco scoffed as Daphne sniggered into her soup, "Mother, I think that's an exaggeration!"

"No, it isn't Draco," Harry grinned, "I knew you back then too. You _were _an arrogant little diva, in fact that's a perfect description."

"I've got to agree," Hermione chuckled.

Draco shook his head in disbelief, a faint blush appeared on his cheeks, "Honestly, my family and friends are turning against me."

John laughed, "So you grew up because of a war then? It happens doesn't it? You hear stories about 16 year olds coming back from the Great War with the mind of an old man."

Draco frowned slightly, "The Great War?"

"He means World War One, Draco," Hermione cut in, "Not the Great Wizarding War."

"Oh," Draco realised, "Well then yes I suppose it is comparable. However, I did not fight in that war, not on the right side anyway."

"There aren't any right sides in war," John said simply, "If I learned anything from history class at school it was that."

Harry noticed that Draco and Daphne's family seemed a bit awkward throughout this conversation so he said, "The thing about the war in our world John is that it was incredibly complicated. There were sides and they were factional because of the fact that people were still very prejudiced about blood status. Draco being a pureblooded Slytherin was naturally drawn into the 'dark side' as it were but he isn't a bad man. If I thought for one second that he was I wouldn't have been so relaxed with him dating Hermione."

"Oh I take your word for that Harry," Elizabeth smiled, "You are practically a brother to Hermione after all."

"I did get the typical big brother speech from Harry," Draco admitted.

There was some laughter at that and Elizabeth added, "My Husband and I do not care that we are from a different world from you all. We only care that our daughter is happy, after all that has happened to her in this crazy, dangerous world she lives in, that is all we want."

"I think all any parent wants is for their child to be safe and happy," Narcissa said softly, she placed her hand on top of her sisters as she spoke.

Andromeda sighed and gently stroked Teddy's hair, "I am afraid to say that I lost my daughter and her husband to the war. All I have left of her is her son, my Grandson. You are perfectly correct, blood status, race, gender, _none _of it matters. The only thing that does matter is that our children are happy."

Lareina smiled slightly at her two daughters who were sitting on either side of her. She put her arm around them both and said, "You are quite right Dromeda. I never thought I would see both of my daughters dating Gryffindor's but they are both happy and that makes me happy."

Daphne smiled across the table at Harry at this, "Well thank you Mother," she said as Lareina kissed both of her daughters on the cheek, leaving red lipstick marks where she had done so.

There were smiles all around at this statement and then there was some more silence as everyone finished their starter but during the wait between the starter and the main course there was more talk around the table.

"Have you thought about what you are going to do beyond Hogwarts?" Andromeda asked the youngsters curiously, most of them did know what they were going to do so the question didn't make anything awkward.

"Daphne wants to be a healer, don't you Daph?" Lareina said to her daughter.

Daphne shook her head, "Not anymore Mother. I'd like to do something with Gringotts, curse breaking perhaps."

Lareina looked shocked by this but before she could say anything about it Astoria quickly said, "Cool! I bet that would be loads of fun!"

"I've known for years I want to be an Auror," Harry said simply.

Neville nodded, “I want to be an Auror too, I just need to push up my grades in Transfiguration and Potions."

Andromeda and Narcissa turned to Draco who frowned slightly. Narcissa smiled slightly, "Come now Draco, why don't you tell your friends what you told Dromeda and me before you came back to school."

The blonde boy sighed, "I want to be an Auror too. I have the grades and Harry said he could try and pull some strings to clear my name...But if it doesn't work, well you can't be an Auror with a criminal record."

"I think you've done enough good deeds lately to outweigh the bad Draco," Harry said, smiling at his Slytherin friend.

"And I think it's fantastic that you want to become an Auror," Andromeda said, "Will you take up my earlier offer? I still have Dora's old Auror training books in the loft."

"Yes, I'd very much like to borrow them," Draco admitted, his cheeks were still a little red at the fact he had come clean.

Narcissa smiled, "I'm very proud of you Draco. I understand that this isn't an easy profession for you to break into but then again you have always been very ambitious."

Draco smiled slightly, "I have," he agreed.

"What about you Hermione?" Andromeda asked conversationally, "What will you do after school?"

"I'm not really sure what I want to do yet," Hermione admitted, she was a little embarrassed by this, "I love Transfiguration and I'd like to teach it someday but I'm not sure what to do straight after Hogwarts."

"Hannah wants to do something Herbology related, don't you Han?" Neville asked his girlfriend.

Hannah nodded, "I'm not sure what yet," she admitted with a smile at Hermione to let her know that she was in the same boat.

Susan then said she would like to try and get involved with the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. Nothing more could be said after that point because the main course arrived.

Their main course consisted of turkey, roast potatoes, yorkshire puddings, parsnips, brussell sprouts and carrots which everyone tucked into happily. Christmas pudding was served for dessert and once everyone was sufficiently full they made their way to the drawing room to drink some brandy and talk amongst themselves. They split into groups at that point, the Slytherins stuck together, with Narcissa staying close by Lareina.

The teenagers for the most part stuck together, Draco, Harry, Daphne and Susan entertained Astoria and kept an eye on Teddy. Hermione was close by with her parents.

At around 10pm everyone started to leave to go home and go to bed. Daphne kissed her Mother and Astoria goodbye and said she would see them soon. Draco and Hermione said goodbye to their parents and they also left. Soon after Andromeda left claiming that Teddy needed bed, Harry knew she was right because he had been grouchy for the last hour or so.

Once everyone had gone the house seemed so empty and quiet. Although it hadn't been a particularly long day it _had _been extremely busy. It made them feel old but as early as 10.30pm everyone bade each other goodnight and headed to bed.

Harry and Daphne were lying in bed together when Daphne sighed, "Thanks for the best Christmas ever Harry."

Harry smiled softly as he kissed her on the forehead, "You're welcome love," he said sleepily as they both drifted off into a peaceful sleep after a very enjoyable Christmas day.

**TBC :)**


	32. Quidditch and Quarrels

** The 8th Year **

** Chapter 32 - Quidditch & Quarrels  **

When dawn broke on Boxing Day everyone slept on in Potter Manor. They had all eaten so much the day before that even though they'd had a fairly early night they were all exhausted. Even Hermione, who usually never slept past 10am, didn't wake up until noon. They all felt incredibly lazy but very refreshed and headed downstairs for a fantastic brunch of bacon, sausages, eggs, black pudding and hash browns.

It wasn't until the doorbell rang that Harry cursed, "I forgot the others were coming today," he said as he rushed to the door in his pyjamas.

The 4 people in the doorway looked amused, "Nice look Potter," Theo said as he walked into the house and looked around, "And nice house."

Harry only smiled in amusement, "Thanks Theo, we kind of forgot you guys were coming today, we just woke up."

"What did I tell you?" Tracey said to Dean who shrugged and smirked at Harry, "Guess I had more faith in Harry than you did."

Harry chuckled, "Well we did eat and drink slightly more than we should have yesterday," he admitted as he led Theo, Sadie, Tracey and Dean into the kitchen, "Are you hungry? There's plenty left if you want anything."

As they tucked into some lunch the group got talking and exchanged thank yous for the gifts they had gotten. It wasn't until Theo said he had gotten a firebolt from his stepmother that a plan hatched in Draco's head.

"Why don't we have a game of Quidditch?"

Harry laughed, "Where? The garden is still an overgrown mess."

"The front garden is," Draco smirked, "But did we forget to tell you we restored the Quidditch pitch out the back?"

"And that we put a roof garden in upstairs?" Daphne grinned.

Harry gaped at them, "Seriously?"

"Seriously," Hermione laughed. They had finished eating so she led him through the drawing room towards two large patio doors. They unlocked with a touch of Harry's hand and sure enough there it was outside; a full sized Quidditch pitch _in his back garden._ There was a path leading to a Quidditch pitch and all around the garden were ponds and flowers with frogs hopping around and fish swimming inside them. It was beautiful.

"It's hidden from muggles, just like the Manor itself," Daphne informed him.

"Just don't fly too high," Hermione advised, "Or you'll come out of the protected area right into the air above Muggle Surrey and that probably wouldn't go down too well."

They laughed and said she was probably right then set to work deciding on the teams. Draco and Harry decided to each be captains and got everyone else to stand in line. To decide who got to pick first they flipped a Knut.

"I call the dragon's heads!" Draco said.

Harry rolled his eyes, he hadn't been fast enough, "I'll take its tail then."

To make it fair Hermione flipped the coin, "It's a tail! Harry, you pick first."

Harry picked Daphne first, of course. Then it went on with the two boys taking turns to pick their teams.

As there were only 11 of them they couldn't quite make up a full team. Harry was playing seeker with two chasers, Daphne and Sadie. He had one beater, Susan, and his keeper was Neville. Draco was also playing seeker and had 3 chasers (because there was an odd number and Hermione was terrible), Hermione, Dean and Tracey, his beater was Theo and his Keeper was Hannah. It looked like it would make for an interesting game.

They took their positions, Harry blew the whistle and the game began. Where Hermione had gotten a quaffle, bludger, bats and snitch from he didn't know but he was impressed that she had thought into it so much. As the game began it became clear that Neville was a much better Keeper than Hannah who let in 3 consecutive goals. Daphne and Sadie were good chasers because they had always played together and they were talented. Whereas Dean had briefly been a chaser but preferred being a beater and Tracey wasn't playing alongside Daphne and Sadie as usual. Hermione just hovered around in the air and screamed whenever a ball came near her, including the quaffle. Draco was more than a little exasperated by this but everyone else was just amused.

They played for about an hour until Harry caught the snitch, he beat Draco to it by about a millisecond; things were much more even now that he had a firebolt. In the end the score was 230-60 to Harry's team but before the capture of the snitch they had been at 80-60. It really had depended on that crucial catch which Harry continued to tease Draco for all the way back to the house. The ground had been muddy with the cold and the rain so everyone was more than a little dirty as they headed off for showers. They made their way to their bedrooms and trailed mud through the house which left poor Kreacher to walk behind them and clean it up.

The house was a bit more cramped now that two more couples were staying but Harry had found rooms for everybody. Ron was supposed to have been here today but he had floo-ed that morning saying he had a promotional party thing with George for the shop. Harry had made a mental note to talk to him about Lilly the next time he could grab a moment with his friend. Ron was fast becoming obsessed with the shop and the work that he did there, to the detriment of his relationship with Lilly clearly.

Later that day after they had all freshened up Hermione had shown everyone the roof garden. It had clearly once been the attic because they reached it by going up the attic stairs. However, the space they walked into did not look anything like an attic. It was a huge room filled with light and large windows. There were sofas and armchairs scattered around the room which had white walls like the rest of the house, and exposed wooden beams.

"We thought it would be a nice area to relax," Draco said, he walked over to the window and looked out at the view. Potter Manor was in Surrey, quite close to where Harry's Aunt Petunia lived actually. The view was amazing; the largest window took up a huge chunk of the wall and it was a view of Muggle London. They were some distance away so they couldn’t see a lot in great detail but they could see the iconic London skyline. They could also make out certain landmarks such as St. Pauls Cathedral, Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament.

"You guys just keep amazing me,'" Harry said honestly, "This is the best present anyone has ever given me."

Hermione grinned broadly and ran up to Harry, she tackled him and squeezed him tightly in a bear hug.

"There's more," She said once she had released him.

Harry let her pull him over to a portrait which portrayed a vase of flowers, Hermione reached into the portrait and put her hand inside the vase. When she took it out it was wet and she was holding a key. A keyhole suddenly appeared in the portrait and once the key had been placed inside it and turned the portrait swung open, revealing another set of stairs. They climbed the small set of stairs and emerged into a fantastic roof garden. It was obviously magical because the sun was shining and it was warm, just like the back garden had been but that couldn't be right because this was December in Britain.

"There's a dome around the house," Hermione explained, "It controls the weather. All of the enchantments that make the house invisible from Muggles are so strong that they stop the rain coming through. So for the plants to grow wizards install an AWS, in other words, an Artificial Weather Spell. The house looked like a ruin to Muggles and all of the enchantments had died with your Grandparents, you have to get a warrant to perform an AWS but I called in a favour with a guy at the Ministry."

"You're fantastic Hermione," Harry said as he walked around the roof garden. There was a patio in the middle and plants all around it, there were strawberries growing and tomatoes, it was just incredible. Harry sat down on one of the loungers and laid back with a sigh of contentment. He had never had such a great Christmas break before and there was still New Year to come.

The roof garden, as relaxing as it was, got boring after a while so like the big kids that they were they decided to play hide and seek.

"What about a game of hide and seek?" Hermione suggested, "In a big wizarding house like this it will be loads of fun!"

"Enlighten us princess...what in hell is hide and seek?" Theo asked from his sun lounger, he lifted his sunglasses up to look at her.

"How many times do I have to tell you _not _to call me that? And for your information Theo it's a Muggle game, one person counts and everyone goes and hides," Hermione explained.

"It sounds ridiculous," Theo said, he rolled his eyes and put his sunglasses back on.

"I think it sounds fun!" Daphne piped up.

Tracey nodded, "It does sound pretty good!"

"I'd be up for it," Harry said and Draco and Sadie nodded that they would be too.

"What about you guys?" Hermione asked Neville, Hannah and Dean who also agreed to play which left Theo to grumble and say he would join in too if everyone else was. Hermione offered to count and everyone else ran off to find a hiding place. Once she had counted to 100 she set off to find them.

She had been right, hide and seek in a big wizarding house _was_ fun and the places she found her friends hidden in were very amusing. She found Theo in the food hatch in the formal living room, Susan in the house elves kitchen eating cake, Hannah hiding in a bookshelf in the library and Sadie in a wardrobe. Daphne had been found hiding under a bed and Harry was sitting in one of the golden hoops on the Quidditch pitch. Neville had been _inside_ one of the couches in the drawing room and Draco had _transfigured himself _into a couch in the drawing room ("How did you know it was me?", "I've never seen a couch with blonde hair before", "Oops, guess I need to work on my transfiguration."). Dean had been using a bubble head charm inside one of the ponds in the back garden and lastly, Tracey had been found in the pantry near the house elves kitchen eating chocolate biscuits.

The game had been amusing but by the end of it they decided it was dinnertime. With dinner came alcohol and after dinner came more alcohol…and then a little bit more. They were all so busy catching up that they didn't realise how many bottles of wine they had gone through between them. Then someone, Harry was sure it was Theo, brought up the idea of wizarding truth or dare.

Harry had never played it before so he was happy enough to see what the fuss was about. Theo drew a magical circle around them all, meaning they would _have _to do their dare unless they shouted "Pass!" before 1 minute was up. They also each took a sip of Veritaserum to ensure they would answer the questions truthfully. They kept the alcohol flowing and the game started out as a good laugh, at first.

Draco got dared to strip down to his boxers which he did quite happily after claiming that Sadie (who had given him the dare) just wanted to see him naked. Theo had glared at him for that and Draco had chuckled his amusement.

Hermione got asked who the first guy she had slept with was and in an embarrassed mumble had said, "Harry..."

Draco scoffed, "Aren't you glad your taste has improved Hermione?"

Harry rolled his eyes and he was then given a truth question from Tracey, "First girl you ever kissed."

Hermione burst out laughing because she knew the answer already. Harry glared at her and admitted, "Cho Chang.”

Hermione's laughter got louder, "And how did you describe it? Oh yes! Wet because she was crying."

This sent the others into hysterical laughter, “Were you that bad Harry?” Neville asked as he caught his breath.

"You'll pay for this one," Harry said to Hermione with a slightly evil look in his eyes.

Hermione only smirked and Harry added, "You're rubbing off on her Draco."

Draco grinned, "Good to know."

On Theo's turn Daphne asked him, "Did you ever sleep with a teacher?"

Theo rolled his eyes, "You're obsessed with that Daph, I told you then and I'll tell you now, I didn't ever sleep with Sinistra!"

Daphne smirked, she had constantly asked him about it in 6th year and it had driven him crazy but she was sure he had been lying.

"Sadie, truth or dare?"

"Truth," Sadie replied tentatively.

"Did you date anyone before Theo? And if you did, who?" Dean asked her.

Sadie glanced at Theo and then at Neville, "Only one, in the summer between 6th and 7th year I sort of dated Neville...we lived near each other and it was a bad time for both of us."

Hannah smiled at Sadie, she already knew because Neville had told her all about it but Theo gaped at his girlfriend.

Sadie rolled her eyes upon seeing his reaction, "Theo, you've slept with half the girls in this circle, all Neville and I did was kiss."

That shut Theo up and ironically a while later he got asked, "How many people in this circle _have_ you hooked up with?"

Theo glanced at Sadie who was looking at him with exasperation and amusement.

"Well, there was Tracey in 5th year and Susan in 6th and believe it or not that's actually it," Theo said, he looked quite proud of himself about the fact the answer was such a small number. Sadie knew all about his past, she had been his best friend through it all, when he was hooking up with Pansy and Lavender and whoever else.

When it came back around to Harry he was asked by Draco, "Was it really a onetime thing… what happened between you and Hermione during the war?"

Harry swallowed nervously and glanced over at Hermione who looked slightly pale.

"Spit it out then Harry," Draco said as he narrowed his eyes at the Gryffindor boy.

"No," Harry said quickly.

"Woah," Daphne said in disbelief, “Hold up a minute. How many times _did _it happen?'

"Twice," Harry said quietly, he waited for the slap from Daphne that never came and the punch from Draco that also never came.

Hermione's cheeks were red and she kept her eyes on the ground as she said, "Ron had just left and we were falling apart."

"Yeah so I can understand why it would happen once," Draco said irritably, "Once when two people are upset and need comfort, okay I can get that. But _twice?"_

"The second time was different," Harry muttered, "It had nothing to do with being upset or comfort alright? It was all about anger."

"Anger?" Daphne asked as her own eyes flashed angrily.

"Making Ron suffer for leaving," Hermione all but whispered, "It was petty and stupid. Harry and I haven't even spoken about it since the war."

"As long as there really isn't anything going on _now_," Daphne said, her eyes flitting from Harry to Hermione.

Hermione shook her head, "No, the best way I can think of to describe it is that we shared a bed every night until Ron came back but nothing more happened. We're just friends but we were being practical, we needed to keep warm in the middle of winter and we needed to keep each other's spirits up."

"You can't know what it feels like unless you're forced to spend months on the run…with barely enough to eat, a war raging and no way to get in touch with the people you love," Harry said, he thought that Draco and Daphne understood because the issue was put to rest there after a couple of nods.

The air was still slightly awkward but soon the issue became completely forgotten about as the game went underway. Then a question came Daphne's way that changed everything.

"Who was your first boyfriend?"

Daphne couldn't speak at first but everyone saw her meet Draco's eyes. Hermione gasped, she was surprised that Draco hadn't mentioned anything to her. They had been entirely honest with each other about their relationships, Draco hadn't known the _whole _truth about what had happened between her and Harry but he had _known _about it.

"Draco," Daphne said quietly.

"How long did it last?" Harry asked, he felt hurt that Daphne had never told him. He had suspected that something had happened between the two friends because of comments that had been made but Daphne had never opened up about a relationship.

"A while," Daphne said, avoiding the question.

"How long Daphne?" Harry asked lowly.

Daphne looked down at the ground as she replied, "Two years."

Harry swore loudly as he stood up, "Two years! Two years and you never told me?"

"You never told me about you and Hermione sleeping together more than once!"

“There wasn't even a 'me and Hermione' it wasn't ever a relationship, it was nothing more than a fling and I know you haven't told me about all of yours but I did tell you about all of my _relationships _and I expected you'd trust me enough to do the same!"

Harry turned on his heel and stormed from the room. Looking from Daphne's face to the door Harry had left through Neville jumped to his feet and hurried after his friend.

Draco was looking at Hermione and the betrayal on her face was clear, "You dated someone I became very close to, for 2 years, and you never bothered to tell me?” She asked as she stood up and made her way to the door, “Thanks Draco, thanks a lot."

As the door slammed behind her Hannah and Susan hurried after her which left the room in an awkward silence.

"If you hadn't been so stubborn and had let me tell Hermione when I asked this would never have happened!" Draco snapped at Daphne as he got to his feet and made his way towards the door, "You just chronically can't trust, can you?"

Once Draco had stormed out and Theo had rushed out after him, Daphne ran from the room looking very teary. Sadie and Tracey dashed after her which left just Dean in the room. He shook his head in disbelief at the chaos that had just unfolded and decided to go and find Harry and Neville.

Two people knew the house better than most; Harry, who owned it and Hermione, who had renovated it. Draco had supplied the money but she had been the one who logged all the hours in the old place.

As a result they both ended up in the same room, the same hidden room which no one else knew about. There was a large portrait of Charlus Potter in the entrance hall and behind it was a secret room. When Harry had reached it his ancestor had smiled at him and said, "Remember Harry, even the best of us make mistakes."

Harry had shrugged at this, "I just don't want to talk to either of them right now,” he admitted with a deep sigh. He then glanced around to make sure that no one was listening and said, "Fortis, Potens, Verum."

The portrait swung open at the words which were the Potter family motto in Latin. In English it translated loosely into "Brave, Strong, True" which made sense if the Potters really were descended from Godric Gryffindor. The secret room behind the portrait was small, it had served the function of a giant safe back in the days before Gringotts had handled all of the family’s money and fortune.

Hermione sat against the wall in the little room, she was crying and she looked up sharply when the portrait swung open. She was relieved when she saw Harry, "Oh, it's just you Harry," she said as the portrait swung shut behind him and he joined her on the floor.

"Draco's such a bastard-"

"Daphne's such a cold-hearted cow-"

"- I still love him though."

"- But it doesn't stop me loving her."

They had spoken at the same time and both shared a laugh at their words. They sat with their backs against the cold wall for a while longer, both of them were silent and both of them were lost in their own thoughts.

Half an hour must have passed before Harry stood and offered his hand to Hermione, she took it and he pulled her up, "We should probably stop hiding now."

"You're going to do something stupid, aren't you?" Hermione asked as she narrowed her eyes at him.

"No," Harry lied as they climbed through the portrait hole, "I don't know what you're talking about."

"Yes, you do," Hermione said, "You have that look on your face, the one you get when you're planning something stupid."

"I'm not going to do anything stupid," Harry said matter of factly, "I'm just going to duel Draco."

He walked in the direction of the duelling room and Hermione muttered, "Oh and that's not stupid then?" as she rushed after him.

Daphne had hurried to her room and she had only just gotten in and flung herself on the bed when the door opened again and Sadie and Tracey walked in.

They hadn’t seen her like this since the break-up with Draco and it was a sorry sight indeed.

"Daphne, you need to talk to us," Sadie said, she sat down on the bed and placed her hand on her friend’s shoulder.

"No I don't!" Daphne said, her voice was muffled by the pillow she had her face buried in.

"Daph, Harry will come around, he's just upset that you kept this from him and you know Draco has a terrible temper," Tracey reasoned with her friend but it didn't seem to work.

Daphne was being transported back to a time she really didn't want to remember. She sighed as the inevitable flashbacks flashed through her head. A naive 5th year version of herself was charmed by him, he asked her out, she said yes but they kept it a secret from the rest of the school.

It had been a whirlwind romance, full of fun and laughter and she'd had the best year of her life with Draco in 5th year.

Then the story warped, the images got darker, Daphne returned for 6th year to a different Draco Malfoy, he was cold and unfeeling, angry all of the time and he just didn't have time for her anymore. Her perfect vision of life, of love and of him was completely shattered. She held onto him for a little while but then she realised at the end of 6th year that he was a lost cause and it was over. She may have been the one who broke up with him but it had broken her heart and she vowed to never feel pain like that again.

Daphne Greengrass had locked her heart away and refused to date ever again, all because of the damage Draco Malfoy had caused.

"I didn't want to think about it ever again," Daphne said as she looked up the white ceiling, "I wanted to make that part of my past go away."

"You can't just erase the parts of the past you don't like," Sadie said from her spot beside Daphne, "They mould you into the person you are today, without them you wouldn't be the Daph we all love so much."

"Well I don't think Harry loves me very much at the moment," Daphne said bitterly, "I should have just told him," she groaned and hit herself in the face with a pillow, "I thought he'd be angry but I only made him angrier by not telling him. I'm such an idiot!"

"You're not an idiot," Tracey said, "You just haven't dated for a while, you're getting used to it again."

Sadie nodded, "Of course you're going to make mistakes Daphne, everyone does! But they learn from them and you and Harry will come back from this."

"I suspected as much, about him and Hermione," Daphne said as she completely changed the subject, "I know there isn't anything more to it but I did wonder if it was more than just a one night stand."

"It doesn't matter now, does it? He loves you, not her."

"I suppose," Daphne said, she wiped her face and walked over to her mirror to reapply her makeup.

"Thank you," she said as she turned to her two best friends, "I'm so lucky to have friends like you guys," she hugged them both tightly, she didn't know what she would do without Tracey and Sadie.

When Harry stormed into the duelling room he wasn't at all surprised to find Draco with Theo but he was surprised to find Neville and Dean duelling them.

"Don't do my dirty work for me," Harry said as he made his way onto the platform and held his wand at the ready. Neville and Dean jumped off of the stage.

"Nev, you're my second," Harry said.

Draco turned to Theo, "Theo, you're my second."

Both boys nodded and then Harry and Draco walked towards each other and did the stupid bow.

"You've slept with my girlfriend and you never told me," Harry said hotly.

"I dated her, nobody said anything about sex. You on the other hand slept with my girlfriend twice and told me you'd only done it once," Draco countered irritably.

They both walked back to their starting places and then the duel began.

Hermione watched helplessly as spells shot between them both, red, blue, pink, orange, all of the colours under the sun. Hannah and Susan were also standing on the side-lines watching the duel.

Harry seemed to have the upper hand when the door opened and Daphne walked in, she was flanked by Sadie and Tracey.

"Stop this stupid nonsense!" Daphne shouted at the boys and immediately the flying sparks stopped.

"Daphne!"

"Harry, I want to talk to you, upstairs," she ordered.

Harry, who was both scared and worried, immediately dropped off the platform and left the room.

"Talk to him," Daphne said quietly to Hermione who simply nodded.

"Come on Draco," Hermione said, she took his hand and led him upstairs towards the library.

"Well," Neville said to the others in the room, "Should we have a drink while we wait?"

Once they were in the library Draco sighed and tried to think about how to start his story. He knew Hermione wanted the truth and he thought it was only fair that she got it since he had kept it from her for so long.

"I did love Daphne, or at least I thought I did. We had known each other since we were kids and we had been friends since 1st year but we didn't get close romantically until 5th Year. She was fun and clever and beautiful so I asked her out and she said yes," Draco began, he watched Hermione to gage her opinion, at the moment she seemed calm.

"We dated for the rest of 5th year and it was just like any other relationship, we were really happy together but I kept it from everyone apart from my family and closest friends. I knew what was coming with Voldemort and I didn't want to put her in danger," Hermione nodded, she understood Draco's predicament at that time of his life.

Draco sighed and played with a thread on his Weasley jumper, "We didn't see each other over the summer, we just wrote letters and then when we got back to school for 6th year everything was different. I had changed because of what I'd been ordered to do and I withdrew into myself, I just wanted to be alone but I still loved Daphne and I didn't want to hurt her."

Draco seemed to be getting to the painful part of the story now, "So we muddled through that year with what you could barely call a relationship. Everyone thought Pansy and I were together because we talked more than Daphne and I did. Eventually after the incident with Dumbledore…she realised I was bad news and she finally ended it.”

Hermione nodded, she was still being calm as she heard him out so Draco sighed once more and finished, "I didn't talk to Daphne again until 7th year...she barely spoke to me in the first few months but then we agreed to try and maintain a friendship if we could. It turned out that we could so we stayed friends."

"You broke her heart," Hermione realised, "And that's why she didn't want to date anyone else."

Draco nodded, "Which was why I was so happy when she met Harry because I hadn't seen her come out of that shell since I'd broken up with her but Harry eased her out so naturally...they really are perfect together."

"You're over it now though, aren't you?" Hermione asked, she was a little unsure of herself. Next to Daphne Greengrass with her long blonde hair and her blue eyes she didn't feel very pretty or special.

"I promise that I am, Hermione," Draco said without taking his eyes away from hers, "I'm completely over everything that happened. I wasn't until you and I got closer but you've changed me. Compared to what I feel for you I don't even know if it really was love I felt for Daphne."

Hermione could tell he was being truthful as she hugged him tightly, "I'm sorry for shouting Draco."

"I'm sorry for not telling you sooner," Draco said as he broke the hug and kissed her lightly,

"No more secrets."

Meanwhile Daphne and Harry were talking about the same issue in their bedroom upstairs.

"I'm sorry for not telling you sooner Harry," Daphne said honestly as she sat down on the edge of the bed.

Harry sat down next to her and asked, "Why didn't you?”

"Honestly, I thought you would be angry at me. The irony is that you were angrier because I didn't tell you,” Daphne sighed.

"You should have just trusted me Daph," Harry said a little sadly.

Daphne nodded, "I know but I have trust issues Harry and it’s because of Draco. I need to tell you that so you understand so here goes my tragic backstory…Draco and I got together in 5th year and kept it secret. It was great while it lasted but then he changed when he got that mark. I don’t know how we stayed together through 6th year, all I know is that we were both so miserable. I ended things with him when I found out he had tried to kill Dumbledore. He broke my heart and I still find it hard to trust guys now."

"What happened?" Harry asked curiously, "Between you and Draco during the war?"

"We decided there were bigger problems than our old relationship woes,” Daphne said honestly, “So we salvaged a friendship out of the mess and we tried to do what we could to help Dumbledore’s Army survive the Carrows.”

Harry sighed and lay back on the bed, he looked up the top of the four-poster bed thoughtfully.

"I cried for about a week," Daphne said as she lay back next to him and focused on the same spot on the top of the bed, "I barely ate or slept. Then I came out of it and decided to never let anyone else hurt me again so I put up all the walls that you tore down in a couple of months."

Harry smiled and turned his head to look at her, "I really broke them down that easily?"

Daphne smiled back, "Yeah, no one else managed. I mean people did try but you were the first guy who drove me crazy, you made me fall completely for you."

Harry grinned as he rolled onto his stomach and kissed his girlfriend. She smiled into the kiss and kissed him back. When he broke the kiss Harry rested his head on Daphne's shoulder, "I love you Daph,” he whispered, "And I'm sorry for losing my temper."

Daphne smiled back at him, "I love you too, Harry," she said.

It looked like everything was going to be okay after all.

** _TBC :)_ **


	33. Happy New Year!

It was the 31st of December and everyone in Potter Manor was excited about the New Year's party that night especially its host.

The girls were already in the large ballroom, they had gotten dressed up and looked gorgeous as usual. As the host it was Harry’s job to stand by the door and welcome his guests as they arrived. Draco had volunteered to keep him company which he was quite grateful for, Harry was aware he could be awkward at times.

For one night only the powerful wards surrounding the house had been let down to allow visitors in. Draco even had a security guard on the door to make sure unwelcome ex-Death Eaters or reporters didn't get into the party.

"You've come a long way," Draco said to Harry as he stood next to the Gryffindor in his scarlet silk dress robes.

Harry frowned because he didn’t understand what his friend meant. They only had a few minutes before the guests started to arrive when Draco smiled and elaborated, "When we met you were a half-blood who didn't know what his own blood status meant. Now you’re embracing your Father's side of the family. You have grace and style; look at you throwing elaborate parties. You might not like it but you're one of us now."

Harry didn't quite know how to take that but he couldn't ask Draco if he was insulting him or not because at that moment the guests started to arrive. The Weasley’s were first, they arrived in a huge group with all of their dates. Accompaniying Bill was Fleur and George had brought Angelina along. Percy brought along his new girlfriend, who Harry had been informed was called Audrey. Harry was a little surprised to see Ron and Lilly show up together and he hoped that this surprise didn’t show on his face. Ginny had come with Blaise then right at the back of the pack Charlie swept in with none other than their very own Professor Sinistra.

Harry's surprise must have shown on his face because Charlie winked at him, "Best thing about coming back to the UK, getting the girl who I let get away before I left," he said as he tightened his arm on Sinistra and made his way into the ballroom.

"That's...'" Harry trailed off.

Draco finished, "Interesting?"

"Yeah," Harry agreed as he looked towards Ron and Lilly, "You two made up then?"

Lilly shrugged, "He grovelled."

"Yeah, I did," Ron said sheepishly.

Harry smiled slightly, "I'll catch up with you later mate," he said and he patted Ron on the back as other guests began to spill in. As Ron and Lilly entered the ballroom Harry and Draco welcomed Narcissa and Andromeda who had Teddy with them. Close behind them were Elizabeth and John Granger who arrived through the front door by Muggle transport. The next group arrived together which didn't surprise Harry or Draco because they were the type that travelled in packs. They were Lareina Greengrass, Lorelai Davis (Tracey's Mother), Salvadora Nott (Theo's Stepmother) and Lotus Cauldwell (Sadie's Mother). With them were Astoria and her boyfriend Dennis Creevey. After that most of the people arriving were their fellow 8th year pupils. Some pupils from lower years were invited too, including Luna who looked like a Muggle hippy in the cream dress she was wearing. It was embroidered with flowers and her hair was bushy and had multi-coloured braids in it. Harry held back a chuckle as he hugged her and asked her how her Christmas had been.

"Oh, it was wonderful," Luna said brightly, "Daddy took me to Scotland to see the Kelpie there that the Muggles call Nessie."

"Oh, did you see it?" Harry asked.

Luna nodded, "Oh yes, it was marvellous! It even bit me!" she proudly showed him the cut on her arm.

"I’m glad you had a good Christmas," Harry said with a smile as Luna walked into the hall.

From behind him Ron grinned and said, "She's brilliant, isn't she?"

Harry grinned as he turned to face his friend, "She's fantastic," he agreed with a laugh as he turned back to greet the next few guests. He noticed that Ron tensed up slightly when the remnants of his old Quidditch team entered the hall. Harry didn't know why the presence of Oliver Wood, Alicia Spinnet or Katie Bell would make him uncomfortable but he made a mental note to ask Ron about that later.

The next group were the teachers from Hogwarts. McGonagall had brought a date and that date was none other than the Minister for Magic himself, Kingsley Shacklebolt. Harry felt a bit more daring, a bit more like his Father, when he greeted the Headmistress.

"Evening Minister," he said, smiling at him, "And I see that you are here with Professor McGonagall."

McGonagall narrowed her eyes at him, as if sensing a Potter-like comment or joke coming on. Ever since he had defeated Voldemort Harry had become more like his Father, in good ways rather than bad ones.

"I can just see the headlines tomorrow Kingsley," Harry grinned, "_Minister and Minnie: A Magical Match_."

Kingsley chuckled and even McGonagall looked like she was fighting a smile, "Mr. Potter you become more like your Father with every passing day."

Harry bowed, "Thank you very much," he said which caused McGonagall to smile for a fraction of a second before making her way into the ballroom with Kingsley.

Hagrid turned up with his fiancé, Olympe. Trelawney and Filch came together and Harry couldn't believe the change in them. Trelawney looked like the woman in James and Lily's wedding photograph again and Filch even scrubbed up okay. Flitwick and Sprout came together as friends and Aberforth even turned up to the party, he looked a little awkward and out of place until Neville made his way over to the old man. Amongst the other guests were Cho Chang and Viktor Krum who immediately caught Susan's eye and made a beeline for her.

"Is that everyone?" Draco asked, he glanced at his watch.

Harry frowned and shook his head, "Not quite," he said.

As if on cue the doorbell rang.

Draco frowned, "I thought the only Muggles coming were Hermione's parents?"

Harry smiled vaguely at the blonde as they made their way to the large front door, "I have family too Draco."

Draco's cheeks turned a faint colour of pink and he looked down, he seemed embarrassed about the fact he had forgotten that Harry had some family left. They said no more as Harry opened the door and welcomed in his Aunt Petunia and his cousin Dudley.

"Hey," Harry said as he hugged his Aunt and shook Dudley's hand, "I'm really glad you could come."

"Thank you for inviting us Harry," Petunia said, she looked down at the floor with an expression on her face similar to Draco's, “Goodness knows we don't deserve your kindness after what we put you through.”

"Sorry Harry," Dudley said quietly from his spot next to his Mother.

Harry however only shook his head, "See this man here," he said as he pointed to Draco who looked up in surprise.

"He made my life hell when I started at Hogwarts, he was my arch enemy and now he's my best friend," Harry said, "The point being that I don't hold grudges. Now come in and enjoy the party."

Petunia smiled as Harry took her by the arm and led her into the ballroom. Draco and Dudley walked behind them a little awkwardly and Draco was relieved when they seemed to finally reach the room and parted with Harry's Muggle family.

Harry took a deep breath as they walked into the hall and Draco stopped him by placing an arm on his shoulder, "Harry," he said quietly, "Are you sure you want to do this? I can do the talking if you like."

Harry smiled gratefully at Draco and shook his head, "I appreciate the offer but this is my house and my party. I'll do the talking."

Draco nodded, "You know, for someone so famous you should really be an ace at public speaking."

Harry shrugged, "I've never exactly been ordinary now, have I?"

Draco chuckled at the question and merely shook his head as Harry took to the stage.

The crowd went quiet when they saw their host on the small stage. Harry smiled and said, "I would like to welcome you all to my New Year's party here at the newly renovated Potter Manor. As some of you may know I've always preferred New Year's celebrations to Christmas celebrations because I feel welcoming in a New Year is something that ought to be celebrated. I've never felt that more than this year because it makes me very happy to say with complete certainty that when the bells ring tonight and we welcome in the New Year it will be our first year without the dark wizard we knew as Voldemort ruling over our lives," Harry paused to take a breath, "I owe the defeat of Voldemort to many people, several of whom are in this room tonight. However, there are many people that I lost who I wish could be here to see this great New Year welcomed in. So as much as tonight is a time of celebration, it is also a time of grieving. I'd like you all to raise a glass to the fallen of both the Great Wizarding War and the Second Wizarding War," Harry said and as he finished his speech he raised his champagne glass. All through the crowd glasses were raised and three words echoed around the large ballroom.

"To the fallen!"

Harry smiled, "Let the party begin!"

There were cheers as the band behind him started to play and Harry left the stage and headed towards Draco, Daphne and Hermione. Draco patted Harry on the back, "You were brilliant."

"Well it helped that there were no reporters," Harry remarked as he thought of the times he had frozen giving speeches and statements to huge crowds of fans and reporters.

"How wrong you are," A voice behind Harry said.

He would recognise that voice anywhere, "How did you get past security?"

Rita Skeeter only winked, "A marvellous speech Mr. Potter, it will make the front page of the Prophet I'm sure."

Harry rolled his eyes at Draco who clicked his fingers which caused his security guard to come running, "Get her out of here", Draco said simply.

The wizard clad in black dress robes nodded, "Yes sir."

Without further ado Rita Skeeter was dragged out of the party amidst chuckles from the crowd.

***

Dean Thomas and Theo Nott didn't exactly follow the rules but they didn't do anything illegal either. At least that's what they told themselves when they followed Rita Skeeter out of Potter Manor and managed to corner her before she apparated away.

"We have something that might interest you," Dean said, he glanced behind his shoulder to make sure they weren't being watched then handed her a brown envelope.

Rita got a glint in her eye when she opened it and saw 5 pictures. The first few were of Draco and Harry standing very close together before the dance practice, the 3rd was of them dancing and the last two were of that dip Draco did to Harry that they always teased the boys about.

"I'll give you 1,000 Galleons if you let me print these in the Prophet," Rita said.

Theo snorted, "I don't think so. The saviour of the wizarding world and the bad boy who turned good at the end of the war? They're worth more than that."

Rita only looked slightly miffed, "I was under the impression Mr. Potter and Mr. Malfoy were dating girls, Miss. Greengrass and Miss. Granger I believe?"

"They are," Dean assured Rita who narrowed her eyes at the picture, "Then what is going on in this picture?"

"We don't have a story for you Rita, just some pictures," Theo said, he was wary of the sneaky reporter.

"If you had a story, I'd give you 2,000 galleons," Rita said sneakily. Theo and Dean shared a glance; Skeeter _must _have been a Slytherin.

"Mate, you are not considering making a story up for money," Dean said as he gave Theo a warning look.

"Okay, fine," Theo said, after a moment's pause, "There is no story, Draco taught Harry how to dance and we took photographs."

"Well that's good enough for me, 1,100 galleons?"

"1,800?"

"1,500, final offer," Rita said firmly.

Dean and Theo shared a look then nodded, "Done," they said finally and they shook Rita's hand. She wrote them a check and they handed her the envelope.

Rita grinned and flashed her white teeth at them in the process, "Pleasure doing business with you boys."

Dean pocketed the check and the two boys made their way back into the house and to the party, nobody had even noticed that they had disappeared.

***

Inside the ballroom while Dean and Theo had been sneaking around to get a fat check, Harry and Draco had been dancing with their girlfriends. Susan was over by the drinks table looking amused and exasperated as she turned Viktor Krum down yet again but the Bulgarian wouldn't stop pursuing her.

"Nice dress,"

"You're looking at my breasts, aren't you?"

"Uh," Krum was clearly flustered, "No?"

Susan only raised an eyebrow at him and he shrugged, "It is hard not to with you in a dress like that."

"Are you still following me?" Susan asked as she grabbed a glass of butterbeer and handed one to him.

"Thank you," Krum said as he took the glass, "And if I remember you kissed me at the Yule Ball."

"I kissed you once so you're stalking me?" Susan asked the Bulgarian in amusement.

"We kissed 3 times," Krum said.

Susan smiled, "You counted?"

"Maybe," Krum said, "Dance with me at least?"

"You said that last time," Susan said as she smiled sheepishly at the Quidditch player.

"And look how well that night ended," Krum said, he held out his hand for her. Susan couldn't stop the smile that spread across her face as her mask broke.

She put down her drink and took his hand, "One dance," she said and she let him lead her to the dance floor.

“You said that last time."

"I know."

***

Dudley and Petunia stood around a little awkwardly after Harry's speech. The older Witches and Wizards tended to stick together in groups while the kids and teenagers danced. Molly Weasley saw them and made her way over to them, "Hello, you must be Harry's Aunt Petunia, I'm Molly."

Petunia looked relieved to have someone to talk to, "Harry talked of you often; he said you were like a Mother to him."

Molly smiled slightly, "Oh he's a dear isn't he? Why don't you come over and meet my family?"

Petunia went with Molly to meet the rest of the Weasley’s and Dudley was going to follow but then he saw something that stopped him in his tracks. He saw the girl from Exeter University that he had become friends with. Cho was standing by the drinks table. He couldn't quite believe it as he made his way over to her. When he reached her he tapped her on the shoulder and she turned around. She gasped when she saw the man behind her.

"Dudley! Harry didn't tell me you were invited!"

"He didn't tell me you were either," Dudley said, he silently cursed his cousin, "I didn't know you knew him."

Cho looked down, '"Yeah, we...um...we were close when we were at Hogwarts together."

Dudley gaped, "Close? As in... wait, you're a witch?"

Cho grimaced, "Come on, I'll tell you somewhere quiet," she said and she led the way out of the ballroom. She led him up to the balcony on the floor above which overlooked the whole ballroom.

"I was scared to tell you, you're my only friend at university and I thought it might scare you off. I only found out on Christmas Eve at the Yule Ball that you and Harry were related," Cho said as she tried not to look too guilty.

"The Yule Ball? Is that a wizard thing?" Dudley asked, he was clueless about her world.

Cho nodded as she looked at the party going on below them, "It's held at Hogwarts but usually only for special occasions. The last Yule Ball I went to was in my 5th year when I was dating a boy called Cedric Diggory," she saw the flash of recognition on Dudley's face which was closely followed by guilt, _so he remembered tormenting Harry about that then_, Cho thought to herself, "Harry had a crush on me in my 5th year and then at the end of it, Cedric...well, he died," Cho said, she let out a long breath she had been holding in, "And I dated Harry briefly in 5th year but he had been too close to Cedric and it hurt too much. I fought for him in the war and in the final battle."

Dudley was silent as he took all of this in, "I'm still your friend Cho. This doesn't make me hate you or anything, you know that don't you?"

Cho had to admit that she was surprised by Dudley's reaction but she nodded, "I was going to tell you at some point...I just wasn't sure how to do it."

"Well I guess we have Harry to thank then," Dudley said in amusement as he looked down at the crowd and spotted Harry's jet black hair even from high up. His cousin was smirking at them, Dudley rolled his eyes at this and waved at Harry.

"Come on, I reckon we should go enjoy this party. And _what the hell is butterbeer?"_

***

"Hermione, are you friends with Ron's girlfriend?"

Hermione frowned at the older girl who had just approached her by the drinks table, "Uh Lilly? Yes. Why?"

Angelina Johnson bit her lip, "I know something about Ron that I feel she should know about."

Hermione's eyes widened, "No... he didn't..."

Angelina glanced behind her, "Is there anywhere quiet around here?"

Hermione nodded and led Angelina into the back corridor to the house elves kitchen. As soon as the door behind them was shut Hermione said, "Please don't tell me he cheated on her."

"I can't," Angelina admitted, "And I shouldn't go into too much detail either. It's just that...well, he slept with my friend and didn't tell her that he had a girlfriend. She found out through me and she feels dreadful."

"Well whoever she is it's not her fault that Ron's a sleaze," Hermione said angrily, "Why would he do this to Lilly?"

"Ron said he and Lilly had a big fight about the Yule Ball," Angelina said in an undertone, "He went out to a bar and well, you know he can get carried away."

"I know," Hermione said darkly, "But that's not an excuse Angelina."

"Trust me, I know it isn't," Angelina said angrily, "And I've let Ron know just how angry I am with him but he's playing a game with her now Hermione. He's acting like everything's fine and I feel that she needs to know."

"You're right," Hermione sighed, "She does need to know but I think that it should come from me. I'm her friend and I could break it to her gently."

"I know," Angelina nodded, "I've never met the girl, I don't know how I could break news like that to her."

"Who did he sleep with Angelina?" Hermione asked with a frown.

"Hermione, do we really need to go into that?" Angelina asked quietly.

"Yes," Hermione said simply, "Because Lilly's going to need closure or it will drive her mad."

"I'm just looking out for my friend here," Angelina argued.

"And I'm looking out for mine," Hermione said, "We both have friends who are being hurt right now Angelina! Don't get me wrong, Ron's one of my best friends but right now hes really testing the limits of my patience."

"And mine," Angelina sighed, "He slept with Katie, alright? They met up in a bar on boxing day…they were both upset because Katie and Roger had broken up not long before Christmas...if that helps Lilly then I suppose you should tell her that."

"Thanks Angelina," Hermione said honestly as she opened the door and the noise of the ballroom flooded the hall, "I've got to go and find Lilly."

***

"Hey Lil, can I talk to you in private?"

It had taken a while for Hermione to grab Lilly on her own. She had been dancing with Ron, or talking to the Weasley's and in the end Hermione had waited for the girl outside of the bathroom to grab a moment with her.

Lilly jumped, "Merlin Hermione! You scared the pants off of me!"

"Sorry," Hermione said sheepishly, "I just need to talk to you, come on."

Lilly frowned as Hermione grabbed her arm and pulled her into the library. It was a feeble plan but she hoped the smell of old books and parchment would comfort or calm her, "Okay Hermione you're freaking me out now. What's going on?"

"There's no nice way of saying this," Hermione said as she chewed on her lip, "So I'm just going to have to say it and I'm _so _sorry Lilly."

"Just spit it out, whatever it is," Lilly said, she wasn't the most patient person in the world.

"Ron cheated on you," Hermione said quickly, "On boxing day."

"What?" Lilly hissed, "What do you mean he cheated on me?"

"I mean he...well he...he slept with someone else," Hermione said with a grimace.

"That fucking dick!" Lilly said as her cheeks reddened, "I'm going to kill him! But I'm going to rip his balls off first and feed him them through his-"

"Lilly!" Hermione interrupted, "I think you're getting a little carried-"

"I am not getting carried away! This is me being calm Hermione! Totally, completely calm!" Lilly shouted.

Hermione bit her lip, "Look Lilly, I know he's a complete idiot but-"

"There is no but here!" Lilly raged, "If you try and defend that fucking prick right now I swear to God Hermione I will blast you into the bloody basement!"

"I'm not defending him, he has been an arsehole," Hermione said, "He's a clueless, heartless, stupid prick and you are completely allowed to hate him but-”

"There is not but!" Lilly practically spat, "I do hate him! What whore did he sleep with anyway?"

"Katie Bell and she's not a whore," Hermione said quietly, "She's actually a friend of mine and she's a very nice person. Look…I know this is true because Katie is friends with Angelina, George's girlfriend. She told Angelina what happened and she felt dreadful when Angelina told her Ron had a girlfriend. She had no idea Lilly."

"He didn't even tell her that he had a girlfriend?" Lilly shouted, "Oh fuck this! I am going to fucking _kill _this bastard!"

"Lilly, wait!" Hermione called as she jogged after the girl. She was clearly on her way back to the ballroom where a scene was very likely to kick off, "Lilly, I think you should take a minute to calm down first!" Hermione shouted across the entrance hall.

"I _am _calm!" Lilly snapped unconvincingly as she stalked into the ballroom. Hermione cursed under her breath and she crossed the marble floor of the entrance hall as quickly as she dared in high heels. By the time that she reached the ballroom Lilly had already found Ron and a scene was well and truly kicking off.

"Who the hell do you think you are?" Lilly was shouting, "Do you think just because you happened to be with Harry Potter when he won the war you can just go off and sleep with whoever you want? Even when you _apparently _have a girlfriend?"

Ron's face paled, "What?" he said quietly, “What the hell are you on about?"

"Don't play dumb with me Ron!" Lilly snapped, "Do I look like an idiot?"

"No," Ron muttered, "Can we not do this here though? Everybody is watching."

"All the better then," Lilly said bitterly, "Now all of your friends can know how much of a dickhead you are!"

"Woah Lilly, it was an accident!" Ron snapped, "I didn't mean it alright? I was drunk and-"

"Well maybe you should stop doing things you don't mean to do then!" Lilly shouted, "Like walking out on your best friends during a war and cheating on your girlfriend for example! Keep going on like this Ron and you really will have no friends!"

At that point Harry stepped in, "Come on guys, break it up. This isn't the time or the place."

"It's none of your business anyway Harry," Ron said irritably.

Lilly shook her head, "And there's nothing more to talk about because this is _over_. Oh and Ron, I did learn one really useful thing from dating you."

"Did you?" Ron asked sarcastically.

"I did, although I actually learned it from your sister," Lilly said with a wicked smirk. Without another word Lilly cast a bat-bogey hex on him and stalked from the room.

Harry sighed at the chaos that had ensued. When the curse had finished destroying Ron's face and he was thoroughly covered in cuts Harry stepped in, "Ron-"

Ron shook his head angrily, "I'll see you tomorrow, Harry," he said as he also stormed from the room.

The ballroom had gone very quiet and Harry shook his head irritably at the nosiness of the people here, "Alright, you've seen the action! Back to the party!" he called, and the band started up again. It put the commotion out of the minds out most and people began to dance once more.

Daphne rolled her eyes, "So much drama in one party."

"Hey, we wouldn't be us if we couldn't go somewhere without there being lots of drama," Harry joked.

Hermione nodded her exasperated agreement and the four of them made their way back to the dance floor. They stayed there until the clock struck 5 to midnight. At that point Harry took Daphne by the hand and led her up to the stage. He kept a grip on her hand while he gave a short speech before the start of the countdown, "Let's celebrate the end of a year filled with pain and sorrow but also with victory. Let's celebrate the birth of a new year and a new start, a chance to move on from all that has happened this year."

The clock was almost at midnight so Harry and Daphne started the countdown to the dawn of the New Year.

"10...9...8...7...6...5...4...3...2...1!"

The clock struck 12 and it was officially 1999. There was cheering around the hall as the bells rang and fireworks went off around the room. Harry winked at George who was on the balcony with several boxes of Weasley’s Wizard Wheezes new indoor fireworks. The room was lit up with brightly coloured fireworks as Harry and Daphne raised their glasses.

"Happy New Year!"

They clinked their glasses together and drank deeply from them. All around the hall people were doing the same, they toasted, kissed and hugged. Draco kissed Hermione, Harry kissed Daphne and everything just felt so unbelievably right.

"Are you crying?" Daphne asked Harry under her breath, she raised her hand and wiped away the stray tear that had fallen from his eye as he kissed her.

Harry looked sheepish and embarrassed, "I'm just happy. I didn't think I'd see it to the millennium and now I'm one year closer."

Daphne smiled, he didn't show his emotions very often but she appreciated it when he let her in like that, she kissed him on the cheek, "You'll see 2000 and I'll be standing right next to you to bring it in with style," her voice was firm and Harry knew it was a promise.

"I love you Daphne," Harry said, he didn’t particularly care that the whole room could see them at this point as he took a step closer to her and captured her lips in a searing kiss. She gasped in surprise but kissed Harry back with just as much fervour.

"You've never done that," Daphne said as Harry broke the kiss to cheers from the crowd, "You’ve never kissed me in public like that."

Harry grinned broadly and took her hand, "There's a first time for everything."

Daphne shared his smile as he turned and held her hand up; both of them got cheers from the crowd. The loudest cheers by far came from the front where Draco, Hermione, Neville, Hannah, Theo, Sadie, Dean and Tracey were standing with silly grins on their faces. Not for the first time that night Harry appreciated how amazing his friends really were.

**TBC :)**


	34. Nothing Like a Little Friendly Competition

After the big affair at New Year the group staying at Potter Manor had decided to go their own ways before going back to Hogwarts a few days later. Harry, Daphne, Draco and Hermione would be joining the Weasley's that afternoon. Sadie and Theo would be visiting Sadie's Mother. Tracey and Dean were going to spend the day with Dean's huge family and Neville, Hannah and Susan would be spending some time with Hannah's parents. However, before they went their separate ways they had a late breakfast together.

"Well, last night was fun," Harry yawned as he tucked into some crumpets and poured himself a mug of strong coffee.

"Agreed," Draco yawned.

Neville frowned, "Uh, haven't either of you seen the prophet yet?"

Both Draco and Harry shook their heads and Neville tentatively handed the paper to Harry. Draco was off of his chair in seconds to stand behind Harry so that he could see the front page. Dean and Theo sniggered quietly over their crumpets.

"Oh for the love of Godric," Harry muttered.

Draco's face paled, "My reputation, it's ruined!"

"Stop being such a drama Queen Draco," Daphne said, she rolled her eyes at Hermione, "Your pureblooded Slytherin prince reputation has been ruined since you started dating a Muggle-born, get over it."

"Have you _seen _this?" Draco asked the girl, he thrust the paper in her face and she choked a little on her crumpet when she saw the front page because she was laughing.

The headline shouted out in capital letters, _"WAR HERO AND DEATH EATER: SECRET LOVERS?"_

Underneath were moving pictures of Harry and Draco dancing before the Yule Ball.

"How did she even get those pictures?" Hermione asked.

Draco glared in the direction of his friends, "Well it's a bit of a dead giveaway considering that the only people who were with us were _those three!_"

"It wasn't me!" Neville said raising his hands, "I was standing next to you the whole time remember?"

"How much did you get for them?" Harry asked Dean and Theo who looked vaguely terrified.

"500 Galleons," Dean lied.

Harry snorted, "Bullshit. Come on Theo, how much?"

"1,000 Galleons," Theo said.

Harry saw through his lie and shook his head, "Come on, keep going."

Dean sighed and glared at Theo as if this was all his fault even though the Gryffindor had taken the photos on _his _camera, "1,500 Galleons," he said finally.

"Alright," Harry said, he nodded and took a sip from his coffee, “So between four of us that's 375 Galleons each, deal?"

Dean and Theo looked surprised but nodded, "Deal," they agreed, they knew they were lucky Harry hadn’t attacked them or duelled them.

Draco grinned and patted Harry on the back, "How very Slytherin of you. You have no idea how proud I am."

Harry smirked at Draco but their pride didn't last long because Daphne started to read the article in the prophet aloud.

"_Last night Mr. Harry Potter, Saviour of the Wizarding World, gave a moving speech at his New Year's party which he attended with his close friend and ally Mr. Draco Malfoy. In this speech Mr. Potter said he would like to celebrate the bringing in of a year free of Voldemort and to give tribute to those who fell in both of the Wizarding wars. The party was an enjoyable night for all involved including Professor Minerva McGonagall (Headmistress of Hogwarts) School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and her 'date' Kinglsey Shacklebolt (our very own Minister for Magic) (see page 2) and orphaned daughter of the prestigious Bones', Susan and Quidditch hottie Viktor Krum (see page 5)."_

"I made page 5 of the Prophet!" Susan exclaimed.

Daphne laughed and turned to page 5 to read the small article about her, _"VIKTOR KRUMS NEW CATCH,"_ was the headline, closely followed by, _"At the afore mentioned New Year's party Mr. Krum was seen flirting and dancing with Susan Bones, daughter of the Scottish born Ossian Bones (Former Assistant Minister for Magic) and Marion Bones (the most famous head of the Department of Magical Transportation). Miss. Bones who is expected to become as successful as her parents and her deceased Aunt Amelia who raised her, was reportedly seen kissing the Quidditch star towards the end of the night. Well good luck to her I say, set your sights high!"_

Susan laughed as Daphne finished the article. She whistled, "If only she knew what happened between Viktor and I after that kiss," she said with a devious smile.

"Did someone say my name?"

All mouths dropped when Viktor Krum walked into the room wearing nothing but a pair of baggy slacks.

Hermione hid an amused smile as Krum obliviously sat down at the table.

"Help yourself to some crumpets," Harry said to the Quidditch player.

Susan sat down next to him, "We made page 5 of the Prophet," she chuckled.

"Rita Skeeter," Krum mumbled, he rolled his eyes and shook his head.

"Come on Daph, get back to the article about the lover boys," Tracey called.

Daphne grinned and got back to the front page of the paper and the article that they were all interested in, _"At last night's party Mr. Potter and Mr. Malfoy seemed incredibly close. However, it seems there has always been underlying chemistry between the Gryffindor and the Slytherin from the days of their schoolboy rivalry leading up to their fairly recent friendship. A close friend of both boys told us that Mr. Malfoy taught Mr. Potter how to dance for his opening of the Yule Ball on Christmas Eve. Is it really just a friendship or is it more than that? And what will Miss. Greengrass and Miss. Granger think of these new revelations? This reporter would love to hear your opinions on this matter reader, write to us with your opinion!"_

"I don't know about Miss. Greengrass but Miss. Granger finds this article hilarious," Hermione said, she chuckled over her tea as Draco glared at her.

Hermione smiled at her other half, "Grow up baby," she said politely as she kissed him on the cheek and made the others snigger.

Daphne laughed, "Oh don't worry Miss. Greengrass finds it just as hilarious," she said as she shot a smile at her boyfriend who merely shook his head in amusement.

Krum looked at his watch and muttered under his breath, "Thanks for the brunch Harry but I've got to get going, I've got a practice today."

"On New Year's day?" Susan asked in surprise.

Krum nodded, "It's a tough world. You'll find out when you become the new Holyhead Harpies beater," he added with a wink, "Rosalyn Burns is leaving in June and I'll put in a good word for you."

Susan smiled, "Well thank you," she said as Krum kissed her lightly on the lips.

With a wave of his wand he transfigured himself into his Quidditch training gear, "I'll see you tomorrow for that first date you promised."

Susan was trying to contain the grin on her face as he made his way out of the house and apparated to his Quidditch training.

"Susan Sara Bones, you are totally smitten!" Sadie said as she read the look on the Hufflepuffs face.

Susan smirked, "Maybe," she admitted.

***

What was left of the morning flew by and at 3.30pm Harry, Daphne, Draco and Hermione apparated to The Burrow.

Draco and Daphne were slightly nervous about meeting Harry and Hermione's adoptive family. Harry took Daphne's hand and gave her an encouraging smile as they walked through the gate into the front garden of The Burrow. He smiled as he looked up at the house, he missed it a lot.

When they walked into the kitchen Mrs. Weasley smiled at them brightly, "I'm so glad you made it!" she said, she hugged Harry and Hermione then Daphne and Draco who were surprised by the warm greeting.

"Just come into the living room while we wait for food," Mrs. Weasley said and she ushered them into the living room where Harry saw all of the Weasley's.

"Daphne, Draco," Harry said, "You never really got to meet everyone properly last night so this is Arthur, Molly, Charlie, Bill and his wife Fleur, Percy, George and of course you know Ron and Ginny."

Daphne and Draco smiled around at everyone and soon enough Daphne was engrossed in conversation with Bill about curse breaking. Hermione was whispering angrily to Ron, very likely about Lilly. Draco was telling George about some of the pranks he had played on the Gryffindors while at Hogwarts and Harry was talking to Ginny.

"How are things with Blaise?"

"The same as ever," Ginny replied in amusement, "You know how he is."

"Broody and mysterious but a giant softy on the inside?" Harry grinned.

Ginny laughed out loud, "Exactly. Merlin though, what was last night all about eh?"

"I know," Harry said with a shake of his head, "I'm still pissed off with Ron."

"So am I," Ginny agreed, "He deserved every second of that bat bogey. I don't know who I feel worse for...Lilly or Katie."

"I feel sorry for them both," Harry murmured, "I just don't get why he did it."

"Because he was drunk out of his mind and angry," Ginny said quietly, "And you know that's the worst possible combination with Ron. But anyway, how are things with you and Daphne? You seem pretty happy."

"We are," Harry said with a smile, "I think she's one of the best things to ever happen to me."

"I can't help but agree," Ginny admitted, "She's good for you and she fits in here, oddly enough."

"So does Draco," Harry said thoughtfully, "Isn't it strange? How much has changed?"

Ginny nodded, "Oh yeah, it's definitely strange. But it's a good sort of strange. I mean look at me, I'm dating Blaise Zabini."

Harry laughed, "But you're happy and that's the main thing," he said honestly.

Ginny smiled broadly, "I guess sometimes there really is good in goodbye," she said as she looked at the room of people, "We're all so much happier now...well apart from Ron"

"Yeah but as much as I hate to say it, that's his own fault," Harry said quietly as Mrs. Weasley called them all to the dinner table. The kitchen table had been magically extended to fit the family because there were 17 people gathered around the table. By this point all of the dates had arrived like Blaise and Audrey. In fact, the only family member who didn't have a date was Ron and he looked more than a little bitter about it as he was stuck at the end of the table.

It wasn't a fancy three course dinner like their Christmas meal had been. It was just a simple _huge _main course which would inevitably be followed by one of Mrs. Weasley's amazing desserts. As they ate they talked in small groups because there were so many of them. One of the topics of conversation that sprung up concerned the past.

"Thank you so much for inviting us here today Mrs. Weasley," Daphne said to the woman, "After all that happened you inviting us into your home was unexpected."

"I have said it several times before," Molly said softly, "The past is in the past. I don't care about what you or Draco did in the past. At the moment I am just glad to see Harry and Hermione happy."

Harry smiled softly, "I am glad of that Molly because I think I can speak for all of us when I say we're in this for the long haul."

Daphne glanced down at the table with a smile, "You can certainly speak for me."

"And me," Draco said gently as he put an arm around Hermione.

Hermione blushed slightly and Molly smiled broadly, "In which case I'm very happy," she said gently, "After all this is a new year and a new start."

"Indeed, it is," Arthur said as he smiled around at his family. It was a new year but it was the first year without Fred so there were mixed feelings all around. However, with Fleur being pregnant and so many new romances blossoming there was far more happiness than sadness around the table.

After their meal they split into groups around the living room and Harry managed to grab Ron for a moment. The redhead knew what he wanted to talk about of course, "Look Harry I don't want to talk about last night-"

"Well I do," Harry said bluntly, "It was kind of a big deal."

Ron shook his head irritably, "I can't believe she did that, shouting at me in front of everyone."

"I can't believe _you _did that," Harry said angrily, "Lilly was perfectly within her rights to go mental at you. You cheated on her Ron, you slept with somebody else. Do you have any idea what that does to a girl?"

"Since when did you know what hurts girls?' Ron asked bluntly.

"Since I got a girlfriend and fell in love," Harry replied with another glare, "You just threw Lilly aside because of one fight and slept with someone else. I don't get why you would do that."

"Because I could," Ron muttered, "Since the war it doesn't take much to get someone to sleep with me alright? I guess it got to my head a bit and Lilly was acting crazy because I wouldn't go to the Yule Ball with her."

"Which she was really upset about, by the way," Harry added.

"Who's side are you on here?" Ron asked irritably.

"Nobody's," Harry said honestly, "I'm not taking a side. You're my friend and she's my friend but in this situation I'm inclined to say that you were the one who acted like a twat, not her. You're going to suffer for it though, it's lost you Lilly."

"Yeah I'm aware of that," Ron muttered.

Harry shrugged, "That's the way the cookie crumbles Ron. Learn to control your ego and don't just jump into bed with people because you can."

Ron sighed, "I've learned my lesson Harry, trust me," he said as he pushed himself to his feet and left the room.

***

The day they had to go back to Hogwarts was gradually looming closer and the lazy days at Potter Manor would soon come to an end.

"God, I feel so fat," Daphne said from where she was lying on a sofa with her head in Harry's lap.

"I know the feeling," Hermione said and both boyfriends scoffed at their girlfriend’s words.

"I know what you mean though, we've eaten and drunk a lot over Christmas and New Year," Draco said, getting nods of agreement from most.

Harry rolled his eyes, "Of course we have, that's what you do over the holidays Draco."

"He has a point," Theo said lazily, "We should do something to burn it off."

"What do you have in mind?" Sadie asked, intrigued now.

"We could have a duelling competition?" Tracey suggested; she was lying on the floor with her feet up on the couch; it had to be the weirdest position to sit in that Harry had ever seen.

"That's actually quite a good idea," Harry said, he stood up and knocked Daphne's head off of his lap with an "oomph" sound.

"Why do you sound so surprised?" Tracey asked, she wasn’t really annoyed, she was more amused.

"I'm not surprised that you had a good idea. I'm just surprised by the idea, if that makes sense," Harry said, he frowned at his own words.

"Not at all but then again, you never do," Daphne said as she stood up and stretched, "Piggy back downstairs?" she asked.

Harry chuckled, "What age are you?"

Daphne only smiled at him sweetly and said, "Please?" with those big blue eyes of hers.

"Fine," Harry agreed and Daphne hopped on. He lifted her up effortlessly and made his way downstairs to the duelling room with the others. Harry was stronger than he looked; he supposed he showed that now by carrying his pretty much adult girlfriend all the way through the house.

When they reached the duelling room Hermione put all of their names into a hat. She waved her wand and two names slithered out of it and hovered in the air.

Daphne and Dean took to the stage first, they did the walk, bowed to each other, turned and took their places and then the duel began. It was a good duel from both involved, Daphne used too many shield charms for Harry's liking but as she hadn't been in the DA he had to admit that she had made a good effort of it. Dean slipped up by trying to deflect an un-deflectable jinx and ended up down. Daphne whooped, she had won the first round which had Dean grumbling about being the first one to be knocked out.

The next two names out of Hermione's wand were Sadie's and Harry's. Sadie groaned, "How have I got a chance against the boy hero?"

Harry grinned, "Well, give it your best shot," he said. He tapped her on the shoulder and made her glare at his back as he jumped up onto the stage.

Theo knew he was trying to get her riled up because he wanted a harder fight, "Take him down Sadie!" he shouted in a show of support for his girlfriend.

The moment the duel started Sadie was doomed. Harry had a huge advantage over her. Her accuracy was great but her timing wasn't and Harry could predict everything she was going to do and managed to block it all as a result. He went easy on her at first by throwing jinxes at her that she could deflect easily but then he got a bit dirtier and easily took her down with a jelly legs curse. Theo booed as Harry undid the curse and shook Sadie’s hand. The pair of them jumped down from the stage and Sadie joined Dean at the 'knocked out' table.

Next up were Tracey and Susan, Harry whistled at that combination, he had a feeling it would be a much fairer fight than the one between Sadie and himself had been. It didn't help that DADA had been Sadie's weakest subject, the only one she had gotten anything other than an O in basically. Tracey on the other hand had gotten an E but Susan had achieved an O and she had fought in the Battle of Hogwarts so it was going to be interesting.

Susan looked way too eager and sneaky as she looked into Tracey's eyes and took her place at the end of the podium. The moment the duel began Harry knew it was going to be close. They didn't use standard boring duelling spells, Susan used the charm 'avis' to send a flock of birds at Tracey that she destroyed swiftly with an Incarcerous spell. After that it became quick fire and it was hard to keep track of who was sending what spell where.

"Confringo!"

"Deprimo!"

"Titillando!"

"Expulso!"

Finally, Susan ended the duel with, "Adficio!"

The spell was un-blockable and it weakened the victim, it made Tracey gasp and fall to the ground. Susan hurried over to her, muttered the counter curse and handed her a bar of chocolate.

"Fair duel," Tracey said as she caught her breath, stood up and shook Susan's hand.

Harry was very impressed and once Tracey had joined Dean and Sadie at their table he mumbled to Susan, "You sure you want to waste that talent on a Quidditch field?"

Susan smirked at him, "I fully intend to go into law enforcement after Hogwarts. Viktor said I wanted to play Quidditch professionally, not me.”

Harry chuckled, “You should have been a Slytherin," he said as two more names emerged from Hermione's wand. This time her name was one of them and the other was Theo's, the match made Harry grin. Theo looked confident but Hermione was one of the best duellers Harry had ever seen and he knew she could be a fine Auror if she actually _wanted _to become one.

The duel began quite fair and even. Hermione sent a stinging hex at Theo who blocked it and sent a bat-bogey hex her way which she blocked easily. This dance went on for a little while longer and then Hermione got bored. Harry grinned, when Hermione got bored the duel got interesting.

"Relashio!"

"Rictusempra!"

"Petrificus Totalus!"

"Locomotor Mortis!"

"Stupefy!"

"Expelliarmus!"

Hermione finished Theo off with, "Glacius!" which froze the ground he was standing on and caused him to slip. Then she threw a fast Petrificus Totalus at Theo and there was cheering all around that Hermione had won. She grinned, turned the ground beneath Theo back to normal and took the charm off. Theo got up, he looked embarrassed as he brushed the dirt from his jumper.

"You got beaten by a girl Theo!"

Theo glared at Daphne, "I clearly _let _her win Daphne," he said as jumped off the stage.

Hermione snorted, "Hah! You can never admit defeat can you?"

"Not when I knowingly lost," Theo said. He kept his head held high as he poured himself a glass of firewhiskey and sat down at the losers table.

"Just admit it Theo, I'm Harry Potter's best friend! I'm a damn good dueller."

Theo shook his head, he was too proud to acknowledge it. Hermione only shook her head and laughed at how irritating and insufferable he could be.

"You did only get an E in DADA," Theo said to Hermione, "It was the only subject you didn't get an O in..."

Hermione glared at him, "Theo you only got an E too, stop the bullshit."

"Alright princess" Theo said, he looked slightly scared as Hermione, Draco and Harry advanced on him, "The bullshit is stopping!"

The next two names to come out of the wand were Daphne and Draco's, Harry grinned and Hermione chuckled as they made their way up to the platform. As Daphne passed him Harry muttered, "Just think of this as your payback for the way he broke up with you."

Daphne smirked, "It's sweet moments like this that I love about us," she joked.

She and Draco went through the motions and then the duel started. It was nothing if not interesting, that was for sure.

"Tarantallegra!"

"Levicorpus!"

"Furnunculus!"

"Densaugeo!"

Every single spell the other threw was blocked instantly. Daphne's overuse of blocking spells in her first duel worked to her advantage in this one because Draco was an excellent dueller, his accuracy and timing were immaculate. Harry observed this carefully, these were the things that were important to remember if he was going to bend the rules to get Draco into the Auror training programme.

Then the more interesting spells came out, the ones they had invented themselves or that were fairly rare and only found in the strange textbooks that people like Hermione and Draco picked up for 'light' reading. Daphne shot a nasty one at Draco ("Adflicto!") which crushed bones, thankfully he dodged it but the spell he shot back at his ex-girlfriend was just as nasty as it blinded the victim, ("Caecus!")

"Oi, Draco, Daphne, keep it clean!"

"I was only going to crush his wrist!"

"I was only going to blind her for a minute!"

Harry shook his head in amusement at them as they continued with their duel. It did finally come to an end but it had been the longest yet. Daphne had slipped up in the end though and Draco had taken advantage of this. He had thrown a simple spell at her and she had cast her shield charm too late, the second she let it down the spell hit her, luckily all it did was throw her back and hurt her pride but Draco had won that round and Daphne was now knocked out of the competition. The Slytherin girl didn't take losing well, just like Draco didn't take winning well. Daphne stalked over to the ‘knockout’ table and poured herself a large glass of firewhiskey while Draco did a victory lap of the duelling platform.

His joy didn't last long when he saw Hermione's name come out of her wand, followed by his own name. Harry whistled, he really couldn't call this one but he knew it would be a good duel to watch.

Draco and Hermione were staring each other down in a way that they hadn't since they were much younger as they took their places, did their bows and got ready for the duel to begin. It was eye-catching right from the start. They both had amazing accuracy and timing, it was perfect spell casting all round. Harry could tell that it was going to be a matter of who slipped up first.

They skipped the mediocre jinxes and jumped right in with spells and curses flying between them at record speed. This was a professional duel if Harry had ever seen one.

Hermione used Oppugno to cause the chairs to attack Draco. He smirked as he set them on fire and sent them back at her. Hermione cursed and used Aguamenti to put the flames out, she held her shield charm as she did so. Then she sent the chairs back to their rightful place and sent a slug-vomiting hex which he dodged easily.

"That all you got Granger?"

Harry laughed from where he stood watching the duel, _taunting Hermione in a duel Draco? _Harry thought to himself, _good luck with that..._

Hermione narrowed her eyes at her boyfriend and threw a curse at him, "Impetus!"

"Watch it Hermione, no setting fire to people's clothes!"

"Killjoy!" Hermione called back as she blocked Draco's bone breaking curse easily.

"Codo!"

Hermione swore at the un-blockable curse and jumped as the beam of light shot under her legs. The curse made your legs give way and if it had hit her she would have gone down and Draco would have won his victory. Draco was surprised that she had managed to avoid the spell but that only made him more determined. The spells got more elaborate and then Draco finally caught a break when he shot an arrow out of his wand which penetrated her shield charm and hit her in the chest, it knocked her down immediatly. The moment Harry declared Draco the winner he rushed over to his girlfriend and muttered, "Aversa pars," to reverse the spell, it worked and the arrow vanished.

Hermione sat up and took a deep breath, "You play dirty Draco," she whispered.

Draco grinned, "If you can play dirty in the bedroom, I can play dirty on the duelling platform," he said with a wink and she got a devious look in her eyes that scared Draco yet turned him on at the same time. Hermione then jumped down from the platform and joined the others at the ‘knockout’ table. There were only 3 people left in the competition now, Draco, Harry and Susan.

The wand chose again and Draco was up for his 3rd duel in a row, only this would be his toughest yet because it was against Harry Potter, the registered number 3 on the list of the world's best duellers (he had yet to overtake Minerva McGonagall and Kingsley Shacklebolt but he would one day, he was ambitious).

"Keep an eye out so we don't kill each other Mione," Harry called as he climbed onto the platform, bowed to Draco and took his place. Hermione announced the start of the duel and right away it blasted off, literally.

"Expulso!"

"Incendio!"

"Rictusempra!"

Harry was getting nowhere like this. He needed to shock Draco because it was the only way to get to him, he changed his tactics. He first muttered a spell to disable Draco's "protego" shield and as he was pretty sure that was the only shield charm he knew he hoped this would help him out. Then he shouted, "Fimus!" the spell did no damage, except to Draco's pride because it dumped dung on him. He coughed and spluttered out the word, "Tergeo!" to clean himself up. The spell had surprised Draco which was what Harry needed as he shot a simple stupefy his way which he dodged. Draco cottoned on and put up a stronger shield charm with the incantation, "Tutis"

Harry had missed his chance this time but he would get him again, they duelled for a little longer. Both of them dodged every and any charm, spell or curse thrown their way until Harry shot a spell at Draco which made the floor beneath him rotate. He slipped but didn't fall, however it was enough for Harry to break down his shield in a couple of charms and hit him with, "Stupefy!" before he could put up another shield charm.

There were cheers from Hermione and Susan but boo's from the Slytherins as Harry made his way over to Draco and used enervate to wake him up. He reluctantly shook his hand, "You duel well," he said, "I hope you'll be my partner when we become Aurors."

Harry grinned, "I agree, I'd feel safe knowing you had my back if you duel like that."

Draco grinned back, "You too," he said simply.

Hermione then said, "Harry, it's the final and you are up against Susan."

"Bring it on," Harry said, he flashed a smile at Susan who grinned somewhat evilly as she climbed up onto the other end of the platform. They walked forward, bowed, walked back and took their places and Hermione kept watch again. She announced the start of the duel and Harry didn't quite know what to expect. He didn't know Susan's duelling technique too well and it was because she didn't have one. She ran on instinct which made her an excellent dueller because Harry literally couldn't predict what she was going to do next.

It started out with easy enough spells, she liked Stupefy and Relashio but she soon learned Harry could block them too easily so she changed her tactics and started using more advanced spells but Harry still deflected them easily. He could see that Susan was getting frustrated and he hoped that would work to his advantage, it nearly did as he almost tripped her up with an un-blockable but simple trip jinx. She caught it just in time though and jumped to avoid it.

After that the battle got fast and frantic.

"Expelliarmus!"

"Incarcerous!"

"Deprimo!"

"Levicorpus!"

Then Susan surprised Harry which was what got her an advantage over him, "Sectumsempra!"

He blocked the curse because he was one of the few people in the world who knew how to, "Oi! Don't use my own spells against me!"

"It's not your spell, it was Snape's!" Susan shouted back as she blocked his stunning spell.

"How do you know that it was Snape's?" Harry asked, the fact she knew the spell totally shocked him.

Susan grinned, "They don't call me the rebellious Hufflepuff for no reason."

“Relashio!"

"Tutis!"

"Extorqueo!" Harry shouted but Susan dodged the spell and Harry got shouted at.

"That's a torture spell Harry, behave!"

"Capillus Aufero!"

"Protego! Lutulentis Sanguis!"

"Harry James Potter! Stop using pureblood spells that turn the blood to mud!"

"Interesting Potter! I don't know _why _I didn't like you sooner!"

"Shut up Draco!" Hermione hissed at her boyfriend.

Draco nursed his ribs where Hermione had punched him, "Alright."

Susan finally got Harry after that. His Protego charm fell and he realised she had disabled it but before he could put up a stronger charm she had hit him with a spell, "Evanescant Vestimenta!"

The next thing Harry knew he was completely naked and he looked down in shock exclaiming, “What the hell?!”

Susan had totally thrown him off guard. Sadie and Tracey giggled and Susan whistled, "I can see why you keep him around Daph!" she called to the Slytherin girl.

Before Harry could react and while he was still in shock Susan hit him with the spell that finished him, "Ventosus!" a gust of wind came out of nowhere and knocked Harry off of his feet with a thud and an "oomph!"

“And the winner is Susan!” Hermione announced amidst cheering and laughter.

"Hey Susan," Harry called from the floor, "Can you undo the spell so that I have clothes on again?"

Susan seemed to consider this for a moment and then said, "Nah"

And that was how Daphne Greengrass acquired photographs of Harry Potter running through his house stark naked.

**TBC :)**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I brushed up on my Latin in this chapter! Here is what the spells I made up mean in Latin ...
> 
> Adficio = drain.  
Adflicto = crush.  
Impetus =attack with fire.  
Evanescant Vestimenta = clothes vanish.  
Cado = fail.  
Caecus = blind.  
Extorqueo = wrench.  
Fimus = dung.  
Lutulentis Sanguis = messy blood.  
Capillus Aufero = hair remover.  
Titus = safe.  
Ventosus = breezy.  
Aversa Pars = reverse.


	35. The Apple Fell Far From the Tree

The mood between the group was rather dull on Saturday morning. It was the 3rd of January and it was time to get the train back to school because the new term started on Monday. Professor McGonagall had sent the 8th years a polite message warning them to take the train back like all of the other pupils and not apparate back just because they could. This was partially why everyone was grumbling so much as they boarded the Hogwarts Express and squeezed into a compartment together. They had to spend the whole day on a train when they could be at their destination in seconds if they had been allowed to apparate.

"It's not so bad, getting the train back," Sadie said to the group as a whole, they all sent her glares that said they thought otherwise, "I mean it's more bonding time, right?"

Theo smiled and put his arm around his girlfriend, "It's a sweet thought Sadie," he said as he looked around the glum faces in the carriage.

Daphne rolled her eyes, "Come on guys, it's not like we don't have anything to talk about," she caught Hermione's eye; "In fact Hermione and I have something we need to tell you."

Draco and Harry shared anxious glances and the girls chuckled.

"It's nothing bad," Hermione reassured them, "Just a project we started working on at Potter Manor."

Daphne nodded, "You know that the duelling room in the basement is kind of like a room of requirement right? To a certain extent you can change its form which means it can become a potions lab, if you need it to be one."

"Why would you need a potions lab?" Harry asked, he was completely lost about where she was going with this 'project' she had been working on with his best friend.

"To brew potions obviously," Tracey said without looking up from her copy of Witch Weekly.

"Thank you for that Tracey," Harry said sarcastically as Dean chuckled at his girlfriend's blunt nature, "But what I meant was why would you need to brew potions? We didn't have any homework from Slughorn, did we?"

Hermione laughed and shook her head at her friend, "Don't worry, we didn't have any homework. Do you remember what we overheard Filch saying, about the experimental magic that went wrong and turned his daughter into Mrs. Norris?"

Harry nodded, he was still lost but something sparked in Draco's eyes as he realised what they were saying.

"Well," Hermione said as she shared another glance with Daphne, "We thought we could help. I mean Daphne and I could both go into potion work after Hogwarts, Slughorn says we're the best students in our year.”

Draco looked slightly offended but Hermione added, "Apart from you and Sadie of course Draco."

Draco smirked at that, "Why thank you, Hermione."

Hermione resisted the urge to roll her eyes, "You're welcome. Anyway we thought about it and researched it and there are spells that can force an animagus back into human form."

"Like the one Sirius and Remus used to force Scabbers to become Pettigrew," Harry said quickly, "But if it was that simple then surely Dumbledore or McGonagall would have come up with it."

"I know, which is why we looked deeper and we think we figured it out," Daphne said, the excitement of success shone in her eyes, "I called in a favour with Mum and she got me the report on the potion that Abraxas Malfoy was experimenting on when Melody was turned into a cat. The potion is very similar to the one that you take to become an Animagus, there are differences but they are small and hard to find, unless you know where to look."

The others were completely intrigued now as they listened to the explanation. At this point Hermione took over, "A component was added that shouldn't have been. The component was to stop Melody from being able to switch at will like an Animagus, what that component was supposed to do was to keep her as a cat for 20 days then it would expire. In theory, by then the virus would be gone and she would be returned to her body, good as new."

"But something went wrong," Draco realised, he had gotten an O in his potions O.W.L and had been told he would make a fantastic experimental potion brewer, “If my Grandfather had added too much Lethe River Water then it would cause the potion to be much more permanent, it would still expire but it would take 20 years not 20 days."

"Exactly!" Hermione said eagerly, "That's what we think happened and as any good potion brewer knows, once you know the problem you can start on the solution."

"There isn't a potion to undo being an Animagus and it would be almost impossible to try and brew one," Sadie said, she bit her lip as she did when she was thinking, "In theory, it could work if you reversed certain aspects of the original potion but it's so unstable…and we would need a test subject."

"I'll be your test subject," Harry volunteered, "I've always wanted to be an Animagus anyway. If I become one and you test the potion on me you'll know if it's working, right?"

"Yeah," Daphne said slowly, "I mean if we gave the working potion to an ordinary Animagus all it would do would be to force them out of their Animagus form, like the spells do."

"But it would be dangerous Harry," Draco warned him, "If anything went wrong and you tried the potion you could get stuck in your Animagus form, or worse."

"Well then you should be honoured to know that I trust you guys that much," Harry said lightly, "Anyway, maybe I'm getting bored of not being in constant danger."

The others laughed, but they were still hyped up and excited about the idea of making the potion.

"So you said you've already started brewing at Potter Manor?" Harry asked the girls.

"Yeah and so far, so good," Daphne said, "But we could do with finding out more about the original potion and we figured Draco would be the person to ask."

Draco nodded, "I'm sure there will be more records in the library at the Manor. Luckily for us I asked for everything from the library to be put into storage. I should be able to find my Grandfather’s notes too…”

"That would be ideal," Hermione said as Daphne nodded along with her, "We would get it straight from the source."

"Well, I'm in," Draco said.

Sadie smiled, "Me too, my Potions speciality is theoretical research so I could be of help."

"As surprised as you all might be, I'm in too," Theo said from where he had been watching silently as they talked about the potion, "I specialise in experimental brewery. If you don't want to blow up the whole of Harry's house, then you should probably enlist me."

"Done," Daphne said as she grinned at her friend.

Harry smiled, he liked the idea but he couldn't contribute much academically, "Well I am awful at potions but I'll contribute by giving you my house to work in and by being your guinea pig!"

There was some laughter as Neville, Hannah, Dean and Tracey echoed that they were out because they were dreadful at potions but they would morally support the others and listen to their theories.

"So," Draco said as he leant forward in his seat, "What have you got so far?"

"Well," Hermione began as she turned to face him, "The Animagus potion has 6 components in order for it to work-"

"Component 1: changes the human to the animal form. Component 2: maintains the human mind while in animal form. Component 3: represses the motion of speech whilst the human is in animal form. Component 4: changes the human back from the animal form. Component 5: allows the human to change form at will. Component 6: enables the permanency that stops the human from being able to undo the potion."

Everyone was staring at Harry in complete shock.

"I thought you didn't know anything about potions!" Hermione exclaimed loudly, she was completely stunned by his sudden act of brilliance.

Harry frowned and looked up, "Uh, I don't," he said as held up his textbook, "I just read it from the textbook."

"Oh," Hermione said, "Right, of course you did."

Draco only raised an eyebrow at the boy-who-lived and turned back to Hermione, "So in order to reverse the potion so it has the opposite effect we need to take component 1 away because we don't want her to be able to change back. Components 2 and 3 aren't important, they won't do anything if we leave them in as long as we take out 1."

"We'll also need to remove component 6, the permanency charm is the part that went wrong and trapped her that way," Daphne said, it was clear that she was deep in thought.

"What about component 5? Shouldn't that be removed too if it allows her to change back into her form at will?" Tracey asked, she had been listening with interest to the conversation going on in the carriage.

Sadie shook her head with a frown, "No, if we remove component 1 that stops her from transforming into a cat again so the other components aren't necessary. We can't take them all out, the potion would become too unstable...we can leave them in since they won't do any lasting damage."

"What about what you need to add in?" Hannah asked them, she had taken Potions too and had gotten an A which was nothing compared to the mini geniuses she was friends with.

"You're right Hannah, in place of component 1 we'll need to add another component that will force Melody back into human form, I'm not entirely sure how to do that yet," Daphne said and the thoughtful silence that followed meant that nobody else did either.

"And we'll need to replace component 6 too or the potion will become unbalanced and unstable, like Sadie said," Hermione added, “I've not got any idea what to replace it with yet.”

"So what you are saying is you still have a long way to go?" Harry asked and the others nodded.

“Good, that gives me time to get McGonagall to teach me how to become an Animagus, I know you can help with the potion but apparently there’s a mental aspect too."

"There is and you're right to ask McGonagall to help. Melody is proof of what can happen if something goes wrong," Hermione said, she sounded more like her old self than she had in a while, "Abraxas Malfoy was a professional experimental potions brewer and even he made mistakes."

"While you're learning I'll produce a report," Sadie said, "Theorising the possible risks because with a potion this experimental there are many. You may need to remove component 4, it represses speech while the Animagus is an animal but in Melody's case she might come out of the Animagus form and be unable to speak."

Harry rubbed his fingers over his forehead, "It sounds confusing."

"It is," the others echoed around the small compartment and as Harry looked out of the windows and saw the rain lashing down he only felt more miserable than before and he wasn't really sure why. After all, he was going back to Hogwarts and he had just had a great Christmas and New Year. He sighed and turned to the others to ask if anyone wanted to play chess. He would lose spectacularly, especially because Theo had said yes, but it would help to pass the time at least.

***

When the Hogwarts Express finally pulled into Hogsmeade station the 8th years were relieved, they enjoyed each other's company but being stuck in a small compartment for 8 hours was too much. The carriages were waiting as usual and the group split into two to ride up to the school gates. Once there they began the trek up the path to the castle and it was then that they noticed something very different about the grounds.

"Harry, look!"

It had been Hermione who had noticed it first as she pointed in the direction of Hagrid's hut...only it wasn't Hagrid's hut anymore. Standing where the small, one roomed hut had once stood was a grand two floored cottage. Each floor was about the height of two floors however. Hermione was giggling and Harry couldn't help but grin, the cottage was blue with a white door and white windows, it wasn't hard to figure out who had redecorated.

"I think Hagrid's new fiancé has officially moved in," Harry said, he chuckled at the sight.

Draco however, reverted to his posh pureblood self for a moment.

"Anything's better than that dump he had be-"

Draco saw the death glares he was getting from Harry, Hermione and Neville and trailed off before finishing his sentence.

"It might not have been big or fancy but at least it wasn't a torture dungeon," Hermione retorted with a glare her boyfriend’s way. She grabbed Harry by the arm and marched off ahead of them.

Draco rolled his eyes as Neville and Hannah gave him dirty looks and hurried to catch up with Harry and Hermione, "What did I say?"

"Draco, you're such an insensitive prick sometimes," Daphne said, she shook her head at her best friend.

Up ahead Hermione was in one of her rants.

"I mean who does he think he is? Insulting Hagrid like that! He doesn't even know him and he judges him on appearances, I mean who does that?"

"Purebloods?" Neville suggested sarcastically. He was silenced by a trademark Hermione glare and Hannah hid a smile at how afraid Neville was of his friend.

"You need to calm down Hermione, these rants aren't good for your health," Harry said.

She let go of his arm and her voice got a little louder, "Rants? I don't rant! When did I last rant if this is one of my rants!?"

"Uh, to pick just one time?" Harry asked. He got glared at but he was used to it and had grown immune, "That time you invented spew for a start."

"S.P.E.W!" Hermione shrieked, "Society for the promotion of elfish welfare!"

"Alright, alright! I know what it is, calm down," Harry said as Hermione got into full-blown crazy mode now.

Thankfully they had reached the hall and Hermione strutted ahead. She sat down in-between Sally and Annie who were extremely confused. Harry rolled his eyes as he dropped into a seat at the far end of the table where Neville, Hannah, Susan, Daphne, Tracey and Sadie soon joined him. Theo and Dean went over to Blaise to find out how his Christmas had been and Draco attempted to sit down across from Hermione.

"Don't come near me Draco; you are an arrogant git who thinks he's superior just because his family have children with their siblings!" Hermione said shrilly which caused a ripple of laughter to go around the table.

Draco rolled his eyes, bit back a swear-word and stalked over to Harry, "Move Daphne," he said grumpily as he pushed her further down the bench and sat in-between her and Harry.

"Wow Draco, so polite," Daphne said sarcastically to her friend who just grunted and looked down the table at Hermione irritably.

Luckily the awkwardness didn't last long because McGonagall stood up to address the students and it was then that they saw Hagrid at the head table. He looked like he'd had a major make-over, his beard was practically gone and his hair was short, he was wearing a brand new moleskin coat too. When he caught Harry's eye he winked at him and Harry chuckled, he was glad to see that the man was happy.

McGonagall made a few standard announcements and then the food appeared, Harry was starving and piled his plate high. Draco put hardly anything on his and pushed his food around with a glum expression on his face. Harry hid a small smile as he saw Hermione further along the table, she was talking animatedly with Blaise and eating in abundance, much to Draco's annoyance.

Harry ended up spending most of his time talking to Neville since Draco didn't seem to want to talk or interact with anyone and when the meal was finished they all headed up to the 8th year common room together.

***

"Do you think Lilly's okay?"

"She's _obviously _not okay," Susan said conversationally as she, Hermione, Daphne and Gabrielle lay in their beds that night.

"How do you know?" Daphne asked with a frown, "Have you seen her?"

"No, but I know she isn't okay," Susan shrugged, "Her boyfriend just cheated on her. What girl is okay after that?"

"No normal one," Gabrielle sighed, "I'm so angry at Ron you know. I like Bill because my sister married him but those Weasley men can be so disrespectful towards women."

"Yes, they can be," Hermione agreed, "I think it's because there are so many men outnumbering the women in that family."

"He didn't deserve her," Daphne said bluntly.

"Nah, she deserves much better," Susan agreed, "I love Lil, she's one of the most caring people I know and guys kind of push her around because of that."

"Well Ron won't be pushing her around anymore," Hermione said simply, "And if she's upset then don't you think we should do something to cheer her up?"

"Like what?" Daphne shrugged, "It's a broken heart Hermione, we can't help her heal it."

"Daphne's right," Gabrielle said with a slight smile, "The only thing that can help a broken heart is chocolate and ice cream.”

"Or alcohol," Susan said in amusement.

"And hugs," Hermione added, "And good friends...I just feel like we should do _something_."

"It's because you feel responsible," Gabrielle said knowingly, "For knowing that Ron can be a bit of an idiot and not saying anything to Lilly. It's not your fault though."

"Gabby's right," Susan yawned, "Lil is a big girl, she's old enough to make her own decisions."

"And her own mistakes," Daphne said simply.

Hermione sighed, "It still sucks."

"Life sucks sometimes Hermione," Daphne said simply, "But maybe you should take this whole thing as a sign."

"A sign of what?" Hermione asked with a frown.

"A sign that you need to make up with Draco instead of fighting with him about stupid things," Susan smirked.

Hermione rolled her eyes, "I know, I'll apologise tomorrow," she conceded.

***

Draco and Hermione were on speaking terms again by the next morning as they met Harry and Daphne in the common room. The friends made their way out of the common room into the corridor outside, only this morning something was different.

Opposite the door to the common room there was a new portrait that hadn't been there the night before. It was a portrait of the Gryffindor common room in amazing detail. There were 4 figures in the portrait, one of whom was sitting on the sofa playing with a golden snitch, another of whom was lying on the sofa with her head in the other figures lap. Harry didn't notice the other two straight away, he was too focused on his parents.

"Mum...Dad..." Harry said slowly. He walked closer to the portrait and at that point both figures jumped up from the couch and walked towards the front of the frame.

"Harry! You look so grown up," Lily said as she smiled at her son.

James cocked his head at him, "He looks like my twin."

Harry gazed at them in shock; he couldn't believe it, who had done this?

His parents were painted as they were in their 7th year, Gryffindor uniforms and all. Harry glanced around the portrait common room and it was then that he saw Sirius and Remus, they were hanging back a bit and grinning at him.

"Wow," Harry said as he stared at them all, "This is amazing."

"Glad you like it, Merry Christmas Harry! Sorry it's late."

Harry spun around to see Dean standing behind him with a broad grin on his face.

"You did this?"

Dean nodded, "I want to go into Magical portrait making after Hogwarts. I've been making some prototypes, this was my first successful one and I thought you'd appreciate it."

"I really do," Harry said sincerely as he looked back to the portrait, "It means a lot Dean."

"He didn't inherit your skill to not appreciate everything, thank goodness."

"Oi! I'm grateful for you, aren't I?"

"Sometimes," Lily said coyly and the portrait couple kissed.

Harry shook his head in amusement and Sirius piped up, "Hey Harry! Is that your girlfriend?"

"Uh, yeah," Harry said as he glanced at Daphne.

"Nice one Harry, she's well too fit for you!"

"Sirius!"

James sniggered and Lily glared at him, "James, stop it!"

"Lily's right Sirius," Remus chastised, "Leave Harry and his love life alone."

"Well as his Godfather I am emotionally invested in his love life-"

"Merlin Sirius, you are such a woman!"

"What? Lily, how dare you throw such a heinous insult at me?"

"Woah, what's wrong with women Padfoot? I'm very fond of them myself!"

"Them? You should only be fond of _one _woman James!"

Harry rolled his eyes, "Come on, let's leave them to it," he said as the group began to make their way down to the great hall for breakfast.

"I figured you could take the portrait back to Potter Manor with you when school is over," Dean said.

"Thanks Dean," Harry said with a genuine smile, "I really appreciate it."

***

"Has your boggart changed?"

Harry frowned and glanced up at his best friend, "What?"

"This essay," Hermione said with a wave of her hand, "It's about emotional trauma and its effect on magic. Your boggart can change, just like your patronus can."

"Well obviously it changes," Daphne said, "Depending on what your fear is. Fears change, they can be conquered."

Harry nodded absentmindedly, “Yeah my boggart has changed because I'm not afraid of dementors or Voldemort anymore."

"So what is it now?" Daphne asked curiously.

Harry frowned, "It's every single person I love lying on the ground dead, if you really want to know."

Daphne frowned, "Sorry, I didn't realise."

"Of course you didn't," Hermione said simply, "You had no idea, Harry's just being snappy."

"Boggarts make me snappy," Harry said offhandedly, "And so do Potions essays. You are talking to me about one while I'm writing the other so yes I am slightly snappy."

Draco chuckled from his spot next to Harry, "Yeah, I'd say that's cause for being snappy. I don't particularly like boggarts either."

"Can you even defeat a boggart?" Harry asked curiously, "I remember you being particularly grumpy in that class."

"Ridiculous is what you called it in fact," Hermione said with an amused smile.

Draco sighed, "It _was _ridiculous but it was a 3rd year class so of course I can defeat a bloody boggart."

"What's so ridiculous about it anyway?" Harry asked through a yawn, "It's basically just an animal. Some animals have ways to defend themselves like hedgehogs and their spikes. Boggarts defend themselves by scaring people who would hurt them."

"Boggarts themselves aren't ridiculous," Draco said irritably, "But forcing a class of 13 year olds to face their worst fears is."

"I've got to agree," Neville said with a slight frown, "I mean look how embarrassing mine was."

"That's true," Harry said thoughtfully, "What would your boggart have been then Draco, I mean what could be so embarrassing?"

"It's really none of your business, Potter," Draco said dryly.

"He was just being curious," Daphne said in defence of her boyfriend.

"Well, as usual he is being curious about things which are not his business!" Draco snapped, "What my boggart is or was does not concern you Potter!"

"Alright," Harry said quickly, "Fine, I'm sorry for even bringing it up alright?"

Draco nodded stiffly and they both looked back down at their essays. Hermione glanced over at Daphne who just shook her head as if to say 'don't bother'.

***

For the rest of the following day Hermione tried her very best _not _to ask Draco about his boggart. Daphne had told her to just drop it but Hermione couldn't just drop things. In a similar way to Harry, she had to get the answer to everything. She _had _to know what was going on or it drove her bloody mad. She tiptoed around him all day and eventually she caved when she cornered Theo in the library later that night.

"Hey Theo!" Hermione said brightly, "I scored you tickets to Puddlemere's game this weekend."

Theo raised an eyebrow at his best friend's girlfriend as he accepted the two tickets, "What do you want princess?"

"Oh, nothing," Hermione said with a wave of her hand, "I just thought you could treat Sadie at the weekend."

"Hmm," Theo smirked, "Well that's very nice of you. Then again that's just who you are isn't it? Always doing things for other people and not expecting anything in return. Thanks, I'll really enjoy the game."

Hermione bit her lip as he turned around and walked towards another bookshelf. She darted quietly across the room and stopped behind him, "Wait Theo, actually there was something."

Theo was still smirking as he turned around and asked again, "I knew there was, you _never _let me call you princess. What do you want Hermione?"

"What was Draco's boggart in 3rd year?" Hermione asked quietly.

Theo frowned, "Why do you want to know that?"

"Well he got snappy about it in an argument with Harry last night," Hermione explained, "And I hate not knowing things. I mean what was he so afraid of?"

"I don't think it was what he was so afraid of," Theo admitted, "I think it was what he was so afraid of everyone else knowing he was afraid of."

"Well what was it?" Hermione asked again.

"It's really not my place to say" Theo said with a shrug, "He's my best friend and I'm not going to go around telling you his secrets."

"But I'm his girlfriend," Hermione objected.

"And?" Theo asked, "You're his girlfriend so you should ask him yourself instead of sneaking around asking his best friend. That's a very Slytherin thing to do, a Gryffindor would have the guts to ask him in person."

Hermione frowned slightly, "You're being very serious about this whole thing Theo."

"Yeah well I don't laugh and joke about everything all of the time," Theo shrugged, "Draco's my best friend and I care about him. I'm pretty loyal for a Slytherin you know."

"I noticed," Hermione said with a slight smile, "But I'll take your advice and talk to him about it. If he bites my head off though, I'm blaming you."

Theo laughed and held his hand out to her, "Deal," he said.

Hermione smiled as she shook it, "So you like me now then?"

"I've never not liked you," Theo said honestly, "What makes you think I didn't?"

"I don't know, I always felt like you thought I was taking Draco away from you or something," Hermione admitted sheepishly.

"I wasn't sure how good you were for him at first," Theo said honestly as he leant against a bookshelf, "I thought maybe he'd think you were too good and he'd go down the path to self-destruction again but I was totally wrong."

"So we're friends?" Hermione asked as she cocked her head at him.

"We're friends," Theo said simply.

Hermione smiled broadly, "Good...can I ask you one more question?"

"You can _ask,_ I'm not promising I'll answer," Theo joked.

"Why _do _you call me princess?" Hermione asked curiously.

"Well it started out as a way to get on your nerves," Theo admitted in amusement, "But it's an affectionate nickname now so take it as a compliment, princess."

Hermione rolled her eyes but smiled slightly at the acceptance. As Draco's best friend it meant a lot to Hermione to have Theo on her side, "See you around Theo."

***

"Are you alone?"

"Yep, Harry's down at the Quidditch pitch with Daphne," Draco said as he glanced up from the four-poster that he was lying on.

"Good," Hermione said as she sat down on the edge of his bed, "Because I need to talk to you about something-"

"My Father," Draco said simply.

Hermione frowned as she looked at her boyfriend, "What?"

"My boggart," Draco replied, "That was what you were going to ask me about wasn't it?"

Hermione nodded, "I...well...yes, it was. How did you know?"

Draco smiled slightly, "Hermione, I love you but you are transparent. You're too much like Harry bloody Potter, you can't let anything be. I've seen you today, you've practically been twitching to ask me about it."

Hermione glared at him but her heart wasn't in it, "Oh shut up Draco. I'm not that bad."

"You really are," Draco said with a fond smile, "So I just answered your question for you. In 3rd year my boggart would have been my Father."

"You were that afraid of him?" Hermione asked with a slight frown.

Draco nodded, "I was terrified of him. I spent my entire childhood being scared of him and when I came to Hogwarts that didn't go away. I just spent term-time dreading the holidays instead of spending the nights dreading the mornings."

"I'm sorry," Hermione sighed, "I mean how petty does that make me look? Mine was McGonagall telling me I'd failed everything."

Draco chortled at that, "I think I started to fall in love with you that day," he said honestly.

Hermione shook her head, "No... don’t joke about it Draco. I wish it was still something as stupid as that and not so...sinister."

"What is it now?" Draco asked softly. He reached to her and grabbed her hand, "What are you afraid of, Hermione?"

"Everyone I love being tortured," Hermione said quietly, "In the same way I was at Malfoy Manor."

Draco sighed and put his arm around his girlfriend. She was shaking slightly but not crying. Hermione was one of the strongest people that he knew after all.

"Mine has changed too."

"You aren't afraid of him anymore?" Hermione asked curiously.

Draco shook his head, "No, he's a coward and I know that now."

"What is it then?" Hermione asked as she caught his eye, "Your boggart?"

"It's you," Draco said as he kept his gaze on hers, "You being tortured and me standing there helplessly."

"Sounds more like a memory than a fear," Hermione said as she subconsciously gripped her left arm.

Draco shook his head, "No, it's definitely a fear. I'm terrified that one day I won't be able to protect you, Hermione."

Hermione faltered at those words, "I don't need protection Draco."

"I know," Draco said honestly, "I know how strong you are but fundamentally I'll always feel the need to protect you."

"And I appreciate that," Hermione said honestly, "But you don't need to be afraid. The war is over."

"I could say the same about your fear and about Harry's," Draco pointed out, "The war is over, that much is true but it still lives on in our minds.

"I don't think we'll ever be the same," Hermione said quietly.

Draco nodded his agreement, "Of course we won't be. But that's not a bad thing. If we were the same then this..._us_...it would never have happened."

Hermione chuckled to herself as she leant across to kiss the blonde boy, "Careful Draco, you're starting to sound like Harry."

Draco rolled his eyes, "Oh sweet Salazar, the horror!" he said sarcastically and Hermione laughed heartily. The pain of the conversation disappeared with their laughter and once more Hermione felt a rush of appreciation towards Draco.

**TBC :) **


	36. Meeting the In-Laws

Harry was exhausted as he yawned over a bowl of cereal on a Monday morning. He still hated Monday mornings, 7 and a half years of Hogwarts hadn't changed that.

"How’s the potions project coming along?" Harry asked through a yawn as Hermione, Sadie and Daphne talked animatedly.

"Great," Hermione chirped, "We're trying a few new things and they seem to be working. We've managed to remove a component safely."

"Awesome," Harry said, although if he was honest he didn’t really understand the significance of that.

"I've been thinking actually..." Hermione began, she glanced at Sadie and Daphne, "We should talk to Filch about it. After all, we need his permission."

Harry snorted, "Right, good luck with that," he said.

"Actually," Daphne said and Harry groaned inwardly. That was her 'I want you to do something' voice, "We thought _you _and Draco could do it."

From beside him Harry heard Draco snort, "Not happening. Your idea, you talk to Filch."

"I agree with Draco," Harry yawned then clicked his fingers which caused Kreacher to appear next to him with a loud crack.

"What can Kreacher do for Master Harry?" Kreacher bowed deeply.

"Coffee Kreacher, very strong coffee, bring me some," Harry ordered, it was rare that he was blunt with the elf but he wasn't on top form today.

Draco yawned and stretched elaborately, "Same for me Kreacher."

The elf bowed low again, "Of course Master Draco," he said and he vanished with another crack.

"We should really start thinking about Valentine's day," Daphne said thoughtfully.

"Daphne," Harry whined, "it's January!"

"Exactly! So there’s only a month until Valentine's day!" Hermione added.

Harry glared at her, "Traitor," he mumbled. The last time he had checked, Hermione _hated _Valentine’s day anyway.

Hermione grinned, "Sorry," she said but she didn't sound apologetic at all.

"Harry hates Valentine's day," Hermione said to a confused Daphne.

"What?! How can you _hate _Valentine's day?"

Harry shrugged as Kreacher appeared, bowed and gave Harry and Draco a large steaming mug of coffee each.

"Why do you hate Valentine's day?"

Hermione turned to Daphne, "Harry got a Valentine's once in 2nd year and it embarrassed him so he's hated it since then."

"Yeah that’s part of it," Harry said grimly, he felt a lot more awake and alert, "But to be honest it’s more because of that awful date with Cho when she started crying and…ugh, it was terrible. Ginny did send me this awful singing Valentine in 2nd year though and I got it in front of the whole school, it was horrible."

"I did no such thing!"

Harry swivelled around, "Gin! Hey!" he said brightly as his ex-girlfriend sat down next to him.

"You didn't send me the Valentine about having eyes as green as a fresh pickled toad?" Harry asked. He was half humiliated and half amused as he recalled the dreadful incident.

"I didn't," Ginny said with a chuckle, "I was never that much of a poet, I wrote one that said "Oh Harry, you sweetheart, I wish you were mine but you aren't, oh dear, please be mine please," then I realised it was pathetic and binned it.”

Harry laughed as he listened to her 1st year attempt at poetry but then a sudden thought hit him. If it hadn't been Ginny who sent him that Valentine, then who had it been?

"So who sent me the Valentine then...Hermione, was it you?"

"Harry!" Hermione exclaimed in surprise, "No, of course not! Why on Earth would I send you a Valentine?"

Harry blushed a deep red and mumbled, "Just a thought, sorry."

"What did it say?" Daphne asked in amusement.

Harry thought hard for a moment, "Um, his eyes are as green as a fresh pickled toad, um something about a blackboard and being the hero who vanquished the dark lord."

At that moment Harry caught Hermione's eye and both of them narrowed their eyes, as if they were thinking in unison which they did a lot.

"Hang on a minute..." Harry said slowly as the cogs whirred in his head, "I only knew one person in 2nd year who would refer to Voldemort as the dark lord..."

All eyes turned to a very pink faced Draco Malfoy who glanced at his watch, "I'm gonna be late," he lied, "Got a class to be in, see you at lunch!"

As he gathered his things and rushed from the hall Harry was sure the only time he'd ever seen Draco Malfoy move faster was the first time he saw Moody after the ferret incident...

***

Monday passed otherwise uneventfully but Draco was teased something dreadful by the others _all _day and he managed to avoid Harry very well because he didn't see him until late that night in the dorm room they shared.

"You didn't really send me that Valentine of your own free will," Harry chuckled as he lay in his four-poster, "Which one of them dared you to do it? Or more to the point how did you end up _having _to do it?"

There was silence for a couple of minutes and then Draco's voice drifted over, "Theo dared me to do it, Theo even wrote the damn thing, the bloody poet that he is."

Harry snorted, "What did you do?"

"Lost a bet," Draco said sheepishly.

Harry laughed, "Merlin, you Slytherins are inventive. All this time I thought it was Ginny who sent me that Valentine," he shook his head, "And it was really the result of you losing a bet. That's brilliant."

"Glad you find some amusement in it Potter," Draco said dryly as he drew the curtains shut on his bed but Harry saw his amused smile so he knew his friend wasn't really that upset about the situation. He was still chuckling as he put his head on the pillow to go to sleep that night.

***

As January progressed the group began to brew the Animagus potion. For the moment Harry wasn't talking to McGonagall about the final mental aspect of the potion. It was a difficult potion to brew but with so many great minds working on it they could reduce the time it should take (3 months) to somewhere in the region of a month. Harry knew that the Marauders had reduced the timescale slightly but there were only 3 very skilled potioneers working on it (because Peter certainly didn't count). With Daphne, Hermione, Sadie, Theo _and _Draco working on it this time they had a far better shot. As part of the first month of the brewing time however Harry as the resident guinea pig had to carry a mandrake leaf in his mouth for the _entire _month. It wasn't particularly vile or awkward apart from when he was trying to eat or drink, or kiss Daphne. The latter was what he missed the most though and trying to make sure McGonagall didn't cotton on to what he was doing wasn't easy either. All the same he had gotten through two weeks out of four and he still had the bloody leaf in his mouth.

Harry had decided to apology to Daphne for his lack of physical intimacy by sneaking her into the prefect bathroom.

They talked amongst themselves as the taps ran, they filled the room with scents, coloured the bath water and created swathes of bubbles. Neither of them spotted the pearly set of eyes watching them from one of the large taps. In fact, they had been in the bath for a little while when she decided to show herself. Harry had to admit it was a little embarrassing being walked in on by a ghost when he was in the bath naked with his girlfriend.

"Hello Harry," Myrtle said, almost seductively as she popped out of the tap and floated over to them. Daphne raised an eyebrow at Harry and wondered why he wasn't even trying to cover himself up.

"Myrtle, your timing really sucks," Harry said casually, it was as if he was talking to an old friend.

Myrtle giggled, "The last time I saw you in here you were fondling a golden egg, not a Slytherin girl.”

Myrtle giggled some more as Daphne looked between her boyfriend and the ghost with bemusement

"Yes well, I've saved the wizarding world since then," Harry remarked, "So, how have you been Myrtle?"

Myrtle shrugged and settled herself on one of the taps, she cocked her head, "The same," she remarked glumly.

"Why don't you talk to the other ghosts?" Daphne asked curiously from her spot next to Harry, she had used some of the bubbles to cover herself up.

Myrtle seemed to ponder this for a moment before saying dully, "They don't like me, they think I'm annoying because I cry all the time."

"Why do you cry all of the time Myrtle?" Daphne asked.

Myrtle looked shocked and affronted, Harry was sure no one had ever even thought to ask her that before. It took her a moment to reply but eventually she said, "Because I'm dead."

Harry rolled his eyes, "Myrtle, it's been 60 years, don't you think it's time you got past this stage of your life?"

Myrtles eyes widened and it looked like she might cry. At the same time Daphne elbowed Harry sharply in the ribs and he realised his mistake, "Uh, I mean death."

The tears were averted and Myrtle didn't speak for a moment as she mulled this over, "Maybe," she said slowly as she floated thoughtfully above the water.

"You should talk to Nick," Harry said kindly, “He'll be nice to you.”

"I tried talking to Helena once," Myrtle said ruefully, "She told me I was being pathetic for crying about Olive Hornby, she said she'd had a much worse life."

Daphne and Harry shared a look of amusement; they were clearly thinking the same thing. Helena had definitely had a worse life, her stalker had killed her then killed himself and now they were stuck together as ghosts in Hogwarts for eternity. It was like a warped and twisted version of Romeo and Juliet.

"You should talk to Peeves, he'd understand," Daphne said which made Harry snort. He doubted Peeves would understand anything, least of all a dead teenage girl.

Myrtle looked just as sceptical of this idea as Harry, "Peeves hates me, he calls me spotty and disgusting."

"He was the same age as you when he died Myrtle, he became a poltergeist because he was such a restless spirit but even though he looks different than he did when he died he's the same inside and he's troubled too, you could help him," Daphne explained, she surprised both Harry and Myrtle with this information.

"Really?" Myrtle asked Daphne quietly, she sounded almost hopeful, "You think I can help him?"

"I know you can Myrtle," Daphne said kindly.

Myrtle actually smiled at Daphne and Harry was surprised by how much prettier it made her, "Okay," she said as she floated towards the taps, "See you Harry," she said as she flew up the tap and vanished from view.

"Was that true?" Harry asked Daphne as he pulled her close to him again.

Daphne smiled and nodded, "Every word. Now, where were we?"

Harry merely smirked in response.

***

They didn't realise how serious their actions had been until a week or so later when Tracey ran into the 8th year common room looking disturbed, "Oh for the love of Salazar Slytherin!" she screeched, getting the attention of the entire room, "You will _never _guess what I just saw in the bathroom!"

"What?'" Annie asked eagerly.

Tracey looked both excited to be the bearer of gossip and disgusted at the nature of the gossip, "Peeves and Moaning Myrtle, _snogging_!"

"EW!"

"GROSS!"

Several similar shouts and remarks were made around the room but Harry's favourite had to be Sadie's response, "Ugh! That's worse than Trelawney and Filch!"

Amongst the chaos and confusion Daphne and Harry shared a satisfied grin.

However, as things happened at Hogwarts one controversial revelation was overshadowed by another. Normalcy had returned to the common room and everyone was chattering amongst themselves, Harry and Hermione were on a sofa whispering about Harry's plans for Valentine's Day; or rather Hermione's plans for Harry which he was being forced into so Daphne wouldn't get too annoyed. It was then that Ernie shouted out loudly and caught the attention of everyone in the common room.

"Guys! Listen to this!"

Silence fell across the room as Ernie cranked up the volume on an old radio that was sitting on the desk next to his charms homework.

"Ernie! How are you using that? Muggle technology doesn't work in Hogwarts!" Hermione exclaimed in surprise.

Ernie rolled his eyes, "Come on Hermione, I know you modified your straighteners to work at Hogwarts. As brilliant as you are no one can go from being as terrible at straightening charms as you were to a genius in one summer."

Hermione blushed scarlet and muttered something intelligible which caused other 8th years to giggle.

Ernie grinned in amusement and hushed everyone so that the radio show could be heard. It only took Harry a few seconds to recognise the presenter's voice, it was Lee Jordan.

_"And today on Wizarding Radio Weekly, I am proud to introduce to my loyal listeners 4 new bands who claim to have invented a whole new genre of music that they have dubbed Wizard Rock. This music has been aired on illegal radio channels and has grown immensely popular. Now that the war is over and the Minister for Magic has given the go ahead, it can be aired on real radio and I am proud to present it to you!"_

Some people seemed to understand this and had obviously heard of this illegal genre of music but others, like Harry, seemed at a loss of what the whole thing was about.

_"The first band I want to show you today call themselves 'Harry and the Potters' and their songs are sung in the perspective of our very own boy-who-lived Harry Potter, who by the way was in my house at school, we were very close friends, best of friends even-"_

_"Lee, you spoke to him about 5 times in the entire time you were at Hogwarts together,"_ A voice interjected, that voice belonged to none other than George Weasley and it made Harry grin, although the fact that there was a band singing as if they were him kind of freaked him out a little, although for some reason Draco and Daphne looked incredibly amused and were sharing knowing grins and chuckles.

"_Ready?" _

The voice was familiar but Harry couldn't quite place it. Another voice replied, _"Let's do this_," and Harry frowned, he recognised that voice too.

The music started, it was just a guitar and some drums, then the singer started to sing and it wasn't bad, the tune was good and pretty upbeat but the singing wasn't exactly the best Harry had ever heard. However as soon as the words began he listened in amusement and horror.

"_Your blood may be pure but your heart is spoiled,_

_You wouldn’t be so tough without Crabbe and Goyle,_

_Malfoy wouldn’t be so cool if I wasn’t around,_

_I’m his enemy at school, he really wants to get me down._

_Draco Malfoy, what’s your problem?_

_All your friends think your rad cause you treat me so bad,_

_Draco Malfoy, whats your problem?_

_All your friends think your rad cause you treat me so bad.”_

The others were laughing or dancing or even singing along. Harry was slightly scared and Hermione was bemused, "They're singing as if they're you?"

"Yeah..." Harry said slowly, this was possibly the weirdest thing he'd ever experienced and let's face it; he'd had lots of weird experiences in his time on this earth.

“And they’re singing about me,” Draco said with a bemused shake of his head.

“That part is pretty funny,” Harry admitted with a grin, “The rest is just a bit…weird.”

There was some clapping and whistling from the radio as the song finished and then Lee was back on again, _"That was Harry and the Potters with “The Foil”. The band had hits in the war with “These Days are Dark” and “Voldemort Can't Stop the Rock.” The band is made up of Dennis Creevey and his best friend and fellow Gryffindor Jimmy Peakes!"_

Harry narrowed his eyes and made a mental note to storm into the Gryffindor common room later and get Dennis back for this. However just when he thought it was all over he realised that it wasn't and he cursed, not so silently, which earned him a slap from Hermione.

_"Next up we have a three-piece girlband who go by the name the Parselmouths!"_ Lee announced.

It was much better than the last band, better played and much more upbeat, the kind of thing you could happily dance to. It became clear as soon as the singing started that this band was made up of Slytherins, as if the band name hadn't already given it away.

"_Everyone says Slytherin house is the worst place to be,_

_Why?_

_All because the dungeons are so cold,_

_And because we have to deal with greasy Sevvy Snape_

_EW!_

_And because our souls have all been sold,_

_To You-Know-Who!_

_But there are good parts too that you may not have seen,_

_Like what?_

_We get to wear green, _

_Are expected to be mean,_

_See the ickle firsties scream when we accidentally bump them in the hallways,_

_Get to goof off in potions just because,_

_Snape would rather yell at Harry Potter,_

_Yell at Harry Potter,_

_He'd always rather yell at Harry Potter,_

_Than ever give detention to someone in his own house._

_Thank God for Potter,_

_I got an O in potions,_

_Yay Harry Potter,_

_Guess Potter's not that bad."_

Again by the end of the song Harry was astounded, he didn't have any idea who would sing such a song apart from one of the Slytherins he knew and as he glanced around at them all the only one who looked suspicious was Daphne who was pretty much doubled over with laughter and was crying tears of mirth into Draco's shoulder.

A second song then began and this one was in the same sort of style. It was upbeat, fun, and catchy. After the last one he was slightly worried about the content of the song so he slid further down the sofa when it came on to hide his scarlet face. Next to him Hermione was beside herself with laughter. Harry was already cringing halfway through the song but he turned even redder when a familiar male voice spoke-sang with the female lead singer of the band.

"_Boy: Girls just stop right now._

_Girls: No you listen to us._

_Boy: I don't want to do this._

_Girls: Oh stop making a fuss._

_Boy: You're being annoying._

_Girls: But we've got this all planned._

_Boy: I'm walking away now._

_Girls: Girls like boys in bands._

_Boy: Do they really?_

_Girls: Of course they do, trust me._

_Oh Harry, _

_You're a Parselmouth too,_

_You're one of us,_

_Theres not much you can do,_

_You can't ignore it,_

_You can't just walk away,_

_I know you've had your fair share of names,_

_But if you join our band and help us expand,_

_We can tour from Antarctica to Japan!"_

As the song finished Harry stood from the sofa and cornered Daphne and Draco, who looked amused when Harry was of the opinion that they should have looked afraid, very afraid.

"You started a band and sang songs about me, and YOU helped!"

Daphne grinned, "Technically Astoria started the band, I just helped and Draco is only featured on that one song."

Draco smirked at the look on Harry's face, it was like he didn't know whether to laugh or shout. In the end Harry just rolled his eyes and flopped onto the couch. He sighed and resigned himself to the fact there was now a genre of music about his life.

"I dread to think what's next," He grumbled as Lee took over once more.

_"That was the Parselmouths with “It's Not Half Bad” and “Please Harry”, comprised of the beautiful Greengrass sisters, Astoria and Daphne with Ravenclaw Mandy Brocklehurst on the drums,"_ at this everyone stared at a pink faced Mandy in complete shock, _"The Parselmouths have had previous hits with songs like “Who is Blaise Zabini?” and “Quidditch is My Favourite Sport."_

_"We're going to take a brief gap in the music to talk a little bit about this new genre,"_ George said next, _"Wizard Rock as it is now called originated during the Second Wizarding World and was illegally played on pirate radio channels to raise morale and keep peoples spirits up in all of the terror. As you have seen already this wasn't a small group of people who were involved in the motion, we've had people from all houses and from many different backgrounds involved in making people laugh and keeping them happy."_

"_Ever since the end of the war the music has taken off on popular channels, such as this one and next I'd like to present to you an artist who goes by the stage name “Moaning Myrtle,” this is proof that music in this genre can be partly or fully comic, and later on in the show we'll give an example of how serious the music in this genre can be,_" Lee had taken over again and now another song began, the singer was female and her voice sounded very familiar to Harry.

"_Death is way more fun with bubbles_  
That's what I say  
Death is way more fun with bubbles  
Mostly every day  
Death is way more fun with bubbles  
Myrtle likes to play  
Death is way more fun with bubbles  
When they melt away  
Prefects are freakin' hot in any season  
You know they call me Moaning Myrtle for a reason."

There was much laughter as the song ended. Even Harry was smiling and as the song ended Lee Jordan chuckled as he came back on air, _"And that was Moaning Myrtle, aka Luna Lovegood with her debut song "Prefects are Hot," a song about spying on prefects in bathrooms."_

Harry's laughter increased as he realised it was Luna who had sung the song and the others in the common room shared his mirth, some of the 8th years were even crying with laughter.

"And last but certainly not least," said George and Harry could tell he was smiling, _"Is a duo that go by the name "Riddle TM". This band are fairly new on the circuit but their music is incredibly touching as you are about to hear..."_

Harry frowned as he listened to the song. It was obviously a more serious song as it was slower and the music was largely made up of the piano.

"_You’ve got the world in your hands now,_

_It’s up to you what you want to go and do with it,_

_We may have won the battle but the war’s not over yet,_

_There’s still a long way to go,_

_You’ve got the heart to do the best thing,_

_That’s why we trusted that you’d always find a way to right it,_

_Through love we’ll stay together we’re weak when we’re apart,_

_But we’ll be alright from here,_

_So let’s go and tell the world that we’re still alive,_

_There’s still the ones out there who don’t realise,_

_We’ll banish the chaos the fear and the lies,_

_And out of the ashes a phoenix will rise,_

_Now I can see we’ve got a future,_

_There’s no more Horcruxes,_

_And Hallows don’t matter to me,_

_We’ll build the world again,_

_Oh just you wait and see,_

_‘Cause now we can do anything,_

_Harry was brave,_

_He faced his fears,_

_Hermione showed that even Muggle-borns can still be gifted,_

_And Ron was loyal he was strong enough to see,_

_That friendship is everlasting,_

_So let’s go and tell the world that we’re still alive,_

_There’s still the ones out there who don’t realise,_

_We’ll banish the chaos the fear and the lies,_

_And out of the ashes a phoenix will rise,_

_Where will you choose to go from here?_

_With no more darkness there’s no longer anything to fear,_

_So we can make the world a brighter place to be,_

_And out of the ashes a phoenix will rise.”_

The song left them in silence compared to laughter as it was the first serious one to be played on the radio show and Harry found himself smiling as he realised that it was Ginny who sang the song. He sometimes forgot how well she knew him. Ever since they had broken up they had lost the close bond they had shared for so long but they would always be amazing friends and if Harry ever needed someone who understood him as much as Hermione he knew he would have Ginny. The truth of the matter was that while he was madly and completely in love with Daphne, and while Draco was fast becoming one of his closest and most reliable friends, they just hadn't known him as long as the others had and they hadn't been there through everything as the likes of Hermione, Ron, Ginny and Neville had been.

_"That was "Phoenix" by Riddle TM, a duo made up of my very own sister Ginny Weasley and her boyfriend Blaise Zabini who happens to be a skilled pianist. That song I think must touch everyone who went through the war. The metaphor of a phoenix rising from the ashes works very well when compared to our society trying to rebuild now that the war is over. Riddle TM are working on an album full of thought provoking songs like this one such as “I Must Not Tell Lies” and “Thestrals”. Keep your eyes peeled for them!”_

_"Well folks, that's all from us tonight,"_ Lee Jordan said with a note of finality to his voice, _"Tune in tomorrow for music from The Mudbloods and Roonil Wazlib."_

With that the radio started to crackle and Ernie turned it off, chatter was restored in the common room and everything went back to the way it had been before the radio show started.

“That was really quite touching,” Hermione said quietly.

Harry turned to look at her, “Yeah, it’s exactly how I feel now that it’s all over.”

“Me too,” Hermione said with a small smile, “I feel like I’m trying to move on and rebuild but I can’t totally erase everything that happened in the war.”

“And you shouldn’t have to,” Harry said softly, “Everything we went through made us who we are.”

Hermione smiled thoughtfully, “I know.”

***

Harry had decided to go and talk to Ginny after hearing her touching song on the radio. However, the fat lady had narrowed her eyes at him and was preparing to tell him that he wouldn’t be getting in without the password.

Harry just stared right back until his helpers appeared by her side in the portrait. James and Sirius grinned at the fat lady who rolled her eyes but appeared to be hiding amusement and a blush.

"Why, Elizabeth, you look dashing," Sirius said as he kissed her oily cheek.

"Charming," James agreed, “As marvellous as ever."

"Oh, you boys," She said, she blushed deeply and giggled.

"We wondered Lizzie, if you would be so kind as to let our charge, young Harry here, into the common room to meet a friend of his," Sirius said in his most charming tone of voice.

"Oh, why not," The fat lady giggled and just like that the portrait hole swung open. Harry whistled and muttered under his breath, "They _are _good."

When Harry walked into the common room all conversations stopped and all eyes were on him. Dennis glanced at him a little fearfully and swallowed deeply. Ginny was lying with her feet over the back of the sofa reading a trashy romance novel upside down; she barely even glanced at Harry as he walked in.

"Dennis, Jimmy," Harry began, he glanced over at the scared 'band' members, "The music is okay but please don't make me sound like such a pathetic moaning git."

"Got it," Dennis said, he saluted Harry then realised how embarrassing what he'd done was as he slipped down his chair out of sight. Harry shook his head in disbelief as he walked over to Ginny, pushed her legs off of the back of the sofa so that she tumbled to the ground and then sat on the sofa. He watched her with interest as she cursed at him.

"You can be such an arse sometimes, I swear those Slytherins are rubbing off on you," Ginny grumbled as she folded the corner of the page over in her book and got to her feet. She put the book on the table and sat down next to Harry on the sofa in a normal position. The entire common room was watching them and were still silent.

"Oi you lot! Stop being so nosy and get back to your own business!" Ginny yelled and instantly the noise level dramatically increased, people were scared of Ginny and Harry didn't blame them.

"What do you want?" Ginny asked casually, she eyed Harry with interest.

"To talk to you about your interesting new musical project," Harry said as if it was obvious.

"Ah, that," Ginny said as she leant back, "I forgot it was on tonight, we recorded it last week. What about it?"

"The song…it’s exactly how I feel in the aftermath of the war. I didn't realise you got me that much," Harry said honestly.

Ginny shrugged and smiled, "You've always been an open book to me and I jumped on the bandwagon last year with all the war bands on pirate radio trying to boost morale. I enjoyed it so I decided to keep it up, when I realised Blaise could play the piano we became a duo. I can play too mind you but it's fun to be a pair."

"I didn't realise you could play the piano," Harry said truthfully.

Ginny nodded, "Mum taught me when I was younger, Hermione can play the piano too, you know."

"Yeah, I know," Harry said, he remembered how Hermione had played the piano at Grimmauld Place. It had kept him sane some nights.

"The song was beautiful and you have an amazing voice," Harry told her.

Ginny grinned, "Thanks, it's always good to have the faithful boy-who-lived's opinion," she teased.

Harry grinned, "Well I just came by to tell you how great you are and that I miss you."

Ginny narrowed her eyes at him, "This isn't a 'let's get back together' I miss you, is it?"

Harry shook his head, "No," he promised, "I'm very happy with Daphne, I just miss having you around as my friend. Blaise is in our year; it would be cool if you hung around the common room more."

Ginny smiled at him in a way he didn't understand, "That's kind of cute of you, thanks."

Harry merely shrugged and smiled, "Kreacher has it hoodwinked so it will let in only 8th years with three exceptions; you, Luna and Astoria, Daph’s sister."

Ginny laughed, "Well thanks, I guess I'll drop by some time," she said.

They both laughed as they stood and hugged, Harry smiled at her once more before he left the common room, he felt sentimental after seeing it again and happy that all parts of his life were now settled. There was nothing in the air, nothing unsaid, everything was out in the open and he could live his life freely.

He felt freer than he ever had in that moment as he made his way from one tower to the other in the cold draughty castle that was the only home he had ever known.

***

As January marched on Lilly grew more and more distant. Hermione felt guilty but she tried her best not to get too involved like Daphne had advised. She had asked Lilly once how she was and the Ravenclaw had gotten snappy at her so Hermione had decided that if Lilly wanted or needed her help, she would ask for it. As it so happened Lilly approached Hermione late in the common room one night in mid-January for that reason.

"Can I talk to you for a minute, Hermione?"

Hermione glanced up from her book and sighed quietly. It didn't take a genius to work out that Lilly's tearstained face meant that she had been crying. She smiled at her friend and closed the book, "Of course you can."

Lilly sat across from her on the sofa, "Do you think I'm a bad person?"

"No!" Hermione said quickly, "No, of course not! Ron is the bad person here Lilly-"

"But what if I told you I cheated on him too?" Lilly said as she chewed anxiously at her lip.

Hermione frowned, "What?" she asked.

"I kissed Harry," Lilly said quietly, "At the Yule Ball."

"You did what?" Hermione barked.

Lilly looked close to tears, "I don't know what came over me…then I realised afterwards it must have been because Theo spiked the punch. He was being really nice to me about Ron and I don't know what happened, I just kissed him."

Hermione sighed, "Well a kiss isn't as bad as what Ron did to you. But Lilly this makes things so complicated... I mean Daphne _has _to be told about this-"

"She already knows," Lilly admitted, "She spoke to me on Christmas morning before I left. She said that Harry showed her the memory."

Hermione smiled slightly, "Well then I suppose there is nothing to worry about. If Harry and Daphne aren't worried, why are you?"

"Because I feel like a terrible person," Lilly said with a frown, "And I feel like maybe I should tell Ron. I got so mad at him for sleeping with Katie but I kissed his best friend! How am I any better than him?"

"Because it wasn't your fault," Hermione said softly, "You accidentally drank alcohol because Theodore _bloody _Nott spiked the punch. You got drunk _unknowingly _and kissed a nice guy who was comforting you. Trust me Lilly, I've made worse mistakes sober. Nice guys are hard to resist because they're so rare."

"You and Harry," Lilly said with a slight smile.

Hermione nodded but sighed heavily, "Look Lilly, Ron got angry and then knowingly went out and got blindingly drunk. Then he knowingly slept with someone else. There is _such _a difference. I don't want you to hurt yourself thinking about what Ron did because it had nothing to do with you and _everything _to do with him. He has never appreciated the good things in his life."

Lilly sighed and glanced down at her hands, "It's not even the fact that Ron did it to me if that makes sense? It's the fact someone cheated on me, it's the fact I wasn't good enough for someone, not even Ron Weasley."

Hermione smiled sadly at her friend, "I know that it sucks Lilly but you've got to remember that it wasn't you. Ron was greedy and selfish, he let his ego get the better of him. You are good enough, in fact you are _too _good for Ronald bloody Weasley."

Lilly chuckled, "It's just lonely here at the moment. You're all loved up and being single sucks."

"Susan's single," Hermione said with a chuckle, "Maybe you two can double date or something."

Lilly snorted, "Susan, date?"

Hermione grinned, "Hey Daphne didn't date up until recently and now look at her. Susan will date when the right guy comes along."

"I've known Susan since 1st year," Lilly chuckled, "I'll believe it when I see it."

"The day will come," Hermione said knowingly, she was glad to see Lilly looking a bit more cheerful.

***

As January marched on Lilly gradually cheered up, even after a couple of disastrous double dates Susan had planned for them. The animagus potion was coming along well and Harry was grateful that he would soon be able to take the bloody mandrake leaf out of his mouth. Towards the end of the month Draco got a letter over his breakfast and grimaced as he read it.

"What is it?" Hermione asked cautiously.

"It's a letter from my Mother," Draco said with a slight frown, "Inviting us to Greengrove House for tea tomorrow."

"Both of us?" Hermione asked in surprise.

Draco nodded, "She says she wants to formally meet you."

"Ooh,” Daphne said eagerly, "Formally! Merlin, you might as well propose then Draco!"

"Uh no," Harry frowned, "Hermione is far too young for that."

Hermione snorted, “I'm older than you,” she retorted.

"Yeah and I'm definitely too young for marriage," Harry said in amusement.

"What the big deal about her formally meeting me anyway?" Hermione asked curiously.

"Well," Daphne began, "When a parent 'formally' asks to meet the boyfriend or girlfriend of their child, they are basically conceding that the relationship is serious and might amount to a proposal."

"Oh Merlin," Hermione sighed.

"So they ask lots of personal questions," Sadie cut in.

"Personal questions?" Hermione asked sheepishly, "Oh for the love of Godric. She's going to hate me after this."

"She won't hate you," Draco said with a slight smile, "She's happy for us. You heard what she said at Christmas."

"All the same, you should probably be prepared for the questions she'll ask," Daphne said, "I'll coach you tonight if you want."

Hermione breathed a sigh of relief and hugged the blonde girl, "Oh Daph thank you! You're a life saver!"

Draco and Harry shared an exasperated look which thankfully went unnoticed by their girlfriends.

***

"So I'm Narcissa."

"You do look kind of like her," Harry said as he cocked his head at Daphne.

“Are you saying you have a thing for my Mother?” Draco asked distastefully.

"What?" Harry barked, "No! I just meant because of the blonde hair and the blue eyes...and... never mind."

Daphne shook her head in amusement and turned to Hermione, "So Hermione, how many children would you like to have?"

Hermione's eyes widened, "She's going to ask me that?"

"Of course she will," Daphne said matter of factly, "It's a simple question. She'll want to make sure you'll provide her son with an heir."

"Provide him with an heir?" Hermione scoffed, "I think women are worth more than the children they give birth to!"

"Of course they are," Draco said, "She's not insinuating that you are only worth as much as the child you'll give birth to. She's just going to make sure that you'll be able to provide me with an heir."

Hermione was clearly still not convinced by this logic. Daphne rolled her eyes, "Come on Hermione. Everyone knows how many kids they want, for example I want four. How many do you want?"

"Four?" Harry asked in disbelief, "That's a lot of kids."

Daphne raised an eyebrow at him, "Says a man. The person who gives birth to the children should be the one who picks how many of them there will be."

"Yeah but still, _four-_"

"Don't get too worried, you're not at that point yet," Draco said in amusement, "You haven't been 'formally' invited to Greengrass House."

Harry muttered something under his breath about formalities that Daphne thankfully didn't hear because she was grilling Hermione again, "So how many kids?"

"I don't know," Hermione admitted, "I don't even know if I want kids. I want a career first; I know that much."

"You don't want kids?" Draco asked in shock.

"I didn't say that," Hermione argued, "I said I don't know if I want kids yet. I think I probably do but I don't know how many I want."

"Alright," Daphne said, she looked exasperated already, "We'll move onto the next question then. What will you do once you finish Hogwarts, Hermione?"

"Well," Hermione replied, "I always thought I would go into the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures. But lately I've actually been considering the DMLE."

"Have you?" Draco asked eagerly. In fact, he was so eager he slid off of his chair slightly and Harry snorted in amusement.

"Yes," Hermione said with narrowed eyes, "I was thinking about going into the Misuse of Magic Office. Why are you so interested in that?"

"Well," Draco said sheepishly, "My Mother always thought the DRCMC was a bit...well wishy washy. But the DMLE is very serious, she'll be delighted to hear that."

Hermione narrowed her eyes at Draco and pushed herself to her feet, "Well my job choice has nothing to do with your Mother! It has everything to do with what I want to do with my life, just like the choice I make of when _I _have children! This coaching is a load of rubbish, she'll either like me or she won't and if she doesn't then you'll just have to deal with it Draco! Unless you're the type of guy who does everything his Mummy wants him to do!"

"I don't do anything she wants me to do," Draco said in amusement, "In case you didn't notice, I'm dating a Muggle-born. That's definitely not what she wanted me to do and I'm also friends with Harry Potter. Again, definitely not what she wanted me to do."

Hermione rolled her eyes, "I'll go with you to this stupid thing tomorrow but I'll answer the questions my way. Alright?"

"Alright," Draco said calmly.

"Good," Hermione said with a firm nod, "Goodnight."

"Goodnight," Draco said, he was faintly amused as Hermione stormed upstairs to her dorm room.

***

"I thought you said you weren't nervous and you didn't care if she liked you or not," Draco said with a slight smile as they walked up the path towards Greengrove House.

"I'm not nervous," Hermione said weakly.

"You've been biting your nails all day, you skipped lunch and you burst into tears when Hannah asked you about your Transfiguration homework. You're either nervous or pregnant and... wait you're not pregnant are you?" Draco trailed off from his own train of thought momentarily.

Hermione glared at her boyfriend, "I'm not pregnant!" she hissed.

"Thank Godric for that," Draco muttered, then his eyes widened as he realised what he had just said.

Hermione laughed despite herself, "Thank _Salazar_ Draco, isn't that what you normally say?"

Draco glared half-heartedly at her, "That was what I _meant _to say."

"Well clearly I am rubbing off on you," Hermione smirked as they reached the front door.

"You wish Granger," Draco said with a small smile as he lifted his hand and knocked on the front door. It opened immediately and they were ushered into the drawing room where Andromeda and Narcissa were awaiting them with a large pot of tea and a platter of cakes.

"Ah you made it in perfect time," Narcissa smiled broadly as she got to her feet. She immediately kissed Draco on both cheeks before looking to Hermione and saying, "And it is lovely to see you again Hermione."

Hermione smiled a little nervously as she and Draco sat down together on one of the sofas. Andromeda poured them each a cup of tea and handed it to them. Hermione was glad that her hands had stopped shaking as she accepted the cup.

Narcissa smiled, “I am so glad you could both make it today. We never have time for a proper chat, do we?"

"No, we never do," Hermione agreed.

"I feel like I know so little about you," Narcissa said honestly, “But we will get to that in good time. The first thing I must do is give you this Draco."

She handed her son a brown envelope and he took it with a frown, "What is this, Mother?" he asked as he peered into the envelope.

"The divorce was finalised, those are your papers for your new name," Narcissa said with a weak smile, "I am officially Ms. Narcissa Black and you are now Mr. Draco Black."

"Oh," Draco realised in surprise and there was a little bit of sadness in his eyes too.

"All that remains to be done is the changeover of the house and title," Narcissa said matter of factly, "Which you assured me Harry would take care of."

"Oh he'll take care of it," Hermione smiled, "Once we finish school I expect. He will have the time and the resources to do it properly then."

"Excellent," Narcissa smiled as she looked to Hermione, "Oh goodness that reminds me, I do not even know what you intend to do after you graduate, Hermione."

Hermione smiled slightly, "Well I intend to go into the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, actually."

Narcissa's eyes lit up slightly at this, "Indeed? Are you interested in a specific office?"

"Yes," Hermione replied, "The Misuse of Magic Office."

"Oh yes," Narcissa nodded, "A very stable job."

"And a rewarding one too," Andromeda said with a smile.

"Yes, I'm sure you would be very happy there Hermione," Narcissa said simply, "Not that your occupation makes any difference to your relationship with Draco. You will always be incredibly important to him, regardless of your job."

Hermione shared a knowing smile with Draco at this and the blonde boy said, "Well that is true but I am glad that Hermione wants to go into the DMLE. I think she'll love it there. She loves a challenge after all."

"The DMLE is certainly a challenge at the moment," Andromeda chuckled.

Narcissa sighed, "Indeed it is. I must say Hermione, I did have my doubts when I found out about your relationship with my son but I wanted to formally call you here today to tell you that I was wrong. You are a beautiful young lady with a fantastic mind, you challenge Draco and heaven knows he needs that. I think you are possibly the best thing that could happen to him."

Hermione blushed furiously at those words as she looked down at her hands. Draco smiled slightly and put his arm around her, "I think you are right, Mother."

"Now Hermione. Tell me a little bit more about your family and your hobbies. What do you do for fun?" Narcissa asked conversationally.

Hermione smiled slightly as she looked up to Narcissa, "Well the ironic thing about that is that I don't think my family are very different to yours. In the Muggle world we do not have pureblood, half-blood and muggle-born but we do have status based on class."

"Class?" Narcissa asked in confusion.

"Lower class, middle class, and upper class," Andromeda filled her sister in.

"Lower class families generally struggle to get by," Hermione explained, "Middle class families get by comfortably and upper class families have far more disposable income."

"And what class are your family in, Hermione?" Narcissa asked curiously.

"Upper," Hermione admitted, "My parents are dentists which means that they are paid very well. We live in a big house in Oxford and we spend most of our holidays skiing in the Alps."

"Indeed?" Narcissa said, "We have a chalet in the alps."

"We have a lodge," Hermione said with a slight smile.

Andromeda had to hide her smirk, she saw what Hermione was doing and she really admired the girl for it. Draco clearly did too from the proud look plastered onto his face.

"So aside from the fact that my parents are Muggles there is really very little that sets us apart, Narcissa," Hermione said kindly.

"In which case you should come to the Alps with us this Easter," Narcissa said genuinely, "You and your parents."

"We're going skiing this Easter?" Draco asked in surprise.

"Oh it's the first I've heard of it too," Andromeda chuckled, "So I wouldn't worry too much."

"Nonsense, I've had it planned for weeks," Narcissa said with a wave of her hand, "It would be lovely if all three of you could join us, Hermione."

"Well, I will find out if my parents can make it," Hermione said, she was slightly stunned by Narcissa's positive reaction.

"Lovely," Narcissa said brightly.

Before the topic of conversation could move on, a shout from behind disturbed them all. Andromeda sighed, "Ah, my Grandson will be awake," she said as she glanced to the travel coat next to the sofa that Draco and Hermione were sitting at.

"I'll get him," Hermione said simply, she was the closest anyway and she had a soft spot for Teddy Lupin.

"Oh thank you Hermione," Andromeda said appreciatively as Hermione gently lifted the 9 month old from the cot. He had gotten so big and he could crawl now as well as string together very basic sentences.

Unaware of the several sets of eyes on her, Hermione sat back down on the sofa and popped Teddy on her lap. He immediately wrapped his hand around her finger and said clearly, "Miny!"

Hermione laughed, "That's right Teddy, it's Aunt Mione."

"Miny!" Teddy said again as he bounced on her lap.

Draco chuckled and reached to tickle the little boy, "Hey Ted!"

Teddy bounced even more excitedly, "Dwaco!"

"It's Uncle Draco, yeah Teddy!" Hermione said with a smile at the little boy.

Unbeknownst to the young couple Narcissa and Andromeda shared a knowing smile. Andromeda then said, "He's been missing you both, clearly."

"Oh I've missed him too," Hermione said, "Isn't he so adorable? Harry is missing him ever so much."

"Would he like a week with him at Easter?" Andromeda asked with a smile, "If you are both going to be going to France with Cissa then I think I will take a short holiday myself if Harry is willing to spend a week with Teddy."

"He might have to look after him at Hogwarts,” Hermione said thoughtfully, “But I'm sure he would say yes. He misses him an awful lot."

"And Daphne needs to meet little Teddy properly," Draco said as he played with the little boys thick blue hair, "He's a big part of Harry's life and she needs to realise that if she's serious about their relationship."

Hermione looked up at Draco in surprise, "That's very thoughtful and wise of you."

Draco chuckled, "Yes well I do have my moments."

Narcissa smiled at the couple, she was incredibly glad that she had invited them around for tea because it had cemented the suspicions she already had. Those suspicions were that Hermione was one of the best possible things that could ever have happened to her son.

**TBC :)**


	37. Of Cats and Men (& Women)

When January came to a close the determined group of 8th Years _finally _finished the animagus potion. They had spent the entire month sweating over a cauldron in the basement of Potter Manor during every spare moment that they had and Harry had spent the entire month with a mandrake leaf in his mouth. Harry had approached Professor McGonagall earlier in the month and she had started to give him lessons, mostly on the mental aspect of becoming an Animagus because (as she herself had pointed out) between them his friends could probably brew an Animagus potion in their sleep. She certainly turned out to be right there.

Harry’s last lesson with McGonagall was on the 5th of February which was precisely the day that everything started to come together. The animagus potion had to brew for a final 24 hours and then Harry could take it. However, there was a minor blip with their plan. The animagus potion was finished but the _cure_ wasn't. Between them Daphne, Hermione, Sadie, Draco and Theo were close but they were struggling with one particular aspect of the potion and they didn't know who to approach for help on this final hurdle.

"The problem is with component 6," Hermione explained for about the hundredth time in the common room. Harry sighed, maybe a little too loudly, and a book collided with his head.

"Ow," Harry said dryly as Draco sniggered.

"Bloody component 6, I'm sick of hearing about it," Harry whined and Daphne hit him hard in the arm, "Ow!" he said indignantly.

"Shut up Harry, you haven't been helping so you can't complain," Daphne told him with a firm glare as she turned to the others, "But the problem isn't removing the component, that's not going to be difficult at all, replacing it is the issue and we can't-"

"- replace it until you know what to replace it with," Harry finished. He sighed and muttered, “I'm going to get an O in Potions after this.”

He got hit on the head from two directions, "Ow," he muttered dryly.

"Stop being so negative!" Hermione exclaimed.

"I'm just fed up," Harry admitted, "I want to help that poor girl and nothing we're doing seems to be working. This time tomorrow I'll be an Animagus and you don't even have anything to test on me."

"I don't know what else to do," Sadie admitted. She sighed and let her head drop into her hands.

"We need outside help," Theo said firmly, they had needed it for a little while but they were all too stubborn to ask for help.

"But who can we ask?" Hermione despaired as she racked her brains, "I mean Slughorn is _good _but who has extensive knowledge of experimental potions?"

"Shit!"

"What?" Daphne asked sharply, tempers and tensions were high at the moment.

"My Mother!" Harry exclaimed.

Hermione's eye's widened, the answer had literally been on their doorstep the whole time.

Harry elaborated, "My Dad was an Auror and if my Mum hadn't had me so young she was going to go into experimental potions. That's why her and Snape were close and why Slughorn loved her. She was one of his best students!"

They all stood up as one and hurried out of the common room, they skidded to a halt in front of the portrait of the Marauders. Lily was sitting there reading while the other three schemed in the background. They all looked up when they saw the group of 8th Years.

"We need your help with a potion," Hermione said quickly. Then she explained at top speed about Filch's daughter and Harry becoming an animagus but that the components wouldn't match up, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera!

Lily followed all of this with ease and then her green eyes narrowed, "I have an inkling."

"What's your idea Mum?" Harry asked eagerly.

Lily beamed at her son, "Your issue is finding something to replace the permanency charm and I think you may have missed the solution for want of trying too hard. The solution is very simple, surely you can replace the permanency charm with _another _permanency charm. Only you must ensure that the second permanency charm will keep the _human _form as the permanent one."

There was a stunned silence as they all considered her words.

"Lily...you are a genius," James beamed.

"I didn't understand a word she said but it sounded good," Harry turned to the experts of the group, "It was good, right?"

"It was brilliant," Draco marvelled as Daphne gaped at Lily in amazement.

"So that will work?" Theo asked as he looked around his friends.

Sadie nodded eagerly, "Not only will it work, it will work quickly. We can have the potion finished by _tomorrow_!"

So their night ended well after all. It was Friday night and everyone apparated to Potter Manor to finish the potion. The job was largely done by Daphne, Hermione and Sadie, for the most part Harry, Draco and Theo drank coffee and tried to morally support the others.

The "EUREKA" moment came sometime before 2am in the morning; the potion was _finally _finished.

Now all they needed to do was talk to Filch about it and get his permission which they thought might actually be harder than brewing the bloody potion had been. But then again with Trelawney on their side... well it could go either way.

They decided to hit the hay so the Slytherin members of the group would be at their best for the match against Ravenclaw the following day.

It was a great feeling that night, after a month of hard work everything was finally paying off.

***

They got up early on Saturday morning so they could get back to school without getting caught. They had learned their lesson after their wild night out in Edinburgh. If they were leaving Hogwarts without permission; they did it much more sneakily now. They slipped into the great hall at breakfast and ate quietly, the table was tense as it always was before Quidditch games. The group then made their way out to the pitch and wished good luck to their Slytherin friends. Harry, Neville, Hannah and Susan made their way into the stands to make sure they would get a good view of the match.

It started out as a fairly average, pretty good game. Hermione was commentating again and as per usual it gave everyone a good laugh, especially with Dennis on the sound since Luna was playing in the game.

"Daphne is flying towards the hoops and she looks like she's going to score...oh, oh, go Daphne! Sorry Professor – Yes, she's scored!"

"_Pour some sugar on me, ooh in the name of love. Pour sugar on me, come on fire me up!"_

Harry grinned at this matches goal song for Slytherin; it had been "Bad to the Bone" in the last match. He saw Daphne chuckling and shaking her head as she sped away from the goals.

"Oh and now Sadie has the quaffle, wait, Daphne, Sadie, oh no Tracey, wait no Daphne, and Tracey and she's on her way to the goals, oh she's going to score, come on Tracey!" Hermione was jumping up and down on her seat; she was such a closet Quidditch fan.

"Yes, and she's scored! 20-0!"

"Oi Granger, what side are you supporting here?" Terry Boot joked as he flew past the commentary box.

Hermione grinned, "Slytherin! My boyfriend's the captain, sorry Terry!"

"No worries!" Terry said, he laughed as he flew off into the distance.

10 minutes into the match Slytherin were 50 points up and doing well, then Ravenclaw upped their game.

"Luna has the quaffle and she's heading for the hoops, oh no, Draco's blocking her, Draco that is _not _your job, look for the bloody snitch! - Oh sorry Professor - Oh no Luna dropped the quaffle, but wait Mandy has it and she scores!"

"_Live fast and die young, all we are looking for is hope and glory. Cause I was born to run, theres not a boring page in my life story."_

Harry shook his head in amusement and smiled at the same time as the song played. After that Ravenclaws game was kind of off again and after half an hour of play the score was at a dismal 90-20 to Slytherin.

"Draco's seen something; he's going after the snitch!" McGonagall didn't bother telling Hermione off as she jumped up and down on her seat again, "He nearly has it – oh my god! DRACO! MADAM HOOCH HE'S HURT! TIME-OUT!"

Madam Hooch blew her whistle for a time out; Hermione dropped her megaphone and ran as fast as she could to the pitch. Draco had been hit in the back of the head with a bludger sent his way by Michael Corner who was currently getting yelled at and hit by his ex-girlfriend (Ginny) for the incident. Hermione reached the pitch and knelt down on the cold wet grass next to Draco who was in a makeshift stretcher looking dazed and confused.

"Hermione," Draco sighed when Hermione reached him.

She smiled weakly at him, "You're going to the hospital wing Draco, you're going to miss the end of the game."

"P...P...Potter..."

"What about Harry?" Hermione asked gently as she took Draco's hand in her own. The Slytherin team chose this moment to arrive on the scene and dismount their broomsticks.

"I want Potter..." Draco said weakly.

"Now Draco, you're not dying, no need to confess your love for the boy-who-lived," Theo jested from his spot behind the injured captain.

"Who wants me?" Harry asked as he appeared on the scene with Neville hot at his heels.

"Draco," Daphne remarked casually.

Harry snorted, "Wow, he must have been hit pretty hard."

"I know right," Daphne joked.

"Guys," Draco said dryly, "I'm trying to give my dying speech here."

"Draco you aren't dying, you bloody drama Queen," Neville retorted with a snigger.

Even in a dazed state Draco managed to glare at the Gryffindor, "Shut up fatbottom."

"Still so original," Neville muttered.

Draco cleared his throat, "Harry...I can't finish, I...need...you...to...go...on...for...me."

With that his eyes slid shut and Hermione panicked slightly, "Oh my gosh! Is he dead?"

Madam Pomfrey chose that point to hurry over to Draco, she did a few quick checks, "No, he's just fallen asleep."

There was laughter around the group and only Hermione seemed genuinely concerned about Draco’s welfare.

Theo turned to Harry, "Well you heard the dying man’s words Harry. Grab Draco’s broom and join in."

Harry shrugged and grabbed the broom, "Okay," he said simply. Once upon a time playing for Slytherin would have seemed worse than committing suicide but there were far better things in Harry’s life than Quidditch now. It was just a bit of fun for him, a hobby to keep him fit and to pass the time.

He climbed onto Draco’s broom and felt it buzz underneath him. It sensed that he wasn't its owner. He tapped it and said, "Um, hey? I'm Draco's friend, I'm going to win the match for him," was he actually talking to a broomstick? It seemed to believe him though as it buzzed happily and didn't feel so uncomfortable anymore.

Draco was rushed off of the pitch in a stretcher and Hermione went with him. McGonagall it seemed had _very _reluctantly agreed to let Dennis do the commentating because there was no one else on hand to do it. She then appeared angrily on the pitch, "Potter! What do you think you're doing?"

"Um, going on for Draco," Harry said, as if this was obvious.

"The rules clearly state that-"

Theo cut McGonagall off, "- That if a team is in dire need of a replacement and there is not one on the team, that a Slytherin between 2nd and 7th year can go on. As Harry here is an 8th Year his house doesn't apply therefore he can help us. Thanks for that chat Minnie, I really feel like we understood each other."

McGonagall looked like smoke might come out of her ears as her face gradually turned from red to violet; Harry hadn't seen a transition so spectacular since Uncle Vernon.

"Theodore Roosevelt Nott! Private detention cleaning up my classroom for a month!"

She turned on her heel and stormed away. As she did so she muttered under her breath, "I'm changing this bloody rulebook."

"Your middle name is _Roosevelt_? Seriously? Roosevelt?!"

Theo rolled his eyes, "He was the first Wizarding President of America and my Mum was a Wizarding Historian," he said irritably as he mounted his broomstick.

Harry flew behind him laughing his head off and occasionally shouting things like, "Okay over there Roosevelt?"

Harry smirked as he looked around the pitch. He saw the snitch glinting and sighed to himself, he knew he was effectively helping Slytherin beat Gryffindor in the inter-house cup but he found that he didn't really care. His friendship with Draco and his relationship with Daphne meant a million times more to him than Quidditch did these days. As it so happened, the game ended about 5 seconds later when Harry caught the snitch in record time and Slytherin won 240-20.

***

When the match ended the Slytherins (+ Harry, Neville and Dean) made haste and hurried up to the hospital wing to check on Draco.

When they got there Madam Pomfrey reluctantly let them in and made it clear that they only had half an hour and that they needed to be quiet because Draco needed his rest. As the group approached Draco's bed they saw Hermione sitting on the edge of it, she was holding his hand and smiling as he spoke to her.

Harry thought it was quite sweet and he was going to suggest to the others that they should come back later and give Hermione and Draco some time together. However, Theo was already striding towards Draco's hospital bed and Harry dreaded to think what he might do.

"Oi princess" Theo said loudly, "Get away from my man."

Hermione shook her head, "Oh Theo," she said fondly as she stepped away from Draco’s bed.

Draco raised an eyebrow at Theo as he hugged him tightly and said, "I was a little worried back there."

Draco smiled and shook his head, "You know, I almost believed that."

Theo grinned, dropped into a chair by his friend's bed and said, "You _must _be delusional."

The others dropped into chairs by the bed and Harry laughed in amusement, "Finished with the reunion guys?"

Draco chuckled and then winced, "Did we win?" he asked.

“I don't know why you say _we _when asking me," Harry pointed out.

Draco glared at him, "So, did we win?"

Harry let himself grin, he had been holding it in since they walked into the room, "Yeah," he admitted, "Landslide victory."

"He caught the snitch seconds after he got on your broom, which seems to like him by the way," Tracey informed Draco, she smirked at her own choice of words.

There was laughter from almost all of them at that and then Madam Pomfrey appeared looking very red faced and angry, "I said he needs his rest, not noise! Out! All of you, now!"

With some grumbling everyone stood up, apart from Hermione. Madam Pomfrey sighed with resignation, "Apart from you Miss. Granger, you can stay."

Hermione positively beamed as the others trudged out of the room. They all needed showers anyway.

Harry yawned and stretched as the group walked back to the 8th Year common room together, "We should really try and sort out our Filch problem at some point today."

"I'm not asking him!" Daphne and Tracey echoed together.

Sadie looked afraid as she shook her head, "Please don't ask me to do it."

Harry caught Neville's eye and they both smirked, "I nominate Theo," they said in unison.

Theo groaned but then he got a worrying glint in his eye as he said, "Sure, I'll do it."

Harry was a little anxious. What on earth was he planning in that sick, twisted mind of his?

***

Later on in the hospital wing Hermione and Draco finally had the chance to have a decent length conversation without being interrupted. Luckily Draco wasn't too badly injured, he had a minor concussion and a big bruise from where the bludger had hit him. Madam Pomfrey had healed the majority of his wounds but he still had a headache so she was keeping him in overnight just in case there was something she had missed. Even in the wizarding world head injuries were tricky to treat.

"You really had me worried earlier you know," Hermione said quietly, she kept her gaze down and didn’t meet his eye.

"I'm sorry," Draco said as he took her hand, "It was a rookie mistake, I got distracted by Dennis Creevey and his damn camera and I looked away for a second because the flash blinded me."

"Don't be silly," Hermione said, “It wasn't your fault. It's the beaters job to stop the bludgers from hitting people, if you want to blame anyone blame Theo."

Draco chuckled, "Oh now I like that plan. Blaming Theo always works."

Hermione smiled and for a moment there was silence between them. Then she sighed quietly, "For a minute I thought I was going to lose you and that really scared me," she admitted.

Draco stayed silent as he sensed that she had something she needed to say.

Hermione shook her head, it was as if she was trying to force her thoughts into order, "Less than a year ago you were the enemy. You were the son of a man who imprisoned us and wanted us dead. And now you're my boyfriend and Ron has left and everything is so different," she had a small frown on her face as she tried to figure out what to say next, "Sometimes I suppose I struggled to come to terms with it all but I finally have now. I've really started to love the way things are and the thought of losing you after that was horrible."

Draco smiled weakly at her and patted the spot of bed next to him; Hermione smiled back as she climbed up and lay down next to him in the small hospital bed.

"I know it scares you sometimes and trust me it scares me just as much. Right now I'm doing everything that was preached to me as wrong growing up," Draco said truthfully as he turned his head to smile at his girlfriend, "I was taught not to mingle with muggle-borns or half-bloods, now I'm dating one and I'm fast becoming great friends with another. And I don't regret one single bit of it, I promise you that. But so much change in such a short amount of time...well it sometimes scares me too, I understand Hermione."

Hermione shifted closer and sighed into Draco's chest, "I never thought this is how my life would pan out after the war."

Draco chuckled quietly, "No, this isn't the way I thought things would go either but it _was _the way I hoped they'd end," he felt Hermione smile into his chest and he smiled himself, "I love you Hermione and I'd do it all again to get this outcome."

Hermione's smile widened, "I love you too Draco and I'd do it all the same too...even that punch."

Draco laughed and they fell asleep holding each other tightly that night.

***

Theodore Nott didn't like to be delegated the jobs that nobody else wanted so he made it his mission to be as rude and annoying as possible when it came to talking to Filch that night. To be fair it was in his nature to be annoying anyway, he grinned to himself as he looked down at the map Harry had let him borrow. It was one of the perks of being allocated this job, he may have spent a little too long being nosy and sniggering at the fact that Daphne's 'angelic' little sister Astoria was in a broom cupboard with Dennis Creevey.

Theo had started his search on the 7th floor and typically Filch was in the dungeons so he trudged down there. He snorted in amusement when he glanced at the map after hearing suspicious noises coming from a 3rd floor classroom and saw that it was occupied by Mandy Brocklehurst and the keeper of the Slytherin Quidditch team.

When Theo eventually reached the dungeons he started to feel slightly anxious. He heard Filch whistling in one of the empty classrooms so without knocking he walked in. Filch was startled and jumped when the door opened, "What are you doing out of bed?"

"I'm Head Boy," Theo explained, "My curfew isn't for a while yet."

Filch narrowed his eyes at Theo, he was surprised that a student wasn’t being rude to him and a Slytherin student at that.

"So Argus," Theo said casually as he dropped into one of the seats in front of an old dirty cauldron, "I want to talk to you about your cat."

Filch immediately tensed up, "Leave Mrs. Norris alone," he snarled.

Theo raised his hands, "I don't want to hurt her. In fact, quite the opposite. My friends overheard you in a pub, we know about her real form."

Filch didn't seem to know how to react to this so he grabbed the desk for support and sat down shakily. Theo continued, "We wanted to help so between Potter and Granger and some of the 8th Year Slytherins we've been working on a cure and we're pretty sure that we've found it. All we need to do now is test it on an Animagus to see if it works. Potter volunteered, of course."

Filch shook his head, "No," he said roughly, "I tried every experimental potions brewer in the wizarding world when it happened and no one could help," he looked away from Theo, "If they couldn't do it a bunch of ambitious kids can't either."

"Potions theory has changed a lot since Melody's accident-" Theo began, he tried to sound encouraging and helpful.

"Don't call her that!" Filch barked which made Theo jump, "Her name is Mrs. Norris! Now get out, OUT!"

Theo knew when to accept defeat and he knew he had lost this battle so he trudged his way back up to the 8th Year common room to tell the others of the encounter. They had never expected much, they knew Filch would be sceptical and that he would refuse to believe it but it had been worth a shot.

Theo sighed, he was dreading the others reactions as he moodily answered the doors riddle and dragged himself into the common room. As he flopped into an armchair by the fire he was immediately surrounded by the only people left in the common room.

"How did it go?" Harry and Neville asked at the same time.

"Not very well," Theo said honestly, "As we expected, he didn't think a bunch of kids could brew the potion and he told me to get out without so much as a thank you."

They all looked crestfallen and it made Theo feel guilty for not trying harder.

Daphne sighed, "Well, we always knew it was a long shot," she said reasonably, "So I guess it's time for plan B."

"There's a plan B?" Harry asked.

Daphne smirked then shared a smile with Tracey and Sadie, her partners in crime, "Yes," she said simply.

Harry narrowed his eyes, "And what is plan B?"

"Plan B is you and I go have ourselves a chat with our resident seer," Daphne said with a slightly evil grin.

"Seriously?" Harry groaned, "Why me?"

"Because, you're her number one student," Tracey said and she winked playfully at him.

Sadie was laughing next to her, "Sucks to be loved so much Harry," she teased.

Harry rolled his eyes and mumbled something about how he was the boy-who-saved-the-bloody-wizarding-world but he still had to do everything his girlfriend said.

***

On Sunday morning Harry was awoken very early by Daphne who had been tickling him with the end of a quill. He groaned, pulled a pillow over his face and mumbled, "What time is it?"

"It's 9am, come on we've got to find Trelawney."

"It's Sunday!" Harry whined.

Daphne pulled the pillow from his face, "And we have work to do, get up."

"Fine," Harry sighed, he climbed out of bed and pulled on the first clothes he could find. He grabbed the jumper Mrs. Weasley had knitted him as it was still very cold even now that it was February.

Daphne seemed pleased as she grabbed his hand and dragged him out of the tower and onto the grand staircase. He didn't object but he yawned all the way.

"So whats the plan?" Harry asked when they finally reached the great hall and he was able to sit down and start demolishing some bacon.

"We're going to go up to her office and charm her," Daphne said simply, she poured herself some pumpkin juice and watched Harry mull this over as she munched on some toast.

"You make it sound so easy," Harry said sarcastically.

Daphne chuckled, "I try."

"You're in a good mood," Harry said with a smile, he was amused at how bouncy she was and he loved to see her happy.

Daphne merely shrugged, "The potion is finished, you're becoming an Animagus tonight. It's exciting!"

Harry smiled, he felt much more awake now, "I guess it is...it feels like 2nd year with the polyjuice potion all over again."

Daphne laughed, "I still can't believe you turned into Goyle," she shook her head in amusement, "But if this is what it feels like being on one of your adventures I can see why you liked it, it's kind of fun."

Harry grinned, leant over and kissed her, "Yeah, it is. Now come on, let's go talk to Trelawney."

***

When Daphne and Harry reached the hatch up into Trelawney's unconventional attic-like classroom it seemed to sense them because it opened and the silver ladder dropped down.

"My children, come in," Trelawney's dreamy voice called out.

Harry glanced at a slightly hesitant Daphne and muttered, "After you," the girl rolled her eyes and started to climb the ladder with Harry close behind her.

Trelawney wasn't dressed in her usual eccentric clothes; she was sitting at her desk with her huge round glasses on. Her hair was still frizzy and all over the place. She wore orange robes which were blinding but an improvement on her usual dress sense. She smiled up at them and put her multi-coloured quill down, "My dears, you have come seeking my advice and guidance."

"Uh, sort of," Harry said, "We need your help with something."

Daphne nodded, "Something that is very important to us," she added.

Trelawney smiled at them and politely said, "Please sit down."

Harry and Daphne cautiously took seats in front of her desk.

Trelawney chuckled at the looks on their faces, "There is no need to look so afraid. Now, what is troubling you?"

Daphne and Harry met each other's eyes and had an inner debate on who would talk, Harry lost, "We didn't mean to eavesdrop but we heard you talking to Filch and we know about his daughter and we know that you knew my parents. We wanted to do something to help so we tried to brew a potion that would cure Mrs. Norris and make her Melody again."

Trelawney smiled sadly and looked down at the desk, "That is very sweet of you but Argus assured me it was impossible to cure his poor daughter."

"We thought so too," Daphne interrupted, "But then we all worked together and we managed to brew the cure, it's complete. We just need to test it now and then we can give it to Mrs. Norris."

"My goodness," Trelawney said. She looked at them both as if she was trying to read their minds and see if they really believed they had found a cure, "Does Argus know?"

Daphne sighed, "Yes but he won't accept that we found the cure. He thinks it's impossible for students to do it when expert potion brewers couldn't," she watched Trelawney mull this over, "But the truth is Professor that he can't accept change. So much has changed in potions theory in the last few years that the stuff we get taught at N.E.W.T level is much more complex than it was when these brewers were at Hogwarts."

Trelawney nodded, she seemed to be deep in thought, "I understand. Argus does not like to accept change, in fact he fears it. I will try my best to convince him that this potion may really cure his daughter."

Harry shared a smile with Daphne, their plan had worked. Surely Filch would listen to Trelawney, "We're testing the potion tonight. We'll be able to give it to Melody tomorrow if it works."

Trelawney smiled proudly at them, "I foresaw this day," she confessed, "When I first saw you two in my class in 3rd year I knew one day you would become a great team. I am glad to see that my prediction has been made true."

Harry and Daphne had to smile at that. It was the final straw that convinced Harry that perhaps Trelawney was a true seer after all.

***

It was a pivotal moment as everyone stood huddled around a cauldron in Potter Manor. The potion was bright blue in colour, like the ocean. Harry held a goblet in his hand, he was ready to drink the potion and hopefully become an Animagus. If the girls had brewed the potion correctly, then in theory everything would work perfectly. Once he was an Animagus, he would transform and the cure could be tested on him. After that they would be able to save Melody, assuming Filch would let them.

"Are you ready?" Daphne asked, she looked slightly anxious as she stood next to Harry. The Gryffindor gave her a small smile and nodded.

"Remember the mental part of it Harry," Hermione reminded him, "Shut your eyes and do exactly what McGonagall told you."

"And don't drink too fast or it won't work."

"Don't drink too slow either though."

"Remember and keep your mind focused so you can control the animal form."

"And if you need help remember the gesture we talked about."

"Guys!" Harry said loudly. This stopped them all from shouting random pieces of advice at him, "The last time this happened I accidentally ended up in Knockturn Alley."

There were bemused and confused looks all around but Hermione smiled slightly, "Sorry Harry.”

She added for the benefit of everyone else, "He needs silence to concentrate. Advice doesn't really help him."

"Sorry," Sadie and Tracey whispered.

Theo just shrugged, "Good luck Potter."

"Good luck Harry!" A few of the others cheered.

Harry closed his eyes, brought the goblet to his lips and drank deeply from it.

At first he didn't feel like much had changed but he continued to focus his mind on the task at hand and not let it wander, like McGonagall had said. He then felt a strange tingling feeling in his toes, sort of like when he had taken Polyjuice potion for the first time. The tingling started to spread throughout his body and then all of a sudden it stopped and he felt exactly the same as he had before.

He opened his eyes and said, "It didn't work," or at least that was what he tried to say. It came out more like a squawk and at that point Harry looked into the mirror that Hermione had just transfigured. He was an Animagus all right and his Animagus form had to be the coolest _ever._

"Wow!" Theo exclaimed.

Draco was gazing at Harry in shock and jealousy, "Your Animagus form is a Phoenix, seriously?"

Harry smirked, or well he did inside because Phoenix's couldn't smirk, and the others went a little bit wild. Theo mumbled a spell that cut his arm and asked Harry to cry on it, he did and it was instantly healed, they ooh-ed and aah-ed. Then Harry lifted up Daphne, Sadie and Tracey and flew around the room with them holding onto his tail feathers. After that he closed his eyes, shut out the noise and concentrated on becoming human again. He felt the tingling sensation again but this time it started at his head and spread down throughout his body to his toes then it stopped. Harry opened his eyes, looked in the mirror and was pleased to see that he was himself again.

"Can I just say," Harry said with a smug grin, "That I have the coolest Animagus form, ever."

Daphne rolled her eyes but she was smiling, "When you've finished inflating your head can we please do the job we set out to do and test the potion?"

The portrait on the wall sniggered, it was Charlus's portrait and it could travel throughout all the portraits in Potter Manor, "You two sound just like James and Lily."

Harry chuckled, he wasn’t at all offended by this, in fact it made him quite happy. Daphne was right though, the fun was over and now it was time to get back to work.

Hermione and Daphne added the final touch to the potion which had to be done right before the drinker took it. Hermione then ladled the potion into a new goblet and handed it to Harry, he glanced anxiously at the smoking goblet, "Is it supposed to do that?"

Hermione glared at him, "Yes Harry, of course it is. I wouldn't give it to you if I wasn't 100% sure it was ready!"

"Okay! I was just asking," Harry mumbled, he glanced worriedly at the goblet again. He put it on the floor and transformed into his Animagus form. Then he used the straw provided to drink all of the liquid from the goblet and he felt a searing pain shoot through him, it felt like every molecule in his body was tearing apart. He screamed in pain but he was sure it came out as a squawk and as quickly as the pain had started, it stopped. Harry warily opened his eyes, he was curled up in a ball on the floor and he was naked. He ached a little but other than that he was perfectly fine and perfectly human, the potion had worked.

"It works!" Harry said, he accepted the towel that Hermione gave him and covered himself up, "It really works!"

There were grins all round that they had actually done it, now all they needed to do was give the potion to Mrs. Norris and she would be Melody once again.

"What now?" Draco asked after the initial excitement had passed.

Harry replied, "We wait until tomorrow and hope Trelawney managed to convince Filch," it was the honest answer; all they could do now was wait.

"Then we wait," Theo said, he actually sounded sincere and mature for a moment but then he ruined it and added, "But until then I say we celebrate with firewhiskey!"

There was laughter and agreement all around as they headed over to the bar to celebrate their success.

***

On Monday morning when Harry and his friends walked into the great hall they could see Trelawney and Filch having a heated discussion in whispers at the head table, Harry was glad to see that it looked like Filch was losing. As they sat down for breakfast everyone watched the argument out of the corner of their eyes.

Hermione had a vial of the potion safe in her bag; all she needed to do was add the grated horned slug before giving it to Mrs. Norris to be effective. The conversation seemed to turn more civil as Filch nodded and Trelawney smiled, she patted his hand gently as Mrs. Norris rubbed her face against his leg. At that point Filch got up and left the hall, he glared at Harry, or maybe Theo who was sitting next to him. Mrs. Norris followed and it was then that one of the strangest things happened to him.

He heard Trelawney's voice loud and clear but she hadn't left the head table, it was like the time Voldemort had done the same thing but Harry had no idea that Trelawney was so skilled in Legilimency, "Argus has agreed, we will meet you in the hospital wing at lunch, do not be late."

Once he had gotten over the startling feeling of having someone speak in his head Harry looked up to the head table and smiled. He gave Trelawney a small nod, she nodded back and smiled at him. The deal was done, now all they had to do was somehow manage to make it through morning classes and hope the potion worked on Mrs. Norris as well as it had on Harry the night before.

***

When lunch time finally came Harry, Daphne, Hermione, Draco, Sadie and Theo who had done the majority of the work, with the exception of Harry who was the just the guinea pig, hurried to the hospital wing where they found Professor McGonagall, Filch who had Mrs. Norris on his lap, Trelawney and Pomfrey waiting for them.

"You have the potion?" McGonagall asked.

Hermione nodded, "Yes Professor," she said as she fished it out of her bag and took out the grated slugs, she uncorked the vial and dropped the final ingredient in, the potion smoked and Hermione put a straw in it, like she had with Harry when he had taken it the night before. Slightly cautiously she handed it to Filch and said, "It will hurt when she transforms but it shouldn't leave any lasting damage. However, a side effect of the potion is that she will appear naked so you might want to draw the curtain."

Filch nodded, he was incapable of forming words so Pomfrey drew the curtain around the two humans and the cat. The group behind the curtain waited with baited breath as Filch got Mrs. Norris to drink the potion. Next came a high-pitched yelp of pain and an agonising groan from Filch. After that there was silence and then...

"Dad?"

"M...Melody?"

"Dad...why are you so old? What happened? Where am I?"

Trelawney smiled proudly and happily at the group of 8th Years who were pleased and stunned that the potion had worked.

Filch shakily walked out from behind the curtain and Trelawney took him by the arm, she sat him down on a nearby bed, whispered something comforting to him and he nodded, although he still looked like he was in shock.

"It worked," He said, his voice was small and weak as he looked at the 8th Years. They didn't know what to say so they stayed silent.

A moment later Filch nodded, he didn’t meet anyone’s eye but he did sincerely say, "Thank you."

"You're welcome," Hermione replied simply.

At that moment the curtain was pulled back and the 8th Years got their first view of Melody Norris-Filch. She looked around the same age as Ginny, her hair was dark brown and she had large hazel eyes. She was very pretty and clearly got all of her looks from her Mother, not her Father, although they _had _only known Filch as an old man.

Melody looked confused as she looked around, "Who are you people?"

"It's a long story," Hermione said gently, "But your Father will explain everything to you. Just rest," she smiled and Melody nodded, she accepted this explanation for now.

"Come on," Hermione muttered to the others, "They have a lot of catching up to do."

Harry smiled and slipped his hand into Daphne's as they left the room, "Yeah," he agreed, he felt like he had really made a difference in the world today, "They do."

***

"Mione. Do I still have access to my Animagus form?" Harry asked with a frown.

"No, the permanency charm in the cure means you'll stay human," Hermione replied with a yawn. They were all lounging around on sofas in the drawing room of Potter Manor.

"Well what if I was to take the animagus potion again?" Harry asked curiously, "There's a whose cauldron of it downstairs after all."

"It would work," Daphne replied simply, "But you would have to register with the Ministry which costs 300 Galleons."

"And?" Harry asked with a raised eyebrow, "I have the money to do it."

"So do I," Draco said and his eyes flashed eagerly, "And I know all about the mental aspect."

"We all do," Daphne pointed out, "We wrote essays about it for McGonagall this year. But none of us have carried a mandrake leaf in our mouth all month have we? And by the time we did that the potion will have expired."

Draco mused, “We could brew another animagus potion and do it again. Probably not until we finish school though..."

"Sure if you buy all of the very rare, very expensive ingredients for a second time," Hermione said sarcastically.

"Deal," Draco said instantly.

Theo grinned broadly, "Hey what can I say, I am definitely in!"

"I'm not," Sadie said, "I don't want to be an animagus."

"No, neither do I," Hannah yawned.

Dean and Tracey were both shaking their heads too. But Daphne glanced over at Hermione and said, "I'm intrigued, I'll say that much. What about you Hermione?"

"I'm intrigued too," Hermione admitted, "But I don't know if I could go through with it. You could become anything; you know?"

“Well I’m off to take the potion and fly around the grounds as a Phoenix,” Harry said as he jumped to his feet.

“Why?” Draco drawled.

“Why the fuck not?” Harry retorted, and he disappeared without another word.

“I hate him.”

“No you don’t,” Hermione said, shooting her boyfriend a grin, “You’re just jealous.”

“I’m not jealous,” Draco scoffed as he got to his feet, “Me? Jealous of Potter?”

“I swear to the founders, if you say with his scar and his broomstick I will curse you into next week!” Daphne warned.

The others burst out laughing at this while Draco went off in the huff to sulk.

** _TBC :)_ **


	38. A Valentine's Day to Remember

It only took a week for the news to spread around the school like wildfire. As Valentine's Day loomed ever closer the entire school found out about the mysterious girl in the hospital wing. On Harry's journey from the door of the Great Hall to the 8th Year table he heard that she was a time traveller, that she was an alien, that she was the first house elf to transform into human form and that she was the long lost illegitimate child of Dumbledore and Grindelwald.

"Wow, Hogwarts rumour mill is getting wilder by the day," Harry commented casually as he sat down at the table where everyone was gathered and busy. They had their first really big assignment due in soon for Potions and everyone was pouring over their notes and essays at the last minute. Harry's comment was met with silence and he merely shrugged, "So, last night I found Dennis naked in the corridor and he told me that a giant moth ate his clothes."

Still nothing.

Harry rolled his eyes, "GUYS!"

This got their attention, well some of them anyway. Draco and Theo glanced up from their books and Neville who was further down the table turned away from his conversation with Hannah.

"What?" Draco asked irritably, his eyes were bloodshot and he looked like he hadn't had much sleep.

Harry had a feeling that there was more to it than the Potions essay, Draco didn't stress over essays or exams, Harry had seen how suave and chilled he had always been when everyone else was freaking out.

"I just wanted to tell you that McGonagall is making an announcement about Melody today," Harry said as he eyed Draco suspiciously.

The blonde boy shrugged, "Cool," he said as he turned away. Harry snorted, he felt very underappreciated this morning.

Before Harry could whine anymore McGonagall stood up and called for silence. The hall fell silent quicker than usual as everyone was eager to hear about the mysterious new girl in the hospital wing.

"I have a few important announcements this morning," McGonagall began, her eyes flitted briefly over the 8th years, "Many years ago a horrible accident caused a 7th Year girl to get trapped in the form of a cat. Due to new research and exceptional intelligence some of our experimental research potions students found a cure. As of Monday next week Melody Norris-Filch will become your classmate. She is in a time foreign to her and I would ask you all to be kind to her and help her in any way that you can."

McGonagall had paused for breath and the hall exploded in excited chatter as everyone started to gossip. The last name hadn't slipped their minds, it didn’t take a genius to work out that Norris-Filch was the name of Filch's ever loyal cat and his own name.

McGonagall cleared her throat loudly and silence fell once more, "I would like to remind you that Saturday the 14th of February is, as always, a Hogsmeade weekend. Finally, the 7th and 8th Years are required to attend a compulsory meeting in my Transfiguration classroom at 5pm tomorrow night for a new project that is beginning this year. That is all."

With that McGonagall took her seat and the chatter started up once more. Most people were talking about Melody, apart from the 7th and 8th Years.

"A new project. What does she mean?" Harry asked everyone in general.

Neville frowned and shrugged, "I don't know but if she won't tell us in front of the rest of the school I'm guessing it's bad."

"I just hope it doesn't have anything to do with work," Draco grumbled, he slammed his book shut and stood up.

"I doubt it," Harry said as they left the hall, "McGonagall knows how much pressure we're under right now.”

Draco gave a small nod, "Did you say something about giant moths earlier on?"

Harry put on his best poker face and said, "No... I think you've been studying too much."

***

Harry spent most of Herbology talking to Neville although he occasionally glanced down the table at Draco and his sullen face, he was definitely worrying about more than an essay. Harry sighed and mentioned it briefly to Neville who said that Draco was probably just stressing out. When Herbology was over Draco headed off for Ancient Runes and Harry had a free period so he decided to go back to the dorm room for a nap since he hadn't gotten much sleep the night before.

When Harry arrived in the dorm room he shared with Draco he noticed a conspicuous pile of papers sitting on Draco's desk which was odd because Draco was usually very tidy. Being a Gryffindor, and more to the point being Harry Potter, Harry couldn't resist glancing at the papers. He frowned when he saw the heading on what he could only assume was one of several earlier drafts of Draco's potions essay.

They had gotten to choose their own subject and research it. They had to hand in their first draft today but they had until the end of the term to complete the project which would make up a large proportion of their N.E.W.T grade for Potions. Harry had chosen to do his on squibs and why they were rarer than Muggle-borns, his theory so far was that it had much to do with rich pureblood families pressuring children from a young age. The potions aspect of his paper was made up from the fact that certain potions given to a child too young could affect their magical ability, as could dark magic which would explain why several purebloods produced (and hid or killed) squib children.

The title of Draco's paper read in large squiggly black writing, "_Infertility amongst purebloods._"

Harry couldn't resist looking closer and reading the small paragraph underneath the heading which read;

_"This paper shall examine why pureblood families produce less children than half-bloods or muggle-borns. This paper will assess the use of potions during pregnancy and it will compare the lifestyle of a half-blood pregnant woman and that of a pureblood pregnant woman."_

Harry sat down at the desk and looked through the paper. It was good, it talked about the differences between half-bloods and purebloods and how they could affect infertility. Purebloods more often than not had house-elves whereas only a few half-bloods had them. It talked of how more often than not purebloods were surrounded by dark magic. On the last page Harry found a list of pureblood families and the amount of children they had. He was shocked to see that most purebloods produced 1 or 2 children, 3 was very rare and there was only one family on the list with 4 children. The anomaly in the pureblood list was the Weasley’s with their 7 children. Next to their names Draco had scrawled "_Blood traitors, effect_?"

The half-blood list however was a different story; the average amount of children was 3 but ranged to 7. Harry noted that he was the anomaly on that page as he was an only child. A note next to his name said, "_Would likely have had more children had they lived longer. James Potter was an only child born to two purebloods however." _

The list of prominent muggle-borns was very similar to the half-bloods. Harry was intrigued but he didn't want to say anything to Draco because he knew the Slytherin would be angry with him for poking around in his things without his permission. He couldn't go for his planned nap anymore, he had far too much on his mind now. So Harry went for a walk instead, all the while he wondered if his project on pureblood infertility was the reason for Draco's bad mood.

***

The day dragged by and their first drafts of the Potions essays were handed in to Professor Slughorn in Potions. A weight was temporarily lifted from their minds because their marks wouldn't be in until after Valentine's Day. There was clearly still something wrong with Draco however because he isolated himself in the common room that night. As the hour grew closer to midnight the room emptied and eventually at half an hour past midnight only Harry and Hermione remained in the common room, both of them were kept up by worry for their mutual Slytherin friend.

"Something's not right with Draco," Harry and Hermione said in unison the moment the last person ascended the staircase to bed.

They both laughed a little awkwardly and Hermione joked, "Whose boyfriend is he?"

Harry chuckled, her mood lifted his a little, "I thought he was stressed at first but the project has been handed in now."

"I know," Hermione said as she bit her lip, "I don't want to ask him about it. You know how he hates that, I just have to assume that he'll tell me when he's ready."

Harry nodded, he understood how she felt. He wished Draco felt he could talk to him too; after all they were friends now. Hermione sighed and stood up, "Goodnight Harry," she said, worry still laced her voice as she kissed her friend on the cheek and made her way up to her dorm room.

Harry stood up too as the fire in the fireplace which had been flickering dimly eventually died. He left the room in complete darkness and made his way upstairs to his dorm room, he assumed that Draco would be asleep now. The last few nights Draco had made use of the barrier in the middle of the room he had put up for privacy. Harry had assumed from the scratching of a quill and the flutter of pages that he was sitting at his desk working.

However, tonight was different. When Harry arrived in his dorm room the barrier was gone and the curtains around Draco's bed weren't pulled shut. The Slytherin was lying in bed fully clothed and awake, he was staring with intense concentration at the top of his four-poster bed. Harry frowned but didn't say anything, he didn’t want to disturb his friend who had been snarky lately when anyone interrupted his thoughts.

"Your project is about squibs."

Harry was alarmed by the random comment that had come out of Draco's mouth. Harry's frown deepened as he climbed into bed, "Yeah, it is. So?"

Draco sighed and took his eyes off of the four-poster to look at Harry, "I think you could help me with something."

"Okay," Harry said slowly as he waited for Draco to elaborate.

Eventually Draco said, "My project is about infertility in pureblood families and your study about how more purebloods produce squibs could really help me out, if you wanted to combine forces I think it would help both of our grades."

Harry then finally understood. It was as if the light bulb in his head clicked on. He wondered if Draco could see it in his eyes but if he could he didn't say anything or react in any way, "Obviously I'd be happy enough to do that. But I know it's not the reason you're upset. You're obviously worried about not being able to have the amount of kids you want with Hermione."

Draco's cheeks flushed bright red but he didn't flat out deny what Harry was suggesting. He remained silent for a moment then sighed, "Yeah, I suppose I am."

"So what do you hope to gain from this?" Harry asked curiously as he propped himself up on his elbow.

Draco rolled onto his side to face Harry, "I don't know. I just want to see if I can find some connection and if there is anything I can do to prevent it happening to me then...well I'll do it."

"How come you think my squib research will help?" Harry asked.

"Well it makes sense doesn't it? Lack of children and lack of magical children, it's like something is draining purebloods which I know sounds crazy but it's the only way I can think of to describe it."

"I don't think it sounds crazy. I am wondering about how you plan on doing this research though," Harry admitted, he had exhausted the Hogwarts library already for all it had on squibs.

Draco got a mischievous twinkle in his eye that Harry knew well, "Malfoy Manor had a library with a huge records section. It's not just my family, its lots of prominent wizarding families and there are even some records of famous muggle-borns. My Dad was obsessed with it too but for a different reason...he wanted more heirs because he didn't think I was good enough to solely take on the Malfoy name."

The bitterness in Draco's voice amazed Harry. He had never heard anyone sound so bitter when talking about their own flesh and blood but he did understand why Draco felt so betrayed.

"Where are the records now that Malfoy Manor has been donated?" Harry asked.

"In my Gringotts vault," Draco said offhandedly, "I can transport them to Potter Manor and we can study them there."

"Theo and Neville might be able to help," Harry said as he nodded.

"How?" Draco asked curiously. Once upon a time he would have sneered at the suggestion that Neville Longbottom was capable of helping him but things had changed since then.

"Well," Harry said, "Their projects sort of concern the same area. Neville's is a study of premature death amongst pureblood children and I think Theo is doing something about the effects of house elves on infertility and premature death in the wizarding world."

Draco hummed thoughtfully at Harry's words, he nodded as the Gryffindor spoke and eventually said, "That could be useful. I think we should try and convince them to come to the manor tomorrow night, we can dig deeper and see what we find."

"On one condition," Harry said.

Draco frowned, "Whats the condition?" he asked.

"You need to tell Hermione whats going on," Harry said, "She's worried sick about you."

Draco groaned, "How do I start that conversation? 'hey Hermione, sorry for being a prat lately I'm just worried we won't be able to have kids cause I'm a pureblood wanker'?"

Harry laughed at Draco's frustrated rant and he was about to reply to his friend when someone else did it for him.

"It would probably be better to say 'Hermione, lately I've been worried, what with my project being about pureblood infertility and all, I just wonder if we ever get to that point, will my blood status ruin it?' she'll think it's sweet and say you're cute or something."

"Daphne," Harry said slowly, "Why are you hovering above my balcony on a broom?"

Daphne grinned as Harry opened the doors and let her in. She shrugged, "I got cold?"

Harry chuckled at his girlfriend as she jumped into his bed in her pyjamas.

"Do you really think that will work? With Hermione?" Draco asked, he wasn’t fazed by the random appearance of his ex-girlfriend in his friends bed.

Daphne nodded, "Of course it will."

Draco seemed to be wrestling with himself but eventually he said, without sounding or looking confident in any way, "Alright I'll do it tomorrow."

"Awesome," Daphne and Harry said in unison as they shared an amused grin.

***

The next day was slow for Draco who eventually managed to get a moment alone with Hermione during their free period at the end of the day. They ended up sitting in ridiculously comfortable chairs in the room of requirement with a very awkward atmosphere in the air.

"Draco...you're not breaking up with me, are you?" Hermione asked cautiously.

"What?" Draco asked, he was affronted by the very thought, "No, no, it's nothing like that," he paused and the air was filled with nothing but silence. He momentarily forgot that they were in the room of requirement and he wished for some noise. With a pop an open window appeared with birds singing loudly outside of it. Draco blushed as he caught Hermione's eye, she laughed as soon as she realised what had happened.

"Okay Hermione, I'm just going to say this...I'm sorry for keeping my Potions project a secret from you, the reason I did is because the subject is infertility amongst pureblood families. It compares the amount of children pureblood families have with half-blood families and how many children two muggle-borns would have if they bred."

Hermione glared at him and he frowned, "What?"

"Bred? Seriously Draco? We're not animals," Hermione muttered.

Draco hesitated, "I'm sorry. I'll rephrase that, when they _reproduce_."

"Much better," Hermione approved, she was already making Draco feel comfortable about talking to her without him even realising it.

"So I've finished my first draft but I'm not any closer to finding out a definite reason or several if there are any. All I have to go on is the fact that purebloods make more use out of house-elves and dark magic. But one of the things I found out scared me. If you are surrounded by dark magic for a long time it seems to have a very negative effect on your fertility. The darkest families had the least children…”

Hermione smiled, "Draco, I understand.”

"You do?" Draco asked, the relief that laced his voice was probably very noticeable to his girlfriend.

"I get it, you're worried your evil dark past and everything is going to make you unable to have kids and because I'm your girlfriend you feel the need to tell me," Hermione began. Draco opened his mouth to say something but didn't get the chance as Hermione continued to speak, "But if you and I ever do reach that stage I doubt you'll have anything to worry about. 18 years of dark magic won't match the effect that a lifetime will and besides I'm a Muggle-born and according to every report I've read we breed like bloody rabbits."

Draco laughed out loud and grinned, her reaction had been perfect, "Thanks," he said because he couldn't think of anything else to say.

"Now come on," Hermione said as she got out of her chair, "We've got McGonagall's meeting to get to.”

Draco stood up and took Hermione's hand in his as they left the Room of Requirement. He took in the look of smug amusement she was trying to hide and narrowed his eyes at her, "You know something about this meeting don't you?"

"No," Hermione lied.

Draco chuckled, "Hermione for someone who had to lie as much as you did in the war you really are a terrible liar."

Hermione scoffed and looked away, "Draco, I'm not lying. I know as much about it as you do."

"Yeah right," Draco said, he wasn’t convinced but he was amused at Hermione's attempt to cover up the fact she knew something, "You're the head girl Hermione, she must have told you _something_."

"She didn't tell me anything," Hermione said far too quickly as she sped up and walked into the great hall for dinner, the meeting would take place directly after they had eaten.

Draco chuckled as he slid into a seat next to Hermione and dropped the subject; after all they would all find out soon enough what the meeting was for.

"Oh, Draco, hey," Harry said as he jumped up from his spot next to Daphne and squeezed in next to Draco.

"Hey..." Draco said slowly, he looked slightly intimidated.

"So I've got recruits. Theo and Neville are up for tonight," Harry said enthusiastically.

From next to them Hermione sniggered, "What are you up for tonight?" she asked Draco as she suggestively raised her eyebrows.

Draco rolled his eyes, "That's disgusting; I thought Hermione Granger was sweet and innocent.”

At Draco's comment both Harry and Hermione snorted in unison which caused the blonde boy to look from one to the other then shake his head in exasperation, "I still can't believe my best friend slept with my girlfriend."

"I'm your best friend?" Harry asked, the comment had taken him by surprise.

Draco cursed inwardly; he had thought it but had never actually told Harry that.

"_He's _your best friend? Potty wee Potter? The boy who didn't die? The hero who saved the entire wizarding world?"

"Theo-"

"Don't Theo me Draco! The damage is done! You've replaced me with a newer, less evil, more annoying version!"

"Oi!"

"Shut up Potter."

"Theo-"

"It's too late Draco, our friendship is over."

Theo then sat down on Draco's other side and pushed Hermione so far that with an "eep" she fell off of the bench. He grinned at Draco and Harry, "Just kiddin Harry," he said.

Theo then turned to Draco, "But you better not forget what we've been through together."

Draco shook his head in amusement and laughed quietly under his breath, "Don't worry Theo, I won't," he said as the others around them laughed.

"Anyway, what Harry was saying, before Theo got jealous," Neville said as he appeared across from them and sat down, "He recruited us to come to the Manor tonight to help you with that, um, secret...thing, of yours, that is a secret..."

Draco rolled his eyes, "She knows Neville, I just told her."

"Oh," Neville said, "Well that makes things easier; we'll help you with your project tonight to see if you and Hermione can have lots of bushy blonde haired babies."

Hermione blushed from where she was now sitting next to Hannah at the other side of the table and Draco threw a roast potato at Neville while Theo and Harry sniggered.

"I would come and help you all tonight but I can't. I have patrol duty and unlike _some _people I actually do it," Hermione glared pointedly at Theo.

He shrugged, "Meh, I have more important things to do, like ensure my BFF can have babies."

Hermione only rolled her eyes, "I do have some insight that might help though. You said one of the big things you found out was that dark magic influences infertility but I would have to challenge that. At one end of the scale, yes you have purebloods having less kids but then you have the Weasley’s who are purebloods and have 7 children and I agree that they don't use any dark magic. But what about those in the middle?"

"I agree, although I don't know the full idea," Susan piped up, "I'm a half-blood but I'm an only child. My parents tried for more kids but they just got me and they didn’t use dark magic."

"You're another exception Susan," Theo said to the Hufflepuff, "Your Mother was such an exceptional Witch that you're more of a pureblood than half-blood, it happens occasionally. Like with Harry, and of course Hermione."

"What do you mean?" Hermione asked with a frown.

"He means although you're a Muggle-born you don't seem like one. On file there is a blood sample of everyone at Hogwarts and your blood is 80% magical which is rare for Muggle-borns, most Half-bloods only have 60-70% and most Muggle-borns range from 40-50%," Draco explained, he sounded very scientific.

"That sounds complicated, what about me? What's my blood like? And how come you know so much about this?" Harry asked several questions very quickly.

Draco rolled his eyes, "You're another exception; you have 92% of magic in your blood, which is much closer to a pureblood than a half-blood. Neville _is _a pureblood and he's only got 85% because his family bred with Muggles more than most pureblood families did. The reason I know so much about it is because I used the files for my research on my Potions essay.”

"What about you? And Theo? And all the Slytherins?" Neville asked, he was just as curious about this notion as Harry was.

"I have 98% of magic in my blood and I can tell you that the 2% comes from a Muggle my Great Great Uncle Orion had an illegitimate child with and a Muggle boy my Great Great Great Great Cousin Cassiopeia ran away with,' Draco said, offhandedly, he sounded like a shadow of his old self, “As for Theo, his blood isn't as pure as his Father liked to believe."

Theo smirked in amusement, "60%. My family were politicians, they were good at covering up scandalous affairs with Muggles and marriages with half-bloods."

"Most Slytherins range from 85% to 95%. Theo and I are exceptions at opposite ends of the scale," Draco informed the others, he shared an amused grin with Theo.

"As interesting as all of this blood purity stuff is," Hermione said as she got to her feet and checked the time, "We better get to this meeting or McGonagall won't be happy."

The others agreed and were eager to find out why they had been called to the meeting so they headed off together towards the Transfiguration classroom to find out more.

***

The noise level was high when McGonagall walked into her classroom and called for silence. There weren't enough seats in the classroom for all of the 7th and 8th Years so people were sitting on desks, cross-legged on the floor or leaning against walls around the room. Shortly after McGonagall's entrance silence fell over the entire room.

McGonagall got straight to the point, "As you are all aware we have a new Minister for Magic and a Ministry which is slowly being reformed. Because of this the Ministry have proposed new educational reforms and one of the requirements is to introduce a new class at 7th Year, and in this case 8th Year, level. In the lead up to the Great Wizarding War people were afraid that they might not have much time left. This led to certain scandals during and after the war with couples marrying young and having children young," She glanced over at Harry in particular before continuing, "Many of you are the result of this ‘baby boom’ but at the time it was highly frowned upon by the Ministry.”

Harry raised a hand.

“Yes, Mr. Potter?”

“The Ministry disapproved of people getting married?” Harry asked sarcastically.

“No,” McGonagall said sternly, “They disapproved of 17 year olds getting pregnant and they disapproved of shotgun weddings which became far more prominent. This new class is part of reforms to ensure we don’t make the same mistakes in the aftermath of _this _war so it has been christened 'family planning' and it is _compulsory _for all of you to take part."

There were groans all around the room at this but they stopped with a sharp glance from McGonagall, "This class is short and fairly easy to pass. If you get a good grade think of it as extra credit. This is especially true if you intend to work with children or if you wish to work within the medical magic arena. If you fail," for some reason she looked at Theo upon these words, "Do not think about having children anytime soon and definitely do not try and become a paediatric healer."

At this point they all shared scared glances as they wondered what the hell McGonagall had planned for them.

"This class will only last for one week. In that week you will be given a child and you must care for it. If the child comes back safely you will pass. It is simple, the happier the child the better the grade," McGonagall explained as a look of dread spread throughout the faces in the classroom.

"The Ministry have asked that I pair you into couples randomly. However, I disagree with this rule, the people in this room _most likely _to prematurely have children are those in relationships. Therefore, I find that it makes more sense to force you to deal with this burden together to show you how difficult raising a child is. Those who are not in relationships will be paired randomly," McGonagall caught Harry's eye at that point and Harry realised how human she really was, as strict as she could be at times.

"On Monday I will announce the pairs and give you your child. You will look after this child for one week," McGonagall was saying, "The child's age and sex will be randomised but it will look like its parents. These children are not real; they are products of experimental Ministry technology very similar to what Muggles call 'holograms'. However, these 'holograms' can be touched, heard, and smelled like real human beings. I would ask you all to try not to get too attached because, as I have said, they are not real children. Does anyone have any questions?"

Theo's hand shot up into the air.

"Yes Mr. Nott?" McGonagall asked warily.

"How do you fail?"

"If your child dies you fail Mr. Nott."

Hermione's hand was next.

"Yes Miss. Granger?"

"How do we attend classes if we have to look after children all week?"

"You will drop the children off at 8am in the hospital wing where Madam Pomfrey will look after them. This is the equivalent of a Muggle day-care centre. You will pick up the children after classes end at 5pm. You will take them to the great hall for breakfast, lunch and dinner and you will stay in makeshift quarters for the course of this week with your partner and the child."

There was silence after that so McGonagall nodded and said, "You are all dismissed. I will see you back here at 7am on Monday morning. Until then, enjoy your weekend and enjoy Valentine’s Day."

***

When Valentine's Day dawned all of the guys had impressive dates lined up for their girlfriends.

Draco, Harry, Neville, Theo and Dean had decided to make their way down to the village together. They were going to have a few drinks in The Three Broomsticks while they waited for the girls who they knew would take a long time to get ready. The guys knew better than anyone else how long the girls took to get ready and they decided they would rather wait in a warm pub than shiver in the 8th Year common room for 2 hours.

"So where are you taking yours?" Theo asked as he ordered his 3rd butterbeer of the afternoon.

Draco snorted at his friend's choice of words, "They're girls, not animals Theo."

Theo rolled his eyes, "You know what I mean," he said casually.

"I'm taking Hermione to Paris for a meal at the top of the Eiffel tower,” Draco said rather pompously.

Harry sniggered, “Could you get any more cliché if you tried?"

"What? It's romantic!" Draco said as he glared at his friend, "Where are you taking the Ice Queen Potter?"

Harry rolled his eyes, "I'm taking her out for a meal on a floating boat restaurant in Amsterdam. She has no idea, she thinks we're having dinner at a restaurant in Edinburgh.”

"So who came up with the romantic boat idea? You or Hermione?" Dean asked with an amused grin.

Harry grinned back, "Hermione but that's not the point, I'm paying for it!" they all laughed and at that point Harry asked, “So Theo, what are you doing with Sadie?"

Theo smirked, "Oh you know, just taking her to Italy to the place where Romeo and Juliet were said to have met."

"Hah! And that's not cliché at all!" Draco mocked, as he and the others laughed at the cheesiness of Theo's plan.

Theo didn't seem to mind, he just smiled, "Make fun all you want. Sadie's into all that cheesy stuff, she'll love it."

"Well, not all of us are rich pureblood millionaires like you lot," Neville began to say but he was interrupted when Harry piped up, "I'm a half-blood billionaire actually!"

Neville chuckled, "I can't afford to take Hannah somewhere romantic in Europe so we're just going for dinner in London."

"Technically London's in Europe," Dean pointed out.

Neville laughed, "True."

"And I think it's a good idea," Harry said, "Hannah prefers the simpler things."

"Exactly," Neville said, he didn’t feel so bad about his plan now that someone else had said it sounded good.

"I think I've got you all beat on the cliché factor anyway," Dean admitted as he pulled a little black box out of his pocket and opened it so that they could all see the beautiful ring inside. It was gold with a shining diamond set in the centre, "I'm taking Tracey out for dinner and I'm going to propose."

"Wow," Harry and Neville said in unison, they had no idea their friend had been planning this, "That's a big step Dean."

Dean shrugged, he was still smiling as he slipped the box into his pocket, "It is but I know it's what I want. I just hope Tracey agrees with me."

"I don't think you've got anything to worry about there to be honest," Theo said, he smiled genuinely at Dean, he and the Gryffindor had hit it off since coming back to school, "Tracey's mad about you. There's no doubt in my mind as to what her answer will be."

Dean positively grinned, "Thanks man," he said. It was clear that no matter how sure he was that it was the right thing, Dean was still extremely excited and nervous about the day ahead.

Harry glanced at the clock on the wall with a frown, "The girls should have been here an hour ago," he pointed out. They had gotten so caught up in their conversation that they hadn't noticed the time going by.

The others all turned in their seats to look at the clock on the wall, Harry was right, the girls should have been here at 1pm and the clock had just hit 2.05pm.

"They wouldn't be that late. It doesn't take them that long to get ready," Draco said warily.

"I know," Neville agreed, "Something's definitely not right."

Harry was about to calmly suggest that they go up to the castle and have a look for the girls when the door to the pub burst open. In a flurry of snow, wind and red hair Ginny Weasley appeared in front of them.

"Hermione," She gasped, she was clutching her chest as she tried catch her breath, "And the others. There was shouting and I heard her scream and then,” She took a deep breath, "I ran into the alley and they were gone and I didn't see who did it, I'm sorry Harry."

As Ginny got her breath back the others jumped silently from their seats, "Show me Ginny," Harry demanded and she nodded. She hurried from the pub with the others hot on her heels, they ran through Hogsmeade after Ginny to an alleyway in-between Weasley's Wizard Wheezes and a boarded up shop. Several footprints gave hints as to what happened, it looked like 3 people had apparated, walked to the end of the alley, grabbed the girls and then apparated away again. Draco and Theo were cursing loudly about how they were going to kill the bastards, Dean seemed to be in shock and Harry and Neville stood at the front of the group doing exactly the same thing. They were keeping a calm head and counting the marks in the snow where the girls had been dragged.

"7," They said at the same time.

Harry sighed, "Hermione, Daphne, Sadie, Tracey, Hannah, Susan and Lilly," he realised.

"Why would anyone want to kidnap them?" Neville asked in a quietly dangerous voice, he ignored the chaos behind them as Ginny tried to calm Draco and Theo down.

"I don't know but I can think of a few Death Eaters out there who have something against every person in our little group" Harry said darkly.

Before anymore could be said Ron came rushing out of the shop and skidded to a halt in the snow, "Harry! What's going on?"

"Someone has taken the girls," Harry said quietly.

"Hermione too?" Ron asked anxiously.

Harry merely nodded and Ron walked forward, "Then I'm coming with you to find who took her."

"She's my girlfriend, Weasley," Draco said irritably.

"She's my best friend," Ron hissed.

"And some best friend you've been!" Draco yelled as he walked down the alley towards Harry, "Who the hell would do this! I swear I'm going to kill the bastard who took them! I'm gonna-"

"Calm down!" Neville roared and silence fell immediately. Neville shouting like that was so foreign that it scared them all enough to shut them up, "We aren't going to help them by standing here shouting. We need to find out more, we need to find out who did this so we can figure out how to find them and punish them."

The silence remained for a moment until Theo asked quietly, "Do you think they are..." he trailed off but everyone knew what he was thinking.

"Yes," Harry replied honestly, "I think they are alive. Now, can anyone think of someone who would want to do this? Someone who has a grudge against us?"

"I can," A new voice replied. They all jumped and turned around to see Percy Weasley strolling into the alley. Nobody had even heard him apparate here and he didn't look at all like himself. He was wearing skinny jeans, biker boots, and a leather jacket.

"I'm a bounty hunter," Percy explained as he flashed his badge, "I quit my job at the law firm earlier this year. And I just got information on two Death Eaters who apparated into this alley."

"Why were you tracking them?" Harry asked, he was stunned by Percy's new job.

"They were due to appear in the Wizengamot this morning," Percy explained, "They skipped their court date so I was trying to hunt them down."

"Well whoever they are they've kidnapped 7 people, including Hermione!" Ginny told her brother in a frightened shout. She had tears rolling down her cheeks and Percy put an arm around her as he said, "Don't worry Ginny. I'll track them down, it's what I do and they still have the trace on them. I just need to wait until they stop moving around so I can get a permanent fix, they've apparated several times within the last 10 minutes."

"Who are they?" Draco asked in an angry hiss.

Percy didn't hesitate in giving Draco this information, "Evan Rosier and Thorfinn Rowle."

"Bastards," Draco and Theo hissed in unison.

"Percy, can we assist you on this one? The girls they took were our girlfriends and most of us want to become Aurors anyway, we'd be of use to you," Harry suggested, he wasn't begging, he was cool and calm, he had learned during the war that it was best to keep your head in a crisis. That was something that Neville understood but Draco and Theo did not. Dean hadn't said a word; the others suspected he was still in shock.

Percy mulled this over for a moment, "You can help on one condition, no heroics," he looked specifically at Harry.

"Don't worry, I'll make sure he doesn't do anything stupid," Ron said with a quick glance at Harry.

The raven haired boy nodded, "We just want our girlfriends back. Once we have them you can do whatever you want with Rosier and Rowle."

Percy nodded, his arm was still around Ginny who was shaking, "We should go," he said as he closed his eyes and frowned, "I’ve got a location."

"Alright," Neville said. He turned to the others, "You coming?" he asked, he was mainly directing the question at Dean. He knew the others were so angry that they would want revenge and he knew Harry well enough to know that he was of the same stance of keep calm and unleash hell when it came to the duel.

Dean nodded, as did the others, and they followed Percy to the end of the alley where it was at its darkest and quietest.

“They are hiding in plain sight but they apparated all around Scotland in an attempt to throw me off. They’re in the mountains just north of the village, I can't be certain where but the signal is weak I assume that means they are somewhere underground. We'll apparate to the edge of the mountains and I should be able to get some more information from there, understood?'

Everyone nodded to confirm that they had understood Percy's brief. The redheaded man then gently told Ginny to go and inform McGonagall of what had happened before spinning on his heel and vanishing. The others did the same until only Harry, Ron and Ginny were left in the alley.

“Screw what Percy says, I’m coming with you,” Ginny said firmly as she took a step forward.

"Ginny, I know you want to help. But trust me; I promise we'll find them. Please tell McGonagall, if something goes wrong up there we need her to know what happened," Harry practically begged.

Ginny nodded, she hugged them both tightly, "Be careful" she said quietly.

Harry nodded, "I'll try," he promised as Ginny walked away up the alley.

As she did so Harry turned to Ron, "I need to tell you something, Ron."

"Is now really the time mate?" Ron asked shortly.

"Yes," Harry said quietly, "Lilly...she was with the girls when they were taken."

Ron's eyes darkened but he said nothing at first. He just nodded and swallowed hard, "Come on then. We can't waste any time."

The redhead spun on his heel and vanished and Harry followed him instantly.

When the group of 7 reached the edge of the mountain Percy warned them to be silent and they obliged as they trudged through the deep snow after him. It seemed like they were walking forever, they had no sense of time and nothing but an ache in their stomachs and worry pounding through their heads. They felt like they had been walking for hours when they eventually came to a halt outside of a cave.

Percy pointed to the entrance and indicated that he would take point and that the others should follow him. They all nodded, they understood what they were getting themselves into as they hurried into the cave, wands blazing.

***

When Hermione opened her eyes she winced at the pain in her head, it felt like she had hit it very hard. She thought that she was blind at first because all she could see was blackness but after a moment of squinting she saw small rays of light shining in through cracks in the wall which clearly meant that they were underground. As the grogginess and heaviness began to leave her body she became more aware of her surroundings. She was sitting on the floor with her back against a hard rugged wall and her hands and legs were magically bound together. She squinted to the left and the right and realised that she was at the end of the row of girls. At the far end Tracey was still unconscious, in order along the 'line' Hannah, Daphne, Lilly and Sadie were unconscious too but Susan who was next to Hermione was beginning to stir.

"Where are we?" Susan asked groggily, her voice sounded rough and harsh.

"I don't know," Hermione replied in a whisper, "But I think we're underground."

Susan tried to move and realised that she couldn't. She groaned in pain and leant against the wall, "We must have been out for a good couple of hours with the strength of the stunning charms they hit us with."

"I think you're right," Hermione said quietly, she looked around the room for any movement, but she saw none, "Did you see who grabbed us? All I know is that it was a woman."

"There were three of them, two men and a woman," Susan said, she winced and Hermione saw why. She was nursing a large bump on her head where she had been hit by the stunning charm, "I recognised one of them as Rowle."

Hermione cursed under her breath, "The other is probably Rosier then. They tend to work together."

"Who the hell is the woman then?" Susan asked in an undertone as further along the 'line' the others began to stir.

"I've no idea," Hermione replied honestly and at that point their conversation ended as they quietly relayed their findings to the others who had just woken up.

"They took our wands," Daphne cursed as she moved around on the ground. She couldn’t feel her wand in her back pocket or on the ground anywhere near her.

"I know," Tracey groaned, her head hurt just like everyone else's, "Does anyone still have their wand?"

"I do," Susan replied in a whisper, "I just can't get to it."

"Where is it that they didn't find it?" Sadie asked, her voice carried around the room which made Hermione suspect that it was a cave.

Susan managed to smirk for a moment despite their dire situation but nobody saw it in the din of the cave, "It's in-between my boobs. I figured nobody would find it there."

At any other time this would merit a laugh, but not today.

"Can't you reach it with your teeth?" Daphne asked.

Susan hissed in pain and shook her head, "No and my hands and feet are bound."

"Brilliant," Daphne said sarcastically, "Only one of us has a wand and we have no way to reach it."

"How did we even end up like this?" Hannah asked tearfully, “We were in Dumbledore's army! We were trained to avoid something like this happening."

"Don't blame yourself Hannah," Susan said calmly, she and Hermione were keeping a cool head more than the others at this moment, "We didn't expect it. We were out for what was supposed to be a relaxing day in Hogsmeade right next to Hogwarts. The war is over, why would we expect Death Eaters to appear out of nowhere and grab us?"

Hannah sighed, "We should have fought back at least."

"Well we didn't," Hermione said simply, "And talking about what we should or could have done isn't going to help us now. They're going to come back soon and we need to think of a way to get out of here before they do."

But it seemed they didn't have as much time as they thought because at that moment 3 figures emerged from the darkness at the other end of the cave and all of them were wearing satisfied smirks. There were more than a few gasps when the girls realised who the woman of the group was but their shock didn't last long as fear soon set in.

***

The cave system the men were making their way through seemed never-ending. Percy had said that he knew what cave they were looking for but that they had to approach via the West entrance to avoid being detected. As a result, they had spent the last hour making their way through tiny tunnels and huge damp caverns, and they had been attacked by bats twice.

The darkness looming over them didn't give them any more hope about what they would find when, or if, they found the cave. The silence in the group was foreboding, with every minute and every hour that passed they knew there was less chance that they would find their girlfriends alive and for that reason they were all terrified.

Eventually Percy came to an abrupt halt and drew them all towards him to say, "The next exit is the cave. The moment we come out of the tunnel, they will start shooting spells. Somebody has to get the girls their wands and give them back to them. That person has to be cutting them loose while the rest of us fight."

"I'll do it," Dean said quietly. It was only the second time he had spoken since they had found the alley with the footprints in it, "I'll free the girls."

"Perfect," Percy whispered, "Theo, Neville, make sure you have his back. He'll be unprotected while freeing the girls. Harry, Ron, Draco, I imagine that you three are the best duellers so take the offensive with me but remember that this isn't the DA. If you need to kill to protect yourself or another member of the group then kill, got it?"

"Got it," Harry, Ron and Draco whispered while the other 3 boys merely nodded into the darkness.

"Ready?" Percy asked finally. Everybody nodded so Percy pointed towards the tunnel and as quietly as they could they crawled through it to the sound of groans and laughter. Someone was being tortured.

Percy emerged from the tunnel first and the others followed. Immediately the chaos began. The person being tortured was Hermione but the moment the Death Eaters saw the intruders their target changed. As Percy had said, this was the real world not a duelling competition and Harry, Ron and Draco quickly realised that. Not long into the duel Percy was disarmed and knocked unconscious when a spell caused a piece of the roof to crumble away. It hit him on the head with a sickening crack. Draco and Ron then found themselves working together to duel Rosier while Harry was locked in an intensive duel with Rowle. Dean rushed over to where the girls were bound and he grabbed their wands as he set about quickly unbinding them. He started with Hermione and made his way along the line as fast as he could. Neville and Theo rolled into position behind a few rocks and were shooting spells at Rosier and Rowle when a laugh from behind them put them off and made them turn quickly.

They had thought there were only two people involved in the scheme but a figure was emerging out of a dark corner of the room and Neville felt his stomach churn, “There were three sets of footprints,” he said in horrified whisper.

He and Theo both raised their wands as did Susan who had seen the figure first. All three of them shot spells towards the woman but she had raised her wand already and before any of their spells hit her a bright green light sped across the room, almost in slow motion, to the corner where Dean was on his knees cutting the binds that held Tracey in place.

The others watched in horror as the curse sped for Tracey. Dean saw the light and moved in front of her, he took the full force of the curse and fell backwards amidst screams from several people in the room. They had thought it was over, that the mysterious figure was unconscious but she raised her wand again and whispered the killing curse one more time as blood trickled out of the corner of her mouth. This time Susan was faster, but not fast enough. She hit the woman with a killing curse that finished her off, leaving her lying on the floor with her glassy eyes staring into the darkness.

It was too late however because the killing curse had already left her wand. Susan screamed as she saw the curse hit an unsuspecting Tracey who had been sobbing wretchedly over Dean's body which was getting colder by the second. For a moment she looked shocked and then she slumped lifelessly over Dean's body amidst screams, shout and sobs.

At the front of the cave Harry, Draco and Ron were completely unaware of what had just taken place behind them. All Draco knew, as he avoided a killing curse and threw one aimlessly at the Death Eater he was duelling, was that he had never felt adrenaline like this before and that it scared him how much he enjoyed it. He watched with wide eyes as the curse hit Rosier in the middle of the chest, the Death Eaters eyes widened as he fell back and lay spread eagle on the cave floor. Draco gasped and dropped his wand with the shock of what he had done.

From the corner of his eye Harry had seen what had happened and managed to catch it just in time. Rowle had turned away from his duel with Harry when he saw his friend fall to the ground dead. He had raised his wand and was pointing it at Draco.

"Avada Ke-"

Not thinking, not knowing what made him do it, Harry screamed, "Avada Kedavra!" and sent the curse flying towards the Death Eater. Rowle had been stupid to turn his back on his opponent and he fell to the ground before the incantation could fall off of his lips. Draco spun around in shock, he saw the Death Eater dead on the ground and Harry shaking as he looked at what he had just done. Aside from Voldemort, Harry had never killed anyone.

“Harry,” Ron said quietly as he moved to his best friends side, “Are you…”

“No,” Harry choked out, “I’m not okay but the girls must be worse. Go check on them Ron.”

Ron nodded, he knew when to follow Harry’s orders and not question them. As he turned to witness the chaos at the darkened end of the cave Draco shakily made his way over to Harry. In a rare show of emotion, he let Harry see through his walls as he hugged his friend tightly, "Thank you," he said quietly.

Draco felt Harry shaking as he tightened his grip on his friend.

Harry tried to chuckle but it came out as more of a sob, "That's the 3rd time I've saved your life," he said weakly.

Draco then drew away from Harry and stared at the back of the cave in horror. Harry frowned, he turned around and followed Draco’s line of sight. He couldn't believe his eyes as he ran towards the group of people gathered around the two bodies lying on the ground, both were cold and dead with wide scared eyes.

"H...H...How..." Harry managed to gasp out as he fell to his knees next to Daphne who was hugging Tracey's dead body and sobbing so hard that her entire body was shaking.

Susan was pale and tears were streaming down her face, "It was my fault...the woman...I saw her but I didn't hit her fast enough and she killed Dean. I thought she was dead but I must not have meant the curse enough and then she killed Tracey," Susan was sobbing as hard as Daphne, "I should have been faster, it was my fault."

Harry shook his head and wrapped his arms around Daphne as he tried to pry her away from Tracey's body, “It wasn’t your fault Susan.”

Sadie was sitting against the wall where she had been bound, she was rocking back and forward and hitting the back of her head against the wall each time she did so, Theo was sitting by her, he was holding his hand behind her head which was already bleeding to stop her from hurting herself even more.

Hannah was crying from a distance as she stared at the two bodies in horror, Neville knew his girlfriend was upset but at that point he also knew that Susan needed someone more than Hannah did so he made his way over to where she was sobbing over Tracey's body. He took Susan's hand and led her away from the bodies to where Hannah was sitting, "Susan, it wasn't your fault," Neville soothed, he wrapped his arms around Susan and watched as Hannah looked on helplessly, she wanted to help her best friend but she didn’t know how to.

Lilly was wrapped up in Ron's arms, he was crying as he whispered to her. His eyes were shut tightly so that he didn't have to look at Dean, he had been friends with the boy for years and he was certainly closer to him than Harry ever had been. Lilly and Tracey had known each other since 1st year and they had been very close. Not as close as she and Daphne but close all the same and she was clearly taking this very hard.

Hermione hadn't known Tracey as well as she had known Daphne and Sadie but they had been friends and Dean had always been there for the last 7 years...in the common room, at Quidditch games, even if they had never been incredibly close. She wasn't crying but that was partially because she had been tortured more than anyone else and didn't quite understand what was happening. Her whole body ached and she shivered violently, she was covered in gashes where she had been hit with Sectumsempra. Draco had scooped her into his arms and he was currently trying to warm her up. He didn't know if she could feel his warm tears falling onto her face but if she could she gave no indication.

The duel that Draco had just fought had been the most horrible of his life. He had used dark magic more than once and he had killed a man. He was selfish, he was crying for himself as much as he was crying for Tracey who he had known since he was a child.

They didn't know how long they stayed there for. The sound of sobbing filled the room for a long time but eventually Neville managed to get them out of the cave. He had cried as much, if not more, as Daphne had. Dean had been one of his best friends, he and Harry hadn't always been as close as they were now and during the first few years when Harry was very much part of the golden trio and not much else, he had spent a good amount of time with Dean and Seamus, they hadn't just been dorm mates, they had been extraordinary friends.

All the same Neville was still the best equipped to deal with the situation at hand as he was the only one with a clear and cool head, everyone else was in shock. He stood and was surprised by how shaky his legs were. Then he conjured up two stretchers which he moved Dean and Tracey onto. He enchanted them to hover and said in a quiet, hoarse voice, "We need to get them back to Hogwarts."

"What about them?" Hannah asked quietly, she pointed at the three dead bodies that littered the cave, the female body was that of Dolores Umbridge. That was a shock to them all, even those who had disliked their former teacher.

"Enervate," Harry said quietly, he pointed his wand at Percy who opened his eyes with a groan as he felt a large bump developing on his head.

"They are all yours," Harry said, his voice was still and quiet.

"What..." Percy glanced around at the 3 dead bodies, "What happened?" he asked, his eyes widened when he saw Dean and Tracey's lifeless bodies on the floating stretchers.

"They attacked us. We defended ourselves and obviously we didn't do the job well enough," Draco explained bitterly from where Hermione was still shaking in his arms. He had tried to get her to walk but she had screamed in pain, Draco was fairly sure that she had a broken leg.

"We need to get them back to the castle," Harry said in that strange quiet voice that didn't sound like his own voice at all.

"I understand," Percy said solemnly, "I'll be at the castle soon to take your statements. I'm sorry but it has to be done."

Harry only nodded and then he followed Neville towards the exit of the cave. It didn't take long to get out of the cave when they took the front entrance, and the crisp winter air and cold snow on their skins made everyone feel more awake. It brought them back to their senses in some small way.

They hoped that they wouldn't have to walk through a busy Hogsmeade with the bodies as they reached the bottom of the mountains where the grass turned into gravel and then concrete as they emerged near the Hogs Head. The group were surprised by the silence and emptiness of the streets as they silently walked through the village. Everyone was still crying, Daphne and Sadie in particular who were pretty much being held up by Harry and Theo.

They didn't pass a soul as they walked through the village and it was not until they reached the gates of the castle that they came face to face with someone. McGonagall and Flitwick rushed forward, they feared the worst when they saw the stretchers. McGonagall's face turned white when she saw Dean and Tracey lying lifelessly on the stretchers. She gasped and clutched at her heart, “What happened?” she asked in a small voice as she took in Hermione and her horrendous injuries.

For the first time Hannah spoke up about what had happened in the cave, "We were kidnapped Professor," she began shakily, "By Death Eaters and Dolores Umbridge," she took a deep breath and continued, "She said she wanted to torture us to scare our boyfriends so that they would abandon their plans to join the Ministry and end the corruption."

"Percy Weasley has them Professor," Harry said, still in that odd voice, "He's a bounty hunter. He's taken them to the ministry...they're all dead."

"All...dead? Merlin...who..." McGonagall trailed off and Draco said in a broken voice without catching McGonagall's eye, "I did...and Harry. We were duelling Rosier and Rowle...we needed to or they would have..."

"I killed Umbridge," Susan whispered.

"She killed Dean and Tracey Professor," Sadie said through her tears, "Susan tried to stop her but she didn't hit her in time."

"It's my fault they're dead," Susan sobbed. She became a little hysterical and Hannah stepped in to hug her tightly.

McGonagall herself seemed close to tears as she ushered the group inside the gates. She told them that all students had been forced back to Hogwarts as soon as Ginny had let her know what had happened which explained why the village had been deserted when they had walked through it.

As the group made their way through the empty, quiet school (all of the students were confined to their common rooms) towards the hospital wing, everybody realised that their life was never going to be the same again. Not after what had happened today, on what was supposed to have been the best day of Dean and Tracey's life and had ended up being the last.

**TBC…**


	39. The Five Stages of Grief

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The bits in Italics are narration by Daphne. They are essentially Daphne's thoughts about whats going on. They were inspired by a voice over in something, I think it might have been Grey’s Anatomy!

_They say grief occurs in 5 stages. First comes denial and I had felt that all of the way through Hogsmeade. Even as Tracey's dead body floated along eerily behind me on that stretcher I still refused to believe that she was really gone. How could this happen? The girl I had known since I was 5 years old, my first friend and the person who I could trust with my life was gone. I would never joke with her again or sit up all night and eat ice cream with her after a break up. Even when we got to the hospital wing and Madam Pomfrey placed the sheet over her cold, pale body I couldn't accept that she was gone because I didn't want to._

_They say that the second stage of grief is anger. Once the shock has gone and the pain is all that is left you start to find ways to blame other people for your loss...or worse, you find ways to blame yourself. It was the second stage of grief that threatened to tear us all apart in the hours following the tragedy of Valentine's Day._

Everyone was scattered across the hospital wing. Madam Pomfrey rushed around the beds and fixed everyone up physically, there wasn't much she could do to help them emotionally.

Hermione was hidden behind a screen and Draco was behind it with her as Madam Pomfrey tended to the worst of her injuries. From where the others sat on beds they caught the odd few words like, "broken", "tortured", "in shock", "needs rest", "will still have scars", "dark magic".

From everything that they had heard they knew that the prognosis for Hermione wasn't good. She would get better physically but the dark magic inflicted upon her would forever leave scars, adding to the ugly scar on her arm that spelled 'mudblood'. The hardest battle for Hermione however, would be the emotional one. She had only just recovered from the terrible things that had happened to her in Malfoy Manor and now she would have to go through it all again. She had Draco this time though and Harry felt that would make a big difference.

Sadie's head injury hadn't been serious but she was tucked up in a bed all the same, Madam Pomfrey wanted her to spend the night in the hospital wing just in case. She had her legs drawn up to her chest and was staring at the opposite wall emotionlessly. Theo was sitting by her bed, he was nursing a broken wrist and looking at his girlfriend helplessly because he wished that there was something he could do to help.

Harry was relatively unscathed, Madam Pomfrey had offered to heal up the cuts on his face but he had shooed her away and told her to attend to the more serious injuries. Daphne was in a state almost as bad as Hermione. She had clearly had a magical whip used on her from her bloody back. Daphne didn't seem to feel any physical pain though, the emotional pain of losing her best friend had made her numb and although she had limped through the village she hadn't needed Harry's assistance as much as Hermione had needed Draco's.

Madam Pomfrey finished with Hermione and then began to work on Daphne who allowed the matron to lead her to a bed which was more than Harry had been able to do. Harry watched as Madam Pomfrey waved her wand, told Daphne to swallow potions and muttered charms under her breath. He felt completely useless because he knew that there was nothing he could do for her at all.

"Her injuries are not particularly extensive," Madam Pomfrey eventually said to Harry as she gave Daphne a sleeping draught to allow her to get a long rest so that her body had time to recover, "Her ankle was fractured and might be stiff for the next few days and the ligaments in her knee were torn. I am surprised that she managed to walk as far as she did. I have given her a potion to numb the pain but she will need to take it daily for the next week to heal the ligaments."

Harry nodded, he felt unbelievable emotional pain and responsibility for what had happened to Daphne. He had hoped that was the end of it but Madam Pomfrey continued, "She was hurt by dark magic. It was the same dark spell you used on Mr. Malfoy a few years ago."

"Sectumsempra," Harry muttered, he shook his head angrily. It had been used on Hermione too but then again Rosier and Severus Snape had been friends during their school days.

Pomfrey nodded, "I have healed the wounds but like the scar on your forehead dark magic leaves a mark on the skin. The scars may fade but they will always be there."

"Where are they?" Harry asked, he felt sick to his stomach as Madam Pomfrey lifted Daphne's top and showed him 4 long, white scars on her abdomen. He felt the anger burning inside him at what the Death Eaters had done to her but he contained it and nodded at Pomfrey.

Harry glanced one last time at Daphne, who finally looked peaceful, and then he made his way over to the others who were being treated for minor injuries.

Harry collapsed into a chair next to Neville who winced as he rubbed cream onto a gash on his head, "We're going to get questioned,” he said quietly to his fellow Gryffindor, “Draco and I, for the use of the unforgivable curses."

"And you're going to get let off. It was self-defence," Neville said, he had always had Harry's back.

"Neville's right mate," Ron said quietly, "You'll get away with it."

"But was it self-defence? Why did I use the killing curse? Why didn't I just stun him?" Harry asked a question he had been asking himself for hours.

Neville sighed and put the cream down on the bedside table of Hannah’s bed. She was staring at the roof with tear tracks on her face.

"You know the answer to that as well as I do. If you had stunned him Draco wouldn't be here right now. The time delay would have allowed him to finish the spell before he lost consciousness. You needed to save Draco's life and you did the right thing," Neville said firmly.

Harry nodded, he still wasn’t as convinced as Neville that he had done the right thing though.

"Think of it like the war Harry," Ron said with a sigh, "Sacrifices had to be made. If someone had killed the Death Eater fighting Fred instead of stunned him then Fred would be alive today."

"You spared Narcissa all that Molly went through," Neville agreed, "And she'll thank you for that. Draco is all that Narcissa has left, never underestimate how much her son means to her."

"I don't," Harry said softly, "I know what she would do for her son. She's as brave as Molly in that department."

Ron smiled weakly and Harry said, "Thanks Nev.”

Then Harry looked to Ron and spontaneously hugged his best friend, "I've missed you Ron."

"I've missed you too mate," Ron said sheepishly, "I've sort of been avoiding the school because of Lilly.”

"How is she?" Harry asked quietly as he looked to the bed Lilly was sleeping in.

"Unhurt physically," Ron said quietly, "But very shaken up. I don't know whether to stay or leave."

"Stay," Harry said, "She's going to need somebody right now and she might let that person be you."

"But don't screw it up again," Neville sighed.

"I learned my lesson the first time," Ron said with a frown, "Never take a good thing for granted."

"That's a good thing to learn," Harry said as he looked over at Susan who was sitting in a chair in the corner of the room with her legs drawn up to her chest, "How is Susan?"

Neville shook his head, "Not good," he admitted, "She blames herself, I've never seen her this way."

"I know how she feels," Harry sighed. He felt a headache coming on, although the large bump on his head probably wasn't helping, "I blamed myself for Sirius's death for a year...at least."

"I think she'll be okay, she just needs time," Neville said, he shut his eyes and rested his head against the wall.

At that point the doors to the hospital wing opened and two people marched in. Kingsley Shacklebolt, the Minister for Magic himself, and Percy whose head wound was now covered with a bandage. McGonagall, who hadn't left the room since the group of 8th Years had arrived, made her way over to the Minister.

"Minerva, I apologise for this but I must interview your students," Kingsley said to the Headmistress in an undertone.

"I quite understand Minister but you will only question my students in _my_ presence," McGonagall said stiffly.

Kingsley frowned but nodded, "Of course. We will start with Harry Potter."

McGonagall gave a sharp nod and glanced across the room, "Potter!" she called. She motioned for the Gryffindor to join them. Harry swallowed hard and shakily made his way over to the group of people.

"Mr. Potter, take a seat," Kingsley said very formally as he drew a curtain around them to hide them from prying eyes. He then cast a silencing charm and drew up 4 chairs.

Kingsley had meant for McGonagall to sit next to him and Percy to sit with Harry. Instead McGonagall took the seat by Harry and said quietly, "Tell the truth Potter."

Harry nodded, he had intended to do so anyway.

Kingsley sighed, "Harry, I hate to do this but you have used an unforgiveable curse and I must conduct a thorough investigation into its usage. It may result in your expulsion from Hogwarts."

"Expulsion?" Harry asked sharply. The anger he had pushed down was now threatening to boil to the surface.

"Harry, I-" Kingsley began to say but it was too late, Harry was on his feet.

"You want to expel me? YOU SAID IT WOULD GET BETTER! YOU SAID IT WOULD STOP WHEN YOU BECAME MINISTER!" Harry roared, his voice was so loud that it could be heard over the charms Kingsley had placed on the curtain. The hospital wing went silent as they listened to a famous Potter outburst of anger.

"But you just lied; you are like any other politician! The Ministry is still corrupt and it is your fault! THIS IS YOUR FAULT! You were in the Order! You were an Auror and you couldn't work out that Dolores Umbridge was a threat! You couldn't stop her from trying to kill Hermione and Daphne! Or from killing Dean and Tracey! AND IT WAS ALL BECAUSE WE WANTED CHANGE! IT WAS ALL BECAUSE SHE DIDN'T WANT US TO GET RID OF THE CORRUPTION IN **YOUR FUCKING MINISTRY!**"

Harry could feel his throat getting drier. He knew he would barely be able to speak tomorrow but he didn't care. The anger he had bottled up was finally being released. He fell into the chair next to McGonagall gasping for breath and Harry was surprised when McGonagall gently placed her arm around him.

McGonagall firmly said, "He has a point Minister. The corruption in the Ministry is the reason why this happened. How Umbridge even found out that Potter and his friends had plans to end corruption within the Ministry I have no idea. I can only conclude that you have absolutely no grounds to expel Potter or his friends. I think you will find that killing curses were the only way they could protect themselves."

Kingsley was taken aback by Harry's explosive temper and by McGonagall's coldness towards him, "I believe that Harry knows several stunning charms and I think we are all aware of his fondness of Expelliarmus."

"I used Expelliarmus to kill Voldemort," Harry said with a firm nod, "That's true. But it was just Voldemort and me up there. He wasn't a threat to the people that I loved, I wasn't desperate. I was desperate today because the girl I intend to marry one day was in danger and so were the only people left on this planet that I love."

Harry looked up and caught Kingsley's eyes. He had a fire burning in his eyes, a fire that Kingsley had seen several times, "I used the killing curse because if I had stunned him he would have killed Draco. I don't know if you have noticed Kingsley but the closest thing I have to family is dating Draco and she's completely in love with him. I couldn't let her lose him and I couldn't lose him as a friend either."

McGonagall nodded her agreement, "I think you know better than anyone else Minister that stunning charms have a small delay in which the target can finish his spell."

Kingsley swallowed visibly at the comment but did not show any other sign of weakness, "Very well. I can see your loyalty remains first and foremost with your students Minerva," he said, somewhat bitterly.

“I’m sorry Kingsley but I won't sit back and let you ruin the country anymore," Harry said as he got to his feet, "You're my friend but you promised change when you became Minister for Magic and things are the same, if not worse."

Kingsley nodded, "Send Mr. Black in," he said simply.

Harry nodded, he still shook with anger as he left the curtained off area of the hospital wing. He took a deep breath and walked over to the curtain Hermione was hidden behind, "Draco," he called quietly.

A moment later Draco emerged from the curtain, his eyes were red and bloodshot. Harry hated the fact that he would now have to deal with the Minister for Magic who was probably now in a very bad mood after Harry's outburst.

"The Minister for Magic is waiting for you in the curtained off area, he's questioning us about our use of unforgivable curses," Harry said as he gripped Draco's arm and led him over to the curtained off area, "Good luck," he said quietly as she Slytherin disappeared behind it.

Draco silently took his seat next to McGonagall who gave him a small smile of encouragement as Kingsley asked, "You know why you are here?"

Draco nodded and Kingsley said, "Good. Then let's begin. You used an unforgivable curse to kill Evan Rosier, correct?"

"Yes," Draco said quietly, his eyes were fixed on the floor.

"Why?" Kingsley asked simply.

Draco swallowed the lump in his throat and answered, "I don't know. I didn't think it would actually hit him...he threw killing curses at me and I avoided them and threw one back...Then I turned around and he was dead."

"So the use of the killing curse was unnecessary?" Kingsley asked, his quill was poised over his paper.

"I..." Draco trailed off. Was it? Could he have just used a stunning charm?

"Do not say anymore Mr. Black,” McGonagall sad quickly, "Minister. As we have already established, these students did not have many other options to defend themselves. Do you not believe that in this situation these students used the unforgivables for self-defence?"

"I must thoroughly investigate why a killing curse was used where a stunning charm would suffice," Kingsley said firmly.

"Because I didn't see any other way," Draco said quietly, "I panicked. We got in there and Percy, the guy who was supposed to be experienced, was immediately knocked out. Harry, Ron and I were left to duel these two Death Eaters and our girlfriends were all tied up, most of them bleeding too. I thought with my heart not my head, my only thought was defending them, I could only think about Hermione."

McGonagall sighed and narrowed her eyes at Kingsley, "These students have lost so much in the war. Can you not fathom the idea that they are terrified to lose the people that they love? And their fear was founded because they lost two people today and that should _not _have happened Minister. I do not know how you can expect to tell students who fought in a war that it was okay to kill a Death Eater in self-defence then but that it is not okay to kill those same people in self-defence now."

Kingsley opened his mouth to speak but McGonagall beat him to it, "Just because the war is over does not mean that the danger has passed. Two young people died tonight and if these students had not acted as they did more might have died with them."

There was silence for a moment and then Kingsley finally sighed and said to Draco, "You are free to go. Please send Miss. Bones in."

With a nod Draco left the curtained off area and breathed a sigh of relief. He made his way over to Susan and said gently, "Susan, the Minister wants to talk to you about your use of an unforgivable curse. He's already talked to Harry and me."

"Okay," Susan said weakly, she allowed Draco to link his arm through hers and lead her over to the area where the Minister was waiting.

"Are you going to be okay?" Draco asked, he was worried about his friend.

Susan looked strangely at Draco and replied, "Eventually," as she disappeared behind the curtain.

Like Draco had before her Susan silently took the seat next to McGonagall and waited for Kingsley to speak to her, "Miss. Bones, I need to ask you about your use of the killing curse earlier today."

Susan only nodded and when he realised that she wasn't going to say anything Kingsley said, "You killed Dolores Umbridge, correct?"

"Yes," Susan said simply.

"Was it in self-defence?" Kingsley asked, he took a different approach than he had with Draco. He could clearly see that Susan was extremely upset and very emotionally volatile.

"Yes," Susan said, she did not elaborate.

"What happened to make you feel that you had no choice but to use the killing curse?" Kingsley asked as he scribbled on the piece of parchment in his lap.

"I saw her moving and I saw her saying the spell but I didn't move fast enough with the curse," Susan said shakily, "Dean was dead by the time it hit her...and then I thought she was dead, but-” she cut herself off and gasped loudly as she tried to get air back into her lungs, “She wasn't dead and then she killed Tracey and I tried to stop her...but the curse didn't hit her in time. I was too late; it was all my fault."

Susan had begun to sob once more and her whole body shook as she did so. McGonagall gave Kingsley a dirty look and ushered Susan out of the curtained area into one of the hospital beds.

Only then did the Headmistress make her way back over to Kingsley, "My students are in shock and have just lost their close friends. I would thank you to leave my school Minister until you can come back with some semblance of humanity."

Before Kingsley could argue McGonagall forced him from the hospital wing and slammed the doors shut behind him.

"I apologise for that Professor," Percy said from where he was still hovering in the hospital wing, "I had to take the bodies back to the ministry. There was no way of Minister Shacklebolt not finding out."

McGonagall shook her head, "Do not worry Percy. I do not blame you," she said, "But you should go, it is going to be a long night here."

Percy nodded, "I understand Professor. However, I think I will stick around for my brother's sake and if you allow it I would like to be able to inform my sister of Dean's death. They were very close."

McGonagall sighed heavily; she had forgotten about Ginny Weasley's former relationship with Dean Thomas. She nodded, "Of course, the password to the Gryffindor common room is lionheart."

"Thank you," Percy said simply as he slipped out of the hospital wing and shut the doors firmly behind him.

***

Back in the hospital wing tensions were still on the rise. Draco had gone back to Hermione's side so they were hidden behind the curtains. Daphne was still fast asleep due to the strength of the sleeping draught but everyone else had been allowed to leave the hospital wing apart from Lilly and Sadie who were being kept in overnight. Due to the tragedy of it all and the state of shock in which Lilly and Sadie were in, Theo and Ron had convinced Madam Pomfrey to let them stay.

Harry, Neville, Hannah and Susan made their way to the common room in silence. They didn't know what time it was but they knew it was late from the fact that the candles were lit and it was pitch black outside. The common room was deserted when they got there and a glance at the clock on the wall told them that it was the middle of the night. The moment they were in the room Susan made her way to the girl's staircase and climbed it without a word to the others.

"Deans been dead for 10 hours," Harry said quietly. He collapsed into a chair by the fire which was still burning but looked like it would splutter out very soon, "It's not going to feel right...Dean not being here. I've known him for so long..."

Hannah snorted and Harry frowned as he turned to face her, "What was that for?" he asked irritably.

"Don't act like he was your best friend," Hannah said harshly, "Tracey and Daphne were like sisters! You never saw one without the other before you and her started going out. She has a right to be upset. You shared a dorm with Dean but it's not like you were ever friends, you only ever cared about Ron and Hermione."

"That's not true," Harry said, he pushed himself angrily to his feet, "I care about a lot of people. I learned to stop showing how much I care for people because everyone I love ended up dying! You have no idea how much it hurts to hide your feelings!"

"Yeah," Hannah said bitterly, "You're right, I have no idea what it's like to be precious Harry Potter with his perfect life and the awful burden of being the hero who has to save the whole world, blah, blah, blah!"

"Calm down Hannah," Neville said firmly, "Harry's life was never perfect. He got beaten up by Muggles and he lost every Father figure he ever had, you have no idea what he went through."

"Oh don't I? So losing my real Mum is nothing compared to Harry losing 'Father figures?' right," Hannah said dryly, her voice got louder the angrier she got, "At some point Neville you're going to have to make your mind up. You're either with me and you stand by me or you stick with your precious boy who lived!"

"Hannah," Neville said in a low, dangerous voice, "That's below the belt."

Hannah laughed bitterly, "Right so that's your choice then, him? Fine, then we're done Neville!"

As she said her last words she spun on her heel and left the room, the door shut loudly behind her. Neville stood in the common room looking shocked and angry for a moment and then hurried up the staircase to the boy's tower.

Harry was left in the common room alone after the ordeal and he knew he wouldn't sleep that night so he decided that conjuring Kreacher to bring him a bottle of firewhiskey was the best option.

***

Neville climbed the tower but passed his dorm room. He also passed Harry and Draco's top floor room and went directly to the locked door at the top of the tower which led to the roof. He muttered a rubbish "Alohomora" which thankfully opened the door and then he pushed through it, he cherished the cold night air.

When Neville opened his eyes he was surprised to see Susan leaning over the wall, apparently she had the same idea as he had. She had turned to face him when he walked out onto the roof from the boys' entrance.

"Oh," Neville said, he was embarrassed that he hadn't noticed Susan straight away, "I didn't know you were out here Susan, I'll go."

He had already turned to leave when Susan said quietly, "No, you can stay."

Neville wouldn't have heard her if her voice hadn't carried with the wind to where he was standing. He turned around as she sat down and slumped against the cold, stone wall. Neville walked over to her and sat down next to her, he didn’t mind that the ground was damp and that the air was freezing cold.

"I would ask if you're okay but that's probably a stupid question," Neville said, he didn’t look over at the redheaded Hufflepuff next to him as he leant his head back against the wall and closed his eyes.

“I'll be okay,” Susan said honestly, she sounded much more like herself now, "I guess I'll just wonder what I could have done differently, you know? What if I'd been quicker or my spell-casting had been better?"

_The third stage of grief, so they say, is bargaining. In which you try to bargain your life for that of the person you lost. Susan experienced this more than anyone else I believe. As much as I was grieving for Tracey I never experienced this stage of grief because I had no reason to feel responsible for what had happened. However, I would have done anything to save Tracey, even if it had meant giving up my own life._

Neville opened his eyes, Susan wasn't crying anymore. Now that the shock had worn off she was much more calm but he could tell that beneath the surface she was breaking into pieces, "My Grandma told me about my parents when I was 5 years old. I spent the next 6 years trying to figure out why it had happened and if they would be okay if they'd saved themselves and not protected me."

"Neville," Susan said quietly, her voice broke, "How could you think that?"

"See," Neville said with a small smile, "It was stupid of me to think that it was my fault that they were sick when I couldn't have done anything about it. The truth is Susan; nobody would have been fast enough. Theo and I saw it too but we didn't think as fast as you, if it hadn't been for you Umbridge might have gotten away with it."

Susan seemed to take some time to mull this over. She nodded but didn't say anymore for a moment, "Why are you up here?" she asked.

Neville hadn't wanted to think about it, whenever he thought of Hannah's cold, bitter, angry words he felt anger bubbling to the surface that made him want to scream, "Hannah broke up with me," he said simply. He would have elaborated but he didn't get the chance.

_The fourth stage of grief is depression. When the anger bubbles down and you stop blaming yourself and denying your loss. Then the real sadness kicks in, the emptiness, the feeling like you have a hole inside you, like nothing will ever be the same. From this moment forward you will have to live without your best friend and face the fact that she's gone every day._

A loud crack made both Neville and Susan jump until they realised that it was only Harry's house who had apparated to the rooftop.

"Master Harry asked me to bring these to Master Longbottom and Mistress Bones," Kreacher informed them as he placed a blanket and a bottle of firewhiskey on the stone floor in front of them. Then with another crack he vanished.

Neville gave a dry laugh, "Harry knows us well," he joked as he grabbed the blanket and handed one end to Susan who covered herself with it. Neville did the same and opened the firewhiskey; he took a long drink and coughed at the strength of it afterwards. He handed the bottle to Susan who took an even longer drink with no sign of discomfort.

"You're pretty badass," Neville joked.

Susan managed a weak laugh, "Right...or just a lonely misfit."

"Misfits united," Neville said, he raised the firewhiskey bottle and drank from it once more.

There was silence between them until Susan asked, "So... what happened with Hannah?"

Neville laughed a bitter, harsh laugh and drank from the bottle, "She said Harry had no right to be upset about Dean's death and then she started going on about how Harry was always wanting attention for being the boy who lived," he rolled his eyes and took another long drink, "So I stuck up for Harry and she said I'd have to pick between her and him then she stormed out saying that it was over," Neville took one last drink before handing the bottle to Susan.

"She broke up with you for not agreeing with her?" Susan asked, from her tone of voice it was clear that she did not agree with her friend's decision, "Harry's your best friend, of course you're going to stick up for him. That's pretty pathetic."

"Tell me about it," Neville muttered as he leant once more against the stone wall.

Susan laughed, it was out of the blue and it caused Neville to open his eyes to look at her, "We're so screwed up," she said, she was laughing to stop herself from crying, "Tracey's dead, Dean's dead and Hermione and Daphne have been tortured," her laughter became mixed with tears, "And Hannah's broken up with you and I'm falling apart," she turned to face Neville, "It's so screwed up."

Neville was going to reply but he really didn't know what to say, he opened his mouth to spew out some nonsense about how it would all be okay in the end but he didn't end up saying what he'd intended to say because Susan grabbed his face and kissed him. Neville was stunned at first but then his foggy mind began to interpret what was happening and he kissed Susan back. His logic was that he had nothing to lose, he had already lost Hannah for being loyal to Harry, one of the few people who had always been there for him. His logic was twisted but he enjoyed kissing Susan, it was the first time all day he had felt something other than pain so for once in his life he was selfish and he deepened the kiss. It was the opposite of Hannah's kisses because Susan was the opposite of Hannah. It was hot, passionate and fast, a battle of wills and power. It wasn't slow and sweet like Hannah or her kisses and Neville relished in that.

"I'm so sorry," Susan gasped as she broke the kiss, "I shouldn't have done that."

Neville shook his head, "I don't mind," he said in a whisper as he kissed her again. It wasn't like this was new to them. They had been friends for a long time and while Harry had been busy with horcruxes Neville had been going through a tough time himself. Through a late night conversation one night atop the astronomy tower he had found an ally in Susan who had just lost her Aunt. They had both been in dark places at that time and they had channelled that darkness into a twisted sort of fling with each other. It hadn't been natural and it certainly hadn't been a relationship but Neville realised tonight how much he had missed it.

It seemed strange to Susan too that she hadn't realised until this moment how much she had really missed Neville as they shivered together on the open rooftop, it brought back memories of their secret meetings atop the astronomy tower. It was easy for them to find comfort in each other because they had already been intimate in the past. It was the natural progression of things when Neville mumbled a warming charm on the rooftop and conjured up more blankets. Susan knew exactly why he had done both things but didn't question him as he captured her lips once more. The kiss, like all of the others, was fast and needy and full of passion and want. Neville was different to how Susan remembered him but that wasn't necessarily a bad thing. As he pulled off her t-shirt and let his hands roam down her body she shivered and it wasn't from the cold. He was firmer, more confident and more assertive. He was sure of himself now and that was an attractive thing in a man.

He was certainly more dominant than she remembered, he had always been shy and bumbling but it was Neville who took the lead now. It was Neville who unclasped her bra with ease and pressed her against the cold, hard ground. Yet despite the change he was still the Neville Longbottom who lay entirely naked against her and whispered, "Are you sure about this Suse?"

Susan smiled very slightly, despite it all. She knew it was all wrong, she knew sleeping with Neville when he had just broken up with her best friend made her a terrible person. It was all the worse that her best friend didn't even know that she and Neville had slept together in the past. Susan knew that channelling her anger and her bitterness about what had happened to Dean and Tracey through sex was wrong but she wanted it all the same and she knew that made her a monster.

"I'm sure," Susan said simply.

That was all the confirmation that it took and moments later they were moving together as one under the dark, cloudy sky. Susan swallowed her bitterness and her guilt as she gripped Neville tightly and Neville cast all of his own bitter, angry thoughts about Hannah from his mind.

The moment that they both fell apart in each other's arms was the moment when they both finally fell apart mentally too. Susan had been holding it together as best as she could and Neville had been the strong one for the sake of everybody else. But when the magnitude of what they had done hit them they both cried. They cried because of the effect it would have on them both, because of the effect it would have on Hannah and on the group. They cried for Tracey and Dean because they both knew that it had all started with them.

***

The common room was lonely at first; Harry had gotten through half a bottle of firewhiskey by 4.30am when Hannah staggered through the portrait hole. It was clear that she had been drinking so Harry turned away from her, he expected her to ignore him and go up to her dorm room. Instead she sat down on the armchair across from him, "I did a bad thing," she admitted as she let her head fall into her hands.

"By breaking up with Neville? I know you did," Harry said darkly, he still hadn't forgiven her for what she had said and done.

Hannah shook her head, "I love him Harry and I don't want to lose him."

"I hate to break it to you Hannah but I'm pretty sure you already have," Harry said bitterly, "He's not a complete mug you know. He won't just come running back to you the second you apologise. He saw a different side of you tonight and I'm pretty sure he didn't like that person."

"I know," Hannah cried, "I was so angry and upset. I don't know what came over me. I just wish Dean and Tracey weren't dead, I wish none of it had ever happened. But Neville's never going to forgive me, is he?"

"I don't know," Harry said honestly, he rubbed his tired bloodshot eyes, "I don't know much at the moment."

They didn't know what to say to each other after that so they remained silent but then the common room started to fill up as Theo and Draco returned from the hospital wing to try and get some sleep.

"Hey," Theo yawned, he swiped Harry's firewhiskey and then threw it over to Draco who accepted it with a grateful grunt.

"Where's Neville?" Theo asked, it was a completely innocent question.

Draco sat down heavily on the sofa next to Theo, "Yeah, and where's Susan?" he asked.

At that point they all shared looks of confusion and shock. Theo and Draco didn't know what had happened between Hannah and Neville but Harry and Hannah shared a knowing look.

"He wouldn't..." Theo said.

"He didn't..." Draco added.

"She wouldn't have..." Harry said slowly.

They didn't need to ask any more questions or ponder on the issue anymore however because at that point Neville and Susan descended the boy’s staircase together, their eyes widened when they saw the group of people in the common room.

Neville and Hannah's eyes met but Neville didn't look at all apologetic. Susan however gaped at her best friend, "Hannah...I..."

"I knew Susan," Hannah said sharply, "That you two had some sordid fling. Neville never told me but it was all over the rumour mill,” she frowned deeply and looked as if she was holding back tears, “But I never thought you still had feelings for each other...”

"Hannah, it wasn't like that," Susan said quickly, "We just..."

"You just what?" Hannah asked loudly as anger seeped back into her voice.

"You broke up with him Hannah! Did it not occur to you how selfish that was? You left him when he needed you most! One of his best friends has just _died_!" Susan didn't lose her temper much so the fact that she had said a lot about her opinion of Hannah at the moment.

"You think I don't know that?" Hannah asked quietly, "I know how much of an idiot I've been Susan; I don't need you to shove it in my face!"

"Well that's your own problem Hannah," Neville said darkly, "I don't want or need this kind of drama in my life. You broke up with me so I don't see what Susan or I did wrong."

"What you did wrong?" Hannah asked breathlessly, "Does it matter if I broke up with you or not Neville? She _was _my best friend!"

Hannah hurried from the room upon these words and Neville didn't bother following her. Susan sighed heavily and slumped on the sofa next to Theo who wrapped an arm around her, "You really need to stop sleeping with people to make yourself feel better."

Susan raised an eyebrow at Theo and he smiled, "Just trying to cheer you up Suse," he said lightly, "I think we all need to laugh at times like this. I don't think Dean and Tracey would have wanted us to be miserable."

"I think you're right," Harry admitted, "But it doesn't stop us from mourning, even if it is only for a little while."

There were some nods of agreement around the room and silence fell as the group watched the fire slowly dancing around in the fireplace as the flames died out. They gradually trickled off to bed until eventually only Harry and Neville remained. The room was eventually thrown into darkness when the last embers of the fire went out.

Neville sighed, "Hannah and I are definitely over."

"Yeah?" Harry's voice asked.

"Yeah," Neville replied, "And not because of Susan and I... because of Hannah and the way she was tonight. How can I ever be okay with a girl who asked me to pick between the man I think of as a brother and her?"

Harry smiled slightly in the darkness, "Yeah, I love you too Nev," he said as read the subtext of his friends words.

He was sure he heard Neville chuckle from the armchair he was sitting in, "I've known you for longer than I've known Hannah and I've stuck by you through everything Harry. I fully intend to keep doing that and if Hannah was having problems now she'd definitely be having problems when we became Auror partners."

Harry smiled once more in the darkness and said, "I get it Nev but I'm sorry it had to end the way it did."

"So am I," Neville said quietly, "But we're teenagers. Not all of us are going to end up married to the people we're dating right now. You and Daph, and Draco and Hermione though...you might be an exception."

"I hope so," Harry said softly, "Because if I learned one thing from today it is that life is too short and you never know when it will end. Dean was going to propose today."

"I know," Neville said in a quiet voice.

_The 5th and final stage of grief is acceptance and when I woke up in the hospital wing on Sunday morning, as painful as it was, I accepted that Tracey was gone. I accepted that I would have to live every day without her. I accepted that I would have to attend her funeral and say goodbye. Acceptance is the hardest stage of grief in my opinion but it is also the most important. Valentine's Day had been an earthquake that shook all of us to the core and we all knew we would feel the after tremors. We just never knew they would be this bad..._

**TBC! :)**


	40. Funeral for Our Friends

The days following Dean and Tracey's deaths were awful. The events threatened to rip the group apart. Lilly and Sadie had been let out of the hospital wing the following morning. Ron had said goodbye to his ex-girlfriend and left, nobody really knew what had happened between them in the last 24 hours.

When they all came back to the common room, news of what had happened between Neville and Hannah reached their ears, it was already spreading through the Hogwarts grapevine like wildfire. Everyone was forced to pick a side in the civil war that was now rife among the group, they were either with Neville and Susan or they were with Hannah. Almost everyone gravitated towards Neville's side because he had done nothing wrong. As far as they saw it Hannah had acted like a bit of a psycho and broken up with him.

They understood that she had done it because she was in pain but Neville had been in pain too and without Hannah to seek comfort in he sought it in someone else. Harry and Hermione understood that more than anyone else, although Hermione did try to sit on the fence in the argument. The only person who truly stood by Hannah was Lilly which was surprising because she and Neville had been close when they were younger. Lilly and Hannah had been friends for the same length of time however and Lilly also knew what it was like to be cheated on. Hannah was maintaining that Neville did cheat on her, even though she had actually broken up with him beforehand.

The internal issues only made the week harder and more awkward for everyone. They couldn't go anywhere without being asked questions by other students and each day seemed to be a struggle as they neared the funeral on Sunday. They were all just very glad that this family planning class was to be delayed out of respect for Dean and Tracey.

The funeral was going to be a joint funeral and it was to take place at Hogwarts. McGonagall was going to do the honours and once it was over the coffins were to be buried in the war graveyard. So many had died in the Battle of Hogwarts that a war graveyard had been erected afterwards with Dumbledore's tomb in the centre of it. Harry, Ron and Hermione had helped to bury the dead and place the tomb stones and Harry visited the graveyard occasionally when he needed to remind himself of the harsh realities of the world.

The fact that Dean and Tracey's bodies were to be placed there was in a way fitting, after all they had been victims of the war. But they'd had the chance to live for a while after it had ended and that fact brought Harry some small comfort as he stood in his best black dress robes at the front of the great hall. The entire school had turned up but the front two rows were reserved for family and close friends. Dean's Mother and Step-Father, Ella and Daniel, were crying in the front row. Next to them were Dean's half-brother and half-sisters, Darren, Donetta and Danielle, who were also trying hard to conceal their tears. The youngest girl looked about 13 and it broke Harry's heart to see that.

Tracey's family were sitting alongside Deans. Her Mother, Lorelai, was crying into the shoulder of one of Tracey's twin brothers. Icarus and Daedalus had been given sympathetic leave from the Minister for Magic to attend the funeral but as soon as their sister's body was in the ground they would be carted back to Azkaban.

Harry wondered briefly if they felt any responsibility for what had happened, after all they had been Death Eaters too. One look at their faces was enough to tell Harry that they felt more than enough guilt to last them a lifetime.

Daphne had barely talked to Harry since Tracey had died. She had barely talked to anyone in fact. It was like she had put a barrier around herself and no one could break through it but today at the funeral she let Harry wrap his arms around her as she silently cried.

The hall was a sea of black; black dress robes, black dresses, black hats. The silence was eerie and it didn't befit a room that was usually so loud and had such a happy energetic feel. As McGonagall took the stage Harry couldn't help but flashback to Cedric's funeral. For a brief moment he saw Dumbledore standing where McGonagall stood now. He shut his eyes tightly and held back tears as McGonagall began to speak.

McGonagall cleared her throat, "Today we are mourning the death of two students who had so much more to give," she began, “Dean Thomas and Tracey Davis were a couple who were very much in love and very happy together. It was cruel that they were taken from us in such a way so soon after they had survived a war that killed so many. Dean and Tracey's sad passing should teach us all a lesson. Life is not to be taken for granted, it is to be cherished and enjoyed while it still can be. No one's time on this Earth is unlimited," McGonagall finished, she stepped back to allow Lorelai to make her way to the centre of the hall with Icarus, or perhaps it was Daedalus, holding onto her arm for support.

"My daughter sadly died not knowing that Dean was planning to propose to her that same day," Lorelai said without bothering to wipe away the tears falling from her eyes, "But I know she died happy because in all of her letters to me she talked of the man she loved and the amazing new friends she had made this year,” her voice broke but she continued, “And I will be forever grateful to those who made her happy and especially to the one girl who made sure the person who did this got what they deserved," as she finished her speech Lorelai caught Susan's eye and she nodded, she wasn’t able to manage a smile at that point in time.

As Lorelai sat shakily back down, Ella took the stage. It must have been strange for her, and probably quite frightening, to talk in front of so many Witches and Wizards.

"I'm so pleased to see all of you here today, knowing that Dean had so many friends and was loved as much in this world as he was in ours means so much to his Father and myself. Ever since he met Tracey, Dean had been so happy and I couldn't have been more delighted when he brought her to meet us. I had never met a sweeter girl and it breaks my heart that they never got to live out their dreams. It is so painful to have my eldest son taken from me so soon but I know I can spend the rest of my life knowing he died for a cause, knowing that he died a Hero," Ella finished, she wiped her eyes and leant on Daniel for support as he helped her back to her seat amidst applause from the audience, applause that Lorelai had not gotten.

Harry had asked Daphne if she wanted to speak at the funeral. He had assumed she would say no but she had said yes, much to his surprise. She was the 3rd person to take the stage and despite the tear tracks on her face she looked quite calm and composed.

"Tracey was my best friend," Daphne began, she looked at a spot at the back of the hall and continued, "We were like sisters. Our Mothers went to school together and I can remember spending weekends with her from the age of 5," she began to break apart a little, "Through every struggle she was there for me and I was there for her and nobody has ever known me inside out like Tracey did. Losing her feels like I'm losing a part of myself and I know I'll miss her every day for the rest of my life."

Daphne didn't cry until she collapsed into her seat next to Harry at the front of the hall. She let him hug her as she whispered, "I needed to do that; I needed to do it to accept that she's really gone."

"I understand," Harry whispered back as he wrapped his arms more tightly around her and kissed her forehead as Seamus took to the stage to talk about his best friend. He was the final speaker which meant that soon it would be time to carry the coffins into the grounds.

Harry was surprised to see that Seamus was in tears, they hadn't been as close as they used to be since Seamus has left Hogwarts but despite that Dean had been his best friend for years, "Dean was my closest friend," Seamus said as he wiped his eyes, "He was one of the first people who got to know me instead of writing me off as an idiot because I'm Irish. He was there for me through every tantrum and he stuck by me in every fight. I loved him like a brother and I fought with him on so many occasions. I'm just sorry that I couldn't have fought with him this last time."

The speech had actually moved Harry and Neville to tears. It had been very profound and truthful, although Harry couldn't dwell on it for long as the lids were placed on the coffins and the pallbearers were called forward to transport the coffins to the graveyards.

Dean's Mother had chosen his pallbearers and they were, his Step-Father, Step-brother, Seamus, Neville, Harry and Theo. Tracey's Mother had also chosen Tracey's pallbearers and as a result they were Icarus, Daedalus, Daphne, Sadie, Hermione and Hannah.

The two groups of people walked through the centre of the hall, Dean's coffin was at the front and Tracey's was behind it. The large crowd followed them out into the snowy grounds where they had to slow down in case they slipped on the ice. The funeral procession walked towards the graveyard by the lake with their heads down, the air was so cold that their tears felt like they were turning into icicles.

They reached the iron wrought gates with the words, "Victory" emblazoned above them and led the coffins to a spot at the front of the graveyard where two graves had already been dug that morning by Hagrid. In just a few hours a fair amount of snow had accumulated in the graves.

The coffins were placed above the graves where they hovered for a moment before slowly descending into the ground. The 8th Years stood at the front of the crowd inside the graveyard while the others watched from behind the metal fence.

Lorelai, Icarus and Daedalus each took a handful of dirt and dropped it onto Tracey's coffin where it mixed with the snow which was now falling heavier than ever before. Similarly, Dean's parents and siblings each threw a handful of dirt into the ground and then Harry (who McGonagall had specifically asked to do this) did the honours and used magic to move the mound of earth next to each of the graves into the graves themselves. The earth filled the graves in and covered both of the coffins.

At this point the crowd dispersed until only Daphne and Harry were left in the graveyard, Daphne was on her knees in the snow and the dirt. Her dress got wetter and dirtier as she cried over Tracey's gravestone which read,

"_Tracey Davis_

_Daughter, loving partner and friend._

_April 26th 1980 – February 14th 1999."_

"Daphne," Harry said gently as he too fell to his knees next to his girlfriend, "You've got to see the light in this. Trust me, I know how hard it is to lose someone you love. When I lost Sirius I didn't know how I would live again but life went on and it got better. It's horrible and we all miss them but this has made us all realise how much we love each other and how much we don't want to lose each other. It's made us all stronger Daph."

"I guess you're just used to it," Daphne sobbed, she didn’t mean it in an offensive way, "You've lost a lot of people you love. Before Tracey I'd only lost my Dad."

"I know," Harry said quietly, "But losing someone never gets easier, no matter how many times you've had to deal with it."

Daphne nodded and looked back to Tracey's gravestone, she wiped her eyes and cleared her throat.

Harry got to his feet, "Come on," he said as he helped her up and clasped her hand tightly in his as they made their way back to the castle.

***

The 8th Year common room had been just as depressing as the rest of the school that night. People had moped around miserably, they had spent their evening crying into bottles of butterbeer until Theo had stood on a table and called them all to attention, "Tracey and Dean wouldn't have wanted us all to be miserable! I'm not saying we should go crazy here and have a massive party but I am saying we need to lighten up a little and have a bit of fun. Tracey loved fun more than anyone else, she wouldn't want you all to be sitting around crying!"

His impassioned speech did lighten the air. There was some laughter at least and more talking. There was far less silence for a good while but it couldn't last forever, it couldn't even last long in fact. Seamus and Ron were back in the common room because of the funeral and while Ron was sitting with Lilly causing no trouble at all, that was not the case with Seamus. He had been sitting in the corner of the room not talking to anyone, he had started with a full bottle of firewhiskey and that was practically empty when he made his way over to Harry who was sitting on the armchair by the fire with Daphne curled up in his lap. She was half-asleep and he was stroking her hair in an attempt to keep her that way.

"Oi Potter, I want a word with you," Seamus said darkly and loudly, it was clear that he was drunk but he wasn't slurring his words.

Harry sighed as Daphne's eyes opened with a start, "Alright," he muttered as he kissed her on the forehead and stood up. Several sets of eyes followed him when he left the common room with Seamus.

The second the door shut two things happened; the Marauders and Lily moved forward eagerly in their portraits to find out what was happening and Seamus started to shout and swear so loudly that the common room went silent to listen to what was being said outside.

"It's your fucking fault Dean's dead! If it weren't for you then he would never have gotten involved with those fucking Slytherins. Just cause the wars over doesn't mean that their all bloody saints! Malfoy still used a killing curse and now their infecting all of you, the Harry Potter I knew would never have used a killing curse to save Draco Malfoy! See what they are doing to you? You've got to cut ties with them Harry!"

Harry should have seen this coming really and when Seamus put it that way he began to wonder if being friends with the Slytherins really was changing them for the worse. Things had been different lately but was there any way to prove it was the Slytherins or the after effects of the war?

"Seamus, I understand why you're worried," Harry said truthfully, "And I know things have changed but it’s not for the reasons you think. Things have changed because we're still in some way recovering from the war not because of Draco or Theo or any of the Slytherins. The Harry Potter you knew wouldn't have used a killing curse to save Draco Malfoy, that's true. But I did use it to save Draco Black because he's a different person and he's one of my best friends."

"Of course you'd say that," Seamus said bitterly, "You're more loyal to your girlfriend than anyone whose actually in your house, apart from Hermione, your friend with benefits," he laughed nastily and that was the final straw as far as Harry's patience was concerned. He pulled out his wand but he didn't have time to use it as Seamus resorted to Muggle violence and flung out his fist, there was a loud crack as it connected with Harry's nose and the blood began to spurt out.

"Fuck!" Harry cursed loudly as Seamus stormed down the stairs back into the main school. Harry hissed in pain before he managed to stumble back into the common room.

"Harry what happened?" Draco asked when he saw his friend.

"He broke my nose!" Harry shouted, his voice was muffled from the pain and the blood in his mouth.

There was a snort behind them that came from Ron, "I know you always looked up to Dumbledore mate, but don't you think getting a broken nose after a funeral is taking that a bit too literally?"

Harry managed the smallest smile at his best friend’s jibe, "Shut up Ron," he said weakly as Hermione pulled him onto the sofa and began to fix him up.

***

The next day wasn't easy as everyone was forced to accept that Dean and Tracey really were gone. Hannah was isolating herself more and more from the group and by taking her side in the ‘civil war’ Lilly was doing the same. They were sitting at opposite ends of the 8th Year table on the Monday morning in which family planning week was supposed to start. However, it had been put back by yet another week and their already shitty day was made worse when Hermione gasped out loud while reading her copy of the morning's prophet.

"This is ridiculous!" Hermione shrieked, "Has anyone seen this?"

They all shook their heads.

"No, what's wrong?" Sadie asked as she tried to look at the front page, she caught a glimpse of a large photo of Dean. Hermione shook her head angrily, her hair bounced as she did so, lately her glamour charms hadn't been up to standard so her hair was frizzier than usual.

"This article in the prophet about," Hermione's voice caught but she composed herself, "…About Dean and Tracey."

It was like a dark cloud had fallen over the group. Hermione and Daphne had recovered physically but the scars would remain, for Daphne it was slightly easier because she could hide hers unless she was in underwear or a bikini. Hermione hadn't been that lucky, the scars inflicted by the torture in the cave covered more of Hermione than Daphne. They were on her arms, her back and the tops of her legs. The big battle over the last week for not only the girls but the entire group was the emotional one and although it had been slow there had been progress. Harry had a horrible feeling that this article was going to change that.

"_Dean Thomas, Gryffindor war hero and great friend of Harry Potter, was murdered tragically along with his girlfriend Tracey on Valentine's Day. The death of this young man and his young girlfriend shakes the wizarding world who thought they were finally safe. Death Eaters, followers of the late Lord Voldemort, were responsible for these deaths and it only goes to show that the danger has not yet passed. Dean had so much more to give to the world, he was a keen artist and could have made a fantastic career in the art of portrait enchanting. Our source at Hogwarts School has told us that Harry Potter is grieving the death of his close friend who he shared a dorm with throughout his years at the school. Our prayers are with his family. Remember readers; do not let your guard down, the world will never be as safe as it once was."_

Hermione was shaking with anger as she threw the paper down onto the table, "His girlfriend Tracey!" she shouted, her bottom lip wobbled as it did when she was trying not to cry.

"They didn't even mention her second name!" Daphne hissed angrily.

Harry nodded so hard he hurt his neck, "They can't just pretend she doesn't exist because she didn't fight or because she wasn't a Gryffindor, they can't do that!"

"Apparently they can!" Draco said loudly.

"Well they aren't getting away with it," Harry said angrily, “They can’t just omit her death because it doesn’t fit their tragic war hero storyline and they can’t just not mention Umbridge’s involvement because the Ministry’s propaganda department have paid them off!”

"We're going down to the Prophet to deal with this ourselves," Neville added, he sometimes wondered if he and Harry could read each other's minds.

"Exactly!" Harry said assertively.

Draco and Theo nodded, "We're coming too," Theo said, he spoke for both of them because he knew Draco well enough to be able to predict his next move 99% of the time.

"I can't see what I can do," Hermione said honestly.

Daphne sighed, "I think this one time it might be best to leave it to the boys."

"Well," Draco reasoned, "Together we are pretty much the heads of the 4 biggest, most influential families of our generation"

Susan laughed weakly, "And the 4 cockiest guys at Hogwarts."

Theo smiled slightly, "Thank you, thank you very much," he said.

"So Draco speaking of your influential family, what are you really? Black or Malfoy?" Susan asked curiously, she had heard him being called both recently, "Lots of people still call you Malfoy but some call you Black."

Draco shrugged as he replied, "It's personal preference to be honest. My name is technically Draco Lucius Malfoy Black so I guess officially its Black but most people still call me Malfoy."

"You're always gonna be Malfoy to me when I'm pissed off with you," Harry teased, "Just to relive the old days, you know?”

Daphne smiled, "I remember that," she said, "When you used to insult each other in corridors and it was always a battle of who was better than the other."

"Ah," Harry sighed sentimentally, "Those were the days."

Hermione managed to laugh too, the conversation had taken an amusing turn, "I remember it too… and the times when you couldn't see me without insulting me."

"Except in 6th year," Draco said truthfully, "You got so pretty over the summer I couldn't think of anything to insult you about."

The girls all around the table said 'aww' while Theo, Harry and Neville all pretended to puke up over their breakfast.

The joking and laughter was so refreshing but unfortunately it didn't last long as McGonagall approached the group of 8th Years with a solemn face, "Potter, Malfoy, Bones," she said quietly and their hearts felt like they would beat out of their chests as they realised what this was about, "The Minister for Magic would like to talk to you in my office after breakfast."

She didn't elaborate as she left the hall and the 3 'trouble-makers' shared worried looks. Sadie gave them an encouraging smile, "Don't worry, you won't get in trouble. You defended yourselves; he would never be able to expel you for that."

"I hope you're right Sadie," Harry sighed as he got to his feet and waited for Draco and Susan to join him.

"Ready to face the music?" Harry asked Susan who understood the Muggle phrase more than Draco did, she nodded and Harry put his arm through hers, Draco did the same from the other side and together they made their way to the Headmistresses office.

***

When they arrived in McGonagall's office and silently took their seats their worried state increased as they saw Kingsley standing by the desk with a solemn face.

"I'm sorry to do this again," Kingsley said honestly. McGonagall was glaring at him which wasn't a good sign, "But the Ministry is pressing me to take action in some way. Harry I am happy to pardon yourself and Susan with a formal warning because of your contribution to the war. However, I am afraid Mr. Malfoy will have to go on trial."

"No way!" Harry said instantly, he was on his feet already.

From where she stood at the other side of her desk McGonagall gave Harry a small smile and said proudly, "You see Minister, I told you Mr. Potter would not agree to the arrangement."

"You can do this one of two ways Kingsley," Harry said from where he was standing on the opposite side of the desk, out of the corner of his eye he saw Dumbledore smile and wink at him from his portrait on the wall, "You can try all of us equally with a court hearing or you can pardon us all."

Kingsley may have been the Minister for Magic but that didn't stop him from being intimidated by the boy who lived. He didn't do it often but Harry knew how to abuse his power and status. He only did it for the greater good.

"Harry has a point Kingsley," Dumbledore said kindly as he smiled from his portrait, "And if you pardon all 3 of the students you may also get back on Minerva's good side."

Harry hid a smile as he saw Kingsley mull this over and McGonagall glare at Dumbledore's portrait, "There is too much pressure on me from the Ministry for a full pardon. This job is not what I thought it would be. I do not call the shots, I must do what the Wizengamot want and at the moment the Wizengamot is both corrupt and biased. I have to be seen to be taking some action which means I will have to fine you 200 Galleons each."

This didn't particularly faze Harry, Draco or Susan. They were all from pureblooded families, they all had money like that available to them.

"Do you want the money now or later?" Draco asked casually. McGonagall had to fight to hide her smile. This punishment wasn't really a punishment at all, especially to two people as rich as Harry and Draco.

Kingsley looked startled at how they had taken this but replied, "Uh now would be great," he said.

Harry clicked his fingers and Kreacher appeared next to him a second later, "Hey Kreacher can you fetch 200 galleons from my account and another 200 from Draco's and bring them here please?"

"Straight away Master Harry," Kreacher squeaked as he disappeared with another crack. Susan conjured up her own elf and said something similar before it apparated away with a crack.

"You have become a good man Harry," Dumbledore said with a watery smile.

Harry was surprised by the comment, "Thanks professor but I fail to see how getting fined for using the killing curse proves that."

"Sometimes sacrifices have to be made for the greater good," Dumbledore said cryptically.

"Did you know Dumbledore?" Said a very familiar voice, "That Potter admires you?"

Dumbledore turned to the man who had just appeared next to him in his portrait. Severus Snape had been given a portrait next to Dumbledore's in the office and he had just waltzed into Dumbledore's frame, "Is that right Severus?"

"Indeed,” Severus said smoothly, "He worships you to the extent that he even got his nose broken at a funeral."

Dumbledore chuckled and Harry glared at Severus, "I don't know how _you_ found out about that and technically it was _after_ a funeral," he pointed out.

This only made Dumbledore laugh some more, "I see however that you allowed Madam Pomfrey to fix yours up."

"Hermione actually fixed it but yes I am quite fond of my nose Professor," Harry said to the old man who chuckled once more, "Ah of course, what a fine nose it is."

At that point Kreacher reappeared along with Susan's house elf. They handed Harry, Draco and Susan their money which they then gave straight to Kingsley. He still looked a little baffled and slightly exasperated as he wrote them receipts.

"Our debts are paid in full then Kingsley?" Harry asked the Minister.

Kingsley nodded, "They are indeed."

"And our scores are settled?" Harry asked, he didn't want his friendship with Kingsley to be tampered by the events; he had already lost so much in such a short amount of time.

"Of course," Kingsley said simply, "I apologise for what you lost because of your desire to bring about change at the Ministry but I hope you can see why I am reluctant to push forward big changes. I have two daughters Harry, I do not want to lose them because of my political decisions."

"I understand," Harry said honestly. He really did understand that, probably better than Kingsley knew in fact.

The Minister bowed his head, "I look forward to the day when you join us. I think we will only begin to see real change then and I also look forward to seeing both you and Mr. Malfoy at the annual Ministry fundraiser in April."

"Is our compulsory attendance part of our punishment?" Draco asked jokingly.

Kingsley actually laughed, "Yes, I suppose so; they do tend to be rather dry affairs. However, I believe this year will be different."

"I think you're right," Harry said with a smile, "Well if our business here is finished we had better be off. We're missing Potions and I've always wanted to know how to brew a slug swelling potion..."

"Ah, always keen to learn," Kingsley joked, "Yes, you are free to leave."

"Thank you,” Draco said with a smile, "And I think you have some business of your own to attend to."

Kingsley chuckled as he glanced at McGonagall who was standing rather stiffly in the corner, "Indeed," he said a little darkly as Harry, Draco and Susan left the office.

The last thing they heard on their way down the staircase was Kingsley's deep booming voice asking, "Am I out of the danger zone yet or should I prepare my shield charm?"

** _TBC :)_ **


	41. A Trip to the Daily Prophet...

By the end of the day Draco, Harry, Theo and Neville were more irritated about the newspaper than they had been that morning. Through talking about it during the day and finding out how annoyed other 8th Years were their annoyance grew and the moment the final bell rang at 4.30pm they left the school and apparated to Diagon Alley.

They felt like celebrities as they made their way through Diagon Alley and they had to keep their heads down so that they weren't recognised. Sometimes Harry and Neville forgot that they were war heroes but Draco and Theo could never forget that to the rest of the wizarding world they were famous for being the children of people who had murdered their families. When they finally reached the offices of the Daily Prophet they marched in with their heads held high and were gaped at by the scrawny mousy haired receptionist at the desk.

"We're here to talk to the editor," Harry said firmly. The woman merely nodded and hurried up a set of stairs. The office was dingy and dark with lots of little cubicles which people were gaping out of at the moment. The air smelled old and musty and the tapping of typewriters could be heard over every other sound in the room.

The receptionist reappeared but had apparently lost the ability to speak as she motioned for them to go up the stairs she had just rushed up. They felt like they had accomplished something as they followed her into a small office where the editor of the Daily Prophet sat with his feet on his desk. He was absentmindedly throwing a small quaffle through a golden hoop and watching it soar back to him. He only looked a few years older than them and he was wearing expensive robes and red rimmed glasses with jewels encrusted onto them. According to the name plate on his desk his name was 'Sebastian Harrington'.

"Harry Potter," Harrington said in awe when they walked into the room with Harry at the front of the group, "What an honour it is."

"You won't be saying that in a minute," Harry said darkly as he leant against the wall of the small office. Harrington just smiled oddly at him. His eyes looked too big for his face and his dark brown hair was long and tied back into a ponytail.

"We've come here to demand a reprint," Harry began.

Draco then took over, "Your article this morning barely mentioned Tracey Davis, she died too you know."

"It wouldn't have sold," Harrington said simply, "No one cares about a poor Slytherin girl who fell in love with a hero and was reformed," he pretended to yawn, "Boring!"

"It doesn't matter if it's boring, it's the truth!" Theo exclaimed angrily.

Harrington rolled his eyes, "The truth doesn't sell papers darling, drama does."

"You have 4 of the most influential names in the wizarding world standing in front of you," Neville said dangerously, "We can seriously affect business if we had a reason to."

"Are you threatening me? Ooh it's dramatic!" Harrington said as he gave them all an annoying grin.

"Reprint the article and talk about Tracey," Theo said as he stood close to the desk and looked down on Harrington with a glare that would make Harry run for the hills.

"Can't, it's out, it can't be changed, that's the news baby," Harrington said carelessly but this didn't faze Draco or Harry, they had a plan. The other two just didn't know about it yet.

"Okay," Harry said simply, "Fine, we tried," he sighed.

Draco nodded, "Yeah, guess that's all we can do. Come on guys."

Theo and Neville knew something was up as they followed their friends from the room; they wouldn't have given up that easily if they didn't have a plan B.

"So..." Neville said when they were out on the street which was now considerably emptier since most of the shops had shut for the night, "What are we going to do?"

Draco and Harry made eye contact and Harry grinned mischievously, oh they had a plan alright.

***

When the boys got back from Diagon Alley they told the girls that they had tried and failed to get a reprint. They were disappointed but they understood. That week was difficult because the article was constantly in their minds which meant that Dean and Tracey were too. They had eventually received a final date for their family planning week, it would now take place starting on Monday. Over the course of the week tensions grew within the group over the whole Hannah/Neville/Susan love triangle.

“Have you spoken to her?” Harry asked Neville curiously.

Neville frowned and looked up from his Herbology diary, "Who?"

"Hannah, obviously," Harry said in disbelief, "Have you spoken to her since you broke up?"

"Nope," Neville said, "I tried to talk to her but I got about three words in before a door was slammed in my face."

"I understand why she feels betrayed," Harry admitted, "If I broke up with Daphne and she slept with Draco a few hours later I'd be pissed off too. But I reckon I'd understand that it was my fault...I'd feel like I forced her into his arms."

"Do you think that's how Hannah feels?" Neville asked Harry.

"No, I don't think she blames herself at all," Harry admitted, "I think that's the problem. I think she feels like she's the one in the right but you can't shout insults like that and say 'it's over' and not expect the bloke to really think it is over..."

"Glad to know I'm not the only one who thinks like that," Neville said with a sigh.

"I think she blames Susan instead of you though," Harry said with a frown, "She called Susan a slut and that pissed me off. Why should Susan be blamed and called a slut because she's the girl? It takes two to tango."

"I agree. If Hannah's going to blame us she has to blame us both equally," Neville said quietly.

"Are you and Susan together?" Harry asked as his curiosity got the better of him.

Neville shook his head, "No... don’t get me wrong, I get on great with Suse. But we've never had a relationship, just a pretty screwed up friendship. I don't know how to turn that into anything more."

"Would have been like me trying to date Hermione," Harry said with a frown knitting its way onto his forehead.

"Exactly," Neville said, "And Susan knows that. Hence why she's a bit off at the moment. She feels like men only use her and I haven't exactly done anything to disprove that."

"At least you feel guilty about it," Harry said as he bit his lip, "I feel guilty too, for Hermione and I in the war...I feel like I took something from her that should have been reserved for someone special."

"Yeah," Neville sighed, "I know that feeling too."

"Kindred spirits Neville," Harry said as he pushed himself to his feet and gripped Neville's shoulder, "That's what we are."

"Whatever you say," Neville said, he was partly amused but mostly exasperated as Harry disappeared upstairs to his dorm room.

***

"You've got to be careful that you don't lead Susan on."

"Why?" Neville asked slowly.

Ginny had just fallen into step next to him as he walked towards the library. She glanced around the empty halls and said, "Because it's obvious she has feelings for you and has done since before you and Hannah got together."

"I know and I like her too," Neville admitted, "I won't lie about there being a connection there but I don't want to ruin another friendship. I'm taking a step back from dating for a while."

"That's fine but make sure _she _knows, that," Ginny said.

"Since when did you get involved in it anyway?" Neville asked, he was somewhat irritated by the fact that she was poking her nose into it.

Ginny shrugged, "Someone overheard something and I overheard it from them alright? Just make sure you don't go breaking anymore hearts here Neville."

"I'm not exactly the heart-breaking type Gin," Neville pointed out.

Ginny raised an eyebrow at him, "I wouldn't be so sure of that. You know as well as I do that you got bloody hot over the summer. You are a war hero now, a hot war hero who is number 1 on the Wondrous Wizards list. You could break a lot of hearts."

"Well as honoured I am that you seem to think I'm so hot all of a sudden," Neville said with a slight smile, "I'm still the same person and I’m disturbed that you read Witch Weekly, for the record.”

Ginny snorted, “Shut up, promise me you’ll stop being a dick and I’ll leave you alone though.”

Neville had to resist the urge to roll his eyes at his friend, “Hannah pissed me off and I won't be getting back together with her. I saw a darker side to her and I didn't like it."

"And Susan?"

"She's one of my best friends," Neville said with a frown, "And I love her to bits. She's been there for me since before Hogwarts. I don't want to lose her and dating her...well if it ended badly I could and I don't know if I could handle that."

"A noble excuse," Ginny smiled, "You're right you haven't changed."

"And neither have you," Neville chuckled, "You're still a meddlesome pain in my arse."

Ginny grinned at him, "Good to know that I'm still doing my job then," she teased as she slipped into a secret passage.

***

"Hannah, just let me explain-"

"There is nothing to explain, Susan," Hannah snapped at the redheaded girl.

"Yes, there is," Susan said quickly, "Neville and I aren't-"

"-aren't together, I know," Hannah said bitterly, "So you screwed my boyfriend but you don't care about him enough to actually date him. You ruined _everything _for what, sex?"

"I didn't ruin anything," Susan said tearfully, "You ruined everything Hannah! You knew I had feelings for Neville but you didn't even ask me how I felt when you started dating him! I didn't ruin your relationship; you did that all by yourself! Do you know what he said to me Hannah? He said he didn't feel bad about sleeping with me because he knew that no matter how long he thought about it or how many nights he slept on it he would _never _get back together with you. He said he would never be with someone who makes him pick between them and the guy he thinks of as a brother."

Tears spilled out of Hannah's eyes, "Why are you telling me this Susan, to punish me even more?"

"I'm telling you because you have to drop this stupid delusion that you and Neville are going to run back into each other's arms and that everything will be okay!" Susan said as tears formed in her eyes, "Because that's not going to happen Hannah. And no, I'm not going to get together with Neville because in his eyes I'm worthless. I'm nothing more than a girl to sleep with when he feels bad and laugh with when he feels lonely. He'll never love me and he'll never respect me. What you and Neville had is over but at least you had that Hannah. At least you had his love and his respect."

Hannah's eyes darkened as she stared at the girl, "You'll never have that from anyone Susan, you're a slut!" she practically spat.

"Well frankly you never deserved Neville," Susan said as tears spilled from her eyes, "He's not just Neville anymore. He's a famous war hero, ever since he killed that snake. It's not like he's the bumbling fool who was happy to go to the Yule Ball with Ginny Weasley since he couldn't find anyone else!"

"I know he's a war hero," Hannah said hotly, “Why do you think I found him so hot recently? I fail to see how that means I don't deserve him, _my _Father is a pureblood and he is on the Wizengamot!"

"Starting to sound a little like Draco Malfoy there Hannah," Susan said wickedly, "You better watch that. I wonder what your Father will say when he finds out that you and the golden hero he was hoping would propose to you, broke up."

"What the hell are you talking about?"

The icy cold voice belonged to none other than the topic of their argument, Neville Longbottom. Susan and Hannah spun around speechlessly.

"Your Father was hoping that I would propose to you because I'm a war hero?" Neville hissed angrily.

Hannah's face paled, "Well it has increased your value and status in the Wizarding world Neville-"

"Shut up!" Neville snapped, "You disgust me! You _both _disgust me! I can't believe you are fighting about me like this. Frankly, I don't want to date either of you! Susan, you are my best friend and you have been since I was 5 years old. I'm not going to put that in jeopardy for anything, regardless of how you feel and I'm sorry that I feel that way. And as for you Hannah, I'm pretty sure you would have fitted into Slytherin pretty well with all of the lying and sneaking you've been doing. I don't want to talk to either of you at the moment!"

Before either girl could say anything Neville had stalked upstairs straight into the dorm that Harry and Draco shared. Draco was out at training with the rest of the Slytherin Quidditch team but Harry was working alone at his desk when Neville stormed in and slammed the door behind him.

Harry jumped at the loud noise, "Merlin Neville! What the hell was that for?"

Neville groaned in frustration, "Have you ever had women try to sleep with you or date you because you're the bloody fantastic Harry Potter who saved the entire fucking world?"

"Uh yeah," Harry said with a frown, "All the time. Are you hitting on me?"

"No," Neville snapped, he didn't have a sense of humour at the moment, "I just overheard Hannah and Susan arguing over me! They basically both made out that they were attracted to me because I'm Neville Longbottom, the guy who killed the fucking snake!"

Harry bit his lip as he surveyed his best friend, "Shit Neville...that sucks."

"Am I going to have to deal with this for my whole life?" Neville asked angrily, "Am I always going to have to be careful in relationships to make sure people aren't with me for my fame or my money?"

"Not exactly," Harry replied honestly, "I mean it doesn't mean you can't have relationships. But you might have to be careful that people aren't after glory, yeah..."

"So yes then, I'll always have to watch my back!" Neville snapped.

"No," Harry said firmly, "Because people tried that with me Neville. People tried to slip me love potions to get me to sleep with them. You'd have thought that I would never trust a woman but Daphne was so blunt with me that I knew she really didn't give a shit about my fame. And that will happen for you too. Look Neville, I know that this really sucks but it just proves that Hannah wasn't right for you."

Neville groaned as he fell onto Draco's bed with a thump, "Being a famous war hero is really overrated."

"Tell me about it," Harry muttered.

***

"Suse, what's wrong?" Harry asked gently.

Susan jumped and wiped her eyes, "Nothing, sorry. I thought I was alone down here."

"I was just on my way back from the kitchens," Harry said as he waved a tub of ice cream in front of the redhead, "Ginny's been in our tower quite a lot with Blaise. She came down to the common room craving ice cream and I fancied a wander. Why are you sitting down here alone?"

Susan was sitting in a small alcove close to the kitchens and the Hufflepuff common room. She shrugged as Harry slipped in next to her, opened the tub of ice cream and handed her a spoon, "I wanted to be somewhere comfortable, close to where I used to feel happy."

"The Hufflepuff common room," Harry said knowingly, "Do you want some ice cream?"

Susan shook her head and Harry nudged her in the ribs, "Are you sure? It's cookie dough flavour."

Susan smiled slightly and dug her spoon into the tub, "Alright, I'll have a couple of spoonful’s."

"What's going on with you?" Harry asked her conversationally, "Is it still what happened or..."

"It's Hannah," Susan sighed, "And Neville."

"What about them?" Harry asked, he figured that pretending that he didn't know what had happened was easier as he dug his own spoon into the ice cream tub.

"Hannah called me a slut basically," Susan frowned, "Which isn't anything new. She asked why I slept with Neville then didn't even get together with him afterwards and I told her the truth...because the truth is that as much as I care about Neville he'll never view me in that way. He proved as much when he overheard us and said we both disgusted him for arguing over him..."

Harry frowned, he felt incredibly stuck in the middle here, "He really likes you as a friend. I know that much."

"Yeah, I know that much too," Susan said irritably, "But Hannah got two things from Neville. She got love and she got respect. All I got, all I ever get, is darkness and bitterness..."

"Neville does respect you Suse," Harry said softly, "And he doesn't think you're a slut. I mean you've slept with what, 3 guys"

"4," Susan replied miserably.

"How is that massively different to anyone else?" Harry asked her with a raised eyebrow.

"It's probably higher than everyone else's number. What's yours?"

"3," Harry replied, "Not far off of yours, and Theo's is probably in double figures."

"I'd know," Susan said irritably, "I was one of his conquests."

"It doesn't make you a slut," Harry said angrily, "Frankly I hate that word and Hannah is really pissing me off with her petty, childish attitude at the moment."

"She's probably right though," Susan said with a frown, "I mean I lost my virginity at 15. I _am _a slut, she's right about the fact that nobody will ever love or respect me."

"She said that?" Harry asked angrily.

Susan just nodded and Harry shook his head, "Well I love you so that's a load of bullshit for a start. I love you like a friend and like a sister and I know I'm not the only one who feels that way. I've got buckets of respect for you too, you're one of the bravest, bad arse girls I know."

Susan laughed weakly, "Thanks for the self-esteem boost Harry."

Harry smiled and put his arm around her, "Hey it's the truth Susan. You're fantastic and maybe Neville doesn't see that but somebody else will, I promise."

***

"You took _forever_."

"I found a stray along the way," Harry joked as he walked back into the common room with Susan, "And she ate half of your ice cream."

"Boy trouble?" Ginny asked Susan with a slight smile.

"And girl trouble," Susan sighed.

"Well then I guess I forgive you," Ginny joked.

Susan smiled weakly and then glanced at Harry as she stepped onto the staircase to the girl's dorms, "Thanks for the pep talk Harry," she said as she disappeared upstairs.

Ginny raised an eyebrow at her ex as he sat down next to her on the sofa, "Pep talk?"

"You know what's going on with Neville, Hannah and Susan don't you?" Harry asked as he handed her a spoon and the ice cream tub.

"Hannah broke up with Neville who then slept with Susan," Ginny said with a wave of the spoon, "And they were arguing about him so he told them both to fuck off. Yep, the whole school heard about it."

"Well Susan has feelings for Neville but she thinks he doesn't respect her. She kept calling herself a slut which pisses me off," Harry said irritably, "Why do girls have to hurt each other like that? Why do they have to bring each other down with horrible names?"

"Because they are petty bitches," Ginny shrugged, "I've been called a slut a good few times."

"Why?" Harry asked in disbelief.

"Because I've slept with a lot of guys for a 17-year-old," Ginny said simply, "And I'm not ashamed of it either."

"A lot?" Harry asked with a raised eyebrow, "You've slept with like 3 people."

"4" Ginny corrected him, "Michael, Dean, you and Blaise...and I was like 15 when I lost my virginity."

"I've literally just had this conversation with Susan," Harry said, "And I stand by what I said to her. It doesn't make you a slut and I think we should bloody abolish that word. Who cares how many people you sleep with? Humans are designed to find sex enjoyable, screw it if you've slept with more people than the other people your age. As long as you're careful and don't catch any horrible diseases then it shouldn't be a problem."

Ginny smiled slightly, "You're a feminist now, yeah?"

"Nah," Harry laughed, "I just don't like girls disrespecting themselves or each other. Especially pretty, confident, funny girls like you and Susan."

"Well I appreciate your heroics and I'm sure Susan does too," Ginny chuckled, "But you better disappear before your girlfriend finds you sharing ice cream with your ex."

"One more spoonful," Harry said, he stole a huge spoonful of her ice cream and got slapped as he darted up the stairs to his own dorm room.

***

On Friday morning everyone sat down to eat breakfast. An owl arrived with Hermione's prophet which she casually unrolled and glanced at the front page of. This casual glance caused her to choke on her pumpkin juice and spit it out over her breakfast.

"They did a reprint!" Hermione exclaimed loudly and the others hurried over to look at the picture on the front page which was now a picture of Dean and Tracey together at the Yule Ball.

"I thought you said..." Hermione said slowly but then she shook her head, "It doesn't matter. All that matters is that the truth is out there," she smiled as she skimmed the article.

"Read it out loud Mione," Daphne said from where she was sitting next to her friend.

Hermione smiled, "Sure," she said as she cleared her throat and got ready to read out the new article.

"**_A VALENTINE'S DAY TRAGEDY_**

_Article written by Roger Davies_

_(Reprint of edition from Monday the 23rd of Feb.)_

_When Dean Thomas (a war hero) and Tracey Davis imagined Valentine's Day I'm sure they imagined a happy affair but sadly that was not to be. In a tragic incident 7 girls were kidnapped on Valentine's Day, taken from the village of Hogsmeade where students from Hogwarts are permitted to visit on certain weekends. Hermione Granger (war heroine), Daphne Greengrass (the girlfriend of Harry Potter), Hannah Abbott (a dueller for the light in the war), Susan Bones (also a dueller for the light), Sadie Cauldwell (the daughter of Isenbard Cauldwell, the inventor of floo powder pots) and Lillian Moon (another dueller for the light) were the other girls abducted with Tracey. My sources tell me that Miss. Granger and Miss. Greengrass were both tortured to reveal information that their long-term boyfriends, Harry Potter and Draco Black respectively, had discussed with them._

_The people responsible for the ruthless attack were Death Eaters Evan Rosier and Thorfinn Rowle. The entire attack was perpetrated by Dolores Umbridge (Former Undersecretary to the Minister for Magic) who was enraged that a certain group of students who had returned for an 8th Year at Hogwarts to achieve their N.E.W.T's, intended to end corruption within the Ministry. Those also involved in the bid to make the Wizengamot legitimate once more were the heads of prominent families such as Neville Longbottom (war hero) and Theodore Nott (son of Alfred Nott, former governor of Hogwarts). Combined with Harry Potter and Draco Black (formerly Malfoy) these families are practically wizarding royalty. Add in Ronald Weasley (war hero and the son of Arthur Weasley, one of the few wizarding officials within the Ministry pushing for reforms to end corruption), Susan Bones (niece of the first female head of the Wizengamot, Amelia Bones), Hannah Abbot (whose Father Isaiah is a prominent wizarding official in the Wizengamot and in the DMLE) and Daphne Greengrass (daughter of Cygnus Greengrass whose shipping business keeps the wizarding markets from London to Shanghai afloat) and you have a large group of powerful young witches and wizards who have the ideas needed to reform our country, and the power to enforce them. _

_Together with their close friend Dean and bounty hunter Percy Weasley (also co-founder and owner of 'WW Law Firm') the group decided to find and save the girls. Disaster struck when the kidnapped girls were found in a cave deep below the mountains on the outskirts of Hogsmeade. A battle began that left 5 dead, Rosier, Rowle and Umbridge were among these five and Potter, Malfoy and Bones each received a 200 galleon fine for their use of the killing curse as justified by the Minister for Magic who described it as, 'quick thinking defensive magic that saved many lives'. Unfortunately, amongst the chaos Thomas and Davis were hit with killing curses and their lives ended on the day that Thomas was planning to propose to Davies. The story is tragic and our hearts and prayers here at the Prophet go out to both families. May both Dean Thomas and Tracey Davis rest in peace."_

"Wow," Sadie said, in awe at how amazing the article was, "That's a big difference from 'we love Dean but don't even know Tracey's second name', isn't it?"

"Yeah," Hermione said, she was in shock too but she was also frowning as if she was trying to figure out something very complicated in her head.

"What do you think made them change their mind?" Susan asked, like Sadie she was oblivious to what Daphne and Hermione were in the middle of figuring out.

"Which one of you bought the prophet?" Daphne asked with a small smile.

"None of them technically," Hermione said as she narrowed eyes at the 4 boys.

"You are both correct," Harry said honestly, "So to speak.”

"We both did," Draco said as he grinned at Harry, "Between us we now co-own the prophet."

"So you control the news now?" Hermione asked in amusement, the corners of her mouth quirked up.

"Yep," Draco said smugly, "And our first action was to pass a law stating that the news must always be truthful."

"A law?" Susan laughed, "You realise you own a newspaper, not the Ministry right?"

"Whatever," Harry said with a wave of his hand, "We passed a news law and since we own the news it must be obeyed so it's basically the same thing."

"Right," Susan chuckled as she shook her head in amusement.

"Our second action as the new owners of the prophet was to sack that idiot Harrington and appoint Rodger Davies as editor," Harry added.

Neville nodded, "Don't you think it was a good idea? Who knew he was that good?"

"I know," Sadie said, "I always thought he was a bit of an airhead."

"So did I," Hermione admitted, "But apparently not."

"As co-owners of the prophet, do you know everything that goes into it before it's published?" Hermione asked with a smirk.

Harry frowned, "No... we just give them funding and make them change things we don't like...why?"

Hermione grinned as she turned to page 6 of the paper and turned it around to show the boys, "It's this year's '10 Most Wondrous Wizards and Witches list' and look who's at the top of it."

"What?" Theo exclaimed indignantly, "Number 5? Last year I was number 3!"

"Number 2!" Draco said loudly, glaring at the paper, "I was number 1 last year!"

"Number 3!" Harry snorted, "I saved the wizarding world, I should have beaten Draco at least!"

"Number one!" Neville said slowly as he gaped at his picture which was smiling at him from the paper, "Number 1? Seriously?"

"Everybody loves a shy, unexpected hero Neville," Susan teased. Hannah shot a dirty look at her former best friend but if Susan saw it she ignored it.

"Whose number 4?" Sadie asked as she craned her head to get a look at the list, she couldn't quite see it because of where she was sitting.

"Viktor Krum," Hermione replied through a mouthful of toast.

Susan snorted and Hermione asked, "What happened with you two? You seemed to really hit it off!"

Susan shook her head, "It didn't work out, he trains from 5am till midnight 6 days a week. He said it to me straight that he didn't want a girlfriend, he just wanted fun. I've had enough of being someone's fun when they're having a bad time," her eyes flickered towards Neville who glanced down guiltily.

"You'll find someone who wants to date you Susan," Daphne said with a smile, "And when you do the flings won't mean anything anymore and you'll be glad you waited for a decent guy to come along," she grinned at Harry who smiled broadly back.

"I hope you're right," Susan said simply as she looked back down at her breakfast.

Lilly walked by the table on her way to Hannah, "Ooh the list is out. Is Ron on there?"

Hermione swallowed her toast and glanced down, "Yep, number 9. Are you two back together?"

Lilly scoffed, "No. He was there for me through everything that happened and don't get me wrong that was sweet of him. But he slept with somebody else and I don't think I'll ever be able to trust him again because of that."

Hannah shot Neville a glare and said loudly, "Yeah, I know _exactly _what you mean."

"Hannah, if all you are going to do is make petty comments loudly then I'd appreciate it if you stopped it," Neville said irritably, “It isn't going to change my mind, it's just annoying."

Hannah looked affronted and embarrassed as she got to her feet and stalked from the hall.

Lilly sighed and glanced at Neville, "She's having a really hard time with this you know."

"I know," Neville said in an undertone, "But this isn't the same as what Ron did to you Lil. Ron slept with someone else because you two had an argument but you were still together. Hannah threw some disgusting insults around and then broke up with me. I _knew _I wasn't going to get back together with her when I slept with Susan."

"And I get that," Lilly said honestly, "But you lot are all so close and Hannah is feeling isolated. Without me, she doesn't really have anyone else Neville. I'm not picking sides, I've known you and Hannah both since 1st year. I don't want to lose either of you."

"Alright," Neville said with a nod, "So long as you don't flit between us and gossip."

Lilly snorted in amusement as she slung her bag over her back, "Do I _look _like the kind of person who gossips?'" she asked simply as she walked out of the hall after Hannah.

Neville sighed as he glanced away from her, "This has really ripped us apart."

"Well, it's ripped Hannah away from us," Susan said as she shoved her food around on her plate, "I knew there was a nasty side to her but I didn't realise it would come out in force. She's my best friend though, she's my Ron you know Harry?"

"I get it," Harry said honestly.

"So what would you do in this situation?" Susan asked with a sigh.

"If I had slept with my best friend's girlfriend you mean?" Harry asked with a raised eyebrow, "Because I practically did that, in the war."

Hermione rolled her eyes, "You make it sound worse than it was. Ron and I weren't together, we had never been together. We just had feelings for each other."

"All the same," Harry said as he turned back to Susan, "I told Ron what had happened. He punched me in the face, we didn't talk for a while and then things were okay again after a couple of weeks."

"Girls are a bit more complicated than that," Daphne said with a slight smile, "Suse, you've said it yourself. Hannah can be petty and childish. All that you can do is apologise and hope things blow over. But you might have to accept that they never will."

Susan sighed again, "Yeah...you're right. Who else is on that list Hermione?"

Hermione knew that Susan wanted to change the subject and she understood why as she scanned the list again, "Wow, Percy is number 8! Although even I have to admit that the new look suited him..."

Harry shook his head in disbelief and Draco made a face, "I'm worried about your affixation with Weasley's, Hermione."

Hermione simply rolled her eyes at this comment. Daphne was sitting next to her and had been leaning over her shoulder to read the paper, "Well I'm not surprised at Number 6 or 7," she said.

"Oliver Wood," Hermione agreed.

Daphne grinned, "For a Gryffindor he isn't bad," she winked at Harry who only chuckled.

"And 7 is still Gilderoy Lockhart which is so predictable," Sadie said as she rolled her eyes "I mean he's been in St. Mungo's for long enough now.

"At least he's not number one anymore," Hermione pointed out

Daphne chuckled, "True," she said.

"You can't talk Hermione, you fancied him like mad in 2nd year!"

"Oh hush Harry!"

"Whose number 10?" Harry asked, he was quite intrigued by the list even though it was a girly thing.

Hermione glanced at the list one last time, "Uh, Roger Davies," she said as Draco grabbed the paper from her hands and spread it out on the table in front of himself, Harry, Theo and Neville.

"Right," Draco said as he turned the page to the "Wondrous Witches" section, "Time to see what your ratings are."

"Daphne, you've been knocked off of the top spot," Draco said with a smirk, "By my gorgeous Gryffindor herself."

Hermione gaped at him, "Seriously?"

"Really!" Harry said, "And Daph, you're number 2."

"Number 2 dating a number 3? Oh I don't know about that Harry," Daphne joked but Harry only laughed.

"Sadie, you're number 3," Theo said, "Two ranks higher than last year," he hi-fived his girlfriend.

Neville laughed, "Number 4 Suse, if you're interested in that sort of stuff."

"Not bad," Susan said with a chuckle, "I didn't even make last year's list."

Harry chuckled, "Well the war clearly did your publicity some good. Do you reckon Gin knows she's number 5?"

"I know," Ginny said as she dropped down onto Blaise's lap, "I'm rethinking our relationship actually Blaise. I mean you're not even on the list, I'm clearly way too good for you."

Blaise snorted, "Coming from the blood traitor."

Ginny rolled her eyes, "I could make comments on your two _Muggle _step-fathers."

"Who are both dead," Blaise pointed out.

"Who your Mother still had children with,'" Ginny smirked, "So give up the pureblood act you tosser."

Blaise smiled slightly, unbeknownst to Ginny who had turned to look at her friends, "Did you see that Angelina made number 6?"

"And number 7 is Gabrielle," Harry said through a mouthful of toast.

"Fleur is number 8," Harry added after he had swallowed his mouthful. He whistled, "Oh she is not going to like being beaten by her sister," he laughed as he imagined Fleurs reaction when she saw the list.

"Number 9 is Cho Chang," Theo said, "I'd agree with that."

Sadie glared at him, "Theo," she said, her tone was a very clear warning.

"I mean I agree that she's number 9 and you're number 3 because you're so much more amazing than her!" Theo said smoothly.

Sadie saw right through him, she gave him a wry smile, "Nice save," she said with a smirk.

Theo grinned, "I thought so myself, thank you my dear."

"And last, but not least..." Draco said.

Harry added, "Drum roll please," which Neville provided.

"...is...” Draco said, “...Katie Bell!"

They laughed at the dramatics of it all and they could see McGonagall smiling at the head table.

"So today we have learned," Daphne joked, "That Hermione and I are both too hot for our boyfriends."

They all laughed and it felt amazing to be able to laugh like that and feel happiness again. In a way losing Dean and Tracey had made them cherish life. They really realised just how short life could be, and they also appreciated just how lucky that they were to be able to live the lives that they were leading.

**TBC :)**


	42. Family Planning Week

It was Monday morning, the 7th years and 8th years were all cramped into McGonagall's classroom and family planning week was beginning. McGonagall had gone over the rules one more time and had informed them that they were to remain in the classroom after they had received their child. They were not to leave until McGonagall had dismissed them. Some people were dreading it and others were nonchalant about it. Some were even excited for the chance to get extra credit, Hannah in particular was one of these people because she was hoping to get into an elite French healing programme after Hogwarts.

"I will begin with the couples. Will Harry Potter and Daphne Greengrass please come forward?" McGonagall asked.

They were wary about being called forward first but Harry and Daphne walked to the front of the class all the same. Once they had reached the professor she clicked her fingers and a house elf appeared.

"Kreacher!" Harry exclaimed in surprise.

“Master Harry sir!” Kreacher squeaked. In his arms he was holding none other than his favourite person on this planet. The blue haired little boy he was proud to call his Godson, "Teddy!"

There was some chuckling as Harry took Teddy from the house elf. The little boy squirmed excitedly and bounced as his hair transitioned to look like Harry's mop. He grinned at the boy who was nearing his first birthday now, "Well who's a clever little boy then," he said as he tickled him.

McGonagall smiled slightly, "As you are already a Godfather Mr. Potter I felt it made sense for you to take care of Teddy this week. His Grandmother informs me that she cannot wait to spend a week in the Caribbean with her sister," she shot an amused look at Draco who chuckled.

The professor handed a sheet of parchment to Daphne, "This is the map to your quarters for the week, along with the password to get in. You will need it when you leave here."

"Thank you professor," Daphne said as she and Harry sat back down in the classroom with Teddy who was now bouncing very excitedly on Harry's lap.

"We got off pretty easy," Harry said quietly to Daphne, "Teddy is brilliant. He's the easiest baby in the world to look after."

Daphne smiled at how happy her boyfriend was to see his Godson, "He is the cutest baby I've ever seen," she admitted as Teddy grabbed her finger and tried to bite it.

Harry was going to tell the boy off but he didn't need to. Daphne gently pulled her finger out of his grasp and said, "Hey now Teddy, fingers are not for biting," she waved her wand and conjured up a teething toy, "Now this is for biting."

Teddy narrowed his eyes at the toy for a moment but then seemed to believe that it was safe because he grabbed it and immediately put it into his mouth. Harry laughed and turned his attention back to his classmates. Draco and Hermione had been called to the front of the classroom where McGonagall had opened a cupboard full of clay models of babies which were pretty creepy. She placed one model on the desk and said, "Both of you must prick your finger and let a drop of blood fall onto the model. It will then take on your personality traits and looks and become a combination of you both."

"That's freaky," Neville whispered in Harry's ear, "Like in that creepy movie you showed me with robots taking over the world."

"It is pretty creepy," Harry agreed in amusement.

"Wow," Hermione said in awe as she pricked her finger with one of the small needles provided, “That's very advanced magic,” she said as her drop of blood fell onto the model.

"And very dangerous Miss. Granger. Everything that we are using for this class has been developed in the Department of Mysteries," McGonagall told Hermione as Draco's drop of blood fell onto the model. Instantly it began to transform, it grew blonde curly hair and its legs and arms grew. Its body began to move and it screwed its face up then opened its eyes which were the same hazel brown shade as Hermione's.

"Woah," Draco and Hermione said in unison, that was indeed amazing magic. McGonagall handed the baby to Hermione which was dressed in a pink sleep suit, "She is 6 months old and you may name her."

Draco was handed the map and password and they took their seats next to their friends. Neville whispered, "This is definitely like something out of a horror film."

"Oh hush, she's cute," Hermione said, "And she does look like us."

"Which is kind of weird and creepy," Draco admitted as he looked at the child. It did have his nose, "I suppose we have to come up with a name for it."

"It?" Hermione asked with a raised eyebrow, "She may not be real but she's still a girl. What about Darcy?"

"Yeah, I like Darcy," Draco said simply.

"My first doll was called Darcy," Hermione said thoughtfully.

Harry snorted, "That's why this is freaking me out so much. Once this is all over I'm going to show you a movie called 'Chuckie' and you'll get where I'm coming from."

Hermione rolled her eyes as Sadie and Theo walked to the front of the class to receive their child. They went through the same process and ended up with a 5-month old boy with Theo's black hair and Sadie's blue eyes. They joined their friends at the table where Theo eyed the fake child suspiciously.

“Is anyone else finding this incredibly weird?” Theo whispered.

“Yes,” Harry, Daphne, Draco and Neville replied.

Hermione rolled her eyes at Sadie, "No. It's just a project. They aren't going to kill us in our sleep, this isn't a Muggle horror movie."

"No, but it is Hogwarts," Neville pointed out, "I fail to see the difference sometimes."

Sadie shook her head, "They're just innocent little fake babies. What should we name him anyway Theo?"

"I don't know," Theo floundered, "Andrew?"

Sadie frowned, "I actually like Andrew."

"It was the first thing that popped into my head," Theo muttered to Neville who simply sniggered.

The other couples were given babies before the pairing of the singles. This meant that Blaise and Ginny were given a dark skinned baby girl with bushy hair and hazel eyes. They joined the little group and Ginny who was holding the girl muttered, "Okay is it just me or is this really bloody freaky?"

"Not just you," The majority of the group chorused.

"What do we name it?" Ginny asked as she looked at the fake baby.

"Sara?" Blaise shrugged, "That's what my first cat was called."

"This just got even weirder but alright," Ginny said in amusement.

Harry snorted and was very grateful that he just had to look after Teddy for the week. These freaky fake doll human things were really creeping him out. After that there were no couples which meant it was time for the singles to get paired up and Neville found himself dreading being paired with Hannah or Susan.

Terry Boot was paired with Luna and they ended up with a 6-month old which got named Alexander. Ginny's ex-boyfriend Michael Corner got paired with Annie which was slightly awkward considering that he was best friends with Terry, her ex-boyfriend. They ended up with a 9-month old baby girl with tanned skin, dark hair and dark eyes who was named Annabelle. Ernie was paired with Meghan, a match that probably wouldn't go down very well because they had never exactly been the best of friends. They got a blonde haired, blue eyed baby boy which was named Thomas.

After this Hannah was paired with Justin and Neville breathed a sigh of relief. Although he couldn't help the frown that knitted itself onto his face when he saw Hannah walking away from the desk with a little girl with mousy brown hair and blue eyes. Neville's friends didn't miss the look on his face and neither did Susan as hurt burned in her eyes. They called the fake baby Olivia and Neville tore his eyes away with another half-hearted comment about how creepy this all was.

When Zacharias Smith and Sally Smith were paired together there was some sniggering. They weren't related despite their surname but they were both disliked individuals. Ever since all of the drama that had kicked off around Sally she had lost a lot of friends, her best friend Annie included. Neither of them looked particularly happy as they were given a blonde haired, hazel eyed boy who they reluctantly named Jackson. Mandy Brocklehurst was then paired with her on-off boyfriend Maxwell Harper. The pair ended up with a baby boy with brown hair and blue eyes who was named Danny. There were only a few people left now and Neville was getting nervous about being paired with Susan as Gabrielle Delacour ended up paired with the 7th year Hufflepuff Mason Rockwell. Their fake child was also a boy with blonde hair, and hazel eyes. He was hastily named David because it was the only thing that Mason could think of on short notice.

The only people without babies now were Neville, Anthony Goldstein, Lilly and Susan. Neville tried not to look too awkward or nervous as Susan glanced at him but he did breathe a sigh of relief when McGonagall called Anthony and Susan forward. He just hoped that Susan hadn't noticed because he didn't want to hurt her feelings but things had already gotten awkward between them and he didn't want to compromise their friendship further with weird feelings about fake babies this week. Anthony and Susan were given a cute baby girl with red hair and blue eyes who looked very like Susan, they sat down in front of the main group and named the girl Sophia.

Finally, Neville and Lilly were called forward and Neville hoped that it wouldn't be too weird. He and Lilly were friends but living together and raising a fake creepy doll baby together would test any friendship. They pricked their fingers as the others had done and their doll transformed into a baby. Neville made a face at the weirdness of it all but when it was finished it did look like a combination of Lilly and himself. The baby girl had Lilly's dark, almost jet black hair and pale skin, but Neville's hazel eyes and Neville's nose.

"This is officially weird," Lilly muttered as she was handed the baby and Neville was handed the map to their quarters for the week.

"It's definitely weird," Neville agreed as they joined their friends, "These things are going to take over the bloody school."

"It's all a bit too 'Chuckie' for my liking," Lilly said and Harry nodded his agreement.

"You guys need to show me that film," Neville said as he glanced between them.

"Not until this week is over," Lilly said as she made a face at the baby, "Otherwise you'll sleep with one eye open all week and you'll be terrified of babies by the end of it."

"Fair enough," Neville said in amusement, "We’re going to have to think up a name for it aren't we?"

"Yep," Lilly said, "I was gonna suggest Chuckie but let's not tempt fate."

Harry snorted, "Don't call it Charlotte, Alice or Emily either then. In all the horror films the creepy dead child is called one of those three names."

"Good point," Lilly realised, "Like 9 times out of 10 the creepy child is called Alice."

Neville looked oblivious, "So what are we calling it then?"

"I don’t know," Lilly said, "How about Aria?"

"Aria?" Neville asked in amusement, "It’s pretty cool but quite unusual."

Lilly shrugged, "It's a character in a book series I like," she said offhandedly.

"Fair enough," Neville said, "The creepy living doll has been named Aria."

Lilly snorted in amusement and McGonagall called the entire class to order, "You are now excused to go to your quarters and settle in. This morning you are allowed to be absent from your first period class but you must drop your child off at the day-care centre before your second period class. Bring the child back alive to pass, the happier the child is the better your grade. Any questions?"

There didn't appear to be any so McGonagall let the 7th and 8th Years go. Harry shot the others an amused look, "Well it's going to be an interesting week," he said. From the looks on their faces they were clearly all thinking the same thing.

***

** _MONDAY - DAY 1_ **

"Are we supposed to sleep in the same bed?" Lilly asked in disbelief as they explored their quarters properly that evening.

"Looks like it," Neville said matter of factly as he walked backwards and forwards with Aria to keep her asleep.

"Isn't the whole point to make sure we don't sleep together and have children?" Lilly joked as she fell back onto the bed, "I don't even get why McGonagall is making us do this."

"It's not her, it's the Ministry. They are trying to prevent another generation of Neville Longbottoms and Harry Potters," Neville shrugged.

Lilly frowned up at him, "What do you mean?"

"My parents were 19 when they got married and Harry's were 18," Neville replied, "They were all 20 years old when Harry and I were born. The Ministry is trying to make sure we don't all get out of school and get married too quickly."

"Why do the Ministry care how quickly people get married and spawn little puking things?" Lilly asked with a raised eyebrow.

Neville laughed quietly, "Well they care because Kingsley and those who are desperately trying to push the new reforms through want new blood in the Ministry. They don't want women sitting at home with babies. They want them in the Ministry, pushing forward change."

"That does make sense," Lilly said thoughtfully, "And I suppose it's useful to teach us how big a commitment a baby can be, or even a relationship."

"Exactly," Neville said as he put the baby down in the other room. He walked back into the main bedroom and continued, "And look at Hannah and me. If we had rushed into marriage after the war and I had discovered that nasty side of her then it would have been too late. You've got to be sure of how you feel about someone before you have a baby with them because you will definitely see each other at your worst when you're both sleep deprived and stressed."

"That makes a lot of sense," Lilly said thoughtfully, "We all grew up really quickly because of the war. But for a lot of us we grew up in terms of magic and spells, we're more advanced than other people our age in that way...but not necessarily emotionally."

"Exactly," Neville said as he sat down on the edge of the bed.

"When did you go and get so wise?" Lilly asked as she surveyed him.

"I don't know, at some point during the war," Neville laughed.

***

"Silence."

"He doesn't cry," Harry grinned as he glanced over at his girlfriend.

"This isn't the best way to teach us about the consequences of having children," Daphne laughed, "Giving us a perfect one."

"Well I'm the boy-who-lived and you are amazing, so we will have perfect children," Harry joked.

Daphne laughed and rolled onto her stomach in their bed, "What makes you think we'll last that long? Look at Neville and Hannah."

"Yeah, they broke up," Harry agreed, "But that doesn't mean that we will. I've seen the worst parts of you and you've seen the worst parts of me. We can handle them, Neville and Hannah couldn't which meant that they weren't right for each other."

"And you're so sure that we are?" Daphne asked with a slight smile.

"I'm 100% sure," Harry said as he leant down to gently kiss her lips, "I can picture our life together. If you say you can't close your eyes and see yourself walking towards me in a wedding dress or holding a baby with a mess of black hair you're lying."

Daphne smiled sheepishly at him, "Alright, you're right. I can picture our life together but unexpected things can happen, Harry."

"And we'll get through every unexpected thing together," Harry said simply and confidently.

Daphne smiled broadly at him, "I love you."

"I love you too," Harry said softly as he reached over to kiss her properly. She leant in and deepened the kiss. It had barely lasted for a couple of minutes when a shout from the room next door forced them apart.

"Perfect child, huh?" Daphne asked in amusement as she pushed herself out of bed.

"Almost perfect," Harry yawned, "He'll be wanting his bottle. He only gets one at night these days. Bring him through here and we'll feed him."

"Alright," Daphne said as Harry's yawn caught on.

***

** _TUESDAY - DAY 2_ **

"I come bearing good news!"

The Great Hall was much louder than usual that morning with all the children crying and shouting. Draco, Hermione, Harry and Daphne were the most at ease as they sat at the table and talked over the noise as Darcy quite happily watched Teddy changing his hair colour every 5 seconds.

"Whats that?" Draco asked as he shovelled down bacon and eggs.

"Well, apart from the fact that this family planning thing is ridiculously easy," Harry said which got chuckles from the others, "Melody was finally let out of the hospital wing today. She's been moved to St. Mungos where she can be more comfortable during the testing period. McGonagall said she'll officially be joining us next Monday."

"That's great!" Hermione piped up.

Daphne nodded happily as she kept a close eye on the two babies, "Yeah, I bet she can't wait to get back to a relatively normal life."

"It's brilliant," Harry agreed as he too started to eat almost as hungrily as Draco. Although he hadn't had quite as little sleep as Draco had, he had been working through the night obsessing over his project again. They hadn't made it to the manor like they had planned because of Dean and Tracey's deaths and now this whole family planning thing had gotten in the way of their plans too.

The family planning thing, for Harry anyway, wasn't as hard as it had seemed but maybe he and Daphne were just good at it. Teddy was now 9 months old, he was crawling, walking by holding onto surfaces and he could say a lot of words now too. He could also pretty much feed himself so he fed himself his own sandwich for breakfast and Harry and Daphne then dropped him off at the day-care centre. They attended all of their classes and then picked Teddy up, had dinner in the Great Hall and went 'home'.

After that things got complicated as Harry had Quidditch practice. He came into the living room, wearing his scarlet training gear and he grinned when he saw Daphne on the floor with Teddy who was changing his hair colour to anything she held up to him.

"You have no idea how cute you are with him," Harry remarked as he kissed Daphne on the cheek, "Are you sure you'll be okay?"

Daphne smiled, "Oh yeah, me and Teddy will be fine. Don't worry, just have fun at practice!" she called and she waved to Harry as he left the room.

"Bye Hawwy!" Teddy called and the last thing Harry heard was Daphne saying, "Aww! How clever are you Teddy!"

Two hours later, after the most awful practice ever because of the fact that almost all of the 7th and 8th Years on the team were exhausted due to the family planning project, Harry dragged himself into the living room where he saw Daphne lying asleep on the couch. He smiled and woke her up; she was drowsy at first and then she looked around with a frown.

"Harry! Teddy...he was sleeping...but I must have...and oh for Salazar's sake! He's gone!" Daphne was panicking as she looked around the room.

Harry only smiled, "Daphne, don't worry," he said calmly.

"Harry!" Daphne shrieked, "Your Godson is _missing_, shouldn't you be more worried about-' she stopped speaking when Harry got on his knees and started crawling around the living room, “What the hell are you doing?"

"You'll see," Harry said simply as he crawled into the corner of the room and grasped something invisible that squirmed and giggled. Daphne sighed in relief from behind him as he pulled his invisibility cloak off of his Godson.

"Teddy, what did I tell you about playing with Uncle Harry's invisibility cloak?" Harry chastised the boy but not too badly, he couldn't get angry with the little boy.

Teddy only giggled, "Daddy!" he shouted as he pointed at Harry which made Daphne giggle from the couch.

"No," Harry corrected the boy, "Harry."

"Daddy!" Teddy shouted again.

Harry tried again to correct him, "_No_, Harry."

"DADDY!" Teddy shouted on a louder, more final note.

From behind him Daphne said, "I don't think you're going to win this one."

Harry laughed, "I think you're probably right."

***

** _WEDNESDAY - DAY 3_ **

Draco and Hermione had been finding this whole baby thing pretty easy. Darcy slept at night, ate all of her meals, giggled and was cute and rarely cried. It helped that Draco really was the baby whisperer of course, a fact which amused Hermione to no end.

When Darcy had been put to bed that evening Hermione found Draco pacing the living room anxiously. She frowned and put her book down, "What's going on?"

"What if we can never have this?" Draco asked her quickly, "What if we can't have this life Hermione? Babies...or a family...what if we can't have it _because of me_?"

Hermione sighed, "Draco, I know that your project is freaking you out but you've got to relax. Yes, purebloods have less children but you don't have a case study of a pureblood and a muggle-born, do you?"

"Yes," Draco said irritably, "I do and I haven't told you about it because the prognosis isn't good, Hermione!"

Hermione's frown deepened, "What have you been keeping from me, Draco?"

"Andromeda," Draco sighed, "My Aunt Dromeda...she married a Muggle-born."

"And they had a child," Hermione said, "They had Tonks. So what is the problem?"

"The problem is that they didn't just have my cousin Dora," Draco said quietly, "My Aunt Dromeda is from the Black family. They are the most inbred of all of the pureblood families, and she suffered because of that even though she married a Muggle-born."

"What do you mean she suffered?" Hermione asked quietly, she had paled slightly.

"She had 3 miscarriages before she had Dora," Draco said as he stared at the floor, "And two stillbirths, all because of deformations caused by the inbreeding in her family. I _am _a Black as much as I am a Malfoy, Hermione. How can I do that to you? How can I put you through that?"

Hermione sat down weakly on the bed, "You don't know that it will happen to us Draco. Andromeda was the one carrying the children and she was the one from the inbred family. It might be different if the Muggle-born is the one carrying the children."

"Might being the key word," Draco said quietly.

"We can't let this ruin us Draco," Hermione said as she glanced up at him, "We can't let our worries for the future ruin our present. All of this is a 'maybe' or a 'what if?', none of it could happen or all of it could."

"But you want a family Hermione," Draco said quietly, "And you deserve one. You deserve a simple, happy family. I can't guarantee that I can give it to you and I'm starting to feel like letting you go might be the best thing for you."

"No," Hermione said simply. She shook her head and met his watery grey eyes, "Because I don't want to be let go, Draco. I want a family yes, but I want you more. I don't want to bother starting a family unless it's with you."

"But-"

"I know the risks," Hermione said simply, "I knew about them before you told me. I've always known about the problems that occur during pregnancy because of pureblood inbreeding. It doesn't change the way that I feel."

"Well it changes the way I feel," Draco said quietly, "Because I don't know how I can put you through pain like that and not let the guilt eat me up."

"Draco," Hermione said softly, "The future is the future. Just focus on the present, please?"

Draco sighed but nodded, "I promise that I'll try," he said as he crossed the room and sat down next to her on the bed.

Hermione wrapped her arms around him and sighed into his embrace, "Then for now that's enough," she whispered gently.

***

** _THURSDAY - DAY 4_ **

Lilly had looked after Aria for the last few days after getting over her initial grossness at changing nappies and the like. As a result, she handed the baby over to Neville on day 4 so she could go and grab a few more hours sleep.

Neville had needed to do some important Herbology work down in the greenhouse so he was resigned to having to take Aria with him. At first it had been fine, but then she'd started crawling around on the bench and after the 4th time Neville had to catch her from falling he decided to put her in one of the pots to stop her from falling off. He gave her a toy and she quite happily sat there as he worked away.

"Neville, did you put the baby in a plant pot?"

Neville jumped and looked up at Lilly, "Uh...maybe."

Lilly raised an eyebrow at him, "She's in a plant pot, Neville."

Neville nodded, "Yes...she is. She kept crawling off of the bench so I figured she'd be safer in there!"

"How many times did she fall off the bench?" Lilly asked in amusement.

"About 3 times," Neville admitted sheepishly.

"Oh my lord," Lilly said as she shook her head, "We're totally failing this project."

“Sorry,” Neville said genuinely,

There was a giggle and at that point Neville and Lilly both realised that Aria wasn't in the pot anymore. She was being lifted and thrown around by the Venomous Tentacula and apparently she was finding it great fun.

"Oh no," Neville mumbled, "Audrey, put the baby down!"

"Audrey?" Lilly asked in disbelief, "You named a plant _Audrey_?"

"No," Neville said quickly, "Sprout did, it's from a Muggle musical or something that she likes. Audrey, can I please have the baby back?"

Instantly the plant dropped the baby into Neville's arms and Lilly took her from him with a shake of her head, "Honestly Nev, it's a good thing you and me aren't together. Between _this _and me nearly dropping her down the grand staircase yesterday I can only conclude that we would be _terrible _parents."

Neville laughed, "Come on we wouldn't be _that _bad," he joked.

Lilly laughed with him as they stepped out of the greenhouse into the chilly air, "You know Neville, people go on about you being this big war hero these days but I don't think you've changed a bit. You're still that guy who fumbles around and gets so lost in his work he loses track of things, like a baby for example."

Neville blushed slightly but he was smiling too because Lilly was proving to him that not all girls were Hannah and Susan. Not all girls thought he had changed and that was a sentiment that meant a lot to him at the moment, "I didn't lose track of her. I just needed to get work done and I thought she would be safer in the plant pot."

"You were so busy talking to me that you failed to notice that the venomous tentacula had picked her up," Lilly grinned, “But then again, you also managed to sweet talk it into giving her back which was very impressive by the way."

"Well thank you," Neville grinned, "It's one of my many hidden talents, sweet talking venomous tentaculi."

"Roll up, roll up!" Lilly joked, "Everyone roll up to see the amazing Neville Longbottom and his infamous plant-talking abilities!"

Neville looked at her in amusement, "What on earth are you doing Lil?"

"The circus," Lilly said with a frown, "That's what they say at the circus."

"The circus?"

"You've never been to the circus?" Lilly asked in disbelief, "Oh my gosh Nev! You are missing so much, there are tigers and lions and elephants! Oh and trapeze artists...I definitely have to take you to the circus, I'm going this Easter."

"Are you asking me out on a date?" Neville asked in surprise.

"No," Lilly scoffed, "I'm telling you that you are coming to the circus with me so I can educate you in all things weird, wonderful and fantastic like fortune tellers and clowns. Oh it's fantastic Neville, you'll love it!"

Neville smiled broadly at her, "I can't wait," he said honestly.

***

** _FRIDAY - DAY 5_ **

Everyone else was taking family planning week fairly seriously but as far as Theo was concerned the baby wasn't actually real and it was just a class. He had failed other classes so he didn't mind failing this one. On Friday Sadie said she trusted him with the baby and Theo scoffed as she headed out with Hannah and left Theo thinking about the many ways he could kill the fake baby and fail the class.

First he realised that he could say what he wanted to the baby and as long as he said it in a nice way the baby would smile and giggle so he had spent Friday morning freaking Sadie out by showing her this new skill.

He sat cross-legged on the floor with the 'baby' talking to him in a sweet baby voice, "I'm going to kill you Andrew, I'm gonna kill you," he said to which the boy giggled and clapped his hands.

Sadie stared at Theo in shock and horror, her mouth formed a perfect 'o'. She shook her head in disbelief, "Sometimes I really wonder how I ended up dating you," she said simply as she put her jacket on.

"You're still leaving it with me, after that? Seriously?" Theo asked in shock, he'd been hoping to scare her enough to let him get the day off and not have to watch the baby.

"Yep," Sadie said simply as she walked towards the door, "If you _do _kill the baby and I hope you don't, it just means we don't get the extra credit. You’re the one who needs it though, not me. Bye Theo!” she said with a smirk as she left the room. It was times like this that Theo could grin and say his girlfriend was definitely Slytherin material.

After she left Theo tried to drop the baby out of the window but Draco caught him doing it and grabbed the baby before it fell. He got a smack around the head but that didn't stop him from trying again by accidentally dropping the baby into the lake, unfortunately the giant squid spat him back out. Then he tried to use the baby for Quidditch practice but Harry didn't approve and after that he eventually gave up. Draco and Harry had both agreed that he was a sadistic git who shouldn't have kids but Theo only scoffed and said, "If this was actually my kid I wouldn't do this but it's just some freaky piece of clay that's alive and shit. That's some spooky stuff."

"When you put it like that...you have a point..." Draco admitted.

Harry barked out a laugh, "Well as mine is alive and living I disagree...and Theo, _please _stay away from my Godson."

***

** _SATURDAY - DAY 6_ **

Things weren't going smoothly for Susan, Anthony and Sophia. As Susan and Anthony were good friends they got through okay, mainly because Susan did everything because she really wanted the extra credit. It was fine until Susan had to go to Quidditch practice on Saturday.

"Ant come on! I'll be gone an hour and a half, 2 hours at the most. She'll be asleep all of the time, you probably won't even have to change her nappy!" Susan begged, she was already in her kit ready to go.

"Can't you just skip this practice?" Anthony asked irritably and Susan was about to reply when the door opened and Annie walked in smiling, "Hey Suse. I thought I'd help Ant babysit while you're at practice."

Susan smiled at Annie and hugged her, "Ugh, thank you Annie! You are a life saver," she kissed the girl on the cheek, "I'll be back soon!"

"See ya," Annie waved as Susan darted out of their quarters. She went to practice and she played well, then on her way back she bumped into Neville. It was the first time they had seen each other alone since all that had happened and it was even more awkward considering he was holding a baby.

"Hey," Susan said weakly, "Having fun?"

"Not particularly," Neville yawned, "Lil thinks we'd be terrible parents because I let the venomous tentacula kidnap the baby and she nearly dropped it down the grand staircase."

"Wow and I thought Anthony was bad for not looking after it for a few hours while I went to Quidditch practice," Susan chuckled.

"I'm sorry about the way I said what I said," Neville said out of the blue, "And I know we're pretending that things are fine but they aren't. I shouldn't have said things the way that I did but that doesn't change that I mean what I said."

"I know," Susan said quietly as she tore her eyes away from his.

"You're my best friend Susie," Neville said quietly, he had used his childhood nickname for her that he hadn’t used for years. Her eyes snapped up to meet his and Neville smiled slightly, "I don't want to lose that."

"I know," Susan said, her voice was a little hoarse as she fought back tears, "I understand Neville."

"But that doesn't make it hurt any less," Neville said with a nod, "I get that."

"We'll get back to normal," Susan said with a nod.

"I know we will," Neville said as he leant down to kiss her on the cheek, "I have faith in our friendship."

"So do I," Susan said with a weak, almost pained smile as Neville walked away.

***

** _SUNDAY - DAY 7_ **

As the week drew to its end the 'gang' ended up in Daphne and Harry's 'quarters' for a catch up.

"Have you been enjoying it?" Harry asked the others.

Neville frowned, "I like the whole aspect of having something to look after it and it's cute and all. But it's not real, you know?"

"You like having something to look after?" Lilly asked in amusement, "Did you tell Harry about how you let the venomous tentacula kidnap her and that you put her in a plant pot?"

Harry laughed so loudly he startled Teddy in the next room, "No, he didn't tell me that Lil. You let the venomous tentacula kidnap your baby?"

"Fake baby," Neville corrected, "I mean if she was my real baby I wouldn't put her in a plant pot or try and feed her to Audrey."

"That's the name of the venomous tentacula apparently," Lilly said through her laughter.

"So Sprout is a fan of "Little Shop of Horrors" then," Hermione grinned.

Harry looked clueless, "What?"

"You have never seen "Little Shop of Horrors"?" Hermione asked in disbelief, "Oh my gosh I loved that movie as a kid! It was about a giant plant that fed on blood so its owner fed it people."

"Ooh so it's a horror?" Harry asked eagerly, "We can watch it after we watch "Chuckie" in the Room of Requirement!"

"It's not a horror," Hermione laughed, "It's a musical."

Neville laughed out loud, "That's settled then, we're watching it after "Chuckie". Hey Hermione, have you been to a circus?"

"Yeah," Hermione said in amusement, "Haven't you?"

"Nope," Neville said, "Lilly thinks it's shocking that I haven't. She's taking me to see a circus at Easter, how cool is that?"

Harry raised an eyebrow at them, "Like on a date?"

Lilly rolled her eyes, "No, why does everyone think it's a date? I'm just introducing Neville to the circus, I mean who hasn't been to the circus?"

"Me," Harry said in amusement, "And don't worry I won't crash your date. I have no desire to go to a circus, clowns freak me out ever since Dudley forced me to watch "It" when I was like 10."

"It's not a date, Harry," Neville said irritably, "I literally just broke up with my girlfriend. Lil and I are just friends."

"Friends who have a shared interest in really cool things, like circuses," Lilly added in amusement.

Hermione chuckled and shared a knowing glance with Daphne, "Well, I'll tell you one thing. Draco and I have been finding this week easy."

"Yep," Draco said with a slight smile. Everyone had noticed that Draco had been kind of off all week but those who knew him best knew it was because of his potions essay.

"Maybe we're just going to have perfect children," Hermione said with a pointed look at her boyfriend.

Daphne laughed, "If our children are anything like Teddy I'll be happy," she joked.

Harry grinned in amusement, "Our children?"

Daphne rolled her eyes, "I meant metaphorically Harry, but you are the most serious boyfriend that I've ever had."

"Nah, Theo's more like Sirius than me," Harry joked which caused a groan to go around the room at how truly awful the joke was.

"It's definitely been an eye opener though," Sadie yawned as she stretched in her chair, "Theo hasn't been much use though."

There were some chuckles, "Yeah, I caught him trying to kill the baby," Draco said with a roll of his eyes.

"So did I," Harry said, "He was trying to use it as a Quaffle."

Sadie shook her head, "I've given up trying to stop him killing the baby, he thinks it's funny. He assures me he won't do it to our real baby if we have one."

"That's not really that assuring," Lilly joked as she and the others laughed.

"I know," Sadie chuckled, she was exasperated at her boyfriend's behaviour. The others laughed, as much as some of them had enjoyed the week they were looking forward to having their normal lives back when it ended tomorrow evening.

***

** _MONDAY – DAY 8_ **

When the final day came it was with shock that most of the couples found themselves at least a little bit upset at the prospect of losing their 'children'. The way it worked was that each couple had a set time which they were to meet McGonagall and the 'child' would be turned back into the clay model. Once it was in clay form any bruises or injuries that it had would be seen clearly and it's 'mental' state would be assessed. Classes were suspended for the 7th and 8th Years that day and most couples came out of the room crying.

Lilly and Neville were practical when they handed over the baby, it had really freaked Neville out. The others were okay when they said goodbye and everybody passed with an E or an O, it hadn't been a hard class after all. Like McGonagall had said, there was one exception to every rule of course and that was Theo who got a 'T' on the grounds of 'trying to kill the child, several times.' Draco and Hermione came out of the room with an optimistic viewpoint however.

Hermione slipped her hand into his, "I want a life with you Draco and I know that you want a life with me too. That is why we're going to get to work at Potter Manor as soon as possible to find out what causes this infertility problem."

Draco smiled at her and gripped her hand tightly, "Thank you for taking this seriously."

"Well we have the time and resources to look into it," Hermione said softly, "So we can at least try."

"All the same," Draco said as he kissed her, "Thank you."

***

As they were first to be given their 'child' who was in fact Teddy, Daphne and Harry were last to hand him back. When they made their way to McGonagall's office they found Andromeda drinking tea and eating biscuits with the Headmistress.

"Hello Teddy," Andromeda smiled as she took Teddy from Harry's arms.

Teddy shouted, "Gramma!" loudly.

Andromeda chuckled, “I hear he enjoyed his week here.”

"I hope so," Harry said, "He certainly seemed to. He and Daphne got on brilliantly."

"I knew that he would warm to you," Andromeda said with a fond smile, "He's not scared of new people at all. He's very outgoing as I'm sure you noticed."

Daphne chuckled, "Yes, I had noticed," she agreed.

"Well, we had better be getting home," Andromeda said as she set her tea cup down, "Thank you for the tea Minerva."

"Not a problem Andromeda," McGonagall said, it was as if she was talking to an old friend.

Andromeda smiled at Harry, "I'm sure you have heard by now that Narcissa has taken it upon herself to invite Draco and Hermione, along with her parents to the Alps at Easter."

"Yeah, we had heard," Harry said in amusement, "Will you be going?"

"No," Andromeda said with a shake of her head, "I had thought about giving you Teddy for the week but then this came up. So I wondered if you two would like to spend Easter weekend with Teddy and I at the cottage down in Cornwall?"

Harry glanced at Daphne who gave him a small nod. He smiled back at Andromeda, "We would love to," he said.

"Fantastic," Andromeda smiled as she kissed Harry on both cheeks and hugged Daphne, "I will look forward to it."

"So will we," Harry said honestly as smiled down at Teddy.

"Say goodbye Teddy," Andromeda said as she tickled the boy.

Teddy waved a chubby little hand at them both, "Bye Hawwy!" he shouted, "Bye Daffee!"

Teddy had taken to calling her Deedee all week so eventually getting something close to her name out of the boy brought a lump to Daphne's throat.

"Daphne, are you crying?" Harry asked in surprise.

Daphne hastily wiped her eyes and shook her head, "No, I'm just going to miss Teddy."

"Oh don't be silly," Andromeda said kindly, “You can visit as often as you like and we will all see each other at Easter."

"I'm already looking forward to it," Daphne said with a genuine smile, "Bye Teddy!"

Andromeda smiled at them as Harry kissed Teddy on the top of the head to say goodbye. With that she left the office and Harry and Daphne turned to McGonagall to receive their grades.

McGonagall smiled, "You will both be pleased to know that you are top of the class. I have awarded you both an O+. Everyone else who performed well did so knowing that their child was a dummy but you had a real child and you were still more than up to the task. Well done, you make a stronger partnership than I had imagined."

Daphne and Harry shared a grin, "Thank you Professor," Harry said happily and with that the couple left the office in a very good mood.

"We're top of the class," Harry said smugly.

Daphne grinned, "Bet that's a new feeling for you," she teased.

"Oi! I was top in DADA I'll have you know," Harry defended himself.

Daphne laughed and kissed him, "I was only kidding," she said as she glanced around to make sure that the corridor was empty, "But as much as I enjoyed having Teddy this week, I'm looking forward to getting you all to myself again."

"So, what do you want to do when we get back to the tower?" Harry asked.

Daphne grinned, "I'll give you a hint, it involves a bed."

"Sleep?" Harry suggested, "Good idea, I'm knackered too."

The remark earned him a smack on the arm but he probably deserved it. He grinned at Daphne and whispered as they approached the common room, "Don't you find it ironic Daphne? That we're going to celebrate getting an O+ for family planning class by having sex?"

Daphne laughed loudly and said, "Oh screw irony Harry. The entire class was pointless, we both know the contraception charm and neither of us are stupid enough to have sex drunk and not perform it properly."

Harry chuckled as they reached the door and its riddles, "Well, what can I say, I'm easily convinced," he whispered in her ear as they slipped into the common room.

**TBC :)**


	43. The Skeletons in Our Closets

The final few days of February were both difficult and yet hopeful but for some reason that they couldn't explain every member of the group of friends knew that things would get better when this horrible month ended and March began. Harry suspected that it was for reasons similar to May. After the final battle the dawning of June and summer had never felt so good yet so dreaded at the same time. He also knew that in every following year February, along with May, would be a tough month as memories flooded back. Despite it all however Harry knew that each year it would also get easier until eventually on February the 14th they would remember Dean and Tracey with a fond smile. Harry knew this because it was how he now remembered Sirius on the anniversary of his death.

"Oh Harry," Draco piped up when he caught Harry in the common room "We were thinking that this week would be a good time to research our projects at Potter Manor."

"It's not due in until the 1st of April!" Harry exclaimed, some things hadn't changed, like the fact that Harry almost always did his homework a day or two before it was due in.

Hermione rolled her eyes, "Harry this project is our N.E.W.T level grade. We don't have an exam, you can't just do it the night before like you usually do."

"Fine," Harry agreed as Neville chuckled from his spot next to him on the couch, "So who's going?"

"All of us, and Susan," Theo piped up, "Almost all of us are doing our project on something to do with blood so the library at the manor will be useful."

"Fair enough," Harry said as he yawned and stretched, "Hermione, why are you coming?"

Hermione frowned, "What do you mean?"

"Well I thought you were doing your project on the study of medical potions," Harry said, he wondered why she seemed so offended.

"No Harry," Hermione said, she sounded exasperated, "It's much more complex than that. It's a study of vaccinations in pureblood children and the records pulled from Malfoy Manor include several medical records that Abraxas Malfoy kept."

"Right," Harry muttered, she still had the knack of making him feel stupid with one sentence, "So, tomorrow it is in that case. Are we sneaking out and apparating?"

"Yep," Draco said, "We'll meet at the gates after dinner. If we go out in a big group it will be obvious what we're up too."

Harry nodded and yawned once more, "Well I'm going to bed," he said as he made his way up the staircase to his dorm room. He was both excited and anxious about the information that they might discover in the records from Malfoy Manor. He knew for sure that whatever material he used from the place would be much more biased towards purebloods than anything at the ministry or within Hogwarts however.

***

When the first of March dawned Harry was glad to realise that he had been right. It felt good and fresh like a new start, just like he had hoped it might. The first flowers were just beginning to open up and the frost on the ground was finally thawing. Harry woke up with a content sigh and stretched.

"Draco!"

"What?" The Slytherin mumbled as Harry pulled the curtains open and let the bright sunlight shine into the room, the air was warmer and the sun was brighter. It put him in an instant good mood.

"It's March, it's a fresh start."

"It's also 5am, go back to sleep," Draco whined and Harry grinned as he fell back onto his bed, some things never changed but he was happy about that.

When they arrived at Potter Manor they immediately walked into the large library where a huge stack of books and boxes of records were now spread across one corner of the room.

"You weren't kidding about there being a lot of records from your Manor," Harry said.

"I know," Draco said as he began to magically sort through the boxes. Within half an hour they were all silent as they poured through books or records. Harry was annoying Daphne by yawning every 5 minutes, closing books too loudly and sending dust flying up into the air. One thing he doubted he would ever be was studious, he still preferred practical work and he couldn't wait to start Auror training.

He did have to admit though, as bored as he was, he got some good information for his project in the first hour. It was getting to the hour and a half mark when Harry really began to get bored, he was about to suggest that they call it a night when Hermione spoke for the first time since she had gotten drawn in by her research.

"Draco...I thought you were an only child," Hermione said slowly, she didn’t look up from her book which wasn't really a book but a compilation of birth and death records for the years 1970 to 1990.

"I am," Draco said as he looked up from his book.

"You mean...You don't know?"

"Don't know about what?" Draco asked as he made his way over to the table Hermione was sitting at with Neville and Sadie who were working on similar projects. The others, being as nosy as they were, made their way over too.

“Draco, there is a birth record in here for an "Areya Callidora Malfoy", she was born on the 8th of June 1983 and her parents are listed as Mr. Lucius Abraxas Malfoy and Mrs. Narcissa Malfoy (nee Black)."

"What?" Draco hissed as he looked down at the record. There it was, in black and white but he still didn't believe it.

"There are baby photos of me and photos of me from the age of 5 onwards but nothing in the middle," Draco realised and Hermione then flicked through the book, she swallowed when she realised that her fears were confirmed.

"What is it?" Harry asked and Hermione swallowed once more before reading aloud_, "Areya Callidora Malfoy. Born: June the 8th, 1983. Died: December the 24th, 1985. Cause of death: Accidental."_

Draco stared at the record in silence for a moment and the others were held their breath, they were afraid of how he might react.

"I'm going to talk to my Mother," Draco said simply. He left the room without further ado and Hermione and Theo both made moves to follow him.

Harry got in the way however, "Let him go, he needs to do this on his own."

"How do you know?" Theo asked angrily.

Hermione placed her hand on the Slytherins shoulder, "This is Harry, he knows about these things."

Theo grumbled a little but all the same he didn't try to go after Draco.

"So who fancies a stop off at the Hogs Head on the way back to Hogwarts?" Neville asked as he made a beeline for the door. Most of the others followed him, they were willing to jump on any idea that worked as an excuse to stop studying.

When Hermione looked at the book and hesitated Sadie rolled her eyes, "We'll be back tomorrow Hermione, come on live a little!"

Hermione smiled and got up, "You're right, it sounds like a great idea."

Harry glanced sideways at Daphne as they made their way out of the Manor, she had been very quiet.

"I have upsetting experiences of the accidental death of squibs in pureblood families," Daphne said simply and quietly. Neither she nor Harry said anything more on the subject as they left the manor and apparated to Hogsmeade.

When Draco walked into the drawing room of Greengrove House where his Mother and Aunt were drinking wine and chuckling over something in the society pages of the Prophet, his blood was running cold.

"Mother," Draco said icily.

Narcissa jumped and turned around, "Heavens Draco! You frightened me! What on earth is wrong?"

"I was studying over at Potter Manor today," Draco said coolly, "I extracted the records from Malfoy Manor for my potions project. I found a birth and death record for a sister that I didn't even know existed. Father lied to me throughout my entire life, I thought you at least had been honest with me!"

"Draco..." Narcissa said weakly, "You did not need to know. It did not concern you, I thought it would be painful for you...if you knew."

"She was my sister Mother!" Draco snapped, "I feel like that gives me the right to know!"

There was a moment of silence in which Narcissa looked down at the table, her hands shook as Andromeda stood behind her and gripped her shoulder firmly. She sent a warning glance at Draco but he did not heed it.

"You were 3 years old when your sister was born," Narcissa said quietly, "It was kept out of the public eye in case-"

"- in case she was a squib,'" Draco said with disgust.

"Yes," Narcissa whispered, "She was a healthy child deemed to have fantastic magical ability...the healers said it would be almost as strong as your magic. I doted on her Draco, I must confess to that. I had always wanted a little girl as well as a little boy. On Christmas Eve-"

Narcissa cut herself off with a choked sob and Andromeda sighed, "Draco. Can you not see that this is painful for your Mother?"

"I am sorry for that Aunt Andromeda," Draco said honestly, "But I have to know."

Narcissa nodded and cleared her throat, "I took you to visit my family that Christmas Eve. Areya got sick from travelling via floo and she was too young to side-apparate. When we were gone your Father took Areya out onto the frozen lake to go ice skating. Your Father was close to her but a noise from the woods frightened her and she fell through a weak spot in the ice."

Narcissa's voice had been reduced to a whisper and she was falling apart as she told her son the story, "Your Father jumped in to try and save her. He managed to grab her but they were stuck under the ice and when he got her out she was not breathing. He floo-ed me and I left you with your Grandma and rushed to St. Mungo's. By the time I got there...there was nothing that they could do...she was already gone."

Narcissa was completely choked, she couldn't force another word out of her mouth. Andromeda tightened her grip on her sister and said quietly, "Your Father nearly died trying to save your sister. He was in hospital for 3 months with hypothermia."

"Something changed when she died Draco," Narcissa said in a whisper as tears fell down her face, "I blamed your Father and I could not forgive him. Any love there was between us disappeared. Your Father couldn't treat you kindly after that because every time he looked at you he saw Areya and he felt immense regret that he could not save her."

"And your mother clung to you tighter than ever, Draco," Andromeda said softly, “She loved you more than ever because she knew what it felt like to lose a child. She fought for you and she sacrificed so much for you. I think you would do well to remember that."

"I didn't know," Draco said because it was all he could think of to say even though he knew it didn't make sense because of course he hadn't known, it had been purposely kept from him.

Narcissa simply nodded and wiped her tears away with a handkerchief. Draco sighed and got to his feet, he embraced his Mother tightly. She gripped him harder than she had before, as if she thought he would disappear the second that he let go. So much of his childhood now made sense, the reason why his Mother had never let him go to children's parties or play outside, the reason she had always been so scared to leave him alone with his Father became clear.

"I'm sorry," Draco whispered.

Narcissa cried quietly, "No Draco, you were right. You do have a right to know. She was your sister."

"I'm sorry that I put you through that," Draco said softly as he pulled back from the hug, "I'm so sorry."

"Please don't apologise," Narcissa said as she kissed his forehead as she had done when he was a small boy, "I love you unconditionally Draco. That is what it means to be a parent."

Draco nodded at her, he was aware that tears were prickling behind his own eyes as he pulled his Mother into another hug. Regardless of what she had said he felt terrible for forcing her to relieve such a terrible time in her life.

***

When Draco walked into the common room it was late and as a result it was fairly empty. He smiled as he surveyed the ordinary scene. Daphne was dozing with her head on Harry's chest while he and Neville had a whispered and heated debate about duelling tactics. Theo was too busy looking at Sadie to be immersed or even involved in the debate, she was also sleeping. Hermione, Susan and Lilly were huddled together in two armchairs by the fire. Draco chuckled at the site; the three girls were conversing about something that was clearly amusing from the amount of laughter coming from their corner of the room.

When Draco walked in they all turned to look at him, "Hey Draco," Hermione said with a smile as she jumped up and kissed him on the cheek. Susan got up to let Draco sit on the armchair which he did. Hermione then sat down in his lap.

"Oh, hey Draco," Harry said.

Neville also looked over at the Slytherin, "Draco, what would take your opponent down faster, a stunning charm or a full body bind?"

"Depends," Draco said, "Certain stunning charms have delays. If you stun someone built like Goyle you'd struggle, he'd need 2 or 3 to hit him at the same time to get him down. A full body bind will always work but it will always work more slowly. I'd go with the full body bind."

"And that.," Harry said with a smug look towards Neville, "Is why I'm going to pull as many strings as possible to make sure Draco is an Auror."

Hermione snorted and it woke Sadie and Daphne up. Sadie yawned and said sleepily, “Oh you're back Draco.”

Draco rolled his eyes, "Go on, ask, I know you're all dying to."

"So, are you going to make us beg for it or are you just going to tell us?" Harry asked.

Draco sighed, "Well my Mother told me the truth, the whole painful truth. I did have a sister, and she did die. My Father took her skating on Christmas Eve and she fell through the ice. He caught hypothermia trying to save her and nearly died himself. My Mother never forgave him for it and he couldn't look at me without seeing her so he hated me."

"Gosh Draco that's horrible," Sadie said sadly. Draco nodded but he didn't say anymore as he stared into the fire.

"So it wasn't the typical pureblood squib story," Daphne said.

Draco shook his head, "No... although thoughts like that did go through my head."

"How is your Mother?" Hermione asked gently.

"Heart-broken," Draco frowned, "I forced her to relieve it...I brought it all back. All of the dreadful things she went through back then."

"You had a right to know Draco," Harry said, "She must have understood that."

"She did," Draco said honestly, "But my Mother is quite vulnerable regardless of how strong she comes across. I hate to see her in pain, especially when it's my fault."

"It's not your fault," Harry said, "You were a child when your sister died. There was nothing you could have done about it."

"It all just seems so unfair," Draco said quietly, “I mean I actually had a sister. I could have known her and we could have grown up together but I never even knew her."

"At least you had the chance to have a sister," Harry said somewhat irritably, "Neville and I didn't because our parents died so young."

"Yeah Potter, we know that your parents are dead!" Draco snapped, "Why do you always have to make everything about you? We know all about every dead person in your life because it always makes front page of the prophet not a dingy old record book in a stuffy Manor!"

"Come on Draco," Neville said as he stepped forward, "Don't bring Harry's parents into this."

"I didn't," Draco shouted, "He mentioned them first!"

"Yeah but that doesn't mean you have to try and attack him," Neville said firmly.

"No, for once this is about me!" Draco said angrily, "For once this is about me! I lost someone, I lost a sister!"

"Draco, you didn't even know you had a sister until today," Harry said angrily, "I had to live my whole life knowing my parents were dead! I was told they died in a car crash, I didn't know the truth for years!"

"I don't care about your pathetic sob story Potter!" Draco shouted, "This is about _me_. For once I am the one who is suffering, I am the one who has lost someone! And you're too selfish to realise that!"

"I'm selfish?" Harry shouted, "You're the one who is selfish! All of us have lost someone, you're just the one who is realising it for the first time! You've lived your sheltered little life with your pureblood family and I know you didn't have the best upbringing Draco but you had a family! I never had that! All my life I've only known pain and suffering and death, you didn't have to deal with that as a kid because your parents loved you enough to shelter you from it! Why don't you try being fucking grateful for that?"

Before Draco could shout anymore Harry disappeared out of the common room and Daphne darted after him. Hermione sighed and stepped forward, "Harry is right. Your Mother lied to you to stop you from hurting. That was why she didn't want you to know and you should be grateful that she loved you that much."

"I am," Draco sighed, "But I'm upset too because I found out I had a sister only to find out that she was dead."

"I know," Hermione said softly, "But you can't attack your friends just because you are hurting Draco. That's not how real friendship works."

"Well I'm sorry that I'm not very well versed in how to be a good person or a good friend," Draco said dryly.

"Lesson number one, don't insult your friends dead or insane parents," Neville said with a raised eyebrow.

"And lesson two, don't take your anger out on your friends by shouting at them," Lilly yawned.

"Yeah hug them instead," Susan said as she jumped onto the back of the armchair and wrapped her arms around the blonde boy.

Draco made a noise and shoved her off, "Honestly, this isn't friendship. This is an asylum."

"Then welcome to the mad house," Hermione chuckled as she kissed him on the cheek, "Now go to bed, let Harry calm down and grovel tomorrow until he accepts your apology."

Draco scoffed and pushed himself to his feet, "I have changed Hermione. I'm big enough to admit when I'm wrong and I was wrong today but I will _never _grovel to Harry Potter."

Hermione rolled her eyes and pushed him onto the boy's staircase, "Goodnight Draco," she said simply.

"Goodnight Hermione," Draco muttered irritably but he still bent down to kiss her goodnight before leaving the common room.

***

"He doesn't realise how lucky he is-"

"- I know," Daphne said softly as she tried to calm Harry down in an abandoned classroom.

"His Dad was a dick but his Mum loved him, she always loved him! I grew up with people who hated me, people who lied to me about my parents! He's amazed that he could have had a sister, I was amazed to find out what my parents had done for a living!"

"I know, Harry," Daphne said, "And he knows that too. He's just angry."

"Well he's made me really bloody angry," Harry said as he paced backwards and forwards, "I've never had a family! He should think himself lucky that he had a Mother who loved him that much!"

"He does know that he's lucky," Daphne said quietly, "But he doesn't express himself very well. You are very wrong with one thing though Harry because you do have a family in so many ways. The Weasley's are your family, Andromeda and Teddy are your family and _we _are your family. I've seen you with Hermione, Suse and Ginny, you treat them _all _like sisters and Neville is the brother you never had."

"What does that make Theo?" Harry asked with a weak laugh.

"The annoying cousin you only have to see at Christmas?" Daphne joked.

Harry laughed and nodded, "I'm sorry for kicking off."

"No, Draco riled you up," Daphne said with a shake of her head, "It's alright but I gather there’s more to it than that. You only fly off the handle when there are underlying stresses at play."

"Yeah, I am worried Daphne," Harry said with a sigh, "Ever since I read Draco's potions project. The risks he was talking about..."

"And I'm a pureblood woman," Daphne said with a nod, "I wondered when we were going to have this conversation."

"It scares me," Harry admitted, "And I know that Hermione says we shouldn't worry about the future when we are in the present but I can't help it. If Draco's theory is right it affects all of us...it will hurt all of us."

"I know it will," Daphne said as she glanced down, "And trust me Harry, it scares me as much as it scares you. It's something we have all been touched by. My Mother lost children, just like Narcissa lost a daughter. It _is _scary but that is why we are all doing research about it. There's a good chance we can do something about it."

"Do you really think that?" Harry asked her quietly.

Daphne nodded and she stepped forward to pull him into a tight embrace, "I have faith in us, Harry," she whispered softly.

Harry smiled into her hair and tightened his grip on her, "Thank you, Daphne," he whispered.

***

"Harry. I'm sorry."

Harry groaned as the light poured into his bed. The curtains had just been pulled back by the irritating blonde standing by his bed.

"Good morning Draco," he said dryly as he swung his feet out of his bed.

"I'm really sorry, Harry."

"I heard you the first time," Harry muttered, "Can I at least go to the bathroom before we have this discussion?"

Draco nodded, "But I am really sorry."

"Alright, I get it," Harry said as he pushed the blonde out of the way and walked into the bathroom. When he emerged and dressed Draco continued to badger him and it didn't stop until they reached the common room.

"So are we having this discussion yet?" Draco asked.

"Yes," Harry replied irritably, "We'll have this discussion. What do you want to say?"

"I want to apologise," Draco said simply.

Harry rolled his eyes as they walked out of the common room and Neville fell into step with them, "Morning," he said cheerfully.

"Go away Longbottom," Draco said irritably.

"Why, am I interrupting something?" Neville asked in amusement.

"Yes," Draco said dryly, "I was apologising to Harry."

Neville grinned, "Then I'm definitely staying. I _have _to hear this."

"Fine," Draco said, he ignored Harry's sniggers, "Look Harry I was wrong last night. I was wrong to insult your parents and to jump down your throat. I was upset about the fact that I could have had a sister and I didn't think about your feelings as much as I probably should have."

"Apology accepted," Harry yawned.

"Yep," Neville said, "You hurt my feelings too so I accept your apology as well."

"I really am sorry for the way I've been acting lately. It's this bloody project, I just feel like I'm letting Hermione down because my blood status means that I could hurt her..." Draco sighed, "I just want to be able to promise her that I'll give her a happy, safe family but I can't. And she's being so noble about it, saying she only wants me but she won't be saying that in 10 years' time when we're miserable and child-less. I should just let her go, I mean if she and Ron had gotten together she'd never have this problem!"

"Alright Draco, calm down," Harry said as he put his hand on the man's shoulder, "Draco. Do you remember what you were saying about needing to be more considerate of other people’s feelings?"

Draco frowned and nodded, "What are you talking about?"

"Daphne is a pureblood woman," Harry said simply, "Think about your case study and the things that Andromeda told you. The Greengrass's aren't as inbred as the Blacks I will grant you that but you and Hermione aren’t the only people who are scared for the future."

"Shit," Draco muttered, "Shit, I'm sorry."

"Look you two," Neville said, "I know I'm not an expert in this but I can tell you one thing. If you beat yourself up worrying about the future, you will never get there. If you go into this thing worrying about your future children, you won't get anywhere. You have to forget about the personal aspect of it and pretend that it’s just an ordinary research project."

"You're right Nev," Harry said softly, "I know you are but shutting it off isn't easy."

"I know," Draco agreed, "But Neville is right. We aren't being objective right now and unless we act objectively we won't be able to fix anything."

"Exactly," Neville said as he walked in between them and clapped them both on the shoulders, "Now let's get through today and get back to that Manor tonight. Operation babies, here we come"

They all laughed despite themselves as they continued on their way to the Great Hall that morning.

***

"Sometimes I'm so glad I'm a Muggle-born," Lilly said matter of factly as she lay on her bed in her free period reading a Muggle book.

"Because of this whole pureblood babies thing?" Neville asked thoughtfully as he glanced up from the floor where he was currently mapping out a new plan for greenhouse 3. They shared a free period and they enjoyed each other's company an awful lot these days. They had done ever since the family planning project.

Lilly nodded and popped a bookmark in her battered and beaten copy of "Jane Eyre". She let her head drop over the side of the bed, "Yeah, it's pretty dramatic."

"It's the result of centuries of inbreeding," Neville admitted.

"I don't get that," Lilly admitted, "Why did they all marry their cousins?"

"Because they thought it was the only way to stay pure," Neville replied, "It comes from old myths that if they bred with muggles they would lose their magic. Of course that was generally regarded as nonsense and over the centuries it has become more common. People like Lucius Malfoy said that was the reason why there were more squibs because of purebloods mixing with muggle-borns."

Lilly snorted, "Isn't it more likely that squibs were killed back in ye olde days and now they are a little bit more accepted?"

"Yeah that's my theory," Neville said, "I don't think breeding with muggles makes much of a difference. It certainly helps when it comes to producing children, I mean look at the Weasley's."

Lilly hummed thoughtfully, "I hope that there is something we can do about it. I don't want Daphne and Hermione to have to go through all of that...well of the things that they say can happen."

"Neither do I," Neville admitted, "But somehow I've become the glue that holds us all together and I have to stay strong for everybody else. Sometimes I need someone to hold _me _together though."

Lilly nodded and reached down to grab his hand, "I know Nev but I'm here if you ever need to talk or anything."

"I know Lilly," Neville said without taking his eyes off of the greenhouse plan.

Lilly could tell that he clearly didn't want to talk about whatever was bothering him and she respected that. She hung down from the bed at an awkward angle and pointed at his plan, "Ooh bad idea Neville. Never put a venomous tentacula within reaching distance of the mandrakes. They'll eat them."

"Damn," Neville muttered, "I knew something wasn't right with the plan. Thanks Lil."

"No problem," Lilly said softly as she pulled herself back up onto her bed and opened her book once more.

***

"Do you think something is going on between Neville and Lilly?"

"Nah," Daphne whispered as they studied together in the library, "I mean I don't think they're having a fling or whatever."

"Yeah, I don't either," Harry admitted, "But do you think they have feelings for each other? They’ve been hanging out a lot more ever since the family planning project."

"They've always been friends and it probably just made them closer," Daphne shrugged, "I mean I have noticed a couple of different things."

"Like?" Harry asked noisily.

"Like they spend their free periods in each other's rooms reading and doing homework together," Daphne said with an amused smile, "And like Neville always leaves a little bit of space next to him on the bench at dinner time just in case Lilly wants to sit next to him."

"I saw Hannah glaring at her the other day too."

"I noticed that as well," Sadie whispered from across the table, "Have you spoken to her properly since it all went down?"

"We talk in the passing," Daphne said with a shrug, "But no we aren't close. You were always closer to Hannah than I was anyway, you and Lilly."

"Well Lilly's sort of pulled away from her a bit now," Sadie whispered, "I think she was worried about isolating herself from us too much by taking Hannah's side."

"Or she just realised that Hannah was being a little crazy," Harry muttered.

"She's struggling Harry," Sadie sighed, "That's why I've stayed friends with her. She needs a friend."

Daphne nodded, "It's not easy on anyone Harry. That's why things will get very complicated if anything _does _happen between Neville and Lilly."

"Well it's probably too soon anyway," Harry reasoned, "I mean Neville and Hannah only broke up a couple of weeks ago."

"Exactly," Sadie said quietly, "So we shouldn't be gossiping about it and helping the rumour mill."

"Shhh," Daphne hushed them as Susan approached their table and sat down next to Sadie. Her books hit the desk with a fairly loud thump and she was glared at by Madam Pince for it.

"Don't stop talking about Neville and Lilly on my account," Susan said matter of factly, "Neville made it quite clear that he and I were only friends."

"And you're okay with that?" Daphne asked with a raised eyebrow.

"I have to learn to be okay with that," Susan said with a shrug, "Because I don't want to lose Neville as a friend. There are plenty of other guys out there and Lilly is probably a damn sight better for Neville than me."

"Don't be so down on yourself," Harry said quietly, "Remember what I said to you over ice cream that night? Neville might not see how amazing you are but somebody will. It will just take the right person to properly understand you."

"Harry's right Suse," Daphne whispered, "Neville wasn't the right guy for you or Hannah. He's a lovely guy but he wasn't the right one."

"You'll find him someday though Suse," Sadie smiled, "When we leave this place I bet. You're more suited to the older, more mature man I think."

"Yeah," Susan agreed thoughtfully, "I think you're probably right."

Harry smiled slightly at the girl’s work, they had sufficiently brightened Susan up. The air in the group had been tense recently with the potions project and the break-up which was still raw for Hannah at least. The wounds that those dreadful 48 hours had created were slowly starting to stich themselves up though. Harry could only take a breath and hope that nothing would happen to rip them open once more.

**TBC :)**


	44. Family Ties

****

Another night was spent searching through books in Potter Manor. Some of the group were excited about this but Harry was not among them. Now that March was here the weather was much better for Quidditch practice and he was already missing one practice a week as it was because of his heavy workload. At this rate Gryffindor were going to get thrashed in their next match.

That night started slowly and nobody spoke to each other for the first little while. It seemed that everyone was scribbling away apart from Harry who was trying not to fall asleep and was daydreaming about being on a broom with the wind flowing through his hair.

"Guys..."

Everyone turned to Neville who was staring at a page in the book with his quill hovering over his parchment; it was dripping ink all over his work.

Hermione made a face and cleared the splodges of ink away, "Yeah?" she said.

"Little exercise for you all here...just trust me and play along," Neville said as he put his quill back in the ink pot.

"Okay..." Harry said slowly.

Neville looked up for the first time, "Everyone put your hand up."

He looked at Neville like he was insane but all the same Harry raised his right hand and everybody else did the same (apart from Sadie who was left-handed). Theo chuckled at his girlfriend and affectionately said, "Freak."

Sadie rolled her eyes and Neville began with his experiment, "Okay now if you grew up in an ordinary muggle house with no magical history or concealment charms put your hand down."

Hermione and Lilly put their hands down instantly and Harry frowned, "Well that depends. I lived in a muggle house surrounding by blood wards do they count as concealment charms?"

"Put your hand down then," Neville said with a chuckle, "Blood wards are such a subtle form of magic that they wouldn't have affected anything."

Harry put his hand down as Neville had advised but everybody else still had their hands in the air.

Neville then asked his second question, "Put your hand down if your house is muggle-built."

No hands dropped at this and Neville then glanced around at the people whose hands were still left up, "Put your hand down if your family has occupied that house for _less than_ 50 years," Neville said, this time Susan dropped her hand.

"Perfect," Neville said when he noticed that the 4 people left with their hands in the air were Draco, Daphne, Sadie and Theo, the perfect pureblood subjects.

"Okay you guys come over here please," Neville said and his four confused friends did so.

"I hate to ask but how many of you have suffered premature death of children or squib births or even premature adult death in your families?" Neville asked and he was surprised at the cooperation he got from them.

"Well my family has a history of miscarriages," Draco said, "The Black women that is, and stillbirths all because of deformities caused by inbreeding."

Daphne nodded, "Mine too, my Mother had several miscarriages and a stillbirth. She also had two sisters who didn't live past 5 years old."

Sadie nodded, "According to my family tree I had two brothers who didn't live past 2 years of age and I know there is a history of infant mortality in my family."

Theo shrugged, "I had a brother who died when he was 6 and I had a couple of cousins who died as babies. It's pretty common in wizarding families"

"Yes I know but I think I just figured out the cause," Neville said, he was clearly quite excited and he now had everyone crowded around the desk he was working at.

"How many of you use paint charms to redecorate your houses?" Neville asked. The question seemed random but it served a purpose.

"Uh, well my Mother used paint charms to redecorate the house not long after I was born, why?" Daphne said, she was confused by the odd question.

Neville shook his head, "I'll explain in a minute, what about the rest of you?"

"Malfoy Manor has been unchanged since it was repainted in the 19th century," Draco said.

Theo nodded in agreement, "Nott Manor is the same, it's never been repainted."

"Well I just live in a house, not a manor," Sadie admitted, "But it's not really been changed."

"What about Grimmauld Place Harry?" Neville asked as he turned to the boy next to him.

"It got repainted when the Order of the Phoenix decided to use it as its base," Harry said without the faintest idea where Neville was going with this.

"Susan?"

"Uh the house I lived in with my Aunt in Godric's Hollow had been redecorated just before we moved in. I used to live in a really old wizarding house with my parents in Hogsmeade and that was pretty much unchanged, I did only live there for a year though.”

“My house is a muggle house with muggle paint,” Lilly piped up.

Hermione laughed, "Yep, mine too!"

"I know what it is!" Neville said, "Wizards are behind the times with everything else, right you guys?" he aimed this question at Lilly, Hermione and Harry.

Hermione nodded and took control of answering this question, "Massively, I mean scientifically they aren't as advanced, or in technology for that matter. We use a steam engine to get pupils to Hogwarts, muggles use much faster trains. The wizarding dress sense is very old fashioned, as is the fact we have high status families that dominate the political world, it's all very-"

"Victorian," Neville cut Hermione off, "Exactly Hermione, it's Victorian! The old manors and houses don’t even have electricity; they are still lit by gas lamps. Lilly made a joke once about not being able to charge her phone here but it’s not funny. Think about the last time these houses were rewired or repainted.”

“What are you getting at here, Neville?” Draco asked impatiently.

“Wizards are behind the times in everything else,” Neville said, “So it would make sense that they were behind in decorating their houses too.”

"Neville," Lilly said with wide eyes as realisation dawned on her, "You don't think..."

"I do," Neville said, "I mean think about it, it makes sense."

"What makes sense?" Harry and Draco asked at the same time, both in a rather impatient tone of voice.

"How do paint charms work? They can’t just conjure paint out of thin air, can they?” Neville asked slowly.

Lilly shook her head, “Like Gamps law, the paint has to exist somewhere before a charm can be used to paint it onto the walls.”

“And where does this paint come from?” Neville asked his wizarding friends.

“Stores sometimes,” Daphne replied with a frown, “Mostly from the basement or the attic, it keeps for years.”

“So you have no idea how long the paint you use has been hanging about for,” Neville said with a shake of his head, “I think the paint is the problem…I think it contains lead."

"Yeah, it does. So?" Draco said, he didn’t understand what the problem with this was.

"WHAT?" Hermione and Lilly cried in surprise.

Even Harry knew the significance of that, he had paid attention in muggle Primary school, "Seriously?!"

"So what?" Daphne asked.

"Lead is highly poisonous!" Hermione and Neville said. Harry nodded fervently to back them up.

"It was used in paint during the Victorian era in the muggle world and the infant mortality rate was significantly higher. The spores of the paint caused deformations during pregnancy, miscarriages, children born deformed…everything you have experienced. The moment the muggles realised how poisonous it was they got rid of it and it hasn't been used since," Hermione explained.

"It would make sense," Neville said, "I mean look at my family. The Longbottoms haven't had infertility problems for decades and we've lived in houses in Godric's Hollow in that time, those houses are constantly being repainted and decorated. They aren't anywhere near as old as the pureblood mansions most Slytherins live in and when my family _did _have fertility problems it was when we lived in Longbottom House which is Victorian. Then there's Daphne, her house was redecorated when her Mother moved in and she's not an only child like the others."

"It does make sense," Draco said slowly, "I mean, my family only started to have fertility problems from the early 19th century onwards which was when the house was painted with lead for the first time. I looked at everything else to find out what it could have been but the paint never crossed my mind."

"If it is the paint what are you going to do?" Sadie asked.

Neville didn't seem to know how to answer that question yet but after a pause he said, "Well I'd have to test it first but I'm 99% sure it is the paint. I suppose I'd take it to the Prophet and then the Ministry."

"The Muggle Government banned the sale of lead paint in the UK in 1992," Hermione piped up, "But obviously it was still in older properties. These days’ renovators have to get rid of it if they come across it in an old house."

"Lead paint is particularly dangerous to children under the age of 6," Harry added, he didn't know how he remembered the strange things he did from his miserable days at Muggle school; “It can stunt their development and cause health problems that can cause death."

"And it would make sense that if it stunts development it would also stunt magical development," Neville added.

Lilly’s eyes widened, "So it could also be the reason why there are more squibs in those families."

"It also damages fertility in both women and men," Hermione said, everyone was intrigued and excited by this revelation because it could change so many lives.

Susan nodded eagerly, "I mean it makes sense, it would cause infertility in women thus affecting the womb and increasing the amount of miscarriages-"

"But if it also affects men then it would make it hard for the woman to get pregnant too," Sadie added, “It makes so much sense. Why has no one thought of it before?"

"Because people are so out of touch with the muggle world that it would never have occurred to them that they shared a problem like this," Neville said simply.

Harry added, "And everybody is so busy looking for a huge problem that they don't think of little things like how a house is decorated. But I do have to raise one worrying point, Andromeda had all of these problems in a fairly new house. If the paint is the cause then that means the damage is already done for the likes of Draco."

"No it doesn't," Draco said, "Because the wizarding world _is _advanced when it comes to healing and medical magic. Once we know the cause, we can find a cure. That's the way it works here. The question is, what do we do now? This is huge. But it fits in with my potions project immensely."

"And mine about squibs in prominent pureblood families," Harry piped up.

"Mine too," Sadie said with a sheepish smile, "About the use of fertility potions in pureblood women."

"It kind of fits in with mine too, about the lifespan of pureblood Witches and Wizards," Theo added.

Neville laughed, "Does anyone else want in on my ground-breaking theory for a good grade in their potions project?"

The others all laughed too. This was huge and it got everybody so excited that they knew there was no way they could get back to work so Neville decided to take it back to Hogwarts and try to figure out what to do next, with a stop at the Hogs Head for a celebratory drink first of course.

"I'm going to stay," Hermione said, "I really need more information."

Draco smiled at her, "I'll stay too. I want to look into Nev's theory a bit more. I'm going to have a wander around the older parts of this manor, examine the walls and do some tests."

"Make sure you record them properly so I can use them in my project," Neville said.

Draco rolled his eyes, "Of course I will Longbottom. I'm an expert in Potions, I know how to conduct an experiment."

"Just checking," Neville said cheekily as he made for the door. Lilly, Daphne and Harry headed off too with a plan to stop off for a drink to celebrate. Sadie kissed Theo goodbye and said she'd head off too.

When they were gone only Hermione, Draco, Theo and Susan were left. Theo hated working but he groaned and slammed his 5th book shut, "Nev just shot my theory to pieces, I think I'm going to have to change my whole project."

Under most circumstances Hermione would have helped but she was too busy trying to find some useful information as it was.

"I doubt you'll have to change the whole project," Susan said as she glanced at Theo's draft paper, "I mean you probably can't argue that house-elves were part of the reason for premature death but you can change it to a study of the lifespan of wizards and witches. Talk about the different things that affect it, like lead paint and dark magic."

"Susan you're a life saver," Theo said as he kissed her on both cheeks and hurried to a different section of the library, he had been looking in all of the wrong books.

Another hour passed quietly. Draco left to do some tests and had been gone for about half an hour when he came back with both good and bad news, "Well all of the older parts of the house have lead paint which is going to have to be fixed. But I got to thinking, my bedroom in Malfoy Manor was painted before I was born. Maybe that explains why I'm alive and it probably means the paint hasn't had too much of an effect on my lifespan."

"That makes sense," Theo said, "It's probably the case in all of our houses. Who doesn't redecorate a kid's room at some point when they are young after all?"

"I'll relay the findings to Nev; he can try and figure out the hard part."

"What's the hard part?" Susan asked.

Draco replied, "Figuring out why some children from the same family and generation lived and others died."

"Hmm, that does sound difficult," Susan mused.

Theo said, "Well it's his theory, it's only fair that he has to do the hard part," he flicked through a few pages and then snorted.

"What?" Draco asked nosily as he sunk into a seat next to his best friend.

"Just reading about my family, we were a bunch of charlatans and cons," Theo said with an amused chuckle, he unstuck a photograph from the book and showed it to Draco, "Look at us."

Draco laughed as he looked at the picture, he recognised only one person in it, Theo's Father who definitely looked the part of a con-artist.

"Hey look at her, she looks like Hermione," Draco realised.

Theo looked over, "Oh yeah, so she does. Oi Hermione, come here and look at this."

Hermione and Susan both walked over and the four of them squinted at the photo. Draco and Theo were right because there was a young girl standing beside Theo's Father with long hair that looked unruly like Hermione's. The picture was in black and white so Hermione couldn't tell what colour the girl’s hair was.

"I don't know who she is," Theo admitted, "That's my Grandfather and Grandmother," he pointed to two middle aged people standing at the back of the photograph; a grand manor was visible faintly as the backdrop. He then pointed out his Father in the middle and his twin Aunts Eugenie and Beatrice to the left of him, "But I don't know the girl on the right, she's not in any other photographs."

"Says here in the caption, "The Nott family, from left to right: Eugenie Nott (14), Beatrice Nott (14), Ernest Nott (42), Alfred Nott (16), Gertrude Nott (40), Elizabeth Nott (10). Photographed in the year 1971."

Hermione frowned, "Wait a minute...if that girl was 10 in 1971 she had to have been born in 1961."

"Yeah, so?" Theo didn't get the point; neither did Draco or Susan for that matter.

"My Mother was born in 1961 and she’s called Elizabeth and that girl...she looks exactly like I did at 10," Hermione said with wide eyes.

"Hermione..." Susan said as she cottoned on to her friend's line of thought, "You don't think that your Mums a Witch do you?"

"I don't know," Hermione admitted with a frown, "I mean, she accepted the fact that I was a Witch very easily. She was the one who talked my Dad around and let me go to Hogwarts but I wiped her memory after the war and sent her to Australia for her own protection, if she was a Witch she wouldn't have let me do that."

"Did she know you were doing it?" Susan asked and Hermione shook her head.

"Witch or not, if she didn't know she couldn't have done anything about it. We can't undo memory charms, look at Lockhart," Susan said, she bit her lip as she did when concentrating.

"But if she was a Witch why would she not tell me? Or let on anything about the Wizarding World? And we live in an entirely muggle way, I mean my Mother is a dentist, it doesn't make any sense!" Hermione was freaking out a little now.

Draco put his arm around her, "You're right Hermione, it doesn't make any sense and it's probably a coincidence but if it will put your mind at ease we'll have a look in the tapestry room at Nott Manor."

Hermione nodded and Theo said, "I'll take you there, Hermione."

"Can I come too?" Susan piped up.

Theo glanced at her, "I suppose so," he said. They all left the Manor and were given the coordinates to Nott Manor. They apparated there and slipped into a tall, foreboding Manor that had an abandoned feel to it. The tapestry room was on the first floor and it was the most impressive room that Hermione had seen in a wizarding house.

This tapestry seemed to be alive. It was spread across 3 walls in a small square room and the walls were black with the lines from the tapestry in silver.

"Wow," Hermione said as she stared around the room.

Theo smirked, he was proud of this one room in his familial home, "Oh and this is magical paint by the way, no lead," he informed them as Susan looked at the walls suspiciously.

Theo lifted his wand and tapped it on a crest at the top of the middle wall. There were several lined up around the top of each wall. The crest featured a snake, a wand and the name_ "NOTT"_ was written underneath it. Hermione watched in amazement, the wall began to change and it took Hermione a moment to realise that it was zooming in on the Nott part of the large family tree.

The room seemed to read Theo's mind as it zoomed in on one part in particular, the part that concerned Elizabeth Nott. There was an oil pastel painting of her face, like on the Black family tapestry. The portrait portrayed the girl as the same age she was in the picture they had seen in the book.

"_Elizabeth Nott. 1961-1971."_

"She died the same year that photo was taken," Draco said as Hermione frowned at the image.

"So she can't be your Mother," Theo said.

Susan saw the look on Hermione's face and said, "You think something's up Hermione, don't you?"

Hermione nodded, "It was something Daphne said yesterday…about squib accidental deaths that weren't so accidental."

"Well let's look at birth and death records from that time then," Susan said as they all left and apparated back to Potter Manor. Hermione was the first into the library and Draco and Theo hung back to chastise Susan.

"Susan," Draco hissed, "Why are you doing this? It's not her Mother!"

"She's acting mental Susan, don't encourage it," Theo said, he rolled his eyes at Susan like she was stupid.

Susan got fired up quickly, "She needs to look into this or she'll wonder about it for the rest of her life. She's not insane! There's a perfectly good chance her Mother was a squib who escaped a gruesome fate from people like your Father!" she hissed. She was angry but she was also careful not to raise her voice in case Hermione heard her. With that she spun on her heel and made her way back into the library.

Draco and Theo were still sceptical as Susan and Hermione realised that there wasn't a death record anywhere for Elizabeth Nott.

"Ugh," Hermione groaned, "Why didn't evil purebloods keep a diary of squibs in families that were killed off or escaped?!"

Theo and Draco shared a sheepish look that made Susan and Hermione gape.

"Seriously?" Susan asked in exasperation.

Draco managed to crack a small smile at that, "Well," he said as he walked over to one of the bookcases, "In Malfoy Manor if you pull out a copy of the original "Hogwarts: A History" and push in a copy of "The Pureblood Directory" at the same time..." he trailed off as the bookcase silently slid back to reveal a secret study, "...that happens," he finished.

"That has to be the worst kept secret ever," Theo said in disbelief, “It's literally the same two books in every bloody pureblood Manor house."

"It works, don't knock it," Draco said as he walked into the dusty old room.

"Where is it then Indiana Jones?" Hermione asked as she followed Draco inside.

"Here," Draco said, as he flung an old book into Hermione's hands. She gaped as she opened it. Exactly like Draco had said it was a diary of all known squibs. Each entry consisted of the surname, forename, date of birth, date of death, and then any further information was added beneath.

Hermione flipped through it, reading the names. They were names she recognised, names like Malfoy, Nott, Cauldwell, Greengrass, Longbottom, Davis, Macmillan, and so it went on. Eventually she struck gold and found the entry on the mysterious young girl.

It read;

_"NOTT, Elizabeth. Born: April 6th 1961. Death: N/A. Father Ernest Nott attempted to murder at the age of 10. Escaped and was found by Elladora Malfoy who performed a memory charm on the girl and sent her to live in the muggle world. Henceforth has no recollection of the wizarding world."_

Oh my god," Hermione whispered as she read the entry aloud to the others. Susan glared at Draco and Theo for their lack of belief in the idea.

"So my Mum is a squib," Hermione realised, she sat down as the shock of this hit her.

"Which makes me your cousin," Theo said thoughtfully.

"And my Grandmother Elladora saved your Mother’s life," Draco said quietly, "What are you gonna do Hermione?" he asked as he sat down next to Hermione on a comfortable sofa in front of the library's roaring fireplace.

"I don't know,” Hermione said honestly, she was still stunned, "I mean if her memory about it was wiped then that's all there is to it. Your Grandmother is dead so it's not like it can be undone and I I don't think I'd want it to be anyway. I mean she's happy as she is, she loves being a dentist and she loves my Dad."

"Memory charms never do the job 100% right you know," Draco said calmly, "That's why Aurors and anyone in the business of cleaning up after Wizards, like Arthur Weasley, hate them. Little things like the fact she talked your Dad around are remnants of the childhood she doesn't remember."

"At the end of the day it's for the best," Hermione said reasonably, "If it hadn't happened she wouldn't be here and then neither would I. I'm happy for her to remain oblivious."

"What about you? Doesn't this change anything for you?" Draco asked, he was genuinely curious and he supposed a little bit concerned that she might break down.

Hermione considered this for a moment and eventually shook her head, "No, I'm still a Muggle-born at the end of the day aren't I? Neither of my parents possessed any magical ability."

"True," Draco agreed, "But it does make sense of the fact that your magical ability is so strong. Are you sure you’re okay? This isn’t negatively affecting you in any way?”

Hermione shook her head, “No, I can’t see how it changes anything to be honest.”

"What I meant when I asked how it was affecting you, is how are you coping with the fact you're descended from the Nott's and that the tosser over there is your cousin?" Draco joked as he jerked his head in Theo's direction

Hermione laughed and Draco smiled but there was a more serious under-note to the topic of conversation and they both knew it. Hermione then said, "It's different but at the end of the day it doesn't change anything. My parents are still my parents. All this means is that I had a set of Grandparents and a couple of Aunts who I didn't know about. I'm not going to start calling myself a pureblood just because I'm descended from one on my Mother's side. I'm a muggle-born and I'm proud of it."

Draco grinned proudly at his girlfriend and grabbed her hand, "Well said. I'm glad you took it so well, when you started to think along those lines I got worried."

Hermione shook her head and stood up, "No, it's not going to change me or the way I think, don't worry," she said as she leant in and kissed her boyfriend.

They chuckled as they heard Theo and Susan making puking noises in the background. Hermione pulled away from the kiss and said, "Shut up you two," in a playful tone of voice.

Theo did a mock solute and Susan laughed. Hermione did love how crazy her friends (and family, now she thought about it) were.

"So who wants to go to the pub?" Hermione asked as they left the library, it was a ridiculously late hour but they knew the Hogs Head would be open regardless.

"Ah what a fantastic idea," Draco said with a sigh, he could really do with a stiff drink after the last few days he'd had.

"Are you paying? Cause I don't have any money," Susan pointed out.

Draco and Hermione rolled their eyes and walked slightly ahead of Susan and Theo. As they left Potter Manor, Hermione realised that what she had found out today had the potential to be life changing. But she didn't want it to be, so it wouldn't be and it was that simple. She knew who she was, and the fact her Mother was a squib didn't change that. As she glanced behind her at Theo who was bickering with Susan about his new idea for his slightly edited project Hermione found herself smiling because her family had just gotten a little bit bigger.

***

"You're _cousins_?"

"Yep," Theo said in amusement, "The princess herself is my cousin. Right Hermy?"

Hermione shot Theo a death glare, "Call me that again and you'll regret it."

"Sorry," Theo muttered sheepishly.

"How?" Harry asked in disbelief.

"My Mother was a squib," Hermione explained simply.

"And she was the sister of my Father, hence cousins," Theo said slowly, "That's how cousins work, Harry."

Harry rolled his eyes, "Shut up Theo, I'm just trying to get my head around this."

"Tell me about it," Hermione said as she chuckled, "Look Harry. My Mother was a squib and her Father tried to kill her when she was 10 years old. He couldn't do it so he let her go, Elladora Malfoy found her wandering around so she erased her memory and put her in the muggle world."

"Elladora Malfoy?" Daphne asked in surprise, "As in-"

"- my Grandmother, yeah," Draco said with a nod.

"Wow, who knew there were squib supporters in the Malfoy family?" Sadie asked in surprise.

"Who knew Lucius Malfoy's Mother was one, more to the point," Theo snorted.

"Yes well Elladora Malfoy was Elladora Potter before she married," Draco said with a roll of his eyes, "So no wonder she was noble.'

"Your Grandmother was a Potter?" Harry asked in disbelief.

"Didn't you know that?" Neville laughed, "Honestly Harry, you need to get more up to date with your family history. Elladora Potter was the daughter of Charlus Potter, your Great Great Grandfather so she would have been your Great Aunt."

"Okay, so are you saying that Lucius Malfoy was _half _Potter?" Harry asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Research your family history," Daphne said in amusement, "Your Father and Grandfather might have been Gryffindors but there are a hell of a lot of famous Potters who were in Slytherin."

"As interesting as this is, it takes away from Hermione's incredible story," Lilly said with a slight smile, "How are you feeling about all of this Hermione?"

"Like I said to Draco earlier, I feel fine," Hermione said honestly, "My parents are still my parents, this doesn't change anything."

"But you're not really a muggle-born, like you always thought you were," Lilly pointed out.

"Yes, I am," Hermione said simply, "My parents didn't have magical abilities. As far as I'm concerned I'm still a muggle-born and I'm still the same person. I just have a far more interesting family history than I originally thought."

The others laughed at her comment but they were all amazed by how well she had taken the bombshell. Then again, she was Hermione Granger, she always amazed them.

**TBC :)**


	45. Out of Time

After the exciting discovery made at Malfoy Manor the week flew by. Neville took his theory to the Prophet and ensured an article would be written as soon as possible. With the help of Harry, he also took it to the Ministry, straight to the Minister for Magic himself. They tried to keep it within the group until it became common knowledge so the group of 8th Years looked very suspicious that week as they whispered in front of the fire together. By the time Friday morning came around the article was published in the paper and nobody strictly knew that the mysterious group of 8th Years had been the ones to discover it, although many people _did _suspect it. The advice it gave seemed to actually be taken seriously and the Ministry were taking legal action on the matter too. They were all very pleased with the fast, effective progress that they had made as the group sat down for breakfast on Friday with the article page in front of them.

"Oh Hermione, McGonagall asked me to tell you to be at the hospital wing for 9am today," Annie said casually as she sat down at the table, she had come in late and had only just glanced at the paper.

"Why?" Hermione asked curiously, McGonagall hadn't said anything to her the day before when she had spoken to her about her transfiguration homework.

Annie frowned as she caught the headline, "Uh, something about meeting the new girl," she said, "Can I borrow this?" she added.

Hermione was even more confused, she followed Annie's gaze to the paper, "What? Oh yeah, sure. What new girl?"

Annie pulled the paper towards her and replied, "Melody I think her name was," she said, "Woah lead paint is the reason for infertility? My whole house is painted with that stuff! I'd better owl my Mum!" she jumped up and hurried from the hall.

"Melody?" Hermione questioned as she looked to the others, "What happened to her? She was supposed to get integrated into Hogwarts last month wasn't she?"

Harry nodded and made sure no nosy ears were listening in as he said, "Yeah, she spent some time in St. Mungo's though. She had a nervous breakdown before she even got out of the hospital wing, she couldn't deal with the change from her time to this time. I heard she was back in the hospital wing, she's obviously on the mend."

"Well why would McGonagall want me to go there?" Hermione asked as she frowned in McGonagall’s direction.

"Because you’re the Head Girl? And she probably wants you to be supportive or something," Daphne said casually as she flicked through the gossip section of the prophet.

"Yeah I mean she does only have her Dad," Sadie reasoned, "She won't know anyone else. We were all about 5 years old when she was in 7th year."

"If that's the case then why me?" Hermione asked.

"She probably thinks it's your thing, you're pretty good at patching up broken people. Look at what you managed to make of me,” Harry replied.

Hermione’s cheeks flushed with colour and Draco smirked, "He's right; you did it for me too."

"And me," Daphne said with a smile. By now Hermione was bright pink which amused the others.

"Well," Hermione said, her cheeks were still pink, "I don't think any of you were broken, just in need of a little love. But either way I'd better head up to the hospital wing. I'll see you in Ancient Runes guys," she said to Daphne and Draco. She then slung her bag over her shoulder and made her way to the hospital wing.

Hermione didn't know how but McGonagall was already waiting for her when she got to the hospital wing. She knew she had left the great hall before McGonagall and the woman hadn't passed her. Hermione smiled slightly, McGonagall was becoming more and more like Dumbledore by the day.

"Ah, Miss. Granger," McGonagall said as she greeted Hermione with a smile, "Before we go in I would like to explain why I asked you here."

Hermione nodded and McGonagall continued in an undertone, "Melody has had a hard time adapting to current times. She is officially being integrated today and I thought it might help if she had a friend. She is taking all of the same classes as you so if you can help her in any way possible I am sure she would appreciate it."

Hermione nodded a little nervously and McGonagall led Hermione into the hospital wing where Melody was sitting on the edge of the bed. She was in standard Hogwarts school uniform, Hermione noticed the Ravenclaw crest on her tie and cloak. Melody looked much the same, her eyes were big and blue but they seemed cold and lost.

Filch and Trelawney were standing by her bed, Filch was hovering there protectively, "Are you sure you'll be okay Melody?"

Melody smiled at her Father and Hermione saw her eyes come to life, "I'm ready Dad, I'll be fine," she said as she hugged Filch.

"Be sure to take care today child," Trelawney added.

Melody's smile even looked real when she smiled at the Divination teacher, "I will, thank you Sybil," she said as she hugged her too.

"Melody, this is Hermione Granger," McGonagall said with a kind smile, "She is the Head Girl and she will keep you right today."

Melody stood up, slung her bag over her shoulder and walked over to Hermione, "Hey," she said.

"Hi," Hermione said brightly, "Are you ready to go?"

Melody nodded so Hermione led the way out of the hospital wing, "Okay well we have Ancient Runes first so-"

"So we're going to the 2nd floor then, yeah I know," Melody said, her smile was gone and her attitude had changed. Her eyes were cold and she sounded bitter, "I did come here for 7 years; I think I know my way around."

"Oh right, of course, sorry," Hermione said, she didn’t really know what to say to that.

"I was Head Girl," Melody said miserably, "I know what you're trying to do, you’re trying to make a friend of me and all that rubbish, don't bother."

Hermione gaped at her for a moment because she didn't know what to say and it wasn't often that she was lost for words.

"Right well I won't then," Hermione said simply, "But I do have to guide you to your classes today, attitude or not."

There was silence between them for a moment and it was extremely awkward.

"Now you might know the school but you don't know the people," Hermione said, "There's me and the group of people I'm friends with and they are alright. But there is this girl called Sally, avoid her like the pox she is such-"

Hermione realised her mistake the moment she saw the look on Melody's face, she had forgotten the dragon pox was the reason for all of Melody's suffering in life.

"I'm sorry," Hermione said quickly.

"Right," Melody said simply, "So avoid you and all your friends who joke about serious diseases then!"

"It's not anymore though," Hermione said as she tried to defend herself, "These days it's easy to cure."

"Well isn't that wonderful for you?" Melody asked sarcastically, she was extremely bitter.

Hermione couldn't say anymore even if she had known what to say because they had reached their Ancient Runes classroom and Hermione was grateful that she wasn't seated next to Melody.

"Wow," Hermione said as she sunk down into her seat in-between Daphne and Hannah.

"What happened?" Daphne whispered nosily, the lesson was well underway and everyone was whispering as they translated some old scriptures.

"Well McGonagall asked me to guide her today because it's her first day of classes and we share all of our classes," Hermione whispered, she was careful to be very quiet so that Melody wouldn't hear them; she was sitting two rows ahead with Ginny and Draco.

"Whats she like?" Hannah asked, she was on talking terms with everyone in the group again apart from Neville and Susan.

"Not very nice," Hermione replied honestly, "She was really cold and bitter."

"She has been a cat for a decade," Daphne whispered, "I'd be pretty pissed too."

"Yeah well I accidentally made it worse by saying 'avoid her like the pox' I didn't even realise. It's a phrase I use on auto-pilot," Hermione said, she shook her head at her own stupidity.

"I wouldn't worry about it Hermione," Daphne said quietly, "She's going to push everyone out at the moment, don't take it personally."

"I feel so sorry for her," Hermione said, she was sure that the guilt showed on her face.

"That's probably the last thing she wants," Daphne observed, "She probably just wants people to treat her like a normal person."

"She is a normal person," Hermione sighed, “She's just a bit displaced."

"Understatement of the century," Daphne muttered.

Hermione shot a sympathetic look towards Melody and she was chilled to the bone when she caught her looking right back. It reminded Hermione of those times she had snuck out with the boys and Mrs. Norris would stare at her, like she could see right into their souls or even see through Harry's invisibility cloak.

She couldn't still have some of her cat-like skills could she, like super hearing? Hermione sincerely hoped not.

***

After her disastrous start to the day with Melody, things didn't get better for Hermione. She tried to talk to Melody but the girl was either silent or snappy so in the end Hermione gave up. She carted Melody around even though the girl clearly knew where she was going. They went to Defence against the Dark Arts on the first floor where Hermione quietly filled the others in on what had happened. Everyone seemed to agree with Daphne that the best thing was to try and be nice to her but let her deal with this herself.

At break Hermione had to stick with Melody so she took her over to the gang as they shivered outside in the courtyard.

Everyone greeted Melody with a smile and said hello, she just gave them a half-hearted wave and leant against a wall.

Susan smiled brightly, "Hey Melody, how are you finding your way about?"

"Fine," Melody replied, she was sticking to one worded answers.

"Oh, so it hasn't changed at all?" Susan asked with interest.

Melody shrugged, "Not really," she said simply.

"Have you seen the grounds yet?" Harry asked with a chuckle as he thought of what he still referred to as Hagrid's hut.

Melody shook her head and Harry said, "Well Hagrid the caretaker got engaged and now that his fiancé has moved in his hut is more like a luxury two-story cottage."

Everyone, Harry included, was surprised when Melody laughed at this, "Really? How sweet for Hagrid," she said fondly, she had obviously been close to the caretaker as Harry was.

"Oh, were you close to Hagrid?" Daphne asked kindly. Melody's face darkened a little, she had obviously heard Daphne, Hermione and Hannah talking about her earlier.

"Yes, I lived in the castle so I grew up with him. He would look after me when my Father had to patrol," She spoke with a distant look in her eyes, "I think I shall go visit him after school," she said, more to herself than the others.

"That would be nice," Draco said with a smile towards the Ravenclaw, she frowned when she looked at him.

"You're the boy from Ancient Runes," Melody stated.

Draco frowned, "Uh, yes?"

"I thought you looked familiar then, who are you?" Melody asked.

Draco replied, "Draco Black."

"You might call yourself Black but once a Malfoy always a Malfoy," Theo joked with a chuckle, he didn’t understand why everyone was glaring at him.

"MALFOY?" Melody shouted with a crazed look in her eyes, "You are from the family that did this to me!"

"Woah, Expelliarmus!" Harry shouted the moment he saw Melody raise her wand, "Calm down! It was thanks to him that we saved you, you'd still be a cat if it weren't for him."

Melody seemed to stop seething and caught her breath but she was still looking suspiciously at Draco. The courtyard had gone silent as everyone stopped to watch the drama.

"Nothing to see here," Susan shouted into the silence, "Move your nosy arses somewhere else!"

As the crowd began to move and talk once more Melody quietly said, "I apologise for my conduct. Please may I have my wand back?"

Harry nodded and handed her back her wand, just as he did the bell rang which signalled the end of break. Hermione cautiously stepped forward, "Come on Melody, we've got double potions next."

"Let me guess," Melody said sarcastically, "The classroom is still in the dungeons?"

"Well, yes," Hermione said.

Melody rolled her eyes, "I don't _need _a guide."

"Well you have one and that's that," Hermione said, she shot an exasperated glance back at her friends as she continued ahead with Melody.

Harry felt a little bad for chuckling at his friend's pain, he knew it wasn't fair because of all that Melody was going through but Hermione was usually so patient and she kept losing her temper with Melody.

Potions was a godsend for Hermione because she didn't have to be with Melody for a whole double period. Today they were having another research/writing session as the deadline for the project drew ever nearer. Slughorn spent the entire period reading an apparently highly amusing book in his comfy chair at the front of the room. He occasionally sauntered around looking over everyone's shoulder but then he would go back to guffawing at the contents of his book.

When the bell rang to signal the end of the class Hermione led Melody to the Great Hall where they were forced to eat together but they didn't say a word to each other throughout all of lunch. Others, like Susan, Hannah and Sadie tried to make conversation but they were all shot down. From the head table Filch and Trelawney looked on anxiously.

"Come on," Hermione said as she stood up, "We've got Arithmancy next."

Melody followed her lead and stood up silently, she grabbed her bag and the two girls marched from the hall together. Hermione didn't bother trying to lead Melody or tell her which way to go, she had learned quickly that nothing had changed since Melody was at school and by doing so she was only pissing the girl off.

They made their way up the staircase in awkward silence; they had left earlier than the bell because Hermione liked to get to class a little early. When they reached the fourth floor Hermione began to climb the next staircase that led to the fifth floor but when she turned around to check that Melody was still behind her she saw her walking along the fourth floor corridor.

Hermione bit her tongue and hurried after the girl, "Where are you going?" she asked.

Melody only continued walking, she didn't even bother to turn around as she replied, "Arithmancy, duh."

"Well you aren't," Hermione said with annoyance, "Because it's on the 5th floor."

"No, it's in the Magnus tower, it's always been there," Melody said as she reached the end of the fourth floor corridor and turned right towards a wooden door that had always been locked.

"The what tower?" Hermione asked in confusion, "And that door has been locked ever since I arrived here by the way," she added as Melody grabbed the handle and tried to yank the door open.

Melody ignored her and pulled her wand out, "Alohomora," she mumbled and the door swung open.

Hermione hurried after Melody as she walked in. The door led to a spiral staircase. There _was _a tower in here but it didn't look like it had been used in a long time. There were cobwebs everywhere and there were even bats living in the rafters that flew out of a smashed window when Melody and Hermione walked in.

"They can't not use it anymore," Melody whispered to herself.

"Melody wait!" Hermione called as the Ravenclaw hurried up the stairs. Hermione groaned and rushed after her, they didn't even know if this part of the building was architecturally stable! After all, the central tower was inaccessible after being almost entirely destroyed in the final battle.

The stairs seemed to go on forever but they also seemed to be secure. When Hermione caught up with Melody at the top of the tower she was out of breath, it had to be one of the highest in Hogwarts, it was higher at least than Gryffindor tower.

At the top of the tower there was a spiralling corridor and a few doors led off of it. Hermione couldn't see Melody so she walked slowly and used her wand to see as it was dark up here and the torches on the walls were not lit. One door said "Classroom 36A: Ghoul Studies". The next door along had a brass plaque with the words "Lost Wands Store" which Hermione could only assume had once been a lost and found for student’s wands. She had never heard of a subject called Ghoul Studies though.

Further along the corridor were four more doors. Two were clearly old Defence against the Dark Arts classrooms as the doors said "Classroom 37A" and "Classroom 37B" each with the words "Defence against the Dark Arts" emblazoned underneath. On the opposite side of the corridor there were two more doors with similar numbers, they read "Classroom 38A" and "Classroom 38B" and underneath was the word "Arithmancy" so this had obviously been where Arithmancy had been taught when Melody was at school.

It must have become disused fairly soon after that because the place didn't look like it had been touched in years. Hermione didn't know where Melody had gone so she glanced into both the Arithmancy and the DADA rooms but didn't see her there. She then walked further along the corridor and checked the old wand store which was small, dusty and empty.

With a sigh Hermione pushed open the door to the Ghoul Studies classroom, when she walked in she wasn't surprised to see Melody sitting at one of the desks but she was surprised to see the Ravenclaw girl crying. The room looked much like any other classroom, it had several old, damaged students' desks scattered throughout it and a teacher's desk at the front. The windows looked out onto the mountains and there was a staircase leading up to what had probably been the office of the professor who taught in this room.

"Melody," Hermione said gently as she approached the girl, she didn't jump but she did tense up.

"Are you okay?" Hermione asked softly as she sat down on a dusty chair.

"I'm fine," Melody said stiffly, she wiped her tears but didn't move to stand up.

"Was this tower in use when you were at Hogwarts?" Hermione asked.

"Yeah," Melody said simply.

Hermione didn't think she would get any more than that out of her, "My Arithmancy classroom was along the corridor but Defence was taught in the main school from my 2nd year onwards."

"What about this classroom?" Hermione asked as she looked around the fairly ordinary room, "I didn't realise there was a subject called Ghoul Studies."

"There isn't any more if this tower is disused," Melody said, her voice sounded cold but much sadder than it had before; "This was the only classroom. Only a few students took it as an O.W.L and it wasn't available as a N.E.W.T."

"It's a pity they stopped running it," Hermione said honestly, "It sounds like an interesting subject."

"It was," Melody said. She still hadn't turned to face Hermione; she seemed to be staring at the teacher's desk.

"Was there a fight here?" Melody asked.

Hermione frowned but then she then caught sight of the windows which were smashed. There was glass and debris littered across the back of the room, “There was a war…” she said as she looked out of the windows onto the serene mountains and remembered when that scenery had been obstructed by fire.

“At Hogwarts?” Melody asked.

“The war affected the entire country,” Hermione admitted as she stared out of the windows, “But the final battle was fought here. The papers called it the Battle of Hogwarts and I suspect the history books will too. Lord Voldemort returned from the dead using dark magic and he returned to kill Harry Potter so that he could be the most powerful wizard in existence. Harry killed him for good in the final battle here but we all sacrificed a lot for that victory.”

“Did many people die?” Melody asked as she looked at Hermione for the first time.

Hermione swallowed hard and nodded, “Yes,” she said quietly as she thought of Fred and Remus and Tonks and poor little Colin Creevey.

Melody frowned deeply and finally turned to face Hermione, she was glad to see that the coldness was thawing now, "I thought you-know-who was defeated by the boy-who-lived in 1981."

"No," Hermione said sadly, "The boy-who-lived is Harry Potter, he's my best friend and you met him today in the courtyard."

"The boy with the glasses?" Melody asked.

Hermione smiled and nodded, "Yeah, you probably remember him as a baby.”

"So he wasn't defeated, he came back?" Melody asked.

Hermione sighed, she felt she was going to have to do her best to explain a long story in a short amount of time, "No, he had made horcruxes and split his soul into 7 pieces,"

Melody cut in, "So his horcruxes had to be destroyed before he himself could die," she said with a nod, "I assume he was biding his time then, until he could be restored to his body or another's body."

"Exactly," Hermione said, she was impressed by Melody's intelligence, "And he returned in 1995. Harry, myself and another friend of ours tracked down and destroyed the horcruxes then last year there was a battle here at Hogwarts. The Death Eaters got in through the barriers and the school was damaged pretty badly. In fact, I'm not even sure if this part of the school is structurally stable."

"We should probably get out then," Melody said but she didn't move.

"Is this place important to you?" Hermione asked.

"I never knew my Mother," Melody said quietly, "My Father raised me in this castle, he didn't know Sybil then. I mean he couldn't have; she was only 8 years old when I was born. It’s insane, my Dads girlfriend is only 8 years older than me, if you take into account my cat years."

"I wouldn't," Hermione said honestly, "I mean they were lost years, you don't remember them and your body hasn't aged at all. I'd say you were 18 years old. It's kind of like time travel; you're the age you were then, before it all happened."

"I guess," Melody said, "That does seem the easiest way to think about it. Anyway as I was saying, my Mother died before she saw me, she got the pox and I had to be delivered prematurely. I was kind of raised by the teachers here. It seems now that so many people who were important to me then are gone. My Godfather is dead and I don't know where my Godmother is if she's not here teaching Ghoul Studies anymore."

"Who was your Godfather?" Hermione asked curiously, she didn't expect an answer from Melody but she got one, "Albus, he was Headmaster then, Minerva was only the Deputy."

"Oh," Hermione said, she wasn’t sure what to say for a moment, "Dumbledore...he only died recently. 2 years ago in fact, he was killed by a curse while destroying one of Voldemort’s horcruxes."

"At least I can know that he died fighting for the greater good," Melody sighed, "It's what he would have wanted. He probably greeted death like an old friend...My Godmother, Serena Ellis, do you know of her?”

Hermione wished that she could help but she shook her head, "I haven't heard of her, I'm sorry."

Melody merely shrugged and stood up, “We better get to class,” she said as she left the room and looked back with a sad glance.

Hermione made her way down the staircase after Melody; the staircase wasn't really wide enough for two people to walk side by side. When the two girls were back in the main school Melody asked, "Do you know why it is no longer used?"

Hermione didn't know the answer but she could hazard a guess, "Well as the years went on pureblood families were having problems with fertility so the intake has been gradually going down every year. The classrooms probably weren't needed anymore and Ghoul Studies has never run in the 7 years that I've been here. There probably just wasn't a need for the tower anymore. It's also fairly small and if it's not entirely structurally sound it could be dangerous for lots of students to be going up and down the stairs."

Melody was quiet for a moment as they climbed the 5th floor staircase, the school was quiet and empty because everyone was in class.

"Why are you in an 8th Year?" Melody asked.

Hermione assumed that this had already been explained to her but obviously not, "Well like I said there was a war and during that war Voldemort took control of the Ministry of Magic and prevented Muggle-borns from coming to school. A lot of us were off fighting or were too scared to come back to school because Hogwarts was being run by Voldemort and his Death Eaters. After the war we needed to get our N.E.W.T's but we had missed our last year of school so McGonagall invited us back to retake our last year. We all have a common room in the East tower because there isn't enough room in the house common rooms. The reason you're going to be sharing with us is partly because there isn't space in Ravenclaw tower but also because you've been through a lot and we've all been through a war so McGonagall thought you'd find it easier to fit in there."

"Oh, okay," Melody said, she was being fairly nice for the moment but it seemed to end there because they had reached their Arithmancy classroom. They entered the classroom and apologised for being late. Hermione then took her seat at the back of the classroom at a table she shared with Daphne, Sadie, Ginny and Luna.

"Why are you late?" Daphne asked curiously the moment Hermione sat down and opened her textbook.

Hermione answered this by making a movement with her head towards Melody who was making her way towards the front of the class.

"What's she like Mione?" Ginny asked as she gestured towards Melody who was now sitting on her own at the front. Professor Vector seemed to be explaining the changes in Arithmancy to her.

"She's okay," Hermione said honestly, she had seen a different side of Melody now, "She's a bit up and down but I guess that's to be expected."

"You've changed your tune," Daphne teased as she and Sadie sniggered.

Hermione rolled her eyes, "Well I saw a different side to her just now," she said simply.

“That’s why McGonagall gave you this job,” Sadie said with a smile.

Hermione shrugged and glanced to the front to check if Vector was still talking to Melody, "By the way, do any of you know about a disused tower called the Magnus tower?"

"Of course," Luna said airily from across the table, "It was in use until 1990 when the Ministry decommissioned its use.”

"Why did they decommission it?" Ginny asked in confusion, she had never heard of it either.

"It was deemed structurally unsafe after an accident. It was also closed as a mark of respect to the Professor who died there," Luna said, there was a different kind of faraway look in her eyes, it was a sad look.

"How do you know that Luna?" Hermione asked curiously.

Luna turned around to make sure no one was watching and moved closer, everyone instinctively moved in closer too, "The Witch who died in the tower was my Mother. She taught an old subject called Ghoul Studies. I was with her that day; I was 9 years old. The explosion killed my Mother and two pupils, it was all hushed up so not many people know about the tower."

"I'm really sorry Luna, that's dreadful," Sadie said but Luna merely smiled and looked back down at her textbook.

"Luna...do you remember a girl visiting your house when you were younger?" Hermione asked, she had just had a brainwave.

Luna didn't look up as she replied, "Yes, she was like a cousin but she disappeared when I was about 4 years old."

Hermione had figured it out, "Luna...your Mother wasn't by any chance called Serena Ellis, was she?"

"Serena Ellis-Lovegood, yes," Luna said as she looked up, "Why do you ask?"

"See that girl over there? That's Melody Norris-Filch, she was imprisoned as a cat for 13 years. Her Godmother was your Mother," Hermione said quietly.

Luna didn't bother trying to be discreet as she looked to the front where Melody was now staring blankly at her textbook.

Luna raised her hand and Vector, who was fond of her, smiled, "Yes Luna?"

"Professor Vector, I was wondering if I might sit with Melody to help her understand? Arithmancy theory has changed an awful lot in recent years." Luna said.

Vector's smile widened as she nodded, "Of course Luna, I think that's a fantastic idea."

The others watched as Luna made her way over to Melody and clearly explained to the girl what she had just told the others. Melody looked shocked then upset and then nodded. Eventually she hugged Luna and smiled sadly at her fellow Ravenclaw.

Hermione sighed and put her head in her hands, today had been a stressful day and she still had two periods to go.

The rest of the day passed much as the earlier day had done, Melody returned to her fairly cold demeanour, although it was nowhere near as bad as it had been at the start of the day. By the time Transfigurations and Charms were over Hermione was happy to get into the common room and collapse onto a sofa with Draco.

Melody seemed to have made a friend in Luna however so Hermione let her mind wander from the Ravenclaw girl...for a while.

**TBC :)**


	46. I Wouldn't Be Bitter, I'd Just Be Better Now

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Title comes from the song:  
Better Now by Rascal Flatts

After Melody had settled in on Friday Hermione only saw her once and that was when she made her way through the common room upstairs to bed. Hermione had learned earlier from Sadie that Melody was joining the dorm she shared with Hannah and Annie. It had been Tracey's dorm room too but her bed had disappeared from the room after her death which had been difficult for Sadie to comprehend and deal with. Dean's bed had also vanished from the dorm he had shared with Neville, Theo, Ernie and Justin.

When Hermione woke up on Saturday morning Melody didn't even cross her mind as she ate breakfast with her friends. She then made her way to the library with Daphne, Sadie, Susan and Lilly. The boys were out playing Quidditch and the girls had decided to spend the day in the library with the hope that if they worked right through they would finish their potions project. The group made their way to the table in the library they usually worked at. They had just settled down with their books when they heard a strange noise coming from nearby.

Daphne heard it first, she frowned and looked up at the others, they were still engrossed in their books. She listened and heard it again, this time it was clear that the sound was a girl crying. Lilly looked up this time, she had heard it too.

"Guys,” Daphne whispered, “Do you hear that?"

Sadie and Susan looked up and listened, they nodded as they heard the crying.

"It sounds like a girl," Susan said quietly as she glanced over her shoulder to try and figure out where Madam Pince was but she was stacking books at the other side of the library.

"Where is it coming from?" Sadie whispered as she glanced behind the bookcase where the sound seemed to be coming from, "There's no one there."

"Maybe its Myrtle," Sadie said, "She can make herself invisible."

"It's not Myrtle," Hermione said as she finally looked up from her book, "Trust me, I spent enough time in her bathroom to know how her cry sounds."

"Hermione is right," Susan said, "Myrtle doesn't really cry, she kind of wails."

Hermione and Susan chuckled at the thought and Daphne sighed, "Whoever it is sounds really upset, we should try and help her."

With another glance to make sure Pince was still at the other side of the library she stood up and made her way around the bookcase and the others followed her. Daphne indicated that they shouldn't speak and edged towards a tapestry on the wall. When she approached it she lightly pushed against it. The tapestry moved, indicating that there was an opening behind it.

"Excuse me," Daphne said gently, "Can we help you?"

The girl in the alcove stopped crying and the girls listened to the silence for a moment.

Finally, there was a call of, "Come in then, if you want."

Daphne walked in first, the alcove was more like a room with a table and a few chairs in it. She motioned for the others to come in and the girls traipsed into the room where the girl who had been crying was sitting in one of the chairs, it was Melody.

"Melody!" Sadie realised, "Are you okay?"

Melody sighed and looked down, her eyes were red, puffy and bloodshot.

"No," Melody said honestly and her voice broke a little.

"Is there anything we can do?" Hermione asked her.

"I'm sorry," Melody said quietly, "For the way I treated you all yesterday but I'm scared that if I make friends I'll lose them all again."

"It's okay," Hermione said as she took one of the wooden seats, Sadie took the other and Susan, Daphne and Lilly pushed themselves up onto the table.

"You especially Hermione," Melody said with a guilty expression on her face, "You tried to be nice to me and I was horrible for no reason, even after all you did in the Magnus tower."

"Don't worry about it," Hermione said honestly, "With the situation you're in I didn't expect you to be perfectly fine and happy straight away."

"I doubt I'll ever be perfectly happy," Melody said sadly, she looked down at her hands and her voice started to shake again, "Not without Roy anyway."

"Was Roy your boyfriend?" Lilly asked.

Melody nodded, she looked close to tears again, "Dad said he bought a ring, he was going to propose at the prom...I got the pox 2 weeks before he got the chance."

"Gosh, that's awful," Sadie said quietly.

Melody shrugged, "I just wish I could have my life back."

"Well, Roy would only be 31 now, if he was in your year," Daphne said, she was trying to look on the bright side but it didn’t come across that way to Melody.

"Only 31?" Melody cried loudly. Hermione quickly performed a muffliato charm on the tapestry at the entrance to their little alcove.

Melody burst into tears again and became a little hysterical, "I'm 18! That's not a small age gap, its 13 years! He's probably married with children; he's probably forgotten all about me!"

"What's his full name?" Daphne interjected, she was calm even now that Melody was freaking out, "You won't know unless you find him if he has moved on, will you?"

Melody seemed to consider this and sighed, "His name is Roy Lockhart."

Hermione's jaw dropped, Susan's jaw dropped, Daphne gaped like a fish, Sadie and Lilly shared gazes of surprise.

"_Gilderoy _Lockhart?" Hermione exclaimed.

Melody was confused by their reactions but she nodded, "Uh…yeah, but nobody called him that, he hated it."

"Well," Susan said slowly, "He definitely doesn't remember you."

Melody immediately broke down in tears, "He's dead, I knew it!"

"Susan!" Lilly hissed, "Come on have some tact!"

"She needs to find out anyway," Daphne reasoned quietly, "And whatever way she does, it will be hard."

"He isn't dead Melody," Hermione said gently and the girl's sobs eased enough for Hermione to be able to hear herself think, "He isn't married and he doesn't have kids.”

"Then what do you mean?” Melody asked miserably.

Susan sighed, “He taught at Hogwarts in our 2nd year but he had an accident. He tried to cast a memory charm and it backfired, he barely knows who he is. He's been in St. Mungo's for the last 6 years."

This set Melody off once more and the others just shared looks and mouthed to each other "What now?"

They decided to wait a moment and see if Melody's crying eased, "Do I have any friends still alive?" she asked through her tears.

"I'm sure you do," Hermione said kindly, "Tell us who some of your friends are. We'll see if we can help."

Melody nodded and wiped her tears on the sleeve of her cloak, "My two best friends were Glenda Chittock and Gwenog Jones. Glenda was 4 years younger than me so she should be 26 now and Gwenog was my age so she should be 31."

Hermione felt glad that she could give the girl some good news, "Well Gwenog is still alive and she’s very famous. She plays for the Holyhead Harpies and has done for quite some time."

"She definitely remembers you," Susan said with a smile, "She has a tattoo on her neck of the Ravenclaw crest with a snitch, quaffle and bludger around it. In interviews she says it's a mark of a respect to her best friend who she lost as a teenager."

Melody's eyes welled up with tears at this; "Really?" she asked quietly, "That's so sweet."

Susan reached into her back pocket and pulled out a chocolate frog card, "This is her," she said as she handed it to Melody.

Melody took the photograph with shaking hands and half-laughed, half-cried when she saw it, "Oh my gosh, she looks the same…so pretty," she shook her head as if she couldn't believe what she was seeing, “And she has a chocolate frog card!”

"And Glenda?"

"She's famous too," Lilly said with a smile, "She has a chocolate frog card as well."

"Wow," Melody said as the tears spilled from her eyes, "What for?"

"She was the host of 'Witching Hour' on the Wizarding Wireless Network," Lilly replied, "She's just left the show because she's pregnant with her first baby."

"A baby, oh my gosh, that's so great," Melody whispered to herself, "And what about Bill, Bill Weasley? Is he okay? He was so sweet…he was a prefect when I was head girl. We always did our patrols together, is he alright?"

The others were surprised that Melody had known Bill but Hermione replied, "Yes, he's great actually," she said honestly, "He got married recently to a French woman and they are having a baby.”

Melody smiled broadly at this, "That is so so great."

"Melody," Sadie said slowly as an idea struck her, "If you'd like, we could take you to St. Mungo's to see Lockhart - I mean Roy - he won't recognise you but you would at least be able to see him."

Melody considered this in silence for a moment as she wiped her tears again, "I'd like that but it will be hard, I think."

"I imagine it will be," Sadie said, "But we'll all be there."

"If you want us to be that is," Daphne added.

Melody nodded, she took a moment to catch her breath and said, "I'd like you all to be there but I don't deserve your kindness, not after my treatment of you yesterday."

"The past is called the past for a reason," Hermione said simply as she helped Melody to her feet.

"Let's get you back to the common room so you can get cleaned up," Susan said kindly as she and Sadie linked an arm through Melody's on either side. If Melody needed anything at the moment it was friends.

***

The boys had planned to have a day of mucking about on the Quidditch field but they had only been out for half an hour when the rain began to pour so they quickly changed their plans. 20 minutes and several drying charms later they found themselves in 'The Three Broomsticks' with a pint of butterbeer in front of them, or in Draco's case a glass of firewhiskey.

"Can you believe it's March?" Neville said with a shake of his head, "We've only got a few months left until exams, prom and graduation and then that's it, we're done with school."

"It's gone so fast," Theo admitted as he looked thoughtfully into his glass.

"It's been pretty eventful though," Draco said as he thought back to all that had happened so far, the good and the bad.

"It always is when you're around me," Harry joked.

Neville chuckled, "That's true."

"What are we going to do when school is done?" Theo asked, partly to himself and partly to the others, "We're all going to be going our separate ways."

"Nah we're not," Harry said, "Well us 4 aren't anyway. We're going to see each other every day at Auror training Theo, don't get sentimental."

"I'm not getting into Auror training Harry," Theo said with a sigh as he drank from his pint glass, "They do a background check, there's no way I'd pass."

"Don't be daft Theo," Harry said.

Neville nodded, "You don't have anything that's going to come up in a background check Theo, don't worry."

Theo checked that no one was looking and said, "Oh yeah? I think they might take this into account," he pulled his sleeve up and showed them the faint outline of a dark mark.

Harry and Neville were shocked but Draco didn't seem to be, he had obviously already known. Theo was his best friend after all.

"Theo, you didn't tell me you were a Death Eater," Harry hissed across the table.

"I wasn't," Theo said bitterly, "I never did anything; I never hurt anyone or killed anyone. My Dad forced it on me, same as Draco."

"It doesn’t change anything Theo, you still don't have a record," Draco said simply, "And the mark will be gone soon. Mine disappeared last month and I got it a month before you did. If anyone isn't going to become an Auror it's me. I _do _have a criminal record, one that lists me as a Death Eater and a traitor. Oh yeah and it also has me down for the attempted murder of Albus Dumbledore."

"Draco, I told you I'd pull all the necessary strings," Harry began to say.

Draco cut him off, "What strings? You'd have to pull all the bloody strings in the Ministry!"

"Draco," Harry said quietly, "I only have to pull one string. The Minister for Magic was up until recently the Head Auror. I'll show him the memories and prove that you saved my life in the war; I'll prove you deserve it. They will at least give you a chance, once you're in the selection process there's an impartial judge, that part is on you."

The air was tense for a moment until Neville made a really bad joke, "An impartial judge? Does the goblet of fire watch us and then hold up a bit of paper with a number on it?"

It was so bad that it broke the tension and made everybody laugh.

"Anyway, I have something I need to tell you," Theo began, he sounded very serious which didn't happen very often.

"Another bombshell along the lines of, by the way I was a Death Eater?" Neville asked in an amused undertone.

"No," Theo said with a roll of his eyes, "I've been thinking about this...a lot and I've decided to spend this afternoon ring shopping."

Draco gaped at his friend, "Like engagement ring shopping?"

Theo nodded and Harry grinned, "Oh wow, that's fantastic!"

Neville nodded, "Yeah, that's fantastic mate!"

Theo smiled, "Cheers guys. I don't know when I'll do it yet but I want to get the ring."

Draco shook his head at his friend, "Theodore Roosevelt Nott, buying an engagement ring! What happened to you?"

"A lovely lady called Sadie Cauldwell happened to me," Theo said with a smile.

"Well good luck, with the shopping," Harry said to his friend as they finished their drinks and stood up to leave.

"Yeah," Draco said, he was a lot more shocked than Harry at this news, "Good luck."

"Make sure you pick something nice, not just the most expensive thing in the shop!" Neville joked as they left the three broomsticks and went their separate ways. Theo just gave Neville the middle finger behind his back before he apparated away from the village.

Draco shook his head again as the remaining three made their way back to Hogwarts, "Can you believe it? Engagements? You're not thinking of proposing to Daph are you?"

Harry shook his head with a small frown, "Oh no, no way. We've only been together since November remember?"

"Yeah, well Hermione and me haven't exactly been together long but it's about the same length of time as Theo and Sadie's relationships," Draco said.

Neville shrugged, "Yeah but it's different isn't it? Theo and Sadie have known each other as friends since 1st year. You and Hermione have only actually liked each other as people for a few months."

Harry and Draco both laughed at the way Neville had worded it but Harry nodded, "You're right Nev. I hadn't really noticed Daphne until I came back for 8th year, apart from that huge 6th year crush, so obviously we're going to do things at a different pace from the others."

"That's true," Draco said with a frown, "But you do realise things won't always be this way, don't you?"

"What do you mean by 'this way' Draco?" Harry asked, he was completely at a loss as to what the Slytherin meant.

Draco caught Harry's eye, "In Hogwarts unity is all fine and well but the world isn't like that. You've seen what the papers have done and what they have been saying."

"Draco, what are you trying to say?" Neville asked as he studied his friend.

Draco looked down, "When we get out of here the world isn't going to accept that Ron Weasley, the sidekick who you saved the world with isn't your best friend anymore. But that the bastard who tormented you in high school is."

"For Godric's sake Draco, you're a drama queen," Harry muttered in amusement, "Ron and I are still really good friends, we're just living different lives at the moment. The world, the press, they can think what they want. I don't care and you shouldn't either."

Neville chuckled, "Harry's right, it doesn't matter. So what if Harry and I get a bit of bad press for being your friend, or if Hermione gets a bit of hate mail for dating you? We've all had worse and we can all handle it."

"Listen to me and stop being noble for a second," Draco said quietly, "What I am trying to say is that if you two want to distance yourselves from me once we leave Hogwarts. If you want to make our connection disappear, I'll understand."

Harry couldn't actually believe what Draco was suggesting. He looked at Neville in disbelief and they both shook their heads, "Hmm, let us think about that for a second," Harry said thoughtfully.

Draco surveyed them as they pretended to think very hard about this. Then Harry and Neville said in unison, "No."

Neville glared at his friend, "You really are being a drama queen. Of course we won't distance ourselves from you!"

Harry nodded, "You are one of my best friends, you idiot. I'm not going to ditch you that easily, not unless you do something really bloody stupid like screw over Hermione or try and steal my girlfriend, or beat Gryffindor in the Quidditch cup."

Draco smiled slightly, he didn't often let people see his emotions or even let people in that easily but Harry and Neville had fast become part of the select group of people who he trusted enough to be entirely himself around, "Well, I will never screw anything up with Hermione, you can be sure of that. And you don't have to worry about me stealing your girlfriend. However, no promises on the Quidditch cup," he smirked.

Neville laughed, "That's more like it. Stop being a stupid git now, alright?"

Harry and Draco both chuckled but Draco appeared to be thoughtful once more as he said, "It's not just us you'll have to worry about you know. In school the only problems you and Daph have are some extreme Gryffindors or Slytherins but when the wizarding world realise that your relationship with Daphne is serious it's going to affect your reputation. It's as prejudiced as ever out there.”

"Well like I said, whatever bad press I get I'll deal with it, it's that simple," Harry said, in truth he didn't know how simple or complicated it would be.

"You're sheltered by Hogwarts at the moment, the real world is different. I know Hermione will get it too, I've had a similar conversation with her. She says she doesn't care and she'll handle it, just like you have. When it actually happens though, it's different," Draco sighed, "All I'm saying is this 'perfect' world we live in, this bubble, it's going to burst the second school ends."

"I know," Harry said quietly, it was a harsh truth he'd been avoiding, "I know it will Draco but can't I enjoy living in the bubble while it lasts? Haven't we had enough pain recently with what happened to Dean and Tracey?"

Draco nodded, "I'll say just one more thing. Once we're out there, we're in the public eye and once that happens they'll find out about you and Daphne. As soon as they know you can't go back, a bad break-up will cause you so many problems, not just with the press but in your career. Trust me on this Harry; I grew up being taught about this kind of thing by my Father. All I'm asking is that you think about your relationship with Daphne, make sure you really love her, make sure it's worth it and that it's going to last, okay?"

Neville sighed, "Draco is right on that one. Being an Auror is similar to being a Politician, especially if you want to climb the ranks. And if you're going to take your seat on the Wizengamot it's even more serious."

Harry tried to comprehend everything that Draco and Neville had said to give himself time to think of an answer but in the end all he could do was nod and say weakly, "Right, I'll think about it."

"Good," Draco said with a deep sigh, "Merlin I don't want school to end."

Harry sighed too, "Neither do I.”

***

When Hermione, Daphne, Sadie, Susan and Lilly arrived in the entrance hall of St. Mungo’s they were supporting a very nervous and shaky Melody.

There was a small queue which gave Melody a little time to look around. The hospital hadn't changed since the last time she was here which felt like yesterday. She'd been back here briefly after her 'breakdown' but Melody hadn't seen the reception then. This was the first time she had seen it since she had come here with the pox. It was a little more up to date and clean but no less white or funny smelling. Melody wrinkled her nose, she hated hospitals. She caught sight of a sign near the desk and swallowed hard as she read what one of the floors was for, “Magical Bugs – Contagious maladies, e.g. dragon pox, vanishing sickness, scrofungulus, etc.”

Melody's gaze was drawn away from the sign as their 'little' group reached the WelcomeWitch at the front desk. She had bleached blonde hair, was sitting with her feet up on a stool and was chewing something pink that looked mysteriously like gum despite the sign above her head which stated, "NO FOOD OR DRINK."

Hermione took the lead, although she did gently take Melody's hand and pull her forward, "Hi, we're here to visit Gilderoy Lockhart, he has severe memory loss."

"Can't you read the sign?" The witch asked, she looked at them like they were stupid, "Memory loss clearly comes under spell damage, 4th floor."

"Right," Hermione mumbled, she led the others through the double doors behind the desk and mumbled to Melody, "I forgot how happy the workers here are."

This got a nervous chuckle from the girl. Hermione saw how much she was shaking and linked her arm through Melody's, the Ravenclaw stopped shaking slightly and quietly said, "Thank you, Hermione'"

When they got to the end of the corridor they made their way up a staircase and Daphne hurried to catch up with her friend, "You know your way about St. Mungo's a bit too well," she said quietly so that Melody wouldn't hear.

Hermione nodded, "I've been here before, I spent Christmas here with Ron's family because his Dad was very ill. That same Christmas I saw Lockhart and he's completely out of it, Melody isn't going to recognise him."

"She needs to see him and see that for herself if she's going to take the first step towards getting over him," Daphne reasoned.

Hermione smiled slightly, "That was very wise Daphne."

Daphne smirked, "Sadie said it a moment ago when you were talking to the WelcomeWitch," she admitted with a laugh. Hermione only rolled her eyes at her as they continued to climb the staircase.

Eventually they reached the top and saw a sign saying "SPELL DAMAGE". There was a mini-reception with a much more welcoming middle-aged witch. Hermione walked up to the desk ready to speak for Melody again but this time she didn't need too.

"Excuse me," Melody said rather quietly, "I'm here to see Gilderoy Lockhart."

The witch smiled, "Oh Gilderoy, that will be lovely dear, he doesn't get many visitors. He's so sweet as well."

Melody only managed to nod as the witch led her along a corridor and said, "He's just in there Miss."

Melody took a deep breath and turned around, "Do you mind if I go in alone?" she asked anxiously, there was a line of chairs in the corridor and a window into the room where Gilderoy Lockhart was staying.

The others shook their heads and took seats, they didn't mind at all. In fact they would have felt like intruders if they had gone in.

"We just wanted to be here for moral support," Sadie said.

Lilly nodded, "And you know we're right outside if you need us."

Melody nodded and looked through the glass. All she could see was the back of his head but his hair was as blonde and curly as it had been then. She smiled, although she still felt more nervous than she ever had in her life.

Hermione was making her way over to a seat next to Daphne when Melody grabbed her hand, "Hermione, I wondered..." Melody trailed off and flushed pink a little, "I wondered if you'd come in with me?"

Hermione smiled and nodded, "Of course I will," she said.

Melody took a deep breath and Hermione asked, "Are you ready?"

Melody nodded, so Hermione opened the door into the room and let Melody walk in. She kept a little distance between herself and the girl, she wanted Melody to be able to handle this on her own. But this way Melody knew that Hermione was there if she needed her.

Lockhart didn't turn around at the opening of the door; he was too busy talking to the old healer who was doing her rounds.

"Oh yes, I'm quite famous do you know? You should read my books," He was saying.

"Oh, I will," The old witch said with a smile. Hermione guessed this conversation had happened several times with several different healers.

Melody finally seemed to have found her voice, "Roy," she said quietly in a small, broken voice.

Lockhart was getting his blood tests done so he didn't turn around from where he was sitting on the bed, "Roy? There's no Roy here, only me, Gilderoy Lockhart! Would you like an autograph?"

Melody's eyes began to fill up with tears because she didn't know this man. She didn't know what to say to him or what to do; she just wanted to run away.

"Roy, don't you know who I am?" Melody asked as the tears spilled from her eyes.

The healer finished her tests and walked by Melody. She paused and said, "I wouldn't expect much my dear, he doesn't remember himself, let alone anyone else."

Melody nodded and a few more tears falling as she did so. The healer left the room and the door closed with a loud click. Every wall was covered with pictures of the man, pictures of himself, all signed. Who was this man?

"Roy...please..." Melody begged, "You must recognise me. You must know who I am."

Lockhart stood up and said jovially, "Oh alright let me have a look at you, then I'll get you this autograph," he finished signing the photo of himself that was in his hand and turned around to face Melody for the first time. The moment his eyes fell on Melody something changed. The photograph fell out of his hands and he walked forward with wide eyes.

"Melody?" He croaked, his voice was suddenly small, quiet and harsh.

"Roy?" Melody asked, she was unsure if it was really him. He looked so different, he looked so old, he had so many more lines than she had known upon his face but his eyes were as blue as she remembered.

"I thought...your Father...he told me you were gone," Lockhart said in a quiet, broken voice.

"I was but I'm back and you remember, you remember me Roy!" Melody cried, she rushed forward and threw herself into his arms and held him tightly. She sobbed hard onto his shoulder and Lockhart himself shed tears as he held Melody tightly. Hermione quietly slipped from the room and rolled her eyes when she saw 5 girls all crowded around an extendable ear as they looked through the glass.

"You are all so nosy!" Hermione exclaimed as she herself placed her ear as close to the extendable ear as she could.

"Hypocrite," Daphne mouthed and Hermione childishly stuck her tongue out at this comment.

Inside the room Melody pulled away from the hug and Lockhart looked at her like he hadn't seen her in years, well he hadn't.

"What happened Mel?" He asked.

"It's a long story Roy but I'll explain that later," Melody said, she laughed because she could, because she was with Roy again and it felt like some part of her life was restored.

It was only then that Lockhart looked down and frowned, "What am I wearing?" he asked as he looked at the white cotton hospital pyjamas he was wearing. He frowned as he looked at his arms, "What's happened to me Mel?" he asked as he began to panic.

Hermione quickly called the Mediwitch from earlier who hurried into the room and was astounded to see that Lockhart had his memory back.

"What happened? Why do I look like this?" Lockhart asked as he caught sight of his face in a mirror, "Why am I so old?"

"Gilderoy," The old witch began to say.

Lockhart made a face, "Don't call me that, my name is Roy."

"Roy, you suffered from extreme memory loss," Melody explained, putting her hand on his arm to calm him down. He frowned and sat down on the bed, Melody sat down next to him.

"What happened?" The witch asked Melody as she jotted down notes on her clipboard.

Melody replied, "Roy looked at me and he remembered me, it was instant. It will last won't it, this won't go away again?"

The old witch smiled, "I highly doubt it miss," she said honestly, "However Gi-" she cut herself off, "Roy, doesn't seem to have recovered all of his memories so I'll have to ask him a few questions."

"Roy, can you tell me what your oldest memory is?" the witch asked kindly as she sat down on a plastic stool by Lockhart's bed.

Lockhart thought about this for a moment and then replied, "My first fishing trip with my Father when I was around 5 years old."

The witch nodded and jotted this down, "And what do you remember of your school years?" she asked.

"I was a Ravenclaw, I was in the same year as this beautiful girl," He added as he looked fondly at Melody, "My favourite subject was Defence against the Dark Arts though my best O.W.L was Transfiguration. I was a member of the Ravenclaw duelling club...is that enough? Oh I played seeker on the Ravenclaw Quidditch team too."

The witch nodded once more and wrote this down.

"When were you born?"

"The 26th of January, 1968."

"Full name?"

"Gilderoy Matthew Lockhart."

The witch took down both of these details then asked simple questions like what Lockhart's blood-status was and the names of his parents. Once these standard questions were out of the way she moved onto the big one.

"And Roy, what is the last thing you remember?"

Lockhart didn't seem to have to think hard about this at all, "I remember being in 7th year at Hogwarts. I remember Melody getting sick with the pox and then disappearing. I was told she was dead by her Father. The last thing I remember is failing my N.E.W.T's and getting drunk."

"And what date was that?"

Lockhart again didn't seem to think very hard about this as he replied, "The 28th of June, 1986."

Outside in the corridor everyone gasped and gaped as they realised that Lockhart had only regained his memories up until the moment Melody had left. Inside the room Melody explained that she had caught the pox and experimental treatment had led to her being stuck in the body of a cat for 13 years. She then told the witch that Lockhart had suffered a breakdown on the 28th of June and according to her Father had never been the same since.

The witch said she would have to do some tests but Melody was welcome to stay in the room so Melody sat on the plastic stool by Lockhart's bed as he lay on the bed to get tests done. The curtain of the window they were looking through was pulled shut so the girls drew in the extendable ears.

"So he only remembers up until Melody left," Susan stated, no one was quite sure what to make of that.

The others nodded, "Is that good or bad?" Lilly asked and nobody really knew the answer.

"Good," Hermione said with a little smile, "Mentally they are the same age now."

"Yes but he has to live in a body much older than his years. That isn't fair, is it?" Sadie questioned, she was always looking into the moral and ethical side of these things.

"True, but he was clearly unhappy after Melody left, you heard her say he had a breakdown," Daphne argued, "I mean isn't he better off not remembering all of that pain?"

"Not to mention remembering the fact he was a fraud," Lilly piped up, "He must have become that way because of Melody's disappearance. I'm sure he'd be ashamed if he had to remember that."

"I suppose," Susan said thoughtfully, for a moment they were silent as they all thought about the scenario and how they would feel if it was them.

They were then distracted because the door opened and Melody walked out with a smile on her face, "He remembers me!" she said happily, although they already knew this from their nosiness, "The healer just did a few quick tests and she says that whatever clicked when he saw me was so powerful that his brain used all it had to restore the memories of me. She says there is no chance of his other memories coming back."

"What about his short term memory?" Lilly asked, she was the one who wanted to be a healer.

"It's fine," Melody said happily, she grinned broadly from ear to ear, "The only problem now of course is the fact that he's in the body of a 31-year-old man but mentally he's 18, like me."

The others nodded but Lilly was frowning slightly as if in thought, "What about a de-aging potion? That could change his looks and give him back the years he lost; it would effectively make you both the same age again. But of course it wouldn't change his insides, just his external appearance. It's designed for people who have been in a coma for a long time to help them adjust. You would still outlive him but it's better than nothing, isn't it?"

The Mediwitch had just come out of the room in time to hear Lilly say this and responded, "De-aging potions are extremely rare and very expensive, there is a long waiting list for them ma'am."

"How long a list?" Lilly asked.

The witch seemed to think about this a moment before replying, "6 months to a year."

Melody had up until now being feeling quite hopeful but her face fell at these words.

Lilly narrowed her eyes, "That doesn't sound right," she said.

The witch just grunted at this response and said, "Well it is, I work here missy, not you."

On that note she walked away but Lilly gave Melody a comforting smile, "Don't worry just yet Melody, I'll be right back," she said as she hurried off down the corridor.

"Where on earth is she going?" Daphne asked as she watched Lilly hurry away the way they had come in.

"I have no idea," Hermione replied as she too frowned after the girl.

"I have an idea," Susan said with a small smile.

"What is it?" Sadie asked but Susan just shook her head and refused to answer so they sat in silence and waited for Lilly to return. The seconds ticked by and then the minutes did too. Nobody could find it in themselves to make small talk so when Lilly returned 10 minutes later everybody was glad but they were also surprised when they realised that she had brought Neville with her.

"What are you doing here?" Daphne asked in surprise.

Neville grinned, "Nice to see you too Daph," he joked.

The Slytherin girl rolled her eyes, "You know what I mean."

"I had a feeling you'd left to call Neville," Susan said with a sad sort of smile.

"So who do I speak to?" Neville asked Lilly simply.

Lilly grinned, "The Head of the Department," she said.

"Alright but this is your idea so I'm dragging you with me Lilly," Neville said with a pointed look at the Ravenclaw.

"Come on then," Lilly said impatiently and they disappeared down a corridor just like that.

"What on earth is that about?" Daphne asked the others who shrugged.

"I don't know what hold Neville has over St. Mungo’s, surely Harry or Draco would have been better," Sadie said with a frown.

Daphne shook her head, "Nah, Harry has no hold here, only at the Ministry."

"Doesn't Draco own a share in St. Mungo's though?" Hermione asked the others generally.

Daphne shook her head, "Not anymore, his Father was forced to sell it when he was arrested at the end of the war. But either way, I don't know what Neville's hold over anyone here is."

Susan shrugged, she didn't know exactly what was going on either, "It might have something to do with his parents," she guessed.

"It could do," Hermione said.

Before anyone could find out what it could or couldn't be Neville and Lilly walked past once more and Lilly called to them, "We're going to the Head of St. Mungo's, we’ll be back soon!"

Hermione and Daphne shared a mischievous glance. Daphne grinned and grabbed the extendable ears, Hermione smirked, “Stay here and keep an eye on Melody,” she told the others. Melody was back in the room with Lockhart now. With that she and Daphne hurried after Neville and Lilly to the office of the Head of St. Mungo's.

By the time they reached the office they were many things, including out of breath. Daphne wheezed, "Wow this place has a lot of stairs. Shouldn't hospitals have bloody ramps or something?"

"You're supposed to be the fit Quidditch player," Hermione teased as she slipped the extendable ear underneath the door and pressed her ear against it. Daphne caught her breath and pressed her ear against the fake ear too.

After a couple of minutes, they finally got some audio coming through. They could now hear what was going on inside the office.

"I still don't understand why you're here Mr. Longbottom," A brisk, harsh voice was saying.

"I'm not entirely happy with your practice Mr. Beckett," Neville said, he sounded slightly angry but not fired up.

"My practice is as good as ever Mr. Longbottom. I see no reason for you being unhappy with it," Beckett said, his voice was steady and calm but he didn't sound like a very nice man.

"I happen to know a girl called Melody Norris-Filch. Do you recognise that name? Of course you do because she's suing you for malpractice and her lawyer by the way, is very good. So you are going to lose a hefty sum to that girl. Unless of course you give her what she wants, which is a de-aging potion."

"De-aging potions are rare and the waiting list is long," The head began to say but Neville wouldn't let him continue.

"Show me your stock list Mr. Beckett."

"I have no requirement to do that-"

"No Mr. Beckett you don't," Neville said as he raised his voice, "However I own 25% of the shares of this hospital and at a time as critical at this I don't think you want me pulling out!"

"He's got a point Mr. Beckett," Lilly said matter of factly, "You don't want to go around losing support at a critical time. Aren't you trying to recruit a lot of Hogwarts graduates for your new apprenticeship programmes?"

"That has nothing to do with you, Miss Moon."

"Hear her out Mr. Beckett," Neville said calmly.

Beckett sighed, "Fine," he said through gritted teeth, "Yes, I am trying to do that."

"Well we have a lot of friends who are graduating soon. It wouldn't be hard to dissuade them from applying to these programs," Lilly said smoothly.

"Are you two blackmailing me?"

From what they could hear it sounded like Neville was now pacing the room, "If blackmail is what it takes, then yes. I know how you got to the top and it wasn't through legitimate methods Mr. Beckett! That girl down there has gone through hell and by giving the man she loves a simple potion that would restore his looks to his mental age you could be giving her back her life! I would like to see that stock list _now_, Mr, Beckett."

There was a pause and then...

"Of course Mr. Longbottom."

Outside Hermione and Daphne shared a grin.

Inside the room the sound of paper being shuffled was heard. Then there was a tense silence in which they could only assume that Neville was looking at the stock list.

"You have 6 brewed de-aging potions in your stock," Neville stated and Beckett didn't speak, so he had obviously merely nodded.

"Your waiting list, Mr. Beckett," Neville said, the authority in his voice out of place, but intriguing.

There was the sound of paper being shuffled yet again and another silence which was broken quickly.

"You have 6 potions in your stock and only 4 people on your waiting list! Yet your staff are refusing to give that potion to someone in need of it!"

Nobody had ever really heard Neville that angry but Hermione smirked, this was bad-arse snake killing, cardigan wearing Neville.

Inside the room there was silence and then...

“Mr. Longbottom, we reserve the use of these potions for people in coma’s. We have several patients in a vegetative state who could wake. It takes a year to brew a potion, if we give one to this man then we will be short if a comatose patient awakes,” Mr. Beckett explained.

“How often do comatose patients awake?” Neville asked calmly.

“Well-”

“Better yet, let’s talk statistics,” Lilly cut in, “How many coma patients awake Mr. Beckett?”

“Research suggests 1 in 100,” Mr. Beckett admitted.

“So it’s very unlikely that someone will awake needing that potion and you will still have one in reserve anyway,” Neville pointed out.

"I see your point Mr. Longbottom. I will allow the use of this potion on two conditions."

"I understand. The conditions are that Melody is to lessen her charges on the hospital and that I pay you a fee?"

"No," The voice was harsh and in control again, "The girl drops her claim to sue the hospital and you up your shares to 40%."

There was a pause again; outside in the corridor Daphne and Hermione both held their breath.

"Deal," Neville said and then from the sound of it they shook hands.

Beckett then said, "Once the girl has signed the relevant paperwork, I will release the potion to you."

"And I won't sign my shares over to you until he's been restored by the potion," Neville said.

There was no pause this time as Beckett said, "Done."

Hermione quickly pulled the extendable ears out of the door and pushed them into her pocket. She and Daphne hurried to a seat and sat down, they tried to look innocent as Beckett saw Neville and Lilly out of his office.

The moment the door clicked shut behind Beckett Hermione grinned at Neville, "You were brilliant!" she said as they began to make their way back to the fourth floor to give Melody the good news.

"I can't get over it sometimes," Lilly laughed, "I'm sorry but I still see that guy who always lost his Toad and ended up in ridiculous situations. Not some aristocratic pureblood."

Neville shrugged, “Well I only use it when I need to and I think this situation called for it.”

Lilly nodded, "I admire you for what you did Nev, it was very noble of you and I think it's going to change Melody's life."

"It is," Hermione said as she smiled at her friend, "You did something amazing today Neville."

Neville looked embarrassed at the praise as they reached the fourth floor corridor where the others were waiting.

"Well Neville is pretty fantastic," Lilly said matter of factly to her friends, "He just managed to convince the Head of St. Mungo's to give Lockhart the potion but there are conditions and we'll need to check with Melody."

"How _did_ you hear our conversation through the door?" Neville asked in amusement as Hermione knocked and slowly entered the room to run the conditions by Melody.

Daphne grinned and smirked, "Extendable ears," she said with a grin.

Neville laughed, "Right, I forgot you were a prankster."

Daphne laughed too, "Wait until Harry finds out you've out-bad-arsed him," she said, she whistled as she imagined her boyfriend’s reaction, "I reckon it will be the start of a prank war."

"Alright then, you can tell him to bring it on," Neville chuckled and Daphne's grin widened, she could have some real fun with this.

Hermione came out of the room and gave Neville the thumbs up, "She agreed, she says she'll sign as soon as possible."

Neville walked into the room with a stack of paper he had come out of Beckett's office with and 30 minutes later everybody was anxiously waiting outside the curtained off room while Lockhart was being given the potion.

The air was quite tense because everybody was worried, more for Melody than Lockhart, but either way they all wanted this to go well. They felt like they had been waiting forever when the door to the room opened and Melody and Lockhart walked out of the room together.

The sight was amazing; Lockhart was still wearing the same white hospital pyjamas but he looked remarkably different. The lines on his face were gone, his eyes were as blue, alive and bright. His blonde hair was bouncy and curly as it had always been. He was the same height but slimmer and as he stood in the doorway holding Melody's hand the others actually cheered.

It was such a happy ending to such a sad story and in the world that they lived in, that just didn't happen very often. Melody had never looked so happy and the others were just as happy for her, even if they had only known her for a few days. Melody rushed forward and hugged them all individually.

"Thank you for being such good friends," she said, and she really meant it.

It was then as Hermione grinned at Melody that she realised how glad she was that she hadn't given up on Melody the day before when she had been so bitter and cold. Perseverance had won and it had also won her a friend.

***

As Harry and Draco made their way through the rain back to Hogwarts after another failed attempt at Quidditch, the rain turned into snow. It was March, but it was still the Scottish Highlands. The two friends didn't talk much as they walked through what was fast becoming a blizzard; they kept their cloaks close to their bodies and walked briskly. Harry had no intention of going straight back to the castle however.

"Draco!" He called, to get the Slytherins attention over the howling wind.

"Yeah?" Draco called back as he stopped and turned around to face Harry; his cheeks were pink with the cold.

"Head back to the castle; I'm going to stop off somewhere!" Harry shouted, he pulled his cloak closer and cast a warming charm on himself.

"Are you sure? I don't think you're gonna want to be out in this for much longer!" Draco yelled as he followed Harrys lead and cast a warming charm on himself too.

"I'll be fine, honestly, I'll see you later!" Harry shouted as he turned and began to trudge through the snow which was falling so fast and thick that it was lying on the ground already.

Draco watched him for a moment and wondered if he should try and convince his friend to go back to the castle with him but the moment he realised that Harry was making his way towards the little graveyard in the grounds he knew then there was no point trying to convince the Gryffindor to come back. So Draco trudged towards the front doors of the castle. Harry was a big boy, he knew how to cast warming charms, he wasn't stupid enough to let himself die of hypothermia.

Harry was indeed on route to the graveyard and when he got there and forcefully pushed the little gate open, he felt tears start to well in his eyes, he wasn't entirely sure why they were there or who they were for. Harry made his way to the grave he was looking for, that of Remus Lupin. He reached it and dropped to his knees in front of it. He hoped if he stared at the grave for long enough it would help him but he knew he was being foolish.

Harry had been thinking about what Draco had said ever since he had said it. Remus would have known what to do, he would have given Harry advice and Harry would have then known what to do, but he wasn't here now. How could Draco tell him to do that, to think carefully about whether or not he loved Daphne? Of course he loved her, didn't he? Or was it lust or teenage romance? It felt like love now, it had always felt like love but Draco had put doubts in his mind now as to whether or not it was. Now he was faced with coming out into the public eye with her and dealing with the backlash.

Harry didn't realise how long he had been sitting in front of the grave for until he felt a large hand on his shoulder. He jumped at first until he realised that it was only Hagrid who wordlessly and effortlessly picked Harry up and plopped him down on his feet. They walked back to Hagrids 'hut' in silence and when they walked into the warm cottage and Harry sat down in an armchair by the fire, he realised how cold he was.

"Wha' were yeh doing at Remus's grave?" Hagrid asked as he started to boil the kettle.

Harry's teeth were chattering as he replied, "T...t...trying to s...s...seek some advice."

"From a gravestone?" Hagrid asked as he gave Harry a sympathetic look.

Harry couldn't bring himself to speak so he just nodded.

Hagrid sighed, "Harry, yeh need ter talk ter people who are alive for advice," he said as he made Harry a large cup of tea which immediately warmed his hands the moment Hagrid placed it in them.

Harry stared into the fire for a while as he sipped his tea, Hagrid didn't push him to speak or bother him by asking questions. He just let him sit and be lost in his thoughts.

"Hagrid, I'm worried about my relationship with Daphne and how it's going to appear to the public when school ends and the Prophet get a hold of it," Harry eventually said, he was glad to find that his teeth were no longer chattering and that his lips didn't feel as swollen.

Hagrid didn't seem to know how to reply; he simply sighed and placed his mug of tea down on the coffee table. He then stood up and left the room for a moment which left Harry confused until Hagrid returned with something that looked strangely like a...

"Hagrid!" Harry exclaimed, "Is that a pensieve?"

Hagrid nodded as he placed it on the coffee table and closed his eyes. He held his finger against his temple and pulled out a silvery memory. He frowned as he placed the memory in the pensieve. It immediately began to take shape, although all that could be seen was darkness, trees and two blurry shadowy figures.

"Hagrid, where did you get a pensieve?" Harry asked in surprise.

Hagrid looked a little sheepish, "It's no' mine, it's Olympe's. She's ou' today but I don' think she'll mind me using it this once."

"What are you going to show me?" Harry asked with a frown as he tried to get a closer look at the memory in the pensieve.

"See for yoursel'," Hagrid said simply so Harry did as he was told and took a breath before sticking his head inside the pensieve. He felt the falling feeling take over and then when he opened his eyes he found himself standing inside the memory.

_He was near Hagrid's hut and it was very late at night. The spot was very close to the forbidden forest. At first Harry was confused as to what he was supposed to be seeing but then two young men came into the scene and they were arguing fairly loudly._

_Harry frowned and squinted at the two men as they got closer. Finally, he recognised them as Remus and Sirius. They were much younger, they looked around the age he was now. They were obviously in their 7th year at Hogwarts._

"_Sirius stop and think about it!" Remus begged and Sirius eventually stopped walking away from him. _

"_I've thought about it!" Sirius exclaimed as he spun around to face Remus, "And it is not happening Remus! I'm not letting the Prophet find out!"_

"_So it's okay when nobody apart from James and Lily knows about us? But the second somebody gets suspicious I mean nothing to you?!" Remus shouted, Harry couldn't see his face clearly but he could hear the sadness, anger, betrayal and hurt in the young man's voice._

"_Remus, I can't let it happen. I'm not letting the press find out, I won't," Sirius said, he sounded upset but he was not relenting._

"_Then you don't love me Sirius because if you did you would stand through everything with me!" Remus said, his voice was quieter but he sounded even more hurt than before._

"_Remus! I would stand with you, I have-"_

"_But you don't want anyone to know about it," Remus said bitterly, "So that's a lie Sirius."_

"_Well what are you going to do about it then Remus? If I refuse to let the press find out, to be public about it?" Sirius asked, he was testing the other man._

"_Do you refuse?" Remus asked, his voice was quiet and quite dangerous._

"_Yes," Sirius said, his voice was just as dangerous._

"_Then that's it, if you won't be seen with me in public I can't do this," Remus said and it sounded like his heart was breaking._

"_Fine," Sirius said, he sounded both angry and bitter, '"We're done, over! Finished!"_

_Remus was already walking away as Sirius yelled, "OVER REMUS!"_

The memory then began to fade and blur and Harry felt himself being pulled back into the real world. He opened his eyes and was back in Hagrid's kitchen. They both looked out of the window into the blizzard like weather.

Hagrid sighed, "So you see. It ended badly, all becaus' Sirius was scared o' how his reputation would be affected. Now as it happened they were together again after all that. But do yeh understand?"

Harry nodded, he understood completely. He stared into the fire once more and accepted Hagrid's offer of a cupcake.

The rest of the day turned out to be rather enjoyable as Harry spent it catching up with Hagrid with hot tea in front of a warm, toasty fire. As he trudged through the snow back to the castle 2 hours later Harry was still unsure about many things but there was one thing he was sure about, thanks to Hagrid.

And that was that no matter what happened and regardless of what anyone else said, Harry was completely in love with Daphne Greengrass. She was completely and entirely worth anything that the press could throw at him and he was never going to give her up. He wouldn't make the same mistake his Godfather had done so many years before him.

** _TBC :)_ **


	47. One Step Forward, One Step Back

March dragged by, the snow turned to rain again and the days seemed to last forever. Melody finally began to settle in at Hogwarts, with the help of Hermione, Lilly and Luna in particular she managed to get back on track for her N.E.W.T's. She was happier now and the real Melody was a very lovely person. Hermione had become fairly close with her but she doubted that Melody would ever become a member of their little 'group', she preferred to stick with her own kind and she had become close with Luna. Gilderoy Lockhart could be seen coming and going from the castle and he often got glared at by Filch when he was seen too close to Melody.

As March went on the students started to get pulled in for career meetings. These were compulsory and were with their Head of House. Harry remembered his initial meeting with McGonagall in his 5th year, it had been an important moment for him because it had pretty much been when he decided that he wanted to be an Auror.

This time it was different, these meetings meant more. People came back with application forms; it was scary how close they were getting to being out there in the real world. Harry thought he would be better prepared for it, after all he had been out in the world on his own for the better part of a year but that had been different.

This was real life, it was the wizarding world, it was civilisation, not living in a tent for months on end. Harry sighed as he continued to fill out his application form to be a part of the Auror selection process. He knew he would get in, regardless of his application, but he was still doing his best to fill out the 60-page form efficiently. The common room was empty; most people were in class but Harry had a free period. The time was passing slower because he was waiting for Draco and Theo to return to the common room. Draco technically should have gone straight back to Ancient Runes and Theo should have been on his way to Astronomy but they were both coming back to the common room to tell Harry how their career meetings had gone. Theo’s meeting with Slughorn was right after Draco’s and both of them had been gone for nearly an hour now.

Harry was about to take a break and put his quill down when the door swung open and his two friends walked into the common room.

"How'd it go?" Harry asked the two boys the second they were in the room.

"You first Theo," Draco said as he sat down on an armchair by the fire. Harry abandoned his forms and made his way over to the fire, he sat down on the sofa next to Theo. Neither of his friends had application forms and Harry's heart sank.

"Well I told Slughorn about the Auror thing," Theo said, he had a small smile on his face, "And he told me that I would have to get the grades first but he thought that I could do it. He checked me out for a criminal record and said I was fine but as a Slytherin and because of my family history I'd need 4 references.”

"Well I'll be one," Harry said instantly.

Theo smirked, "I told him you'd say that, he said he'd be another."

"McGonagall will give you one," Harry added with a small smirk, “She pretends she doesn't but she likes you, you remind her of Sirius.”

"I thought she might which means I just have to find a 4th reliable reference," Theo said, he reached into his bag and pulled out the forms.

"Great!" Harry said happily as he turned to Draco, “And how did yours go?"

Draco shrugged; he looked up for the first time, "It could have gone worse," he said honestly, "I told Slughorn that I wanted to be an Auror and he gave me a sympathetic look and said I had a criminal record. He told me I wouldn't have any problem getting the grades but then he brought up my record."

"Yeah and what did it say?" Harry asked, he wrung his hands anxiously. He really wished people were more willing to give Draco a second chance.

Draco sighed deeply, it was the sigh of an old weathered man not an 18-year-old with his life ahead of him, "I have a few charges against my name...let's put it that way," he said as he pulled a sheet of paper from his bag and handed it to Harry. It was a copy of Draco's criminal record and it read:

** _"CRIMINAL RECORD_ **

** _NAME: _ ** _Draco Abraxas Black (Malfoy during the time of these offences)._

** _GENDER: _ ** _Male._

** _LAST KNOWN ADDRESS: _ ** _Malfoy Manor, Wiltshire, England._

** _TERM ADDRESS: _ ** _Hogwarts Castle, Highlands, Scotland._

** _PREVIOUS CONVICTIONS:_ **

** _Offence_ ** _: Cursing a student by the name of Katie Bell, and the attempted murder of herself and Albus Dumbledore. _

** _Further details_ ** _: Miss. Bell was cursed by a necklace given to her by Mr. Black. It was meant to be for Albus Dumbledore. _

** _Punishment_ ** _: None due to his being a student at the time of the offence and his running away once the truth was revealed. A later statement from Harry James Potter saved him from jail time._

_­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­*_

** _Offence_ ** _: The poisoning of Ronald Bilius Weasley, and the attempted murder of he and Albus Dumbledore._

** _Further Details_ ** _: A bottle of poisoned mead was accidentally given to student Ronald Weasley but was meant for Albus Dumbledore. _

** _Punishment_ ** _: None, due to his being a student at the time of the offence and the fact that he was found to be under the control of Lord Voldemort who was blackmailing and threatening the Malfoy family. This was backed up with a Legilimency test and a statement from Harry James Potter._

_­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­*_

** _Offence_ ** _: Aiding and abetting in the murder of Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore. _

** _Further details_ ** _: Allowed known Death Eaters into Hogwarts which gave them access to the Headmaster. _

** _Punishment_ ** _: A fine of 301 Galleons, 3 Sickles and 4 Knuts. 2 months of house arrest._

_*_

** _Offence:_ ** _ Known Death Eater. _

** _Evidence_ ** _: A known dark mark and confession._

** _Punishment:_ ** _ A trial, however no time in Azkaban due to a statement from Harry James Potter._

** _NOTES:_ **

_In a statement to the Ministry after the Battle of Hogwarts, Harry James Potter stated that Mr Draco Abraxas Black (then Malfoy) had saved his life. Mr. Potter found himself caught by snatchers and in Mr. Black's home. Mr. Potter had a stinging charm on his face; Mr. Black recognised him but did not give him up to his Father which gave Mr. Potter time to escape. This was verified by a Legilimency test and an inspection of Mr. Potter's memory of the event._

_Mr. Draco Abraxas Black's (then Malfoy) Mother, Ms. Narcissa Dorea Black (then Mrs. Malfoy) also saved Mr. Harry James Potter's life by telling Lord Voldemort that Mr. Potter was dead when he was alive. This gave Mr. Potter time and opportunity to escape. This was verified by a Legilimency test and an inspection of both Mr. Potter and Ms. Black's memory of the event._

_These statements, combined with the memories provided to the Ministry within them, aided in the sentencing of Mr. Black after the Battle of Hogwarts. No charges were pressed upon receipt of a fee 502 Galleons, 0 Sickles and 3 Knuts."_

Harry gulped as he finished reading the record, he handed it back to Draco who surveyed him carefully and looked for a reaction.

"Notice a recurring name in my criminal record?" Draco asked, he sounded bitter and on the verge of an explosion of anger.

Harry opened his mouth to speak but then closed it again so Draco narrowed his eyes at his friend, "Your name appears on it quite a lot, Harry James Potter."

"I suppose it does," Harry said as he tried to act casual about that.

"Harry, I can fight my own fucking battles," Draco said angrily, he looked like he might pounce shortly.

"No you can't," Harry argued, "If I hadn't stepped in you would be rotting in Azkaban right now! Sometimes you need to learn to accept help!"

"Help!? That's what you call it?" Draco shook his head in disbelief, "You paid 500 bloody Galleons to vouch for me! And you still hated me then, why would you do that?"

Harry growled as he pushed himself to his feet in his anger, "I didn't hate you Draco! I felt sorry for you! I went through hell before I got to Hogwarts and if I hadn't had someone to save me I'd have been just like you! All I was doing was trying to help you out!"

"So you're my hero now?" Draco shouted as he got to his feet and grabbed his wand. Harry instinctively did the same.

Theo shouted, "Fight, fight, fight!"

"SHUT UP THEO!" Harry and Draco yelled as they both shot a stunning charm in his direction.

"No Draco I'm not anyone's hero but will you not just accept that I helped you!"

"No! I didn't need your help, I've never needed your help and I don't want it to get into Auror training either!"

For some insane reason they then started duelling, maybe it was because they were both stressed out of their minds and they needed a way to get it all out but spells shot back and forward between them for at least 10 minutes and they didn't say a word throughout the entire duel.

Eventually Draco stopped and Harry didn't fire a spell back at the man who had let his defences down. He wasn't that cruel with his friends.

"Finished being an idiot yet?" Harry asked, he was exhausted.

Draco nodded and sheepishly made his way over to Harry and hugged him. Harry was shocked but he awkwardly patted Draco on the back.

"Sorry for being a prick," Draco mumbled, then with pink cheeks he made his way back to his armchair.

"Forgiven," Harry said as he sat back down on the sofa next to an unconscious Theo, "As long as you don't hug me again."

"Deal," Draco said and they sat in awkward silence for a moment.

"So you didn't get anywhere with the Auror thing with Slughorn then?" Harry asked eventually.

"What?" Draco asked as Harry’s words brought him back into the real world. He then remembered what the conversation had originally been about, "Oh, right," he reached into his bag again and pulled out a large stack of papers.

Draco grinned broadly, "He said I would need 6 good references including a Ministry official and that I'd have to get, and I quote Slughorn here, my 'good friend Harry Potter to pull some strings' but he gave me the form."

Harry grinned just as broadly and walked over to his friend, he hugged him proudly.

Draco laughed, "We need to stop with this hugging thing," he joked.

"Shall we have a celebratory drink instead?" Harry joked as he conjured up some firewhiskey from his secret stash upstairs in his dorm room.

"I think we should," Draco said with a smirk, "Do you think we should wake him?"

Harry grinned, "Nah, sleeping beauty needs all the sleep he can get," he teased as he poured out two shot glasses of whiskey.

"Cheers!" They both said as they downed their drinks.

***

As the month dragged on forms got sent away and replies slowly started to filter in.

It was the morning of Sadie's birthday and as it was a Wednesday Sadie had decided she didn't want a party per say, just a little get together and a few drinks in the common room later which would of course become a party, as it always did.

Sadie had scanned the hall for an owl making its way to her at breakfast that day. There had been a few but none with the news she was waiting for and she sighed. Her Mother's large owl swooped towards her and dropped a letter and a package; there was a birthday card and a present. Sadie pulled the brown packaging off and found a large white box sealed with a pink ribbon. She eagerly undid the ribbon and opened the box, she gasped, as did many of the other girls, when she saw her present. It was a beautiful hand-made silk dress, it was a very pale green and it was absolutely beautiful. With it was a note from Sadie's Mother which read,

"_Dear Sadie,_

_I hope you will wear this as your prom dress. It was mine when I was at Hogwarts and it was hand-made by your Grandmother. Happy Birthday darling. _

_All my love, _

_Mother."_

Sadie's little cousin Owen had shyly made his way over from the Hufflepuff table with a very sweet hand-made card that sang 'Happy Birthday' to Sadie who was both honoured and embarrassed. Theo had given Sadie her present at the breakfast table; he had given her a beautiful photo frame with a picture of them from Harry’s New Year's party inside it. The girls had combined money and given Sadie a jumper she had seen while shopping in Diagon Alley and had wanted for months. The boys had joined forces and they had given Sadie a leather-bound diary. Truthfully, she had felt very spoiled during breakfast but she was still upset that the letter she had been hoping for had not yet arrived.

The morning passed fairly uneventfully, apart from the fact that Trelawney got the entire class to sing happy birthday to Sadie in Divination. When lunch time came Sadie had another birthday surprise as an owl she didn't recognise swooped into the hall and dropped a letter on her lap.

Sadie looked at the parchment; it was dark brown, not like the light colour that they used here in the UK. She grinned when she saw the seal and she eagerly ripped the envelope open and pulled out the letter inside it. It was exactly what she was hoping for.

"_Dear Miss. Cauldwell,_

_We have reviewed your application and are pleased to inform you that you have a provisional place on the course of: **Alchemical Studies**, at the **Centre for Alchemical Studies.**_

_To maintain this place you must receive the highest result possible in the N.E.W.T subjects listed below. In the United Kingdom that result is O/Outstanding:_

_\- Potions_

_\- Herbology_

_\- Arithmancy_

_You must also receive a high pass (In the United Kingdom an E/Exceeds Expectations) in the subjects listed below:_

_\- Charms_

_\- Transfiguration_

_\- Ancient Runes_

_This course begins on the 1st of August, 1999. You are expected to be in Cairo for this date and to be prepared with the list of textbooks attached with this letter. Accommodation will be provided for you in the city of Cairo and your campus will be:_

** _The Alexandria Library Campus_ **

_We expect a reply by the 1st of May._

_Yours sincerely,_

_Iris Remal_

_Head of the Centre for Alchemical Studies,_

_Cairo,_

_Egypt."_

Sadie grinned from ear to ear. She jumped up and hugged Theo, "I got in!" she squealed, "I got in!"

Theo grinned happily and hugged his girlfriend back, "Congratulations!" he said as he kissed her passionately in the middle of the Great Hall amidst many cheers.

It wasn't until they sat back down at the table that Theo caught sight of the letter for the first time and his heart sank, "Sadie...it says you have to go to Cairo."

"Yeah," Sadie said a little sheepishly, "The centre is in Cairo."

"You didn't tell me that," Theo said quietly, although he knew Draco, Harry and Neville could hear every word because they were sitting very nearby, "Were you ever planning on telling me?"

"Of course I was Theo-" Sadie began to say.

Theo could tell straight away that she was lying, "You're lying Sadie," he said quietly and without another word he got to his feet and left the hall. Sadie was left staring after him and her eyes beginning to fill up with tears.

Neville quietly and stealthily exited the hall after Theo and found him sitting on the floor in an alcove in the dungeons.

"You okay?" Neville asked as he cast a discreet muffliato charm and slid down onto the floor opposite his friend.

"Fine," Theo lied, Neville didn't call him out on it or push him.

"She's going to Cairo Nev," Theo said, he was angry and Neville didn't blame him after what Sadie had kept from him, "Fucking Cairo, in Egypt! And she didn't even tell me!"

"I know," Neville said sympathetically, "Is she staying there?"

Theo nodded, he suspiciously moved his sleeve over his face like he was crying, "She has to stay in accommodation there."

"What are you going to do?" Neville asked.

"I don't know, fall apart and turn into a bastard again," Theo said and the sad thing was that he meant it, or at least thought he did.

"It's her birthday Theo," Neville pointed out.

Theo merely snorted, "So I should pretend I don't care and be nice to her? Like that's going to help anyone."

"I'm just saying, you should probably try and talk to her before you make any big decisions," Neville said.

"Big decisions," Theo said with a shake of his head, he pulled a black velvet box from his robes and threw it to Neville. His friend opened the box and looked at the gleaming ring inside.

"Wow," Neville said, "You were going to do it today?"

Theo nodded as he stared down at the ring, it was half gold and half platinum with one diamond set in the middle. It was simple and classy which was exactly what Sadie would have wanted, "I was going to do it tonight, at her surprise party."

"And you aren't going to anymore?" Neville asked. He closed the box and gave it back to Theo. He felt truly dreadful for his friend.

Theo shook his head and once again he mysteriously rubbed his sleeve against his face, "She'll think I'm only doing it to stop her going to Cairo and I'd never stop her getting what she wants. I just wish she wanted it with me."

"Can't you work it out?" Neville asked with a frown, "Surely you can just apparate to Cairo and visit her?"

Theo sighed and shook his head, "I wish it was that easy Nev. Cairo is a restricted zone, in fact Egypt as a whole is. You need a licence to apparate to restricted zones. I'd have one as an Auror but not until the 3 years of training are over and Sadie will graduate after a year."

"So you're just going to give up on something that could be amazing?"

"I don't know what I'm going to do," Theo said as he stood up, shoved the ring box back into his pocket and left the alcove.

***

Theo and Sadie spent the rest of the day being miserable and avoiding each other until dinner when they spoke for the first time.

"I'm sorry about this morning," Theo said quietly as he sat down next to Sadie.

She shook her head, "Don't be, I should have told you when I first applied."

"Why didn't you?" Theo asked, it was clear that he still felt hurt and betrayed.

Sadie sighed and bit her lip, "I was afraid that you would do something stupid, like propose to me to get me to stay or something."

Theo smirked somewhat sadly, "Funny you should say that..."

Sadie looked up surprised, "Theo you weren't actually going to be that cliché were you?"

Theo sighed, "No if I wanted to be cliché I would have proposed to you tonight at the surprise party that you've known about for the last week."

Sadie smiled for the first time since lunch, "Theodore Nott, are you proposing to me?"

Theo was shocked for a moment; he should have known his proposal to Sadie would have been on her terms instead of his. He eventually regained his composure, "Well," he said with a smirk, "I suppose I better since I've mentioned it now. Do you fancy marrying me?"

Sadie's grin widened, "Where's the ring then?"

"What ring?" Theo asked as he faked a look of shock.

Sadie narrowed her eyes at him, "You _are _joking, aren't you?!

Theo grinned and reached into the pocket of his robes, he pulled out the little velvet box and popped it open to show her the ring. Sadie's jaw dropped and the others inched closer to get in on the action.

"Get on your knee then Nott!" Draco shouted from further along the table and Theo got down on one knee before Sadie.

"Sadie you know I'm not one for speeches...but I love you. Go on, marry me, you know you want to," Theo said, he smirked up at the girl who rolled her eyes in amusement.

"I suppose you'll do," Sadie teased and Theo slid the ring onto her finger, it fit perfectly.

At the head table McGonagall reached her hand out to Flitwick, "You owe me 20 galleons I believe Filius."

Neville smirked and hurried up to the head table which he then jumped on, in doing so he stuck his arse right in front of McGonagall's face.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, Boys and Girls, Teachers and terrors. I would like to congratulate Theodore _Roosevelt _Nott on the most original proposal, ever, to the soon to be Sadie Nott!"

"Actually Mr. Longbottom," McGonagall said from behind Neville, "That is not entirely correct. I think you will find that Mr. Potter's parents did something very similar around 20 years ago."

"Brilliant!" Harry exclaimed down at the 8th Year table.

Sadie and Theo finally stopped kissing and it was as they broke for air that Sadie said with a grin, "I was never planning on staying in Cairo Theo, I wanted to apply and then if I got in see if I could study from England."

"Really?" Theo asked, his eyes were wide with surprise, "You'd do that for me?"

"Of course I would!" Sadie said as she smiled at him, "You aren't getting rid of me that easily."

"No," Theo said with a grin, "You're tied down to me now.”

"Not literally I hope," Sadie whispered.

Theo only laughed as their friends began to hug them and say congratulations which gave Sadie a chance to show her ring off to the girls. She could safely say that she would always remember this birthday as the best of her life. It was only then that a thought struck her.

"Theo..." Sadie said slowly.

Theo turned back to her, "Yeah?"

"You didn't propose to me on my birthday so you wouldn't forget our anniversary did you?" Sadie asked suspiciously.

"No..." Theo said with slightly shifty eyes, "Of course not."

Sadie narrowed her eyes at him and Theo said, "Oh by the way, the wedding is on my birthday, is that okay?"

Sadie just chuckled and hit him around the back of the head affectionately. The others weren’t listening in for once so Sadie said quietly and sincerely, "I love you."

Theo smiled genuinely at her, "I love you too," he said just as sincerely as she had.

Yep, it was definitely the best birthday ever.

Shortly after this touching moment between the newly engaged couple, Harry got up onto the 8th year table, "At the risk of being accused of copying my good friend Neville with all due warning to the Headmistress, I would like to announce to all 8th years and select 7th years with privileges to our common room," he winked at Ginny and Luna, "That Sadie's surprise party, which was the worst kept surprise ever, is now also an engagement party! And it starts in half an hour so to all those invited, eat up!"

Harry bowed to the school and jumped down from the table amidst cheers.

"You out-speeched me, you git," Neville said with a mock glare as Harry sat down.

Harry smirked, "I'm the boy-who-lived Nev. You can't beat me in a speech, or out-bad arse me for that matter. I heard about St. Mungo's, this prank war is officially on."

"Oh, it's so on," Neville said with narrowed eyes.

"Oi you two! No pranks, I just got engaged!" Theo said from the side-lines.

After this exchange of words, the 8th Years hurriedly made their way back to the common room for the mother of all parties.

***

The party was well underway when Harry and Daphne arrived with a few kegs of butterbeer they had smuggled in from The Three Broomsticks.

"What took you so long?" Hermione asked with a roll of her eyes as they dropped the kegs on the table just as the door opened and Charlie walked in.

"Uh, nothing to see here Professor Weasley," Harry said with a smirk as he stepped in front of the kegs.

Charlie scoffed, "You're as terrible a liar as ever," he said as he poured himself a cup of butterbeer, "I'm here to make sure you aren't doing anything heinous apparently. But since everything looks under control I guess I'm not needed."

"You're such a responsible teacher, Charlie," Hermione laughed.

Charlie shook his head, "This is tame compared to some of the parties I threw at Hogwarts. Where do you think Fred and George got it from?"

They laughed as Charlie left, after that the party was left alone. As far as 8th Year parties went it was pretty tame but Harry put that down to the fact that everyone was so genuinely pleased for Sadie and Theo that they didn't want to cause any agro.

***

The following morning was very interesting indeed. It was a Thursday, and the Minister for Magic walked into the Great Hall amidst shocked ooh's and aah's from the students. He didn't make his way to the Head Table as those who knew about his involvement with McGonagall expected. Instead he walked to the 8th Year table and stood nearby the group of friends fronted by Harry and Draco.

"I apologise for barging in like this," Kingsley said in his deep booming voice, "But I was on my way to discuss the new education reforms with Minerva. The letters will come in the post next week but I can officially tell you the good news now."

"Is it about Auror training?" Draco asked nervously.

Kingsley nodded once more, "Harry, Neville; congratulations. It gives me great pleasure to tell you that you have been accepted into the selection process for Auror training. Mr. Nott, thanks to your outstanding references, you too have been accepted."

Theo grinned broadly and Sadie beamed proudly from her spot beside him. He got to his feet and shook the Ministers hand, "Thank you so much, Minister. That is the best news on top of what happened yesterday."

"I heard of your recent engagement Mr. Nott," Kingsley smiled, “Word spreads as fast in the real world as it does at Hogwarts. Congratulations."

"Thank you," Theo said with a grin as he sat back down next to his fiancée.

As the others had been receiving their good news Draco had sunk lower into the bench with the hope of disappearing from view. He knew what was coming, the others had gotten such good news in front of everybody and he was going to be told sorry but we can't accept a monstrous bastard like you into the programme.

Finally, Kingsley turned to look at him, "Mr. Black I am very sorry to inform you that despite your references and Mr. Potters best attempts to outsmart the system which he thought he could do _without _me noticing," Kingsley smirked at Harry who looked very sheepish.

The Minister continued, "Your application was not immediately accepted by the Auror Department. You will however, be accepted into the selection process following a short trial in which you will have to submit memories from the war."

Draco was delighted and stunned as he realised what that meant. He would get into the selection process. He had gotten past the background check stage and now they just had to verify that he wasn't a Death Eater anymore. He was one step closer to becoming an Auror which was something he never thought he would be able to do. Draco got to his feet and shook the Ministers hand, "Thank you so much Minister. I'm honoured to be given this opportunity."

"I can see that," Kingsley said, "And I can see you will fight for it. People like you are who we need to be filling the gaps in our organisation Mr. Black. Do not make me regret this decision."

"I won't," Draco said firmly as he sat back down.

The Minister did not seem to be finished just yet because he pulled a letter from his robes and handed it to Susan, "And Miss. Bones, this is for you. Congratulations"

Susan smiled as she accepted the letter. Kingsley barely managed to conceal a smirk as he said, "Although I have a feeling Mr. Weasley already informed you of the good news."

Susan glanced down awkwardly and Kingsley left the hall without another word. Susan was immediately pounced on by her friends at this news.

"Mr. Weasley?" Hermione asked in disbelief, "Which one?"

"Percy, obviously!" Lilly grinned, "He's the only one in law enforcement! Is something going on between you and Percy, Suse?"

"My brother, Percy? _That _Percy?! Ginny asked in disbelief, the conversation and the presence of the Minister for Magic had brought her to the table. Her nosiness had gotten the better of her as usual.

Susan looked quite embarrassed, "Yes, _that _Percy."

"What exactly is going on with you two?" Daphne asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Nothing," Susan replied quickly.

"Oh come on, he told you about you getting accepted before the letter was even ready," Sadie said as she nudged her friend, "Are you dating?"

"We're not dating," Susan said with a shake of her head, "We're just friends."

Ginny made a face, "Please don't say with benefits."

Susan laughed, "Not exactly. Nothing has happened between us, not really. I'm trying this whole taking it slow thing, for once," she shot Harry a smile. He understood why, it was because of the conversation they’d had together after Neville and she fell out. Susan was trying to show Percy she was worthy of his respect and Harry admired her for that.

**TBC :)**


	48. Near to You, I Am Healing But It's Taking So Long

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Title comes from one of my favourite songs:  
Near to You by A Fine Frenzy

After Sadie's birthday the replies began to reel in and everyone had good news. On one particular morning while they were all tucking into a hearty breakfast there was a large amount of mail which the 8th Years ripped into anxiously.

Harry was most concerned for the girls on either side of him, Daphne and Hermione both had a letter. He felt like a meerkat as he quickly looked from one to the other for any sign of good, or bad, news.

"YES!" Daphne squealed happily. She promptly threw herself at Harry and hugged him tightly.

"You got in then?" Harry asked with a smile.

Daphne nodded, "See for yourself!" she said happily as she thrust the letter into his hands.

"_Dear Miss. Greengrass,_

_Thank you for your application. We are pleased to inform you that you have conditionally been accepted onto the course: **Advanced Curse Breaking**._

_The conditions of this offer are that you receive an O level N.E.W.T in the subjects listed below:_

_\- Ancient Runes._

_\- Arithmancy._

_\- Defence against the Dark Arts._

_\- Charms_

_A high grade is also required for the subjects listed below (an E is preferred, but A’s will be considered on an individual basis):_

_\- Transfiguration._

_\- Potions._

_A list of key textbooks and equipment is enclosed with this letter._

_The course begins on the 9th of August, 1999. Accommodation is available in London; however, apparition points are available and we are linked to an efficient floo network for those wishing to travel from home._

_You will attend an induction on Sunday the 1st of August, 1999 to be introduced to your tutors and to key staff. This will be held at your campus of study:_

** _Gringotts Training Headquarters_ **

_The Tower of London,_

_London,_

_England._

_Note: Please use the secret entrance at the back of the tower to avoid being seen by suspicious tourists._

_We look forward to meeting you on the 1st of August._

_Yours Sincerely,_

_William Weasley,_

_Head of Staff,_

_Gringotts Wizarding Bank."_

Harry smirked at the fact the letter had been written by Bill, and also that Gringotts headquarters were in the tower of London.

"Congratulations!" He said happily to Daphne.

Harry then turned to Hermione who was grinning broadly, "So you got in too then?" he asked.

"Judging by the kiss I just got, I think so," Draco said with a fond smile towards his girlfriend.

"Oh hush," Hermione said with a smile, "Yep, see for yourself!"

Harry now found himself getting another letter thrust in his face.

"_Dear Miss. Granger,_

_We would like to thank you for your application. We are pleased to award you a conditional place on the training course: **Department of Magical Law Enforcement Development Programme.**_

_A high pass (grade O is preferable, but grade E is acceptable) in the N.E.W.T subjects listed below is a requirement:_

_\- Defence against the Dark Arts._

_\- Potions_

_\- Transfiguration._

_\- Charms._

_\- Arithmancy._

_An Outstanding O.W.L grade (or N.E.W.T equivalent) in the subjects listed below is also a requirement:_

_\- History of Magic_

_\- Herbology._

_\- Ancient Runes._

_We would like to invite you to a welcome day on Sunday the 1st of August, 1999. This will provide you with the opportunity to meet your tutor and the head of staff. This will be held in the Department of Magical Law Enforcement within the Ministry of Magic. Please use the visitor's entrance._

_You will start your course on the 9th of August, 1999. You are expected to be fully prepared with the textbooks and equipment listed on an enclosed piece of parchment._

_Yours Sincerely,_

_Roger Smithton,_

_Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement,_

_The Ministry of Magic,_

_London."_

"That's really great Hermione," Harry said happily, he was extremely happy for his friends because everybody was getting good news. It was both exciting and scary to realise that their life would be moving in such a different direction in a few short months.

Throughout the day Harry heard more good news, Luna had received an offer to go to Brazil and work in a sanctuary for rare magical creatures that was run by Newt Scamander’s Grandson, Rolf. Ginny had gotten into an elite healer training programme at St. Mungo's. Melody was going to America with Lockhart to study teacher training at the Salem Institute for Talented Students. Melody would be studying to teach Ghoul Studies and History of Magic and Lockhart would be studying to teach Defence against the Dark Arts, properly this time.

In fact, there was only one person who hadn't heard back yet and that was Lilly. She had applied to a training course at St Mungo's, a very similar training course to that which Ginny had applied for. Lilly was slightly worried about the fact that Ginny had heard back when she hadn't. She knew healing magic was one of the hardest fields to break into and she was fairly certain she hadn't gotten in as the Easter holidays crept up on them.

It was the final breakfast before the Easter holidays when the good news came. They were all planning on going their separate ways for the week. Draco and Hermione would be off to France with their parents and Harry and Daphne would be spending the week with Andromeda and Teddy in Cornwall. They had promised Molly that all four of them would spend Easter Sunday at the Burrow though and Harry was really looking forward to seeing Ron again.

Sadie and Theo were spending the week making their first preparations for their wedding with Sadie's Mother. Only Neville and Lilly were a little lost as to what to do, Neville had decided to spend the week at Longbottom House. The renovation of Potter Manor had inspired him to assess the state of the house which hadn't been lived in since his Grandmother was young. Lilly was going home to the Muggle world but they were meeting up to go to the circus as Lilly had promised.

Harry had to hide a smirk when he found out that Ginny was taking Blaise back to the Burrow for the week to meet her family properly. He had no idea what the Weasley brothers would make of Ginny's boyfriend but he suspected it wasn't going to be the easiest week for Blaise.

On that morning Lilly had given up hope of getting a reply before Easter but when the post came an official looking letter was dropped down in front of her. Lilly ripped it open right away and her eyes scanned the letter anxiously.

"_Dear Miss. Moon,_

_I regret to inform you that the course you applied for (**Healing Magic: A Practical Apprenticeship**) is now full. However, I am pleased to inform you that you have been awarded a conditional place on your second choice of course: **Trauma Healing in the Field**._

_This course will run for a year, just as your first choice would have done. You will study for 6 months at the **Training Centre for Trauma Healing **in Amiens, France. Upon completion of the initial 6 months you will be employed as a trainee Trauma Healer at the **Alistair Moody Trauma Hospital **within the Auror Training complex in Greater London for a further 6 months. _

_To take your place on this course we require you to have achieved the highest possible grade in the N.E.W.T subjects listed below (we will accept nothing less than an O/Outstanding in these subjects):_

_\- Potions_

_\- Herbology_

_\- Transfiguration_

_\- Charms_

_\- Defence Against the Dark Arts_

_\- Arithmancy_

_We also require you to achieve an Outstanding grade in the subjects listed below at O.W.L level (we will equally accept an E at N.E.W.T level in these subjects):_

_\- Study of Ancient Runes_

_\- History of Magic_

_You will also be submitted to a physical test prior to starting on this course. You will be required to partake in a mock duel and run 800 metres in 3 minutes or less. This is to ensure you are of the fitness level we expect of our Trainee Trauma Healers. _

_Your induction will take place on the 1st of August, 1999 at the **Training Centre for Trauma Healing **in Amiens and the course will commence thereafter. You will meet your tutors and fellow trainees and you will be allocated accommodation. Please ensure you are fully equipped with the textbooks and equipment required (enclosed is a list)._

_We look forward to meeting you._

_Yours Faithfully,_

_Alixandra Luce_

_Head of Recruitment_

_Training Centre for Trauma Healing_

_Amiens, France."_

"Did you get in, Lilly?" Neville asked from where he was sitting opposite of her.

"Not exactly," Lilly frowned, "My first choice was full but I got a conditional offer for my second choice...Trauma Healing in the Field."

"Seriously?" Harry asked in surprise, "Well done Lilly! That's one of the hardest programmes in Europe to get into!"

"I know," Lilly said as her frown deepened, "And I'm not in yet. I mean don't get me wrong this is amazing, 6 months at the centre in France and then 6 months as a trainee at the hospital attached to the Auror training centre...it's an amazing opportunity."

"But?" Hermione said as she bit her lip.

"But the conditions to get in are really hard to meet," Lilly said quietly, "I've already got the grades they need at O.W.L level but I need to get an O in every single one of my N.E.W.T's to get in."

"Including Defence," Neville said as he caught her eye.

Lilly nodded, "And it was the one class I flunked at O.W.L level. My practical was fine but my written exam let me down and I only got an E."

"Only," Harry said with a slight smile.

"I know," Neville said to Harry, "It sounds crazy but this isn't one of the best programmes in Europe for nothing. Look Lil, I'm already into Auror training so long as I perform well at selection which I'm pretty sure I will. I have a bit of time on my hands and I'll help you for hours every night if that's what it takes for you to get into this programme."

"Really?" Lilly asked, her eyes lit up hopefully, "Because I have to be able to pass the practical test too Neville. My duelling is okay but not up to their standard yet and I have to run 800 metres in under 3 minutes."

"Lilly, calm down," Neville said, "We'll start jogging around the lake as soon as we get back from the Easter holidays and I'll start training you up in DADA as of tonight. Alright?"

"Alright," Lilly said as she blew out a breath, "Gosh I have to write to my parents about this. Thanks Nev, I owe you like a million amazing birthday presents!"

Lilly got up from the table and left the hall swiftly.

Harry smirked at his best friend, "Just friends?"

"We are just friends," Neville said as he poured himself some pumpkin juice.

Draco snorted, "Do 'just friends' help each other train to get into an elite programme? Because that seems more like a boyfriend thing than a 'just friends' thing."

"Oh shut up you two," Daphne said, "Who cares whether it's a just friends thing or a I really wanna screw you thing or even an I'm sorta in love with you thing. It doesn't matter, it matters that Lilly is lucky enough to have a friend like Neville who is willing to help her like that."

"Thank you Daphne," Neville said with a slight smirk.

Draco and Harry shared an amused look but said no more, as instructed by Daphne. They were both thinking the same thing though. Whatever reasons Neville had for helping Lilly, however noble they might be, the two of them clearly weren't 'just friends' as Neville kept insisting.

***

“Neville why are you doing this?”

"Because you need to be better if you want to get into that programme," Neville replied as he leant against a wall in the Room of Requirement.

Lilly wiped the sweat from her face with a towel for the umpteenth time. He had been putting her through her paces, she was tiny at 5 foot 2 but she was a little pocket rocket when she got going, "That's not what I mean," she said a little breathlessly, "I mean yes you are killing me here, but I meant why are you helping me at all?"

"Because you're my friend and I want to help you get into the programme," Neville replied as he threw her a bottle of water, "And I think we should leave it there for tonight.”

Lilly took a deep drink of the water and flopped down onto a beanbag next to the spot where Neville was standing, "I just don't want you to mess up your own exams because you're helping me."

"Believe it or not Lil, I was always good with the theoretical stuff," Neville said as he slung his backpack on, "It was the practical stuff I struggled with. As soon as I got a new wand for 6th year I could do the practical stuff so I'm not actually that worried about the exams."

"Still," Lilly said as she pulled her cardigan on, "Don't forget about your own studies just to help me out."

"I won't," Neville promised, "But at the risk of sounding like Draco did when he was still Draco Malfoy, who is going to refuse me into the Auror programme after the war?"

"Ooh," Lilly teased as they stepped out of the Room of Requirement together and started walking towards the 8th Year common room, "I forgot you were Neville Longbottom the snake slaying God! I still think of you as Neville Longbottom, the guy who got lifted onto a chandelier by Cornish pixies."

Neville grinned, "Not my finest moment, I have to admit. How do you even know about that? You weren't in that class."

"_Everyone _heard about that Nev," Lilly laughed, "Draco Malfoy, the prick that he was, took it upon himself to tell anyone who would listen and even those who wouldn't."

Neville laughed, "Yeah well I'm a bit cooler now - oomph."

Lilly grinned down at him, "Cooler huh? That's funny cause it looks like you still can't walk up the stairs without falling through the invisible step."

Neville rolled his eyes, his cheeks were a little pink, "Yeah alright, point taken. Help me up now?"

Lilly laughed but grabbed his hand and pulled him out.

***

"Were you trying to brag to Lil when you fell through the invisible step earlier?" Theo asked his friend with a smirk in the common room that night.

Neville rolled his eyes, "Is anything a secret round here?"

"Nope," Harry grinned, "You haven't done that in ages Nev. What had you so distracted?"

"Was it the beautiful blue eyed brunette you've been training up?" Draco asked as he popped up from behind the other two.

"Holy shit," Neville muttered, "What is this, the Spanish inquisition?"

"Well nobody expects it," Harry joked.

"What?" Theo asked in confusion.

"Something in a film I showed Neville once," Harry said in amusement, "You two are really missing out on our film nights."

"I don't think we are after that one you forced us to come to," Draco said distastefully, "A creepy doll that stabs the shit out of people and a giant singing plant. I mean, really?"

Neville barked out a laugh, "I loved "Little Shop of Horrors". I'm going to put a big TV in one of the rooms of Longbottom House once I've restored it. Lilly reckons we should all watch "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" once it's done."

Harry snorted, "Good luck trying to get _them _to watch that," he said as he nudged his head in Draco and Theo's direction.

"What's it about?" Theo asked, "Because for the record I didn't mind the giant singing plant, I thought that was kind of funny. But the doll one was fucking creepy man."

"Uh well it's a musical," Harry said thoughtfully, "About two young people who get trapped in a house with a transvestite who is building himself his perfect man."

Draco looked at Harry as if he had gone mad, "Not selling it very well, are you Potter?"

"Anyone care to tell me what a transvestite is?" Theo asked in amusement.

"A man who dresses up in women's clothing," Lilly said matter of factly as she perched herself on the desk Draco was working at, "My Mum and Dad met in the theatre at a production of Rocky Horror. Look at this."

Lilly pulled her purse out and showed them a photograph of a man wearing red lipstick, a wig, and a corset, "That's my Dad."

"That's your Dad?" Theo asked in disbelief.

"Yep," Lilly said as she put the photograph away, "Not that I see him much anymore. He and my Mum are divorced. He lives in Japan with Simon these days."

"Simon?" Draco asked with a frown.

"His boyfriend," Lilly replied, "Are you really surprised he ran off with a man? I mean did you _see _the photograph that I just showed you?"

"Your Dad's gay?" Harry asked in surprise.

"Yep," Lilly said simply, she didn't seem at all embarrassed by this.

"And hilariously camp," Neville said in amusement, "Do you remember when he got drunk a few Christmases ago and sang that Culture Club song on the karaoke?"

"Yeah, Karma Chameleon," Lilly laughed, "Don't get me wrong, he can be such an embarrassment at times but I wouldn't change him."

“You knew?” Theo asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Yeah, of course I did," Neville replied, "Lilly and I have been friends for years."

"And you've spent Christmases together?" Draco prodded.

"I took Neville to a Christmas concert in London once," Lilly said as she narrowed her eyes at them, "We were like 13, what's the big deal?"

"No big deal," Harry said as he shot the others a warning look.

"Is there anything you two _don't _know about each other?" Theo asked in amusement.

Lilly shot Neville a grin, "Not much...I don't know if you can do the time warp though."

"It's just a jump to the left," Neville said in answer to her question.

"And a step to the right," Harry chuckled.

Draco and Theo looked at each in alarm, much to the amusement of their Muggle minded friends. Neville, although he was a Pureblood, was massively into Muggle culture in a similar way to Arthur Weasley. Harry had loved introducing him to classic films over the course of the year. The Slytherins were less keen but Hermione was slowly getting Daphne obsessed with romcoms.

"You three are mental," Theo concluded which of course only made them laugh more.

***

"Come on Lilly! We're not even halfway around the lake yet!"

"If you make me run any further Neville I am going to spew!" Lilly huffed from where she was lying on the grass, covered in dew and breathing heavily.

Neville jogged backwards, just to show off and stopped when he was standing above her, "We have a lot more work to do than I thought," he said as he dropped down next to her.

"I'm never going to manage it," Lilly said, a little tearfully, "I can't run! How the hell am I supposed to do this in under 3 minutes?"

"With a lot of practice," Neville said simply, "I ran every day in the summer. It's the only reason I'm fit enough to get through the selection process of Auror training. We've got until May don't we?"

"Yeah," Lilly said as she stared up at the cloudy blue sky.

"You'll be running that distance easily by then," Neville promised her, "You just need to train hard. It's going to suck but it means no chocolate over Easter and cutting back on alcohol. And running, every morning."

Lilly groaned, "That's going to be impossible. My Mum feeds me up like she thinks they starve me here."

Neville frowned slightly as an idea began to form, "Have you got anything planned for the holidays Lilly?"

"Not really," Lilly admitted, "It's going to be pretty boring actually. I mean my Dad is the cool one and he's still in Japan so I'm going back to Mum and her cat for a week. The only thing I have planned is the circus with you."

"Why don't you spend Easter at Longbottom House?" Neville asked her out of the blue.

"Isn't it practically a ruin?" Lilly asked in surprise.

"It's not a ruin. There’s no glass in the windows, its flooded and there is hardly a roof in some places," Neville said with a sheepish grin, "But it's not a ruin. I'll be sleeping in a tent for the first couple of nights until I can get it watertight and then the first thing I'll be doing is getting rid of the lead paint."

"Definitely a good idea," Lilly chuckled, "Although you're not making it sound very appealing. Sleeping in a tent?"

"It's a cool tent," Neville grinned, "Haven't you ever seen a wizarding tent?"

"Nope," Lilly replied in amusement.

"Well mine has two stories," Neville laughed, "And a kitchen and a living room. Don't feel like you have to come though, if you want to see your Mum I understand."

"No," Lilly said thoughtfully, "It could be kinda fun, renovating a house."

"And we could jog around the lake every morning," Neville said as he glanced over at her, "I could keep training you up in the garden once it's fixed up."

"Do you think it would make a big difference, for the programme?" Lilly asked.

"It would definitely help you get into the programme," Neville said as he got to his feet but his smile faltered very slightly.

If Lilly noticed she didn't say anything, "Alright, a week renovating Longbottom House and training my arse off, it is! But we're eating popcorn and candyfloss at the circus, I'll fight you to the end on that one!"

Neville laughed as he pulled Lilly to her feet, "Deal," he said simply.

***

"It's so not about the programme."

"You're staying at his house _for a week_."

"It's about the programme!" Lilly exclaimed as she shoved clothes into her trunk while her friends crowded her, "He's going to help me get into it."

"By playing house with you?" Daphne grinned, "Come on Lil, this all started with those creepy little dolls in family planning week. Now you're going to his house and taking him to the circus."

"You've got to admit that this has nothing to do with the programme," Hermione agreed.

"Okay, fine!" Lilly snapped, "It has nothing to do with the programme! I really like him, in a more than friend’s way! I don't know how it happened, I don't know when it happened. I don't know when I went from seeing him as this cute boy who did nice things for me to seeing him as this amazing, handsome, sweet guy who offers to train me up so I can get my dream job-"

"- was it around about the snake beheading time?" Hermione asked in amusement.

"I don't know," Lilly said loudly, "But it's clearly happened! And it's freaking me out alright? I've never dated a nice guy, I've only ever dated arseholes and Neville probably just thinks of me as a friend and I'm probably totally misreading all of the signs! But you're right, this has nothing to do with the programme."

*

"You invited her to your house?" Draco asked in disbelief.

"For the whole week?" Harry added.

"And you're still insisting you're just friends?" Theo finished.

"We _are _just friends," Neville said irritably as he threw socks into his trunk a little too violently.

"Just friends who spend a week together at your house. Isn't it a ruin anyway?" Theo asked conversationally.

"It's not a ruin but we'll be sleeping in a tent for the first couple of nights," Neville replied offhandedly.

"Woah," Harry said, "Hey take it from me Nev. Don't sleep in a tent with someone you claim to be 'just friends' with. It doesn't end well."

"Harry," Neville said in exasperation, "You and Hermione had sex in the middle of a war because you both thought you were going to die! I'm taking Lilly to the house to get her ready for the programme. I'm not going to sleep with her!"

"Ah, the programme," Draco grinned, "Come on Nev. Admit that this isn't about the programme anymore."

"We all know it," Theo added.

"But you just won't admit that you like the girl," Harry finished.

"Alright, I like her!" Neville said irritably as he snapped his trunk shut, "I like her way too much! She's the most perfect bloody girl I've ever known and she was in front of me for years and I never saw it-"

"- probably because you have to look down to see her," Theo joked.

"I mean it Theo," Neville said as he flopped down onto his bed, "She's a tiny little pocket rocket but she's fiery and she's hilarious. She's been my friend for years and look how that went down with Hannah! I don't want to screw up my friendship with her by dating her because dating seems to be something that I'm pretty incapable of doing at the moment!"

"Hannah was a bit crazy, Nev," Harry pointed out, "She was a bit of a glory hunter. You know Lilly isn't like that. She still thinks of you as the boy who lost his toad every 5 minutes."

"But she also thinks you're a hard core Motherfucker," Theo said.

"So you have the best of both worlds. She likes you for you but she also appreciates your valiant war efforts," Draco grinned.

Neville groaned, "Stop joking around. You're right, you're both right. This has nothing to do with the programme. I'm helping her with it to spend more time with her."

*

"I mean don't get me wrong, the programme is pretty handy," Lilly said sheepishly, "Although I've been downplaying how bad I am to spend more time with Neville..."

"Lillian Moon, you sneaky little vixen," Daphne grinned, "I knew there was a reason that I liked you."

Lilly laughed but shook her head, "Ugh, what in the name of Rowena am I gonna do?"

"Here's a crazy idea," Sadie smirked, "Snog the face off of him and tell him you fancy the pants off of him?"

"And have him say sorry Lil but we're just friends?" Lilly shot back, "I don't think so."

"He won't say that and you know it," Hermione pointed out, "You know he's been crushing on you lately. He's always hanging about in your room."

"Yeah doing Herbology work with me or helping me with DADA homework," Lilly replied.

"Uh-huh," Daphne smirked, "And now you're going to renovate his house with him? Where are you even going to sleep? I thought Longbottom House was a ruin."

"It's not exactly a ruin," Lilly yawned as she snapped her case shut, “It just needs a bit of TLC. But we're sleeping in a tent until we can get the roof fixed and the lead paint replaced."

"A tent?" Hermione asked in disbelief, "Honestly Lilly, that doesn't end well. One minute you're just dancing and then you're sleeping with your best friend."

Lilly snorted, "What is it about a tent that _forces _you to sleep with your best friend Mione? You must have wanted to do it in some form."

"I don't know what it is about tents," Hermione admitted, "I think it has something to do with the fact there's nothing to do. It's not like a house where you have loads to do and lots of places to go. You're just sort of stuck there with each other then you talk and then you dance and then you're in bed together..."

Daphne raised an eyebrow, "You literally have no idea how you and Harry ended up sleeping together do you?"

Hermione laughed weakly, "I really don't, I think I blurred it from my mind."

"It was that traumatic?" Sadie laughed.

"There were bugs and it was cold," Hermione said with an upturned nose, "Don't have sex in a tent Lilly, it's _never _romantic."

"I'm not going to have sex with Neville in a tent or in a house," Lilly said as she got to her feet, "Look, as much as I like him I can't ruin our friendship. It means way too much to me-"

Lilly cut herself off as the door opened and Susan walked in. She frowned when she noticed that the room had fallen silent, "Were you talking about Neville?"

"Uh," Sadie floundered, "Well we were-"

"-we were, yeah," Lilly said simply, "He invited me to spend the week at Longbottom House."

"Did he?" Susan asked calmly, "To help you out with the programme?"

"Yeah," Lilly said truthfully, because it was kind of the truth, "To help me with the programme and in return I'm going to help him fix up the house."

"Lil, you don't have to walk on eggshells around me," Susan said with a slight smile, "I'm not Hannah. If you're totally excited about it then don't downplay it...you don't know how I'm spending my week."

"How _are_ you spending the week?" Hermione asked curiously.

"Well Percy is working," Susan said with a smirk, "He's got a couple of international bounties. He offered to let me tag along to Bulgaria and Denmark with him."

Hermione rolled her eyes, "Honestly, you two are as bad as each other! Lilly going to Longbottom House and on a romantic circus date with Neville and insisting that they're just friends! Now you going off to Bulgaria and Denmark with Perce and saying you're just friends!"

"I never said we were just friends," Susan said in amusement, "Just that nothing had really happened between us. We're kind of dating."

"Well Neville and I are just friends," Lilly said calmly, "And while I _am _excited about this week I'm also worried. If anything _were _to happen between Neville and I... well I would have to deal with Hannah and he would have to deal with Ron."

Hermione scoffed, "Neville can handle Ron, don't worry about that."

"And as for Hannah," Susan said in amusement, "If she tries anything, we'll get her back."

"Whatever happens, happens," Lilly said as she half-heartedly glared at them, "We might come back hating each other or..."

"Glowing with happiness?" Daphne sniggered.

"Oh shut up Daph," Lilly said as she threw a pillow at the blonde girl.

*

"So what are you going to do about your little crush on Lilly?" Theo asked Neville calmly.

"I don't know," Neville sighed, "I won't seduce her in a tent, that's for sure," he said with an amused glance at Harry.

"I didn't actually mean to seduce Hermione in a tent," Harry pointed out, "It just kind of happened."

"Bullshit," Theo coughed.

Draco rolled his eyes, "Can we not talk about the fact one of my best friends has slept with my girlfriend, please? It's kind of awkward."

"Agreed," Harry said with a shake of his head, "And not at all relevant either. Look Neville, you've just got to bite the bullet and tell Lilly you like her as more than a friend."

"And have her say, oh I'm sorry Neville you're a really sweet guy but I just don't see you that way?" Neville said, he had imitated Lilly very badly with a very high-pitched tone of voice.

"Neville, that really won't happen," Draco grinned, "Because she's totally got the hots for you."

"She's nowhere near as bad as she's pretending to be at DADA," Harry said in amusement, "I saw her duelling in the final battle. Maybe she does needs to touch up her skills a bit but she's not dreadful."

"And I've seen that girl run," Theo added, "She's a pocket rocket like you say. There's no way she would give up halfway round the lake."

"What are you lot saying?" Neville asked with a frown.

"We're saying that she's pretending to be worse than she is to get more time with you, Neville," Harry said in exasperation.

"Not to mention the eye sex you two have been having for weeks," Theo said in amusement, "You have literally been eye-fucking."

"Eye-fucking, what the hell Theo?" Neville asked in disbelief.

"Fucking with your eyes," Theo said slowly, "Like when you say something and then Lilly says something similar and you stare at each other for _hours_."

"It's not hours," Neville scoffed.

"A-ha!" Draco exclaimed, "But you admit that you've been doing it!"

"I didn't know it had a name," Neville snorted, "Eye-fucking, honestly?"

"Seriously," Harry grinned, "Come on Nev. You've got to make a move this week."

"If the opportune moment presents itself then _maybe _I will," Neville said firmly, "But I'm not ruining a friendship without thinking it through first. Alright?"

"Deal," Harry agreed, "That's a very sensible decision. I'm proud of you."

"You're not my bloody Father," Neville laughed.

"No, but I'm practically your brother," Harry pointed out.

"Yeah and I'm older than you so I should be the proud, protective one," Neville said in amusement.

Harry snorted, "You’re a _day _older!”

Draco sniggered, “The point is, don’t let the opportune moment pass you by.”

"I won't," Neville promised, "Now can you lot bugger off so I can go for a bloody shower in peace?"

**TBC :)**


	49. Happy Easter

The Hogwarts Express left at 11am but none of the members of the group of 8th Years boarded it. McGonagall hadn't been as strict with her orders as she had been at Christmas time and they used this to their advantage. With their trunks shrunk and in their pockets they said their goodbyes at the gates and apparated away.

Draco, Hermione, Harry and Daphne headed to Greengrove House in Norfolk where they would be leaving for France and Cornwall respectively. Susan went to Percy's London flat. Sadie and Theo headed to Cauldwell House in Berkshire for a week of wedding planning. Neville and Lilly apparated to Longbottom House in Essex with Neville's tent packed safely in his trunk.

They had the entire week off but they also had to fit in at least some revision for their impending final projects and exams so it wasn't going to be entirely relaxing. But the weather turned out to be lovely for all of them and their weeks were incredibly enjoyable, if a little dramatic...

"Look at him tottering along in the sand!" Daphne said cheerfully, "He's just the cutest little human ever!"

"You've totally fallen in love with my Godson, haven't you?" Harry laughed as he and Daphne walked along the beach, each of them held onto one of Teddy's hands.

"How can I not? He's so loveable," Daphne said as she smiled up at Harry.

"He is a hard little guy not to love," Harry agreed, "But sorry to change the subject and all, I need to run something by you."

"Okay," Daphne said warily.

"It's nothing bad," Harry admitted, "It's just Ginny. I've been kind of worried about her lately, she's been acting odd you know? Sort of erratic..."

"She's been quiet," Daphne said with a nod, “But then she's also been kicking off about stupid things. She went mental at Blaise for not saving her a space at the 8th Year table the other day."

"I noticed that too," Harry said, "Do you think something is going on, like that hes cheating on her or something?"

Daphne shook her head, "No, if Blaise was cheating and Ginny knew she'd dump his ungrateful arse."

"Yeah," Harry sighed, "She won't be on drugs or anything, will she?"

"Drugs?" Daphne asked in disbelief, "Honestly Harry, I think you're reading into this too much."

"You sound like Hermione," Harry pointed out, "But Gin has been jumpy and snappy. Erratic, that's signs of a drug user."

"It's also a sign of a girl PMS-ing," Daphne snorted, "I know you're all protective over her Harry but you are _definitely _reading into this too much."

"Maybe I should say something at dinner on Sunday," Harry mused.

"No, you definitely shouldn't," Daphne said with a pointed look at her boyfriend, "She'll just snap at you even more. Do you know Ginny at all?"

Harry rolled his eyes, "I know her very well and I know something is going on with her."

"If talking to her will put your mind at rest, then do it," Daphne said with exasperated amusement as they reached the ice cream truck at the end of the beach, "Alright?"

"Thanks for humouring me," Harry said with a slight smile as he kissed her, "Do you want an ice cream? No wait, let me guess. A cone with a flake and raspberry sauce?"

Daphne grinned, "Exactly. Just don't get Teddy chocolate ice cream. I was cleaning it out of his _ears _after the last time."

"A standard vanilla ice cream it is buddy," Harry laughed as he picked Teddy up and shuffled him to one side. They stood in the small queue for the ice cream truck next to a little old lady who had a Scottie dog on a lead with her. She smiled at them and said, "Oh your son is so adorable."

Harry opened his mouth to say that Teddy wasn't their son but Daphne just smiled back at the woman and said, "Thank you."

"How old is he?" The woman asked as Harry looked at Daphne in surprise.

"He turns one this week," Daphne replied kindly.

The woman chuckled, "It will be the terrible twos soon. He's the spitting image of his Daddy."

Teddy was having a 'Harry' day today as he often did when he was spending time with his Godfather. His hair was jet black and messy, just like Harry's. The woman was next in line so she ordered her ice cream and Harry ordered theirs next. It wasn't until they were walking back along the beach to the little cottage they were staying in that Harry asked Daphne, "Why didn't you say he wasn't our son?"

"Because it's awkward to explain," Daphne said as she held Teddy in one arm and her ice cream in the other. Harry was occasionally holding out a cone for Teddy to lick ice cream from as it melted but there was no way he was giving it to the boy or it would soon become a sand cone, "And he is your Godson. You're the only Father he will ever have."

"I don't want him to grow up thinking I'm taking his real Dads place," Harry sighed, "Remus is his Father and he would have been an amazing one."

"And you will be too," Daphne smiled, "Come on Harry, think about it. If you could have picked, would you rather have been raised without a Father figure or raised by Sirius who sort of replaced your Father a little but gave you all of his love?"

"I would pick Sirius, a million times over," Harry said honestly.

"And when he's old enough to understand Teddy would pick you," Daphne smiled, "He's going to need a Daddy to cheer him on at Little League Quidditch and to talk to about girls when he starts having crushes at school."

Harry laughed as he looked down at the little boy who he loved so much, "Well he's going to need a Mum too."

"He has Andy," Daphne pointed out.

"But she's his Grandma, not his Mum," Harry said with a smile at his girlfriend, "She loves him but he'll need someone younger to talk to about heartbreak and the complexities of women. He needs you as much as he needs me."

"I know," Daphne said softly as she smiled at the little boy, "But he has us Harry. He already has so much more than you did. Maybe it's not by blood but he has parents who love him and he'll have them for his whole life, not just for a couple of years."

"If you stick with me that is," Harry said as he caught her eye.

Daphne smiled at him playfully, "I've already made my decision Harry. I'm just waiting for you to be ready to make yours."

Harry laughed, "Who would have thought that you'd be commited to this _before _me?" he joked, "After how terrified you were of relationships. But to be honest Daphne, I've made my decision too. I'm just waiting for the opportune moment."

"I know," Daphne said softly.

"ICE CWEAM!" Teddy objected as he thrashed about in Daphne's arms.

Harry laughed and tore his eyes away from his girlfriends, "We've been neglecting him for our serious discussion _about him_," he said through his laughter as he handed the ice cream cone to Teddy.

"If that goes in the sand we're not buying him a new one," Daphne said as she eyed Teddy suspiciously.

He caught her eye as if he was testing her. Daphne narrowed her eyes at the boy, "If you drop that cone mister, there will be no more ice cream."

Teddy held the ice cream cone out as if he was going to drop it and Daphne said, "On you go then, drop it. But no more ice cream."

Harry was chuckling, Teddy hadn't broken eye contact with Daphne once yet. He pulled the ice cream back to his mouth and licked it. Daphne smirked over at Harry, "Parenting 101."

Harry couldn't stop the stupid grin that spread across his face at that. He was in the happiest place he had ever been and he never wanted it to end.

***

The Alps were beautiful and the skiing conditions were great. Their little holiday was going great, Narcissa was getting on brilliantly with Hermione's parents, and Draco and Hermione were managing to grab quite a bit of alone time too. They had been in the Alps for a couple of days when John Granger pulled Draco to the side for a moment. Hermione and her Mother were helping Narcissa with the washing up when John seized the moment and asked Draco out to the balcony for a private word.

Draco instantly knew what Hermione's Father wanted to talk to him about. He swallowed nervously as he stepped out onto the balcony and glanced up at the man. For a Muggle dentist he was very intimidating but Draco suspected that had something to do with that darn movie about sadistic dentists and singing plants that Harry had forced him to watch...

"I know who you are," John said simply, "I haven't said anything to you yet because the moment hasn't presented itself. But I would know the name Draco Malfoy instantly, even if it is Draco Black now."

"And how is that?" Draco asked nervously.

"I might be a Muggle and I am aware that you view us as fools," John said smoothly, "But I am both intelligent and perceptive. I love my daughter very much and I am very attentive to the things she tells me. I have read your name in letters and I have heard it in rants. You made her life a living hell, you belittled her, you made her feel worthless and out of place in a world she loved."

Draco swallowed hard, "Yes, I did all of that."

"Do you have a valid reason why?" John asked with a coldness in his voice, "Because Hermione defends you. She says you haven't had an easy life but I want to hear it from you."

"I don't have an excuse," Draco said quietly, "I was brainwashed by my Father into believing that people like Hermione were not welcome in our world. From the age of 4 I had family history drummed into me, I was taught how to recite our lineage without stuttering. I was taught which members of the family not to mention because they had married muggles or muggle-borns. When I got to Hogwarts it was in my nature to hurt Hermione, but she made me doubt my beliefs Mr. Granger."

John surveyed Draco with interest as the blonde boy continued, "Your daughter intrigued me. She made question the stereotypes my Father had drummed into me. I admired her intelligence and her beauty and I poked fun at her because I was jealous. It was petty and childish and it stopped when I grew up a little. I still picked on Harry but I couldn't insult Hermione after I saw her at the Yule Ball because that was the day when I began to fall in love with your daughter."

John sighed and sipped his scotch, "You really love her, then?"

"I've never known love like it," Draco admitted as he looked out over the mountains, "She makes me want to be a better person. She has changed me for the better. I still admire her intelligence and her beauty every day. Sometimes I have to pinch myself to make sure I'm not dreaming."

"Then there is clearly nothing I could say to dissuade you," John said with a slight smile, "Even if I wanted to. Not that I do, mind you. I wanted to make you a little uncomfortable but I know how much my daughter loves you. She was a shell after the war. When she restored our memories we knew something was wrong but we couldn't do anything to help her. You have brought her back to life, she laughs and she smiles. You gave us our little girl back and I can never thank you enough for that."

Draco was honoured and he had a lump in his throat. He nodded because he was speechless at that moment. John smiled again and put his hand on Draco's shoulder, "I suppose what I’m saying is I give this relationship my blessing, Draco."

"Thank you," Draco said as he found his voice, "That means a lot to me."

John merely smiled and guided Draco back into the chalet, "The fact it is important to you only tells me that you certainly deserve it. Now, let's join the girls for a game of Monopoly, yes? Your Mother was only just getting a grasp on the rules last night."

***

"Pretty neat tent," Lilly said as she lay back on the sofa in the tents living room, "It's bigger than your average flat."

"But highly flammable," Neville said in amusement as he walked out of the kitchen with two bowls of pasta, "Hence why I would never live in it for a long time."

"Well it's not exactly practical," Lilly agreed, shifting her legs so that he could sit down next to her on the sofa. Directly ahead was a window and because of where the tent was pitched they had a direct view of Longbottom House. Well, it was almost a direct view because there was a wild garden obscuring it.

"How much more work do you reckon it needs?" Neville asked conversationally.

"It's been a day and we've managed to make the roof functional," Lilly said thoughtfully, "We can probably get the windows done tomorrow and maybe start on the removal of the lead paint."

"All of the furniture was wrecked though," Neville said, "It's going to have to go straight to the dump."

"And the portraits," Lilly said as she swallowed a mouthful of food, "But the tapestry room is capable of being saved I think...this is really good pasta by the way."

"I told you, I have hidden talents," Neville joked.

"Like forgetting the invisible step _every _time we walk up the grand staircase?" Lilly teased.

"I don't forget it _every _time," Neville chuckled as he looked out of the window once more at the house. It was a modest place but he had fallen in love with it as he and Lilly explored.

It wasn't a Manor, not on the scale of Potter, Malfoy and Nott Manors. It was smaller than the average stately home too, Greengrass House and Cauldwell House were both a lot larger. But it was bigger than Greengrove House where Andromeda and Narcissa stayed. It had three stories but it wasn't a long house like Potter and Malfoy Manor. It was quite square, probably because it was newer than the Manors by a good few centuries. It was however complete with a drawing room/ballroom, library, basement and 6 decent sized bedrooms. Even in its derelict state Neville could see a great home in the house.

"It will be great by the end of the week," Lilly said cheerfully.

"I'll take your word for it," Neville smiled, "I'm sorry that I dragged you away from your family for this."

Lilly shook her head, "Don't be sorry. This is fun and let's face it if Ron and I hadn't broken up I'd probably be stuck at the Burrow with Blaise right now."

Neville laughed, "Yeah, I wonder how he's coping."

"He's probably just doing what he does best and keeping his mouth firmly shut," Lilly grinned.

"I didn't get it you know," Neville said, "You and Ron."

"How come?" Lilly asked curiously.

"I didn't know what you saw in him. Don't get me wrong, Ron's a great friend and all. But if I were a girl I'd think he was a tosser," Neville said in amusement.

"Yeah, he is a tosser," Lilly said thoughtfully, "But that's probably why I liked him. I mean they do say that smart girls like funny guys and he was funny. He could be sweet and thoughtful too...but he has a temper."

"Everyone has a temper," Neville reminded her.

"I know, but he really has a temper," Lilly said with a frown, "He roars and he gets jealous so easily. I don't know why but I only seem to attract dickheads and every time I think to myself that this guy will be different...but he never is."

"Not all guys are dickheads, Lil," Neville said, "You just haven't found the right one yet."

Lilly's eyes lingered on Neville's for a little longer than they should have done, "I guess I wish I could just be with a guy who was genuinely a sweet, nice person...do you know what I mean?"

"I know what you mean," Neville said as he kept his eyes on hers, "Sometimes I wish I could find a girl who likes me for who I actually am. Not for the fame or the money...not because I killed a snake once. I just wish I could find someone who wanted to be with me for the right reasons."

"Not everyone is a glory hunter," Lilly said with a smile, "Not everyone has a crazy temper like Hannah. Maybe you just haven't found the right girl yet," she echoed his earlier words.

"Maybe," Neville said softly as his eyes met Lilly's once more.

"Neville-"

"- do you want to get back to work on the house after food?" Neville asked as he cleared his throat, "We still have a couple hours until it gets too dark. We could get started on the windows."

Lilly glanced down to hide her disappointment, "Sure," she said as she pushed her food around her bowl with a sigh.

***

By the time Neville and Lilly's circus 'date' came around they had made significant progress on the house. All of the windows had glass in them once more, the flood damage was fixed, the roof was stable and there was no lead paint left in any part of the house. They had spent the day redecorating the drawing room and Lilly had been trying valiantly to restore the tapestry room.

"Come on Neville, it's time to go to the circus!" Lilly said brightly as she bounced on the balls of her feet by the gates of the house.

"I'm just de-weeding the lake-" Neville began.

"Well the lake will have to wait to be de-weeded," Lilly said simply, "Come on Nev, clowns and acrobats and dancing dogs!"

Neville smiled slightly at her and ended his charm. He pushed his wand into the inside pocket of his jacket and jogged to meet her at the gate, "Alright, you have my full and undivided attention. I'm all yours."

Lilly's eyes flashed with surprise upon his words but she didn't let on. She just smiled at Neville and walked out of the gate, "Do you know the co-ordinates?" she asked as she held out her arm.

"Nope," Neville replied as he linked his arms through hers, "But I’m ready when you are."

Lilly spun on her heel and they both disappeared from the gardens of the house. They arrived in an alleyway close to Hyde Park and Neville made no move to unlink his arm from Lilly's. She smiled to herself as they walked into the park together and made their way into the circus area.

"This is all the circus?" Neville asked as he looked around in wonder.

"Not exactly," Lilly replied, "See that big tent there? It's called the big top and that's what the tickets are for, the circus show. But there are sideshows all around, there's a fortune teller over there and there are some rides. That's the Tunnel of Love."

Neville raised an eyebrow, "Tunnel of Love?"

"It's stupid," Lilly shrugged, "It's just a boat in a dark tunnel. Teenagers go on them all the time to snog."

Neville laughed, "Well it's better than the back of the greenhouses I suppose."

"That was your go to snogging spot?" Lilly grinned, "God, why am I not surprised you took your girlfriends to a greenhouse full of plants?"

Neville rolled his eyes, "What was your go to snogging spot then if you think it's so much better?"

Lilly chuckled, "Well it is definitely better than the back of the greenhouses. There's a secret alcove on the 5th floor, behind a portrait of Bertie Bott."

"I guess it's more inventive than the astronomy tower," Neville said in amusement.

"Exactly," Lilly smirked, "We have an hour or so to kill until the big top show starts, so what do you want to do?"

"Definitely not the fortune teller," Neville said as he scanned the sideshows, "And the love tunnel thing probably isn't a good idea since we're just friends."

"Right," Lilly agreed somewhat awkwardly, "What about the games?"

Neville's eyes lit up mischievously, "Now that sounds like a good idea," he said as he dragged her over to one of the game stalls.

They spent the next hour playing games, Lilly played them unsuccessfully and Neville had far more luck than her. By the time they found themselves waiting in the line for the big top show Lilly was holding a large cuddly toy as well as their tickets curtesy of Neville's last win. He had won nearly every time mind you, but he had kept giving the toys he won to little children which Lilly found incredibly sweet.

"You were cheating," Lilly whispered to him in amusement.

Neville leant down and whispered in her ear, "I wasn't cheating, I was being a magician."

"You were basically just cheating," Lilly grinned, she lowered her voice, "You were using wandless magic."

"Well spotted," Neville laughed.

"To the _trained _eye you aren't very good at it yet," Lilly whispered.

"Well I've been helping you get ready for the programme," Neville said as they moved forward in the line, "You can help train me in return."

"Deal," Lilly said as a smile played on her lips. Neither of them were quite ready to admit that they both leapt at the plan because it meant spending even _more _time together. They reached the front of the queue and had their tickets checked then they managed to grab seats on a bench in the front row. As they watched the circus with its dancing dogs, trapeze artists, clowns and dancers Neville was fixated and amazed, his hand was very close to Lilly's for the entire performance but they didn't touch. When it was over Neville casually linked his arm through Lilly's as they walked through the darkening park together.

"I mean did you see the clown? He was hilarious!" Neville was saying eagerly.

"He was great," Lilly smiled.

"And the trapeze artists!" Neville exclaimed, "That looked so dangerous. They were flying without brooms!"

Lilly chuckled, "That's certainly a unique perspective on it. Do you want candyfloss?"

"What's candyfloss?" Neville asked.

"Pure sugar," Lilly grinned as she grabbed his hand, "Come on!"

Neville laughed as she pulled him to a cart where she bought them candyfloss. They were both laughing as they walked through the park with their candyfloss and Lilly wanted nothing more than to open up her heart and tell Neville everything. She had tried twice this week and both times Neville had changed the subject very quickly. Lilly was starting to think that Neville didn't want them to be anything more than friends.

***

"I'm going to ask Ginny what's up with her," Harry whispered to Daphne.

"On your own head be it," Daphne whispered back.

"Come on, she's not going to bat-bogey me," Harry said in amusement as he watched Teddy out of the corner of his eye, "Daph watch him with that chocolate-"

"Teddy!"

"-cake," Harry finished with a grin.

"The cake that he just threw in my face you mean?" Daphne asked good naturedly as the Weasley boys guffawed.

"That chocolate cake, yep," Harry chortled.

"Molly," Daphne said in amusement as she used a charm to clean the cake from her face, "For future reference, Teddy and chocolate birthday cake don't mix well."

"Oh come on baby, he's the birthday boy. He can throw cake at whoever he wants," Harry added as Teddy giggled manically.

"Oh you know exactly what you are doing," Daphne laughed as she cleaned Teddy up and picked him up from the high chair, "You like to throw cake at me don't you?"

"Cake!" Teddy squealed.

"Yes, you aren't getting anymore cake Ted," Daphne said as the little boy tried to grab her hair, "You threw it all in my face."

"Cake!" Teddy agreed.

Harry snorted in amusement, "I'll leave you to deal with the cake throwing little fiend here. I'm going to talk to Gin."

"Alright," Daphne said as Harry got to his feet and slipped out into the back garden. Ginny sat there alone on a bench, she was staring out at the setting sun thoughtfully. Harry sat down silently next to her and she didn't even acknowledge his presence for a few minutes.

"Come on Gin, I can see what's happening here," Harry said softly.

Ginny looked at him in surprise, "You know?"

"Of course I know," Harry sighed, "You're one of my best friends Ginny, I can see when someone changes. The erratic moods, the snappiness, the fact you've been avoiding your friends..."

"Shit," Ginny muttered, "I thought I had been hiding it better than that. Merlin... Harry, you can't tell anyone. Blaise doesn't even know yet."

"How can he not know?" Harry asked in disbelief, "He sees you every day. Surely he's noticed."

"If he has he hasn't said anything," Ginny said with a frown, "I haven't even told Mum about the baby yet-"

"- baby?" Harry asked in a surprised whisper.

Ginny frowned at him, "You said you knew!"

"You're pregnant?" Harry hissed, "I thought you were on drugs, Ginny!"

"Drugs?" Ginny asked angrily, "Do I look like the type to do drugs?"

"Well you were acting so weird," Harry said with a shake of his head, "You’re pregnant?"

"Yes, now keep your voice down," Ginny muttered.

"And Blaise doesn't know? Wait it is his isn't it?"

"Of course it's his and he doesn't know because I didn't want to tell him _here_, I was going to tell him once we got back to school," Ginny snapped, "And honestly, who else's would it be?"

"I know, I'm sorry," Harry murmured as he put his arm around her, "How long have you known for?"

"Only a couple of weeks," Ginny replied, "I'm only two months gone."

"You seem pretty calm about the whole thing," Harry said quietly.

"Seem being the operative word there," Ginny sighed, "I'm freaking out. If I could just hide it until June it would be fine. I have to make sure I can finish my N.E.W.T's."

"You'll be 4 months pregnant in June," Harry whispered, "I'm sure glamour charms could keep it secret for that long. But I think McGonagall would let you finish your N.E.W.T's regardless."

"I know," Ginny said, "I won't get into my healing programme mind you. But everything happens for a reason I guess."

"You'll have to tell them sooner or later," Harry said, referring to her family, "You can only hide a pregnancy for a short amount of time, after all."

"Pregnancy?"

Ginny's eyes widened as Bill's voice resonated from a spot behind them. She spun around, "Shh!"

Bill took a couple of steps forward, "Please tell me I heard that wrong because I was just starting to like Blaise."

"Good," Ginny muttered, "Because I'm kind of having a baby with him. Not that he knows about it yet mind you."

"You haven't told him?" Bill asked in disbelief, "And you're _pregnant_? Merlin's sake Ginny!"

"Ginny's pregnant?"

"Oh for the love of Godric!" Ginny exclaimed, "Keep your voice down Percy!"

"What's the secret meeting for then?" George piped up.

Harry rolled his eyes, "Come on guys, don't crowd her."

"Wait a minute," Bill muttered, "Is Harry the Father?"

"No!" Harry remarked in disbelief, "What on earth would make you think that?"

"Father? Ginny you're pregnant?" George asked loudly.

"Oh my God!" Ginny snapped as she pushed herself to her feet, "Will you all just shut up and leave me alone, please?"

"What's going on out here?" Molly asked sharply as she walked into the garden.

"You better tell her," Harry whispered, "Better now than having her find out from one of these idiots."

"Oi!" Charlie objected.

Ginny sighed, "Alright but not a word to Blaise. He left to talk to his Mum about something and I'd like to tell him on my own terms when he gets back."

"I promise I won't say anything," Harry said as Ginny got to her feet.

She squared herself up against her Mother, "I need to talk to you about something Mum, alone."

Molly instantly looked suspicious, "Alright then, come on into the house."

The others followed their Mother and sister inside, Ginny and Molly then disappeared into the living room with Arthur. The door shut with a snap and Daphne looked at Harry pointedly, "So she's not on drugs then?"

Harry leant down and pretended to kiss Teddy but actually whispered to Daphne, "No, she's-"

"PREGNANT?"

Harry bit his lip, "And I think she just told Molly."

"Pregnant?" Ron echoed in disbelief, "Ginny?"

"Well who else is it going to be, Mum?" George asked ludicrously.

"And she hasn't told Blaise," Harry cut in, "So don't say anything when he gets back."

"GINEVRA WEASLEY! I RAISED YOU BETTER THAN THIS! YOU ARE 17 YEARS OLD YOU CANNOT DROP OUT OF SCHOOL TO HAVE A BABY!"

The occupants of the kitchen fell silent as the roaring continued in the next room. Teddy looked around in shock, as if he was outraged about the fact his 1st birthday party was being crashed with all of this drama.

"I CANNOT BELIEVE YOU!" Ginny roared back, "You are such a hypocrite! You were 16 when you found out you were pregnant with Bill! You didn't even get your N.E.W.T's and you and Dad totally had a shotgun wedding!"

"THAT WAS DIFFERENT!" Molly shouted, "That was a different time!"

"Yeah well newsflash Mum," Ginny said angrily, "_This _is a different time. I went through a war and I'm _going _to get my N.E.W.T's! This has nothing to do with my age, it has everything to do with the fact I'm not marrying Harry like you always wanted! No, instead I'm having a pureblood Slytherins baby, _that's _your problem really!"

Harry and Daphne shared a surprised look and Teddy looked between them with wide eyes, "Cake?" he said curiously.

"Oh Teddy," Daphne sighed as she picked the boy up once more, "Are we all neglecting you on your birthday? We're terrible nasty adults aren't we?"

As she spoke to him she cut a slice of cake into little cubes and fed one to Teddy who chewed on it happily, "Daffee!"

Daphne chuckled and stroked his hair, "This is way too much drama for a one-year-old child."

"Welcome to the family," Ron said in amusement as the shouting match carried on in the next room.

"- And for the record, I never wanted you to marry Harry! I love Harry like a son, I wasn't pushing you towards marrying him, I was just happy for you when I found out you were together!"

"Oh for the love of Godric, Mum!” Ginny exclaimed, “Just admit it, you have a problem with Blaise! Is it because he's a pureblood? Or is it because he's a Slytherin? Or is it because he's black? Or is it mixture of _all of it!_"

"I am _not _racist Ginny!" Molly shouted, "Blaise seems like a lovely man but I hardly know him! _You _hardly know him, your Father and I may have had Bill young but we were in love and we had been for several years!"

"So what?" Ginny shrieked, "Harry hardly knew Daphne a few months ago and now he's raising Teddy with her and going shopping for engagement rings! It doesn't matter Mum; you know when you love someone!"

Harry was suddenly the centre of attention. He blushed furiously and glanced sheepishly at Daphne.

The blonde girl just smiled at him, "Well, cats out of the bag."

"Yeah, thanks Gin," Harry muttered with embarrassment. He was grateful when the shouting match drew everyone's attention away from him again.

"You can't know if you love him after a few months, Ginny!"

"I can!" Ginny yelled confidently as the fireplace in the kitchen roared to life and Blaise stepped out of it, "And I do! Blaise might seem a bit quiet and odd to you but he's intelligent, and hilarious and sweet and caring! So what if hes a bit sneaky, he's a _Slytherin, _it's part of who he is! Merlin knows I have my faults, like my temper for example! It's part of him and I love him, _all of him!_"

Blaise frowned and glanced at his main ally in the room, Daphne. She smiled at him and said, "The Weasley women share a temper, so it seems."

"Why are they arguing about me?" Blaise asked calmly.

Daphne opened her mouth to say that it really wasn't her place to say but the door to the living room snapped open before she had the chance. Only Ginny emerged and she looked incredibly angry. Harry could only guess that Arthur was still consoling or calming (possibly both) Molly in the living room.

"I need to talk to you Blaise," Ginny said as she blew out a breath. She looked pale and exhausted.

Blaise nodded and Daphne called, "Gin?"

The redhead turned around, "Yeah?"

"Wherever you go to talk, just make sure you sit down," Daphne said with a smile.

Ginny returned it half-heartedly, "I will," she said as she grabbed Blaise's hand and pulled him in the direction of the garden.

***

"You're pregnant aren't you?"

Ginny gaped, "You know?"

Blaise frowned, "Of course I know. I've known for weeks. Was I supposed to say something?"

"Well, yeah!" Ginny snapped, "I've been freaking out about telling you!"

"Sorry," Blaise said in confusion, "I just assumed you were telling your family first and that you would tell me when you were ready."

"Blaise, how are we going to do this?" Ginny asked with a deep sigh, "I mean I'm so bloody scared. I want to get my N.E.W.T's but without the healing programme I'm screwed."

"Are you keeping it then?"

"I have to," Ginny frowned, "Don't you want me to?"

"I do," Blaise said softly, "But Ginny...I never had a Father and my Mother was always so busy entertaining her men...I have no idea how to be a parent."

"You learn, Blaise," Ginny said with a slight smile, "There are some things you can't learn in books. You learn them on instinct and parenting is one of those things."

"I just don't know if I would be good Ginny," Blaise said as his deep brown eyes met hers, "I don't know if I would be good for it."

"Blaise," Ginny sighed, "I know this is unexpected but I think we can take it in our stride. We don't have to let it break us."

"I'm not saying it will," Blaise said quietly, "I love you Ginny, I love you very much. But a baby...it scares me."

"It scares me too," Ginny said as she gripped his hands, "But you have to take your own advice here. Everything happens for a reason."

Blaise nodded and swallowed, "Everything happens for a reason," he agreed with a slight smile at the redheaded girl.

***

"Draco, Hermione! There is a floo call for you!"

Draco and Hermione frowned at each other as Narcissa called through to them. They were in the kitchen doing the washing up on Easter Sunday. It was the last day of their holiday, they would be returning to school early the following morning.

"Who would floo us here?" Draco asked quietly as they walked towards the living room.

"No one unless it was urgent," Hermione muttered anxiously.

They reached the living room where Narcissa, John and Elizabeth were currently playing yet another Muggle board game. It was the Game of Life this time and Narcissa seemed to be losing badly. The witch glanced up at them from the sofa, "It's in the drawing room, it's Harry. He sounded eager to tell you something."

Draco and Hermione were both intrigued as they slipped into the drawing room and knelt down in front of the fire where Harry and Daphne's faces were floating in the flames.

"How is the family vacation?" Harry asked with a smirk.

"It's fun, actually," Hermione said with a raised eyebrow.

"My Mother has discovered Monopoly and as the ex-wife of a former stockbroker she takes it far too seriously," Draco said in amusement, "Now what's up?"

"Well we have news and now that the family know I've been told I'm allowed to pass it on. But only to you two, she wants to tell Neville herself," Harry rabbled on.

"Who does?"

"Ginny," Daphne cut in, "She had some interesting news to share today after Harry confronted her about being on drugs."

"What?" Hermione asked in disbelief, "Ginny would never do drugs, Harry!"

"I know but she was acting erratic," Harry sighed, "Turns out she isn't on drugs but she _is _pregnant."

"Pregnant?" Draco and Hermione echoed.

"Uh-huh," Daphne said simply as a shout resonated behind them. Her blonde hair temporarily flipped in the fire, "Teddy! Put that rock down right now!"

She turned back around to the amused faces of her friends, "What?"

"Parenting," Draco chuckled, "You'll be good at it. How does Blaise feel about all of this?"

"He's a bit shocked," Harry admitted, "And terrified he'll be a dreadful parent because he never really had a Father figure."

"But apart from that he took it alright," Daphne added.

"Molly and Ginny still aren't speaking and it's been hours now," Harry said with a sigh, "But we just thought we should let you know. I think Gin is going to need a couple of female friends when she gets back to Hogwarts. Between you and Daph, Hermione, I think she might be alright."

"Thanks Harry," Hermione said, "Is Ginny okay at the moment?"

"She says she is but this obviously isn't the easiest thing to come to terms with," Harry replied, "We're going to have to get off though because Teddy is really starting to gurn - Daph, grab him and try and calm him down please - and we really need to get him to sleep."

Hermione and Draco shared a smile at the couple and their interaction with the little boy, "We will see you tomorrow anyway. Enjoy the last night of your holiday!"

"You guys too!" Daphne said as she ended the floo call.

In the drawing room of the chalet Draco and Hermione looked at each other in surprise and disbelief.

"Pregnant," Hermione said.

"Well it was bound to happen," Draco reasoned, "With the war and everything. Everyone told us baby booms were to be expected."

"Still," Hermione sighed, "How does a thing like that happen? There are contraception charms."

"And you know as well as I do that they don't always work," Draco pointed out, "All it takes is for you to say the incantation wrong or if someone has had a drink it doesn't always work either."

"Gosh, it's just a bit surreal to think that-"

The door was pushed open, "You're pregnant Hermione?"

"What?" Hermione asked Narcissa in disbelief, "No!"

"Were you eavesdropping, Mother?"

"Who is pregnant?" John asked sharply as he and Elizabeth appeared from behind Narcissa.

"Not me!" Hermione exclaimed, "Our friend, our friend is pregnant!"

"Which friend?" Narcissa asked with narrowed eyes, "Oh goodness, is it Daphne?"

"No, it's nobody you know, Mother," Draco said with a shake of his head, "And it's not exactly public knowledge either.''

"It's certainly not Hermione?" Elizabeth asked warily.

“It's certainly not me," Hermione said somewhat irritably, "I am 100% not pregnant!"

***

"It's the last night."

"I know, Hogwarts is going to suck compared to this place," Lilly joked.

"It's not that nice," Neville chuckled.

"I don't know about that, I kinda fell in love with it," Lilly admitted as she glanced around the drawing room. The entire house had been repainted with neutral white walls, and the drawing room had been furnished with not so neutral red and gold furnishings. Lilly had convinced Neville to add some house unity into the home so the library was decked out in blue and bronze, and some of the bedrooms in yellow and black. There was no silver and green however, that had been a step too far for Neville.

Longbottom House was essentially a smaller version of Potter Manor but with all of its furnishings now in place and some new paintings hanging on the walls it was very homely. The wizarding radio in the drawing room was humming in the background as they both sipped from glasses of prosecco.

"I think we did an amazing job on it," Neville said with a proud smile.

"And we had fun doing it too," Lilly said happily as she crossed the room and turned the radio up.

"I love this song," Neville said as his foot began to tap against the floor.

"Dance with me then," Lilly said, there was a challenge in her eyes.

Neville frowned, "Oh I don't know-"

"You love this song and I love this song," Lilly smirked as she put her glass down, "And we both love dancing so dance with me."

Neville smiled softly at her and pushed himself to his feet. He drew her into him and immediately snapped them into position. Lilly couldn't hide her chuckle as he swept her around the floor to the slow, romantic song. Her heart was beating faster than normal because she realised that this was her last chance to make a move before they went back to school.

Neville spun her out, and pulled her back in. She was pulled against him and her lips were inches away from his. Her words had gotten her nowhere so she forced herself onto her tiptoes and captured his lips in a kiss. She half expected him to pull away, to blush and come up with some cock and bull story. She didn't want him to, but a part of her was resigned to the fact that she had misread the signals. However, he didn't push her away. Instead his hand dropped to her back, he pulled her closer and deepened the kiss as he did so. The dance was forgotten and the music drowned out behind them as their own beating hearts pounded in their ears.

Lilly had to fight to contain a gasp of surprise at the fact that Neville was kissing her back. She didn't exactly have a lot of self-confidence, not after what had happened with Ron. All thoughts of Ron were pushed from her mind however as Neville's hands cupped her face. She was fairly certain she moaned slightly into the kiss as she wrapped her arms around his neck which wasn't an easy feat considering the height difference between herself and Neville. As perfect as the kiss was however and as much as Lilly didn't want its slow, sweetness to _ever _end, it had to because she needed to breathe.

When they broke apart their eyes met and they surveyed each other, almost warily.

"You're one of my best friends," Neville said quietly.

"You make it sound like a bad thing," Lilly joked, she still had her arms wrapped around his neck.

"I don't want to lose you Lil," Neville said in a quiet, almost broken voice, "I can't lose another friend...not after Hannah."

"You'll never lose me Neville," Lilly said softly, "I know I was a bitch when I thought you had cheated on Hannah but I jumped to a conclusion because of what Ron did to me. I'll always be your friend, regardless of anything else that happens."

"I really care about you Lilly," Neville said softly, his eyes were still firmly fixed on hers, "These past few weeks something has changed. All of a sudden I've seen you, for the first time."

Lilly laughed and nodded, "I know Nev. Me too, ever since that project with those creepy Chuckie babies."

Neville laughed quietly, "I didn't want to do anything Lilly. It was so perfect, with our study sessions and you helping out in the greenhouse...I didn't want it to change."

"It won't," Lilly said with a playful smile, "There will just be snogging as well as talking and planting mandrakes now."

Neville laughed properly at that and Lilly's face broke out into a grin, "You've got to give it a try Neville. What if it could be something amazing and we never know because you're too afraid we lose our friendship?"

"You're right Lil," Neville said as he smiled down at her, "I'm sorry I've been rebuffing you."

"You little shit, you _knew _I was trying to say something all week!" Lilly exclaimed in disbelief.

"I didn't want to mess anything up!" Neville said sheepishly, "I was having far too good a week."

Lilly tutted and smirked at him as a faster song began to play on the radio, "Just think of all the snogging you missed out in that Tunnel of Love," she teased as she drew him back onto the little dance floor with a grin.

**TBC :)**


	50. The Time Bomb Explodes

It was Monday morning, it was 11.10am, and despite their best efforts to beat the system the gang were gathered together in a compartment on the Hogwarts Express. Thanks to Theo and Hermione's privileges as Head Boy and Girl they had a first class compartment all to themselves. This made the journey a bit more bearable because the compartment was twice the size with heating, air conditioning and very comfortable seats. It comfortably fitted the entire gang plus Blaise and Ginny. They had all received a floo call from McGonagall the previous night warning them that they would suffer if they did not return to school on the Hogwarts Express. They were all so worried about detention cutting into their study time for their finals that they obliged and grumbled all the way onto the Hogwarts Express. It was a good opportunity to catch up however and Ginny couldn't apparate in her current condition anyway.

"So how was your holiday?" Hermione asked the others cheerfully.

"Good," Harry replied with a smile, "Teddy and Daphne bonded."

"He threw chocolate cake in my face, I don't know if you would call that bonding," Daphne said in amusement.

Draco chortled, "Well Hermione's Father gave me a very, intimidating and scary speech before giving me his blessing. But apart from that our holiday was pretty uneventful."

"We just skied and introduced Narcissa to Muggle board games," Hermione added with a smile.

"Who knew she would be so good at Monopoly?" Draco grinned.

Harry sniggered at that, "Well it sounds like you had a good time. How was your trip around Europe Suse?"

"Exciting," Susan laughed, "I spent Easter Sunday with my Muggle family but apart from that it was a fun week."

"So are you and Percy officially official yet?" Daphne asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Not officially," Susan said in amusement, "Don't worry you'll know when we are, _if _we ever are but that’s enough about me. How was your holiday Sadie?"

"Our holiday was great," Sadie said brightly as Theo shook his head behind her back, "We got so much wedding ideas down on paper. Right Theo?"

He turned his head shaking to nodding as Sadie turned to him, much to the amusement of his friends, "Oh yeah love. We got loads done, it was great fun."

Harry grinned in amusement as Sadie smiled unknowing of Theo's antics, "So what about your guys? Did you get the house finished?" he asked as he looked to Neville and Lilly.

"Yep," Lilly said with a smile, "It wasn't as big a job as Neville thought. The garden still needs some work but the house is finished."

"We had to replace everything though," Neville said with a shake of his head, "All of the furniture and paintings were wrecked. There was flood damage everywhere. Lilly managed to save the tapestry room though."

"Which is like the coolest room in the house," Lilly added.

"Apart from the basement," Neville grinned, he glanced at Harry, “It's the one room I've not finished yet but I'm modelling it on your basement, it’s kind of a room of requirement isn’t it?"

“Yeah, not anywhere near as powerful but I can make small modifications to it by thinking about them,” Harry replied.

"There's no way you have the knowledge to do that though Neville," Draco said in disbelief, "It took Hermione and me a month!"

"It will take me a month as well," Lilly said in amusement, "Which is why it's not finished yet. In fact, I’ve not even started it yet for that matter."

Daphne smirked at the dark haired Ravenclaw, "So how long have you two been together then?"

“What?” Lilly and Neville asked with false surprise.

"Were you honestly going to try and keep it from us?" Sadie chuckled, "It's obvious."

"It's not that obvious," Theo retorted, "They were already acting like a couple before they even were a couple so..."

"Oh shut up Theo," Neville said offhandedly.

Daphne's smirk was still on her face as she said, "Well look at it this way. You've got a half-hidden love bite on your neck, you two are eye-fucking like mad and you're both _way _too happy."

Lilly glanced at Neville in amusement and the Gryffindor rolled his eyes, "Well we were _trying t_o keep it secret."

Draco snorted, "You better become a better liar than that if you want to become an Auror then."

Hermione beamed, "So how did you get together then? Who made the first move?"

"Well, it was Lilly actually," Neville said sheepishly.

Theo barked out a laugh, "Why am I not surprised? For a Gryffindor you are such a pussy, Neville."

"Hey, who killed a snake with the sword of Gryffindor?" Neville retorted, "Cause I'm pretty sure it wasn't you."

Theo scoffed, "Just because you beheaded a snake does not mean you get to dine out on that for the rest of your life!"

"It kind of does," Neville grinned, "And unless you want Voldemort to come back you're never going to get the chance to best me Theo so I think this is jealousy."

“Jealousy,” Theo scoffed with a shake of his head, "At least _I _asked Sadie out."

"Yeah after about 6 years of creeping around after her and not saying anything," Draco grinned.

"Oi, who's side are you on here Draco?" Theo asked in amusement, "And for the record, I was not creeping around after her. I was just friends with her. It wasn't like Harry in 6th year watching Draco piss in bathrooms."

"I wasn't watching him piss!” Harry exclaimed, “I thought he was a Death Eater! He could have been communicating with Voldemort or using secret passages!"

"While pissing in a bathroom?" Daphne asked with a raised eyebrow.

"I didn't watch him piss! I only followed him into a bathroom once and it was because he was crying and I... was kind of worried about him," Harry admitted sheepishly.

Draco snorted in amusement, "I'm touched by your concern Harry, even if that encounter did end in me being mauled by that spell of yours."

"Yeah well that was an accident," Harry said offhandedly, "And it's totally off topic. Aren't you arguing about whose better out of Nev and Theo?"

Lilly rolled her eyes, "Look boys, let's settle this simply. I think Neville is awesome, snake slayer or not. And Sadie thinks Theo is awesome, regardless of how long it took him to get the guts to ask her out. Settled?"

"Settled," Neville and Theo said grudgingly, but to the amusement of their friends.

Sadie shook her head in disbelief, "Sorry about my fiancé's ridiculous conduct. How was your Easter holidays guys?" she asked Ginny and Blaise.

"Well it was eventful," Ginny said as she bit her lip and glanced at Blaise.

The Slytherin boy nodded, "We actually have an announcement to make."

"You're engaged?" Sadie asked right away.

Lilly rolled her eyes, "Do you see a ring?"

"Good point, sorry," Sadie said sheepishly.

Ginny laughed weakly, "It's alright. It's actually...well, there's not really an easy way to say this so…I'm pregnant."

There was a resounding echo of "what?" or "pregnant?" from the majority of the occupants of the compartment.

"Woah," Theo said, "How did that happen?"

Draco looked at his best friend in disbelief and amusement, "Well Theo when a man loves a woman very much-"

"- oh fuck off Drakey," Theo remarked, "You knew what I meant."

"Alcohol is the answer to your question by the way, Theo," Blaise replied smoothly.

"So what are you guys going to do?" Lilly asked.

"Uh have a baby, I guess," Ginny said with a hint of amusement, "I'm going to have to square it all with McGonagall but I'm sure she'll let me finish my exams."

"Of course she will," Hermione agreed, "And if she doesn't I'll have a word with her."

"Harry said the same thing," Ginny chuckled.

"But I mean after that, what will you do?" Susan asked with a frown, "You'll have to turn down the offer for your healing programme."

"I know," Ginny sighed, "But I can always reapply in a couple of years' time. We won't struggle for money, not with Blaise's job in the DMLE all lined up."

"Wow," Sadie said with a smile, "You've got it all worked out."

"Yeah well don't mistake it for calmness," Ginny said with a wry smile, "I'm terrified."

"We both are," Blaise said as his hand slipped silently into hers, "It's a big shock."

"Well we're all here," Draco said, "You both know that I hope?"

"We know that," Blaise said with a nod.

"And we appreciate it," Ginny added as she smiled at Draco and Hermione, "It's not exactly going to be easy, the next few months that is."

"We'll do anything we can to help Gin,” Harry agreed, “You guys aren't alone in this."

Ginny tightened her hand in Blaise's and smiled a little tearfully at them all, “Thanks guys, it means a lot,” she said as she tried very hard not to burst into tears, “Merlin, I hate hormones!” she added irritably which made the others laugh.

***

"So how _together _are you exactly?"

Neville rolled his eyes, "We're together. How much more do you need to know?"

"Well," Theo smirked, "Are you _together?"_

Draco snorted, "For Salazar's sake Nev, he means have you slept with her yet?"

"Well we only got together last night," Neville pointed out, "Not everyone jumps into bed with someone the day they ask them out _Theo."_

"We'd been friends for years!" Theo defended himself.

"Yeah well some of us have decorum," Harry said in amusement.

"Precisely," Draco smirked, "_Some _of us are gentlemen."

"Neville wouldn't just jump into bed with Lilly right away," Harry agreed with a nod.

A sheepish sort of look passed across Neville's face, "Well I didn't say _that_. I didn't sleep with her the night we got together...it was after midnight so it was really this morning."

Theo grinned, "So you did sleep with her!"

"Yes but well...she was kind of eager," Neville said with slight amusement.

Harry snorted, "What?"

"I was trying to be a gentleman about it but she told me I was being an arse," Neville said, "We've been friends for years. It was the natural progression of things."

Theo smirked at his friend and tutted, "And to think you insulted me for sleeping with Sadie so quickly. Neville Longbottom, you gigantic hypocrite."

Neville rolled his eyes and fell back onto his bed, "Yeah, yeah, I know!"

Harry laughed, "On another note, how is the house? Do you like it?"

"I love it," Neville said thoughtfully, "It really feels like home already. Even if Lilly did insult my interior decorating."

Draco laughed at that, "Why?"

"I wanted to decorate it in gold and red but she convinced me to decorate the library in blue and bronze," Neville said with a chuckle.

Theo grinned, "Whipped!"

"Ha!" Draco exclaimed, "Says the guy who spent the week looking at flowers and wedding cake designs with Sadie's Mother!"

"Oh fuck off!"

***

"So..."

"So what?" Lilly asked matter of factly, "So how are your potions projects going? Or so how were your holidays?"

"No," Daphne grinned, "So, how did you and Neville get together?"

Lilly rolled her eyes and fell back onto her bed, "Well it was last night...we had the house finished and we danced."

Hermione snorted in amusement, "That sounds weirdly familiar. Did you kiss after this dance, by any chance?"

"Yes," Lilly said with a pointed look at her friend, "And it _wasn't _in a tent. It was in the drawing room of Longbottom House, before you ask."

Daphne laughed at the expression on Hermione's face and Sadie cut in, "And you made the first move, right?"

"Well I tried to talk to him so many times over the week," Lilly said as she lay on her stomach to look at them all, "But every time I got close he changed the subject so in the end I just kissed him."

"And?"

"And what? It was a good kiss," Lilly smirked, "What more do you want me to say?"

"Well what more is there to say?" Daphne asked eagerly.

"Do you really think I'm the kind of person who would just jump into bed with someone?" Lilly asked as she surveyed them.

"No, we didn't mean it like that Lil," Hermione said, "It's just that this thing between you and Neville is pretty intense."

"There's a lot of sexual tension," Sadie agreed, "That's all we meant."

"How were we to know you hadn't slept with him, after all?" Daphne shrugged.

"I didn't say that I didn't sleep with him," Lilly admitted as she cringed.

Daphne grinned at the Ravenclaw, "When?"

"Late last night, or early this morning," Lilly said as her cheeks reddened, "He was going to be a gentleman about it but what would have been the point? It was going to happen sooner or later."

Sadie smiled knowingly, "When you've been friends with someone for that long it's difficult to wait," she agreed.

"I wouldn't know anything about that," Hermione joked, she was of course referring to Harry.

Daphne chuckled as she turned back to Lilly, "So how was it?"

"Well-"

The door opened and the conversation entirely froze. Susan rolled her eyes as she walked into the room and sat down on the end of her bed, "You guys are invading our dorm pretty often these days," she said to Hermione and Daphne, "And I'm guessing you were talking about Neville. I did tell you that I didn't mind."

"We weren't just talking about Neville," Sadie said as she chewed her lip.

Susan laughed, not bitterly but genuinely, "So you slept with him then and that's what you were talking about? No need to stop on my account, been there and done that after all."

"I know," Lilly said sheepishly, "That's why it's kind of awkward, Suse."

"Come on Lil," Susan yawned as she leant back on her bed, "Hermione and Daphne are practically best friends and they've both been involved with each other's boyfriends."

Lilly frowned, "Good point."

"That is kind of weird," Daphne said as she looked at Hermione.

The Gryffindor nodded, "Can't say I'd ever thought about it before."

"Think of how _I _feel," Sadie pointed out, "Theo's slept with half of the girls in our year."

"Yeah but how many girls Mothers has he discussed frosting and roses with?" Susan asked with an amused grin that made the other girls laugh heartily.

***

"So you spoke to McGonagall today?"

"Uh-huh," Ginny said as she and Harry walked through the grounds towards Hogsmeade one warm, sunny morning.

"And she's alright with everything?" Harry asked curiously.

Ginny laughed, "Fine, actually. She said she wasn't surprised and told me she was proud that I was finishing my N.E.W.T's _unlike _my Mum."

"Is she speaking to you yet?" Harry asked with a frown.

"Nope," Ginny sighed, "I haven't heard a peep."

"She'll calm down," Harry said as he put his arm around her shoulder.

"So everyone says," Ginny mumbled, "I'm just glad that McGonagall gave me permission to finish my N.E.W.T's and Pomfrey gave me permission to cover it up with glamour. Once school is over it can all come out, but until then I'd rather keep it between close friends."

"Which is understandable," Harry yawned, "How are your brothers taking it?"

"Apart from wanting to kill Blaise they're fine," Ginny said honestly, "Ron was probably the hardest to bring around but he's always been more protective."

"It's because he's closest to you in age," Harry said simply, "What are you doing in town today anyway?"

"Oh I'm just getting ingredients for a calming potion, it works wonders for morning sickness," Ginny said with tired amusement, "And hopefully I'll be able to sleep too. What about you?"

"Visiting your brother, actually," Harry replied, "He's got the day off so we're going for coffee."

"Bro-date," Ginny laughed as they reached the gates and slipped out onto the path towards Hogsmeade.

"Exactly," Harry chuckled, "We've not talked in a while, I thought we could use a catch-up."

"I'm glad you're still friends," Ginny said with a slight frown, "Ron needs a friend like you."

"I know he does," Harry said calmly, "And he'll always be one of my best friends Gin. Nothing can change that."

Ginny nodded and paused as they reached the start of the village. She reached up and hugged him, "Thanks for walking me down Harry."

"No problem," Harry said, he kissed her on the cheek, "Take care of yourself Gin," he said as they went their separate ways.

***

"How's Gin?"

"She's okay," Harry yawned, "I'm sorry about all this yawning. School is crazy at the moment. As for Gin, I think she’s stressed and sleep deprived, I mean she doesn't felt great and she still has this huge workload."

"She'll still finish her N.E.W.T's though, won't she?" Ron asked with a frown.

"Come on mate, this is Gin," Harry said in amusement, "She's not going to give up now. Course she'll still get her N.E.W.T's."

"You're kind of acting like her boyfriend, you know," Ron pointed out, "Getting her things, walking her into town."

"Well I _feel _like her big brother," Harry said with a raised eyebrow, "I feel protective, that's why I'm looking after her. Gin and me are nothing romantically Ron, not anymore."

"You're too head over heels for Daphne," Ron smiled, "I mean you're practically Teddy's parents."

"Tell me about it," Harry said as he rubbed his eyes, "Andromeda was talking to us about adoption. Not now but in the short-term future...she's his Grandmother and she thinks he would do well to grow up with parents closer to the age parents should be."

"Are you thinking about it?" Ron asked as their coffees arrived.

"Yeah," Harry said honestly, "But it is just thinking at the moment. I mean I've got three years of Auror training to get through and Daph has her yearlong course at Gringotts.”

"And you can’t exactly raise a kid when you're both involved with intensive training programs," Ron said.

Harry sipped his coffee and nodded absentmindedly, "I just want to do what's best for Teddy and I think a stable family is what he needs. We're going to have to reassess the situation after Daphne and I are qualified."

Ron hummed thoughtfully, "How's Hermione?"

"Great, yeah," Harry replied, "I mean she's stressed of course. Everybody up at Hogwarts is at the moment...we're not only trying to get the grades we need for our courses, we're also trying to make sure we pass our fitness tests, those of us who want to work in the DMLE that is. You should see Lilly though, Neville's got her running round the lake like a roadrunner."

Ron frowned, he didn't understand the reference but that wasn't what concerned him, "Neville has?"

"Yeah," Harry said somewhat warily as he realised that he may have just landed Neville in trouble, "He's been training her for the fitness test so she can get into this elite healing programme in Europe."

"Are they together?" Ron asked in disbelief.

"Uh," Harry faltered, "Well that's not really my place to say."

"So they are then," Ron remarked irritably.

"Like I said, not my place to say," Harry reiterated.

Ron snorted, whether it was in anger or disbelief Harry didn't know. But he was grateful when the redhead swiftly changed the subject to something neutral for them both; Quidditch.

***

By the time Harry returned to Hogwarts that Saturday, it was quite late. Although he had met Ron for coffee fairly early in the day, he'd had other things to attend to. He'd been to the bank and finalised the signing over of the Black title and fortune to Draco, he'd been to Potter Manor to check on the state of the new Animagus potion and he'd been sneaking around in Greenhouse 3 harvesting mandrake leaves. By the time he returned to the common room it was well into the afternoon, and he couldn't believe the scene he walked into.

The common room was fairly full and in the centre of it stood Neville and Ron arguing.

"Ron, if you want to talk about this, that's fine," Neville was saying, "But we'll do it in private. Not here."

"Why?" Ron asked irritably, "Don't you want everyone to know that you stole my girlfriend?"

The girlfriend in question was nowhere to be seen which meant she was probably in the library. Thankfully Hannah was also absent from the common room.

"I didn't steal your girlfriend," Neville said calmly, "And I'm not going to have a shouting match with you in the common room. So come on."

Ron glared at Neville as he walked to the door and passed Harry with an exasperated sort of look. Despite himself Ron followed Neville and slammed the common room door shut as hard as he could behind him. Harry did want to follow them but he decided that it would probably only worsen the situation so he slipped into the common room instead and let Ron and Neville fight it out.

It didn't take long, after about 10 minutes Neville returned to the common room with a black eye and a slightly bloody nose.

"Bloody hell," Harry muttered when he saw his friend, "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine," Neville said calmly, "You should go check on Ron, he's the one in need of help."

"What did you do to him?" Harry asked with a raised eyebrow.

"I just gave as good as I got," Neville said simply, "He accused me of stealing his girlfriend even though he cheated on her and she made it clear she wanted nothing more to do with him. He then called her a whore so I hit him and he hit me."

"And you hit him back harder?" Harry guessed.

"Exactly," Neville said darkly, "He's my friend but he's sexist and he's arrogant. Nobody talks about my girlfriend like that."

Harry grimaced, "I'm sorry Neville, it's my fault. I accidentally said something about you training Lilly up for her programme and Ron worked it out."

"It's not your fault," Neville pointed out, "But if you feel guilty go take Ron to the hospital wing. He was unconscious when I left him."

Before Harry could question Neville any further on this the Gryffindor slipped up the stairs towards the boys' dormitories. Harry rolled his eyes and left the common room, resigned to searching for his unconscious best friend. Why did he keep getting himself into such awkward situations anyway? He did find Ron easily enough and he was indeed unconscious in an empty classroom at the bottom of the Eastern Tower.

Harry sighed and muttered, "Enervate."

Ron spluttered and coughed as he sat up. Harry tried his best to remain calm as he said, "It's the blood from your broken nose, spit it out before you choke on it."

Ron did so and hissed in pain, "I'm going to fucking kill Neville.'"

"No you aren't," Harry said simply, "Episkey!"

"ARGH! What the fuck was that, Harry?"

"That was me resetting your nose," Harry said with a slight glare, "Without a numbing charm because I'm sick of your temper."

"You sound like Hermione," Ron muttered.

"Yeah well if you will act like a giant prick," Harry said in disbelief, "I mean I get that you would feel jealous but there was no need to attack Neville. He's training to be an Auror you idiot, of course he'd win in a fight!"

"Well I didn't know that," Ron mumbled as Harry cleaned his face up with a charm that stung his cuts, "And since when are you a healer?"

"Since Lil started helping me out with healing charms," Harry said as he ran his wand over Ron, "It's part of the Auror selection process. I need to prove I have basic healing skills before they even accept me."

"Yeah well I feel fine," Ron said irritably.

"Really?" Harry asked in surprise, "Because you have two broken ribs which I can't fix by the way so come on, we're going to Pomfrey."

Ron grumbled but let Harry pull him to his feet. He winced but he could walk on his own. They left the classroom and began the long walk down to the 1st floor where the hospital wing was.

"I was jealous," Ron said after a moment or two, "I mean she didn't exactly take long to get over me!"

"Ron, you and Lilly only dated for a couple of months," Harry said in disbelief, "And it has been over 3 months. You two broke up in January for Merlin's sake!"

"Neville's my mate and he's dating my ex," Ron grumbled, "That's just not okay."

"I'm dating Draco's ex," Harry pointed out, “And he's my friend. There's nothing weird about it. We're just such a small circle of friends and beyond that there were only about 40 people in our year. Of course some people will date the same person as someone they know. You didn't need to go off on one at Neville. You did throw the first punch didn't you?"

Ron nodded glumly and Harry said, "Well I guess you learned your lesson since he only has a slightly sore nose and a black eye. You on the other hand had a black eye and a broken nose, and you still have two broken ribs."

"I didn't know he was that powerful," Ron admitted, "Physically or magically. I suppose I always underestimated Neville."

"Big mistake," Harry said, he was unable to hide his amusement.

"Yeah, I worked that one out, funnily enough," Ron said as he glared half-heartedly at his friend, "Somewhere between the broken nose and the broken ribs. You can stop gloating now."

"It's part of your punishment for being a fucking prat," Harry grinned as they turned the corner towards the hospital wing.

"Oh fuck off Harry," Ron said but his heart wasn't even in the insult and Harry could tell.

***

"He punched you in the face?" Lilly asked irritably as she dabbed a cloth on Neville's bloody nose.

"Well I didn't exactly get this walking into a wall," Neville joked.

Lilly shot him a glare, "Don't joke Nev. Did he really punch you?"

"Yes but I punched him back," Neville said, "And he was a lot worse off than me. I'm just glad you and Hannah were in the library."

"Hannah will find out soon enough," Lilly pointed out, "If Ron had a go at you in the common room it will spread like wildfire. But don't worry, I can handle myself against Hannah Abbott."

"Using full names," Neville said with a slight smile, "The competition really is heating up."

Lilly shot him an amused look, "Hey, watch it or I'll finish the job Ron started and break that nose for you."

"So it's not broken then?" Neville asked calmly.

"Nope, slightly bruised but not broken," Lilly replied, "I've reduced the swelling around your nose and your eye but apart from that there isn't much I can do unless you want it glamoured up?"

"What's the point?" Neville yawned, "It will heal itself in a day or two anyway. Are you really sure you can handle Hannah on your own by the way? She's a little-"

"- psychotic?" Lilly cut in, "Yeah, I do share a dorm with her. I saw her burning all of her photographs of you two. I _know_."

"And you're not at all worried?" Neville asked in disbelief.

"Neville, I want to become a Trauma Healer. That means fixing up Aurors in the field. Do you really think I'm afraid of a petty little girl with a grudge?" Lilly asked with a smirk as she pushed herself to her feet in his dorm room.

"You're sexy when you're confident, you know," Neville grinned.

Lilly laughed, "I'll be fine. Now quit worrying about me and go to sleep, the swelling will take all night to go down properly."

"Alright," Neville said as he got up to kiss her, “Thanks for fixing me up.”

"You’re welcome," Lilly said, she kissed him gently so she wouldn’t hurt his already bashed up nose.

***

When Lilly walked into the great hall the following morning it was to laughter from her friends. She didn't cringe or run from the hall crying with embarrassment however, instead she sat down next to Neville who was looking at her in bemusement.

"Trying a new style?"

"Well," Lilly said matter of factly as she began to pour some coffee into a cup, "Hannah asked me last night if I was dating Neville. I told her that I was and as is Hannah's go to insult she called me a slut. She also accused me of being a slimy, sneaky little snake so I woke up like this today."

"It's definitely an interesting fashion statement," Harry chortled as he looked at her hair which wasn't really hair anymore, it was more like hundreds of snakes.

"They aren't even poisonous," Lilly said with a wave of her hand, "And nobody has turned to stone yet. It's a standard revenge hex, I'll be back to normal by the end of the day."

"I'd be mortified if I were you," Hermione admitted, “Aren't you bothered?"

Lilly scoffed, "No. She gave me snakes for hair, is that really the best she can do?"

"You weren't kidding when you said you could handle her," Neville said in amusement.

"Are you going to do anything back to her?" Draco asked as Hannah and her new cronies (Sally and Annie) giggled at the far end of the table.

"Nope," Lilly said as she sipped her coffee and one of the snakes hissed, "I'm going to be the better person."

"Yeah right," Sadie said with an amused smile, "You're planning something, Lillian Moon."

"Please tell me that you know how that hex works," Ginny grinned from where she was sitting next to Blaise.

"The snakes fall out when the hex cancels itself," Lilly replied with a devious smile.

"And what are you going to do with them when they do?" Blaise asked with a raised eyebrow.

Lilly grinned, "Let's just say Hannah's going to get a little surprise tonight when she gets into bed."

"I don't know whether to admire you or be terrified of you," Neville said honestly as he stared at Lilly.

"Admire and be scared," Draco said with an amused smile at Hermione, "It's the best way to maintain a healthy, _active _relationship."

"Oh shut up," Hermione laughed as she slapped him playfully on the arm to laughter from the others. Despite the ups and downs of the last few weeks they were as close as ever and it was only beginning to dawn on Harry that in a few months it would all be over.

**TBC :) **


	51. This Path is Treacherous, This Path is Reckless

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Title comes from the song:  
Treacherous by Taylor Swift

After an eventful first weekend back and an even busier first week, career week began. This was a week in which the 7th and 8th Years would spend Monday to Friday in a work place in order to prepare them better for the outside world. It had been announced weeks ago and thankfully it came after all of the final assessments had been handed in. Hermione was still panicking about it being a whole week that would cut into her time to revise however.

Because of career week they had all had another career meeting with their Head of House throughout the week. The Heads of House had taken their interests and future goals into account and allocated them a place of work, however McGonagall did not announce these until the night before.

The 7th Years were told first and Ginny was slightly miffed to be told she was exempt from career week for 'obvious reasons'. With the 7th Years knowing what they would be doing it was time for the 8th Years to file into a classroom and be given their allotted jobs for the week.

"Silence please," McGonagall said curtly, "I will announce the career placements in alphabetical order. You will come and collect your information pack from me when you hear your name and then you will sit down until I give you permission to leave."

Everyone waited with baited breath and McGonagall glanced down at her list and began to read.

"Abbott, Hannah. Placement with the British Greenhouse Company."

"Black, Draco. Placement in the Auror Department."

Draco couldn't help the huge grin that spread across his face at this, it would give him a chance to prove himself before the Auror selection process.

"Bones, Susan. Placement in the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, working on a bounty hunting team with Percy Weasley."

Susan smirked at this and next to her Hermione rolled her eyes. From what she knew of the situation Susan was getting closer to Percy. Hermione hoped it went well, after what had happened with Krum, she just wanted Susan to be happy.

"Boot, Terry. Placement in the Department of Mysteries."

"Brocklehurst, Mandy. Placement in the Department of Magical Transportation."

"Cauldwell, Sadie. Placement as an assistant in the Apothecary in Diagon Alley."

Sadie grinned at Theo, it was exactly what she had wanted, after all it was her goal in life to own an apothecary.

"Corner, Michael. Placement within the Department of Magical Games and Sports."

"Delacour, Gabrielle. Placement within a wizarding fashion boutique in Diagon Alley."

"Finch-Fletchley, Justin. Placement within the Accounting Department at the Ministry of Magic."

"Goldstein, Anthony. Placement within the Department of Magical Law Enforcement."

"Granger, Hermione. Placement within the Misuse of Magic Office."

Hermione smiled brightly at this, it was exactly where she wanted to work so it was a perfect placement for her.

"Greengrass, Daphne. Placement as secretary to the head of staff at Gringotts."

Daphne made a face, Harry smirked as he imagined his girlfriend having to cater for Bill for a week, he had a feeling that the Weasley would use it to his advantage. It gave Daphne some experience though because she couldn't work as a curse breaker in any way, shape or form until she got her N.E.W.T results. It was too easy for something to go wrong.

"Jones, Megan. Placement at the flower shop in Diagon Alley."

"Longbottom, Neville. Placement in the Auror Department."

Neville grinned in Harry's direction at this news.

"MacMillan, Ernie. Placement within the Department of Magical Law Enforcement."

"Moon, Lillian. Placement within the Alistair Moody Trauma Hospital, shadowing a Healer."

Lilly couldn't have been happier with the placement.

"Norris-Filch, Melody. Placement shadowing me during my classes," McGonagall looked up and added, "We couldn't find anything else due to it being on such short notice."

Melody only smiled at the Headmistress, "That's fine Professor."

"Nott, Theodore. Placement in the Auror Department."

"Awesome," Theo said as he hi-fived Neville and then Draco. Harry rolled his eyes in amusement at the exchange.

"Perks, Sally-Anne. Placement at the Wizarding Wireless Network."

Finally, McGonagall had gotten to Harry; he hated the fact that it took so long to get to his name on any kind of list like this. It had been the same when he got sorted.

"Potter, Harry. You may have already guessed this but you are also serving a placement in the Auror Department."

Harry grinned at the others but before McGonagall continued with her list she added, "_However_, you will be working on different teams with different Aurors."

The four boys looked slightly disappointed but at the end of the day they were still working in the same department and it was only for a week. McGonagall looked away from them and continued down her list.

"Smith, Sally. Placement at Madam Malkin's."

"Smith, Zacharias. Placement as an assistant to the Head of the Wizengamot."

Zacharias actually punched the air at this which led to much eye-rolling and head shaking from his fellow 8th Years.

"Zabini, Blaise. Placement within the Department of Magical Law Enforcement."

McGonagall rolled up her scroll of parchment, "Make sure you all sleep well tonight. I want to see you at 6am sharp in the great hall tomorrow morning."

***

When Harry, Draco, Neville and Theo turned up on Monday morning for their first day 'on the job' only Draco was nervous. Harry, Theo and Neville had walked through the Ministry chatting animatedly but Draco had remained fairly quiet.

The boys were sitting in the corridor outside the department waiting to meet the Aurors who they were going to be working with for the week when they heard an argument resonating through the wall from the room behind them.

"Right, settle down all of you! The newbies from Hogwarts are here again, we've got 4 this time so we're gonna need to split them up," A brisk male voice said from inside the room.

"Four? Their keen this year given that they just went through a war," A young male voice said.

"Yeah well we can't complain," The brisk voice said, "This is Riley’s last year before he goes off to play mummy and daddy’s and I’m retiring. We need as much new blood as we can get.”

"Are there any competent ones or are they all wannabes?" Another voice asked with a yawn, this voice was female.

"They are competent Clarke, I'll give you a decent one this year don't worry," The older man said and Harry only realised then that it was Dawlish.

"Who do we have then?" The younger man asked, his voice was laced with amusement.

"Potter, Harry Potter," Dawlish said.

"THE Harry Potter?"

There was a lot of noise and bickering in the room which made Harry roll his eyes outside.

"Quiet!" Dawlish said loudly, "I'm Head Auror, Potter will be working with me. We've also got Longbottom, who wants him?"

Neville chuckled and shared a look of amusement with Harry as more bickering arose over who would get to partner Neville.

"Alright Clarke you can have Longbottom since the last one nearly blew your foot off, but no funny business," Dawlish said.

"Yes, sir," Clarke replied sarcastically.

"Who else we got?" The younger man asked.

Dawlish paused before saying, "Black."

"Black? Who's that?" Another male voice asked, this voice was new and sounded suspicious.

"Draco, formerly Malfoy," Dawlish said and Draco winced as he waited for the insults.

"A Malfoy?" The older male asked, "What is he doing here?"

"He's been vouched for by the chosen one himself and the Minister for Magic, give it a rest Riley," Dawlish said lazily, "He's a damn good duellist, who wants him?"

"I'll take him I suppose, I could use a good duellist," The man who Harry had identified as Riley said.

"Good, well that leaves...Nott."

Theo rolled his eyes at his friends and asked quietly, "Why am I always last with you lot?"

Draco gave his friend a weak smile and Harry and Neville chuckled.

"Nott? Why do I recognise that name?" Riley asked slowly.

"His Father was Alfred Nott, he was a notorious charlatan back in his day," Dawlish said, "We arrested him a few times for sleeping with prostitutes."

"Alfred Nott!" Riley said angrily, "That bastard cost me my left hand!"

"Well then, be grateful I didn't assign you his kid, who wants him?"

"I'll take Nott," The youngest voice said.

Dawlish then spoke again, "Alright then, let's get them in here."

The boys tried to look like they hadn't heard the entire conversation as Dawlish entered the hallway and smiled at them, "Hi there boys, do come in."

Harry, Draco, Neville and Theo made their way into the room where they saw the people whose voices they had heard.

"Potter, I'm John Dawlish, you're with me this week," Dawlish said as he shook Harry's hand.

Harry smiled, "Nice to see you again," he said simply.

Dawlish nodded and turned to Neville, "Longbottom, you'll be partnering Clarke over here."

A young woman jumped down from the table she was sitting on. She looked to be only a few years older than them, maybe around the same age as Tonks had been. She was fairly short for an Auror and had shoulder length straight blonde hair.

"Emily Clarke," The Auror said with a smile as she held out her hand.

Neville took it and shook it, "Neville Longbottom."

"Black, you're with the softy we call Riley," Dawlish said, pointing Draco in the direction of a man who looked to be in his mid to late 20’s.

Riley nodded, "Jackson Riley," he said as he shook Draco's hand.

Draco was still extremely nervous, "Draco Black," he said and let the older man examine him suspiciously.

"I hear you're a good duellist," Riley said.

Draco nodded, "So they tell me," he said.

"Finally, Nott, you will be working with our newest recruit," Dawlish said as he pointed Theo in the direction of the only Auror whose name they hadn't heard during the conversation. This Auror looked around the same age as the woman, Emily. He had dirty blonde hair and blue eyes and looked vaguely familiar to Theo although he didn't know why.

The man stepped forward and looked at Theo closely, "Sorenson Cauldwell," he said as he reached out his hand. Theo shook the man's hand but was a little shocked.

"Cauldwell? You aren't Sadie's big brother, are you?" Theo asked, he sincerely hoped that he hadn’t been assigned a week of work with his fiancés big brother. He knew Sadie had a brother and he knew that he worked in the DMLE but he was very busy with work so Theo hadn't actually met him yet.

Sorenson smirked and said, "Yes I am. What are you doing with my sister Nott?"

"Apart from marrying her you mean?" Harry asked jokingly from his spot next to Dawlish.

"I heard about that," Sorenson said with narrowed eyes, "I'll be watching you this week Nott, you got that?"

Theo didn't often feel intimidated but Sadie's brother was built like a tank, he was bulky and rather scary looking and Theo knew that he was pretty much a scrawny weed compared to that. He nodded, "Got it," he said weakly. The others were vaguely amused at this version of Theo when they were used to seeing the cocky, arrogant side of the Slytherin.

"Well then, let's get you started," Dawlish said clapping his hands together.

And so it began.

***

“Paperwork?”

“Paperwork is a big part of the job Nott.”

Theo resisted the urge to roll his eyes, “So don’t we get to go out and duel people?”

“Not on your first day,” Sorenson said matter of factly, “You don’t get to go out in the field until you have passed your first year of training. We can’t just let newbies out in the wild, can we?”

“So we spend the whole first year doing paperwork?” Theo asked in disbelief.

“No,” Sorenson replied, “You spend it doing classes on disguise and learning basic healing. You will get to do some simulated field work in a created environment but no real missions until your second year.”

Theo sighed, “That sucks.”

Sorenson shrugged, “We don’t send capable young men out to die. We make sure you are fully equipped and capable before we let you do any field work…even then we have accidents sometimes. Do you really think I want my sister’s fiancé to die on my watch?”

Theo glanced up at the large man, “Are you okay with that? Me being your sister’s fiancé.”

Sorenson smirked at him, “Course I am, my Mother thinks you’re the best thing since sliced bread. I was just winding you up this morning in the office.”

Theo breathed a sigh of relief, “Thank Salazar for that.”

Sorenson’s smirk widened, “Still doesn’t mean you’re getting off easy this week though. I want that whole stack of paperwork finished in the next two hours so get writing!”

***

"Please tell me I'm not your secretary for the week," Daphne said as she stood in Bill's office, “Because filing and menial paperwork I can do but bringing you coffee and doughnuts is not my thing."

"I make my own coffee and I don't like doughnuts," Bill said with an amused smile, "You can't do any curse-breaking work without N.E.W.T's as I'm sure you already know. But you're a smart girl, I won't waste your week with menial tasks."

"So what will I be doing then?" Daphne asked curiously.

"Well because I like you and because you're dating my adopted little brother," Bill began, "I've set aside a pretty special task for you. We are developing a new system for the bank and while you can't curse break, you can help with that."

"A new system?" Daphne asked eagerly, "As in you are modernising?"

"Exactly," Bill said with a nod, "We're getting in on what Egypt and Dubai are doing. At the moment we've got vaults of bank records, all on parchment. We are developing an internal spell-base. So in other words, one big room, you walk in, search for what you are looking for and find it. Without having to look through hundreds of records."

"But surely that makes it easier to be hacked," Daphne pointed out.

"It does because people can change the spell frequencies from outside our walls," Bill agreed, "As opposed to having to break through our multiple defences to get to the records. That's why this new system is complex, we need to make sure it isn't going to be capable of being hacked _and _we need to strengthen the wards around the entire building, including the vast underground vaults."

Daphne grinned, "I'm in!"

***

“I thought we would get to do a lot more fighting this week.”

Harry shrugged, “We’re learning a lot though, aren’t we? I loved that class on disguise, it was great fun.”

Draco nodded his agreement and swallowed his mouthful, “Yeah and that room they showed us where they can create these huge scenarios but the environment is all fake, that’s awesome.”

“But we didn’t actually get to go in it,” Neville pointed out.

“We will in training though,” Harry said eagerly, “They can’t let us do a lot of stuff at the moment, probably because of health and safety. This place is amazing though and we’re going to be here in a few months.”

“If we all pass selection,” Draco said, “There’s a chance we’ll fail. You heard the first year students telling us about it this morning. They said out of 41 applicants only 19 got into the training process.”

“It’s hard,” Harry agreed, “But it’s hard for a reason. They need to make sure the people who get through are the right kind of people. They need to avoid another generation of corrupt Aurors and spies, but that doesn’t mean we won’t get through. We can all duel, we’ll do it.”

“It’s not all duelling though,” Neville said with a frown, “There’s logic puzzles sometimes and there is a mental aspect too. What if we don’t all make it?”

“Then we cross that bridge when we come to it,” Theo said with a firm nod.

Harry nodded his agreement, “If we go in thinking we won’t do it then we won’t be able to do it. All we can do is try our best and have confidence that our best is good enough.”

“And for the moment,” Draco added, “Let’s try and enjoy this week while it lasts.”

***

It was Wednesday afternoon and the Leaky Cauldron was fairly quiet. At a table in the middle of the room Hermione, Daphne, Sadie and Lilly were sitting together as they had met up for lunch.

"So, how is it going?" Sadie asked the group cheerfully as their drinks arrived.

"It's hell," Hermione said with a groan, "My supervisor is such a bitch!"

Daphne and Lilly shared an amused smile as Hermione got started on one of her rants, "She just makes me sit there and do paperwork all day and then when I finally got to go out and do some practical work this morning she told me I was useless and that I would be spending the rest of the week doing paperwork."

"Why? What happened?" Sadie asked her friend. Hermione didn't get this riled up often.

"There was an incident of underage magic so she sent me to deal with it under her supervision," Hermione rolled her eyes in annoyance, "This 6-year-old kid smashed a glass window because his Mother was literally screaming at him. So I tried to calm the kid down but she told me that it was the kids own fault for using the magic and that I should be talking to the Mother to understand why it had happened instead of the kid!"

"That's bullshit," Daphne said casually, "A calmer approach means you can get the full story from both sides! That's why you need to work there after Hogwarts, Hermione."

Sadie nodded her agreement, "The people who work in the department are brutes Hermione. They are prejudiced idiots like Umbridge, when you have a bit of pull you'll be able to change things."

"But for the moment there's not much you can do," Lilly said with a shrug, "It sucks, but you're a student without any N.E.W.T's."

"So you think I should just suck it up for the next few days and get on with it?" Hermione mused as she sipped from her drink, "Because in that case I already can't wait for Friday."

Daphne smiled sympathetically at her, "Well I hate to sound cheery but my week is going alright. I thought it would be bringing tea and coffee to Bill but he's letting me help on this huge project to redesign the way Gringotts works which is a pretty amazing opportunity."

"Wow," Hermione said, "That is an amazing opportunity."

"How awesome of Bill to let you do that," Sadie agreed.

"Bet you have a foot in the door because of Harry though," Lilly said, "Which isn't necessarily a bad thing," she added.

Daphne rolled her eyes at them, "Yeah well a foot in or not, it's really exciting. It's just the goblins who creep me out. Even Bill doesn't like them and he's worked with them for ages."

"Bill this, Bill that," Hermione teased, "Does Harry have something to be worried about?"

"Don't be silly," Daphne said honestly, "Bills my _boss_."

"You know talking about Harry," Hermione said, "I have a bad feeling and I'm worried about him."

"A bad feeling?" Lilly asked sceptically as Daphne surveyed Hermione with a raised eyebrow.

Hermione shook her head, "I don't know, it's just a thing Harry and I have always had," she admitted, "When one of us is in danger we get a bad feeling. We can just tell that the other one is in trouble."

"That must have come in handy," Sadie said thoughtfully.

Hermione nodded, "It did during the war."

"What about Draco?" Daphne asked, "Do you get it with him too?"

Hermione shook her head, "No, only Harry."

Daphne snorted, "Oi Granger, it's my job to worry about my boyfriend and your job to worry about yours."

Hermione laughed at this, "Yeah, I'm probably just being stupid. They’re just in the training facility, aren’t they?”

"They'll be fine," Lilly said with a yawn, "They aren’t out on the job from what I know. I've seen them in and about the cafeteria. They're always laughing away and chatting about something or the other."

Hermione nodded, "How is the hospital, Lil?" she asked conversationally.

"It's horrible but great which probably makes no sense to you guys," Lilly said with a frown, "I can't do much without training so I pretty much spend my time at reception. But some of the injuries I've seen are really horrific."

"You'll get used to it, I expect," Daphne said as she glanced at the Ravenclaw.

"Eventually, maybe," Lilly agreed, "It's just very life affirming I guess."

"I bet," Sadie said sadly.

"Anyway, enough about me, Sadie how are you finding this week?" Lilly asked.

Sadie smiled and admitted, "I'm having a great time. The guy I'm working with is amazing, he's been letting me deal with the customers and handle the stock."

"That's great," Hermione said with a smile, "It's really good experience for you."

"I did have an interesting experience this morning though," Sadie said as she caught Lilly's eye, "Your ex came into the apothecary."

"Ron?"

Sadie nodded, "He came in to get some supplies for his brother’s new prank potions," she said, "But other than that not much of note has happened to me this week."

Before any more could or couldn't be said on the matter a distraction arrived.

"Guys," Sadie said quietly as she leaned in closer to her friends, "Look at the stairs!"

Everybody turned to see what there was to look at. They saw a fairly amusing sight, Susan and Percy were making their way down the stairs from the rooms above the restaurant.

Hermione and Lilly chuckled quietly and Daphne shouted, "Susan!"

Once they had caught the girl's attention she made her way over to their table.

"Hey guys," Susan said casually as she sat down at their table.

"Pull up a chair Percy," Hermione said in amusement and the Weasley did so.

Hermione still couldn't get over the difference in Percy. He had really taken this bounty hunter thing seriously and he had definitely taken a leaf out of Bills book in the clothing department. He was wearing something that looked suspiciously like black skinny jeans, a black shirt and black robes. His hair was shoulder length and dyed so it was a dark red, he had his ear pierced just like Bill and he was wearing what Hermione could only fathom as biker boots. He didn't look like the same person.

"So Susan," Daphne said, with a smirk, "Are you enjoying career week?"

Susan wasn't bothered by this, she just grinned, "I am indeed and this whole bounty hunter thing is good fun. Just yesterday we brought in none other than Viktor Krum!"

"What did you bring him in for?" Hermione asked in surprise, she had gotten the impression that Krum was pretty law-abiding.

Percy leaned back in his chair and answered, "He was supposed to appear on trial for attacking his team-mate when drunk but he skipped so we had to go pick him up. I let Susan bind him and bring him in," he said with a wink at the redhead.

Susan smirked, "It felt good," she admitted.

Hermione laughed, she was glad to see Susan happy.

"And I see you two are making good use of your lunch hour," Lilly teased.

Susan just smirked, "Hey, I'm just having an enjoyable working experience! I could totally do this for a career."

"The offer is open," Percy said casually as he pushed himself up after his wand flashed red, "We've got another one, let's go get 'em."

"On it," Susan said as she and walked out of the Leaky Cauldron without another word, much to the amusement of their friends.

***

It was the last day of career week and in the Auror training facility Dawlish had decided to finish off with a duelling competition between the newbie's.

It had started out fairly even. Theo and Draco had duelled on one platform while on another platform Harry had duelled Neville.

The duel between Theo and Draco was over fairly quickly. It had started off with Draco firing "Expelliarmus" at Theo who dodged it easily with a shield charm. From the other podium where he was duelling Neville, Harry had shouted, "Oi! That's my trademark spell!"

Draco shouted back, "Sorry!"

Theo then teased him by saying, "Stop trying to copy Potter and let me kick your arse!"

Theo then proceeded to spice things up a little by firing 3 stunning charms in quick succession at Draco. Draco used a shield charm to send the first stunner flying back at Theo. Draco had to avoid the second two by himself though and he managed this by jumping to the side to avoid one and ducking to avoid the other.

"Nice dodging technique!" Dawlish called from the side-lines.

"Are you practicing for the ballet Black?" Theo shouted at his friend.

Draco rolled his eyes, "Don't use my own lines against me Nott!"

"Yeah, that's his insult for me Theo; don't take that away from us!" Harry joked as he ducked to avoid Neville's langlock hex.

"Oi! We're supposed to be keeping it clean Neville!"

"Sorry Harry!" Neville called jokingly across the podium. Nobody seemed to bother about the fact that all the Aurors were listening in.

Draco managed to get the upper hand on Theo after several more dangerous and semi-dangerous spells had been casually chucked across the platform. Draco threw a full body-bind in Theo's direction and cast a numbing charm on his wand hand so when he tried to put up a shield his hand kind of hung limply and didn't do much.

"Draco!" Harry said in annoyance, "Are you trying to use spells and insults from my life or something?"

Draco smirked, "Hey, I could have removed all the bones in his hand, I was good! I'm not Lockhart!"

Harry was sure the Aurors had absolutely no idea what on earth was going on or what the boys were talking about but Draco was declared the winner of his duel with Theo and his fellow Slytherin promptly went in the huff with him about the fact his hand still felt a bit numb.

On the podium with Neville and Harry the duel went on and lasted longer than Theo and Draco's had. They had started out fairly nicely with the ordinary spells and jinxes being thrown about. Then it got dirty and it was actually Neville who started it. After dodging "Expelliarmus" for about the 12th time he shouted, "Sectumsempra!" and shot the spell near Harry, but far away enough so that it wouldn't hit him unless he decided to jump off the platform into it.

"Oi! You can't use my own spells against me!"

"It's not your spell Potter!" Draco called from where he and Theo were watching, "It's Snape's!"

"That's not the point!" Harry called back as he shot a jet of boiling hot water out of his wand which Neville shielded and Harry then shielded, leaving water bouncing back and forth for a few seconds until it vanished.

Harry had to admit, Neville was good but he wasn't as good as him. Harry then resorted to dirty tactics. He apparated behind Neville and knocked him out with a stunning charm.

"A dirty win but a win all the same Potter," Dawlish said as Harry used enervate to wake Neville up before jumping off of the platform.

Next up, Neville and Theo were to duel to determine who would come last and then Harry and Draco would duel for first and second place. The duel between Neville and Theo was over faster than anyone had expected.

They had barely been duelling for long but a few pretty lethal spells had been exchanged when Neville shouted, "Theo, what's Sadie doing here?"

When Theo turned his head ever so slightly to look at Sadie, who of course wasn't even there, Neville used Expelliarmus and disarmed him.

"Stealing my moves," Harry teased as Neville was announced the winner. Needless to say Theo wasn't happy about finishing last.

"Rookie mistake Nott," Dawlish said as he shook Neville's hand, "You're a good duellist, with practice and training you'll be great."

Finally, it was time for the grand finale between Harry and Draco. They wasted no time with the weaker jinxes and got straight into the gritty stuff. Harry started things off with a shout of, "Reducto!" aimed straight at Draco's head.

The Slytherin dodged it easily and yelled, "Is that the best you've got Potter?" he then shot "Expelliarmus!" at Harry.

The Gryffindor shouted, "Merlin Draco, get your own trademark! I fought a Dark Lord for that one!"

Draco shouted back, "Well thanks to you Potter there aren't any around for me to do the same!"

"Pity," Harry called sarcastically as he shot Sectumsempra at Draco.

"Just because I let you hit me with that once Potter doesn't mean I'm going to let you every time!" Draco called over to Harry who dodged the nasty home-made curse Draco had accompanied with this remark.

"By the way, did that hurt?" Harry yelled back as he sent a freezing charm over to Draco which froze the part of the platform he was standing on.

"Let me see Potter, the last time you got a massive cut through your chest did it hurt?" Draco asked sarcastically as he slid around briefly on the platform while trying to hold a shield charm up and get rid of the ice.

"Well, I've had so many I don't feel the pain anymore," Harry called back, "You know there was the horntail and that time Voldemort tried to kill me, oh and that other time Voldemort tried to-"

He was cut off because Draco had got back on his feet quicker than he'd expected and had sent a bludgeoning charm at Harry's arm which he still managed to dodge, he also ignored Draco's shout of, "Stop being such a smug git just because you won the war!"

"Well, since I ended the war Malfoy, it means I've had plenty of time to play games. Have you ever tried skipping?"

Harry then used the fire whip that Dumbledore had used in the cave when they'd gone to find the locket horcrux. He aimed it at Draco's ankles and the Slytherin cursed loudly and jumped with a slightly girlish shout. When Draco landed on the ground he swore as his ankle bent the wrong way and he crumbled to the ground.

Harry quickly shouted, "Expelliarmus!" and then healed Draco's ankle. He made his way over to his friend and helped him up.

"And that, my friend, is how you use _my _trademark spell," Harry said with an amused smirk, he got a glare in return.

As Harry jumped from the platform the Aurors applauded him and Dawlish approached him with a glint in his eye, "Alright Potter, as the winner you get to take on all of us," he said.

Dawlish had probably thought that this would scare Harry but it only made the Gryffindor grin, "Alright, whose first?" he asked.

"Sorenson, you're up!" Dawlish said and a few seconds later Harry was on the platform once more with Sadie's big brother.

After the exciting duel that everybody had just witnessed between Harry and Draco, this one was a bit of a let-down. It barely lasted 10 minutes and Harry disarmed Sorenson after spooking him by conjuring a snake.

"Are you gonna use that to finish every duel?" Draco asked in exasperation from where he was sitting on the ground with Theo holding an ice pack on his ankle for him.

"Just showing you how to use it correctly Draco," Harry said with a smirk towards his friend.

The next Auror Harry duelled was the woman, Emily Clark. He didn't put her down as an easy target, he'd seen Tonks duel. This duel was slightly longer and Harry ended it by conjuring a cage around Emily and hitting her on his 5th attempt with "Expelliarmus".

"Seriously Harry," Neville said, shaking his head from the side-lines, "Are you really gonna use it every time?"

Harry rolled his eyes at them and readied himself for the duel with Riley. He was quite a hefty man so Harry decided that the easiest way to defeat Riley would be to make him move so after 15 minutes of making the man run around the platform like a headless chicken Harry lazily disarmed him and winked at the others as they groaned and muttered, "Again?"

Finally, Harry was up against Dawlish and he was feeling pretty confident considering the fact that he hadn't lost a duel yet, and to qualified Aurors too. This was the longest duel so far, and the most impressive to watch. For at least 20 minutes’ spells were fired at top speed and dodged and shielded just as quickly. Eventually Harry got one over on Dawlish by using the element of surprise. From the door behind Dawlish none other than the Minister for Magic himself walked in.

"Look behind you Dawlish," Harry yelled.

The Auror wasn't convinced, "I'm not falling for that! That's what Longbottom did!" Dawlish called.

Harry smirked, "No really, the Minister for Magic is behind you!"

"He is sir!" Emily shouted and Dawlish briefly, very briefly, glanced behind him and was so shocked to see the Minister that he let his shield charm down. Harry disarmed him and grinned as he walked across the platform to hand Dawlish his wand back, "Rookie mistake Dawlish," he teased.

Dawlish rolled his eyes, "I'll admit it Potter, you're good."

"Good enough to be a match for me?" Kingsley asked as he took off his cloak. Harry grinned, he was going to get to duel the Minister, what a perfect end to a perfect week.

So that was how it came to be. Kingsley was at one end of the platform and Harry at the other with everybody on the floor watching eagerly.

It was the best duel of the day; in fact it was the best duel a lot of them had ever seen. It lasted for just under an hour and neither duellist seemed to get tired at all. They kept up the speed throughout the entire duel and didn't make any small slip ups. This was impressive for both of them for separate reasons. For Kingsley, he was now Minister for Magic and hadn't been practicing his duelling as often as he once had.

For Harry, he didn't actually have any qualifications in duelling, unless defeating the most powerful dark wizard of all time was something he could put on a CV which he supposed in this line of work, he probably could. Regardless, Auror or not, he had still beaten all of the Aurors who _were _fully qualified.

The duel eventually ended in an amusing fashion. Harry conjured a set of mirrors behind Kingsley and fired "Stupefy!", "Reducto!" and "Expelliarmus!" at the mirrors in quick succession. Kingsley couldn't sensibly dodge or shield them all so naturally he dodged Reducto as it would have done the most damage and was then hit by the stupefy charm while trying to block it.

Unfortunately, he missed something rather hilarious while he was unconscious. Harry had thought he had won and had turned to the others with an amused grin. It was only then he realised his "Expelliarmus" charm hadn't hit anything and he turned to face the mirrors just in time to get hit by it. His wand flew from his hand and landed on the floor next to the platform.

Needless to say Draco, Theo and Neville burst out into laughter.

"You got hit by your own trademark spell!" Draco shouted as he roared with laughter. Harry had to admit, it was pretty ironic. He rolled his eyes as he jumped down from the platform to retrieve his wand and join them on the ground. While this was happening Dawlish revived the Minister.

Theo and Neville then got in on the act by both acting out the scene from their own point of view. Theo took the mick by grinning smugly and then making a ridiculous face as he pretended the spell hit him.

"Oh come on, I didn't look like that," Harry said.

"Yes you did," Theo said with a smirk.

Neville then did the same and pretended to cry once the wand had dropped. Harry rolled his eyes, "Guys, I'm not that attached to my wand," he said, he only realised after the words had left his mouth how wrong they sounded.

"Daph would say otherwise," Draco joked.

"Harry," Kingsley boomed from behind the boys, "That was an incredibly good duel."

"Apart from the part where he disarmed himself with his own spell," Neville said and this sent he, Theo and Draco off into hysterical laughter once more.

Kingsley smiled, "I can't believe I missed it," he said as he held out his hand and shook Harry's, "You had better pass the tests during the selection process. I want you to be head of the department someday."

"Well that is a high honour Kingsley," Harry said with a smile as the Minister thanked Harry for the duel and left the training centre.

"Man, this has been a good placement," Theo said as he wiped the tears from his eyes.

Dawlish then came over to them all and thanked them. He said he hoped he would see them soon and that he wished them good luck with the selection process as he wouldn't see them until they were selected for training.

"I wonder if the girls have had as good a time," Draco wondered out loud as the boys made their way out of the training centre so they could apparate back to Hogsmeade.

"I suspect we'll find out soon," Harry said.

***

When the boys walked into the 8th Year common room the girls were already there and were waiting for them by the fire.

Sadie and Hermione jumped up and rushed into their boyfriend’s arms.

Lilly just waved at Neville, "Good week?"

"Great week," Neville said as he sat down next to her, "But tell me all about yours first..."

Sadie threw her arms around Theo and chuckled as he elaborately spun her around. Once he had set her back down on the ground he kissed her and Sadie said, "I didn't know how much I'd missed you until we had to be apart this week."

Theo smiled genuinely, "I missed you too, even with all your cheesy cliché comments."

Sadie affectionately hit him around the back of the head and Theo grinned.

Hermione had also flung herself at Draco who hugged her and kissed her, something that didn't happen often in the common room in front of people, "Hi," Hermione said somewhat shyly.

Draco raised an eyebrow at her, "Is that any way to greet your boyfriend who you haven't seen for a week?" he asked and Hermione grinned and kissed him once more.

Harry walked through the hugging couples to Daphne who hadn't moved from her armchair, he gently lifted her up and sat down, he put her back down on his knee, "Hey," he said casually.

Daphne smiled, "Hey, good week?" she asked.

Harry grinned at her, "Oh come on, you missed me right?"

"Maybe a little," Daphne said with a laid back shrug.

Harry smirked, "Yeah right."

Daphne then proceeded to kiss Harry, "Okay, so maybe I did miss you," she conceded with a giveaway smile, “Just a little though.”

The week had been amazing for Harry, it had shown him what he could be and he didn't feel scared about the end of Hogwarts anymore. It would be the end of an era, a fantastic era, and that would be sad. But it was also going to be the start of an age and the closer it got the more Harry found that he couldn't wait for the next stage of his life to begin.

**TBC :)**


	52. Birthdays, Butterbeer and Broken Hearts

April was now underway and it was Susan's birthday. She wasn't particularly happy however, it was clear that something wasn't right with her. Nobody had managed to figure it out so nobody had called her out on it yet. She had seemed happy with her presents when they had given them to her in the common room, although they expected that she was sad that Hannah wasn't with her because they had once been so close. Hermione, Daphne, Lilly and Sadie had combined forces to give Susan a beautiful gold necklace with a ruby pendant. The boys had given Susan a set of duelling books and she had thanked them but she still wasn't quite herself.

"What's wrong?" Hermione asked Susan quietly while the boys discussed the party at dinner and argued about who would be going to get the butterbeer.

Susan smiled but Hermione could tell that it was forced, "I just wish I had some family on my birthday," she admitted, "Traditionally in the wizarding world you get your prom dress from your Mum on your birthday if it comes before the prom, and you get it as an early birthday present if it comes after prom. I guess I'm just not looking forward to having to go out shopping on my own for my prom dress."

Hermione smiled at her friend, "Well you won't be on your own, I'm a muggle-born, I'll be buying my own dress too."

Susan's spirits were lifted slightly, "Thanks Mione," she said and as she went back to pushing her food around her plate but she did seem a little less miserable now.

The rest of the day passed fairly slowly and quietly, no one did any work (apart from Hermione) and everybody spent the day inside just being lazy. The weather outside was horrible, it hadn't stopped raining all day. After dinner Harry gave Theo his invisibility cloak and the password to the passageway then he and Sadie headed off to Hogsmeade to get the booze and the others got started on preparing the common room.

***

The party was as crazy as any party in the 8th Year common room ever was. Percy had somehow managed to sneak into the castle for the party although Susan had been spending more time dancing with the girls than with the Weasley man.

"What do you think?" Harry asked with narrowed eyes as Hermione came over to the armchair he was sitting on and sat down on the arm of it.

"About what?" Hermione asked as she tried to catch her breath.

"Percy," Harry said as he surveyed the Weasley who was currently drinking firewhiskey and talking to Draco and Theo at the other side of the room.

"I think he got pretty hot," Hermione said with a smirk as Harry rolled his eyes and handed her a drink.

"He's getting pretty badass," Harry said as he watched Percy suspiciously, "He better not try and out-badass me."

"Don't worry babe," A new voice said from behind him. Harry grinned as Daphne dropped down onto his knee, "No one can out-badass the chosen boy-who-lived and killed Voldemort, etcetera," she said casually as she grabbed her drink from the table in front of him.

Hermione chuckled at this and Harry continued, "Well, what I _actually _meant was do you think he's bad news for Susan? She's had enough crap with Krum and I think he might be screwing around with her."

"It's sweet that you care," Another voice said and Harry watched as Ginny made her way around to the front of his armchair and leant against the table, "But Susan's a big girl, she can handle him. Besides he's here isn't he? Why would he be here if there wasn't something there?"

"Gins right," Hermione said as she got to her feet, “But it's cute that you're worrying.”

Harry rolled his eyes, "I'm not cute," he said in annoyance, "I'm badass, I'm THE Harry Potter, the chosen one."

"Right, bighead Potter," Ginny said in amusement as she and Hermione disappeared into the crowd.

Daphne chuckled, "The others are talking about a game of wizarding truth or dare later. You up for it?"

"Sure," Harry said as Daphne pulled him away to dance.

As the evening progressed more and more people disappeared from the common room.

By the time the clock struck midnight and Susan's birthday was technically over there were only a smattering of people left partying and by the time it hit 1am, only the dedicated (or insane) partiers were left in the common room. This group of people of course consisted of Harry, Draco, Theo, Neville, Hermione, Daphne, Sadie, Lilly and the birthday girl Susan. Blaise had stayed too, as had Ginny who was of course the only sober person there.

It was around this time that they ended up in a circle as they prepared to play wizarding truth or dare. The difference between wizarding truth and dare and ordinary truth and dare was that there was a glowing circle around the group of cross-legged students which compelled them to do the dares whether they wanted to or not, and everybody had taken a sip of Veritaserum which meant they would have to answer the questions honestly.

They decided to start by going around the circle and letting everyone ask a question, either to an individual or to the group as a whole. It led to some strange and amusing revelations.

"Alright then, who has been in another house common room and why?" Daphne asked with a smirk. They went around the circle.

Harry grinned sheepishly, "Well I've been in almost all of them," he admitted.

Daphne rolled her eyes, she hadn't known that but it didn't exactly surprise her either, Harry elaborated, "Well I went to the Ravenclaw common room with Luna, not for the reasons you'd think!" he added as he started to get suggestive looks, "I had to go there to see if I could find anything out about one of Voldemort’s horcruxes because it had something to do with Rowena Ravenclaw."

"Come on then Potter," Draco said, he reverted back to using the Gryffindors second name as he usually did when he was drunk or annoyed, "Why were you in the Slytherin common room?"

"Yeah Harry? Why _were _you in our common room?" Sadie asked with a laugh.

Harry and Hermione shared a smirk, "Well do you guys remember in 2nd year when the chamber of secrets was opened?"

A dark look flashed across Ginny's face that it seemed that only Harry noticed but everybody else just nodded. Harry continued, "Hermione, Ron and me thought that it had been opened by the heir of Slytherin and we sort of thought that was Draco and that his Dad had opened the chamber when he was at school."

Hermione laughed and added, "In fact we thought that Lucius had handed down the key to the chamber to Draco," there was laughter all around as Harry finished, "So Ron and I took some polyjuice potion to become Crabbe and Goyle and we snuck into the Slytherin common room to question Draco."

"Oh Merlin," Draco said through his laughter, "That day Crabbe and Goyle were acting so weird, that was you?"

Harry nodded sheepishly, "Yeah..."

"And he thought you were the heir of Slytherin," Theo choked out between laughs.

Draco grinned, "I know, it's hilarious!"

"Why didn't you sneak in as well Mione?" Daphne asked and Hermione's cheeks turned scarlet.

This time Harry burst into laughter and said, "She was too busy coughing up fur balls."

Hermione glared at Harry but unfortunately couldn't reach her wand, that was one of the rules of the game, wands were to be left outside of the circle, "I tried to use the potion to turn into Millicent Bulstrode but the hair I thought was hers was actually her cat’s hair so I ended up with the face of a cat."

"And a tail," Harry added as the others laughed.

They continued around the circle and found out that Theo had been in all of the common rooms, most likely because he had been hooking up with different girls. Then they found out that Neville had also been in the Hufflepuff common room.

Next it was Harry's turn to ask a question.

"How many of you wanted me in 6th year when you found out I was the chosen one?" Harry asked with a rather cocky smirk.

Daphne grinned at her boyfriend's question, "Well I did of course. I thought it was pretty badass."

Harry smirked at Neville, "See Nev, badass," he said which made his fellow Gryffindor roll his eyes.

As they continued around the circle Sadie admitted, "A little bit," with a faint blush.

"Sadie? Seriously? Him? The chosen-skinny-runt-Gryffindor-git?" Theo asked in astonishment.

"Theo look at yourself," Susan said with an amused grin, "You are practically Harry without the scar and glasses!"

"What?" Theo said sounding horrified, "I don't look anything like Potter!"

"You kind of do," Hermione laughed, "I mean look at the messy black hair and the bony body."

Theo made a face and shook his head, "This conversation ends here," he said finally. After finding out that Susan also had a thing for Harry because of him being the chosen one ("what can I say I have a thing for famous men") and that Lilly wouldn't go there ("sorry Harry"), they finally got to Ginny and Hermione.

Ginny laughed and said, "I always had a thing for you, but I guess it was kind of hot."

Hermione rolled her eyes and said, "Well I never really had a thing for you per say, sorry."

Harry only laughed at this, "Don't worry Hermione, I was just curious."

The next question that arose was a general question of, "What was the scariest experience of your life?"

The answers were fairly predictable. Hermione said the time she was tortured in Malfoy Manor. Harry said it was when he walked into the forbidden forest to die. Daphne told them it was when her Father set fire to the family home. Draco said it was when he was supposed to kill Dumbledore, and so on. Then they got to Ginny.

"Uh," Ginny said with a slight frown, "It was when I was possessed by Voldemort in my 1st year."

There was a small silence and then Daphne asked, "Ginny...what _did _happen then with the diary? We didn't really know you then."

Ginny smiled but it was forced, "I wrote in a diary, I confided in it I guess and it wrote back to me but I just kept writing not realising that it was possessing me,” She shrugged, “Eventually Voldemort managed to get inside my head and I ended up in the chamber."

"You had it so much worse than me Gin," Harry said, “If Voldemort’s soul _did _split into two pieces every time he made a horcrux then the diary contained 50% of his soul."

Hermione nodded, "I'm amazed Ginny, that you came out of it as okay as you did," she said with a gentle smile.

Ginny nodded and changed the subject as quickly as she could. Harry's eyes lingered on her briefly but then Daphne spoke to him and his eyes were drawn away.

The questions kept going and then they began to really get interesting when Theo jokingly asked Daphne and Hermione if Draco or Harry was better in bed. Without their boyfriends seeing the girls shared a small smile and replied in unison, "Harry."

"Hermione!" Draco exclaimed as his girlfriend burst out laughing along with Daphne, "That isn't funny; you could have given me a heart attack."

"Hey on that note, I bet Draco’s slept with more people in this circle than you," Theo said way too cheerfully.

Harry snorted, "He probably have, I'm not as much of a womanizer, I’m more the awkward time."

"Yeah, that's true," Hermione said with an amused smile, "How you get girls is beyond me Harry."

"He can be smooth when he wants to be," Daphne said with a smile, "It's how he got me, once he stopped being a bumbling fool all of the time that was."

"Hey, you distracted me a lot," Harry said in an attempt to defend himself.

"Alright then," Sadie said, "There is one easy way to settle this, put your hand in the air if you've slept with Harry."

Hermione, Daphne and Ginny raised their hands so there were no surprises there.

"Okay, and raise your hand if you've slept with Draco," Sadie said, she watched as the hands went into the air. Hermione and Daphne raised their hands and again nobody looked surprised.

"Okay, so you win Harry," Daphne said in amusement.

Harry snorted, "I don't care, it's not a competition. And frankly all of this who slept with who stuff is pointless."

The others seemed to agree but Theo was drunk and he was an arse which meant that things got just a little too personal. Susan voiced that she agreed with Harry and Theo remarked, "Well that's a surprise. I mean is there anyone here you haven't slept with Susan? In fact, is there anyone in this school you haven't slept with?"

"Fuck off Theo," Susan said and from the brief glance they got before she withdrew herself from the game and ran off it looked like she was crying.

"Nice one Theo," Daphne said with a glare as she rushed after Susan.

Hermione made to leave too, but Harry stopped her, "Don't Mione; I think Daphne will be better at helping her out on this one."

Hermione nodded but sighed, the game was over now. Everyone was either annoyed with Theo or tired and ready for bed. Sadie and Theo made their way out of the common room they were arguing as they did so. Hermione and Draco quickly disappeared upstairs. Neville and Lilly briefly kissed goodnight and left for their separate common rooms. As all of this was going on Harry simple sat and stared into the fire. He was vaguely aware of Blaise saying goodnight to Ginny before making his way up to his dorm room but he shut his eyes tightly as he felt a headache coming on.

"Do you mind if I stick around for a bit?" A voice asked from next to him, Harry opened his eyes and saw Ginny standing by the fire.

"Nah, stick around as long as you want," Harry said as Ginny dropped down next to him on the sofa.

"Thanks Harry," Ginny said as she laid her head on his shoulder. They were silent for a moment.

"What did you mean earlier? When you said I had worse?" Ginny asked eventually.

Harry opened his eyes and looked at her, she looked troubled, "Voldemort’s soul split in half every time he made a horcrux so the first horcrux contained 50% of his soul and that was the diary."

"What about you Harry?" Ginny asked as she caught Harry's eye, "You were a horcrux, weren't you?"

Harry nodded thoughtfully, he had researched this, not that anybody else knew about it but he knew exactly what percentage of Voldemort’s soul had gone into each horcrux.

"So 25% of his soul was in the second horcrux," Ginny realised.

Harry nodded, "Which was what cursed Dumbledore and damaged his hand. The third horcrux was the locket we found in Grimmauld Place and that contained 12.5% of his soul."

"And the next had 6.25%," Ginny said, "I understand, so what about you Harry?"

"I had 1.5% of Voldemort’s soul inside me," Harry admitted finally, it was something he didn't like to talk about to anyone, Daphne didn't even know the full story yet.

"Wow," Ginny said as she shook her head in disbelief, "For 18 years."

"It wasn't like how it was with you," Harry admitted, "It was diluted."

"Yeah but Harry I only had to put up with it for a year, less than that really," Ginny said with a look in her eyes that Harry couldn't interpret.

"It was different Ginny, he couldn't take control of my body like that...apart from once in 5th Year," Harry said as he stared into the fire once more.

"What did it feel like Harry?" Ginny asked quietly.

Harry sighed and leant back against the sofa, he shut his eyes, "It felt...it felt like he was always there, in the back of my mind, like there was always some dark thoughts lurking in the back of my head," Harry opened his eyes and looked at Ginny, "I felt like I was becoming him and if it had happened for much longer..." Harry trailed off and shook his head.

"You think you would have become like him," Ginny said with a look of understanding, she nodded, "I felt like I was becoming evil, like I couldn't-"

"- control your own thoughts anymore," Harry finished and Ginny nodded. They both looked into the fire once more and were silent for a moment.

"I'm going to be a terrible Mother."

Harry's eyes snapped up and he looked at Ginny in surprise, "What?"

"You heard me," Ginny said as she caught his eye, "I was possessed by Voldemort, I'm tainted aren't I? How do I know that I won't be a terrible Mother?"

"You won't be," Harry said simply, "I know you won't be. As much as she holds grudges at times your Mother loves you. You were raised by two loving parents in a loving family. You have all the tools to become a great Mother. Voldemort became the way that he was because he wasn't loved, because he was conceived under the influence of a love potion."

Ginny sighed, "I want to be a good Mother, Harry. I'm just not sure if me raising this baby is the right thing. Wouldn't I be doing it a favour to give it a better start in life?"

"No," Harry said firmly, "There are times when adoption is the answer Ginny. When the parents are too young and immature to raise it for example. You and Blaise may be young but one thing you definitely aren't is immature. The best thing you can give a child is its parents and unless there's a firm reason why those parents shouldn't raise it that will always be my stance."

"Well I understand why you think like that," Ginny said quietly, "With you never knowing your parents and all. I just want it to be happy, to have a good life."

"And it will have that with you," Harry said softly, "Because that's the funny thing about babies. You don't know how things will be, you don't know how you will feel when they are just a concept that you can't see yet. Once the baby is born and you hold it, you'll fall in love with it and you'll know the best thing for it is you, you and Blaise."

Ginny looked up at him with bloodshot eyes, "You sound like you know from experience."

"I do," Harry said, his voice broke a little, "Because all of this is just confirming something Daphne's been suspicious about for a long time. For all my objections about not replacing Remus, I am in effect Teddy's Father. Maybe it isn't by blood but I've been there since he was a month old. I change his nappies, I feed him, I rock him to sleep and Merlin knows that I'll be the one who has to potty train him too no doubt. He's a little rascal but I love him and I can't imagine life without him. I can't imagine him being raised far away from me where I couldn't see him Ginny."

Ginny nodded and swallowed hard as the tears she had been holding back cascaded down her face. Harry sighed and pulled her into a hug. She shook as she spoke, "I know that you're right Harry but I'm just so afraid."

"Of course you are Gin," Harry said as he stroked her deep red hair, "If you weren't scared I would be worried. This is a big deal and you need to accept that and cope with the fear. You can't just run away from it and give the baby up for adoption."

"I know," Ginny said throatily, "And Blaise wouldn't want that. It was a stupid whimsical thought, I'm sorry."

Harry shook his head, "No, it was the fear speaking. You just have to remember that you aren't alone. You're doing this with Blaise right beside you, and not just me but all of us behind you."

Ginny nodded again and breathed a little heavily as she leant into Harry, "Thanks Harry," she said softly.

***

After Susan had hurried upstairs Daphne had followed her friend. She knew that Susan probably wouldn't want to talk but she needed to and if anyone could help a girl in her situation it was Daphne. As Daphne made her way into the dorm she shared with Susan and Hermione, she caught sight of the Hufflepuff climbing into her bed and pulling the curtains around it.

"Susan, let me in," Daphne said calmly, "Trust me, I can help you out."

There was no response from inside and Daphne groaned.

"If you want people to help you've got to let them in Susan," Daphne said, she was slightly exasperated.

A muffled response came from within, "I don't need your help or anyone else's!"

Daphne decided to change her approach, Susan was fairly similar to her and she knew the approach that would have gotten a response from herself, "Susan if you want idiots like Theo to keep implying that you're a slut then by all means stay inside your bed and don't let anyone help you. It doesn't bother me, I'll go and spend the night with my _boyfriend_ who I only got because I stopped being the way you are!"

It worked. The curtains flew open.

"The way I am?" Susan hissed angrily, "Thanks Daphne! So you're saying I'm the screwed up version of you!"

"Yeah!" Daphne said as she raised her voice slightly, "You are Susan! You are exactly how I was before I met Harry which is why you've got to let me help."

Susan was silent and then she heard footsteps coming up the staircase, "Come in," she said gruffly and the moment Daphne had seated herself cross-legged on Susan's bed, the Hufflepuff drew the curtains, locked them both in and cast a muffliato charm around the bed.

Susan's eyes were slightly bloodshot and puffy; her hair wasn't quite as immaculate as usual either.

"Susan, I really do want to help you," Daphne said honestly, "I know what you're going through and I bet it's for similar reasons to me."

"Okay then," Susan said, sounding slightly more like herself, "Why do I sleep with so many guys?"

"Well, I think part of it is to make yourself feel better because you don't think you are good enough or attractive enough which is complete nonsense because you are gorgeous," Daphne said matter of factly as she casually lay down on the bed, "And part of it comes from never having a father figure. It can go either way; I did it to piss my Dad off because he was a bastard. Others do it because they've never really had a good male role model so they don't think good men exist."

"Do they exist? Apart from Harry and Neville I've never met a nice guy," Susan said bitterly.

"Why didn't you ever ask Neville or Harry out then?" Daphne asked curiously.

"I don't know," Susan admitted, "I wish I had...I got scared with Neville because he was such a good friend of mine. And Harry as nice as he is, always seemed massively out of my league."

"I guess I know what you mean,” Daphne admitted, “The moment things got anywhere near serious with Harry I freaked out."

"What do you mean?" Susan asked with a frown.

Daphne smiled slightly, "I was completely smitten by him. He was perfect for me but whenever it got remotely serious I freaked out and a few times he nearly gave up on me because of it. I basically screwed with his feelings for two months, he shouldn't have stuck around and I definitely don't deserve him. But I love him and I'm so glad that he did stay.”

"Percy was engaged," Susan said with a sigh, she moved to lie down on her stomach next to Daphne and both of them stared at the wooden headboard, "It wasn't my fault it broke off though. She said he changed too much when he became a bounty hunter and she didn't like the same things as him anymore."

"Hermione says he seems like a different person," Daphne said, she was trying to help Susan but she was also fishing for gossip a little.

"Yeah, he kind of did what Harry did," Susan admitted, "He seemed to go on fine for a while after the war then it all hit him and he wanted to do something to help people and just totally changed."

"It seems like you've talked to him a lot," Daphne realised.

Susan smiled, "Yeah, he's different."

"Let me guess," Daphne said with a fond smile as she thought of her own memories, "You fool around and pretend it's not serious but then you end up in bed together and you sit and talk for hours."

Susan grinned, "Exactly and neither of us leave after. I've never spent the night with someone apart from that one time with Viktor. And Percy is a gentleman, even if he has changed. He's just a bit rougher around the edges these days."

Daphne grinned, "Yeah but rough edges are so fun, right?"

Susan laughed and was glad that she had let Daphne in, "They are."

"I don't mean to intrude but this seems like more than you make it out to be, so can I give you some straight advice?" Daphne asked.

Susan nodded, and Daphne said, "If you can make sure of it, don't let him get away. If things start to get serious and you need someone to talk to you can always come to me but don't let him go just because you get scared."

"Okay," Susan said with a smile, "Thanks Daphne, you're a great friend."

***

Harry had been doing an awful lot of thinking since his conversation with Ginny. They had gotten closer again in light of recent events. For some reason Ginny seemed to think that Harry was the person to turn to about babies which he really didn't understand. But he had promised to be there for her and he had meant that. As he sat in the common room with Hermione a couple of nights later he sighed.

"What's going on in that head of yours?" Hermione yawned.

"I was just thinking about Ginny, and her baby," Harry said thoughtfully, "I was trying to work out how I'd feel if it were Daphne and I."

"Elated probably, knowing you," Hermione smiled, "You love children and I know you love Teddy but you want your own."

'Teddy's as much mine as any child by blood," Harry said thoughtfully, “But you are right, I do want more. There's a time and place for everything though. That's how Daphne feels and if she was upset by it then I think I would be too. But if she wanted to give it up for adoption I don't know how I would feel."

"Ginny doesn't want to give the baby away, does she?" Hermione asked in surprise.

"No," Harry said with a shake of his head, "She thought about it briefly but it was just because she was afraid...what do you think you would do in the situation?"

"It's hard to say unless it actually happens," Hermione frowned, "It's easy to say that the time and place wouldn't be right so I would consider taking a potion to make it all go away. But when I actually knew I had something growing inside of me...I don't think I could go through with it."

"No," Harry said with a frown, "And Ginny couldn't either, at least I don't think she could."

"If someone really didn't want a baby I can see why they would choose to do so," Hermione said with a shrug, "If they were very young and incapable of raising it, or if they had been raped."

Harry sighed, "I'm sorry for bringing this up. It's depressing, isn't it?"

"It's not the happiest topic of discussion," Hermione agreed, “But I think it's all about who you are with. We're all in fairly stable relationships so if Daphne were pregnant she would have you."

"Oh no, no," Harry said as he shook his head, "She isn't, sorry. I really was just musing."

"You're awfully cryptic today," Hermione said with a slight smile, "Any other odd questions?"

"Yeah actually," Harry said as he stared into the fire, "When did you realise you were in love with Draco?"

Hermione paused for a moment to think about Harry's question and then replied, "It's hard to say exactly. I always noticed him...even when he was horrible to me. It was hard not to notice how attractive he was, or his intelligence although he did try to hide it...I suppose I started to realise I had feelings for him around 4th Year but I always pushed them away."

"But when did you really know?" Harry asked as he turned to look at her, "When did you know that he was the one you wanted to spend your life with?"

Hermione frowned slightly, "After Valentine's day. When we went through all of that and we lost Dean and Tracey...it made me realise how short life was and I couldn't imagine mine without Draco anymore. Every time I thought about the future Draco was in my image of it and I knew that I had fallen in love with him."

"I think I realised with Daphne around the same time," Harry said with a nod, "And I know we hadn't been dating for anywhere near as long as you and Draco but I think I just knew. She was a wreck after Tracey died and when I was building her back up I finally saw the vulnerable side to her. Once that wall was down I saw how beautiful she was, inside and out."

"Is that when you knew you wanted to spend your life with her?" Hermione asked with a slight smile, "Because this sounds awfully like a serious conversation that amounts in a proposal."

Harry laughed at how much she could see through him, "Yeah well I am thinking about it, very seriously actually. I don't know when I knew she was the one, I think it just crept up on me. It was in all of the little moments over the months...and then one day I found myself walking down a beach with her and Teddy and I could just picture another little blonde haired kid in the mixture and a ring or two on her finger."

Hermione smiled at her best friend, "So when are you going ring shopping then?"

"Soon," Harry said with a broad smile at his best friend, "Over Easter I realised, as cheesy as it is, that there's been this gap forever and she's just come along and filled it. It's like she was always meant to be there and now that she is...well I couldn't imagine my life without her."

Hermione chuckled and kissed Harry on the cheek, "You have a way of words about you. Say something like that when you propose and she'll be in tears," she said as she got to her feet.

"In a good way, I hope," Harry said with a nervous sort of laugh.

"In a good way," Hermione smiled, "And Harry?"

"Yeah?" Harry said as he turned around to look at her.

Hermione smiled at him one last time from the foot of the staircase, "Daphne likes emeralds," she said as she disappeared.

**TBC :)**


	53. The Prank War

When Harry got up on a Wednesday morning he didn't think it was an exceptional day. In fact, as Harry got dressed and made his way down to the great hall in a sleep infused daze he thought that the day felt exceptionally ordinary. As he yawned his way down the staircase he didn't think about much other than the fact that he hoped it would soon be the weekend because the closer they got to the N.E.W.T exams the more he hated being in class. In a way he would be relieved when Hogwarts was over.

When Harry got to the great hall everybody was already sitting at the 8th year table eating. Daphne looked up and smiled at him as he dropped sleepily onto the bench beside her, "Morning Harry."

Harry gave his girlfriend a half-hearted smile and yawned some more as he piled food onto his plate, "Morning Daph."

It was after Harry had eaten some bacon that his day began to get less ordinary. Neville sneakily smirked at Lilly who was struggling to contain her laughter. Then the Gryffindor boy jumped up onto the table and addressed the entire school.

"People of Hogwarts. Today is your lucky day!" Neville exclaimed, "Mr. Harry James Potter, the war hero himself, is going to be signing photographs in the entrance hall in 5 minutes!"

Harry gaped at Neville as lots of little first and second years jumped up and rushed out into the entrance hall. Draco and Theo held each other up as they shook with laughter, even the girls were giggling.

"That's right, form an orderly queue and the chosen one will be right with you!" Neville said. He jumped down from the table and made his way over to Harry with a grin, "That prank war you were talking about just started."

Harry was partly amused at Neville's behaviour but he was also irritated by the fact that he was now going to have to sign autographs for Merlin knows how long. It did mean that he might miss some of Divination though...

Harry got a mischievous look in his eyes, "Oh, you are so on."

"Good," Neville said with a similar glint in his eyes, "You better get into the entrance hall Harry, your fans are waiting," he added with a wink.

Harry tried not to show his annoyance as he got to his feet. As he walked away from the table he was sure he heard Draco and Theo echo in unison to Neville, "How are you not a Slytherin?!"

Harry cursed under his breath as he left the hall. Well, if Neville wanted a prank war he would get one. Harry smirked to himself as he sat down by a table in the entrance hall and started signing autographs for 1st and 2nd years that he didn't know. He'd been at it for 15 minutes when breakfast let out and his so-called friends laughed at him on their way to class. Harry rolled his eyes and continued signing autographs.

"Dennis!" Harry exclaimed in surprise when he saw the boy, "After all these years you still want my autograph?" he asked in exasperation.

Dennis merely smirked, "I don't want it for myself, I'm going to sell it. Do you how many galleons I can get for your autograph?"

"How much?" Harry asked curiously as he signed a photo of himself for his fellow Gryffindor.

"300 on a good day," Dennis said with a grin as he took the photograph from Harry, "Cheers Harry!"

Harry glanced behind Dennis as he left and was glad to see that there were only a few people left in the queue. He signed another couple of photos and got to the last person, another person whom he knew.

"Astoria!" Harry said loudly when he saw Daphne's little sister waiting awkwardly in front of him, "What are you doing here?"

"Don't tell Daphne," Astoria said as her cheeks turned red, "But I want your autograph, I think you're amazing Harry. What you did was truly heroic."

"No, it wasn't," Harry said as he signed the photograph, "Most of it was just pure luck, you ask your sister that and she'll say the same. The heroes of the war are the ones who aren't around to sign autographs, you just remember that and you'll be honouring their memories."

Astoria nodded, her cheeks were still pink, "That was a nice speech Harry, you would make a good Minister one day."

Harry laughed, "Thanks, but I don't think I'll ever become a politician."

"I hope you marry Daphne, Harry," Astoria said shyly, "I think it would be great if you were part of the family."

Harry smiled fondly at the girl, "Thanks Astoria, that's nice of you."

Astoria blushed brightly and nodded, then she hurried away as fast as possible. Her behaviour had reminded Harry of-

"Ginny!"

Ginny was lurking in the shadows with an amused smile, "There was a time I'd have killed to be in the front of that queue."

Harry laughed as he got to his feet, "Where you heading?"

"I'm free, so the Gryffindor common room. What about you?" Ginny asked as they made their way onto the grand staircase.

"Divination," Harry replied, "Did you see Daphne's sister?' he asked with a chuckle, “She was all embarrassed like you used to be around me."

"Yeah, I remember that," Ginny said with a laugh, "Listen Harry I wanted to talk you about Susan's party and that chat of ours after it. I was talking rubbish; I didn't mean any of it-"

"It's okay Ginny," Harry said quickly, "I know, you were just upset."

"It was just a complete lack of judgement," Ginny said as she shook her head, "I will love it when it's born, and I will be a good Mother."

Harry smiled at her, "I know you will, and Molly does too."

"I got a letter this morning," Ginny said with a slight smile as she waved a letter absentmindedly.

"How harsh was it?" Harry asked.

"It was grudgingly accepting," Ginny chuckled, "Which is a start."

"It's definitely a start," Harry laughed as they reached the point where they needed to go their separate ways. They said goodbye and Harry hurried up the North tower. He was out of breath and 20 minutes late for class when he reached the trapdoor but the ladder dropped down all the same.

"Ah Harry," Trelawney said when Harry made his way into the room which was still free of fragrance and excessive heat, "My inner eye tells me that you were dealing with the pressure of fame."

"Indeed I was Professor," Harry said sadly (but he knew Trelawney had literally walked right past him signing autographs so it wasn't exactly a stellar prediction), "The pressure is so much sometimes I think it might get me."

"Believe Harry," Trelawney said dramatically, "And you will be guided."

"Thank you Professor," Harry said as he took a seat next to Daphne and Sadie.

"I swear you always get away with being late, she loves you!" Sadie whispered to Harry who smirked a little.

"How did the autograph signing session go?" Daphne asked with a chuckle.

Harry grinned, "Guess who turned up? Your little sister!"

Daphne rolled her eyes at this, "Seriously?'

Harry nodded, "But don't tell her you know, she was all embarrassed. She said she wants us to get married so I can be part of the family."

Daphne laughed at this, "Really? She said that to you?" she shook her head in amusement, "I think she has a bit of a crush."

"Isn't she going out with that Dennis boy?" Sadie asked quietly as Trelawney started to walk towards them.

"Yeah, I think she is," Daphne shrugged, she didn't talk to her sister that often.

"By the way, I'm not going to tell you any details," Harry whispered to the two girls, "But I'm getting Neville back for this tomorrow!"

***

The next morning Harry made his way down to breakfast and acted like everything was normal. Only Sadie and Daphne were watching him curiously, Daphne had spent the previous day pestering him to get him to reveal what his prank was but Harry hadn't said anything about it. He smirked as he jumped up onto the 8th Year table and made an announcement to the entire school.

"Students of Hogwarts! My good friend Neville Longbottom here is a national hero for what he did during the war! And today is your lucky day because he is going to be demonstrating exactly how he killed Voldemort’s snake!"

There were oohs and aahs around the hall and it was only then that Sadie whispered to Hermione, "Where are Theo and Draco?"

Hermione frowned as she looked along the table, "I haven't seen them all morning," she whispered back.

With a rather elaborate wave of his wand Harry caused a small platform to appear in the centre of the great hall with smoke encircling it. McGonagall shook her head in amusement at the Head Table, this kind of thing hadn't happened since the Marauders had been at school.

As the smoke cleared it became apparent that there was something on the platform and that it was a snake, or rather it was two people dressed up as a snake and those two people were Theo and Draco. The girls burst out laughing as they realised that Draco and Theo were hissing and waving their arms around in a strange fashion. They were both frowning and when Theo caught Sadie's eye he mouthed, "Help!"

"Compulsion charm," Harry said quietly to the 8th Year table with a smirk. This of course only made them laugh more.

"And now, let us welcome our snake killing hero, Neville!" Harry shouted and Neville walked towards the platform with an amused smirk. Once Neville was up on the platform Harry transfigured his cloak into a cardigan, "And now that Neville is readily dressed in the cardigan of leadership, show us how you killed that snake Neville!"

Neville picked up the foam replica of the sword of Gryffindor that was on the floor and started to hit Theo and Draco with it much to the amusement of the students. Harry grinned as he lowered the platform and transfigured everything back to normal.

The 8th Year table was still full of the sound of laughter as Neville made his way back over and sat down next to Lilly, he shook his head in amusement.

"Nice try Harry but my next one will be better," Neville said with a smirk. Theo and Draco grumpily made their way back over to the table where Sadie and Hermione were crying with laughter.

"I can't believe you put a compulsion charm on me!" Theo said in a stroppy sort of way.

"We're not your props Potter!" Draco said as he glared at Harry.

"You made very good snakes," Harry smirked.

Draco narrowed his eyes at Harry and smiled slightly evilly at Theo, "Don't worry Theo... We’ll get him back."

Harry raised an eyebrow at this, "Bring it on."

"Oh, we will," Theo said with an equally evil glance, "This prank war is so on."

***

Harry and Neville were both wary on Friday but the day passed quite normally with no pranks at all. This also made McGonagall cautious; a quiet day in a prank war was never a good sign.

When Saturday morning dawned Harry was even more cautious as he and Neville made their way downstairs for an early breakfast before Quidditch practice.

"Do you think their planning something big?" Neville asked Harry as they trudged through the cold and empty school.

"Probably," Harry said, with narrowed eyes, "I reckon they're going to do something very Slytherin."

"Maybe we should team up," Neville suggested with a glint in his eyes, "Gryffindors versus Slytherins, whatever they do to us, we'll strike back."

"I thought we were trying to prank each other?" Harry said with a chuckle.

Neville shrugged with a smirk, "We've pranked each other already. We should focus our energies on humiliating Draco and Theo."

"Sounds like a good plan," Harry said with a slightly wicked smirk as they entered the great hall and made their way to the 8th Year table which was empty apart from Hermione and Sadie, the two early risers of the group.

"Anything?" Harry asked when he and Neville sat down opposite the two girls.

Hermione shook her head, "All quiet on the Western front...for now, that is."

Harry chuckled, "Yeah, I'm paranoid about what's going to happen when they do strike."

"What does that mean? All quiet on the Western front?" Sadie asked with a frown as she looked up from her book, Neville seemed confused too.

"It's a Muggle phrase," Hermione explained, "It comes from the First World War. One of the trenches was silent, there wasn't any fighting so the phrase all quiet on the Western front means no sound or that nothing is happening."

"Oh," Sadie said as she nodded, "I guess that makes sense. Muggles have the strangest phrases don't they?"

"I guess," Harry said thoughtfully as he shovelled some cereal into his mouth, "But I thought wizards had weird phrases when I came here...like Merlin's saggy Y-fronts."

"I'm pretty sure that one was unique to Ron," Hermione laughed, Sadie and Neville both nodded their agreement.

"Well, we'd better get off to training, see you later," Harry said as he got up and Neville followed. They left and spent the rest of the morning training in the rain, then they had a shower and ate lunch in the great hall. They spent the afternoon doing homework and the day seemed exceptionally ordinary, too exceptionally ordinary to last. Surely enough the prank they had been waiting for finally struck at dinner.

Everyone was enjoying their food when all of a sudden a large white screen was pulled down in front of the head table and an old fashioned style projector buzzed into life at the back of the hall. Harry and Neville shared concerned looks as a 'movie' began to play on the projector.

At first all that appeared was a black screen and then writing began to form on that screen.

"_The Chosen One and his Trusty Sidekick..."_

Harry and Neville's concerned looks amplified at this title. A clip appeared on the screen of Neville walking off with the sorting hat on his head after he'd first been sorted and Harry smiling in the crowd of first years, the caption for this clip was _"...the start of a beautiful friendship..."_

Harry was looking at the screen with vague amusement while Neville was staring at it in horror.

The next clip was of Neville standing up to Harry, Hermione and Ron in first year and Hermione hitting him with Petrificus Totalus. The caption read, _"...there were disagreements along the way..."_

By now everybody in the hall was laughing at the slideshow but Neville was still looking quite cautious.

Next came a clip of Neville hanging from the ceiling after the incident with the pixies in their 2nd Year. The caption here read, _"...together they made it through the dangers of second year..."_

Neville had now cracked a smile and Harry was chuckling at the slideshow, Theo and Draco were looking quite smug further along the table. The next clip was of Neville's boggart turning into Snape in 3rd Year, a clip that made everybody laugh, again there was a humorous caption, _"...together they faced their biggest fears..." _

The next clip was of Neville helping Harry in 4th year by giving him the gillyweed and the caption read, _"...they were together through it all..." _as this clip faded out the next one to fade in was of Harry and Neville by the lake, Harry was reading and Neville was looking for plants while Harry hadn’t been speaking to Ron, the caption boldly stated, _"...it was a friendship that became more..."_

The whole of the great hall had erupted with laughter by this point and Harry himself was wiping tears from his eyes, Neville just shook his head in amusement. The next clip to roll was of Harry and Neville having their heartfelt conversation about their parents in the Room of Requirement in 5th Year but as there was no audio nobody would know what it was about. As Harry patted Neville on the back the caption came up with the words, _"...it became a relationship..."_

Next came a clip of Neville and Harry fighting together in the Ministry at the end of 5th Year and the caption read, _"...they fought together..."_ then there was a scene of Harry and Neville laughing on their way to the train at the end of 5th Year flashed up, "_...and loved together..."_

There was then a scene of Neville and Harry talking at Slughorn's Christmas party in 6th Year, both boys were dressed up rather smartly and the caption read, "_...the first date..." _Harry laughed even louder at this and it was what cracked Neville up too in the end.

What happened next was inevitable, a clip of Neville killing Nagini flashed up and the caption read, _"...and then the apprentice became the master..."_

Hermione burst out laughing and whispered to Draco and Theo, "How do you two know _"Star Wars"_?"

"Theo's idea," Draco whispered back.

Theo shrugged, "I listen in Muggle Studies sometimes."

Harry scoffed and said, "I'm still the master."

Neville was too busy laughing at this point to reply. Back on the screen there was now a clip of Harry defeating Voldemort with a caption of, _"...and the chosen one reaches his peak..."_

At this Daphne sniggered next to Harry and he shot her a playful look. The next and final clip was of Harry and Neville meeting for the first time after the battle and congratulating and hugging each other. The clip paused on the hug and the caption faded in, _"...the love story of a lifetime."_

The hall was still buzzing with laughter as the picture faded out and Harry wiped his eyes with the sleeve of his cloak.

"That was brilliant," he said through his laughter to Theo and Draco, "How did you do it?"

Draco smirked and replied, "We got the memories we needed from your friends," he turned around and winked at Hermione who rolled her eyes, “And we used a potion to transfer them into the projector so we could show them that way.”

Neville was still chuckling as he said to the Slytherins, "That was a fantastic prank but don't worry Harry and I will get you back."

"Did this just become a team battle?" Theo asked with a raised eyebrow.

Harry gave him a challenging look and said, "Yes, yes it did."

***

"I have a cunning plan."

"Is it as cunning as a fox that has just graduated from Cunningham University with a degree in cunning?" Hermione deadpanned from the sofa.

Harry frowned, "Not quite. But it is cunning."

Daphne looked up with a frown; she was curled up on an armchair trying study, "Okay...do tell."

Harry grinned and abandoned his homework, "Well, Nev thinks I'm on his team and I'm going to stop trying to prank him," he smirked at his girlfriend, "But what if I turn the tables on him?"

"You mean team up with someone else against him?" Daphne asked with that evil Slytherin glint in her eyes, "That's very Slytherin of you, Potter."

Harry grinned at her, "It turns me on when you call me Potter and do that evil Slytherin glare thing."

Daphne laughed out loud at this, "So are we teaming up or what?"

"Well I can't just take anyone, I need someone with really good pranks up their sleeve," Harry said playfully, "Is that you?"

Daphne who grinned wickedly, "Do you really need to ask?"

***

After their late talk on Sunday night Harry and Daphne made sure that they were up early on Monday morning. In fact, they were up so early that they made it to the great hall before the doors had even opened to serve breakfast.

"Perfect," Harry whispered to his girlfriend underneath the invisibility cloak. He clicked his fingers and Kreacher appeared with a crack that echoed around the entrance hall.

"Kreacher," Harry whispered as he took the hood off on the cloak so his head floated in mid-air, "Can you open the doors to the great hall? We're going to play a really great prank on everyone this morning."

"Of course Master Harry," Kreacher whispered back as he opened the doors and bowed to Harry, "Can Master Harry please not tell the other house elves what Kreacher did? Kreacher will be punished by Winky."

Harry chuckled and said, "I promise not to tell a soul Kreacher."

Kreacher bowed once more and vanished with another crack. Harry pulled the cloak over himself and Daphne again and they walked into the hall which was just beginning to get light.

"Okay Daph, go ahead and do the charm," Harry said with a smirk, Daphne grinned and started to work her magic. Once the charm was done, they locked the doors again and sat down close to the doors underneath the cloak. They didn't have to wait long for the doors to open again and for the first people to make their way into the hall.

Unfortunately, the charm didn't work straight away because it required two people to walk in together and McGonagall entered the hall on her own but then the other teachers began to arrive. Sprout was next but she came on her own too. Then came Filch and Trelawney who walked through the archway together and Harry and Daphne grinned as the charm worked. The moment they had walked through the archway together their clothes got switched so that Filch was wearing a rather colourful checked dress with high-heeled boots and Trelawney was wearing Filch's old suit.

McGonagall seemed to be trying very hard not to laugh and Sprout had burst out laughing. Filch looked down and yelled, "Ach! What the...?"

"How did this happen?" Trelawney asked curiously.

From the head table McGonagall said, "I suspect that this is the next stage of the 8th Years prank war. Do not try and magic the clothes away or transfigure them, it will probably only make them worse, just let the charm wear off."

"How do you know all of this?" Filch asked the Headmistress curiously.

Trelawney smiled, "Minerva was a teacher to the Marauders and I believe James' son is very similar to him," she said as she took her seat at the head table.

"Very similar indeed," McGonagall agreed.

Trelawney chuckled and said, "He thinks I only give him good grades in Divination because he tells me what I want to hear by being dramatic all of the time. He thinks he has me completely fooled, but I know what he's up to."

McGonagall frowned and asked, "Forgive me for asking Sybil but then why do you give him good grades?"

"As much as he would hate to admit it, the boy may have some seer in him. He has a very clear inner eye," Trelawney said, McGonagall looked sceptical. Daphne just sniggered at Harry who had spent the last few minutes gaping at the head table.

The two pranksters were drawn away from the teacher's conversation when two more people walked through the doors together and got their clothes switched. It was Charlie and Sinistra. Sinistra ended up in Charlie's baggy fireproof trousers and his equally fireproof and disgusting t-shirt, and Charlie ended up wearing his girlfriend's skirt, high heels and blouse.

Sprout was now crying with laughter and even Filch and Trelawney had joined in at this. McGonagall's mouth was twitching as she tried not to laugh. Charlie looked up at the head table and asked, "Is my brother around by any chance?"

Sinistra made a face and said, "Charlie, your clothes smell disgusting."

Charlie rolled his eyes at this as they made their way to the head table, "Merlin Aurora, how the heck do you walk in these things?"

"The 8th Years prank war," McGonagall said by way of explanation.

Charlie said, "Ah," as he looked around the hall, "I wonder which corner Harry is invisible in..."

He narrowed his eyes as he and Sinistra sat down. Then he called out, "Oi Harry! What are you doing under that cloak with your girlfriend?"

Harry and Daphne sniggered at this. Harry pulled the cloak off and shouted across the hall, "Nice skirt Charlie!"

Charlie laughed loudly at this and Harry and Daphne sat down at the 8th Year table. Charlie said, "Nice prank! Fred and George would be proud!"

More teachers arrived but they all arrived on their own sadly. Then Hermione and Sadie arrived in the hall, they were the first students to do so. The girls didn't have it too bad since they were both the same gender but they looked down with a frown as they realised that their robes and ties had changed colours.

"What the..." Hermione said in confusion but then she heard chuckling and looked up to see Harry and Daphne at the 8th Year table.

"A prank then?" Hermione asked as she and Sadie sat down.

"A good one, don't you think?" Daphne asked, "Look at some of the teachers."

Hermione and Sadie burst out laughing when they saw Filch and Charlie.

Sadie said through her laughter, "Well at least we only changed house colours."

Next to arrive were Hagrid and Flitwick who ended up in each other's clothes. It was highly amusing to see Hagrid in robes for once and Flitwick looking quite rough in Hagrid's clothes. As McGonagall explained that it was a prank Harry mumbled to Daphne, "Thank Merlin we decided to put a resizing charm on it."

At this all 3 girls sniggered. The morning continued in the same way, people kept coming in together and as a result their clothes kept switching. Blaise and Ginny ended up switching clothes, as did Ernie and Justin, and so it went on. It took forever but eventually Neville and Lilly walked in together, they didn’t realise what was wrong with the door and why so many people were lurking around in the entrance hall. They ended up wearing each other's school uniform, so for Lilly this meant that she was wearing trousers and Gryffindor colours but Neville was in a skirt and Ravenclaw colours.

"What the hell did you do?" Neville asked Harry as he sat down at the table and stared at his clothes in horror.

"I switched teams," Harry said with a smirk, "All is fair in love and a prank war my friend. Nice skirt by the way."

Neville narrowed his eyes at his friend, "You'll pay for this one Potter."

"We'll see about that Longbottom."

***

"I wasn't doing what you think I was doing Theo!"

"Yeah right, I totally heard you, moaning and everything."

"I wasn't moaning, I was grunting in pain because I was exercising."

"Right, what muscle were you using exactly?"

"Theo I was exercising!"

"With Potter?"

"No, he wasn't even there at the time!"

Theo and Draco were 'arguing' on their way to the great hall about what Draco had been doing that morning when Theo had made his way up to his dorm to get him.

"What do you mean he wasn't there? He's never at the hall before us in the morning," Theo said as he smirked at his friend.

"Well he obviously is today," Draco said as he glared at his fellow Slytherin. It was then as they reached the entrance hall that they realised something.

"Wait..." They both said as they stopped and caught each other's eye, "Harry was up before us...he's planning something!"

The two boys were even more cautious when they got to the entrance hall and realised it was quite full and people seemed to be afraid to go through the door. In fact, there was a line and people were going through it one by one.

Theo scoffed, "This is stupid, come on Draco."

"Uh, Theo, do you think we should? It might be a bad idea, what if this is Harry's prank?" Draco asked as he edged slowly after his friend.

"Then it's not a good prank is it? Putting a lot of people in the entrance hall to freak us out," Theo snorted and grabbed Draco by the arm. Together they walked into the hall and with a pop they switched clothes.

"So this is Harry's prank," Theo realised as he glanced down; neither of them had changed much because they wore similar clothes.

"Bloody hell Theo; how the hell do you wear these things?" Draco asked as he attempted to walk in Theo's extremely tight school trousers.

"Skinny jeans Draco, they are all the rage," Theo said as he and his friend made their way to the 8th Year table. Draco seemed to be having some trouble walking in Theo's trousers and when they reached the table the others were in hysterics.

"Seriously Theo! These things cut off blood supply to vital...parts," Draco said as he let out a very unmanly squeal of pain as he tried to sit down.

"Draco do you even wear boxers?" Theo asked as he sat down next to the blonde, "These things are airier than your average pair of school trousers."

"Shut up Theo," Draco said as he rolled his eyes, "So this was your prank Potter?"

"Yeah, pretty good right?" Harry asked with a smirk.

"You didn't get the worst of it guys," Hermione chuckled to Draco and Theo, "Neville's wearing a skirt!"

At this a fresh bout of laughter went around the table and then Draco and Theo had an ingenuous thought and caught each other's eye. Draco went for Harry and Theo went for Daphne, they grabbed the pranksters and carried them to the charmed archway and pushed them through it.

With a loud pop Harry had ended up in Daphne's skirt, high heels, blouse _and _the Slytherin colours which was the worst part. Daphne made a face as she looked down; she was now wearing Harry's trousers and Gryffindor colours, "Yuck! I'm a Gryffindor!"

"I'm wearing a skirt! _And _I'm in Slytherin colours!" Harry exclaimed in disgust. The others were laughing; Theo and Draco in particular were in hysterics.

"Well," Harry said with a glance to his girlfriend, "That kind of backfired."

"Ya think?"

***

There was another quiet day in the prank war, but it was because scheming was going on.

"If he can switch teams, so can I," Draco had said to Hermione as they lay in bed together on Tuesday night, "I have a plan but I don't know if it will work, want to work with me?"

Hermione laughed, "Alright but only as long as it's a fun one that won't embarrass anyone."

Draco grinned, "I promise it won't."

"Okay, then tell me what it is," Hermione said with a slightly wicked smirk, Draco's grin widened as he filled Hermione in on his plan. They spent the next few hours scheming and brewing a fairly easy potion. The next morning, they got up early and sneakily made their way down to the kitchens.

"I'd feel better about this if we had Harry's invisibility cloak," Hermione whispered as she and Draco finally reached the kitchens.

"Well we don't need a cloak to get around unnoticed, us Slytherins are naturally sneaky," Draco said with a smug grin as Hermione tickled the pear and the door to the kitchens opened. The moment he saw Draco, Kreacher hurried over to them.

"Master Black! Can Kreacher do anything for you?" Kreacher asked eagerly.

Draco nodded, "We're playing a prank this morning but we need someone to put this into the pumpkin juice," he said as he held out a vial of potion.

Kreacher looked at the vial warily and said, "Kreacher is not sure he should be doing this. Headmistress and Winky will be angry."

"No they won't Kreacher," Hermione said with a smile, "It's a funny prank, it will make people happy."

"Kreacher likes happiness," Kreacher said thoughtfully and with another contemplative glance at the vial he took it.

"Thanks Kreacher," Draco said with a grin, Kreacher bowed and then Draco and Hermione left the kitchen.

"That was easy," Draco said happily as he and Hermione made their way toward the great hall.

"Don't you think it's kind of wrong to get house elves to do our bidding?" Hermione asked with a slightly troubled frown.

"No," Draco said simply. He was glared at by Hermione so he said, "They like being told what to do. It's what they are made for, they wouldn't know what to do if we made them make all of their own choices all of a sudden."

"You sound like Ron," Hermione said as she wrinkled her nose.

Draco made a face at this, "Do I? In that case, I love house elves, lets free them all."

Hermione tried to glare at him but ended up chuckling at this as they reached the entrance hall just as McGonagall was opening the doors for breakfast. The Headmistress narrowed her eyes at the couple.

"I see you two are up early today."

"Yes Headmistress," Hermione said in her best 'I'm a sweet innocent student' voice with a smile, "We just wanted to start this lovely Wednesday off with an early morning breakfast."

"I was not surprised to see Miss Greengrass dragged into this prank war, nor was I surprised at your involvement Mr. Black. But you Miss. Granger, I did not expect you to be involved."

Hermione smiled slightly at this, "This is my last year at school Professor, I might as well enjoy it."

"How very Lily Evans of you," McGonagall said fondly, she shot the couple a small smile then walked towards the head table.

Draco and Hermione spent the early part of the morning catching up on homework as they waited for the others to arrive. Once it got to a normal time of morning and the 8th Year table began to fill up Hermione and Draco began to smirk slightly. They had set a time release charm on the potion so that when the hall was full it would happen at the same time.

"Why are you two smirking?" Theo asked Draco and Hermione suspiciously.

"We aren't smirking," Hermione said with the worst poker face ever.

"Yes you are," Neville said, he poked his head around from the other side of Theo, "What are you planning?"

"It's too late," Harry said with narrowed eyes from across the table, "Draco you were up ridiculously early this morning..."

"They've already done it," Neville said as he looked around the hall suspiciously. Hermione sniggered as the clock on the wall hit 8.30am. The time-release charm on the potion caused it to go off and anyone who had drunk pumpkin juice which was almost everyone, changed appearance with a pop.

All of the Gryffindors in the hall suddenly had pale green skin and pure silver hair, the colours of Slytherin house. All of the Slytherins were decked in the Gryffindor colours with light red skin and pure gold hair.

Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff were also in each other's colours with the Ravenclaws having bright yellow skin and jet black hair. The Hufflepuffs had light blue skin and bronze hair. The hall looked hilarious. The charm had also worked on the teachers which made for an interesting breakfast.

Draco and Hermione were in hysterics, they had had some pumpkin juice themselves, after all it was all for a laugh.

"Aw Hermione, I'm green," Harry whined as he looked at his skin and his best friend giggled.

"I look like Elphaba!" Annie exclaimed.

"What on Merlin's earth is an Elphaba?" Harry asked the girl in amusement.

"A character from a Muggle book, duh," Annie said with a roll of her eyes, "It's the real name of the Wicked Witch of the West in the Wizard of Oz."

"Oh the one who melts when water is poured onto her," Harry said with a nod, "She had black hair not silver hair."

"But she had green skin," Annie argued.

"It only lasts for a few hours anyway," Hermione said before an argument could start.

"The gold hair is pretty cool actually," Sadie said in amusement, "But having red skin is kind of unsettling."

"Unsettling? I look like I have jaundice!" Lilly snorted as she took in her bright yellow skin.

"And I feel like I'm suffocating or something," Susan laughed as she looked at her blue skin.

"See we play nice pranks that make people laugh," Draco said with a purposeful glare at his friends.

"Yeah, but that was only because Hermione probably said she wouldn't help you unless you made it a nice prank," Harry pointed out as he went back to eating his breakfast.

"Well yes, that is partly true. My original plan was to make all of the Gryffindors hair fall out..." Draco admitted, he trailed off as he caught Hermione glaring at him.

"Oh yeah, that's so nice," Harry said sarcastically.

Theo smirked and said, "It isn't nice but it would have been funny!"

Daphne laughed and agreed, Harry and Hermione both rolled their eyes and mumbled simultaneously, "Bloody Slytherins."

***

Thursday once more passed quietly, and it was fast becoming clear that there seemed to be a day's break in this prank war. After all it took a day to prepare a really good prank. Friday passed without any pranks too however. By the time it got to the party that been planned for Friday night pretty much everybody had forgotten about the prank war.

Harry was away with Daphne getting the butterbeer as per usual and some people were still in the common room but most people were off doing their pre-party things or whatever it was they did on a Friday night. When Harry and Daphne got to the entrance of the common room Harry got suspicious instantly. He could feel the magic coming from the room but he wasn't going to stand there and be afraid to enter.

The door opened and Harry stepped into the common room. As he did so a voice called out, "Daphne Greengrass!"

Harry frowned and looked around for the source of the voice. Daphne followed him into the common room and the voice shouted, "Harry Potter!"

"What the hell?" Daphne asked with a frown.

In the corner of the room Susan and Lilly were chuckling. Harry raised an eyebrow at them and made his way over to them, "What have you two done?"

"Oh you know, just put a charm on the door," Lilly said with a chuckle.

"What kind of charm?" Daphne asked them curiously.

"One that shouts out the name of the last person you had sex with," Susan admitted with a grin.

Harry and Daphne both chuckled at this initially but then Harry got serious, "That might not be such a good idea. What if someone's cheating on someone and that reveals it to everyone?"

"Then they shouldn't be cheating in the first place," Susan said simply, a dark look passed through her eyes.

"Susan, nobody deserves that though," Daphne said in a whisper.

Lilly cut in, "It won't, I programmed it so it won't reveal secrets like that. If someone's in a relationship it will say their partner's name."

"Thanks Lil," Harry said with a smile.

Lilly nodded, "You are right Harry, it isn't fair."

As the night went on the portrait charm became quite amusing although at first there weren't many surprises as most of the people were together. But as the party got going everybody forgot about the door anyway so it turned out to be a harmless prank after all.

***

The pranks didn't stop, in fact if anything more people got involved. After the party on Friday night there was a nice quiet weekend. They were now well into April with the exams coming up in May so the quiet weekend wasn't exactly fun because it involved spending the whole weekend revising for exams. It wasn't something Harry usually did but these were the most important exams he was ever going to take and he really wanted to get the grades he needed so that he didn't get kicked out of Auror training.

The next prank came on Monday morning. Harry and Draco woke up around the same time and both sleepily got dressed, they didn't even really look at each other until they got close to the door to their dorm.

Both boys yelped in surprise when they saw each other and rushed to a mirror. They were both wearing make-up and after 30 minutes in the bathroom trying to scrub it off it was apparent that the make-up wasn't going to budge.

"I bet they all teamed up to do this," Draco said in annoyance as he and Harry made their way downstairs to the common room looking like idiots.

"Who? The girls?" Harry asked and Draco nodded as they arrived in the common room to discover that Theo and Neville had make-up on too. This only confirmed their suspicions and the girls gave it away by practically crying with laughter when Draco and Harry emerged into the common room.

"It won't wash off until the end of the day," Sadie choked out through her laughter.

Theo glared at her, "Sadie! How could you do this?"

"Theo, you said it would be funny if all of the Gryffindors turned into snakes," Hermione said as she stood with her arms crossed, "We think you wearing eyeshadow and lipstick is pretty funny."

"This so isn't funny," Harry grumbled and Draco agreed, they both glared at their girlfriends who didn't stop laughing. Then they stomped loudly out of the common room only to get laughed at by the portrait of Lily Evans and the Marauders.

***

The next day another prank team struck. When Harry emerged into the entrance hall, thankfully free of make-up, with Daphne, Draco and Hermione, the group all stopped and stared at what they saw.

Hanging in the middle of the entrance hall was an enlarged and extremely edited version of the picture Dean had taken of Draco teaching Harry how to dance. It was edited to look like Draco was wearing a suit and Harry was wearing a wedding dress and a large crowd were gathered around laughing at the image.

Draco hid his face in his hands and Harry actually hit his head against the wall, "_How _is anyone going to take us seriously as Aurors?" he asked as he shook his head at the image.

"Shame," A voice teased from behind them. Draco and Harry spun around to see a very smug Theo with an extremely amused Neville lurking next to him.

"Okay, this is taking it a little too far now," Draco said, for the first time he was actually offended by a prank, "It was fun before, this is embarrassing and damaging to our future careers."

Theo made a face, "Give it up Draco, you're just annoyed that we got one over on you."

"No," Harry said backing Draco up, "This is too far."

Hermione nodded, "Seriously, this really could affect their career, you should take it down."

"We can't," Neville piped up guilty, "It has a sticking charm on it, it will stay there for a week."

Harry sighed and continued through the hall into the great hall for breakfast.

Daphne hurried after him and Draco irritably remarked, "Nice one Theo."

As he too made his way into the hall Hermione said to the boys, "I know you two were just joking around but maybe this 'war' should end here. We all know people only get hurt in wars."

Without waiting for a response she made her way into the great hall and left behind a guilty Neville and a miffed Theo.

***

Hermione had hoped the pranks would stop there but they didn't. When she woke up the next morning another prank was on the notice board. It was a list stuck to the board with a sticking charm that detailed Theo's conquests.

Only a few people had seen it before Theo and when the Slytherin made his way down in the morning and saw a small crowd around the notice board he did what he usually did which was push through the crowd to see what they were all looking at, then he saw the list.

"_The Lucky Ladies!_

_~ Tracey Davis_

_~ Lavender Brown_

_~ Annie Perks_

_~ Sally Smith_

_~ Susan Bones_

_~ Pansy Parkinson_

_~ Cho Chang_

_~ Zara Zabini_

_~ Megan Jones_

_~ Sadie Cauldwell"_

"Merlin!" Theo exclaimed as he examined the list, "Is it only 10? I thought it was way more than that!"

"Is that all you've ever done? Screw loads of girls over and laugh about it? People on that list are dead Theo!" Harry said bitterly and as he left the common room with a Daphne hurried after him in concern.

Before Theo could get over the shock of Harry's reaction he was punched in the face by Blaise who said angrily, "I cannot believe you slept with my Mother!"

Next forward to verbally or physically attack Theo was Draco, "You slept with my fucking girlfriend! That list isn't a fucking lie Theo, so when did you screw Pansy, while we were together?"

"Draco...it wasn't like that-" Theo tried to say.

Draco shook his head angrily; “- it was exactly like that Theo! You screwed her and me over. I'm supposed to be your best friend but I guess that's just what you do!" He stormed from the room without another word and Hermione swiftly followed him.

As the crowd dispersed Theo was cornered by Sadie, she didn't look pissed off like the others had but what she was doing was so much worse, she was crying.

"You lied to me about so much Theo," Sadie said and her voice shook, "You denied that you ever slept with Sally Smith! You _know _I hate that skanky little bitch and you still slept with her and worst you never told me! I don't want to be remembered as the stupid woman who was fooled by your one year of honesty and married you!"

Sadie slid off her engagement ring and pushed it into Theo's hand. He gaped after her as she rushed from the common room in tears. He looked around the common room and saw Sally laughing. Merlin, she was an evil fucking wench.

Theo swore loudly and stormed up to his dorm room. He was sure of one thing; this had gone too far. The prank war was now officially over.

**TBC :)**


	54. Is It Too Late to Apologise?

Theo didn't leave his room for the rest of the day; he even skipped all of his classes. As annoyed as they were the others had to admit that they were slightly worried, although Sadie hadn't said a word to anyone all day.

In the end it was Harry who made his way up to Theo's dorm first and spoke to the Slytherin.

"You're a wanker Theo but whoever put that list there shouldn't have done it. My bets on Sally, she's a malicious bitch," Harry said as he sat down on the edge of Theo's bed, it was clear to see that he had been crying.

Theo didn't even bother looking up at Harry, "No offence Harry but can you please just piss off?"

"Theo, you've got something fantastic with Sadie. If you'd just tell people the truth and be honest you'd be a happier person. You need to stop being an arrogant git and accept how good what you have is and hold onto it," Harry said as he decided to ignore Theo's rude behaviour, "If you don't you're going to become like Snape. You’ll be a sad, bitter, pathetic lonely old man who once had something amazing but let it go and regretted it for the rest of his life."

"Whatever I did or didn't have with Sadie, I fucked it up," Theo said as he clenched his hand tightly around the ring cutting into his palm. He unclenched it and showed Harry the ring which was now coated in blood from where Theo had cut himself clenching it, "She gave me the ring back."

"Everyone says the Slytherins are supposed to be cunning. If you were a proper snake you'd find some way to make Sadie take that ring back but as it is you're nothing more than a worm," Harry said and of course this earned him a punch to the face. Harry didn't flinch as he casually wiped the blood from his mouth.

"Don't talk to me like that," Theo hissed angrily.

Harry said calmly, "Do you want to know how to get out of this situation? You say sorry to every person you've screwed over in the past. Because Theo you _have_ been a git and you've slept with a lot of people but this is your chance to right all of those wrongs."

"What do you know about righting wrongs?" Theo asked bitterly as he angrily wiped his eyes and turned away from Harry.

"I know that I never got a chance to right a lot of my wrongs. A man who was practically a Father to me died and I never really got to say sorry for being a bastard to him before he did," Harry said as he got slightly worked up, "Didn't what happened to Dean and Tracey teach you anything? The war might be over but we live in a dangerous world. If you lost Sadie tomorrow wouldn't you want her to go knowing you loved her?"

Theo sighed and rested his head in his hands, "Of course I would Harry but I don't know if she wants to hear that at the moment."

"Trust me Theo, she wants to hear it more than anything but she wants to be able to believe it and she won't until you give up on this manly facade and be honest with her," Harry said truthfully.

Theo groaned, "Where do I even start?"

"I usually find the beginning is as good a place as any," Harry said somewhat cryptically.

Theo snorted and said, "Merlin, now you just sound like bloody Dumbledore."

Harry only chuckled and said, "Well like him or not, he knew what he was talking about, trust me."

"In that case I'll start with you. Sorry for punching you in the face," Theo said, he tried his best to sound sincere but it just looked slightly awkward.

Harry raised an eyebrow at his friend, "I don't think you have to say sorry to me but I think that will do for Blaise. You're going to need to get a lot more heartfelt for Draco and Sadie though.''

Theo managed a weak chuckle at this, "Draco's going to be harder than Sadie," he muttered.

Harry laughed, "Yeah, you might well be right there."

"Thanks Harry and sorry for being a wanker," Theo said as Harry got to his feet.

The Gryffindor smiled at his friend, "I forgive you Theo."

Theo nodded as Harry left the dorm room. He looked down at the ring and cast a cleaning charm on it then slipped it into his pocket. He took a moment to gather his thoughts. After a couple of minutes, he came to the conclusion that Harry was right. This was a good chance to right his wrongs.

***

Theodore Nott did not often wander the halls of Hogwarts alone, he usually had company but at the moment everybody hated him. After composing himself he decided to go and find Blaise and apologise. Harry had let him borrow the Marauders map which he had spent 10 minutes admiring before he had even started his search for Blaise. Eventually he found him and Ginny on the map, they were in the owlery.

Theo had a lot of tension he needed to release so the fairly long jog to the owlery helped him out a lot; he stuffed the map back in his pocket as he got to the steps and then he slowed to a walk. He found Blaise and Ginny sending a letter off with Blaise's large barn owl.

Blaise didn't bother moving when he saw Theo but Ginny smiled slightly, "I'll head back up to the school, I reckon you two need some privacy."

"Thanks Gin," Theo said as the redhead walked away. He looked up at Blaise and leant against the wall, "Hey," he said somewhat awkwardly.

"What are you doing here Theo?" Blaise asked.

"Um, well funny you should ask that-"

"I'm not in the mood for any of your bullshit, either say what you're gonna say or go," Blaise said.

"Okay," Theo began with a deep sigh, "I know I've been a complete wanker but I really am sorry about what happened."

"What did happen? But spare me the details please," Blaise asked as he watched his fellow Slytherin carefully.

"Well, remember that time I came to visit you in the summer after 6th Year?" Theo asked and Blaise nodded.

Theo continued, "Your Mother kind of...I don't know what she did. It felt like that thing Gabrielle does, I only remember it in flashes."

Blaise gave Theo a long hard penetrating look. It felt a bit like Blaise was staring into Theo's soul and Theo thought to himself, _why is everyone acting like fucking Dumbledore today?_

"Okay Theo, I forgive you this time. It wasn't your fault, she's half Veela and she kind of does that to most men that come anywhere near her," Blaise said with a roll of the eyes, "I was more pissed off that you kept it from me. My Mother told me about it ages ago. I mostly used it as an excuse to hit you to be honest..."

"Oh, okay," Theo said, he was slightly taken aback by this, "So we're good now?"

"Yeah, we're fine," Blaise said honestly, "Just don't do it again, yeah?"

"Deal, I'm staying away from your house, no offence."

"None taken."

As Theo walked away from the owlery he passed Ginny who asked, "Are you two friends again?"

Theo smiled slightly, "Yes, we are but I'm staying away from his Mother."

Ginny snorted in amusement, "Good philosophy," she joked as Theo jogged back towards the main castle.

***

Theo's next job was going to be harder than apologising to Harry and Blaise combined. He had to apologise to Draco who happened to be on the astronomy tower. Theo smirked as he hatched a plan. He started his journey to the astronomy tower which he had to admit was much easier with Harry's map. It meant that he knew which passages to take and who was hiding around the corner or down the next corridor, not that he ever got caught anyway.

When he eventually reached the top of the astronomy tower Draco didn't bother turning around to look at him.

"Draco, I'm a bastard," Theo admitted, this was the sincerest he had been in his life, "I really am and I don't deserve a friend like you. I know you hate me right now but can you please just think about what we've been through together?"

"Does what we've been through together even mean anything to you Theo?" Draco asked angrily as he spun around to face the other man.

"Of course it does," Theo said, "I wouldn't be standing here if it wasn't for you Draco."

"Yeah you wouldn't and you haven't exactly taken that as a blessing, have you?" Draco asked bitterly.

Theo sighed, "No, I haven't," he said honestly.

"Theo you're my best friend and you're the one person I can always rely on…but you've screwed up," Draco said, tears looked like they were threatening to fall from his eyes as he leant against the railing, "Do you even know what date it is?"

Theo's eyes widened, "Shit, Draco! I'm so sorry, today would have been your anniversary with Pansy."

"I can't believe you slept with her," Draco hissed angrily, "When did it happen Theo?"

Theo looked down, he was pretty certain he would lose Draco over this one, "It was during the war. You were gone a lot and even when you were there Draco you weren't there for her, you were a wreck."

"So you decided to be there for her when I couldn't?" Draco asked angrily, "Is that how it was Theo?"

"No!" Theo exclaimed loudly, "You weren't there Draco! She needed you and you weren't there! She was trying to turn to the light but she needed help and you couldn't give it!"

"Theo, there is more to this than meets the eye isn't there?" Draco asked, he shook his head in disbelief, "You had feelings for her!"

"I did," Theo said, he was doing what Harry had said but this whole honesty thing didn't seem to be working out that well, "It was a couple of times in the Christmas holidays Draco, you weren't there and Pansy was helping me rescue people from the Dark Tower. Of course I still had feelings for Sadie but people had been torturing her, I couldn't even have a conversation with her for weeks! She just sat and stared at a blank wall, all I had was Pansy!"

"She was my girlfriend Theo!" Draco yelled.

This only caused Theo to yell back, "But you never treated her like it! You treated her like a chess piece you could screw around with! You say you hate Weasley for what he did to Hermione but back then you were worse than that!"

"There is no excuse for screwing your best friend's girlfriend!" Draco shouted.

Theo snapped back, "I was in love with her Draco! For fucks sake I loved her!"

After this confession it took Theo a moment to get his breath back and Draco took a moment to take in what Theo had said.

"I watched her die too; you weren't the only one, I saw it too," Theo brushed the tears from his face, "I tried to do everything to save her but I couldn't! And I was at the funeral and you didn't even notice! It wasn't because of her; it was never because of Pansy! It was because of your problems, until Hermione changed you it was only ever about you! You were a selfish bastard!"

Draco didn't seem to be able to find the words to reply to this, he just stared at Theo in shock.

Once Theo had his breath back he asked, "Do you know how she died Draco?"

"She was killed by an Auror in a duel," Draco replied, he didn’t bother to wipe his tears away anymore.

"No she wasn't," Theo said, "She saw an Auror go for you and she stepped in front of the killing curse aimed at you. She died for you and you didn't even love her."

"I did love her!" Draco shouted at Theo, "Of course I loved her Theo! She was the only person who knew me, she knew everything about me and she accepted me and loved me even for all of my flaws! She still loved me when I became a Death Eater! She was the only person who I let myself cry in front of! SO DON'T YOU DARE TRY AND SAY THAT I DIDNT LOVE HER!"

"I LOVED HER TOO DRACO!" Theo shouted just as loudly with tears in his eyes.

"You didn't carry her coffin to the grave Theo," Draco said quietly but his eyes burned, “You didn't have to sit with her crying Mother all day! I grew up with her, I knew her for longer than I knew you, she was my best friend!"

Theo and Draco were both breathing heavily now.

"I thought I was your best friend," Theo said, the hurt in his voice was clear, "We grew up together too, we were like brothers."

"Yeah, we were once," Draco said as he turned back to the night sky.

"So that's it then?"

"I guess so."

"After 17 years of friendship you're just going to throw it all away?" Theo asked weakly.

Draco still didn't turn around and Theo was quite embarrassed about the fact that he had tears in his eyes. It seemed that his friendship with Draco was crumbling away right before his eyes. There was a long silence between the two Slytherins.

"Draco, the war is over. You can stop living as if your life is in danger," Theo said gently.

"No I can't…because I'll never be the same," Draco said just as softly.

"Neither will I," Theo admitted, "I saw people I loved dying, I nearly saw you die twice. I can't do that again."

"Theo you practically died in my arms when we got you out of the Dark Tower...you had been in there for months, slowly starving," Draco said quietly and his voice broke slightly, "Do you think I want to see that again?"

"I'm sorry about everything that happened Draco, I really am but one thing I can't lose is you. You're the person who helped me through everything, you were the one who was there for me when I was coping with having no Mother and you were there when I hated my Step-Mother for moving in, and you were there when my half-sister was born and I didn't know how to deal with it."

Draco finally turned back around and sighed, "I'm sorry too. You're right, I wasn't there for Pansy during the war…I was selfish."

"I still shouldn't have slept with her, feelings or not," Theo reasoned and at this Draco gave him a small nod.

"I know you and Harry are good friends now Draco," Theo said quietly as he looked down at the ground, "But I never intend to watch you dying again and to do that I need to be your Auror partner."

There was a moment of silence and Theo looked up just in time to catch Draco's eye, his fellow Slytherin nodded, "If we get any choice in the matter Theo, I want to be your partner."

Both boys gave each other a small nod and then after a moment of slightly awkward silence they walked the short distance towards each other and hugged. When they pulled away from the hug Theo put his arm around Draco and asked conversationally, "Do you ever think we act a bit like a couple?"

"We basically are a couple Theo," Draco joked, "Just without the sex."

"So are we back together?" Theo asked in amusement.

Draco laughed, "Yeah, I suppose we are. But speaking of being back together, whats happening with Sadie?"

"She gave me the ring back," Theo said sadly, "And broke up with me."

"And what are you going to do about it?" Draco asked.

"I don't know, I need to at least try and apologise but I don't even know where to start," Theo said with a sigh, he felt a pounding headache coming on.

"Show as much raw emotion as you did with me for a start," Draco said, "I haven't seen you that emotional since you were 6 years old when I stole your favourite hippogriff cuddly toy and dropped it in the lake."

"I still cry for that toy," Theo joked.

Draco laughed again, "Seriously though mate, try and fix things with Sadie. If you don't you'll regret it for the rest of your life."

"You sound like Harry," Theo grumbled.

Draco rolled his eyes at this, "You've got to stop using jokes to hide your feelings."

Theo merely sighed at this and Draco said, "By the time we get back Sadie will be in her dorm anyway so you should probably give her the night to sleep and calm down a little, talk to her tomorrow morning."

Theo nodded, "I will, thanks Draco."

Draco just smiled at him and said, "Hey, what are friends for?"

***

Theo didn't sleep at all that night, he sat up in bed mulling over how he was going to apologise to Sadie and how he was going to get her back. He spent so long going through everything he had ever done to her and all the ways he had screwed up. When his alarm finally buzzed to tell him it was 7am he couldn't have been gladder to say hello to the morning. That had been one of the longest, loneliest nights of his life.

When Theo got to the common room Sadie had just left. He rushed out after her and ran down the stairs, he took them two at a time. When he did eventually catch up with her it was just before she made it onto the grand staircase.

"Sadie, wait, please!" Theo called and he knew exactly how desperate he sounded but for once he didn't care. He didn't care about how he looked or sounded to anyone apart from Sadie.

At first he didn't think that she would stop, but she did. Theo jogged to catch up with her and when she turned around he felt his heart drop in his chest as he saw the dark bags under her red bloodshot eyes.

"Can we talk Sadie, please?" Theo begged, he was praying that she would at least give him a chance, another one. Theo knew deep down that he didn't deserve that chance.

"Why should I talk to you Theo?" Sadie asked, her voice wasn't chirpy like it usually was. She sounded emotionless and fed up, "All you would do is fill me with more lies that I'd stupidly eat up."

"I did lie about Sally but I haven't lied about anything else. I promise, I've told you everything," Theo said honestly as his voice broke, "Please just let me explain, I'm practically begging you."

"It's kind of pathetic Theo," Sadie said with a bitter glare.

"I know it is," Theo said honestly, "But I don't care how pathetic it is if it means you’ll let me explain. If you choose to still hate me after that then I'll let you go but please Sadie, let me explain first."

Sadie sighed and pressed her fingers against her forehead, "Fine," she said as she threw her hands up into the air. She followed Theo into an empty classroom and once they were inside Theo shut the door and turned around. Sadie stood and watched him with her arms crossed over her chest.

"I'm a massive screw up, I know that. I also know that I'm a complete bastard and that I definitely don't deserve a girl as perfect as you," Theo began as he walked towards her, "But I do love you Sadie, I love you so much and you've given me a chance which I've completely blown, I know that! I'm not going to make up any excuses for the way that I am, I could say it was because I had a screwed up childhood but then so did Harry and look how he turned out. I know all you've ever wanted was for me to let you see the real me and I've tried so hard to let you see that. You are the only person who knows me inside out, apart from maybe Draco."

"I clearly don't know you that well," Sadie said with a glare, "Or I'd have known about Sally. Did Draco know about that one?"

"No, he didn't," Theo replied honestly, "Nobody did Sadie which is how I know the bitch put that list up. I didn't tell you because I knew that you hated her! It was one night and I stupidly agreed, the bitch has held it over me ever since because she's a vindictive little witch!"

"I did warn you!" Sadie hissed, "I told you not to go anywhere near her and you said you wouldn't!"

"I know and I'm sorry!" Theo snapped, "But I promised myself at the Yule Ball. I promised myself that I would never hurt you because I started to fall in love with you. It would have hurt you and I never wanted to do that."

"Did you love her?" Sadie asked, the anger and bitterness was gone now. All that remained was sadness.

"No," Theo replied simply.

"Did you ever really love me Theo? Or was this just an elaborate attempt to try and do something serious with your life and I was the only girl stupid enough to try it on?" Sadie asked as tears began to fall from her eyes.

At this Theo lost his temper, "I cannot believe that you would even suggest that! Of course I love you Sadie, I've never loved anyone more than I love you! It makes what I felt for Pansy seem like a childhood crush! I can't even put what I feel for you into words, it's just there and it's constant and you make me so happy! But you don't see that! Since we got together I've been entirely truthful with you and completely loyal but you find out about one little lie and you give me back the engagement ring? I think if anyone has a right to question love it's me! How could you just hand it back to me like that? Did it mean _nothing_ to you?"

By this point both Sadie and Theo were both in tears and neither of them bothered to hide them.

"Theo how can you be so clueless?" Sadie shouted angrily.

Theo was taken aback by this because while she could be cold Sadie very rarely shouted, "You mean _everything_ to me! When I saw that list I thought the worst, all the scenarios flashed through my mind! I thought you hadn't told me because you loved her or because it had been a long-term thing! I knew about Pansy and I couldn't understand why you wouldn't tell me about her!" Sadie cried as she shouted, "I wish I could believe that you're always completely honest with me but you're never serious so how am I supposed to know if you're ever sincere about anything?"

"Sadie, I'm only 18 years old at the end of the day," Theo said quietly, "I'm going to make mistakes and so are you, we all are. I'm not sure of much and I do joke around but with everything I have I am so sure that I want you to marry me. I can't imagine where my career will be in 10 years or what I'll be doing with my life but I can imagine you, you and me. The only thing I can see in the future is you, you in a wedding dress, you and me surrounded by all of our crazy kids, that's all I want. That's all I'm sincere about and I swear to Merlin, I mean that."

The raw emotion that Theo had let spill out the night before with Draco had come out again during his speech to Sadie and it did the trick but it had also been completely from Theo's heart. Sadie broke down into tears and fell into Theo's arms.

"I'm so sorry for giving you the ring back Theo, I was so stupid," Sadie sobbed as she clung onto Theo as if for dear life.

"Don't be sorry, it was my fault and I'm sorry too," Theo whispered as he closed his eyes and held her tight. When she pulled back from the hug Theo pulled the gleaming ring out of his pocket and Sadie smiled, her face was red and her eyes were puffy.

"So what do you say Sadie? Take me back?" Theo asked as he dropped down onto one knee, "Because I can tell you right now that you are the only person I want to spend the rest of my life with."

Sadie nodded, she was still crying as Theo slipped the ring back onto her finger. She wrapped her arms around him once more and he held her tightly until her sobs subsided.

***

"Do you think they will make up?" Hermione asked Draco quietly as she bit her lip, they had just seen Sadie and Theo disappear into an empty classroom together.

"I hope so, he's happier with her than he's ever been in his life," Draco said with a sigh.

"But they _were_ the first to get engaged. Don't you think it's a bit young?" Hermione asked.

Draco shrugged, "I don't know, I think it was right for them at the time."

"And when do you think it will be right for us?" Hermione asked, this alarmed Draco and Hermione added quickly, "Metaphorically of course."

Draco smiled and kissed Hermione on the cheek, "You'll know when it's the right time."

"How?" Hermione asked curiously.

Draco replied with a smirk, "I'll give you a ring."

"Very funny," Hermione said dryly, although she did smile at her boyfriend, "What about Harry and Daphne?"

"I don't know about them," Draco said thoughtfully, "I mean they love Teddy obviously but can you see them settling down really quickly?"

"Oi! I want 3 kids thanks very much!"

The slightly miffed female voice belonged to Daphne who was walking behind them with Harry.

"I thought you wanted 4 kids," Harry chuckled.

"I do," Daphne said with a cryptic smile, "But we already have Teddy and 1 plus 3 equals 4."

"Really?" Draco asked sarcastically.

Daphne said, "Yeah, it's called maths dumbass. And for your information Black, I bet Harry and I get engaged before you and Hermione."

"Daphne," Harry said in amusement and exasperation, "Don't bet on who’s going to get engaged first."

Daphne rolled her eyes, "Fine," she said.

Harry chuckled, "And to think you were scared of relationships when I met you."

Daphne merely smiled at this and took Harry's hand, "Of course, if I have those kids with Harry he won't get any choice in naming them."

"Oi!"

"You want to call them after a bunch of dead people!" Daphne exclaimed.

Hermione chuckled, "Albus Severus..."

"Imagine if he named a kid after all the people he knows who have died..." Draco said thoughtfully, "Albus Severus Lily James Sirius Remus Cedric Alistair Hedwig Potter, you were named for 9 of the bravest people I ever knew and an owl..."

Harry hit Draco around the back of the head for this and said playfully, "Oh shut it Draco."

Draco sniggered and said, "Anyway, as far as engagements go some people's names just sound right. I mean Sadie Nott for example. Now Daphne Potter though, that just sounds weird."

"So does Hermione Black," Harry said, "I mean it sounds like she's marrying Sirius! You'll have the same name as my Godfather!"

Hermione rolled her eyes and said, "Oh come on Harry, we both know Hermione Weasley sounds weirder."

"Gross," Draco agreed.

Harry rolled his eyes, "Ginny Potter never really sounded right either, or Cho Potter actually."

"Hermione Krum..." Daphne teased and Hermione rolled her eyes again.

"So Hermione, is Draco going to give kids normal names?" Daphne asked as she walked ahead and grabbed Hermione's arm.

"Well he's probably going to want to name them all after bloody star signs," Hermione said.

Draco objected from behind, "Cassiopeia and Elladora are nice names!"

"I think they should invent a new law that states that men shouldn't be allowed to name children," Daphne stated matter of factly.

Hermione laughed loudly at this, "I completely agree."

"Merlin, what have we let ourselves in for?" Harry asked as he listened to the girls start a discussion on baby names.

"I don't know," Draco admitted with a chuckle.

***

When Sadie and Theo walked into the great hall towards the end of breakfast holding hands there was a round of applause and some of the 8th Years even stood up to cheer. Sadie blushed, she didn't like all of the attention. Theo would usually have lapped it up but he just put his arm around Sadie and led her towards the 8th Year table.

"So it's back on," Lilly said with a raised eyebrow as Sadie sat down and flashed her ring.

"Yeah," Sadie said sheepishly, "And we've set a date."

"When is it?" Lilly asked eagerly.

Sadie replied with a smile "The first Saturday in July."

"Oh Merlin!" Lilly squealed as she hugged her friend, Sadie couldn't stop smiling.

"That's great Sadie," Daphne said happily as she jumped up and hugged Sadie. From the other side Hermione congratulated and hugged Sadie. Even Ginny shouted her congrats from across the table. Susan hurried over from the other end of the table to get the gossip and she too hugged and congratulated her friend.

Sadie smiled at them all, "I actually wanted to ask you something Daph," she blushed a little, "I wondered if you'd be my maid of honour."

"Are you kidding?" Daphne asked with a grin, "Of course Sadie! It would be an honour!"

"And I wondered if you guys would be bridesmaids," Sadie said to Hermione, Lilly and Susan. They were all delighted at being asked and Lilly and Susan wasted no time in saying that they would love to be Sadie's bridesmaids.

Hermione smiled broadly at Sadie, "Of course I will Sadie, it means a lot that you would ask."

Next to Sadie, Theo smiled as she told her new maid of honour and bridesmaids the news. He turned to Draco who was sitting next to him, "So Draco, what do you say? Will you be my best man?"

Draco was a little embarrassed about the fact he got slightly teary at this but he nodded, "Of course I will Theo, you can count on it."

Theo nodded happily and patted his friend on the back. Neville sniggered across the table and Harry whispered, "Oh shut up you, you'll be the same when I ask you to be my best man," he said with a wink.

Neville smirked, "But I won't anymore because now I know you're going to ask."

Harry rolled his eyes at this and Neville asked jokingly, "Does this mean I have to ask you to be mine now?"

"If you're going to be like that I'll ask Draco," Harry joked.

Neville laughed, "Nah, of course I'm going to ask you to be my best man Harry when I eventually get to that point. I can’t imagine anyone else standing beside me on the biggest day of my life but I'm surprised that you would want me over Ron.”

"I don't know about Ron," Harry sighed, "He's still a great friend and he always will be. But keeping in touch is far harder than it should be considering how close he is."

"I get it," Neville said with a slight smile.

Harry nodded thoughtfully, "Well as my future best man are you free this weekend? I'm sort of going shopping for a certain sparkly circular object."

Neville grinned, "Of course I'll come with you. Looks like I'll be the last by a longshot to get engaged."

"Well you and Lil did just get together," Harry pointed out, "And you're the most sceptical about relationships since Hannah."

"I'm not that sceptical about this one," Neville smiled, "I'm not anywhere near the thinking about rings part yet but I'm definitely falling head over heels."

"She's a brilliant girl," Harry said with a fond smile, "I'm not surprised."

"Yeah well you've got a pretty good one yourself," Neville said as he patted Harry on the back.

Harry smiled even more broadly and glanced over at Daphne. She looked up when she saw him and she smiled back at him. He gave her a vague wave and he knew that it was certainly time to start thinking more seriously about his relationship with Daphne.

"So Harry, Nev, Blaise," Theo said, "Fancy being my groomsmen?"

Harry grinned, "Sure thing Theo," he said.

Neville smiled widely, "Of course mate!"

"As long as my Mother isn't invited, sure," Blaise said with a smirk.

Harry had one conclusion for the events of the last few days, despite the bumps in the road his life was definitely very good.

**TBC :)**

** **


	55. The Secrets of Hogwarts

April marched on and when Saturday rolled around Harry found himself being cornered by Daphne.

"Where are you and Neville going today?" Daphne asked with narrowed eyes.

"Shopping," Harry said simply as he pulled on his cloak.

"What kind of shopping?" Daphne asked curiously.

Harry rolled his eyes, "You wonder why I never surprise you woman," he joked.

"You're ring shopping, aren't you?" Daphne asked with a slightly smug smile.

"No, Neville is shopping for Lilly's birthday," Harry corrected as he pulled on his shoes, "I'm assisting, don't get too excited."

"I wasn't getting excited," Daphne said with an amused smile, "But I think it's sweet that you're helping Neville."

"He is my best friend," Harry said as he got to his feet, he kissed Daphne on the cheek, "Have a good day with the girls," he added as he jogged down the stairs into the common room.

"Hey Harry," A familiar voice said the moment Harry came out of the staircase.

Harry frowned as he looked at Lilly who was casually lounging on the sofa, "Where are you and Nev off to today?"

"Neville is assisting me," Harry said quietly, “With a certain type of shopping for Daphne."

Lilly raised an eyebrow at him, "Are you buying her lingerie or an engagement ring?"

"The latter," Harry said in amusement, "And your boyfriend happens to have fine taste, by the way."

"Interesting," Lilly chuckled, "Well have fun and good luck."

"Thanks," Harry said simply as Neville appeared at the bottom of the stairs. He kissed Lilly lightly on the lips and said goodbye before walking over to Harry.

"Ready to go?"

"Yep," Harry said as he and Neville left the common room and made their way down the spiral staircase out of the tower.

"My girlfriend is far too nosy," Harry said in amusement.

Neville chuckled at this, "Did Daphne try and wheedle it out you this morning then?"

"Yes she did," Harry said, "I threw her off the scent by saying I was helping you buy Lilly a birthday present."

Neville laughed, "Which is true technically because I am going to do that."

"Exactly," Harry said with a slight smirk.

The two boys made their way out of the castle and then apparated to Diagon Alley. Neville strode ahead and made his way into the jewellers but Harry held back slightly. This was a big step for him so Harry took a moment to catch his breath before following Neville inside.

"So what kind of thing are you looking for?" Harry asked Neville.

"Something simple," Neville said thoughtfully, "I'm thinking some sort of necklace...probably gold...in fact just like that..."

Harry peered over Neville's shoulder at the necklace. It was simple and it was gold. It had a golden heart pendant with a pearl in the middle and diamonds lining the heart.

"Very nice," Harry agreed with a smile, "I wish buying an engagement ring for Daphne was that simple..."

Neville chuckled, "I'll pay for this, you start looking," he said.

Harry took his friends advice and walked along, he looked into cabinet after cabinet full of engagement rings and after 5 or 10 minutes one caught his eye.

"Would you like to have a better look sir?" The woman behind the desk asked and Harry said yes. The woman handed him the ring and he examined it more carefully. It was silver with a diamond at its centre. The entire band was decked out with diamonds and emeralds. There were two strips of emerald at the top and bottom of the band, and the centre was diamond like the stone set into the ring. It wasn't too chunky, it was certainly fantastic and sophisticated and it would look _perfect _on Daphne's finger.

He stared at the ring for a moment. He thought about it, he _really _thought about whether or not this was a sensible decision but he knew he wanted to marry Daphne, he wanted to raise Teddy with her, he wanted them to have their own children one day. He knew it was what he wanted.

"Wow, nice ring," Neville said as he appeared silently by Harry's side.

"I'll take it," Harry said to the woman behind the desk.

"Seriously?" Neville asked with a grin.

Harry nodded at his friend as he paid for the ring.

They slipped out of the jewellers together and Harry grinned at Neville, "It was perfect."

"Daph will love it," Neville agreed, "Come on, let's go for a drink to celebrate."

"To celebrate what?" Harry joked, "You don't know if she'll say yes."

"She'll say yes," Neville said with a knowing smile, "When are you planning on proposing?"

"I have no idea," Harry said honestly as they entered the pub, "When the moment feels right, I guess."

Neville patted Harry proudly on the back, "I'm proud of you Harry, congrats!" he said cheerfully.

***

When Harry and Neville got back to the common room the girls were out so it made sneaking upstairs and hiding their purchases all the easier, although Harry did make sure to perform all the necessary checks to make sure that Daphne wasn't hiding under his invisibility cloak in the common room or his dorm room, he wouldn't have put it past her to do such a thing.

With the ring safely stowed away in his trunk for the moment until he had time to find a better hiding place, Harry smiled slightly to himself. He had asked Neville to keep it to himself and he knew that he would, he didn't plan on telling Draco or Theo about the ring, for now he wanted to keep it as secret as possible.

As the week wore on Harry didn't get enough time away from Daphne to hide the ring but then on Tuesday evening he had a genius idea. He waited until very late at night and when Daphne finally fell asleep he grabbed the ring, pocketed it and made his way out of the dorm room and through the common room. Once he was outside in the corridor he opened up the Marauders map and scanned it. He needed to go down the spiral staircase, out of the 8th Year tower to the east side of the 7th floor, onto the grand staircase and then back onto the 7th floor on the west side to reach his destination. Usually that was an easy type of run at 3am in the morning but for some reason there were many obstacles tonight.

Harry smirked, _just like old times, _he thought to himself, he then had a slight pang of pain at the fact Ron wasn't with him at the moment, he had loved sneaking around the castle with his best friend in the dead of night. He was missing the redhead more than normal at the moment but maybe that was his impending proposal making him sentimental.

"Harry!"

Harry jumped and the invisibility cloak slipped slightly. He spun around to see that Hermione had just made her way onto the 8th Year landing and had collided with him. The moment she realised she had collided with something invisible she knew it was Harry.

"Hermione!" Harry said as his heart rate started to return to normal, "Why are you out of bed so late?"

Hermione blushed at the question and replied, "Everyone is so relaxed Harry! They all try and get me to stop studying but you know me. I have to study or I'll never pass so I've been sneaking into the library and studying late at night."

Harry rolled his eyes and chuckled at this, "I'd never change you Hermione," he said fondly, "Do you want to sneak out with me?"

"Where are you going?" Hermione asked curiously.

"McGonagall's office first, then somewhere else hopefully," Harry said with a grin.

Hermione frowned, "Harry...what if McGonagall's awake?"

"She won't be," Harry said with a smile, "Come on Hermione, let’s do it for old time sakes. Don’t you think it will be fun to sneak around under the invisibility cloak one last time?"

Hermione smiled a little sheepishly and Harry added, "We leave at the end of June, we're not going to get many more chances."

"Oh alright," Hermione said with a grin as Harry lifted the cloak up and let Hermione come under it with him. Because neither of them were particularly tall they could fit under it together.

"Do you remember when all three of us could stand under this at our full height without our feet being seen?" Hermione asked with a small smile.

Harry smiled too, "Yeah, I do. Its little things like this I'll miss when we leave."

"Me too, Harry," Hermione said softly. Together they made their way down the spiral staircase out of the tower. They narrowly avoided Slughorn on his patrol of the 7th floor as they came out of the tower but they didn't run into any problems on the grand staircase. Once Harry and Hermione made their way into the west side of the 7th floor they met a pretty big obstacle.

Filch was muttering and cursing outside of McGonagall’s office because one of the gargoyles was slightly damaged.

"I'll get you for this Peeves, you'll be out of this school for once and for all," Filch muttered angrily as he swept up the mess.

"How do we get past Filch?" Hermione asked in a whisper. Harry smiled; it really was just like old times.

"I don't know but we need to distract him and we need the password to the office," Harry whispered back.

Hermione smirked, "I'm the Head Girl remember? I know it."

"Hermione, you are fantastic," Harry grinned as he glanced back over to Filch and tried to formulate a plan to distract him.

Harry heard the distant noise of smashing on the lower floor and steered Hermione back onto the grand staircase and down onto the 6th floor.

They found Peeves in a disused bathroom on the 6th floor banging on pipes and flooding the place, "Taking a leaf out of Myrtles book, don't you think?" Harry asked in a whisper to Hermione who chuckled at this.

"Alright, here goes," Harry said quietly, he raised his voice to a harsh, loud whisper and said, "Peeves..."

Peeves spun around and stopped making noise instantly, "What...who...who said that?"

"It is I, the Bloody Baron," Harry said as Hermione shook with silent laughter next to him, "And I demand you to remove Filch from the 7th floor."

"Oh your baron, your holiness, your lordship," Peeves said as he bowed in mid-air, "I am your loyal servant sir."

"I have business there Peeves, I need him far away," Harry continued as Hermione began to cry silently with laughter. She hadn't been with him when he'd done this before, it had been him and Ron, _Ron, _there was another pang of pain at that thought.

"Of course your lordship," Peeves said quickly and he zoomed away. Harry let Hermione have a moment to catch her breath.

"Oh Harry that was fantastic!" Hermione said through her laughter as they made their way back onto the grand staircase, "Ron told me about it the last time but I can't believe he bought it!"

Harry grinned, "I am my Father's son at times Hermione," he said simply as they reached the west end of the 7th floor where Filch was still sweeping and cursing.

Then there was an almighty crash from a few floors down and Filch dropped his brush and hurried away, still cursing Peeves.

Hermione hi-fived Harry and said, "That was great!"

As fast as they could under the cloak they hurried to the gargoyle. Hermione whispered, "Loch Ness," and the gargoyle sprang to life and moved to the side. Harry and Hermione made their way silently up the staircase and through the wooden door into the office which was thankfully empty.

Harry made sure to lock and barricade the door silently to McGonagall's quarters and then he took the cloak off and walked over to Dumbledore's portrait.

"Dumbledore," Harry said quietly.

The old man in the portrait immediately opened his eyes and smiled, "Ah, Harry, I wondered when I might be seeing you."

Harry smiled at this, "I came to ask your advice on something."

"Ask away my boy," Dumbledore said, he peered at Harry over his half-moon glasses and Harry couldn't help but think, _some things never change._

"Well, I have a very sneaky and curious Slytherin girlfriend," Harry said with a chuckle, "And I need a place to hide her engagement ring, somewhere she won't find it."

Dumbledore smiled, it was as if he had read Harry's mind, "The Mirror of Erised is located in a secret tower that very few students know about, however I trust you and Miss. Granger to keep its location to yourselves."

Harry nodded and Hermione did too, a secret tower? This was their biggest adventure yet.

"The tower is called "The Founders Tower" and it is so named because when the castle was built there was an extra tower. Of course there are still some towers which are not in use anymore but this tower seemed to have completely vanished. It was only known about through writings from the time of the founders," Dumbledore explained and Hermione watched the former Headmaster in amazement, "The tower was where the founders lived but after the last founder died it was shut off out of respect to them. It is believed that the sorting hat was created in the tower. After the founders died the entrance to the tower was lost."

"How could it be lost?" Hermione asked, "Surely people can see it from outside the castle?"

Dumbledore smiled fondly at Hermione, "Ah but that is where the secret lies Miss. Granger. When the castle was first built the largest towers did not yet exist, nor did the 6th or 7th floor. These were installed by the founder's descendants as the population grew."

Hermione's eyes widened, "So the tower is actually _inside _the school because the upper floors were built around it!"

Dumbledore's eyes sparkled, "Indeed. When Rosemary Ravenclaw added another wing to the castle she inadvertently blocked off the entrance to the tower."

"So how was it discovered?" Hermione asked quickly, she was intrigued.

"Hogwarts was damaged during the goblin wars long ago and the damage to the castle was mostly fixed. However, the 7th floor was not in use during that period. By the time repairs were finally conducted the goblin wars had been over for a long time," Dumbledore explained, "The Headmaster found a door through a knocked down wall while repairing the floor and followed it up to the founder's tower. As soon as he realised what it was he made the entrance secret out of respect to the founders. Ever since then the secret has been passed down from Headmaster to Headmaster."

"Wow, that's amazing," A wide eyed Hermione said, "But why are you telling us Professor?"

Dumbledore's eyes still sparkled as he smiled and said, "I suspect one of you will succeed Minerva."

Harry and Hermione shared a smile at this and Dumbledore continued, "In fact I find it highly likely that at some point in the future you Harry will be Headmaster, and you Miss. Granger will be the Deputy Headmistress so this secret would always be known to you, just perhaps not so soon."

"So how do we find the entrance?" Harry asked excitedly.

"On the 7th floor on the east side you will find a secret entrance, in fact it is very close to the Eastern tower which you know as the 8th Year tower," Dumbledore informed them, "Are you aware of the secret rooms in that part of the castle?"

"Uh, well there is the Poltergeist passage and the Hall of Hexes," Harry said, he knew of both rooms but he had never really used them.

"Indeed, the Poltergeist Passage is so named because it was the corridor where poor old Peeves died," Dumbledore said, "The Hall of Hexes housed a duel between two students, one of those students was Peeves. He stumbled out into the Poltergeist Passage after being hurt in the duel and died. Yet tales as sad as this somehow did not make it into the history books."

"That's awful," Hermione said sadly, “Poor Peeves."

"Are you aware of a room known generally as the Room of Runes?" Dumbledore asked.

Hermione shook her head straight away but Harry consulted the Marauders map and replied, "It's on the map but there isn't a door into it and all I could see was a wall."

Dumbledore smiled almost mischievously, "The Room of Runes is the key to finding the Founders Tower. What may seem to be an ordinary wall is not so ordinary and the codes on the walls of the Room of Runes will tell you how to find the Founder's Tower."

"Is that all you're going to tell us?" Harry asked as he gaped at the portrait.

Hermione rolled her eyes, "Harry, of course he can't tell us! It's a puzzle; we have to figure it out for ourselves."

Harry rolled his eyes back at Hermione and said, "But that's difficult."

Dumbledore's portrait chuckled and Hermione said in an exasperated tone, "You wanted one last adventure together, this is it.”

Harry grinned, "Alright let's do this then! Thanks Professor."

They then heard movement from McGonagall's quarters so they quickly pulled the cloak on and hurried from the office and back onto the 7th floor.

Harry glanced at the map and made sure that the path was clear, then he and Hermione set off back to the east side of the 7th floor.

"So, you're proposing to Daphne?" Hermione asked with a smirk as they made their way up the grand staircase.

Harry smiled at his best friend, "Yeah, I bought the ring on Saturday. Only Neville and you know though. I'm trying to keep it a secret."

"Can I see the ring?" Hermione asked and Harry nodded. He pulled the little black box from his pocket and handed it to Hermione who opened it and gasped at the ring, "Wow, Harry that's perfect, Daphne will love it."

Harry grinned even more broadly at this, "I know," he said as he put the ring back into his pocket.

"I'm really proud of you Harry," Hermione said with a big smile.

"Thanks," Harry said happily as he and Hermione made their way along the east corridor of the 7th floor. Harry was now focusing on the map and running his finger along it.

"Here is the poltergeist passage," Harry said quietly. Hermione looked at the map, in between the entrance to the North tower and the Eastern tower there were a series of rooms she didn't know existed.

"I knew they were there, I found them one night," Harry said with a small frown, "That room there is just a long corridor that isn't used leading to a room, it seemed pretty ordinary, it was just a room with some chairs and stuff in it."

"Well we know why it was shut off now," Hermione said, "It was where Peeves died."

"Yeah," Harry said thoughtfully, his finger was still hovering on the map, "And the other room coming off that corridor is a disused bathroom, I think it was the Head Boy and Head Girls bathroom at one point."

Hermione chuckled and Harry looked at her with a frown, "What do you know?"

Hermione smiled at her friend, "I know why it's not in use anymore," she admitted, "The year your parents were Head Boy and Head Girl Dumbledore decided a shared bathroom wasn't a very good idea."

Harry burst out laughing at this, "That's brilliant, how did you find that out Mione?"

"Sirius told me, that summer we spent at Grimmauld Place," Hermione said with a somewhat sad smile.

Harry smiled fondly at Sirius's memory and looked back down at the map. Hermione looked down too and traced her finger along the main corridor, "Well there's the North Wing," she said thoughtfully, "But that's just a study hall, I doubt the Room of Runes is hidden off of there."

"It's here," Harry said, he pointed at the map and showed Hermione a long, thin room on the map, "That's the Room of Runes and the uncharted big bit behind it is obviously the founder's tower."

Harry and Hermione walked slowly along the main corridor until they reached the wall that the Room of Runes was through. They both looked up at the same time, but the wall was completely blank and ordinary.

"There isn't even a tapestry," Hermione said with a sigh.

"Or a mirror, that's how you get into the Poltergeist Passage," Harry said as he and Hermione continued to stare at the wall for a moment. They walked closer to the wall and Harry noticed a small engraving, "What does that mean Hermione?"

Hermione frowned, "I can't see through the fabric of the cloak," she whispered.

"Take it off then," Harry whispered back, "I'll keep a look out," he pulled the cloak off of them both and let Hermione get a proper look at the marking on the wall.

"Harry, this is an ancient rune," Hermione whispered, "It means blood."

Harry frowned, why would there be a rune for blood on the wall? It was only then that it hit him; it could be blood magic like the cave where Voldemort had hidden Slytherin’s locket. Without telling Hermione what he was doing or even thinking about it too much he muttered a spell that cut into his hand and then he pressed his hand onto the rune.

Hermione gasped and whispered, "Harry! What are you doing?"

Before Harry could reply the wall jumped into life and where the blood rune had been a panel pushed out of the wall, "It's blood magic, I saw Dumbledore use it once," Harry explained.

Hermione frowned as she looked at the panel on the wall, "It's some kind of puzzle," she said.

Harry looked at it and realised it was related to runes, "I can't help, I've never taken Ancient Runes."

"I know," Hermione said as she got immersed in the puzzle, "Just make sure nobody catches us."

"That I can do," Harry said with a chuckle as he looked down at the map to make sure that nobody was coming their way.

Harry expected Hermione to take a while to crack it but he had been examining the map for less than 2 minutes when she exclaimed, "I've got it!"

Harry spun around just in time to see the wall fold back into itself, rather like the wall in Diagon Alley did when you accessed it through the Leaky Cauldron. Harry and Hermione made their way into the secret room and gaped at it in amazement as the wall folded shut behind them. Every surface of wall was covered in runes apart from one section opposite the entrance they had come in through which was in the shape of a door.

"How the hell are we supposed to figure out what to do to open that door?" Harry asked as he looked at the vast amount of ruins covering the walls.

"Well it's a code," Hermione said as she walked slowly around the room, "To gain access to the tower we'll need to figure out something to do with each house."

"What do the runes on the walls say?" Harry asked, he felt completely useless.

"Well these ones," Hermione said pointing to the left wall, "Are the traits of Gryffindor, the ones over there," she pointed to the right wall, "Are the traits of Slytherin," she spun around and pointed to the wall with the door to the tower on it, "Those ones are the traits of Ravenclaw and the ones behind us are the traits of Hufflepuff."

"What about the writing along the bottom?"

"That part isn't so easy to translate. It's really old runes, nobody can fully translate them," Hermione admitted as she bit her lip, "I can make out the words…quest, tower, wit, knowledge and test."

"So it's some kind of test of our wit and knowledge to get into the tower," Harry guessed, he stared at the door in confusion as he tried to figure out what that meant.

"Harry..." Hermione realised, "Some of these panels can be pushed in," she frowned and stepped forward, "do you think we need to spell something out?"

"I don't know," Harry said truthfully, "Can you read out what the letters are?"

"ew, oufr, rea, nncoecetd, otn, yb, lbodo, utb, yb, a, nwat, rfo, a, lpcae, fo, elnagirn, nad, a, ssipaon, ofr, oknldegew."

Harry frowned, "Hermione...it's a code! We four are...connected not by blood...but by a want for...a place of learning...and a passion...for knowledge."

"Harry, you're a genius!" Hermione said loudly as she pushed the panels into the wall in the right order. Once the last panel had been pressed into the wall something began to happen. The part of the wall that was shaped like a door slid back and revealed the secret entrance.

Harry strode ahead eagerly with Hermione at his heels. They made their way up a stone staircase onto a landing at the top. There were 6 doors leading off of the large landing and they all had signs on them...

"_~ Quarters of Godric Gryffindor_

_~ Quarters of Salazar Slytherin_

_~ Quarters of Helga Hufflepuff_

_~ Quarters of Rowena Ravenclaw_

_~ Shared Common Room_

_~ Study/Library/Research Lab"_

"Harry, where should we go?" Hermione asked once she had read the plaque on each door, "Dumbledore didn't tell us which room it was in."

"The common room," Harry said immediately, he stepped forward and turned the handle. The door pushed open with a creak and the fire and the lights on the wall roared to life.

"Wow, this is exactly the same as the 8th Year common room," Hermione said as she stopped in her tracks upon walking into the room.

"It is a bit creepy," Harry agreed as he looked around the room, "There it is!"

Hermione watched curiously as Harry walked over to the Mirror of Erised and pulled the box out of his pocket. He stood in front of the mirror and closed his eyes. Hermione didn't know what he was doing but she was astonished as she saw the box vanish from his hand.

Harry opened his eyes and grinned, "It worked!"

"What exactly did you just do?" Hermione asked in amazement.

"Do you remember in 1st year how I had to go through and face Quirrell alone?" Harry asked and Hermione nodded, "Well Dumbledore hid the Philosophers Stone in the mirror so that you could only get it out if you wanted to find it but not use it so I got the stone out of the mirror when Quirrell couldn't."

"So you just hid the ring in the mirror," Hermione realised with a smile.

Harry smirked, "You've rubbed off on me Mione, I'm not quite as clueless and daft as I once was."

Hermione hooked her arm through Harry's and they made their way out of the tower, "You aren't clueless or daft Harry, you never have been."

***

As April continued to slowly drag by and the exams started to get closer everybody got more depressed but then one day was worse than the others...

On Sunday the 26th of April certain 8th Years were more subdued than others.

Harry made his way down to the common room with Daphne who had been quiet since they had woken up. Harry had asked her what was wrong, but she had only faked a smile and said it was nothing. He knew not to push her so he had nodded and accepted what she said as true.

When they reached the common room and Harry realised that Sadie, Theo and Draco were just as quiet and subdued he knew for sure that something was up. Harry frowned as Daphne said she wasn't going to go to breakfast and instead he and Hermione left the common room.

"It would have been Tracey's birthday today," Hermione explained to Harry the moment the door had shut behind them.

"Oh," Harry realised with a frown, "Should we do something? To comfort them?"

Hermione shook her head, "There isn't anything we can do Harry. They need to do this alone; all we can do is be there for them if they need us."

Harry smiled slightly at Hermione, "When did you get so wise?" he asked.

Hermione gave him a sad smile and said honestly, "When we left the civilised world to live in a tent for months."

As Harry and Hermione sat at the 8th Year table in the great hall they were silent as a mark of respect to Tracey. They then made their way back upstairs to the common room where the Slytherins were still sitting staring silently into the fire.

Harry and Hermione spent the next little while trying to do something to draw their friends out of their sad state. They tried to talk to them but they got no response so they tried to get them out of the castle instead. Harry had asked them if they wanted to go to Hogsmeade or out on the bikes and had gotten no response to either question so he gave up.

"I've had enough of this!" Harry exclaimed as he stood up angrily in front of them, "I didn't know Tracey as well as you did but I know she wouldn't want you to all wallow around all day! She didn't have the chance to become a day older, let alone a year older but you all do! You have a life, you have the chance to get older every year and achieve new things! So stop wasting your day sitting around being miserable and celebrate being alive!"

The speech brought them all out of their dazes, or whatever it was that they were in. Draco, Daphne, Theo and Sadie all looked up at Harry.

"Shut up Potter, you don't know what this feels like," Theo said bitterly.

This only made Harry angrier, "I don't know what it feels like? I got through what should have been my Godfather's 40th birthday in November. It was Remus Lupin's birthday in March and I loved him like a Father, I'm _raising _his child! But did you hear me moan about it? Lots of people I love have died, you should be lucky that you've just lost the one person and you have to pull yourselves out of this."

"Harry's right," Daphne said, her voice was quiet and weak but she stood up, "Tracey wouldn't want us to spend her birthday being miserable."

Sadie nodded; she wiped her eyes and stood up, "No, she would want us to enjoy it."

"If she were alive, what would you do today?" Harry asked the group.

"We'd play Quidditch, we always did on Tracey's birthday," Draco said as he caught Theo's eye.

Theo sighed and nodded, "She loved it."

"Alright then. That's what you'll do today," Harry said, "In fact, that's what we'll all do. I'll see you on the pitch in half an hour."

The group dispersed to their dorm rooms to get changed but Daphne stuck by Harry's side, "Thank you Harry," she whispered with slightly teary eyes, she kissed her boyfriend on the cheek and hurried up the stairs.

From where she was watching Hermione smiled, "With speeches like that you'd make a good Minister for Magic, never mind a Headmaster," she teased.

Harry chuckled and sat down next to her, "Minister? No. But I think I'd like to be Headmaster one day," he said as he smiled into the distance. Hogwarts was his home, he imagined a part of it would always be in his heart and he would love to return to it one day.

***

The day after what would have been Tracey's birthday and the impromptu Quidditch game, everybody was in higher spirits as they made their way down to the great hall for breakfast together.

The day started off spectacularly ordinarily as the group sat down and started eating their breakfast. The moment the day got less ordinary was when the post arrived and three identical owls made their way to the 8th Year table and dropped three identical letters in the laps of Harry, Neville and Hermione. A similar owl made its way over to the Gryffindor table and dropped a letter in front of Ginny. A 5th owl made its way to the Ravenclaw table and deposited a letter on Luna's lap.

Hermione and Neville frowned as they opened their letters but as Harry opened his he had a fairly good idea that it had something to do with the memorial for the one-year anniversary of the war. After all, May was creeping up on them quickly and the letters were definitely from the Ministry. As Harry looked down at his letter he realised that his hunch was confirmed.

"_Dear Mr. Harry James Potter,_

_I am writing to you today on behalf of the Minister for Magic. As I am sure you are aware we are approaching the one-year anniversary of The Battle of Hogwarts. In addition to this on May 2nd this year we will be celebrating one year of peace amongst wizards, muggles and creatures alike. _

_The Ministry of Magic cordially invites you to a Ministry ball in honour of yourself and several other heroes of both the Great Wizarding War and the Second Wizarding War. This ball will be held on Saturday the 1st of May and will begin at 7pm. We would consider it an honour if you, along with certain other war veterans would open the ball. If you accept we would invite you to a meeting and practice session beginning at 6pm on Friday, the 31st of April in the Ballroom suite on level 3 of the Ministry of Magic. You are welcome to bring a guest to this ball. _

_In addition to a ball there will also be a memorial service held at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry to remember those who died in both wars and particularly the students who died in The Battle of Hogwarts. It would be much appreciated if you could prepare a speech for this event, this will be covered in the afore mentioned meeting._

_All of our best wishes,_

_The Minister for Magic's Office"_

At the bottom of the letter was Kingsley's handwritten signature.

"What does yours say?" Harry asked Hermione and Neville.

Before they could reply Ginny approached the table and sat down next to Harry. She frowned and asked, "Did anyone else get this letter?"

"Yeah," Harry said as he showed Ginny his, "Did they invite you to the ball?"

Ginny nodded, "And asked me to open it with other war veterans."

"That's what mine said too," Hermione said.

Neville added, "And mine."

"I think it's an honour," A new voice said as Luna approached the table and sat down next to Ginny, "I've never been to a Ministry Ball before."

"Didn't you go to the one at the end of the war Luna?" Hermione asked.

Luna shook her head, "No, I was busy fixing my house with Daddy."

"Well you didn't miss much," Harry joked with a smile, "It's just a lot of speeches, some dancing and talking to lots of annoying Ministry workers."

At this Luna just smiled and said, "I like dancing, it sounds like lots of fun!"

With that Luna skipped away from the table, Harry chuckled after her, "I still think Luna's perspective of the world is great."

"She's a bit odd though, isn't she?" Daphne asked, she didn’t mean for it to sound nasty.

"She's brilliant," Ginny said with a grin as she watched the Ravenclaw leave the great hall.

"She is. Anyway, my letter also asked if I'd give a speech at the memorial service on the 2nd of May at Hogwarts," Harry said with a dark look, he didn't like remembering the darkness of the previous year.

"You give good speeches," Hermione said but she could tell that Harry wasn't thrilled about the idea.

"That doesn't mean I like giving them," Harry said and at this Hermione and Daphne shared exasperated glances.

"So they want the five of us to open the ball as war heroes," Ginny summarised, she rolled her eyes, "We can't exactly say no to Kingsley after all he's done for us, can we?"

"No and I wouldn't want to," Hermione said honestly, "Although I think it might be the six of us. I expect Ron was asked too and I think it's a good idea Ginny. I hate being celebrated as some kind of hero as much as the rest of you but I think we have a duty to turn up to a ball and do a dance. It's not like they are asking a lot of us, is it?"

"You're right Hermione," Neville said, "And I actually quite like the whole war hero thing."

The others laughed at this and Harry smiled, he was honoured to be asked to be a part of the proceedings but he really hated giving speeches and although he could dance now he didn't like doing it, especially in front of an audience.

Daphne smiled at him and slipped her hand into his under the table, "Hey, it will be okay. Like you said, it's a chance to celebrate life."

"Thank you," Harry whispered as he kissed her lightly. He thought about the ring hidden in the Mirror of Erised in the lost Founders Tower and he found himself grinning much to Daphne's bemusement. At this point in his life he felt luckier than ever before and in that moment he didn't care about the speeches or the publicity because he had Daphne by his side and if she said yes when he gave her that ring (and he was fairly sure that she would) then he would have her there for the rest of his life.

** _TBC :)_ **


	56. Wizarding Memorial Day

"I think this is such a bad idea!"

Harry sighed and pressed his fingers into his forehead hard. He had a killer migraine coming on and he was incredibly nervous, "Daphne, please come with me to this thing. Maybe it is a bad idea but I can't do it without you!"

"Yes you could, Hermione would get you through it," Daphne argued.

"She would,” Harry agreed as he looked his girlfriend directly in the eye, “She knows me well enough that’s for sure, but there’s one big problem.”

“What?” Daphne asked irritably.

“She isn’t you,” Harry replied, “It’s you that I want by my side tonight, not Hermione. I went and bought you a nice new dress and everything.”

Daphne smiled slightly, "You did?"

Harry nodded and pulled out a box from under his bed, "I was trying to surprise you but you are impossible to surprise."

At this Daphne chuckled, "You were so sure I was going to say yes that you bought a dress?"

"No," Harry said honestly, "I was fairly certain you would say no so I bought a dress to convince you to come."

"Well bribery might work," Daphne admitted sheepishly, "But I'd have to see this dress first."

Harry smirked and opened the box; Daphne gasped as she took the dress out and held it up.

"Wow Harry," She whispered in amazement, "It's perfect."

The dress was made of a silky material that slid over Daphne's hands as she ran her fingers over it. It was slim fitting and beautifully jewelled with purple and very pale pink gems, the pink gems were so pale that they looked almost white. Just as the dress reached the knee it changed to a soft mesh like material that was the same soft pink colour as the gems.

Harry smiled, "The gems are real, they sparkle when the light hits them and they send little rainbows flying out in all directions. I thought you would look beautiful in it."

As Daphne carefully placed the dress on the bed and looked up at her boyfriend Harry was surprised to see tears in her eyes. She quickly crossed the short distance between them and kissed him. Harry was surprised and his breath caught in his throat as he returned the kiss.

"Thank you so much," Daphne said with a genuine smile as she wiped her eyes. Harry just nodded, he was completely lost for words.

After the exchange Daphne rushed off to get ready, even though it was only 11am and the ball didn't start until 7pm. The rest of the day passed quietly, all of the girls who were going to the ball were getting dressed in the big room at the top of the tower (aka Harry and Draco's room). Draco had been roped into going with Hermione of course and Lilly had agreed to go as Neville's date. Ginny was taking Blaise as her date and as far as they knew Luna was going to go alone, they expected that Ron would too. They knew he was coming to the ball because they had seen him at the rehearsal the previous night. Upstairs the other girls were helping Ginny glamour herself to hide her pregnancy. By some miracle it hadn't gone any further than her family and their close friend group yet, even with the wild grapevine at Hogwarts.

Downstairs Harry, Draco, Neville and Blaise were lazily sitting around with Theo and Sadie.

"So what are you two doing tonight?" Harry asked the engaged couple as he got beaten by Draco at wizard's chess for the 3rd time in an hour.

Theo sniggered at Harry as he cursed but Sadie ignored this and replied, "We're doing some wedding planning!"

To this Harry, Draco and Neville sniggered and got glared at by Theo who then got glared at by Sadie.

"Have fun with that," Neville said sceptically as he, Draco and Harry chose that moment to run off to his dorm where they would get ready since the girls had stolen Harry and Draco's.

"What do you think it's going to be like tonight?" Draco asked nervously as he got changed into his dark blue dress robes.

"Boring," Harry and Neville echoed at the same time.

"These Ministry things always are Draco," Harry said casually, "You go, you mingle and talk to people you don't like, then you listen to a lot of boring speeches, eat some food, do a couple of dances and go home."

"The food is good though," Neville added.

Harry nodded his agreement at this, "Aw the food is the best part! Remember that lamb and mint casserole last time?"

"Yeah," Neville said as his mouth started to water, "That crème brulee was to die for."

"And the prawn cocktail, with king prawns!"

"Guys!" Draco interrupted, he was faintly amused, "Can you stop getting turned on by the food now please?"

Neville snorted and Harry chuckled, "Hey, it's good food!"

Draco mumbled something but Harry and Neville didn't reply. They had both just finished getting changed, Neville was wearing dark red robes and Harry was wearing the bottle green ones he had worn to the Yule Ball.

Neville left the room to go and see if the girls had arrived in the common room yet and as Harry and Draco followed him Harry put his hand on Draco's shoulder and said, "Stop worrying about it. Everything's going to be fine."

Draco was momentarily surprised but then he nodded and said gratefully, "Thanks Harry."

With that they descended the stairs to wait in the common room for the girls to grace them with their presence. For once they did not have to wait long because 10 minutes later the girls started to arrive.

Daphne looked as beautiful as Harry had suspected she would in the dress he had bought her. She had put her hair up in a tight bun but had left a few strands down at the front. She wore light make up for a change which Harry thought complemented her dress and showed off her natural beauty. She wore silver earrings and a beautiful multi-coloured necklace of gems. She actually took Harry's breath away and he had to take a moment to catch himself.

Hermione followed Daphne down the stairs and she also looked fantastic. She wore a very pale pink full length dress which was embroidered with gold sequined hems. The dress was strapless and Hermione had left her hair down and curly. She looked lovely and when Draco reached her he whispered, "If your intention was to calm me down it worked. All thoughts of nervousness went out of the door the moment I saw you."

Harry smiled at his two friends and wrapped his arm around Daphne. Lilly often dressed down in jeans and t-shirts, she rarely dressed up which meant that when Neville did see her walk down the stairs he was even more stunned by her than normal. She wore a knee length silver dress which had a gold ribbon tied around the waist. The dress and the silver shoes she wore with it sparkled in the firelight and Lilly looked almost angelic. Her pale skin, her jet black hair and her soft make-up transformed her and Neville could do nothing more than stare.

"If you say, wow she's a girl, I'm going to hit you," Lilly said in amusement as she stood in front of her boyfriend.

Neville was pulled out of his trance and he grinned, "I realised you were a girl a _long _time ago Lil. I've just never seen you look more beautiful."

Lilly blushed profusely, she still wasn't exactly used to compliments, "Hey you don't scrub up too bad yourself Nev," she smiled.

Neville slid his hand into his girlfriends and kissed her on the cheek which made her blush all the more.

Ginny and Luna were the last to emerge and Harry thought that the girls had done a great job. He certainly couldn't tell that Ginny was 3 months pregnant. She was wearing a full length black dress adorned with silver sequins. It was pulled in just below the bust and flared out to her feet, covering up her pregnancy perfectly. Ginny had left her hair down and it fell around her shoulders. The only noticeable change was the lack of high heels but Harry imagined they couldn't be easy to walk in while pregnant. Blaise smiled at his girlfriend and took her hand, murmuring, "You're glowing."

Ginny rolled her eyes at him, "Very funny Blaise."

Blaise's smile didn't quirk into a smirk as it normally would. Instead he said softly, "I mean it, Ginny."

Luna’s dress was full length and it looked very vintage. The bust was dark black and had a single pink rose attached to it. There were two shoulder straps that overlapped at the back of the dress. The skirt of the dress was light beige and elegant with little crystals on it that captured the light.

Together they made their way to entrance hall where those who were attending the ball were gathered because an apparition point had been opened at the gates. There were only a select few 'war hero' students invited. Most of those who had been in the DA didn't meet the mark which irritated Harry. Almost all of the teachers were invited to the ball however, including McGonagall. All of the teachers who had fought in the final battle were also invited which included Flitwick, Sprout, Trelawney, Hagrid, Slughorn and Sinistra. Filch was going as Trelawney's date and Madam Pomfrey had also been invited for the services she had provided during the final battle. Charlie was also in the group of people in the entrance hall, he would meet the rest of his family at the ball because all of the Weasley's had been invited too.

"I hope I get a chance to talk to Ron tonight," Harry said with a frown, as he neared the end of his education at Hogwarts he missed his friend more than ever.

"I'm sure you will," Daphne said with a smile as they began to walk down the path towards the apparition point with the rest of the group.

Harry had attended the meeting and practice session at the ministry the day before with Hermione, Neville, Ginny, Luna and Ron. They had gone through the itinerary and it had been a fairly boring evening, they had practiced the first dance but they hadn't had any time to actually talk to one another unfortunately.

The group of friends reached the apparition point and were allowed to apparate 3 at a time as there were only 3 circles on the ground. It took a while to get everybody out hence why they had met at 6.30pm in the entrance hall. When Harry and Daphne reached the ballroom they were rushed to one side of the large doors. With them on this side were Hermione and Draco and Neville and Lilly but they were not allowed to speak. They had to stand and smile and wave at everybody as they entered.

This of course was extremely boring so when the last couple had arrived just after 7pm they were glad to be allowed into the large ballroom, even if meant doing a dance. The doors were pulled shut, just like the Yule Ball and it was only as they took their positions with 3 couples lined on each side of the door that Harry saw the other 3 heroes who would be opening the ball. Ginny and Blaise stood there, as did Luna with a date that Harry didn't know. The man looked a little older than her, he had deep blue eyes and shoulder length brown hair which was pulled back into a ponytail. It was clearly compulsory for the 6 of them to have a date because Ron had one too, and he and Lilly were sharing irritated glances. His date was Katie Bell which Harry imagined would cause agro. Neville tightened his grip on Lilly's hand and the dark haired girl pulled her gaze away from Ron to look at the ground.

Despite Ron's incapability of knowing how to treat a woman Harry caught his eye. The two friends shared a small smile, it was an unspoken signal that they would make sure they could grab a conversation at some point during the evening. At that point the doors to the ballroom opened. Harry took a deep breath and Daphne tightened her grip on his arm as they walked in first. There were people on either side of them as they walked down to the dance floor. It was almost exactly the same as the first Yule Ball had been.

Harry tried to smile and wave but he knew he was forcing it and it probably showed. When they reached the dance floor the music began and Harry had to call on the training he had been given by Draco and Neville as he swept Daphne around the dancefloor. It was fun and he could tell that Daphne was impressed at his improvement. All the same Harry was grateful when the music ended because it meant he could grab Daphne's hand and slip away to their table for a breather.

The tables were arranged for 8 people and there were 12 in the opening party. As it turned out Harry, Daphne, Hermione and Draco ended up on one side of the table closest to the stage in the ballroom. On the other side of the table were Neville and Lilly, and then across from Harry and Daphne sat Ron and Katie. Ginny and Blaise, and Luna and her mysterious date were at the table next to theirs but they would have a chance to talk later when the meal was over.

"I'm so glad that's over," Harry mumbled as he sat down in the comfortable seat.

Ron laughed slightly uncomfortably, "It was like the Yule Ball all over again, only you didn't step on anybody's feet this time."

"And you didn't look like you were wearing your Grandmothers dress," Harry retorted. Ron laughed and it felt like any tension that had been in the air because of the whole Neville and Lilly debacle had just vanished. Maybe it was the spirit of the date, after all Harry couldn't help but think of everything he had been through with Ron at a time like this and he was sure it was the same for the Weasley.

"So what happens next?" Draco asked, he was still nervous and it was showing.

Ron shrugged, "You wait until everyone is sitting down and then Kingsley will do a speech probably."

"He is doing one but its contents are totally secret," Harry said thoughtfully, "Why did you have to leave the practice early last night? I was hoping we could have a chat."

"Ah," Ron said with a sheepish look. He glanced down and caught Katie's eye. She nodded and gave him a small smile. Harry frowned at the exchange as Ron looked back up at Harry, "Well we were at St. Mungo's, actually."

"Oh Merlin, why?" Hermione asked, she was immediately worried that one of them had been hurt.

"Oh neither of us were hurt Hermione," Katie said with a worried sort of smile, "It was just a simple scan."

Around the table many eyes widened, including Ginny's. Well, especially Ginny's in fact.

Ron smiled slightly, "Katie's pregnant."

Lilly's eyes darkened and Neville muttered in her ear, "Don't say _anything_."

"How far along are you then Katie?" Lilly asked with false sweetness.

"4 months," Katie replied warily.

"Hmm," Lilly said thoughtfully, "So I suppose you must have conceived around the end of December then."

"Lilly," Neville said firmly, "Stay out of it."

"Stay out of it?" Lilly hissed under her breath, "The girl Ron cheated on me with is now having his baby Neville!"

"Come on," Neville murmured as he got to his feet, "I think you need some air."

Lilly's eyes flashed dangerously but Neville stared pointedly at her. After a few seconds Lilly got to her feet and allowed Neville to take her to a balcony area on the far side of the hall.

The air at the table was tense and Harry didn't know what to say. He could completely understand why Lilly was angry but he hoped that Ron was going to do the right thing by Katie. Harry cleared his throat, "So are you two together then?"

"We're trying to be," Ron said as his eyes lingered on Lilly and Neville's retreating backs, "For the sake of the baby."

Hermione smiled weakly, "Well I'm happy for you both."

Ginny raised an eyebrow at her brother, "Does Mum know?"

Ron swallowed, "Yeah, we told her back in February."

"February?" Ginny asked in disbelief, "And she still went mental at me for the exact same thing!'

"It's different with you Ginny," Ron said feebly, "I mean you're her daughter and you're the one _having _a baby. I just..."

"- got someone knocked up?" Ginny remarked angrily, "And she said oh poor little ronnikins! You didn't mean to get her pregnant and it was all okay? I got screamed at and Mum is _still _hardly talking to me."

"Did you ever think that it isn't about the baby but the person you're having it with?" Ron hissed under his breath.

Blaise's eyes flashed angrily, "What have I ever done to offend your family, Ronald?"

"Oh apart from helping Death Eaters like Malfoy in the war?" Ron asked irritably, "Or apart from the fact you're a Slytherin with known affiliations to dark magic? Yeah I'm sure my Mum is thrilled that Ginny is having your baby!"

Ginny opened her mouth to shout at her brother further but Blaise defended himself just fine without her help, "My family have no dark magic affiliations. I did not help Draco do anything, I tried to _dissuade _him from making the stupid decisions that he did. My family have a long, notable history of working in the DMLE as lawyers helping people. So I suggest that you get your facts straight. If your Mother has a problem with Ginny and I then I would appreciate it if she addressed it to my face. How can we expect our child to grow up free of our prejudices if its Grandmother is enforcing those prejudices before it is even born?"

Ron swallowed and Ginny shot an angry looked at her brother, "Different standard for men and women isn't it Ron? Even in this day and age."

"It's still a sexist world Gin," Hermione said as she placed her hand on her friends back, "Your Mum is from a fairly old fashioned family. She will come around; she just needs time to come to terms with the changing world. And Ron, you should know better than to rile a pregnant woman up."

"Sorry," Ron muttered, he was unable to look up as his ears burned red.

Harry sighed and resisted the urge to let his head drop onto the table at the drama that was unfolding, "Just apologise to Lil at some point tonight. I think she deserves that, at the least."

Ron nodded solemnly, "Yeah, I will."

***

"How do I not have a right to be angry, Neville?"

"I didn't say you don't have a right to be angry, Lil," Neville sighed, "I just didn't want you to make a scene of yourself in there. It would probably have made the headlines and I just didn't want that."

"Well thanks for protecting my honour or whatever," Lilly glared, "But in case you missed what just happened. My boyfriend cheated on me back in December with that woman who is now 4 months pregnant!"

"Well whose loss is it then?" Neville asked as his eyes flashed, "All failed relationships hurt, that's inevitable. Losing Hannah hurt and I know it hurt when Ron betrayed you. But losing someone who doesn't appreciate or respect you is actually a gain Lilly, not a loss. _Ron _is the loser here; he's got a girl pregnant who he now feels forced to do the right thing by. You won, you have a boyfriend, a boyfriend who thinks the world of you and who bloody loves you!"

Lilly stared at Neville with a slight frown on her face, "You love me?"

"This wasn't exactly how I planned on telling you but yeah," Neville said as he caught her eye, "I know it's only been a month but I don't think I've ever fallen so hard."

Lilly smiled slightly and glanced down, "It has been a bit of a whirlwind hasn't it?"

"Try a hurricane," Neville smiled as he gently cupped her face, "It's swept me off my feet and knocked me for six."

"Me too," Lilly admitted as she caught his eye again, "Although it had been a long time coming really. I mean I can't believe you never saw the tell-tale signs."

"I can't believe _you _never saw them," Neville chuckled, "I was _so _close to asking you to the Yule Ball but then you went on your huge rant about hating men and not wanting to go to the Yule Ball anyway so I asked Ginny."

"Yeah…I guess I dumped myself in that one," Lilly admitted with a slight smile, "But you are right Neville. It's definitely me who wins in this situation, not Ron...and I feel the same way about you as you do about me, I can promise you that much."

Neville smiled and kissed her lightly, "I'm glad that you feel the same."

"I really do Neville," Lilly said softly, "But I'm not sure if I can quite say it just yet."

"You don't have to," Neville said as he pulled the tiny Ravenclaw into a hug, "Knowing that you do is enough Lil."

Lilly breathed a little shakily into his embrace and Neville suspected she was trying to hold herself together after all that had happened that night, "We should get back or we'll miss Kingsley's speech."

Lilly nodded and pulled back from the hug, she didn't look like she had been crying but she cast a quick glamour charm on her face as she slipped her hand into Neville's.

"Ready?"

"Ready," Lilly replied with a firm look in her eyes.

When they reached the table they were silent and Lilly avoided looking at Ron entirely. They had just made it back in time because only a few minutes later Kingsley made his way onto the stage and silence instantly fell throughout the entire ballroom.

He opened his mouth and spoke in his booming voice, "Good evening and welcome. One year ago today I personally was hiding in a rundown shack in the Shetland Island of all places, trying to lay low until the time to fight arose. Now I find myself at the head of a Wizarding world which is rebuilding itself from the ashes of one of the most devastating wars our world has ever seen. It has not been easy but I for one am proud to be part of a world that is capable of regeneration. I am proud to rebuild our society with all of you and it never ceases to amaze me how well our people can adjust. It amazes me how we can pick ourselves up and keep fighting. Our society is strong and tonight more than ever I am very proud to lead it. It may seem wrong to celebrate tonight when so many died at this time one year ago. It might seem crude and unfair. Yes, tonight _is_ a night of festivities but it is also a time to remember the war that tore our world apart. Tonight we remember, tonight we thank those who saved the world we love dearly. Tomorrow we mourn."

Harry was the first person on his feet as Kingsley finished his speech. He clapped loudly as the rest of the hall quickly followed his lead.

"Despite everything, he's still the best Minister for Magic this place has ever seen," Harry said with a grin as he took his seat once more.

"He's great," Hermione agreed with a smile, she wiped some tears from her eyes, "And his speeches are so moving."

"Almost as good as yours," Daphne said to Harry, he felt his stomach churn at this.

Ron chuckled, "You're joking right?"

"No," Daphne said honestly, "Harry gives fantastic speeches."

Ron looked at his old friend in surprise, "You never used to be able to speak in front of a crowd without freaking out. Apart from when we were setting up the DA."

"I've gotten better," Harry said grimly, "Too many bloody press meetings after the war..."

Ron nodded his understanding, he knew how Harry felt and he could understand why it made him uncomfortable, "When is your speech?" he asked.

"After the meal," Harry said just as the starter magically appeared on the table.

"Don't let it ruin your appetite," Ron said as he eagerly tucked into his food, out of the corner of his eye Harry saw Hermione roll her eyes, some things never changed.

The meal passed too slowly for Harry's liking, he made small talk with the others at the table and caught up a little with Ron while Hermione chatted to Katie. Lilly and Ron didn't say a word to each other and everybody else pretended that the tense air had dissipated.

Eventually everybody finished the fantastic chocolate dessert that had been on offer and it was time for Harry to go up to the stage to prepare for his speech. Daphne leaned across the table and kissed him on the cheek, "Don't worry you'll be fantastic."

Harry shook his head, "You know I hate speeches, it was different at New Year's. It was just friends and family but now half of the wizarding world are looking at me!"

"Stop being such a wimp," Daphne said with a slightly harsh glare, "Get your arse up there and give a fantastic speech!"

"I haven't even prepared anything!" Harry whispered to his girlfriend.

Daphne just rolled her eyes, "Harry, you give the best speeches when they are spontaneous. If it helps look at me and pretend there isn't anybody else here, okay?"

Harry nodded at this, he took a deep breath and got to his feet, "See you in a bit," he said slightly awkwardly. He then walked the short distance to the stairs of the stage, made his way up them and disappeared behind a black curtain.

"Ah Harry, are you ready?" Kingsley asked with a smile the moment he saw Harry enter the small backstage area.

"No," Harry replied honestly and at this Kingsley boomed a laugh. Harry smiled weakly; he could feel himself shaking with nerves.

"5 minutes Mr. Potter," A kindly woman with bright green hair said with a smile. Harry closed his eyes and took a deep breath, he remembered what Daphne said and opened them again. For the next 5 minutes he examined the backstage area and the time seemed to drag on forever. Eventually the green haired woman said, "On you go Mr. Potter," and with another deep breath Harry walked out onto the stage.

He was occupying the same spot as the Minister for Magic. This was the first thing that raced through Harry's head when he took his spot at the front of the stage with a spotlight shining on him. He was looking out into the whole audience and he hadn't realised how many people there were here tonight. Harry quickly cast a sonorus charm on himself and started to speak. He was happy when his voice came out clearer than he had thought it would.

"I am honoured that the Ministry asked me to speak tonight because I don't feel any better than anyone else in this hall. I was born and I already had a destiny before I could even speak, how does that make me special? Sure I fought in the war but didn't everybody else in this room? I got lucky when I was younger and that's the only reason I survived long enough to make a difference in the final battle. I couldn't have done that without my friends throughout the years, if I didn't have people around me to support me I wouldn't have lived long enough to do that."

There was silence throughout the room, Harry kept going, "Hermione Granger's brains, Ron Weasley's instinct, Neville Longbottom's courage, Ginny Weasley's determination and Luna Lovegood’s intuition contributed to us winning the war as much as I did, if not more. So I want everyone here in this hall tonight to raise a glass to that and to acknowledge that never was so much owed by so many to so few. These people are the few who were always fighting, who never gave up. The victory of the Battle of Hogwarts lies with them and with the teachers that fought so hard to defend their home. Hogwarts was our home and the Battle of Hogwarts was bloody and painful and brutal…but it was also our greatest hour."

As Harry finished his speech the hall broke out into applause, he blushed at the recognition and gave a small bow before rushing off the stage and back into the little area behind it.

Kingsley greeted Harry with a strong handshake, "Extraordinary Harry," he said with a proud smile, "I couldn't help but notice you spoke the wise words of Winston Churchill."

Harry blushed at this, he had hoped nobody would notice, "I helped Dudley with his history homework when I was younger, I guess it kind of stuck."

Kingsley chuckled at this and said, "You should make your way back to your friends, you don't want to miss the dancing."

Harry nodded and left the stage, he hurried along the side of the hall so nobody would notice him and sat back down in his seat next to Daphne. His girlfriend smiled proudly at him as she said, "And you said that your speech would suck!"

"It was great Harry," Draco said with a smile.

Hermione nodded as she smirked at her friend, "Even if you did steal a lot of it from a certain Muggle Prime Minister."

Harry laughed and winked at his best friend at this then he took a deep breath, he was relieved that the worst part of the night was over. They all stood and the tables vanished which turned the hall once more into a full sized ballroom. The music started to play and everybody let their hair down, even Harry.

***

Back at Hogwarts Sadie and Theo were bickering in the otherwise empty common room. The fire was still burning bright and Sadie was lying on the floor with several sheets of parchment lying around her and an inkpot sitting at a precarious angle.

"No way Sadie! We are not having ANY pink!"

Sadie groaned in annoyance, "Theo," she whined, "I only want a little bit, just some pink roses as centre pieces on the tables at the reception."

"No," Theo said flatly, "I told you, anything else is fine, just no pink."

"Well how about red roses instead?" Sadie asked in an attempt to reach a compromise.

"RED?" Theo asked, he sounded far more outraged than he should have done about the colour of the centre pieces, “Red is the Gryffindor colour Sadie, do you want a Gryffindor themed wedding?”

"Theo! It's a freaking flower on a freaking table!"

"Do you get green roses?"

"No!"

Sadie hit her head off of the floor. So far they had made progress, the date was definitely set and it had been decided that they would marry on the 3rd of July.

The venue had also been decided on after 30 minutes of debating whose choice would be chosen. Theo had wanted to get married in Wilton cathedral in the county of Wiltshire because he had been brought up in the town of Marlborough close by and it was a kind of tradition. However, Sadie had been born and raised in a house just outside of Godric's Hollow in the county of Somerset so she had wanted to get married in Bath Abbey. Eventually Theo had admitted that Bath Abbey was lovely and they had agreed to make it the venue for the wedding ceremony. They had also decided to have the reception at Nott Manor where they could use the ballroom. They were now attempting to come to a compromise on the theme for the wedding reception.

"Okay Theo, white roses? How about that?" Sadie asked, she was a patient person but Theo really did test her patience at times.

Theo seemed to ponder on this for a moment and then he nodded, "White is okay."

Sadie sighed in relief as she jotted this down on the parchment, "So the theme is pastel colours but no pink, or red. How about pastel green, yellow and blue for the tables?"

Theo nodded, he was lying on his stomach on one of the sofas, "I think that would be nice but not too over the top."

Sadie smiled as she wrote this down too, "So all that's left is clothes for the bridal party and clothes for the groom and his entourage,” she said as she started to gather all her parchment up, “I've had enough bickering for one night, we'll do that tomorrow."

"Thank Merlin," Theo said as he jumped up from the sofa, "Can we _please _go to bed now?"

***

Back at the Ministry, the ball was just coming to an end. By the time the music finally stopped everybody was exhausted and ready to go home. The group of 8th years had ended up caught in a conversation with Kingsley which left Daphne standing slightly awkwardly at the door waiting for them. Daphne was watching Harry with a soft smile as he made his way over to where she was standing, she was proud of how well he had handled the night.

Before Harry could reach Daphne however somebody else walked past her and said cryptically, "Enjoy it while it lasts honey."

Daphne frowned as she caught a glimpse of the woman's face. It wasn't anyone who she knew and the woman walked away with no further explanation.

Daphne realised what she must have meant. When school was over this wouldn't last. This 'perfect' relationship...when school was over she would be the former Slytherin that nobody trusted and Harry would still be the perfect war hero. The thought panicked her slightly but then she thought of those walks along the beach with Teddy and the stolen moments they could grab in the common room and she began to believe her own mind again...but the comment had planted a seed of doubt in her mind…

"Hey Daph, you ready to go?" Harry said with a broad smile.

Daphne nodded and gave Harry a weak smile. She let him slip his arm through hers and then they left the hall together.

***

Harry and Daphne weren't alone until at least 2 hours after the ball. They were in Harry's dorm getting ready for bed, Daphne slept in there most nights these days.

"Strange isn't it? About Ron becoming a Dad?" Harry said thoughtfully as he climbed into bed.

"Hmm, I guess," Daphne said, although her thoughts were elsewhere.

"I mean it was a shock with Ginny but now that's Ron having a kid too," Harry elaborated, "Poor Molly must be wondering what she did wrong. I mean Ginny and Blaise are together at least, she's going to have to acknowledge that. Ron's the one who literally knocked someone up and poor Lilly..."

Daphne nodded absentmindedly and climbed into bed, "Harry, we need to talk."

Harry sat up in bed and pulled the curtains shut, "Are you finally going to tell me why you've hardly spoken since we left the ball then?" he asked.

"Someone said something as we were leaving the ball, they said enjoy it while it lasts," Daphne began with a frown, "And it took me a moment but then I realised what they meant. When we leave school we're not going to be this way, we're going to be so different. Everyone's going to see me as the evil Slytherin whose using you but you'll always be the saintly war hero."

"Daph, I had a conversation like this with Draco ages ago," Harry said with a faint smile, "I know things will change when we leave school but frankly, I don't care. I love you and I don't care what the press or the Wizarding world think about that."

"Really?" Daphne asked, she seemed quite shy and self-conscious all of a sudden.

"Really," Harry confirmed as he leaned across and kissed her, "Let them say whatever they want about us, we know better than them or anyone else that we're perfect for each other."

Daphne smiled at this, she was slightly tearful for the second time in 24 hours. Harry chuckled, "Is the ice queen thawing?"

Daphne laughed at this and wiped the tears, "Yeah I guess she is," her eyes lingered on Harry's for a moment longer before she said, "I love you Harry."

"I know you do and I love you too Daphne," Harry said.

"You should get some sleep, tomorrows a big day," Daphne said as she cleared her throat and cuddled up to Harry, "More speeches to give and all."

"Fantastic," Harry murmured dryly as he slipped off into a very disturbed sleep.

***

When the 2nd of May dawned it was immediately clear that this was no ordinary day. The sun rose in a dark blood red sky and left an offensive orange line burnt into the pale grey sky.

Harry had not slept. He had spent the evening encased in a warming charm on the roof of the tower. As he sat there he found himself lost in memories of what had happened one year ago. Sometime after midnight Hermione joined him and in the early hours of the morning two became three as Neville made his way onto the roof. Throughout the sleepless night none of them said a word to each other.

Harry had found himself missing Ron with a real ache; he wanted to see him more than ever at the moment. None of this felt right without Ron. Ron who was becoming a Father and whose path was constantly becoming more and more different to Harry's. Harry knew he had cried at least once before the burning sun rose but he had not acknowledged this or even raised a hand to dry the tears.

When the sun finally set in the early summer sky Harry sighed and glanced at his watch, the great hall would be open and sitting in there without eating had to be better than sitting out here staring at the place where he had died a year ago today.

When Harry got to his feet Hermione and Neville followed without question, they always had in times of battle so what reason did they have not to now? They made their way through the empty common room and then into the even emptier school. It was May but it wasn't a warm day and it hadn't been a warm evening. The halls were draughty and chilly, Harry felt shivers running down his spine as they traversed the school. When they eventually reached the great hall after a trek that felt like it had taken forever it wasn't what Harry had expected.

The great hall had only ever been so quiet on two occasions that Harry could remember. The first of those being Cedric's memorial service. The second being just before Harry had gone to the forest, when all of those dead bodies had lined the hall. It was 6am and the hall had only just opened 10 minutes before so Harry had assumed it would be empty, especially since it was a Sunday but he was surprised by what he saw. Each house table was half full and all the people at those tables looked like they hadn't had much sleep as they pushed food around their plates.

The 8th Year table was another story; it was practically empty. But there were a few kindred souls sitting there. Draco was sitting at the table alone, he had a mug of untouched coffee in front of him and he looked to be carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders. Next to him sat Theo, the 2nd lonely soul.

It made sense to Harry when he actually thought about it. One year ago today Draco and Theo had both lost someone they loved, they had both lost Pansy.

Hermione broke from the group and sat down next to Draco but neither of them spoke to each other. Harry and Neville sat down next to Theo but no words were exchanged and they only acknowledged each other with very slight nods. As the group sat silently the hall began to fill up but the mood didn't lighten. Those who appeared earliest were those who had lost the most like Ginny, Susan, Blaise and Lilly. Finally, Daphne and Sadie arrived and sat down next to their respective partners. Sadie understood not to talk to Theo, she knew what was wrong and she knew nothing she could say would help but Daphne wasn't quite at that point with Harry yet.

"Where were you last night? You were gone when I woke up," Daphne said, there was sorrow in her voice but she wasn't going through the same amount of pain that Harry was. After all, how could she be?

"On the roof," Harry said roughly, his voice was harsh from lack of use.

"All night?" Daphne exclaimed in surprise, "It's freezing, what did you do that for?"

Harry sighed and was about to make a snide comment that he would probably regret later but thankfully someone stopped him from doing so.

"When you go through pain like we have you can't sleep and you can't be alone, but you can't talk either so you have company with those in a similar situation. Today is going to be hard for us Daphne so don't expect us to be on top form," Hermione said diplomatically to her friend. Daphne looked slightly offended by the comment but she didn't speak, she dug into breakfast which was something very few people at the table were doing.

Breakfast passed quietly and the 8th Year table was mostly silent. It felt like it took forever for the clock to finally reach 9am. The memorial started at 9.30am so it meant that they could finally be on the move.

When Harry got outside, the grounds were already set for the memorial. Thousands of white seats stretched back and there was a small stage in front of the lake, Harry's stomach churned as he was reminded of Dumbledore's funeral.

As one of the speakers Harry was expected to sit by the stage so he bade a silent farewell to his friends and made his way to a row of seats directly in front of the stage. The 'VIP' guests were in the row behind him, these people included Hermione, Ginny, Neville, Ron and Luna. Draco, Daphne, Sadie, Theo, Susan and Lilly were sitting much further back.

Harry sat and tapped his foot nervously as the rest of the school and other important figures filed into the grounds and took their seats. Harry felt very wrongly placed in between the Minister for Magic and the Headmistress of Hogwarts. Eventually everybody was seated and McGonagall got to her feet, she looked pale so Harry gave her an encouraging smile which she seemed to appreciate.

Cameras snapped and flashed as McGonagall made her way to the stage, the press had been allowed in although McGonagall had fought Kingsley to the last gasp on that one.

McGonagall took a deep breath as she climbed the steps onto the stage and reached the podium in the centre. She looked out at the large crowd and then she began to speak.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, Boys and Girls, I wish that Albus Dumbledore were standing here today to welcome you to this monumental event. Albus Dumbledore's death was just one of many tragic deaths brought around by the hand of Lord Voldemort but his touched me more than many because he was my best friend," McGonagall's voice wasn't shaking but Harry could see the small signs, he could tell that the emotion in her voice was real.

"Everyone in this crowd feels the same about someone that they have lost, whether it was a year ago today or even longer than that," McGonagall continued, "The two wars that shook this world devastated and touched so many lives and today I am proud to welcome you to the place where a brave young man put an end to it all. I find it fitting that it happened here because this is where it all began. Without Hogwarts Lord Voldemort would only have been a small lonely child with a lust for power and it is frightening to witness the man this school trained him up to be. Then in that same vein, without Hogwarts there would be no Harry Potter and we could not have ended this war without him. Today we celebrate that we are alive but more importantly we mourn those who did not make it and are unable to celebrate with us. It is for their sake that I would ask you now to have one minute of silence during which I would ask you to remember those we loved who are no longer with us."

McGonagall bowed her head and closed her eyes and the crowd all did the same. Harry's thoughts wandered when his eyes slid shut, they were sometimes on Sirius who may have been here to see this today if Harry hadn't been so stupid. Then his thoughts were on Remus and Tonks who would never see their little boy grow up. His thoughts briefly lingered on his parents and he wondered what his life would have been like if he had been raised as a wizard or if he had been raised by the Longbottoms, would he and Neville be like twins? Then Harry's thoughts were with Cedric who had been the first casualty of war Harry had won, the innocent boy who had so much ahead of him. He had been just like Fred and Colin who’d had their whole lives ahead of them and fantastic prospects but then it had all been ripped away from them. By the time McGonagall spoke to announce the end of the silence Harry was completely overwhelmed with grief.

"Thank you," McGonagall said and it sounded as if she was holding back tears. She made her way down from the platform quickly and in a moment of vulnerability let Kingsley put his arm around her, in public.

Harry knew that this was his cue so he swallowed his pain and got to his feet. He felt the silence pressing down on him, it felt like some invisible kind of pressure, as he climbed to the stage and took his place at the podium.

"Today is a sad day. In fact, it's a miserable day…for me at least," Harry began honestly, “But I find some comfort in the fact that I can hold this up," he reached into his robes and pulled out a golden galleon. Hermione gave a faint smile in the crowd, she knew what it was, “And squeeze it," Harry squeezed the galleon, "And those who fought with me will feel a burning sensation somewhere on their body because they are all carrying this galleon with them."

Sure enough in the crowd several hands reached into pockets.

"These galleons aren't real; they were designed to call members of Dumbledore's Army to meetings. We kept them because we are proud to have fought and it brings me pain to know that when I press that galleon five coins will not burn. They don't burn for different reasons…one will not burn because the member had it taken from them for betraying us. Three will not burn because their owners perished in the battle of Hogwarts, and finally the fifth coin will not burn because its owner survived the bloodbath that was the battle, only to die shortly afterwards. I mourn these deaths but I am grateful that we only lost 4 people from a group that was 30 strong. It gives me pride to know that I trained them to fight well enough that they managed to survive the battles that came but it also pains me to know that my teachings weren’t good enough for everyone. Perhaps today is a day to be sad but it is also a day to remember that we are strong. We are the generation who fought, we are the generation of soldiers. Some of us are wounded, emotionally and physically, but we wear these wounds as our battle scars. Those we lost cannot do that so today I say to you all, wear your scars and be proud to have been a fighter."

Harry raised his galleon into the air and felt a lump rise in his throat as tears threaten to spill from his eyes as throughout the crowd others did the same. It began with Ron and then Hermione and Neville, with Ginny and Luna following. Soon every member of the DA was standing but Fred wasn't standing next to George, Parvati and Lavender were nowhere to be seen and Dean wasn't standing next to Seamus. Despite being proud Harry could only see the ghostly figures of those who weren't here amongst the crowd of survivors.

He didn't want to break down on stage so he did the same as McGonagall and hurried from the stage back to his seat.

McGonagall gave him a weak smile and put her hand on his shoulder, “Well done Potter,” she said proudly. Such emotion from McGonagall usually made Harry feel extremely proud and accepted. However, at that current point in time all he could do was nod and try to force down the tears that were threatening to fall from his eyes.

***

Kingsley closed the memorial with a speech that Harry didn't hear any part of. Then everybody began to file back into the school but Harry didn't move. Daphne made her way towards her boyfriend but she was stopped when Hermione moved to stand in front of her.

"Don't," Hermione said quietly.

Daphne's eyes flashed angrily, "He's my boyfriend Hermione."

"Don't Daphne," Draco said, his voice was brisk, "We don't fit in with them, not today."

"He needs me today Daphne," Hermione said, her voice was quiet and harsh, "Every other day of the year he needs you but today he needs me."

"Come on," Draco said, he grasped Daphne's arm and tried to steer her away. With a dirty look towards Hermione, Daphne relented and let Draco drag her away.

Hermione turned and walked towards Harry. She sighed because she didn't want to upset Daphne but she would only make things worse today. The moment Harry saw Hermione approaching out of the corner of his eye he rose to his feet and hugged her tightly.

Neither of them were sure if they were crying or not as they held each other like their life depended on it, a year ago today it had.

"Thank Merlin Hermione," Harry whispered quietly, he was vaguely aware of someone approaching from behind him but he didn't know who it was, "Thank Merlin you survived. I couldn't have coped without you or Ron."

"Well you're lucky we were both alright then, aren't you?"

Harry spun around and grinned broadly when he saw Ron standing behind him, his best friend looked as lanky and awkward as ever with his hands stuffed in his pockets. He gave Harry a small smile and Harry hugged him tightly.

"Come on Hermione," Harry said and Hermione joined in with their group hug.

"If it helps mate, we were just as glad to see you jump out of Hagrids arms that night," Ron said, he was trying to be casual and nonchalant but Harry could hear the emotion in his voice.

"We never wanted to lose you Harry," Hermione reiterated as she wiped away the tears that had fallen earlier, "We lost a lot but at least we didn't lose each other.”

"We'll always be the golden trio," Harry said as he grinned at his two friends, "Our lives might be going down different paths but that doesn't mean we can't keep them connected."

"I'm glad you brought that up," Ron said slightly sheepishly, "Because Katie and I have been talking. I know things are a bit weird right now with Lilly dating Neville and you two being close friends and all. But we wanted you to be the baby's Godfather when it's born Harry. I know I screwed up but I'm going to live with the consequences and I'm going to treat Katie and the baby right. I don't think I can do that without you."

Hermione burst into tears and Ron and Harry shared an amused look. It caused Harry to flashback to when he and Ron had made up in 4th Year and Hermione had gotten incredibly emotional.

"Bloody emotional as ever isn't she?" Ron muttered under his breath.

Harry chuckled, "That's Hermione for you. And of course I'll be Godfather Ron, I mean I'm honoured you'd even ask. You're still the best mate I've ever had."

"Sorry, it's just so sweet,'" Hermione said as she wiped her tears once more and snapped a picture of them both on her wizarding camera. She put one arm around Harry and the other around Ron who as always was significantly taller. She smiled at them both, "Up to the castle together, like old times?"

Harry and Ron both chuckled at this but all the same they walked like that all the way to the great oak doors leading into the entrance hall.

***

"Bitch!"

"Daphne, shut the hell up," Draco said irritably, he sounded like his old self for a moment, "You don't get it! You didn't fight in that war-”

“I didn’t fight in that war?” Daphne argued, “Are you really going to say that? Don’t you call what we did at Hogwarts fighting?”

“I call it surviving,” Draco said coolly.

"Oh, so _you_ understand it?" Daphne asked bitterly, "Because you're such close friends with them?"

"I don't understand it!" Draco bit back, "I have no idea what the hell it is but I know that it's important to Hermione and I know that her relationship with Harry is what makes her relationship with me work. It's as if the two of us together make a full relationship."

"You make it sound like they're having an affair," Daphne scoffed angrily.

"Sometimes it seems like they are," Draco said, the anger in his voiced had ebbed away but the hurt remained, "Maybe they don't sleep together or have a physical relationship but there is something between Hermione and Harry stronger than friendship and I don't understand that. I do know that they went through hell together and came out alive. I know they are two survivors of a world that wanted them dead since they were 11 years old and I'm aware that I know half as much about Hermione as Harry does," Draco paused for a breath as they reached the top of the steps, "But Harry and Hermione need each other and if you want to be in a serious long-term relationship with Harry then you have to realise that. We can't take that away from them," Draco said quietly as he looked towards the front of the stage where Harry and Hermione were hugging.

"Do you think he loves her?" Daphne asked sadly.

"In some way or another, yes. But not in the way he loves you," Draco said truthfully. Down on the grounds Ron reached the duo and Harry hugged him.

"They have a bond,” Draco said continued, "The three of them. They went through so much and as close as they get to you and I... we will never understand that like they do, that bond is for life."

"And we just have to accept that if we want Harry or Hermione they come as a package deal," Daphne realised as she watched the trio hugging.

"Yes," Draco said simply.

"I guess I can handle that," Daphne said optimistically, "As long as they don't start sleeping with each other...again."

"They won't," Draco said with a small smile, "I can tell you that for certain."

“How are you so sure?” Daphne asked.

“Because they feel similarly about us and our relationship," Draco replied.

This surprised Daphne, "What relationship?"

"We were close Daphne and I know I was a bastard and that I left you in the lurch but we have a bond that I only ever had with Pansy and Theo. We understand each other in a way that is further than friendship but it isn't love either," Draco explained as he put his arm around his friend.

"I guess," Daphne said as she mulled this over. In the end she allowed Draco to lead her into the entrance hall as the things he had said swirled around in her head.

***

The hall was set up similarly to normal but between the 8th Year and the Head Table there was now another long table for the guests of honour. Ron was technically supposed to sit down there but he had joined his friends at the 8th Year table, in fact he had taken a seat next to Draco of all people.

Ron initiated the conversation, "I'm sorry that we got off on the wrong foot at the start of this year Malfoy. I was naïve, I thought that once the war was over it would be Harry and Ginny, and Hermione and me. But people change and the war changed all of us. Hermione and I wouldn't have worked, we don't have enough in common and let's face it, she's far too clever for me. I could never hold intellectual conversations with her like she can with you."

Draco didn't speak, he figured that Ron had something he needed to say and he didn't want to interrupt so he waited for the Weasley to speak once more.

"In hindsight I can see now that you're not only good for her but you're better for her than I was," Ron said finally, "But she's still one of my best friends so take care of her, okay?"

Draco had to admit that he was surprised. This didn't seem like the Ron Weasley he had known, although in his last few weeks as an 8th year Ron had seemed to calm down significantly. Draco nodded, "I will," he said simply, he wasn't sure if he would ever go beyond polite with Ron, "And I'm sorry too...for the way I treated you in school. It was unacceptable, I was merely acting on the prejudices of my Father."

"Yeah well, you seem alright now," Ron said, he had gone back to being slightly awkward again as he often was.

"Thanks, I guess," Draco said just as awkwardly. Yeah he definitely didn't think they would become BFF's anytime soon.

"Right, well see you around then," Ron said as he got to his feet and sat down by Harry, Hermione, Neville and Ginny at the far end of the table.

"What _the hell _was that?" Daphne asked from where she was sitting next to Draco.

"I'm pretty sure that was Weasley apologising and giving me his blessing, or something," Draco said, he was still surprised by what had just happened, "I suppose having a child does make a man grow up."

"Maybe it does," Daphne said thoughtfully as she thought about Harry and Teddy, her heart ached at how much she missed the little boy.

**BANG! **

Everybody at the 8th Year table jumped. Maybe it was the date or maybe it was just the fact that they were all battle scarred but loud noises still made them wary.

With their wands at the ready everybody rushed outside but they weren't met with a Death Eater attack like they had feared, instead what they saw was fireworks. The sky had been magically darkened and it was being lit up with fireworks.

George stood on a small barge in the middle of the lake with a box full of fireworks. The first firework in the sky was a face. It was the face of Harry's Mother, Lily Evans-Potter. With another bang another face appeared, that of James Potter lit up the sky. Harry felt a lump rise in his throat as he realised what was happening here. George was projecting the faces of those who had died in both wizarding wars onto the sky. More faces appeared and Harry recognised some but not others. Amongst them were the faces of Susan's parents and Cedric. Harry glanced around as there was a short pause in the fireworks. Susan was being held by Percy, Lilly was comforting Neville as he stood stoically by the banks of the lake, even Draco and Hermione were holding hands.

As Harry turned back to the sky to see the next face his breath caught in his throat. The face belonged to Sirius and he really had to try hard not to cry. Tears stung painfully behind his eyes and he blinked hard, he was sure that he was going to breakdown when he felt a hand slip into his. Harry knew instantly from the soft but firm grip that it belonged to Daphne and for the first time all day he felt like the huge weight he was carrying on his shoulders had lessened slightly.

Harry turned to Daphne and gave her a faint, watery smile. Daphne returned his smile with a slightly watery one of her own and they both turned back to the dark sky. The faces continued to light up the sky in a line and Harry couldn't quite believe just how many deaths there had been. When Albus Dumbledore's face lit up the sky Harry’s breath caught in his throat as he struggled to control his emotions.

It was after Dumbledore's face that Harry really got emotional because he recognised more and more people. George had been thoughtful enough to fire up the image of an owl which was clearly meant to represent Hedwig. After that Alistair Moody's face appeared, then Rufus Scrimgeours which was followed by Ted Tonks face. After this the next face was of poor, innocent little Dobby and then of Vincent Crabbe. After that the victims of the Battle of Hogwarts began to appear. First was Colin Creevey, then it was Fred Weasley, then Remus Lupin and Nymphadora Tonks. Then the greasy haired head of Severus Snape appeared in the sky. Several more faces appeared but Harry didn't recognise them all and then finally it was over and the sky was light once more. Harry looked around at the crowd of people, some of them were crying, others were in shock and some like Harry just looked downright depressed.

"Come on," Harry said as he put his arm around Daphne, "Let's go back to the common room."

***

Harry and Daphne weren't the only ones who wanted to escape to the peace and quiet of the 8th Year common room. All of the 8th Years had the same idea so although it was crowded it was much better than sitting in a stuffy hall with a bunch of other people who were depressed.

"It was sort of a nice way to end it all," Neville said from his perch on the sofa with Lilly

"I guess, but it was sad too," Hermione said with a sigh, "I knew so many faces in the sky."

"So did I," Harry said sadly.

"But Neville's right, it was a nice way to remember them," Theo said, his mind was still on Pansy's face in the sky.

Sadie nodded, she looked like her thoughts were elsewhere, "It was horrible seeing them all lined up like that though."

"It was like being back there again," Hermione said, her voice was rough and she looked pretty cut up by the display, "It was like seeing them all lined up in the hall, all white and cold with their eyes staring…"

Those who had been there that day shivered at the thought. They remembered, how could they forget that chilling sight?

"But we all survived," Neville said, he was always the one who looked on the bright side, "And we're all going to have our happily ever after."

Lilly raised an eyebrow, "Happily ever after and secret shopping trips? We've only been together a month."

Neville laughed, "The secret shopping trip was for your birthday present. Don't worry, I'm not getting ahead of myself."

"Phew," Lilly breathed in amusement, "You had me worried for a minute there."

Harry smiled slightly and his eyes found Daphne. She wasn't looking at him, she was too busy chuckling at the interplay between Neville and Lilly as they joked about early engagements and the like. The ring he had been planning to give to Daphne had been in the pocket of his robes for the last week. He had pondered about proposing at the Ministry ball but he had changed his mind because he felt like a proposal should be more private than that. He didn't want it all over the newspapers and he knew that Daphne wouldn't either.

As he watched her, with her head thrown back laughing he couldn't help but reach into his pocket and clasp his hand around the velvet box. Her hair glimmered in the firelight, her eyes were lit up with amusement and he wanted nothing more than to look upon her for the rest of his life. Was the day wrong? Would it be wrong to propose to her on a day that had seen so much suffering? Or would it be right? Would it be right to erase the pain of this day with happiness? Harry couldn't help but sway towards the latter option...

Daphne turned around and caught him staring at her. She smiled radiantly at him and in that moment he made his decision. Without thinking on it any further he stepped forward and said, "I wasn't planning on doing this today but the memorial and the fireworks...it's put everything into perspective for me Daph. Life is too short...I'm lucky to be alive, we _all _are and I'm actually happy too. I never thought I could feel happy on a day like today but you make me happy everyday Daphne. I love you so much and you have made _everything _about my life better. I want nothing more than to spend my life with you and Teddy and any other crazy children we might have."

Daphne's eyes were wide with fear and shock and for a moment Harry feared rejection. Her hands flew to her face in surprise when Harry took the box from his robes and dropped down on one knee. There was a stunned and excited silence in the common room as Harry flicked the box open so that the emerald and silver ring within could glimmer in the firelight.

"I spoke to your Mother at Easter and she gave me her blessing. So Daphne Greengrass, would you do me the honour of becoming my wife?"

Daphne gazed at Harry in disbelief and Harry's fear of rejection grew as she stared silently at him. Her eyes swam with emotion and Harry knew that every little feeling inside was clear in his own eyes. After what felt like hours had passed Daphne nodded and tears spilled from her eyes as she did so, "Of course, oh for Salazar's sake I can't believe this is happening, but yes Harry, yes!"

There was a lot of cheering and several shouts of "Congratulations!" from throughout the room. Harry grinned and got to his feet, he pulled Daphne up from the sofa as he did so. He kissed her like he had never kissed her before, their salty tears slid down their faces and they made no move to wipe them away as they held each other as tightly as they could amongst the cheering and wolf-whistling. When the passionate kiss ended Harry gently rested his forehead against Daphne's and looked into her eyes, they were bluer than ever in light of her recent tears and they shone with genuine happiness.

"I love you," Harry whispered as their friends began to descend on them.

"I love you too," Daphne said shakily as their friends finally reached them and they were forced to pull their gaze away from each other.

"Congratulations!" Neville beamed as he pulled Harry into a bear hug, "I told you she would say yes!"

Harry laughed ecstatically as Draco reached him and hugged him. The moment the blonde boy had let go Theo had launched himself at Harry and the next thing he knew he was in a group hug with all three of them. He couldn't help but wish that Ron could be here too and he made a mental note to go and tell his friend the good news before he found out through the grapevine.

Daphne was still stunned as her friends surrounded her to look at the beautiful sparkling ring on her finger.

Hermione and Sadie were the first to hug her and they didn't let go for a good few minutes. Hermione beamed at Daphne, "It's beautiful and that proposal was beautiful!"

"It was," Daphne said as a stupid smile began to spread across her face.

"I can't believe he knew you liked emeralds, oh Merlin, congratulations Daphne!" Sadie practically squealed.

Susan grinned at the blonde girl, "Congratulations Daph!" she said as she enveloped the girl in a hug.

Lilly pounced on her friend, "That was so sweet Daphne!" she agreed as she hugged her, "And gosh what a beautiful ring!"

Ginny positively beamed at Daphne as she hugged her and then hugged Harry, "Congratulations, I'm so happy for you both!" she said a little tearfully.

Blaise chuckled under his breath and blamed her hormones which Ginny glared at him for. Harry couldn't help the grin that seemed to be glued permanently onto his face as he beamed at Daphne from across the room. All of a sudden the day seemed better. It didn't seem sad anymore, nobody seemed lonely or depressed. Everybody was celebrating, everybody was grateful for what they did have rather than sad about what they didn't have. Harry couldn't help but think that things were finally the way that they were supposed to be.

A year ago Harry would never have thought that the 'right' thing would have been marrying the beautiful, intelligent, witty Slytherin ice queen Daphne Greengrass. Raising Teddy with her and considering adoption wasn't what he would have deemed the 'right' thing. But it wasn't a year ago, it was now, it was the present. And in the present marrying Daphne and having a future with her was the realest and the rightest thing he could possibly imagine.

**TBC. **

** **


	57. Life is Moving On

After the busy events of memorial weekend, the 8th Years were glad for a few days of peace and quiet. Daphne and Harry were still on a high because of their engagement and the spirit had spread to their friends too. Their peace and quiet did not last long however because the final draft of the last written assignment was due; their potions project.

"I'm not freaking out," Hermione tried to assure Draco and Harry as they sat at the 8th Year table eating breakfast.

Draco raised an eyebrow at his girlfriend, "Have you seen how frizzy your hair is today?"

Hermione shot her boyfriend a glare, "Draco, the size of my hair does not equate to how stressed I am!"

"Yes it does," Draco and Harry echoed. Hermione rolled her eyes and threw a sausage in their general direction.

"Hermione, you have the best project out of all of us. Slughorn even said you would get an O," Sadie said reassuringly, "Stop worrying about it."

Hermione sighed and put her project back in her bag, it was about the 20th time she had read through it since the night before.

Truthfully everyone else was as worried about the project as Hermione was but they just weren’t letting on. Hermione continued to freak out throughout the day as potions wasn't until after lunch. By the time the group ended up together again in the dungeon Draco looked ready to tear his hair out which made Daphne and Harry share an amused smirk.

The projects were collected and Hermione looked like she might burst into tears when Slughorn managed to pry it from her hands. Harry couldn't help but chuckle and think to himself that some things never changed.

Hermione seemed calmer at dinner but all the same Draco stealthily made his way over to Harry and Daphne so he wouldn't have to sit next to her at the table, "I thought she'd gotten more laid back lately," Draco grumbled as he sat down.

Harry laughed and said under his breath, "You think that was bad? Wait till you see how bad she is next month with the exams."

"Seriously?" Draco asked, he looked quite scared at the thought.

Daphne smirked at him and said, "Hey, that's what you get for falling in love with a know-it-all."

Harry shot his fiancé an amused grin and said, "You were freaking out like crazy this morning Daph, don't tease Mione."

"Oh whatever," Daphne said with a roll of her eyes.

Draco chuckled and changed the subject, "So, who are you supporting on Saturday?"

"Hufflepuff obviously," Harry replied with a smirk.

"Well you'll be on the losing side then," Daphne said, she was just as smug as Draco which meant that they had something up their sleeve for the upcoming match.

"We'll see," Harry said, although he was aware that if Slytherin did well in this match it would mean that they would be in with a chance to win the Quidditch cup. After all it was the second last match of the season.

"You saw us destroy Ravenclaw back in January," Draco smirked at the Gryffindor but Harry only rolled his eyes.

"And you saw us take out Hufflepuff in March," Harry said, they both had the same slightly manic competitive glint in their eyes.

As it stood at the moment Slytherin were leading in the points table with 430 points, second were Gryffindor on 340 after beating Hufflepuff 300-80 in March. Hufflepuff were third with 300 points and last were Ravenclaw with a mere 70 points, they had been having a terrible season.

"We're going to win," Draco said confidently.

"And we're going to win against Ravenclaw at the end of the month," Harry said, he smirked at Draco and Daphne, "So in the end it comes down to the team who wins with the best score."

"Which will be us," Daphne said with a grin.

"Oh hush about Quidditch you lot," Sadie said with a slight smile, "It’s _obvious_ Slytherin will get the cup."

The others chuckled and left the matter there, for now at least.

***

It was Friday night and Harry was meeting Ron in Hogsmeade.

"Hey," Ron smiled as he slipped into the booth where Harry was waiting for him in the Three Broomsticks.

"Hey," Harry said brightly, "How are you?"

"Ah, I'm alright," Ron shrugged, "Busy with the shop, you know."

"How is Katie?" Harry asked, maybe he was prodding a little but he was doing it gently.

"She's fine," Ron said with a forced smile, "Although this whole relationship thing isn't working out. It's looking more like co-parenting."

"That's not so bad," Harry said honestly, "It's basically what Andromeda and I have done with Teddy."

"It's not the way you imagine your first kid being born either though," Ron said with a hint of bitterness, "But you were the one who said you had something to tell me, so what's up?"

"Well I have news actually," Harry said with a slight smile, "And I wanted you to know before the grapevine got a hold of it."

"Just for the love of Godric, don't tell me Daphne is pregnant," Ron joked, "I can't handle anymore shock pregnancies."

Harry laughed out loud, "No, she's not pregnant. She is wearing a pretty big sparkly ring on a certain significant finger though."

Ron's eyes widened at first and then he grinned, "Are you serious mate? Wow, bloody hell...congratulations!"

Harry grinned back, "Yeah, I really asked her."

Ron got up and hugged Harry, "Wow, that's amazing. Congrats, seriously!"

Harry couldn't stop himself from beaming proudly as he and Ron sat back down. The redhead asked eagerly, "When did you ask her?"

"On Sunday after the memorial fireworks,” Harry admitted, “It just put everything into perspective so I asked her. I was going to do it at prom or graduation but the timing just felt right."

"Yeah well it lightens the mood a lot on that day," Ron said with a smile, "Wow, I mean between this and Fleur. You heard right?"

"She had the baby on the 2nd of May, yeah," Harry said with a nod, "Charlie told me."

"It's a girl," Ron said with a smile, "The tiniest little blonde haired thing. They named her Victoire which means victory in French."

This only made Harry grin even more widely, "Wow, that's fantastic! I sent them a card, I was going to floo but Molly said to leave it a few days for them to settle in with the new baby."

Ron nodded, "Yeah, floo in a day or two. They got your card, its sitting up on the mantelpiece with the rest."

"Merlin," Harry said with a soft smile, "Everyone is getting engaged or having babies. McGonagall wasn't kidding when she said wars led to baby booms."

Ron laughed, "Nah, I guess she was right on that front. It's not necessarily a bad thing though. It feels like all of these new experiences are washing away all of the bad. I mean did you hear about the new legislation Kingsley wants to bring about before his tenure ends in 2000?"

"I heard about the reforms he wanted to do with the DMLE," Harry said with a nod, "And Lupin's Law, to try and give werewolves the same rights as people who are half-Veela or the likes."

"They still have to register with the Ministry," Ron nodded, “But it would really give them a better chance in life."

"He called it a brave new world when he was elected," Harry said with a smile, "And I'm really starting to see that now."

"Me too mate," Ron said as he patted Harry on the back again, "And I really mean it when I say congrats on the engagement."

***

Saturday morning was tense, for the Hufflepuff team at least. The Slytherins seemed completely calm and at ease, as usual. The table was split, as it always was before a Quidditch game and when Harry and Hermione entered the great hall together they immediately sat down on the Hufflepuff side.

Neville and Lilly were both on the Hufflepuff side too and they shared an amused smile at this.

Neville grinned at Harry and Hermione and said, "Glad to see your fiancé and boyfriend haven't affected your loyalties."

"Nah, never," Harry said, "Kick their arses Suse!"

Susan chuckled from a little farther along the table, "We'll try but we've got nothing on them."

"The tactic with Slytherin is not to get scared by how good the team is," Harry said quietly, he leaned in closer so that the rest of the team could hear him. Zacharias, Ernie, Justin, Hannah and Megan all leaned in closer too.

"It's true, they do have a fantastic team _but_ they have some key weaknesses and if you can exploit them then you'll be laughing," Harry continued, this was sort of cheating but he was sure they wouldn't get caught and Slytherin would probably win regardless.

"What are their weaknesses Harry?" Justin, the captain, asked eagerly.

"Draco gets distracted by everything when he's on a chase to get the snitch, hit a bludger at him or near him and it will be enough for him to lose the snitch," Harry whispered, the Hufflepuffs eagerly took in everything he said.

"As for their keeper, well let's face it, he's probably the weakest player on the team," Neville added in a whisper, "If you throw the quaffle towards the edge of the left or right goal you'll have a better chance of scoring, he only really saves goals that are headed for the middle hoop."

"The beaters are good, no doubt about it, Theo and Blaise make a good team so just avoid the bludgers, that's the best advice we can give you there," Ginny said.

"Daphne and Sadie are both fantastic chasers, they are fast and they can shoot goals that are practically impossible to save but Sadie has a tendency to always shoot for the left hoop so watch out for that," Neville said.

"And Daphne, as good as she is, has a pretty big weakness too," Harry said, he felt like he was betraying his girlfriend slightly but it was Quidditch and he was much more competitive than usual with this being Gryffindor's last chance to win the cup, "She's kind of an attention seeker so she hogs the quaffle. She likes to be the one to score and she isn't that great with passing, so if you can pre-empt that then you have an advantage."

"What about Gabrielle?" Ernie asked, the French girl had taken over the chaser position from Tracey after her death.

Harry snorted and Neville laughed out loud, "Don't worry about her, have you seen her play in practice?"

The Hufflepuffs shook their heads and Harry said, "I saw her once, she can't catch the quaffle and when she does she drops it. I'm pretty sure they took her on because no one else wanted the position after what happened to Tracey."

"Oh," Ernie said, and for a moment the table was quiet. Bringing up Tracey or Dean always led to a reaction like that.

"But remember what I said and you'll be in with a good shout to beat them," Harry said, although he didn't actually believe it himself.

The Hufflepuffs thanked Harry and then left to get ready with the Slytherins close at their heels.

"Is that cheating?" Harry asked the others once the team were gone.

Hermione raised an eyebrow at him, "Not officially."

"There isn't anything in the rules about helping other teams out," Neville said with a sly grin, "So how could it possibly be cheating Hermione?"

"Yeah Hermione, would we ever cheat?" Harry asked as he grinned at his friend.

"Us brave, truthful, honest, courageous Gryffindor's," Ginny added with a smirk, "Would we really cheat?"

"You guys are incorrigible," Hermione said fondly which only made the others laugh.

"Hufflepuff have to win this or we're going to have a hard time doing well enough in our game against Ravenclaw to overtake Slytherin in the points table," Harry said.

"I know but Harry, you've seen how badly the Ravenclaws are playing, they haven't won a match," Neville muttered under his breath.

"Excuse me," Lilly said with a raised eyebrow, "We could be the underdogs."

"You'd have to win by about 400 points to be in with a chance of winning, Lil," Harry laughed, "But you could up your game for the final match of the season."

"Maybe that's been our game plan all along," Lilly winked.

"We'll be prepared," Ginny joked.

Hermione just laughed, "Come on, let's get to the stands."

Harry, Hermione, Ginny, Neville and Lilly all made their way out to the pitch together. The sun was shining, the ground was free of frost and snow, it hadn't been raining and there were no clouds in the sky. The conditions were perfect for Quidditch which probably only gave the Slytherins a better chance.

"See you guys later," Hermione said when they reached the pitch. She hurried up to the teachers stand to commentate on the match.

"Try not to favour Slytherin too much this time!" Neville teased as Hermione rushed up the stairs.

Lilly laughed and said, "I do hope Hufflepuff win."

"Yeah, I think we all do...apart from the Slytherins," Ginny said as they made their way up to the Gryffindor stands, Lilly had decided to join them there.

"I think it's going to be a close game," Harry said, "Hufflepuff might actually do this."

"Don't jinx it," Neville said as they watched the teams get ready on the pitch.

"Welcome everyone!" Hermione's voice echoed throughout the pitch, "To the second last Quidditch game of the 1998-1999 season!"

Everybody cheered and Hermione continued, "Slytherin are leading in the points table with 430 points and Hufflepuff are currently in third place with 300 points. To maintain their lead against Gryffindor, Slytherin need to win this game."

On the pitch Draco walked over to Justin and they exchanged a few words and shook hands.

"Luna has a new idea to get the crowd warmed up so she's going to play a song and she wants everyone who knows it to sing along," Hermione said, she sounded slightly uneasy about this idea.

Harry and Neville shared an amused glance. The song started to play and there was a ripple of laughter throughout the stands.

"_We will, we will rock you! We will, we will rock you!"_

Harry was quite surprised by the amount of people in the crowd who clapped along or sang along to the song. He had to admit that it made him laugh although he didn't know the song that well because the Dursleys had never giving him money to buy anything.

"Alright, now it's time to get the game started!" Hermione said through her chuckles, "The captains have shaken hands, the snitch has been released and Madam Hooch is about to put the quaffle into play...the quaffle is seized immediately by Daphne! She's making her way across the pitch, she's going to try and score! And she shoots…she scores! 10-0 to Slytherin already!"

"_I'm a scene, I'm a drama queen, I'm the best damn thing that your eyes have ever seen."_

Harry found himself laughing at Luna's song choice, he was fairly sure that it was aimed at Daphne…

"And Slytherin are back in possession of the quaffle, it's Sadie, no it's Daphne, and its Sadie again, Daphne and she shoots...but no! Smith has saved it!"

Harry didn't like Zacharias Smith but he smirked, it was no easy feat saving a shot from Daphne but he'd done as Harry said, he had assumed Daphne wouldn't pass the quaffle and judged the angle she'd score at.

"Hufflepuff in possession now, Hannah, now Megan, no Hannah again, Megan, Hannah and yes! Hannah scores, 10-10!"

"_Nothing’s ever outta reach, so dream dream dream!"_

"Yes!" Harry cheered because he was rooting for Hufflepuff.

"And now Slytherin are in possession, Daphne has the quaffle – she passes to Sadie – who passes back to Daphne – she's going to shoot – no! She passes to Sadie and Sadie scores! 20-10!"

There were groans from the Gryffindors but cheers from the Slytherins in the crowd. The game continued like that for the next 30 minutes, Slytherin just kept scoring and scoring and scoring. It had been 45 minutes since the game had started and the score was 110-10 to Slytherin. The Hufflepuffs seemed to have given up completely.

"Come on," Harry muttered to Neville, "Let's piss off the Slytherins, it might distract them."

"What are you thinking?" Neville asked with a slightly evil grin.

Harry whispered something in Neville's ear and both boys grinned as they started to sing.

"Malfoy cannot play Quidditch and not wince!" Harry and Neville sang loudly; they didn’t even need a charm to make their voices sound louder.

"He can't even catch the snitch!"

"That's why all us Gryffindor's sing, Malfoy is our Prince!"

On the pitch Draco glared at the Gryffindor stand as more and more people started to sing. The snitch was fairly close to his head but he was too irritated to notice.

"Malfoy has the movement of a rolling pin!"

Hermione looked unsure as to whether she should laugh and join in or glare at her friends and tell them off, so she kept her mouth shut.

"He won't catch a thing!"

The singing was getting louder but on the pitch Slytherin scored again, taking their score up to 120-10. While the keeper was trying to calm Draco down he missed a goal from Hufflepuff, taking the score to 120-20.

"Malfoy will make sure Hufflepuff win! Malfoy is our Prince!"

While Draco was distracted by the song Justin had spotted the snitch hovering above the Slytherin goalposts. In one quick movement he soared across the pitch, reached out and clasped his fingers around the snitch. The stands exploded with cheers, all but the Slytherin stands of course where all that could be heard were boo's.

Justin cheered loudly and held the snitch up proudly.

"YES! GO JUSTIN!" Harry and Neville whooped as the Hufflepuff flew to the ground where he was jumped on by the rest of his team who hugged him and patted him on the back and cheered.

"The final score is 170-120 to Hufflepuff!" Hermione cheered from the teachers stands, "Which puts Slytherin at 550 in the points table and rockets Hufflepuff to 470! Which means of course that to get ahead of Hufflepuff, Gryffindor must score over 50 points in the final match of the season. To overtake Slytherin and win the house cup Gryffindor will need over 220 points!"

With that the commentary ended and Hermione left the box. Harry and Neville shared a glance and decided that they would risk going onto the pitch to congratulate the Hufflepuffs.

"Well done Hannah!" Harry said politely as he smiled at the girl.

"Nice catch Justin," Neville said as he patted his friend on the back, "You're a good seeker."

Justin grinned, "Thanks mate! It was thanks to the tips you guys gave us Harry!"

"And the song," Susan said with a grin as she dropped her bat on the ground to hug Harry, “You and Neville were brilliant!"

"We'll call it our revenge for what they did to Ron," Harry said with a chuckle.

"Tips? What tips?" An enraged voice asked from behind.

Harry spun around to be faced by Draco and Theo. He looked around for his partner in crime, "Uhh, Neville."

"What?" Neville asked as he appeared beside Harry once more.

"_What _tips?" Draco asked again.

"Oh yeah, we gave the Hufflepuffs some Quidditch tips," Neville said with a smirk, "Is that a crime?"

"You're supposed to be our friends!" Draco said with a glare.

"Get over it Draco," Harry said with a slight frown, "We have friends in other houses that we've known for longer you know."

"Whatever Potter," Draco said bitterly, "Slytherins are meant to stick together."

"Well we aren't Slytherins Draco," Harry said.

Neville nodded and added, "As much as you want us to be Slytherins, we're still Gryffindor's."

"Still losers you mean?" Theo asked. Draco laughed nastily at this then he and Theo turned and stalked off of the pitch.

"Could they get anymore immature if they tried?" Daphne asked in astonishment as she watched the boys leave.

"Oh probably," Sadie said as she shook her head in disbelief, "Can you believe they are letting those two into Auror training?"

"Well done on the win," Daphne said to the Hufflepuffs and Sadie echoed this, the girls were far more gracious than the boys when it came to losing.

"What happened?" Hermione asked, she was slightly out of breath when she arrived on the pitch.

"Draco and Theo walked off in the huff because we gave Hufflepuff tips. They took it as some huge personal insult," Harry said, he was still surprised by what had happened.

"Yeah well they are Slytherins, no offence guys," Susan said, she added the last part for the benefit of Daphne and Sadie.

"None taken," Sadie said with a chuckle.

"Come on, let's get back to the common room. I think a party is in order," Hannah said with a grin. She and Susan had tentatively made up over the past few weeks but it was still shaky.

Susan smiled, "I'll meet you in the common room but I'll go get the butterbeer first."

"And meet Percy along the way in Hogsmeade?" Daphne teased.

Susan just winked and hurried towards the castle.

***

It was 2am in the morning and the party was in full swing. No one had seen Draco or Theo since the argument on the Quidditch pitch.

"I'm going to go and look for Draco," Harry said finally, he'd had one too many butterbeers and he was feeling bad about what had happened between him and the Slytherin who had quickly become one of his best friends.

"Where are you going to look?" Daphne asked.

Harry shrugged, "I dunno, I'll check the dorm first I guess."

"Just use the Marauders Map," Hermione said, as ever she was the voice of reason.

"Oh," Harry said thoughtfully, "I hadn't even thought of that, good idea Mione."

Harry then made his way up the stairs and he only staggered a tiny bit. The dorm was empty so he raked in his trunk for the Marauders Map. When he eventually found it he mumbled, "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good," and the map came to life.

Harry scanned the map floor by floor but he couldn't see Draco or Theo anywhere. He was wondering if Draco was even in the castle as he glanced through the lowest floors but then he saw it. A dot labelled "Draco Malfoy," presided in the lower dungeons.

Harry frowned, why would he be down there? It took him a minute but then Harry realised that Draco wasn't just in the dungeons, he was in Severus Snape's office which still contained a large amount of his belongings.

Harry stuffed the map into his pocket and hurried down the stairs, through the common room and down the grand staircase. _Why did Draco have to be so far away from the 8th Year common room? _Harry thought to himself as he reached the entrance hall and made his way down two more sets of stairs to get into the corridor leading to the office where Draco was hiding out.

Harry approached the door quietly. When he didn't hear any sound coming from inside he pushed the door open slightly and walked in.

Draco looked up. He was sitting with his feet up on the desk reading a potions book, "How did you find me?"

"I have a map that shows every room and person at Hogwarts," Harry said casually as he leant against the wall. Draco knew this of course, he had seen the map, in fact he had even borrowed it.

"Whatever," Draco said, he sounded as bitter as he had earlier.

"Where's Theo?" Harry asked curiously.

"I don't know, his dorm I think," Draco replied, he was purposefully keeping his answers very short.

"I know you're pissed off Draco but you have to understand that Hermione, Neville and me, we had lives before we became friends with you guys and we aren't just going to drop that," Harry explained, "Susan, Justin and Ernie are our good friends so we supported Hufflepuff."

"Supporting is one thing, giving tips is another," Draco said grumpily.

"The truth is that you're just pissed off that you lost and you're taking it out on me," Harry said as he narrowed his eyes at his friend.

"I am not," Draco said very defensively.

"Was Salazar Slytherin Scottish?" Harry asked curiously.

Draco frowned deeply, "Why?"

"Well Godric Gryffindor was Welsh," Harry said simply, "And recent studies have suggested Helga Hufflepuff was Irish," he added.

"So?"

"So, if Rowena Ravenclaw was English then it would make sense for Salazar Slytherin to be Scottish, a founder from each part of Great Britain," Harry finished.

"Some studies suggest he might have lived on an estate near the site of Hogwarts," Draco said, “But it's more likely that Ravenclaw was Scottish and Slytherin was English.”

"Well, I think he must have been Scottish because the Scots are famously defensive and it's a trait they share with Slytherins," Harry said as he sat down on a chair in front of Snape’s old desk.

"I'm not defensive!" Draco said, defensively.

Harry raised an eyebrow at his friend who huffed.

"Look Draco, we're adults. We've been through a war and we survived it, we're the lucky ones but you don't act like it all the time," Harry said honestly, "Soon you are going to be responsible for keeping the rest of the Wizarding World safe and you've got to act like that. You can't throw a fit every time something doesn't go your way."

"I know," Draco said with a sigh, "But you don't get it. It's hard for Slytherins to make friends, _real friends_ and well…Potter you are a real friend."

Harry smiled at how awkward Draco was in trying to say how he felt.

"And well...I'd quite like to stay friends with you so my temper got the better of me, I guess," Draco said as he looked everywhere but at Harry.

"Was that an apology?" Harry asked in amusement.

"Suppose so," Draco mumbled.

Harry chuckled, "You and Ron are more similar than you know," he said through his laughter. Draco only glared at him for this comment.

"Come on, we're having a party in the common room. Free booze and all," Harry said in an attempt to get Draco to come back with him.

"Alright then," Draco said. He put the book down and pushed himself to his feet and left the room with Harry.

"Nice song earlier."

"It served you right, after what you all did to Ron."

"So you guys are best friends again are you?" Draco asked, he had wondered about it since the scene at the memorial service earlier in the month.

"He's always been one of my best friends and I've been missing him lately. He asked me to be the Godfather of his baby," Harry said thoughtfully.

"What did you say?" Draco asked.

"I said yes," Harry said, "But I hope he doesn't expect me to make him best man at my wedding in return or anything. Not that Daph and me will be getting married anytime soon mind you, we agreed on a long engagement."

Draco merely hmm-ed at this.

Harry smiled at the Slytherin, "I have lots of friends Draco but I'm still going to spend all of my time kicking your arse and getting drunk with you at Auror training. Don't get all insecure about it."

At this there was a stifled chuckle that made both Draco and Harry stop in their tracks and spin around.

"Wingardium Leviosa!" Harry shouted as he pointed his wand in the vague direction of the noise.

Harry couldn't help but snigger as the invisibility cloak flew off of Daphne and Hermione and landed on the floor behind them.

"Aw, look at the loved up couple," Daphne teased.

Hermione chuckled, "All back together again."

Harry and Draco both rolled their eyes and put an arm around their girlfriends.

"Women...why do we put up with them Harry?" Draco asked his friend jokingly as they all walked back towards the common room together.

Harry chuckled and replied, "Merlin only knows."

***

The morning after Draco and Harry made up, Theo and Neville had a make-up hug in the middle of the great hall, in a very James Potter and Sirius Black fashion. Then just like that things went back to normal.

The few days after the match and the argument passed without anything of interest happening, the friends were just busy preparing for their exams the following month. It was exactly this they were doing on Wednesday in Potions. They had spent the entire period revising for other classes because as they had now handed in their potions projects (which was in effect their final exam) they had no more work to do in that class.

They had about 10 minutes’ left until the end of the class when Slughorn made an announcement, "I have finished marking all of your projects," he said as he picked up a pile of scrolls from his desk.

Hermione gasped and nearly fell out of her seat as Slughorn made his way around the class, he dropped a scroll on the desk of each student as he did so.

"You all did very well and I hope you achieved the grade you hoped for," Slughorn continued, "This will be your last potions class. For the rest of the term you should use your free period when you would have had this class to study for your other exams."

Slughorn dropped the last scroll on the desk and said with a smile, "Class dismissed."

Everybody grabbed their bags and hurried out into the corridor, Draco dragged the others down the corridor into a large hall which Harry and Hermione recognised as the hall where Nearly Headless Nicks Deathday party had been held.

Once they were out of sight of the rest of the class everybody opened their scrolls to find out how they had done in their project. Many of them were nervous because they had to get a specific grade. Harry, Draco, Neville and Theo all needed at least an E to get into Auror training and even then they still had to go through the selection process at the end of July. Lilly needed her O for her elite healing programme, Sadie needed an O for her Alchemy course, Daphne only needed an E in Potions but Harry expected she would ace the class anyway. Like Daphne, Hermione only needed an E but her letter had stated that an O was preferable and Harry had faith in her.

There was silence, apart from the rustling of paper, as everyone scrambled to find their results.

"YES!" Lilly exclaimed as she jumped up, "I got an O!"

Neville grinned at her, "I knew you would Lil! I got an E!"

Lilly returned his grin and hugged him, she had to jump as high as she could because he was so bloody tall, "I just need to pass my physical tomorrow and make sure I do well in Defence!"

"You are bloody brilliant," Neville said as he leant down and kissed her.

"Oh for the love of Salazar! I got an O too!" Daphne grinned as she punched the air.

"Yes! So did I!" Sadie said with a huge grin as she jumped into Theo's arms

Theo laughed, "I got an E," he said with a grin, he had achieved his passing grade too

"I got an O," Hermione said weakly, as if she couldn't believe it.

Draco rolled his eyes, "Of course you did, you're brilliant."

Susan smiled and said, "Well I got an E which is all I needed so I'm happy enough!"

Everybody had shared their grade apart from Harry and Draco now.

"What did you get Harry?" Daphne asked her boyfriend.

Harry looked up from the paper with a smile, "I got an E too," he admitted.

"Wow, well done Harry!" Hermione said in surprise, she knew how bad at potions he had been when he first started out at Hogwarts.

"That's great," Daphne agreed happily as she hugged her boyfriend.

"What about you Draco?" Hermione asked the Slytherin who looked up with a smile.

"Oh, I got an O," Draco said a little smugly.

"We all passed!" Sadie said happily.

"I reckon this calls for a party!" Daphne said with a grin.

"But it's a Wednesday night!" Hermione exclaimed in horror.

"So?" Theo asked.

Lilly snorted, "Well I have my physical test tomorrow so I for one will be going to bed," she joked.

Draco chuckled, "Well you have an excuse Lilly. You however do not Hermione. Come on, a couple of dances and then you can go back to revision."

"Oh fine," Hermione gave in, as usual. She smiled at the others and they all left the dungeons to celebrate in the common room.

** _TBC :)_ **

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Songs Used:  
We Will Rock You by Queen  
The Best Damn Thing by Avril Lavigne  
Dream by Miley Cyrus


	58. The Quidditch Cup

"Nev stop pacing."

"I'm just worried for her," Neville said as he walked in front of Harry's armchair for the umpteenth time.

"She'll be fine," Theo said, "She's not going to have a heart attack running, is she?"

Neville rolled his eyes, "That's not what I mean. I've got faith that she'll get the grades she needs, even in DADA. But this is the hardest bit for her and I don't want her to lose out on this opportunity."

"Nev, you two jog around the lake _twice _every single morning," Harry said with a smile, "In rain or shine."

"And you've had about 60 mock duels," Draco added, "She isn't going to fail."

"She's been gone for hours now though," Neville said as he glanced at the clock, "Don't you think she should be back soon?"

"You don't know how many people they have to see in one day," Theo yawned, "Just try and relax."

"I can't," Neville admitted sheepishly as the common room door opened. His eyes snapped to it and he was relieved when he saw Lilly walk in, she looked knackered and in dire need of a shower.

"Why are you covered in mud?" Harry asked the girl in amusement.

"Because there was a surprise factor in the physical test," Lilly said matter of factly, "They thought it would be fun to make us run an obstacle course just to see how fast we could do it."

"Do you know how you've done then?" Neville asked, he was trying not to be too pushy, “Did they tell you?"

"If you know _please _tell him," Draco said dryly, "He's been whining and pacing for the last 2 hours."

Lilly grinned, "You were that worried for me?"

"Well it's the dream job Lil," Neville said as he bit his lip, "Do you know how you did?"

"Yeah," Lilly replied, "They told us there and then. I ran the 800 metres in under 3 minutes so I passed that test. I won my mock duel so I passed that test too. The obstacle course had to be completed in 5 minutes or less..."

"How long did it take you?" Neville and Harry asked in unison.

Lilly laughed, "Now Neville I understand, he's my boyfriend. Why are you so concerned Harry?"

Harry grinned at the Ravenclaw, "Well partly because it's your dream job but also because I kind of want you at the hospital attached to the Auror training facilities. I'd feel a hell of a lot safer."

Lilly smiled broadly, "Well that's good because I did the obstacle course in 3 minutes and 44 seconds. Assuming I get an O in Transfiguration, Charms, Arithmancy, Herbology and DADA, I'll be one of two trainee Trauma Healers keeping you Aurors alive."

Neville grinned and pulled her into a hug, mud and all, "Which you will do because you are _fantastic_!" he said as he kissed her in front of the rest of the common room much to the amusement of their friends.

When they pulled away from each other, Neville wrinkled his nose, "But you do kind of smell."

Lilly laughed as she playfully whacked him on the arm, "Oh shut up you cheeky git!" she exclaimed as she disappeared upstairs for a well-deserved shower.

***

After the busy events of early May the rest of the month dragged by slowly. In every class they were preparing for their exams and when they weren't in class they were still preparing for their exams. Hermione was constantly stressed which was driving Draco insane and everybody else was trying to squeeze in as much practical work as possible for their DADA exam which led to many oddly shaped people making their way into the hospital wing. McGonagall had banned practicing DADA in the common room after Annie had ended up in the hospital wing with the body of a horse. It didn't help that she couldn't stop neighing for 2 days afterwards…

Everything got worse when they got their exam timetables handed out the following Monday morning. Hermione voiced her opinion on this very loudly that morning, "Isn't it ridiculous that we only get our timetable a few weeks before the exam?"

"It doesn't make a difference Hermione. You'd have studied for the last month anyway whether or not you had the bloody timetable," Theo said in exasperation.

"These exams are important Theo!"

"Yeah, we know that Hermione," Sadie said in an attempt to be diplomatic.

"Harry, how the fuck do you deal with her when she's like this?" Draco muttered, he was completely at his wits end, "I love her but I swear I'm going to kill her."

Harry sniggered at this, "Honestly, I just sit there and nod… and I ignore her a lot."

"Right, nod and ignore," Draco said, "I'll do that."

"Oh my gosh, this is the worst exam timetable ever!" Hermione shrieked and Draco actually let his head drop onto the table with an audible thump.

"Why?" Daphne asked, although she sounded like she was scared of the answer, Hermione was very snappy at the moment.

"I have Arithmancy on the 7th, Ancient Runes on the 8th and Transfiguration on the 9th!"

"Hermione, calm down," Harry said gently, "Transfiguration is your best subject, Arithmancy and Ancient Runes are kind of similar so revising for one is going to be like revising for the other and you've already done a ton of work for both anyway."

Hermione nodded, _Oh so she only listens to Harry then?_ Draco thought irritably to himself.

"At least DADA is last," Harry said thoughtfully, he liked having his best exam last, it meant that he finished on a high.

"And Divination is first," Daphne said as she scanned the timetable.

Draco chuckled and added, "Yeah, good luck with that one."

Harry laughed and said, "Oh I'll just bullshit my way through it, I usually do."

"Just over two weeks until the first one," Theo said thoughtfully as he chewed on a bit of sausage, “I suppose I should start revising then."

Sadie rolled her eyes fondly at her fiancé, "Has anyone ever told you that you are incorrigible?"

Theo just winked at her and continued eating his breakfast.

Before anymore could be said on the exams, McGonagall stood from the head table and called for attention.

"I would like to announce that things will be slightly different in regards to the end of this school year. As we have both 8th Years and 7th Years graduating from Hogwarts we will be adjusting the schedule slightly. The 8th Year prom will be on the 18th of June, the 8th Years will then be invited to a coffee morning with the professors on the 19th of June. Finally, there will be a graduation ceremony for the 8th Years on the 20th of June," McGonagall explained.

"The 7th Year prom will be held the following week on the 25th of June, with the coffee morning on the 26th of June and the graduation ceremony on the 27th of June," McGonagall continued, "Each student is allowed to invite two guests to the graduation ceremony, I would ask that you provide names of these guests to me by the end of May. Thank you."

With that she took her seat once more and the hall buzzed into life excitedly.

"Wow, it's not that long until we leave here," Sadie realised.

"I know," Hermione said, she sounded slightly sad about it but they all felt that way.

"What's it like anyway? Graduation?" Harry asked. Students weren't allowed to go to other years graduation ceremonies. It was only for the students graduating, the professors and those who were invited as guests.

"I don't know," Daphne said honestly, "But I've heard it has something to do with leaving on the boats like we arrived here in first year."

"That's kind of neat," Lilly said thoughtfully.

"Who are you going to invite?" Harry asked the group in general.

"My parents," Hermione replied.

"My Mum I guess," Lilly shrugged, "And my Dad but he's in Japan so I doubt he'll come."

"I'm inviting my Mother too," Daphne replied, "And Astoria."

"Yeah, me too," Sadie with a smile, "And my brother Sorenson if he's not too busy with work."

"I think I'll invite Percy," Susan said with a smile that made the others chuckle, she was actually falling in love with the Weasley as much as she hated to admit it.

Blaise said, "I suppose I better invite my Mother, I just hope she doesn't find a new prospective husband while she's there..."

Theo chuckled, "Well I'll invite my Mother and my sister."

"You have a sister, Theo?" Hermione asked in surprise.

"Yeah," Theo said as if this were obvious, "So?"

"Well you never talk about her," Harry said, he hadn't known either.

Theo shrugged, "She's my half-sister, she's only 6."

"What's she called?" Hermione asked.

"Lacey," Theo replied, "Anyway, who are you inviting Draco?"

"My Mother," Draco said, he was lost in thought for a moment, "And Aunt Dromeda. I think she'll be allowed to bring Teddy since hes a baby and therefore not a full person."

"I'm not inviting anyone," Neville shrugged, "Because there isn't anyone I _can _invite."

"I know that feeling," Harry sighed, "Pretty much everyone I want there will be watching from up high...my parents, Sirius, Remus…"

"Why don't you invite Mum and Dad?" Ginny asked from her spot next to Blaise, "You know they love you like a son and they would be delighted to come."

Harry smiled at the redhead, "That's a good idea actually Gin. I think I will do that."

"Is there really no one you can invite Neville?" Lilly asked sadly, "Your parents are-"

"-insane people who have _no _idea who I am," Neville snapped, "They think I'm the cleaner Lilly! What makes you think they will know who I am at graduation?"

"I'm sorry Neville, I was just trying to help," Lilly said quietly.

"Well don't," Neville said irritably, "I came to terms with the fact my parents would miss all of the important days in my life a long time ago. My 17th birthday, my graduation, my wedding, the birth of my children. They are never going to be there and they are _never _going to know me. As far as I'm concerned they _are _dead."

"At least you got to see them," Harry said under his breath, "You might not have _known _them but you visited them."

"Yeah and do you know what that's like?" Neville said bitterly, "It's like staring into the Mirror of Erised for your entire life! You can look all you want but there is _nothing _there!"

Lilly sighed, "Look Neville, I'm not going to sit here and apologise a hundred times over. We established a while ago that I'm _not _Hannah. I won't cry and apologise, I'll tell it to you straight. Your parents are probably never going to be cured, this isn't going to change and you are going to have to deal with it for the rest of your life. So you need to try and accept peoples help instead of pushing people away."

"I know…you're right," Neville muttered as Lilly slipped her hand into his, "But that doesn't mean I want you to be. I want to have people to invite to my graduation and I haven't got anyone, not since my Gran died."

"Well maybe you don't have anyone to invite," Lilly agreed as she looked at him, "But that doesn't mean you don't have people there who love you. _I'll _be there."

"And I'll be there," Harry piped up, "I mean, I love you man."

Neville laughed despite himself, "Yeah, I love you too mate," he said in amusement.

Daphne chuckled and changed the subject while the mood was fairly happy, "Do you know what else I was wondering about? What do you think the prom will be like?"

"A huge party from what I've heard," Draco said with a smirk, "It should be good."

"Yeah," Harry agreed, although he still felt an aching wrenching feeling in his gut about leaving Hogwarts for the last time.

***

Harry sighed as he walked into the common room with the remnants of the Gryffindor Quidditch team. They had just had a particularly dreadful practice.

"It wasn't that bad, Harry," Neville said.

"It was dreadful!" Harry snapped, "Without Ginny we are _screwed_! She's our best chaser and while Demelza is alright she's no Ginny! We're really going to have to up our game to beat Ravenclaw at the weekend."

"We'll be fine," Neville said, "You know the drill. Just stop Terry from catching the snitch until Gryffindor have scored at least 7 goals."

The Slytherins had been listening in quietly to this conversation from the moment that Harry and Neville had entered the common room.

"I think the cup could go either way at the moment," Susan said honestly as she looked up at her friends, "I mean Slytherin are looking good in terms of points but with the way Ravenclaw have been playing Gryffindor stand a chance of winning the cup. It should be an exciting match."

"Indeed," Draco said with a challenging look in his eyes that made Harry roll his eyes at his friend. He was looking forward to the Quidditch match the following Saturday and he really wanted to win the Quidditch cup but the feeling that was overriding both of those was sadness. There was this nagging feeling that he couldn't quite shake off and he knew that it had everything to do with this being the last match he would ever play as the seeker for Gryffindor.

***

When the morning of the 29th of May dawned, it didn't feel like any other Quidditch match day to Harry. He felt sick like he had when he had played his first game but it wasn't nerves, it was sadness.

Harry didn't feel right as he made his way down to the great hall where he joined the rest of the team on the Gryffindor side of the table.

"What's up Harry?" Daphne asked with a frown when she saw her boyfriend.

Harry faked a smile, "Oh nothing, just…it's the last game I'll play for Gryffindor."

Hermione could see the sadness in Harry's eyes, she smiled and reached across the table to take his hand, "Hey Harry, don't treat it like a sad thing. Take advantage of it, make the most of it and enjoy yourself.”

Hermione had this way of saying things in a way that Harry understood or could identify with, and once more she had worked her magic. He brightened up significantly after that and managed to eat some toast before heading down to the pitch with the rest of the team.

As the team stood together in the changing rooms for the last time, Harry felt his eyes well up a little, "Come on team, we can do this, it's our last chance, we can win this."

Neville smiled, "We'll win it for you Harry."

"Yeah, let's bring it home for Harry!" Natalie McDonald said.

Dennis punched the air, "For Harry!" he and the team shouted. Harry actually did cry very briefly.

Only Neville noticed and he whispered, "We'll do our best, promise."

"Thanks Nev," Harry said, his best friend understood how much it meant to him, it would feel amazing to win the Quidditch cup in a year where he had actually played in every game and hadn't had an injury.

The team made their way out onto the pitch and Harry felt a lump in his throat which he pushed down. They made their way into the centre where they lined up opposite the Ravenclaw team.

“Shake hands," Madam Hooch ordered as the crowd cheered and shouted in the stands. The atmosphere was always good at the last match of the season.

Harry walked forward and shook Terry's hand.

"I hope you win it man," Terry said good naturedly, "You want it more than we do."

"Hey don't go easy on us Boot," Harry joked.

Terry laughed, "No chance," he said with a grin. The two 8th Years made their way back to their teams and Hermione’s commentary began.

"The sky is blue and free of clouds; the sun is shining! The conditions are great for Quidditch but that glare off of the sun might cause some problems for the chasers. Great for the seekers however!"

Draco shook his head in amusement from where he was sitting next to Hermione in the teachers stand. Luna was playing in the match which meant Draco had been roped into doing the music. Harry found that slightly worrying since Draco had a very limited knowledge of Muggle music.

"Mount your brooms," Hooch said and everybody did so.

"The snitch is released and the quaffle is thrown into the air, play begins!"

Harry shot off into the distance and hovered in the middle of the pitch, not too high or low. His eyes scanned the entire pitch, he knew what he had to do, let the others score loads before he actually caught the snitch.

Harry couldn't see what was going on until he steadied himself but he could hear the commentary, "Gryffindor in possession to begin with! Demelza has the quaffle, she passes to Natalie - who passes to Annie - back to Natalie - and she's going for the goals - yes! She scores! 10-0 to Gryffindor!"

"_It's more than a feeling, more than a feeling!"_

"Gryffindor in possession again - and oh my god I can't believe it - Demelza is going for it - and YES! Another goal! 20-0!"

Harry grinned, this was a good start, he punched the air happily and started to fly slowly around the pitch as he kept a look-out for the snitch.

"A bludger is headed for Natalie - she's been hit in the arm but she's okay! - oh no, she's dropped the quaffle!" Hermione was shouting, Harry could see her jumping up and down on the bench. So far Draco's music taste hadn't been too bad but now that Ravenclaw had the quaffle and looked like they might score Harry wondered what he would play if they did.

"Ravenclaw in possession - Luna has the quaffle - she passes to Mandy - and back to Luna - no it's Mandy - and Luna again, she scores! 20-10!"

"_Don't stop me now, I'm having such a good time, I'm having a ball!"_

Luna had scored a fantastic goal; she had gotten it past Dennis expertly. He wasn't a great Keeper, not compared to Ron anyway. They had lost two of their best team members with the departure of the two Weasley's. The loss of Dean had also weakened the team massively.

The next 10 minutes were surprising, Luna scored 3 consecutive goals and then Mandy scored 2 more after that. Dennis was keeping as well as ever but Ravenclaw seemed to have gone from terrible to amazing. Had this been a tactical move or was it just luck?

"What a twist! Ravenclaw are leading 60-20!" Hermione exclaimed.

Gryffindor seriously needed to up their game, and they did. Natalie scored twice, then Demelza scored, taking the score to 60-50.

Harry cursed as he looked around, he needed to wait until his team scored twice more, _at least,_ before he could even catch the snitch. Gryffindor's good luck ended after those three goals. Ravenclaw were in possession of the quaffle again and the Gryffindor chasers couldn't get it back as hard as they tried.

Between them Luna and Mandy scored another 4 times. Then Gryffindor managed to get the quaffle back briefly and scored once more, taking the total to 100-60 to Ravenclaw.

Harry cursed once more as he glanced around the pitch desperately, to win this he would need to catch the snitch. Thankfully Gryffindor started to play to their usual standard as Hermione announced that the game had been ongoing for an hour now.

Demelza scored again and it was a good goal, then Natalie scored which took the total to 100-80, they were catching up. Luna scored yet another goal after that but then Gryffindor's chasers scored another three times which meant the overall score was 110-110, a perfect tie.

Harry wanted to find the snitch more than ever now, he was flying as fast as he could without his vision being blurred when he saw it. The sun caught it at the right moment, Harry saw the golden glint bounce off of the tiny balls surface, it was hovering near the ground by the entrance to the towers.

Harry shot towards it immediately and he could sense Terry following him. He reached the snitch just as it shot inside the area underneath the stands. Harry followed it inside the stands on instinct and admittedly because he was a little bit insane. Terry didn't follow him inside and Harry found himself wishing this was a Slytherin vs Gryffindor match just for old times’ sake.

"You're fucking mental Potter!" Terry cursed after him.

"Merlin," Harry cursed to himself as he sped through the area and avoided hitting the wooden beams, "This is a lot tighter than it was the first time."

Harry could only just hear the commentary as he followed the snitch, dodged and weaved through the beams but kept his eyes firmly on the little golden ball.

"Harry is under the stands! Oh my goodness! Is he injured? Will he come out?" Hermione’s voice asked. Harry would have rolled his eyes if he wasn't trying to keep them on the snitch.

Harry got so close to catching it and then the snitch shot up through a very narrow gap, Harry took a deep breath and followed it, he grimaced because his arms and legs burned as they rubbed against the wood. Harry came out and realised that he was in the stairwell of one of the stands but the snitch was still hovering there, as if it was waiting for him. He forgot about his injuries as he grinned and followed it up the stairs. He reached the entrance and just before the snitch could get away Harry reached out and caught it, his arm was crushed between two slats of wood in doing so and he cursed loudly. He was fairly sure that he had broken his arm so he quickly switched hands so that he was holding the snitch in his good arm. Then he shot into the stand to screams, it happened to be the teachers stand and Harry nearly knocked Draco to the ground as he flew past him.

The Slytherin exclaimed, "What the fuck Potter?"

"Malf – Black! Language!" McGonagall reprimanded, although she was jumping up and down because the fact Harry had caught the snitch meant that Gryffindor had won the match.

"He's alright! And he has the snitch! Gryffindor win, 260-110!" Hermione exclaimed as she jumped up and down and wrapped her arms around Draco, "Which means Gryffindor now have 600 points and have won the Quidditch cup!"

Harry cheered loudly and embarrassingly let a few tears fall as he flew to the ground. He tried to steady himself and block out the searing pain in his arm and down his sides too. He landed clumsily on the ground. Hermione took the sonorous charm off of herself and hurried to the pitch with Draco hot at her heels. By the time they got there Daphne, Sadie, Theo and Susan were already standing around Harry, along with the rest of the team. Lilly was assessing his injuries as they waited for Madam Pomfrey to reach them.

"Well there are some _very _bad friction burns Harry," Lilly said, "They'll need to heal up on their own and _ouch_, splinters. Not nice, that's a broken arm too…in about three different places. It was certainly a spectacular finish though."

Harry laughed weakly as Pomfrey appeared and levitated Harry onto a stretcher.

"Friction burns, a broken arm in three different places and a lot of splinters, Madam Pomfrey," Lilly said politely.

"Thank you Miss. Moon," Madam Pomfrey said genuinely. They knew that Lilly had been helping out in the hospital wing a lot recently to gain experience for her elite training programme.

***

On this one occasion Madam Pomfrey had allowed Harry's friends to sprawl all over her hospital wing as she, with Lilly's help, treated the accident prone Gryffindor boy.

"Can you tend to the broken arm please Miss. Moon?" Madam Pomfrey asked as she assessed the bleeding friction burns on the sides of Harry's arms and legs.

"A numbing charm or a prop charm?" Lilly asked.

Pomfrey replied, "A numbing charm for now."

Lilly cast the charm and Harry who was now beginning to feel the effects of the very strong pain relieving potion grinned lopsidedly at his friends, "We won the cup!"

"We did it Harry!" Neville said with a grin, "Just like we told you that we would!"

"Trust you to end up in the hospital wing after your last Quidditch match," Daphne said with a fond smile.

Harry laughed happily, "I don't care, I don't care about anything right now because we won it!"

Madam Pomfrey assured his friends that it was just the pain relieving potion and numbing charms taking effect that made Harry burst into a fit of the giggles. She assured them that he wasn't _actually _going mad.

After that Pomfrey told them that she needed to do some sensitive work on Harry's friction burns so she asked everyone to wait outside with the exception of Lilly. They understood but that didn't stop them from hovering outside the doors and making small talk as they waited for news on Harry.

"I hope he doesn't have to stay the night, otherwise the party tonight will be kind of pointless since he was the hero of the match," Hermione mused.

"I'm sure he'll be fine. Pomfrey has a soft spot for him, she'll let him out," Daphne said confidently.

At that moment the doors opened and Lilly came out with a smile, she had slightly bloody hands which worried everyone for a moment, "Yes I am covered in blood but don't worry, Harry's fine. The friction burns were really bad, we had to get rid of the damaged skin and regrow it which would have hurt like hell so we knocked him out for it. His arm has mended itself easily enough though. He's awake and you guys are allowed in as long as you stay quiet."

With that the group noisily made their way into the hospital wing which made Lilly roll her eyes in amusement.

Daphne greeted her boyfriend with a kiss. The others all congratulated him on the match and how close it had been and how it had been the best match in Hogwarts history, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera.

"So when are you getting out of here?" Daphne asked with a smile.

Harry, who had been happy and bright since he had seen his friends, sighed. His face fell, "Pomfrey's making me stay the night."

"What? Why?" Daphne asked. Hermione looked disappointed too.

"She says my skin needs to heal and that it won't until sometime late tonight," Harry said glumly. He had finally won the house cup and he was being forced to spend the night in the hospital wing instead of celebrating.

"That sucks," Hermione said sadly.

Harry just shrugged and said with a forced smile, "Hey, don't worry about me. Just make sure you all enjoy the party."

"Okay, that's long enough!" Madam Pomfrey said sternly, "Mr. Potter has a lot of skin to regrow tonight, he needs rest, out!"

They protested but Madam Pomfrey was insistent so the gang glumly filed out of the hospital wing. Daphne kissed Harry on the cheek before she left and when the doors shut Harry sighed sadly and shut his eyes.

It was a pretty crappy ending to a damn good day.

***

**_"_**Dragon, are you ready?"

"Ready, fox."

"Otter?"

"Ready, fox."

"Can you stop referring to us with animal names and can we just do this?" Susan asked as she raised an eyebrow at Daphne.

Daphne, Hermione and Lilly were both dressed from head to toe in black, as were Draco, Theo and Neville.

"Okay, so does everyone know the plan?"

"Yeah, we know the plan," Theo said, "It's not hard to remember, can we get going now?"

"Fine," Daphne said as she rolled her eyes at them all. She opened up the Marauders Map and threw Harry's invisibility cloak over herself, Hermione and Lilly. It was awkward because they really had to hunch to avoid their feet being seen.

Draco, Theo and Neville disillusioned themselves and blended in with the colours of the common room, then the group left.

They made their way silently along the 7th floor and out onto the grand staircase. They didn't pass anyone on their way down it and only actually bumped into someone when they entered the 1st floor corridor.

Filch was skulking about and nearly walked into Hermione, Daphne and Lilly who thankfully managed to hold their breath long enough for the caretaker to walk past them. It wasn't very often that he hung around in corridors these days but then again they were very near one of Peeves' favourite haunts.

"Okay," Daphne whispered when they reached the large double doors into the hospital wing, “Diversion time.”

Draco, Theo and Neville nodded, although nobody could really see it because they were the same colour as the wall behind them. Draco reached into his pocket and threw a small circular object shaped like a mine, Theo stood on it to activate it and instantly the corridor was engulfed in darkness. There was also a very loud bang, curtsey of Neville, and an invisible firework which brought Madam Pomfrey out of the hospital wing and Filch back into the corridor. Hermione was holding the hand of glory, which Draco had let her borrow, and she used it to lead herself, Daphne and Lilly into the hospital wing through the darkness. They were the only ones who could see what they were doing.

Once they were inside the girls gently pushed the doors shut and magically locked them. They knew that Pomfrey would get through but it bought them time.

Daphne took the cloak off and hurried over to Harry's bed where he was lying awake. She grinned as she threw him some clothes, "Get changed, we've got a party to get you to."

Harry grinned and changed at top speed. Daphne grabbed his hand and pulled him over to a portrait by Pomfrey's office where Lilly was waiting. The Ravenclaw girl tickled the portrait and it pushed itself back into the wall to reveal a doorway. The quartet rushed through it and pushed the door firmly shut behind them.

"Where are we?" Harry asked.

Lilly replied, "Madam Pomfreys brewing lab. There's an exit into the corridor this way so be quiet because they will still be out there."

Harry nodded and let Hermione throw the cloak over them both. She and Lilly disillusioned themselves because there was no way all four of them would fit under the cloak. The portrait in front of them had a blackboard full of numbers on it and Lilly entered a code onto the board which caused the portrait to open. The foursome carefully made their way into the corridor where the blackness was beginning to fade. Madam Pomfrey and Filch were talking and Pomfrey was trying to figure out why she couldn't get back into the Hospital Wing. They were blocking the entrance to the grand staircase so the trio had to take another route to the common room. They made their way outside into the fairly warm air and crossed the stone bridge then they re-entered the school in another wing of the 1st floor where they made their way through the deserted corridors onto the grand staircase.

Despite being away from the scene of the crime, they didn't speak or take the cloak off until they entered the 7th floor corridor where Draco, Theo and Neville were waiting. They had taken the disillusionment charm off of themselves.

"Thanks for breaking me out," Harry said with a grin as they flung the cloak off and took the disillusionment charms off of themselves.

"It was a pretty good plan; don't you think?" Hermione asked happily as they made their way towards the entrance to the 8th Year tower.

"Yeah, it was brilliant!" Harry said happily, he only winced a little as he began to make his way up the spiral staircase.

"It was my idea," Daphne said smugly.

Harry laughed at this, "I should have known," he said as he kissed her. He was silent as he concentrated on getting up the stairs without twisting too much but when he reached the top of the stairs Harry was surprised by the shout of, "Congratulations Harry!" that came from the portrait of the Marauders.

Harry grinned as his Father said proudly, "Brilliant Quidditch player my boy. I'm so proud of you!"

Harry's grin got even broader at that and then Daphne led him into the common room which erupted with cheering.

***

"You should have stayed in the hospital wing," Lilly said sheepishly as she undid Harry's shirt and pushed it off.

"I know," Harry winced, "But I wanted to go to the party."

The bandage on the right side of Harry's torso was stained red with blood, it made Hermione and Daphne wince.

"Besides Lil, you _helped _break me out," Harry teased.

"I know and I probably shouldn't have done that," Lilly said with a pointed look at Neville, "A certain boyfriend of mine is far too convincing for his own good."

"Sorry," Neville muttered, "If I'd known there was going to be a drunken mock duel style thing and Harry was going to get hit I wouldn't have snuck him out either."

Lilly shook her head as she peeled the bandage off, "Well it's only done more damage which you'll have to deal with Harry."

The skin underneath the bandage had been rubbed raw and was bleeding rather a lot. She calmly patted away the blood with a damp cloth as Harry gritted his teeth in pain. Daphne grabbed his hand and Harry squeezed it as Lilly finished mopping up the blood and cleaning the injury. She murmured a few charms, replaced the bandage and handed him a potion.

"What's that?" Harry asked warily.

"It's a pain relieving and numbing potion," Lilly replied, "It will send you straight to sleep but that's a good thing if it means you'll sleep and let your injuries heal."

Harry chuckled and downed the entire potion. He sighed with contentment as the pain began to ebb, "You'll be a great Healer Lil. I'm glad it will be you who fixes me up when I inevitably do stupid things as an Auror."

Lilly laughed, "If I get the grades I need. But thanks Harry, I'm glad you think so."

"It also helps that you're much nicer than Pomfrey," Harry said sleepily.

"And you're getting high on pain potions," Lilly grinned with an amused glance at Neville, "So go to sleep and hopefully everything will be nicely healed in morning."

"M'kay," Harry murmured as he drifted into unconsciousness.

** _TBC :) _ **

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Songs Used:  
More Than a Feeling by Boston  
Don't Stop Me Now by Queen


	59. Nastily Exhausting Wizarding Tests

"Is she okay?"

"She's fine."

"Are you sure? She kind of looked like a murderer when I saw her…"

"She's just a little stressed."

"She practically roared at me."

"Just go up and get her."

"No, she scares me! You go!"

"No way! She's your girlfriend, you go!"

"You're her best friend, why don't you go?"

At the foot of the stairs to the girl’s common room there was an argument going on as to who would go up the stairs and get Hermione down.

"Why can't we just leave her? She needs the sleep for the charms exam tomorrow," Draco said with a sigh. He was worried about Hermione, she had barely been sleeping or eating over the last few days.

"That's a good idea," Harry agreed, he was only slightly worried about Hermione's reaction when she realised that nobody had woken her up.

"We should probably head to Divination," Daphne said as she glanced at the clock on the wall.

Sadie nodded, "Yeah, you’re right."

"Stop worrying about it you two, this exam will be the easiest of the lot," Harry said with a roll of his eyes.

"Good luck," Theo said with a smile as he kissed his girlfriend goodbye, "I'm sure you'll be brilliant."

Sadie smiled and together with Harry, Daphne and Susan she left the common room.

"Did you guys revise?" Susan asked.

Harry snorted and replied, "No, how do you revise for an exam that is all based on nonsense?"

"Yeah, that's what I thought too," Daphne mused, "I mean I looked at some star charts but that was pretty much it…"

"I revised," Sadie said, her cheeks flushed pink, "I looked over the textbook and memorised the star and dream charts."

"You'll definitely pass then Sadie," Daphne said with a smile. Sadie was quite like Hermione; she just didn't show how much she was freaking out.

After going down one staircase and up another the group were exhausted and amongst the last to arrive at the top of the tower where Trelawney was calling everyone in one at a time, in alphabetical order.

There was 5 minutes of tense silence and then, "Bones, Susan!"

Susan smirked at the others and climbed the silvery ladder.

"I bet she'll get an O," Daphne said in amusement, "She's pretty good at coasting through this class."

"Well it's not difficult is it?" Harry teased but Sadie didn't see the funny side as she hopped back and forth between her right and left foot nervously.

Susan returned after about 10 minutes with a wide grin on her face, "Easy," she said simply, "Suppose I better get back to the common room and wake Hermione up so she doesn't kill any of us."

Harry laughed and said, "Good luck with that."

After that Sadie was called up and she looked like she might faint as she made her way up the ladder into the room.

"How do you think she'll do?" Harry asked Daphne the moment the trapdoor shut.

Daphne chuckled and shook her head, "She'll be fine," she said with a smile, "Sadie has this tendency to worry about her exams a lot and then come out with O's."

"So she's basically the Slytherin equivalent of Hermione," Harry remarked.

Daphne laughed again, "Exactly."

Daphne and Harry turned out to be right because when Sadie emerged from the attic room 10 minutes later she had a large smile on her face.

"How did it go?" Daphne asked as she shot an amused look Harry’s way.

"Good, I think!" Sadie said brightly, "Trelawney seemed pretty impressed!"

"Told you that you would be brilliant," Daphne said as she hugged her friend.

"I better get back to the common room, Mione will be freaking out with Charms tomorrow," Sadie said with a chuckle, "Good luck guys!"

Finally, Trelawney got to "G" and Daphne was called into the room.

"Good luck," Harry said as he kissed her on the cheek, "Not that you need it."

Daphne smirked and ascended the ladder.

"Ah Miss. Greengrass," Trelawney said with a smile, "Do take a seat."

Daphne sat down across from Trelawney at a table with a cup of tea and a crystal ball on it.

"Now there is no need to feel worried Miss. Greengrass, all I will ask you to do today is look into the crystal ball and read some tealeaves. I will also ask you some questions about your dreams and the position of the stars," Trelawney said, she kept her voice steady and smiled at the girl. Daphne had a feeling that she, Susan and Harry were the Professors favourites.

Daphne nodded and Trelawney said, "Then we shall begin. Can you explain to me one of the dreams you've had in the last month?"

Daphne hated this part, she didn't remember her dreams very well but she did remember one she’d had only the night before very vividly so she began to describe it, "I was with my friend Sadie. We were on the beach but it was snowing…I think it means that hard times are ahead...that the sunshine is going to be gone soon."

Trelawney had been nodding constantly throughout this and smiled when Daphne finished, "Fantastic. Now, can you tell me what the position of mars is at this point in the year?"

"It's June so..." Daphne thought for a moment, "Mars is in the sign of the Gemini which means that it is scattered and that those born at this time will likely be feisty."

"A textbook answer my dear," Trelawney said proudly, "Now tell me, what do you see in the crystal ball?"

Daphne looked into the ball and tried to clear her mind, Trelawney kindly told her to take her time. The fog gradually started to create shapes and through it Daphne could make out the shape of a wizarding hat and then a boat.

"I see a hat and a boat," Daphne said honestly.

Trelawney nodded vigorously, "Ah, the graduation I presume my dear."

Daphne looked closer and a scene began to materialise, "I see myself on a boat with Sadie, it's dark and we're on the lake with Hagrid."

"Excellent," Trelawney said, "That is quite enough my dear."

Daphne took her eyes away from the crystal ball. She knew Harry didn't believe in this branch of magic but it had always worked for her.

"When you are ready my dear drink your tea so we may look at the bottom of the cup," Trelawney said and with another nod Daphne picked up the cup and began to drink the lukewarm tea.

"Were you close to your Grandmother Miss. Greengrass?" Trelawney asked curiously as Daphne drank her tea.

Daphne frowned at the question, "On my Mother's side? Yes, I was very fond of her. But not on my Father's side."

Trelawney appeared thoughtful, "Your Grandmother on your Mother's side was known to have been part seer. I believe you share some aspects of her gift."

Daphne hadn't heard that before but it made sense. She had always found this class easy and not because she lied her way through it, although she did make up a lot of dreams for the dream diary assignments. She finished her tea and looked into her cup to read the leaves.

"I see an angel," Daphne said slowly, "Which I believe means good fortune in love,” she turned the cup slightly, "And I also see a bell which I think means good luck,” Daphne said. She was worried that she wasn't doing so well in this part, she usually got at least one bad omen in her cup. She turned the cup once more and looked in it again, she narrowed her eyes to make sure she got the symbol right, "And here I see…uhh a cake I think but I'm not entirely sure on the meaning."

"Perfect," Trelawney said and Daphne looked up to see her smiling.

"Would you like to know the full reading of your cup?" Trelawney asked kindly and Daphne nodded.

"The angel does mean good fortune in love, you were entirely correct about that and you were also correct about the bell being a symbol of good luck. However, there are 2 bells in your cup, which indicates that a wedding is nearby. The cake you saw was perfectly correct but it is a wedding cake which is symbolic of a fast and prosperous marriage in the near future," Trelawney said with a smile.

"Okay, thank you Professor," Daphne said as she smiled back and hoped that she would be told she was allowed to go now.

Trelawney merely nodded and said, "That will be all, well done Miss. Greengrass."

Daphne rushed out of the attic room and made her way down the ladder where Harry was waiting with a smile on his face.

Daphne smiled at him, "Fine," she said happily, "I'm going to head back to the common room and cram for Charms. See you later, Harry."

Harry smiled and kissed her lightly before she left, "See you," he said cheerfully. He waited patiently after that until he was eventually called up to the room.

"Potter, Harry!"

Harry didn't feel nervous until he made his way up the ladder into the thankfully fog and fume free room. He walked over to the table in the middle of the room where Trelawney was waiting for him and took his seat across from her.

"Good morning Mr. Potter," Trelawney said with a smile, "I am just going to ask you some questions and then there will be a crystal ball reading and the reading of some tealeaves."

"Okay," Harry said, he was fairly confident that he could make up enough rubbish to get through this.

"Can you tell me anything about the position of Mars?" Trelawney asked and Harry immediately started to think "oh shit", because there hadn't been questions in his O.W.L exam.

"Uhh," Harry floundered as he desperately tried to remember the things they had learned in class about star signs, "It's in the star sign of this month which is…the twin one…um, Gemini," Harry said.

Harry glanced at Trelawney who had a small smile on her face and was nodding, "Which means?"

"That people who were born in June are angry," Harry guessed and Trelawney struggled not to laugh.

"Okay Mr. Potter, can you explain a dream you had recently and its significance?" Trelawney asked and again Harry hadn't expected this question so he searched around in his head trying to remember a dream.

"Umm well I was walking through a dark forest and I saw a badger eating a ferret then the badger died," Harry said, he was making it up as he went along.

Trelawney didn't quite look convinced, she was even smirking a little as Harry continued, "So I guess the significance of it is that no matter how strong you are, a weaker opponent can eat-I mean kill you."

"I see," Trelawney said as she took a note down on her piece of parchment, "Can you look into the crystal ball for me Mr. Potter and tell me what you see?"

Harry looked into the crystal ball and saw fog, fog and yet more fog. He tried to narrow his eyes and look deeper but it didn’t work. He tried his best to clear his mind and he managed to make out a faint shape.

"I see a ring," Harry said because there was some sort of circular thing that looked ring-like and it was close enough, "It's golden and shiny," he added, although this was all complete bullshit.

"Ah," Trelawney said, she actually believed him now and her eyes lit up, "I see an engagement in the future Mr. Potter."

Harry frowned slightly, "But Daphne and I are already engaged."

"I did not say it would be _your _engagement," Trelawney said cryptically, "Do you see anything else?"

After a further 5 minutes of staring Harry concluded that he didn't. After that there was an awkward few minutes when Harry tried to drink his tea as fast as he could. When he eventually finished it he looked into the cup and tried to make shapes out of blobs and relate them to things in the textbook that he barely remembered.

"I see a," Harry squinted slightly into the cup, "Tree which means that I'm going to be happy in the future," Harry guessed, he remembered something about certain trees being good omens. He turned the cup and tried to make a shape out of another blob, "And I see a foot which means I'm going to move forward…in life."

Harry chanced a glance at Trelawney who was watching him with a raised eyebrow, he had _so_ failed this exam. He turned the cup for the final time and actually saw something he didn't have to make up for once, "Oh wait! I see a bird, which means something is going to free me…from something."

"That's quite enough Mr. Potter," Trelawney said and Harry looked up at his vaguely amused teacher, "An adequate attempt, would you like me to explain the meaning of your cup?"

Harry thought it was all nonsense but he nodded regardless.

"The tree you identified was in fact an elm tree which implies that happiness is coming your way. The foot you saw suggests that you will take a decisive step in a matter that will lead to an eventful change in your life and the bird you saw was in fact a magpie. There are 3 small magpies in your cup Mr. Potter which leads me to believe that there is a wedding in your near future."

Harry couldn't help but think _that _was accurate with Sadie and Theo's wedding in July and Harry and Daphne's own wedding at some stage in the future.

"That is all Mr. Potter," Trelawney said with a smile. Harry got to his feet and left the attic room. As Harry made his way down the stairs of the north tower he couldn't stop his mind from straying to the engagement ring and the hints that there would be a proposal. Neville wouldn't propose to Lilly; they had only been together for a couple of months. That meant that the only person he knew who could be thinking of proposing to someone was Draco...

***

When Daphne walked into her dorm room deep in thought she thought that she was alone. But she wasn't.

"Daph, what's wrong?"

Daphne didn't need to look up to know that the voice belonged to Sadie.

"Nothing," Daphne said as she looked up at the girl.

"Did the exam go badly?" Sadie asked.

Daphne shook her head, "No, well at least not really. I definitely passed."

"Then what's wrong? You look a little bit lost," Sadie said as she sat down on the edge of her friend's bed.

"Well, it was something that Trelawney said in my exam actually. She was taking about marriage and weddings in the future, but it can't be referring to Harry and I. We agreed not to get married until he finishes Auror training and I've finished my Curse Breaking Course," Daphne said.

"Well Theo and I are getting married soon," Sadie reasoned.

"I know but I'm wondering if it's more than that...do you think Draco is going to propose to Hermione?" Daphne asked curiously.

Sadie's eyes widened, "I don't know, he _could _be thinking about it. After all Theo and me are engaged and Harry proposed to you."

"So what, you think Draco is just going to follow like a little sheep?" Susan's voice asked.

"Suse, what _are _you doing?" Lilly laughed as she looked over at the Hufflepuff.

"Just hanging," Susan said with a grin. She had her legs looped over the top of her four poster bed and she was hanging upside down, her mess of red hair was all over the place.

Daphne snorted, "I didn't mean that Draco would do it just because everybody else is doing it. He really loves Hermione, it's _obvious _he wants to spend the rest of his life with her. Why _wouldn't _he ask her to marry him?"

"I don't know why you’re all putting so much thought into it anyway," Another new voice said from inside the closed curtains of Hermione's bed, "Divination is complete rubbish. You guys are literally relying on a bunch of bloody leaves in a cup."

Daphne rolled her eyes, she recognised the voice but the comment was enough to tell her who had spoken anyway, "Hermione, divination isn't completely useless!"

Hermione rolled her eyes from where she was hidden by her curtains. She pulled them open and said, "Yes it is, it's such an unreliable branch of magic."

"What about the prophecy about Harry?" Sadie asked, "That was a real prediction, it was scarily true. You can't say that it never works."

"Yeah and what about the prediction Trelawney made in third year? It came true too," Daphne added, they were both ganging up on Hermione now.

"And there have been times when a seer has reported a murder to the Ministry hours before it's happened," Susan said as she turned her head slightly to look at Hermione from her perch, "How do you explain that?"

"Easily," Hermione said rather smugly, "The seer that reported it is obviously the bloody killer!"

Daphne and Susan both laughed at this. Daphne said in amusement, "She does have a point. Remember that crazy cat lady seer who reported the death of like 10 cats and then they were all found under her patio?"

"Yeah," Sadie agreed with a chuckle, "But there are other times when it works, like the seers who work as unspeakables to track down missing people."

"Exactly," Susan added, she nodded vigorously which was amusing given her position, "And they work with Aurors too to find killers and stuff."

"So maybe it works sometimes," Hermione said sheepishly, "But they are probably all charlatans."

"Aren't you at all excited by the fact Draco might propose to you?" Susan asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Not if it's based on some bloody tealeaves in a cup," Hermione retorted.

Lilly laughed, "I've got to be in agreement here. It's not exactly a reliable source, is it?"

Daphne rolled her eyes, "Okay so maybe it isn't. But just say he did, hypothetically. What would you say?"

Hermione smiled slightly, "I'd say yes of course. I know that I love him and Ex-Death Eater or not I would weather any storm with him."

"Wow," Susan said as she swung down from her perch and lay on her bed normally, "That was so cheesy I thought I was gonna barf."

Hermione laughed and said, "Well, I don't care. I'm a hopeless romantic."

Daphne smiled fondly at her friend and said, "Wanna know a secret? Deep down, so am I."

"Well I'm not," Susan said.

"Me either," Lilly joked, "I mean look at me, I'm so punk rock."

"With a secret stash of Danielle Steel novels," Hermione grinned.

Susan laughed out loud, "I do want to get married someday though. Even if I do hate all of this cheesy romantic stuff."

"I think almost every girl does," Sadie said with a grin, "Theo and I are just adding the finishing touches to our wedding. It sounds weird saying that while we're studying for exams though…”

"Speaking of exams," Susan said as she reached down and grabbed a textbook from under her bed, "Can somebody please summarise what we learnt this year? I have literally paid no attention."

There was laughter around the room as the friends helped Susan out with her revision.

***

Harry and Neville were sitting together in the common room, both of them were silently looking their charms books and notes as they tried to remember how to do easy charms when something interesting happened over by the fire where the girls and Theo were lounging, all of them were holding books, apart from Theo.

"Yeah, I think he will propose," Daphne was saying, they had just come down from the dorm room and this was obviously a continuation of an earlier conversation, "I mean I know Draco pretty well and he's probably thinking that it's the right time. I bet he'll want to do it before he leaves Hogwarts too."

Harry frowned, so Draco _was _going to propose to Hermione? He hadn't told him that! He made a mental note to corner Draco when he got into the common room so that he could question him about this impending proposal. As it so happened though it was Draco who cornered Harry later that evening in the common room.

"Hey Harry, are you busy on Saturday?" Draco asked very quickly.

"No…" Harry replied slowly.

Draco sighed in relief, "Thank Merlin, everyone is busy and I need someone to come ring shopping with me."

Harry raised an eyebrow at the Slytherin, "Everyone else is busy… so I'm the last person you asked?" he asked in amusement, "Gee thanks Draco."

"Merlin Pothead stop acting like such a girl," Draco said as he rolled his eyes.

"If you're trying to convince me to come with you that isn't the way to do it," Harry joked as he and Draco walked towards the fire where the others were all sitting.

"I'll buy you an ice cream sundae," Draco suggested and with a chuckle.

Harry thought about it momentarily and said, "Bribery, now that's better. You've got a deal."

The pair disbanded at the fire, Draco went to sit with Hermione on an armchair and Harry squeezed in-between Daphne and Susan on the sofa. He was going to question Draco thoroughly at the weekend when they went ring shopping together.

"How did you get on with the exam Harry?" Susan asked when he sat down.

"Badly," Harry replied, he shook his head in disbelief at how bad it had been, "I didn't expect her to ask questions so I talked so much rubbish."

"What questions did she ask you?" Daphne asked curiously.

Harry replied, "Something about the position of mars and a dream description."

"She asked me the same two," Daphne realised in surprise and Susan nodded, "Yeah me too, I think they were the standard exam questions. How can you mess up those questions?"

"Well I made up a dream and said something about a badger and a ferret eating each other," Harry said and he got hit by a quill that had been thrown by Draco.

"What are you saying about me?" Draco asked with narrowed eyes.

"Oi, I wasn't talking about you this time!" Harry said back, he turned back to a sniggering Susan and a vaguely amused Daphne, "And I said something about twins and people being angry for the mars question."

Susan laughed and said, "Well your close enough with the mars question, Merlin knows about the dream one though."

Daphne was chuckling, "I'm sure you did enough to pass, even if it is an A."

"Well, enough about that one," Harry said as he nabbed Daphne's charms textbook out of her hands, "And onto the next one."

***

Hermione was remarkably calm on the morning of the charms exam which Harry and Draco decided was her new way of channelling her stress.

"Are you going to eat?" Draco asked carefully when he sat down next to his girlfriend at the table.

Hermione shook her head and took a deep breath, "No, I'll eat after."

"So how was your therapy session with Trelawney last night?" Harry asked, he hid his smirk behind his goblet of pumpkin juice. Due to Hermione's stress being significant enough to affect her everyday life McGonagall had been forced to send her to a compulsory therapy session.

Hermione smiled which surprised Harry who was expecting an eye roll, "It was good actually. I'm feeling quite confident."

"Okay," Harry said and he shot a confused look at Draco who merely shrugged, he was probably just grateful that Hermione wasn't shouting or crying every 10 minutes.

"I'm going to do some last minute studying before the exam," Hermione decided and she left the hall which left Harry and Neville to ponder whether Trelawney had brainwashed or poisoned her.

Whatever Trelawney had done, it had worked. Hermione was calm throughout the rest of the day and then after the exam she came out happy and convinced that she had done well. It was like Trelawney had sucked all the stress out of her, it was kind of freaky.

On Friday Theo took his written Astronomy exam during the day and was pretty sure he had done well and then he had the practical exam late that night on the Astronomy tower. He nearly got disqualified by the examiner for making a Dumbledore joke, he hadn't realised that the examiner was Elphias Doge… after that bad start to the exam he then fell asleep and drooled on his paper but he was still determined he had passed.

Hermione's calmness stuck for a while, although she was still nervous and constantly had her head stuck in a book but she spent the weekend mixing her revision with fun, she even let Daphne take her out for a coffee on Saturday.

This was all part of Draco's plan for Hermione to not notice he was gone of course, otherwise she might have suspected what he was planning. So the moment the girls left the castle Draco and Harry followed them and apparated to Diagon Alley before they could be seen.

Harry smirked as they ended up in the jewellery shop where he had bought Daphne's ring, "So," he said as they browsed the shelves, "What kind of thing are you looking for?"

"Simple and elegant," Draco said with a soft smile, "Elegant like Hermione."

"Merlin, when did you become such a romantic?" Harry teased.

Draco chuckled at this, "Hey, did you _hear _your proposal to Daphne? It was romantic as hell."

Harry scoffed, "So? She said yes. That's all that matters."

"I can't believe you didn't tell me you had a ring _or _that you were going to propose to Daphne," Draco said a little huffily.

"Well I didn't tell anyone I had a ring apart from Neville who came shopping with me, and Hermione who helped me hide it. I couldn't tell you when I was planning to propose either because _I _didn't know when I was going to do it," Harry said in amusement, "It was a spur of the moment thing."

"Charming," Draco joked.

"You've got a hard neck anyway, I was the last person you bloody asked to come with you today," Harry said jokingly as he glanced around at the many rings.

"Well I asked you, that's the part that matters isn't it?" Draco said with an air of sentimentality.

"I'm not really offended Draco," Harry said with a smile, "I've sort of accepted that although we are quartet there are times when it's me and Nev and you and Theo," he said thoughtfully.

"You're starting to sound like Dumbledore again," Draco remarked with an amused glint in his eye.

"I can't say I mind too much," Harry said truthfully, "Dumbledore could be manipulative but he was a wise old guy too."

"Hmm," Draco hummed thoughtfully as he looked along the cabinets for _ages_. He must have looked at every single ring in the shop in vivid detail before he finally found one that caught his eye. He asked to have a closer look and the store assistant handed it to him while Harry looked on from beside him. The ring was expensive but this was to be expected from Draco. It was 18ct gold and it had a circular ruby in the centre. The band was thin and elegant, and adorned with diamonds and garnets. It was expensive as hell but it was elegant, that was for sure.

"What do you think?" Draco asked Harry eagerly.

"Honestly, I think it's perfect, on the condition that you never _ever _tell her how much it cost," Harry said in amusement.

Draco rolled his eyes, "I wonder if she'll ever realise that I'm rich so I don't care."

"Oh I doubt it," Harry said with a chuckle as Draco grinned and told the store assistant he would buy the ring.

10 minutes and 600 Galleons later Draco and Harry were sitting in the newly reopened ice cream parlour.

Draco shook his head at Harry as their ice creams arrived. Harry's was full of chocolate and caramel, "What is it with you and sweet stuff?"

Harry smirked, "What is it with you purebloods and spending a fortune on everything?"

Draco looked at his friend in amusement, "Harry, you're a pureblood too."

"No," Harry corrected smugly, "I'm a half-blood, my Mother was a Muggle-born."

"Technically you're a quarter blood," Draco pointed out through a spoonful of vanilla ice cream, "You would be a half-blood if your Mother had been a Muggle."

"Either way, I don't spend money like you and Theo," Harry said as he swallowed a rather large mouthful of ice cream and got brain freeze.

"We don't do it on purpose," Draco said honestly, "I didn't pick that ring because of the price. I picked it because it was what I liked and I know it's what Hermione will like. I suppose the whole rich pureblood thing isn't that we spend a fortune on things because we can…it's that we have the money to have whatever we want which means we tend to buy the more expensive things."

"Well, if you're all so rich I might change my plans for Theo and Sadie's wedding present," Harry joked.

"What are you getting them for their wedding?" Draco asked curiously, he hadn't even thought about that yet even though the wedding was only a month away and Draco was the best man.

"Well, you have to promise to keep it quiet. I haven't even told Nev the full plan yet," Harry said as he leant in closer to the table. Draco nodded and leaned in closer too.

"You know how I've got the house at Grimmauld Place that I haven't signed over to you guys yet?" Harry asked and Draco nodded once more. Harry continued, "They want to redevelop that part of London which means the tenants in 1 to 20 Grimmauld Place have been evicted because the buildings are due for demolishment."

"Won't that mean your house will be demolished?" Draco asked with a frown.

Harry shook his head, "No, it's protected, nobody knows it's there so you can't demolish something that's hidden. You know how those sort of charms work, the house is in a different plane of existence, or something."

"Harry, this question was in our charms exam two days ago," Draco said with vague amusement.

Harry shrugged, "Then I vaguely got the answer right."

"So what does your house have to do with Sadie and Theo's wedding present?" Draco asked.

"Well, I'm going to give them number 11," Harry said simply and he ate his ice cream for a moment as Draco tried to figure this out.

"How are you going to do that if it's getting demolished?" Draco asked as if this was an obvious question to ask about a stupid idea.

Harry rolled his eyes, "I have an idea but I'm not telling you what it is until it works," he said on a note of finality.

"Can I at least pitch in with this house? I'll decorate it or something then I don't have to try and think of something to get them," Draco said.

Harry chuckled, he thought that might have happened, "You can go half with me on the price of the house, they're bloody expensive."

"How much?" Draco asked curiously.

Harry replied, "331,325 Galleons, 5 Sickles and 5 Knuts."

Draco didn't seem fazed by the price, "That's not too bad."

"Well, if you want to pitch in you can," Harry said with a smile, "But I do need to make sure my plan works first."

Draco narrowed his eyes at his friend. Harry only smirked and he didn’t give anything else away, "So when are you planning on proposing?" he asked Draco.

Draco frowned slightly, "Before we leave Hogwarts for sure. I'm just not sure if I'm going to do it at prom or at graduation. I haven't decided yet."

"I was going to do it at prom," Harry said in amusement, "That didn't exactly go to plan."

Draco chuckled, "Well I'm going to have it in my pocket around that time and if the opportune moment presents itself I will seize it."

"Sounds like a good plan," Harry smiled.

"Very romantic either way," A familiar voice said and Harry frowned when Neville slid in next to him at the booth he was sitting at with Draco.

"What are you doing here, Neville?" Draco asked in surprised.

"Shopping," Neville said in amusement, "And eating ice cream," he added as he licked his mint ice cream.

"Oh okay," Harry said, "Hey, I'll meet you at the Hogs Head in an hour or so, I need to discuss that thing with you."

Neville winked, "Got ya. Good luck with the proposal whenever it might happen. See ya!"

Neville laughed and Draco frowned, "Wait, what thing?"

Harry grinned in amusement, "It's about Sadie and Theo's wedding present. I told you I would figure it out. I'm gonna get Nev to help."

"Why can't I help?" Draco asked suspiciously, he also looked offended.

"Because I want you to be impressed when we manage to pull it off on our own," Harry said simply as he finished his ice cream.

Draco rolled his eyes, "You're such a cryptic tosser sometimes," he said as he paid for their ice creams, "And you actually ordered the most expensive ice cream in here."

"Hey, you're rich, you can afford it," Harry laughed as the two friends left the ice cream parlour.

** _TBC :) _ **


	60. Never Tickle a Venomous Tentacula

Harry had to admit, as he sat in the Hogs Head with a glass of firewhiskey waiting for Neville, he was partly keeping his plan a secret from Draco just to get on the smug gits nerves. Ever since they had all become friends, the Slytherins never expected anything sneaky of the Gryffindors so Harry had a very Slytherin plan and he knew that Neville would be able to help him out with it.

"Hey Harry," Neville said as he sat down on the barstool next to his fellow Gryffindor.

Harry smiled at his friend, "Hey Nev. Firewhiskey?"

Neville nodded and Harry ordered another firewhiskey which Aberforth slid across the table to Neville, "Thanks Abe," both boys said in unison.

"So Neville, how come you just happened to be in the ice cream parlour at the right time to overhear about Draco proposing to Hermione?" Harry asked, he narrowed his eyes at his friend.

Neville gave Harry a boyish grin that he knew well, it reminded him slightly of Ron, "I just happened to go in to buy ice cream and I saw you and Draco."

"And you just happened to overhear our conversation?" Harry asked in amusement, he was not at all convinced by Neville's story.

"I have good hearing," Neville said simply.

Harry shook his head in amusement but left it there, "Anyway, I need your help with Sadie and Theo's wedding present."

"You told me that much last night," Neville remarked as he sipped his drink, "Are you going to actually tell me what it is yet?"

Harry chuckled, "I'm going to buy them number 11 Grimmauld Place," he said with a smile.

"That's a nice idea. There's no way Theo would want to live with Sadie's Mother and I know how Sadie feels about Theo's Step-Mother. They're definitely going to need their own place," Neville laughed, "Do you want me to chip in on the price?"

"Well, you can if you'd like," Harry said as he thought about it, "I mean Draco said he would so that way it would be a present from all of us I guess."

Neville nodded thoughtfully, "What does Draco know?"

"Just that I'm trying to get the house but there's more to it than that. Muggles want to demolish all of the houses in Grimmauld Place, they want to redevelop it and build over the area," Harry explained to Neville who understood quicker than Draco.

"Your house will be alright though won't it? I mean it's not in the same plane as the muggle houses. It's that kind of charm, right?"

"Exactly," Harry said, he smirked, "You got that faster than Draco."

Neville smirked as well, "I'm a pureblood too, he forgets that. I just took longer to flourish," he said with a chuckle.

Harry laughed at this, "Well you’re right about the house, it won't be demolished but the other houses around it will and I want to try and save Number 11, 13 and 14."

"Why?" Neville asked, thinking about it for a moment.

"Well, I'm planning on giving them out as wedding presents. You'll want to live in Longbottom House obviously and once I sign Number 12 over to Draco and Hermione I expect they will move in there. That leaves 13 and 14 for Ginny if she ever needs it and Susan if she ever gets married."

"How thoughtful of you," Neville said with a raised eyebrow.

"I do try," Harry smirked.

Neville chuckled and drank some more firewhiskey, "So, you need a plan to try and stop those houses from being knocked down but just those 3... well 4 including your house?"

Harry nodded and Neville appeared thoughtful for a moment, "Well, I have one idea but it could be considered as slightly morally wrong."

Harry grinned in a slightly manic way, "Do explain…"

Neville chuckled, "I can only think of one thing that stops Muggles from building on sites and that's the fear of ghosts."

"What are you thinking?" Harry asked, he liked Neville's train of thought.

"We could rope in some of the school ghosts, get them to haunt the buildings and the land so that the Muggles don't build on it," Neville suggested and Harry pondered the idea.

"It might work, but I don't think it’s extreme enough…"

"How good are you with glamour charms?" Neville asked out of the blue.

Harry frowned, "What, like the make-up kind or the forensics kind?"

"The forensics kind," Neville replied.

Harry answered, "Uhh, I'm okay...I mean I can do a passable job."

"In that case, I have a plan," Neville said, he grinned at his friend.

"Excellent."

***

The following week was their second week of exams and it was when some of the bigger ones happened so Harry wasn't surprised when Hermione's calm bubble burst. It had happened on Sunday night when Draco asked her how the studying was going. Hermione promptly burst into tears and exclaimed that she would fail everything. Sadie, Daphne and Susan had calmed her down but it had taken about 3 hours.

On Monday Hermione, Daphne, Sadie and Lilly were all equally nervous as they headed off for their Arithmancy exam. The boys saw them off and wished them good luck then frantically studied for their Transfiguration and Herbology exams. When the girls returned 3 hours later they were all in high spirits.

"Can you believe that actually happened?" Daphne asked Sadie, Hermione, Lilly and Melody as they all walked into the common room together.

Hermione shook her head in amusement, all of the girls were laughing, "No, I mean not at N.E.W.T level, at O.W.L I might have expected it!"

Draco, Harry, Theo and Neville shared confused looks as the girls drew closer to them.

"What happened?" Harry asked as Daphne sat down next to him on the sofa.

"Zacharias Smith," Hermione replied with a pointed look at her best friend.

Harry grinned somewhat evilly, "What did the stupid git do this time?"

Sadie was giggling and Melody smiled and said, "He obviously hasn't paid much attention in class so he drew up his number chart for the exam and forgot to hand it in to the examiner."

Sadie felt slightly bad for giggling but Zacharias was a pompous git who irritated her, "He's lost about 40 marks because it doesn't count as part of the exam now!"

Harry whistled and Draco sniggered then muttered something about how it served him right.

"He's not a nice guy," Neville admitted, "But that is a bit of a shame."

"Nah it's not," Theo said with an evil grin, "He should have handed it in, it's his own bloody fault."

Harry grinned back at the Slytherin and nodded, "It completely is and let's face it, he's a wanker."

Laughter echoed around the common room and for a moment nobody was stressed.

But then it was Tuesday and there was the Ancient Runes exam. Hermione, Draco, Daphne and Lilly were those in the group taking the exam and Harry definitely didn't envy them that morning.

"I’m glad she’s so laid back,” Neville was saying to Harry about Lilly, “I couldn't have coped if I'd still been dating Hannah, she had a nervous breakdown yesterday. Lil works hard and spends more time with books than me at the moment but at least she's calm like Daph.”

"Daphne was a bit worried about this one actually," Harry said to Neville as they dug into breakfast, "She doesn't freak out like Hermione does but she's been quite quiet all morning."

"I'm not looking forward to tomorrow," Neville said darkly, "I've never been great at Transfiguration."

Harry laughed and said, "McGonagall told me I was lucky I only needed an E to get into Auror training."

"Well as long as we scrape through we're fine," Neville reasoned, "Oh by the way, I've made the first move towards that thing...for you know."

Harry nodded, Sadie and Theo were both sitting fairly nearby, "Good, when do you think we'll see the first results?"

"Saturdays edition of the Prophet hopefully," Neville said thoughtfully.

Harry grinned, "Perfect. Hey Nev, do you want to go practice some Transfiguration after breakfast?"

“Sounds like a plan,” Neville said, “I need all the help I can get.”

“You and me both,” Harry chuckled.

***

"Hey," Harry said brightly when Daphne made her way into the common room after her exam, "How'd it go?"

"Good," Daphne said as she dropped down on his knee, "I mean obviously it's my best subject because of the curse breaking course I want to get into."

"Did Smith manage to finish the exam this time?" Theo sniggered.

Hermione and Draco smirked at each other and this time Neville grinned, "What did he do?"

"He forgot how to do a certain very old type of manuscript," Draco said, trying to conceal a large grin, "And it was a pretty important question."

"So Ernie tried to give him a hint by pointing at an owl outside of the window," Hermione said as Daphne started to laugh too.

"And he thought that meant the script was written in lines, like an owl’s feet," Daphne said with a roll of her eyes.

"When really what Ernie was saying was that the translation of the question was O. W. L. The manuscript was easy, it was just slightly curved modern letters," Hermione said.

“But what Zacharias handed in was a bit of paper that looked like an owl had walked all over it,” Daphne sniggered.

Draco shook his head in disbelief, "I can't believe that guy thinks he's smarter than everyone else."

"He was probably just stressed guys, cut him a break," Hannah said from the table behind them.

"Aw come on Hannah," Harry laughed, "Even you can't stand him."

"He's not that bad," Hannah said, but it was clear that she didn't believe her own lie.

"Yeah right," Lilly snorted, "I remember you taking him out in the DA. You can't throw a stupefy spell like that at a friend."

"Unless you are Draco, Harry or Theo of course," Neville added in amusement, "Who have emotionally charged fights with their 'friends' all of the time."

"Whatever," Draco drawled, Harry scoffed and Theo muttered. Daphne couldn't stop herself from grinning at her fiancé in amusement.

***

"I'm going to fail this exam."

Neville was pacing slightly as he stood in the entrance hall with pretty much everyone else in 8th Year. This morning was the Transfiguration exam and while most of the group felt okay about it, Neville and Harry were rather nervous.

"No you aren't," Harry assured his friend, "You did fine when we practiced yesterday. Just pretend the examiner is me."

"Deep breaths Nev," Lilly said, she was kind of taking the mick but she was also trying to be comforting.

Neville shot her an amused look as the doors to the hall opened. They all filtered in and were split up to each be examined on their practical skills before the written exam. Harry was nervous about this part but he managed to transfigure a goblet into a dinner plate. Then he mostly managed to transfigure a squirrel into a mouse but it still had a slightly furry tail which he was pretty sure he lost points on. From the corner of his eye Harry saw Neville do well up until he transfigured his squirrel into a bird which the examiner was impressed with, until the bird decided to do its business on his head. Harry just hoped Neville wouldn't lose marks for it.

By the time the practical and written exams were both over everybody wanted a break and they were all starving as they met up in the entrance hall.

"How did it go?" Harry asked Neville because they ended up being the first ones out of the hall.

"Alright," Neville admitted, "Until the bird decided to crap on the examiners head."

"Did he deduct points?" Harry asked, he was vaguely amused by the incident if he was honest.

Neville shook his head and chuckled, "Nah, thank Merlin. I reckon I might have scraped a pass."

"Me too," Harry said with a chuckle, "But an E is good enough for the Auror selection process so that's good enough for me."

"Exactly," Neville grinned.

***

Thankfully there was a gap between the Transfiguration and Herbology exams which almost everyone spent in the common room cramming. Theo eventually broke the silence and the tension by starting a fight with a piece of scrunched up paper which escalated quickly.

Come Friday morning the mood was different, most of the group didn't need a high grade in Herbology so they weren't freaking out as much as they had been for other exams. Neville, Hannah and Susan were the least worried, it was like being a Hufflepuff (or Neville) automatically made you good at Herbology. Lilly was panicking the most because she needed an O in the subject but she was almost as good as Neville in the class.

The exam had two parts, written and practical. After 2 hours of doing the written side everybody was glad to be doing some practical work in the greenhouse but it didn't go entirely smoothly…

"Can you believe he ended up in the hospital wing?" Harry asked through his laughter as he made his way back from the Herbology exam with Draco and Neville, the girls were walking slightly behind them.

"He's such an idiot," Draco said in an almost endearing way.

"It was pretty funny," Neville said, he was still chuckling.

"And very Theo," Harry pointed out.

Draco nodded his agreement, "Definitely very Theo."

"Do you think we should go visit him in the hospital wing?" Neville asked.

"No, he doesn't deserve visitors," Draco said as he rolled his eyes, "The stupid tosser shouldn't have tried to tickle the venomous tentacula."

Harry sniggered, "Do you think Madam Pomfrey will be able to reattach his pinky?"

"I hope she can't," Draco said.

Neville laughed loudly, "Yeah, so we can take the piss out of him for it for the rest of his life."

"We should probably go check on him," Draco said sheepishly as the group reached the first floor.

Harry smirked, "I thought you said it was his own fault?"

"It was, he's an idiot but we should probably still go see how he is," Draco admitted reluctantly.

"Come on then," Neville said as he turned into the hospital wing, "Let's go see your boyfriend Draco."

Draco glared at the Gryffindor, "Shut up fatbottom."

"Go give him a kiss ferret," Neville teased and Draco glared some more but he did make his way over to Theo's bed. Harry and Neville followed, both of them were smirking at the scene.

"Hey Theo, how's the finger?" Neville asked with a grin.

Theo rolled his eyes and held up his bandaged hand, "Attached."

"Well done on the intelligence you portrayed today," Harry said sarcastically.

Draco grinned, "Yeah Theo, bet you've aced the Herbology exam."

"You can't take the mick Draco," Neville said with a smirk, "You were practically in tears when it happened."

"Even Sadie didn't freak out that much," Theo said with an amused smile.

"Worried about his poor boyfriend," Harry teased and Draco rolled his eyes and muttered that he wasn't _that _worried.

After that the girls arrived and a worried Sadie ran over so the teasing stopped, for now.

***

The weekend wasn't really one for relaxing, it was more a time for studying. When everyone gathered together for breakfast on Saturday morning Harry and Neville shot each other a grin. They tucked into toast as normal and waited for the post to arrive which it did only moments later.

Only Hermione subscribed to the weekend edition of the Prophet so when the post came it dropped the prophet in front of her, and as usual she eagerly opened it up. Harry knew the article wasn't on the front page so he didn't expect Hermione to pick up on the plan straight away but he also didn't expect her to burst out laughing the moment she saw the front page.

"What is it?" Draco asked in amusement from her right and then he glanced at the paper and his eyes widened.

"What are you laughing at?" Harry asked from Hermione's left and then he too glanced over at the prophet.

The front page was dominated by a large picture of Draco and Harry sitting on opposite sides of a table in the ice cream parlour. The picture had been snapped just as they had leaned closer to each other to discuss the plans for Sadie and Theo's wedding present. It was conveniently snapped at the right time to make it look like the two friends were about to kiss.

"_The Hero and the Rogue: Potter and Black, more than just an ice cream?" _the headline read.

Hermione grinned, she had just scanned the article, "This is brilliant."

"No it's not," Harry and Draco echoed which only made Hermione giggle.

"Read it out loud Hermione," Daphne said with a chuckle as she tried to crane her neck to see the article.

Hermione grinned broadly and did just that.

"_Mr. Harry Potter, the hero of the war, and his new friend, Mr. Draco Black (formerly Malfoy), were spotted on an intimate 'date' last weekend. The two boys were sharing an ice cream in Diagon Alley. Questions have been raised since the start of this friendship as to whether it is something more, despite the fact that both Mr. Potter and Mr. Black are in serious relationships, and sources say that Mr. Potter is in fact engaged to his long-term girlfriend, Daphne Greengrass. This picture brings the issue to the fore once more however, so what exactly is going on between the two young men? We spoke to their close friends Neville Longbottom and Theodore Nott to find out more._

"_Harry and Draco have always identified with each other in some way," Mr. Longbottom told me, "Even when they hated each other they were sort of longing to be friends but without realizing it. They are both very much in love with their respective girlfriends but there has always been sexual tension between those two since we were all about 14 years old."_

_When I asked if they had ever acted on this 'tension' Mr. Longbottom replied, "Who knows? Probably. It wouldn't surprise me, what with society being much more relaxed about these things now.'"_

_Mr. Nott had a slightly different view on the 'friendship' between Mr. Potter and Mr. Black, "I've known Draco since he was tiny," Mr. Nott confided in me, "And I can tell you he was mad when Harry didn't want to be his friend in 1st year. Ever since then Draco's been after him, he has a thing for forbidden fruit you know? Anyway, Draco and Harry are pretty much a thing, yeah their girlfriends both know about it, they don't mind."_

_Mr. Nott shared his friend's view that the two young men had probably acted on the tension that was mentioned earlier in the article. Mr. Longbottom assured me not to listen to anything that Mr. Nott told me due to his tendency to talk nonsense. But could this all just be part of the cover up?_

_Watch this space!"_

The table had erupted in laughter as Hermione read the article, Harry and Draco shared a glance and then...

"Long-"

"Fat-"

"-bottom!" Harry and Draco finished, both glaring at their friend who grinned.

"That's why you just happened to be in the right place at the right time," Harry said with narrowed eyes.

Neville shrugged and smirked at his friends, "Well I wanted to prank you and I needed a bit of extra cash so I just sold the story to the prophet."

"I'm impressed," Theo said with a grin in the direction of the Gryffindor, "Very Slytherin of you. I have taught you well young one."

"Theo, why do you know so many quotes from muggle films?" Hermione asked in amusement.

"Muggle Studies exam," Theo said casually, "Film section."

"What other ones do you know?" Hermione asked with a chuckle, "I'll test you."

"Alright," Theo said with a grin, "I have to match them to the films so say a quote and I'll tell you the film."

"Life is like a box of chocolates you never know what you're gonna get," Hermione said.

Theo thought about this for a minute, "Oh yeah, It's from Scarface!"

"Seriously?" Harry asked as he burst out laughing, "You do know what Scarface is about right?"

Theo rolled his eyes, "No, okay give me another one."

"How about…" Harry said thoughtfully as he tried to think of films Dudley and the Dursleys had watched, "I've got a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore."

"Uh, is that from Titanic?" Theo asked.

"No Theo, slight difference," Hermione said in amusement, "Titanic is about a boat sinking and lots of people dying, and that quote is from the Wizard of Oz which is a happy musical."

"Whatever, next one," Theo said as he brushed off the fact that he wasn't doing so well.

"E.T phone home," Hermione said.

"Oh! I know this one!" Theo said enthusiastically, "It’s from Alien!"

"No Theo," Hermione managed to say through her laughter, "There was a _huge _hint in the quote! It's from the film E.T."

"You're so screwed for your Muggle Studies exam mate," Draco said as he shook his head in amusement at his best friend.

"I should probably start revising since its next week," Theo said thoughtfully.

Hermione shook her head in amusement and got back to the Prophet. Harry and Neville shared a smirk and pretended to keep eating for the next 5 minutes until…

"Oh my gosh!"

"What is it?" Daphne asked, she had jumped when Hermione had exclaimed loudly.

"There's an article in here you should all listen to," Hermione said and everyone moved in closer, nobody noticed the smirks on Harry and Neville's faces.

"_Unearthing History shrouded in mystery," _Hermione read the headline, _"Unearthed mid-week were human bones, along with wizarding artefacts at a housing estate in London. The houses in the street known as 'Grimmauld Place' were due for demolishment but after the demolishment of the first house a Muggle archaeological team was brought in. The results of their excavation were astounding, a mass grave dating to an age Muggles call 'pre-history' has been found and it is believed to be a one in a kind site. The head archaeologist, a Professor James Clark, has stated that the site is no longer fit for re-development. The demolishment of the other houses has been cancelled and the site is tipped to be designated world heritage site status. Amongst the muggle skeletons and artefacts were wizarding artefacts, it is unknown how these came to be in the possession of the Muggles. Amongst these artefacts were a timeturner which Muggles believe to be an ancient time-telling device and a quill which is believed by the Muggles to be a sacred feather."_

"That's handy," Harry said thoughtfully, "I didn't really want my house to be demolished."

Draco smirked and caught Harry's eye. He nodded, as if to say that he understood.

"What in the hell is an archaeologist?" Draco asked as an afterthought.

"Oh wait I know this one! It's a Muggle person who makes buildings," Theo pitched in.

"Theo, that's an architect," Lilly pointed out through her chuckles.

"Well it's the other one then, a Muggle who studies monkey bones."

"That's an anthropologist," Hermione said with an amused smile, "And they study prehistoric human bones to learn about evolution but its close enough. An archaeologist is someone who digs up the past, they dig up human bones, relics and artefacts, even old houses."

"What's the point in that?" Sadie asked with a frown, "Things get buried for a reason."

"Yeah, I agree with Sadie, what's the point? What do they do with the things they dig up?" Daphne asked as she frowned too.

Hermione had forgotten that in many ways purebloods still didn't understand muggles, "Well they don't have great sources to learn about the past like wizards. They don't have many tapestry family trees or written historic documents so they dig up the past to learn more about the people before them."

"Why do they need to learn about that though?" Susan asked, she didn't quite get it either.

"They think it helps them to understand how the world works and how society works and it's also important to them to learn from the mistakes that humans made in the past," Hermione explained, she didn't see why the Slytherins couldn't understand.

"You didn't say earlier Mione, what do they do with the stuff they dig up?" Daphne asked again, she frowned deeply as she tried to understand this.

“They put them in a mausoleum," Theo answered, he clearly thought that he had remembered something from Muggle Studies.

"I don't know much about archaeology Theo but I'm pretty sure that's wrong," Harry said in amusement as he drank his coffee.

"Yeah, a mausoleum is where dead people are buried, it's like a house for the dead," Lilly said.

"You're thinking of a museum," Hermione said, "They put the skeletons and artefacts in a museum so that people can go and see all of the artefacts."

"People go and look at dead people and random bits and pieces that came out the ground?" Daphne asked in disbelief.

"That's really disrespectful!" Sadie said, she looked affronted, "The dead should be left at peace and so should their belongings!"

"It isn't right," Draco agreed, "That people make money out of digging dead people up."

"Ah well you know Muggles, they'll do anything for cash," Theo said.

"They do it so that people can connect with their past, Theo," Lilly said irritably, "It's important for Muggles to be able to see the remnants of their ancestors in museums because they don't have the resources to read about the past, especially going back as far as medieval times."

"Fine," Theo muttered, "But _I _don't get it."

"_You_ don't have to," Hermione pointed out.

Neville cleared his throat, "Anyway. To bring us back to the point, this is quite good. Otherwise Harry's house would have been demolished."

"You didn't even say anything," Hermione said as she shook her head at her friend, "You might have a bunch of tourists on your doorstep from now on though."

"Ah well," Harry said thoughtfully, "At least the house will still be there."

"Didn't you say they evicted the tenants in the houses though?" Draco asked, "Will they get to move back in now?"

"Yeah, I think so," Harry said thoughtfully, "But I heard some big landowner bought a few of the houses before the tenants could move back into them, he's planning to do them up and sell them on I think."

Draco nodded and smirked, the conversation continued on the subject of how it was good Harrys house would be okay and as this was discussed Draco pulled out a piece of parchment and scribbled a note on it then signed it and folded it. He walked over to Harry and handed it to him, "I heard Nev was going to pitch in too, so that's my bit."

Harry nodded and unfolded the parchment, it was a cheque for a third of the price of Sadie and Theo's new house.

***

"It worked then," Harry said quietly as he dropped down next to Neville on the sofa by the fire in the common room.

Neville nodded rather proudly, "They aren't going to build, well done on the glamour charm, even the head archaeologist was convinced that the skeletons were real."

Harry grinned, his charms had gotten better. In fact, he had discovered he was much better in his classes when he didn't constantly have a dark lord breathing down his neck, what a surprise that was.

"When are we going to apply phase 2?" Harry asked thoughtfully.

"Well, we can do it before or after graduation," Neville said as he pondered about that himself.

"I only have one exam next week," Harry said.

Neville nodded, "Yeah same, so next week then?"

"Sure," Harry said with a smile, "Well done for coming up with this, it was pretty genius."

Neville shrugged nonchalantly, "My Dad was weird like that. He was a pureblood who was really interested in muggle stuff. Him and Ron's Dad once spent a summer doing some archaeology in Egypt. They met up there on holiday and stayed for 2 months,” he chuckled, “So I read his diaries about it growing up and I just thought it might work."

"Well it did, perfectly," Harry said as he leant back against the sofa, "Are you revising for DADA?"

"Nah," Neville said casually, "Pretty sure I've got it under control."

"I reckon I should automatically get an O," Harry said smugly, "I mean surely killing a dark lord is proof enough?"

Neville laughed at this too, "Yeah but you have to prove that you can do the theory," he said.

Harry rolled his eyes, "That's the part I hate."

"You might hate it but you're good at it," Neville said, "I saw your mock exam result, 98 out of 100, that's better than Hermione."

"It's the only class I'm better than Hermione in," Harry said with a smirk, "And she hates it."

"Is that why you bring it up so much?" Neville asked with a chuckle.

"Yup," Harry replied with a slightly evil grin, "How's Lil feeling?"

"Nervous as hell," Neville replied, "But I know she can do it and I think deep down she does too."

Harry nodded, "Wish her luck for me mate," he said as he patted Neville on the back before heading to bed.

***

The rest of the weekend was spent studying, mostly for DADA as the only other exams in the final week were Care of Magical Creatures, History of Magic and Muggle Studies which only a handful of 8th Years took.

On Monday the Care of Magical Creatures exam took place and something strange happened. Nobody knew what had happened in the exam. Charlie had sworn everyone present to secrecy but it had ended with a dead chicken, the creation of a new species of flobberworm by Luna and Charlie being sent to the hospital wing with burns to his arms.

On Tuesday it was the History of Magic exam and Zacharias Smith was once again the talk of the exam after he lost it with stress and started to scream at the examiner. According to Ernie and Justin he had to be dragged from the classroom and knocked out because he was kicking and screaming so much. He was now locked up in confinement in the hospital wing.

"I wonder if he'll end up in Lockhart's old cell," Theo sniggered as they sat in the common room that evening discussing the Hufflepuffs breakdown.

Unfortunately for Theo, Melody happened to be walking by just as Theo insulted her boyfriend and that was how 20 minutes later Theo ended up in the hospital wing with a pretty bad bat-bogey hex on him. Apparently Melody had found a friend in Ginny. Suffice to say, the others would never let Theo live this one down. Combined with the venomous tentacula incident Theo was definitely leaving his impression on the school. No doubt he wanted to be remembered years after he had left, just like the Marauders.

There was a break on Wednesday which most of the group used to practice duelling in the Room of Requirement. They were just honing their already adequate skills for the exam on Friday and Harry had to admit that he expected Lilly would ace the class as she beat Susan, Daphne and Theo with ease. In the end though Hermione ended up being left to duel Harry after Draco had been knocked out of the final 3.

As Harry got ready to duel Hermione he let his thoughts wander slightly. He was extremely proud of Hermione and how far she had come. She still couldn't beat Harry in DADA but she was so much better at the practical side of it than she had been when they had first become friends. Harry and Hermione bowed to each other, walked to their respective ends of the platform and the duel began.

It was fast paced and Harry relied on a good, quick shield charm. Hermione cottoned on to this and started firing unblockable spells which made Harry run and jump around the platform, she was trying to get him out of breath.

Harry wasn't just good though, he was fit too. Playing Quidditch and being on the run had ensured that he didn't run out of breath easily. Hermione kept this tactic up and Harry continued with his tactic of trying to distract her and catch her out by firing at her when she was in mid-spell, but he didn't get her.

In the end Hermione got to him first. Her tactic worked but not by getting Harry out of breath. Harry jumped to avoid Hermione's stunning charm and when his feet should have touched the ground they didn't because he had jumped slightly too far back and he fell off the platform and knocked himself out.

"Ennervate!"

"_Do you think he's okay?"_

"_He's got a pretty big lump on his head."_

"_He's got a hard head, he'll be fine."_

"_Hard head? Uh huh."_

"_Shut up Theo."_

"_He managed to survive Voldemort about 10 times, I reckon he can survive a little fall."_

"_He looks like he's waking up."_

Harry opened his eyes and blinked a few times until the world came into focus. He was lying on his back on the hard wooden floor in the Room of Requirement and Daphne, Draco, Hermione, Theo, Sadie, Neville, Lilly and Susan were all standing above him, each one looked down on him with concern.

"Are you okay?" Daphne asked as she cocked her head at her boyfriend.

"My head hurts," Harry said, he winced as he touched a snitch sized lump on his head.

"Next time try walking off the platform," Daphne teased.

Hermione bit her lip as she dropped onto her knees next to him, "I'm sorry Harry, I didn't mean for you to fall off, I was just trying to-"

"You were trying to win the duel," Harry finished for her, he smiled at her, “And you did, well done."

Hermione gave him a weak smile and helped him up but he was very shaky on his feet, "We're taking you to the hospital wing," she ordered.

Neville picked Harry up and threw him over his shoulder which was no easy feat. Ever since the war Harry hadn't been so much of a skinny runt, he had gotten more muscle and was heavier. All the same Neville made it look easy and Harry rolled his eyes as he was carried to the hospital wing and shouted at by Madam Pomfrey for being there so soon after he'd been discharged the last time.

Harry let her fuss over him as he watched his friends snigger in the corner of the room. 10 minutes and one bandage later she let them come over to his bed.

Harry got to his feet gingerly and accepted Draco's arm because although his head was bandaged up he still felt slightly dizzy. Madam Pomfrey had given him a potion to help with that, but she said he had a concussion so he might feel a little odd for the next few hours.

"Aw," Daphne said from where she was walking behind Harry and Draco with Theo, "Look at them, arm in arm."

Theo winked at his friends and Neville snapped a picture.

***

"Harry!"

Harry was lying on the sofa in the common room with his feet up, he had been told to relax by Madam Pomfrey, she had assured him that if he did this he would be okay for the DADA exam on Friday.

"Yeah?" Harry said casually.

Theo rushed over to him and sat down in an armchair, "Everyone else is asleep. Can you help me revise for Muggle Studies?"

"So you do actually revise?" Harry asked in amusement as Theo handed him a list.

"Sometimes," Theo laughed, "Just ask the questions on the list."

"Alright," Harry said and he looked down at the list of 6 questions, "Number 1: What is the purpose of a microwave oven?"

"Oh, I know it! It's a box to watch theatre on. It's people acting but it's all in a little box and Muggles use it for entertainment," Theo said, he looked quite proud of himself.

"Good answer but not for that question," Harry said with a vague smile, "That's a television that you're thinking of."

"Oh, okay, what is a microwave oven then?"

"It's a box that you put food in and it cooks it. It runs off of electricity," Harry explained, he looked back down at the paper, "Number 2: What is a monarch?"

Theo thought about this one for a few seconds and then answered, "A monarch…oh yeah, it's what muggles call convicts."

"No Theo," Harry said, he chuckled at how clueless the Slytherin was, "It's a King or Queen who rules a country."

"Right," Theo said, he was clearly trying to make that stick in his head.

"Number 3: What must a batsman protect in the game of cricket?" Harry asked, he knew cricket fairly well. His Uncle Vernon had liked to watch it on the television in the summer but he doubted that Theo would know the answer given his answers to the last questions.

"Uh, himself, his face…his penis!"

Harry laughed loudly at this and it made his head throb slightly, "He protects the wickets so they don't get hit with the ball, that's how the game is played."

"Wickets, right," Theo said and Harry wondered how on earth he would pass this exam.

"Number 4: In Muggle science, water is made of two chemicals, one of them is hydrogen. What is the other?"

Theo frowned deeply as he thought hard on this, "I remember this one…it has the same name as a character from that Muggle book we studied…Lord of the Rings…what was the guy with the thing called…he became king or something…Aragon!"

"You're thinking of Argon Theo," Harry said in amusement, "And that's not the answer, its oxygen. Number 5: What is the name of the character who becomes King at the end of the Muggle book series "The Lord of the Rings"?"

"Aragon!" Theo said happily and Harry laughed at his friend, "Correct. Finally, Number 6: Who is the current Muggle Prime Minister?"

"Oh, I know this one. It's the woman, the one all the Scottish people hate because she blew up mimes or something. I always found that weird, I mean mimes are annoying but blowing them up is quite extreme and don't mimes come from Italy? So why do the Scottish people hate her?" Theo had gone off into a complete tangent but brought himself back to the point while Harry stifled his laughter, "Margaret Fletcher, that's her name!'

"Her name is Margaret Thatcher," Harry said in amusement, "She upset miners not mimes and there were a lot of mines in Scotland and Northern England that's why they didn't like her in those places. Anyway, she isn't the prime minister at the moment, Tony Blair is."

"Aw bugger," Theo said, "I'm going to fail this exam."

"I thought you wanted to fail this exam," Harry said.

"I do," Theo said with a grin, "I just wanted to check that I could."

Harry snorted and shook his head in amusement at his Slytherin friend.

***

When Theo climbed into the common room after his Muggle Studies exam his friends were waiting with amused smiles in seats by the fire so he joined them and sat down next to his fiancé.

"How did it go?" Sadie asked, she expected the inevitable answer.

"I nearly got disqualified because of my answers," Theo said, he sounded almost proud of this fact.

"How can you get disqualified from a Muggle Studies exam?" Harry asked in disbelief.

"My answers were purposefully idiotic apparently," Theo said with a shrug.

"What were the questions?" Hermione asked, she was both amused about, yet dreading, the answer that would likely come.

"Well one was about the Titanic. It asked why it happened so I wrote; because Muggles are stupid and don't know how to drive boats or that boat vs. iceberg is a stupid battle."

Hermione rolled her eyes, "Yes, I can see why that might be offensive."

“Another one was "Why do Muggles believe in Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy?' so I-"

"Oh for the love of Godric," Neville murmured, "What the hell did you write?"

"Well I wrote; because their Muggle parents are liars who invent a fantasy world to make their children feel better. Then the children feel betrayed when they find out they have been lied to and they end up growing into adults with psychological problems. Further proof that muggle parents are scumbags," Theo said which initiated much chuckling and eye-rolling.

"Oh Theo," Sadie sighed in a very long-suffering sort of way.

***

It was Friday morning, aka the day of the DADA exam. Hermione was freaking out and Lilly was barely eating.

"I'm going to fail this exam! I got an E in my O.W.L, it's my weakest subject!" Hermione panicked.

"Hermione, chill," Daphne said, she shook her head in disbelief at her friend.

"Hermione! You knocked me out with petrificus totalus in 1st year, it's a 3rd year level spell!" Neville exclaimed in amusement.

"You worked out how to protect yourself from death by Basilisk, I'd say that's pretty impressive," Susan added.

"You helped me train for the Triwizard Tournament when we were about 2 years too young to be able to know any of that magic," Harry chipped in, "I'd say that's an achievement."

"You practically invented the DA in 5th year, what kind of 5th year can come up with a rebellion like that without a good grounding in DADA?" Hannah asked her friend.

"Then you fought in the Department of Mysteries against Death Eaters without major injury or death," Harry said as he gave Hermione a ‘stop putting yourself down’ look.

"Then you fought Death Eaters _again _in the Battle of the Lightning Struck Tower," Neville said, they were all bigging Hermione up but she deserved it.

"You were Undesirable No.2 in the biggest war our world has seen, what does that say about your magical skill?" Draco asked, although the question was rhetorical.

"Your quick thinking is the only reason I'm here today Hermione. Without you while I was on the run I would have died for sure," Harry finished, he squeezed Hermione's hand, "That's proof enough that you will pass this exam with flying colours."

"Any examiner that fails one of the golden trio in a DADA exam will get hung, drawn and quartered by the general wizarding public," Neville added.

Harry chuckled and added, "Or by Kingsley."

Hermione smiled around at her friends, "Thanks guys," she said and she seemed slightly calmer as they headed to the classroom on the 1st floor where the written exam would take place. Lilly had been silent through this exchange and she remained silent through the entire walk to the exam, although she did at least let Neville hold her hand.

They had a 10-minute break when it was over before the practical exam but like Divination, this was done individually so they could talk in the waiting area. They chatted and agreed they had all done the best they could on every question, apart from Theo who had gotten at least one wrong by getting a werewolf mixed up with an ewok after over-cramming for his Muggle Studies exam.

"What do you think the practical will be like?" Draco asked the others as they all stood in a waiting area. Hannah was in the large room; she was first because they were being called in alphabetically.

"I don't know," Hermione said, "But I suspect Hannah will go out another door so she can't warn us what to expect."

"I don't suppose it would do any good now anyway," Harry said thoughtfully, "I reckon there will be something to do with Dementors, Inferi and a mock duel but I'm not sure what else."

They stood together chatting meaninglessly for a while and the group slowly got smaller as Susan was called in and strutted confidently towards the door. It was Draco's turn after that, and Harry established that people were in the room for an average of 10 minutes. Sadie left the group next and after that Hermione departed and had the shortest time yet in the room. Harry hated how far along in the alphabet he was sometimes as Daphne entered the room and was also faster than the average. He found himself feeling quite excited about this exam. Neville left shortly after and he was only about 7 minutes. Theo and Harry stood and talked for a bit, they were trying to keep Lilly calm as they did so. But then Lilly was called in and she took around 9 minutes. After that Theo was called in to take his exam and again took somewhere between 5 and 10 minutes. Eventually Harry's name was shouted.

"Potter, Harry!"

Harry grinned as he made his way towards the room and entered. It was just a large room with an examiner standing in the middle. There were a few 'props' and Harry could guess what they were all for. One was a cupboard, housing a boggart that would become a dementor. Boggarts were supposed to take on your worst fear of course but they could be altered to shift into a specific thing and take on its characteristics. In the other corner of the room there was a tank of water with what looked like a real Inferius in it but Harry knew that it wasn't real, it was just covered with glamour charms to give the impression it was the real thing. He really knew his stuff when it came to DADA. There was a 'shooting range' lining the back wall of the classroom which Harry knew was to test the accuracy of their spell casting. In the centre of the room there was a long rectangle marked out in the floor which Harry assumed would rise when it was time for the mock duel. He had to admit, he was good.

"Ah, the famous Mr. Potter," The examiner said with a smile, "The fastest time set for this exam was 5 minutes and 15 seconds. Do you think you can beat that?"

Harry grinned, "I can definitely try."

"That's the kind of spirit I like to see," The examiner said happily, "For you I'm sure this is simple. Start here, defeat each challenge and then come to the centre of the room for the finale."

Harry nodded and thought to himself, _easy_. The examiner took out a stopwatch and said, "Your time starts…now!"

Harry walked towards the cupboard with his wand at the ready and a memory fresh in his head. The doors burst open and a 'dementor' flew out. Harry closed his eyes briefly and thought of the first night he and Daphne had spent together as a couple. All they had done was cuddle and laugh about stupid things but it meant the world to Harry as he shouted, "EXPECTO PATRONUM!" and watched his stag take the fake dementor out with its antlers.

Harry smirked as he moved on to the Inferius. As soon as he began to approach it the thing climbed out of the water and started to stumble aimlessly towards him. Harry casually cast the firestorm spell and drew the fake Inferius back, in seconds it fell to a heap in the ground, _easy_.

He moved on again to the aiming challenge at the wall at the back of the classroom, he wasn't sure if it was just judged on accuracy or whether strength and power mattered too so he took a few seconds to focus and then turned to the targets which were now moving. He hit all 6 in under a minute and he was pretty sure he hit them all in the centre too.

Harry walked back to the centre of the room where the examiner looked extremely impressed. He raised the platform and Harry took to one end while the examiner took to the other. The man was short and plump which made Harry think he would be an easy target, but looks could be deceiving. They walked to the centre and bowed to each other, then they took their places and the duel began.

Harry was glad he had practiced with Hermione a few days before because, like Hermione, this examiner duelled fast. That was his tactic, to try and throw off a pupil with his speed.

It didn't work on Harry as he dodged or shielded everything the examiner threw at him and in return threw spells back at him. But the examiner was just as good at dodging and shielding as Harry was, he moved fast for a man of his stature. Harry caught him out though, he hit him in the legs with a jinx and won the duel. After he undid the jinx the examiner stopped the timer and sunk the platform back into the ground.

The examiner whistled when he looked down at the stopwatch, "5 minutes and 2 seconds. A brand new record Mr. Potter."

Harry grinned and shook the examiners hand, "Who did I beat?" he asked.

The examiner smiled and replied, "Albus Dumbledore."

This took Harry by surprise but in a good way. He thanked the examiner and left the room where the others were waiting in another hallway.

"Wow, that was fast!" Daphne said when she saw Harry come out.

Harry grinned broadly, "I beat the record. I'm the fastest person _ever _to complete the N.E.W.T level DADA exam."

"Well done Harry!" Hermione said eagerly, she hugged Harry and a few seconds later Daphne did the same thing.

"Who did you beat to the top?" Draco joked.

"Dumbledore," Harry grinned.

"Seriously?" Lilly asked in disbelief.

"Yep," Harry grinned, "How did you do, Lilly?"

"I know I passed," Lilly said with a slight frown, "I’m not sure if I'll get an O though and I need one."

"She's being modest," Neville smirked as he put an arm around the girl, "You’ll get an O."

Lilly rolled her eyes in a good natured way and the others talked about how well they felt they had done in the exam. It was the perfect end to the exams and Harry found that he was no longer dreading leaving Hogwarts, he looked forward to what was next. He couldn't wait to begin Auror training.

** _TBC :)_ **


	61. Let's Make it a Night to Remember

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Title comes from the song:  
Let's Make a Night to Remember by Bryan Adams

There wasn't much of a break between the Defence against the Dark Arts exam and the prom. The schedule was tighter than most previous years because of the fact there was an 8th Year. It meant that the exam finished just before lunch and the prom began at 7pm on the same day. The girls were freaking out, as they often did, about whether or not they would have enough time to get ready. They all had their dresses, as was Wizarding tradition they had been sent them by their Mothers. Or at least Daphne and Sadie had been. Even Melody had been given her dress rather movingly in the great hall by Trelawney. As worried as they had been about the DADA exam everyone had still found it in them to 'aww' at this and Harry was pretty sure that he'd caught Filch wiping his eyes with his handkerchief. Those who didn't have parents or wizarding Mothers had gone shopping together and included in that group were Hermione, Susan and Lilly. Harry was fairly sure Hermione had decided in the end to make alterations to her dress from the Yule Ball in 4th year and wear that again.

"Are you okay?" Harry asked Hermione quietly as Sadie pulled Daphne away to start getting ready in their dorm room.

Hermione shrugged and said to her friend, "I'm fine, I just feel left out."

"That's the point," Neville said with a sigh from where he was sitting nearby, "I read somewhere that part of the reasons muggle-borns were looked down upon was because they had to buy their own prom dresses and robes which usually meant they looked scruffier than the others."

"Gee, thanks Nev," Hermione said miserably, "I'm supposed to look the best. I mean I'm Head Girl."

"Hermione," Harry said as he put his arm around her, "You could go out there in rags and still look beautiful."

"Oi, back off Potter," Draco said jokingly from where he had just arrived behind the armchair Hermione was sitting on. He leaned over and kissed her on the cheek, "That's my girlfriend you're talking about."

Harry and Hermione both chuckled and Draco said with a smile, "Hey Mione. My Mother and one of her friends are outside, they want to talk to you."

Hermione frowned and got to her feet, she let Draco take her hand and lead her out of the common room. She didn't know what she was expecting but she definitely wasn't expecting to see Narcissa Black and Molly Weasley.

Narcissa smiled and said, "Molly and became friends through our shared connection to Teddy, Hermione. We are only here to give you a gift, you do not have to look so worried."

"We know your parents aren't Wizarding and we didn't want you to have to wear an old thing to the prom," Molly said with a smile, "I remember having to wear my Mothers dress and I was bullied rotten for it."

"You are Head Girl," Narcissa said kindly, "You should shine brighter than everyone else."

"So we bought you a prom dress. It's from both of us," Molly said, "You have felt like a daughter to me and a sister to Ginny since you were 11 years old, Hermione."

"And I hope, from the way that Draco talks about you, that you will be a daughter to me one day," Narcissa said as she handed Hermione a box. She was actually completely speechless and baffled, she was crying too but she didn't realise until a salty tear fell into her mouth.

"Merlin," Hermione eventually managed to say breathily, "Thank you, thank you both so much. This means so much to me."

"Don't say that, you have yet to look at the dress," Narcissa joked with a light chuckle.

Hermione laughed, it was a laugh of happiness and relief, "I don't need to, I know it will be brilliant."

"Oh go on," Molly smiled, "We want to see your reaction."

Hermione opened the box and saw before her a beautiful dress. It was folded up of course and she didn't dare take it out in the corridor and get it dirty, but she could make out the colour and the material. The dress was largely made of white lace with a silk underskirt to stop it being see-through but the bust was made up of gold sequins, it was the perfect mix of subtle which Hermione liked and glamorous which she didn't think she could pull off. It was clear that Molly and Narcissa had worked together to pick out this dress which brought Hermione to tears once more.

"It's beautiful," Hermione said honestly.

“I'm so glad you like it. But we won't keep you Hermione, I know you must be in a hurry to get ready for tonight,” Molly said, she pulled Hermione in for a hug, “Have a great time!”

"Enjoy yourself," Narcissa said as she drew Hermione in for a hug and kissed her on both cheeks, “You will look more beautiful than ever, I expect.”

Hermione was still in shock a few minutes after both women had left and she was also _still _in shock after Draco had steered her back into the common room. Harry asked what had happened and Draco relayed the story to the equally shocked boy-who-lived.

***

The boys had been sitting playing exploding snap for an hour by the time the girls were ready. They stood together in the common room and each of them looked as beautiful as the next. None of the boys had been allowed to see the girl’s dresses (another wizarding tradition) so they were all in awe when they saw their girlfriends (or fiancés) standing together by the stairs.

"Wow," Harry breathed as Daphne floated over to him. He had seen her looking beautiful on many occasions but this topped the Yule Ball _and _the Ministry Ball. Daphne had this knack of managing to look stunningly beautiful and elegant in the simplest clothes. Tonight she wore a floor length, metallic gold dress that practically shone. The dress was pulled in under the bust and was strapless on one shoulder, there was also a slit in the side that started mid-thigh.

"Thanks," Daphne said with a radiant smile, "My Mother knows my taste well, right?"

"Definitely," Harry smiled, "You look beautiful."

He really meant it, Daphne had left her long hair down so it curled around her shoulders. She had also carefully applied golden eye shadow and glitter eyeliner and mascara, she really did look fantastic.

Draco's reaction to Hermione’s dress had been similar to Harry's reaction to seeing Daphne. He had gaped at her for a moment and then made his way over to her.

"What do you think?" Hermione asked, she seemed slightly nervous and unsure of herself.

"I think it's perfect," Draco said as he kissed his girlfriend. Hermione was wearing the floor length strapless dress that was almost entirely made of white lace. As Hermione had realised earlier when she had gotten the dress the bust was made of golden sequins and from there downwards the dress flowed almost magically.

"I wasn't sure," Hermione said but she smiled, "I feel…different."

"Well you look great," Draco said. Daphne had helped her apply light makeup and had given Hermione the same hairdo she had sported for the Yule Ball. It all made Draco feel a bit sentimental, he smiled at her and said quietly, "With your hair up in that style I can just see you 4 years ago…at the Yule Ball."

"You remember that then?" Hermione asked with a slight smile.

"Hermione, it was the night I started to fall in love with you," Draco said softly, "I noticed everything about you that night."

Hermione smiled and glanced down to hide her blush. Draco's smile widened and all of a sudden he felt the weight of the engagement ring in the pocket of his robes. He ignored the suggestive look shot his way by Harry and put his arm around Hermione as the others met their dates.

When Theo saw Sadie in her dress for the first time he whispered, "You look so beautiful."

Sadie was wearing a pale green floor length dress which had a silver shoulder strap and an elaborate silver jewelled bust.

"Thank you," Sadie said happily, "I'm excited about tonight."

Theo smiled broadly at his fiancé and put his arm around her, "So am I. It's going to be a night to remember."

Neville hadn't seen Lilly's dress. Only Hermione and Susan had and that was because they had helped her pick it out. He was lost for a moment when he saw her, just like he had been before the Ministry Ball. She was wearing a floor-length strapless dress, it was turquoise with a simple silk skirt but the bust was elaborate. Under the bust there was a slightly darker green ribbon which showed off Lilly's petite, thin form. Above that the bust was decorated with green, blue and purple jewels. It was slightly more elaborate than the type of clothes Lilly normally wore but she looked great and Neville told her as much.

"Have I ever told you how lucky I feel to have you?" Neville murmured as he pulled her into his arms.

"You tell me all of the time, Nev," Lilly smiled as she pushed herself onto her toes and kissed him.

"Because I mean it," Neville said quietly so that the others wouldn't hear, "There's something perfect about being in love with your best friend."

Lilly smiled, "Yeah, there is," she agreed as she caught his eye, "I love you too Neville. I have done for a while now."

Neville's grin widened as he held her tightly, "You've already made my night and we haven't even left the common room yet."

Lilly laughed again, "Alright, enough cheese for one night. I'm lactose intolerant," she joked as she turned to admire Susan and her incredibly sexy prom dress.

Susan was the only one riding this solo, although from what Daphne had talked to her about earlier she got the impression that things were changing between her and Percy. Susan had said that he had asked to come to her graduation before she had even offered and that they had started going out together on proper dates.

When everyone was ready the group headed down to the entrance hall where they were each handed a complimentary glass of champagne on their way into the great hall. Harry was surprised when he saw the hall because it had been split down the middle by a large see-through glittery curtain. On one half there was a dance floor and on the other half there was a dining room with 6 circular tables of 4 and a long head table for the teachers.

Everybody gathered by the door and waited for McGonagall to speak. As they did so they looked around the hall. It was decorated simply but beautifully. The tables each had a white sparkly tablecloth on them and there were white and gold balloons floating magically above each table. There were also white banners with gold writing saying "Class of 98/99".

"Welcome," McGonagall said as she stood and smiled at them all, "To the first ever "8th Year" prom! I feel a personal attachment to this year group, more so than I have since the class of 1978.”

Harry grinned, the class of 1978 had included his parents, Sirius and Remus.

McGonagall continued, "I wish you all the best of luck but for now it is time to enjoy the last few days you have with each other and with Hogwarts. So tonight, I beg you all, have a good time!"

There were cheers and McGonagall smiled which was something she still did rarely, "As you remember, you chose the seating arrangements before the exams so please take your seats and enjoy the meal."

McGonagall sat back down and everybody headed to their seats. "Table 1" seated Harry, Daphne, Hermione and Draco. Next to them at "Table 2" were Theo, Sadie, Neville and Lilly. Susan was sitting at "Table 3" with Melody who she got on very well with, and Hannah and Blaise.

Before the food could even be served the attention was drawn to "Table 4" where Megan, Ernie, Justin and Zacharias were sitting because Justin had cast a silencing charm on Zacharias the moment he began to complain about there not being enough choice on the menu. McGonagall then thanked Justin and asked him to keep the charm in place until the end of the meal.

As they ate everyone talked about meaningless things like Quidditch and the food but they also talked about the more serious things in life. Like what would happen after Hogwarts and who would work where or who would live where and when so and so were getting married. It was all very sophisticated really.

There was only one person missing from the prom as far as Harry was concerned. He felt that Ron really should have been there and as he often did when feeling sentimental Harry really missed his redheaded best friend.

Around 10 minutes after everyone had eaten and the food had disappeared Hermione and Theo got to their feet and disappeared behind the curtain. Not long after that McGonagall drew the curtain back slightly and let everyone walk through into the other part of the room. Once through the curtain Harry realised that the décor was exactly the same but there was a dance floor on this side and a stage at the front of the room with steps leading up to it.

Hermione and Theo were standing on the stage and Hermione kept glancing anxiously over at Theo. It was time for the Head Boy and Girl speech which Harry knew that Hermione had been writing and practicing for a month. He was pretty sure that Theo would just make it up as he went along though.

"Hello everyone," Hermione said as she smiled at them all, "First of all Theo and I would like to thank you all for coming tonight."

"Yep," Theo said as he stuffed his hands into the pockets of his dress robes, "Cheers."

Theo, like all of the other boys, was wearing simple black dress robes. Some of them had a hem or sleeves in a different colour but most were simply black. Next to Hermione in her beautiful dress he looked like he was dressed down for the occasion.

"I don't think a year of students have ever been as strong or united as we are," Hermione said with a confident smile, "I believe that war is horrendous but in some ways it binds us. To those of you who fought together, you will not forget that. To those of you who were in Dumbledore's Army, the people you met there will be your friends until the day that you die," the look in Hermione's eyes was slightly haunted but she kept her voice steady, "Our year have gone through hell and back together. We have faced so much, yet here we stand. We are survivors and fighters, and because of that we are united. We even managed to unite ourselves with those who we may not have known or liked before we returned for our 8th Year. Those people have not only fitted in but they have flourished," Hermione shot a smile at the Slytherins in the crowd, "My boyfriend and some of the best friends anyone could hope for are Slytherins. I often get told that I should care but I don't because I don't see the house or the colours, I see the people beneath them. We should be proud because we _are _strong and we _are_ united. Students of each house have lived under the same roof in the same tower this year and they_ thrived_. So I would like to finish by saying this. We are only as strong as we are united and as weak as we are divided."

Hermione's speech ended with cheers and whistles and shouts. Everyone agreed that it had been moving, it had actually moved some people to tears and McGonagall was one of those included in that. Draco did not cry but he did gaze at Hermione as she spoke her words of wisdom. It was all true, none of it mattered anymore, not their houses, not their past, it was all irrelevant. As she stood there, so confident and so beautiful he did something that his logical brain would normally have called incredibly stupid. Before Theo could do something ridiculous Draco stepped forward and jogged up the stairs, much to the bemusement of Hermione.

"Draco, what are you doing?" Hermione asked when he came to a stop in front of her.

"Elaborating on your speech," Draco said with a slight smile, "Because you were right Hermione. It doesn't matter that our houses are different or that our blood status is different. It doesn't even matter that our cultures are different. It's because of those differing cultures that you now love the Weird Sisters and that I sometimes sing along to the Spice Girls."

There was laughter amidst their fellow students and Hermione paled slightly because she had an inkling about what was happening. She didn't look away from Draco so she missed Daphne's smug grin and the beam on Harry's face.

Draco continued, "All that _does _matter is that we love each other. Because if you love someone you get past the differences and you learn to compromise on the things that really matter to you both. Over this last year Hermione, you have made me question everything about myself, you have made me a better person and I have completely and hopelessly fallen in love with you. I told you once that I would weather any storm with you and I meant it."

Hermione's hands flew to her face as Draco dropped down onto one knee and pulled the velvet box from his pocket. Despite the rumours and the stupid thing with the tealeaves she hadn't actually expected this to happen and she especially hadn't expected it like this.

"So will you weather those storms with me, Hermione? Will you marry me?" Draco asked, he popped the box open so that the golden ring with its central ruby could sparkle in the candlelight of the hall.

Unlike Daphne had, Hermione didn't hesitate. She _was _shocked but she was also excited and ecstatic. She didn't have to think about her answer at all. Draco Malfoy had completely healed her, he had made her whole again and she couldn't imagine a future without him anymore.

"Yes!" Hermione said eagerly but quietly, "Godric, yes!"

Draco grinned and slid the ring onto her finger as he got to his feet. He looked down at her with a mixture of shock and delight on his face.

Hermione laughed, "Did you not expect me to say yes?"

"Well there was a part of me that thought you might punch me in the face again," Draco joked which elicited laughter from the rest of the hall.

"You were in luck this time," Hermione beamed as she stepped closer to him and let him kiss her. She wasn't usually into public displays of affection but she felt that it would be okay this one time, given the circumstances. It wasn't a passionate kiss, it was a soft kiss, a _knowing _kiss. When they drew back and murmured that they loved each other with their foreheads resting together, Theo just _had _to ruin the moment.

"To completely detract from that beautiful, heart-warming moment, I'm sorry," Theo grinned as he shouted "Stage dive!" and jumped into the crowd. Hermione and Draco were the first to laugh at the fact nobody made a move to catch the idiotic Slytherin boy.

However, much to their disappointment Sadie caught her boyfriend with a levitation charm seconds before he hit the ground. She rolled her eyes at him and exclaimed, "Theo! Will you ever grow up?"

"No!" Most people in the crowd shouted which made Sadie laugh. Theo just jumped to his feet and bowed at them all.

Hermione chuckled as she made her way off of the stage with Draco's arm around her shoulder. The moment they stepped onto the dance floor their friends bombarded them with hugs and kisses and all of the girls gathered to admire Hermione's ring.

"Congrats mate," Harry said to Draco, "I'm really happy for you and I mean it. You make her happier than anything, you know that?"

"I know," Draco said with a soft smile, "Her Dad said something similar when he gave me his blessing at Easter."

"Even Ron agrees that you're good for her," Neville said as he patted Draco on the back, "So congratulations mate."

Draco's smile widened and then he was full on bear-hugged by Theo, "So I'm best man, right?"

Draco laughed at his best friend, "Course you will be when the time comes. I reckon it will be a long engagement though so don't get _too _excited."

"Hey, I was just making sure you remember where your priorities lay," Theo joked with a mock wink in Harry's direction.

The Gryffindor boy didn't mind, he only laughed and smiled over at the girls. Hermione had been hugged by every single girl in their friend group and congratulated by them all too. He took a step towards her and hugged her then kissed her on the cheek.

"Congratulations Hermione," Harry murmured as he held her tightly, "I'm so happy for you both and I really mean that."

Hermione positively beamed at him as she pulled back from the hug, "Thanks Harry," she said genuinely.

They were all drawn away from each other and from the exciting new engagement as McGonagall took to the stage once more. She openly smiled at them all now, "Thank you for that moving speech Miss. Granger and that amusing fall Mr. Nott. And I would like to offer my congratulations to both Miss. Granger and Mr. Black."

Hermione and Draco grinned from where they stood at the front of the crowd, they were holding each other's hands and they were surrounded by their friends. McGonagall cleared her throat and continued, "Now we move onto the special part of the evening; the achievement awards. Normally, as you probably know, there are only 4 but due to special circumstances this year there will be 5," McGonagall explained and she picked up the first trophy from a small table on the stage and began.

"The first award is for sporting achievement and this year the staff were unanimous in their choice," McGonagall said.

Draco whispered to Harry, "It's me."

"No it's not," Hermione whispered with a grin, "McGonagall wouldn't have voted for you, it's Harry."

"It's so me mate," Harry said with a wink.

"Harry Potter!"

Harry grinned and Draco glared at him but it was half-hearted. The Slytherin was far too excited about his engagement to care about the fact Harry had beaten him to an award.

Harry's grin didn't shift as he jogged up onto the stage and accepted the trophy which had a broom atop it. He did a mock bow in McGonagall’s direction and then he bowed to the crowd as he said, "I'd like to thank the staff for this, because I can honestly say it's the greatest achievement of my life so far, apart from killing Voldemort obviously. I've wanted to win this as Captain since I joined the team in first year so again, thank you!"

Harry walked off of the stage to cheers and whistles and some joke boos from certain Slytherin friends of his. McGonagall then announced the next award, "For extraordinary academic achievement this award can only go to one person. She is the brightest witch of her generation…it is Hermione Granger!"

Hermione was trying not to cry (again, because she had literally just stopped crying after Draco's proposal) as she walked up onto the stage. McGonagall looked proud as she held the trophy out to the Gryffindor girl, Hermione was sort of her prodigy after all. McGonagall had always seen a lot of herself in Hermione.

"Thank you Professor," Hermione said to McGonagall as she accepted the trophy which had a book atop it. She then turned to the crowd and the teachers and said, "I would like to thank all of the staff for this award. I spent a lot of time being put down and bullied for being smart but I channelled that into getting smarter. I'd like to thank Draco too, for his constant motivation and for being _so _easy to beat to the top of every class."

Draco grinned at that and when Hermione left the stage, he hugged her, kissed her and said, "You're welcome by the way."

Hermione was too happy to find it in herself to hit him, even playfully, so she just laughed at his remark as McGonagall began to speak once more, "This next award is for the most changed student from 1st Year to, in this case, 8th Year. It has been split between two people this year," McGonagall explained, "This award is usually in reference to academic change. However, this is why there are two awards this year. The staff and I have talked and we believe that due to his dramatic change and the courage that this must have taken. In terms of a change in his beliefs, morals and attitude this award goes to Draco Black."

Draco was surprised and this showed as his eyes widened and his face paled. Hermione gave him a prod and smiled at him proudly. It was enough to push him towards the stage which he walked onto slowly, he seemed to be gathering his thoughts together as he did so.

"Thank you," Draco said sincerely to McGonagall as he took the trophy. He then turned to everyone else, "Well, wow…thank you to the staff for doing this because let's face it I was a smug, arrogant little tosser for the majority of my time here…"

There were chuckles and nods around the crowd. Draco continued, "But I have changed and that change is thanks to more than one person. Notably it is due to three people and ironically they are _all _Gryffindors. I want to thank Harry Potter and Neville Longbottom for being fantastic friends. You guys have taught me a lot and I owe you both so much. But I have to admit, the biggest factor in this change is Hermione Granger, the beautiful feisty Gryffindor who just agreed to marry me. Let's face it, everyone knew that she was the girl I had a crush on pretty much all of the way through Hogwarts, right?"

There was a resounding chorus of, "YES!" throughout the hall and Harry was _fairly _sure that some of the teachers had joined in.

Draco smiled broadly and a little tearfully as he finished, "So thank you Hermione for being the love of my life and for actually wanting to stick around! And thanks Harry and Neville, for trusting me and giving me a second chance."

There were cheers at this as Draco made his way off the stage and into Hermione's arms. Harry and Neville chuckled and said something along the lines of "Nice speech" as Draco pulled them both in for a group hug that Theo just had to crash, of course.

"The second part of this award," McGonagall continued with a smile, "Goes to the student who has improved the most academically over the years they have spent at Hogwarts. I think we all know who this award goes to because we all know that he works hard and that he thoroughly deserves this. I for one can say that I am very proud of him. This award goes to… Neville Longbottom!"

To anyone else it would have felt good but to Neville this was something great. It was the biggest academic achievement he had ever had. He had beaten the odds, he had done it, he was going to leave Hogwarts with good grades and he was going into a fantastic job. He wasn't the laugh of the school anymore; he wasn't the class clown. He had beaten those odds and to him that was one of the greatest feelings in the world. He kissed Lilly and practically ran up to the stage, he was buzzing with excitement as he hugged McGonagall and accepted the trophy.

"Thank you everyone for this award. I might not have looked like much when I first arrived here and I know I was the laughing stock of Hogwarts but it feels good, better than good in fact, to know I've beaten the odds. I couldn't thank everyone who has helped me in the last few years but I have to pick out a few special people. I've got to thank Harry of course, for taking me under his wing and letting me be his snake killing sidekick."

Harry grinned broadly at this in the crowd and Neville continued, "And I also have to thank my beautiful girlfriend Lilly Moon who is far more intelligent and academically capable than me but she keeps me on my toes! Without her I would never have had the confidence to do some of the things I have this year, including accepting an offer to enter the Auror selection process. So thank you Lil."

Lilly blushed profusely at this public admiration and the crowd cheered as Neville jumped down off of the stage. He kissed Lilly again, "You're right Lil. I don't need my parents to be here to see this, I have you."

Lilly smiled proudly up at him and leant in closer, "And I'm so proud of you, Nev," she said honestly.

Neville squeezed her shoulder and smiled down at her as McGonagall announced the final award, "Finally, this award is for the best attendance throughout the years spent at Hogwarts," she said.

Harry whispered to Hermione, "You'll get that one too."

Hermione snorted and whispered back, "Yeah right. Do you know how many classes I missed for being in the hospital wing with the face of a cat? Or being petrified for half a year? Or for going out on an adventure with you? I also happened to miss a whole year on the run, remember?"

"Aw Hermione," Harry teased, "You make it sound like I corrupted you."

Hermione laughed, "You did. Between you and Draco I'm a ruin."

"Did I just hear my fiancé say 'between you and Draco' about Harry Potter?" Draco asked as he appeared behind the two friends, "I'm adventurous Hermione, but not that much."

"Oh hush," Hermione chuckled as McGonagall announced the winner of the award…

"Zacharias Smith!"

There was a collective groan and even Flitwick rolled his eyes. Zacharias puffed his chest out and walked snootily up the stairs, he bowed to McGonagall, accepted the award and started to talk.

"I would like to take this opportunity, firstly to thank everyone who helped me to get this award; all of the teachers and my friends-"

"- what friends?" Harry asked Draco in a whisper.

Draco shrugged, "His imaginary ones?"

"- I am so thrilled that I achieved this award, after everything I have been through in these 8 years. To manage to make it to all of my classes on time with all of the distractions caused by Potter and his hero complex. It's nice to see that some people still value old fashioned hard work and actually attending classes in an age where people like Potter and Malfoy just want to spend all of their time fighting and rebelling. Whereas I, Zacharias Ebenezer Smith, attended every class, throughout every year and didn't run off trying to kill some dark lord-"

At this point music started to play. Music that anybody from a Muggle background would recognise as the theme music to _"Jaws"_ that played when the shark was approaching.

"GET OFF THE STAGE!"

"SHUT UP YOU TOSSER!"

Almost everyone in the room had started booing or had thrown something at Zacharias. Eventually he got the hint and rushed off of the stage, all the while grumbling about how he wasn't appreciated in this school.

"Come on," Hermione said as she dragged Theo up onto the stage. McGonagall still seemed shocked and horrified by Zacharias's speech as she said, "And now I hand you over to Miss. Granger and Mr. Nott for a mock awards ceremony."

McGonagall then left the stage to stand with the other teachers in the crowd and Hermione and Theo took control of the prom once more.

"Normally the awards would be serious but this year we thought it would be fun to have our own student run awards ceremony," Hermione said brightly, "Which is why of course a few weeks ago you all voted on the questions."

"And tonight the results will come out," Theo said loudly.

"Myself and your illustrious Head Boy-"

“That's me by the way!"

Hermione rolled her eyes in amusement, "- are your hosts for tonight."

"Are you ready?" Theo asked in an attempt to get everyone riled up.

There were cheers and shouts so Theo said, "Alright then! Let's begin with our first category. Rear of the year, male and female. Hermione, would you like to tell us who the male winner is?"

"Of course Theo," Hermione said and she opened an envelope, "And the winner is…Neville Longbottom!"

"WHAT?" Draco exclaimed, "Fatbottom? I mean, his nickname is _fat_bottom! His arse is not better than mine!"

Harry patted Draco on the back, "There there Draco, your arse is perfectly lovely," he joked.

"Thank you Harry," Draco said, he nodded to himself as if to say that the rest of the year should have agreed with this conclusion. He completely missed Harry's sarcasm which made Daphne giggle at the two boys.

Neville had ignored this exclamation from Draco and bounded to the stage where he did a mock bow and said, "Thank you very much! I am glad that my rear is appreciated!"

With that he was gone as fast as he had been on the stage and Hermione and Theo moved on.

"Theo, would you like to tell us whose rear won for the women?" Hermione asked and she handed Theo an envelope.

"I would Hermione, personally I think it should be Sadie Cauldwell, but that's just my opinion,” There were chuckles as he winked at his fiancé, “And the winner is… Susan Bones!"

Susan winked at her friends and walked to the stage, "Thank you all, you dirty perverts!"

Her response led to much sniggering and Hermione was still chuckling as she said, "We now move onto the next award. This is for the 'Most Attractive' student in the year group, Theo will you do the honours for the female winner?"

"Certainly," Theo said as he opened the envelope, "And the person voted most attractive female in the year is…Daphne Greengrass!"

Daphne looked vaguely surprised. She had gotten more conservative since being with Harry. She had all but lost her nickname of Ice Queen too but all the same she floated rather beautifully up the stairs onto the stage and accepted the little trophy.

"Thanks everyone! It's really flattering that you think I'm attractive!" Daphne said, "Sorry to disappoint but I'm kinda tied down to hero boy for the foreseeable future!"

The crowd chuckled as she flounced from the stage to join Harry back down in the crowd.

"And Hermione, please reveal the male winner. Personally I think it should be Draco Black with his flowing blonde locks and endless grey eyes…"

"Alright Theo. He's very handsome but don't get too carried away," Hermione joked.

Harry couldn't help but grin at how they made such a great comedy duo. Hermione opened the envelope and grinned.

"It's me, it's so me," Draco said confidently. He was even getting ready to walk to the stage, "I mean look at me, I'm flawless."

"And the winner is…Harry Potter!"

"WHAT?"

Harry grinned and made his way to the stage, he could hear Draco ranting to Neville as he did so, "Scarhead? Come on! That scar isn't a turn on, he's a skinny runt with glasses! How is that attractive? Look at me, I'm a perfect male specimen!"

"Alright Draco," Neville teased, "Try not to get insecure now. What with me having a better arse than you and Harry being more attractive."

"He is not more attractive!"

Harry chuckled and kissed Hermione on the cheek as he took the award from her, he turned to the crowd, "Thanks for the award guys. I love it for one reason in particular, it has really pissed my good friend Draco off and I'll have it as blackmail to hold over him forever, so cheers!"

With that he left the stage and the hosts moved onto the next award. Although Draco was still rather annoyed with Harry and hadn't stopped glaring at him yet.

"Next is an award for the teachers!" Hermione said with a smile, "For the best looking teacher, male and female!"

Theo opened the envelope and handed it to Hermione who grinned, "And it is a draw! Between Aurora Sinistra and Minerva McGonagall!"

Sinistra chuckled and took the stage, she had won for the last few years so it was almost a joke to her. McGonagall was pale and wide eyed as she got onto the stage amongst cheers from the students.

"YEAH! GO MINNIE!"

"Mr. Nott, I may not be able to give you detention anymore but I can still hex you," McGonagall said.

Theo gave her a curt nod, much to the amusement of the rest of the students. He duplicated the award and handed one to both professors who left the stage as quickly as they could.

"And now, the best looking male teacher!" Theo said cheerfully. This time Hermione opened the enveloped and handed it to Theo, "It's another draw! Our winners are Charlie Weasley and Alfons Poliakoff!"

Charlie took the award first and said, "Thanks for voting for me! All you teenage girls, and boys if you're into that kind of thing!"

"I voted for Poliakoff," Draco said thoughtfully.

Harry sniggered, "You do know it said you didn't have to vote on that one if you were male right?"

"So?" Draco shrugged, "Did you vote?"

Harry's cheeks reddened only slightly but Draco caught it and smirked, "See? Who did you vote for?"

"Charlie," Harry admitted, "But if you ever tell him that I swear I'll hex you into oblivion."

"Alright calm down Scarhead."

"Shut up ferret."

"And the next award is," Theo said, "Most likely to become an Unspeakable," he ripped open the envelope, "And it goes to Blaise Zabini, of course it does! That guy is a human chameleon!"

Blaise silently made his way to the stage, so silently it was like he had just appeared there by magic.

"Thanks," he said. He then took the award and vanished yet again.

"That guy is fantastic," Theo said.

Hermione chuckled, "The next award is for the person most likely to become Head of Hogwarts someday. I'm pretty sure we all know who this award will go to…" she said as she caught Harrys eye and opened the envelope, "…and as expected it is Harry Potter!"

Harry got to the stage once more, "Thanks again guys. I hope I'll be as good as Dumbledore!" he winked and left as quickly as that.

"The next award is for the person most likely to become Minister for Magic…" Theo said as he looked down at his envelope, "…and it's Neville Longbottom!"

Neville shook his head in amusement and took to the stage, he collected his second trophy and said, "Well I can't say I've ever thought about it but thanks anyway! Hope I'll be as good as Kingsley!" he said, it was an echo of Harry’s speech and he left the stage just as quickly.

"Look Draco," Neville said as he held both trophies in his hand, "Two trophies, how many have you got Harry?"

"Oh just two," Harry said casually, "How about you Draco?"

"Shut up both of you," Draco muttered, "You bloody heroic arseholes."

"So that's zero then, yeah?"

"Next is the award for the person most likely to become the head of St. Mungo's," Hermione announced, she grinned after looking at the paper, "It's Lillian Moon!"

Lilly was surprised and a little embarrassed but she made her way onto the stage and accepted the award, "Thanks! I guess I'll have to spend a whole lot of hours slaving away healing Aurors first though!" she joked which elicited laughter from the crowd.

"The next award goes to the person most likely to end up in the Hogs Head in 10 years' time..." Theo announced, he looked down at the parchment in his hands, "…And it's me!"

Theo did a mock bow and tried to take his trophy from himself to much laughter from his fellow students. He then gave a short speech about the beauty of alcohol. After that Annie won 'most likely to have kids and become a housewife' which she seemed pretty proud of. Then Sally won 'most likely to get married and have an affair'. She stomped onto the stage, took the trophy and left again without a single word while looking very red in the face.

"And the next award," Theo said, "Is for the person most likely to fail at everything in their life, a mock award obviously…" he opened up the parchment and looked down and sniggered, "…The winner is Zacharias Smith!"

Zacharias at this turned and walked out of the hall. Hermione felt slightly guilty, until she realised that McGonagall was even eying the boy as if he deserved it.

"And it's a no show which means the runner up wins and that is… awesome it's me!"

Theo then proceeded to hand himself the award _again, "_Thank you all, I am officially a failure!"

Hermione was still laughing as she began to announce the next award, "The next award goes to the person most likely to become a rebel after being a geek…" she opened up the parchment and gaped, "…And the winner is…" she couldn't say it so Theo looked down and said, "…it's Hermione! Well done Draco, you have officially corrupted her!"

Despite the fact he was in a bad mood about the fact he hadn’t won anything, this cracked Draco up. Theo took the trophy from Hermione and handed it back to her and she turned to the crowd and said, "Well thanks…I think.”

"And onto the next award!" Theo said cheerfully, "This award goes to the person most likely to play Quidditch for their national team."

"It better be me," Draco said, he was going slightly crazy about the fact he hadn't won one award yet, "I'm awesome, it better be me."

"The winner is…Draco Black!" Theo announced and Draco actually jumped up in delight and practically ran onto the stage where he tackled Theo and grabbed the award.

"YES! Finally, I won something!" Draco said happily, "And I rightfully won this award because I'm actually a better seeker than Potter. I'm faster, more skilled and much tougher," he grinned, "So this award is rightfully mine!"

With that he jumped off of the stage, waved the award in Harry and Neville's faces and then proceeded to calm down when Daphne told him he looked slightly insane.

"The next award is for the biggest rebel," Hermione announced as she held the trophy in her hand, "And the winner is our very own Head Boy, Theodore _Roosevelt _Nott!"

"Princess, I am not happy that you read out my middle name," Theo said as he took the trophy, "But all the same, I have never been prouder in my life, apart from when Sadie said she'd keep me around forever of course! It's nice to have my behaviour as Hogwarts biggest rebel recognised and it also feels pretty good to beat Draco!"

Hermione chuckled and let Theo calm down for a moment. He put the trophy down next to his other two and said, "And the next award is for the best Quidditch player, no male or female here, just in general…" he opened up the envelope.

"It's gonna be, it's gotta be me," Draco said, with his trophy clutched in his hand he felt much more confident.

"It's Harry Potter!"

"Draco, hold my _two _trophies for me while I go collect my third," Harry said, to which Draco responded, "Fuck off Scarhead."

Harry grinned and handed the trophies to Daphne then bounded up onto the stage and accepted the 3rd award, "Thanks again guys, I'm glad you think I'm the best. I mean I know I'm the best but it's nice to have recognition," he joked and he left the stage to laughter.

"You shouldn't have won that," Draco seethed, he was actually losing it, "I caught the snitch."

"Calm down Draco. You can release all this tension later with Hermione," Harry said light-heartedly and as pissed off as Draco was he couldn't _not_ laugh at that comment.

Hermione read out the second last award, "This one goes to the best couple…" she said and she smiled as she looked down and read out the winners, "…and it goes to… Theodore Nott and Sadie Cauldwell!"

Theo was already on the stage and Sadie made her way up with a smile. Theo put his arm around her and Hermione handed them a trophy each.

"Thanks for voting for us guys," Sadie said to the crowd, "We might look like an odd unmatched couple, what with me being so normal and putting up with this idiot but underneath it all I love him!"

"And everything she said is a lie," Theo said playfully, "She's not normal, I'm the normal one really. It's all a farce!"

There was laughter at that and even more of it when Sadie playfully hit Theo on the arm and left the stage.

"And finally!" Theo said, "To wrap up our awards ceremony is the award to the couple that should have been!"

Harry was wondering about this one, he hoped people didn't vote for him and Hermione because if they had done it would have been very awkward.

"And the award goes to…" Theo laughed uncontrollably and had to start again, that wasn't a good sign, "…it goes to Draco Black and Harry Potter!"

"Oh Merlin," Draco said.

Harry however just burst out laughing, grabbed Draco by the wrist and pulled him up onto the stage. There was a lot of laughter as the two boys accepted their trophies, both of them were amused yet vaguely embarrassed at the same time.

"Well, what can I say?" Harry began as he looked out at the crowd, "For all these years I have _clearly _been bottling up my _massive _crush on Draco -"

"- Frankly, he's freaking me out," Draco cut in, to yet more laughter, "But all the same this award is obviously proof of what we've been denying for so long…"

Harry barked out a laugh and said, "As misguided and totally incorrect as this is, thanks anyway guys!"

He and Draco left the stage after that to a lot of laughter especially from the likes of Daphne, Hermione, Theo, Sadie, Susan, Lilly and Neville. Theo and Hermione wrapped up the ceremony after that and made their way back to their group of friends.

"Aw guys, that was brilliant," Hermione said.

Draco rolled his eyes and kissed her, "Yes, very funny," he said dryly.

"Theo, you should be jealous, Draco's moving on," Neville joked as he and Theo laughed together about the last award.

Harry sniggered and McGonagall took to the stage to announce the beginning of the dance. The stage was filled with a band, as if by magic, _funnily enough. _Almost instantly the music began to play and the dance began.

***

Harry loved the way things were, he was still haunted by the war but he was alive and he was carefree. He could dance all night with his friends and the love of his life. He wasn't constantly on the lookout for Voldemort. As he danced the night away, sometimes with Daphne and at other times with one of the other girls, Harry couldn't help but think about the ring on Daphne's finger and the wedding they would eventually have. Harry smiled softly to himself as he hid his face in Daphne's shoulder, he held her closer and danced slowly with her for a good while.

As the night began to die however, Harry found himself sitting alone with Draco while the girls danced together. They had been discussing the recent engagement and the fact that it had made Hermione glow with happiness when Draco said something out of the blue.

"I'm not good enough for her Harry. She has just agreed to a life of shame and embarrassment," Draco said, he was clearly starting to have doubts already.

"Or a life with the man she loves," Harry said simply.

Draco scoffed, "I'm an embarrassment. I'll always be a Malfoy, I can change my name but I can't change my face. I'll always be that arsehole with a Death Eater for a Father…that arsehole who was a traitor in the war."

"Or you'll become an Auror and save lives. People get second chances to redeem themselves," Harry said firmly, he wasn't angry but he wanted to make it clear to Draco that he wasn't going to be a recluse for the rest of his life, "Draco, you were a teenage boy who made all of the wrong choices. You were scared but people aren't going to judge the man you've become because of the boy that you were."

Draco gave Harry a weak smile, and said a quiet thank you. Harry nodded and grabbed his friend by the arm. He smiled widely at Draco and said, "Now come on. Let's go and find our bloody beautiful fiancés and dance with them."

The blonde mustered a real genuine smile, "That sounds perfect," he said softly.

** _TBC :)_ **


	62. Our Last Days

When Hermione Granger woke up the day after her prom it took her a little while to get out of bed. She sighed and listened to the silence around her, everyone was asleep, she was always the first one up. This was it, her last _full _day at Hogwarts.

She had grown up here. All of her happiest, and some of her saddest, memories were within these walls and leaving them forever was going to be so difficult. She didn't feel stuck, she wanted to move on with her life, to get onto the next thing but it didn't mean that she wouldn't look behind every so often.

Hermione dressed quickly and made her way down the stairs into the common room. It was 6am in the morning. Given that the prom had been the night before she hadn't expected anyone else to be up.

"Oh, hey Mione," Susan said from where she was lounging in front of the fire, it may have been summer but it was still chilly this early in the morning.

"Hey Susan," Hermione said, her surprise came across in her voice, "What are you doing up so early?"

"Didn't sleep much last night," Susan admitted.

Hermione frowned and sat down next to her friend, "Why?"

Susan sighed and handed Hermione a letter, she unfolded it and realised straight away from the handwriting that it was from Percy.

"_Hey Susan,_

_Sorry to do this in a letter but I didn't have time to say goodbye properly. I can't tell you who via owl but a very dangerous Death Eater is on the run after escaping Azkaban, I suspect the papers will catch wind of it soon enough. I'm working with the Auror department to hunt him down but that means I'll be spending the foreseeable future in Asia. _

_I don't know how long I'll be but I don't expect you to put your life on hold and wait for me. _

_Be safe,_

_Percy."_

"Oh," Hermione said as she handed the letter back, "Well he didn't break up with you."

"He couldn't," Susan said rather bitterly, "I don't even know if we were ever official."

"The way he's writing Susan it sounds like you are," Hermione said truthfully.

"Why does it matter now? You saw what he wrote," Susan said with a deep sigh.

"It matters, if you love someone enough then you wait for them because nobody else is good enough," Hermione said and it came from the heart.

Susan snorted at this, "You can't lecture me on waiting for him Hermione. You didn't wait for Ron, you slept with your best friend."

This blow was low and it really hurt Hermione, "Gee, thanks Susan," she said darkly, "That situation was completely different, we were in the middle of a war, we both needed someone."

Susan shook her head in annoyance, "But if you had been _so_ in love with Ron then you wouldn't have done it."

"Well clearly I wasn't so in love with Ron," Hermione snapped angrily, "I didn't realise it until that night in the tent when push came to shove but I loved Harry."

Susan gaped at her friend for a moment before eventually closing her mouth, "I'm sorry Hermione…I didn't realise that there were…"

"Feelings?" Hermione asked harshly, "Do you really think I'm the kind of person who would just sleep with anyone, regardless of how I felt about them?"

Hermione frowned as she followed Susan's line of sight to the bottom of the stairs where Daphne was standing, her mouth was open slightly and her eyes wide.

"Well, this is awkward," Daphne said as she walked forward into the room.

"I didn't realise you were there," Hermione said quickly, Susan could only nod in agreement.

"I'm a Slytherin, I'm sneaky," She explained as she sat down on the armchair across from Hermione, "So you not only had sex with my fiancé, you had feelings for him too."

Hermione glanced down, "He wasn't your fiancé at the time. And I did love him once in a twisted sort of way. Whatever it was, it's gone now, I can promise you that much but he will never stop being my best friend. Harry and I talked about this one night in November when you and Harry had just gotten together. It wasn't a fleeting thing between us, it was something more."

"I respect that," Daphne said honestly, "You forget the extremely non-fleeting nature of my relationship with _your_ fiancé.”

Hermione smiled weakly and Susan chuckled.

"But regardless of past events, we're with the right people now. You and Draco are well matched," Daphne said with a smile, "I never thought I'd see him with a Gryffindor, let alone a muggle-born but you have changed him, for the better."

"And Harry has changed you," Susan said to Daphne with a grin, "You've thawed, we can't call you the ice queen anymore."

Daphne laughed at this, "I guess so," she said, "But Percy changed you too. Love changes everyone."

Susan's smile dropped at this and her face fell. Daphne frowned, "What's wrong?" she asked and Susan answered by throwing the letter at Daphne. She caught it and opened it, then she scanned it quickly.

"Well, he hasn't broken up with you, in fact it seems to me like he's asking you to wait for him," Daphne said as she threw the letter back to Susan.

"How do you get that?" Susan asked as she reread the letter.

"By saying don't wait for me, he's implying that he wants you to," Daphne said simply, she made it seem like this was obvious.

"I think you ought to wait," Hermione agreed, "What you two have isn't something that should be thrown away."

"I feel like the odd one out sometimes," Susan admitted as she looked into the fire, "You both have boyfriends in our year, then there's Nev and Lil, and Sadie and Theo," she sighed, “And then there's me."

"Just because you aren't dating someone the same age as you doesn't make you the odd one out," Daphne said gently, "And as of tomorrow we'll be out of here anyway."

"Yeah," Susan said thoughtfully, "That's a scary thought."

"I know," Hermione agreed, "I'm terrified."

"Hogwarts has been home for so long," Daphne said as she stared out of the window, "Being away will feel wrong."

"Where are you staying after graduation?" Hermione asked.

"With Harry at Potter Manor," Daphne replied, "What about you?"

"I don't know, I think Draco and I are going to go to our respective homes for a while, then try and find a flat," Hermione said sadly.

"I don't know where I'm going to stay," Susan said miserably, "I've spent my last few summers with Hannah's parents but we're not that close anymore."

"Why don't you get a flat with Melody or something?"

"She's leaving with Roy and I can't afford to rent my own flat. Basic pay in the DMLE is rubbish, until I qualify I'm poor," Susan said, she seemed genuinely scared about her future.

"I don't know where I'm going to live either," Sadie said as she and Lilly emerged from the staircase together.

"I mean, Theo and I are getting married but we don't even have a house yet," She added as she dropped down onto another armchair, "I'm _definitely _not moving into Nott Manor. I can handle Lacey, but not Salvadora."

Lilly chuckled, "I reckon I'll spend the summer with Nev at Longbottom House. I'll be in France for 6 months after that if I get into the programme so it will be nice to have some time together before I go."

"I don't know what any of you are talking about," A new, male voice said in amusement as Harry emerged from the boy’s staircase and leant against the armchair that Daphne was sitting on, "Since I have a massive, newly refurbished house and all."

"Hah, and you want all of us to live with you?" Susan asked as if this idea was insane.

"He's probably being serious," Hermione said.

Harry nodded, "Potter Manor has 20 bedrooms or something insane and it would be free so you might as well."

"Shouldn't you be checking this with Daphne first?" Hermione asked as she narrowed her eyes at her best friend.

Daphne narrowed her eyes at Harry, "Yeah, shouldn't you?"

"It's my house love," Harry said calmly, "And it would only be for a little while. Suse can stay until she's got the cash to rent her own place, Sadie and Theo until they can buy their own house and Draco and Hermione until I've signed over Grimmauld Place and they've refurbished it."

"Alright," Daphne said, although she didn't look massively thrilled about the idea. She had been planning on enjoying all the alone time she could with Harry that summer.

"All of us under one roof like one big happy, dysfunctional family," Another voice said as Draco appeared from the staircase with a smirk on his face.

"A very bloody dysfunctional family," Yet another voice said as Neville followed him out of it.

"Merlin, everyone is up early today," Daphne said in amusement.

"What do you expect?" Neville asked with a chuckle, "We're all as nervous as the next person about graduation tomorrow."

"Unless the next person is Theo," Sadie said with a chuckle.

"Yeah, I don't expect to see him till noon regardless of whether or not its graduation tomorrow," Draco said with a grin.

"Wrong," Theo said as he emerged yawning from the boys’ stairway, "I heard talking, didn't want to miss out on the action."

"We were just discussing you guys all living at Potter Manor until you can find your own places," Harry said casually to his Slytherin friend.

Theo asked, "Do we have to pay you anything?"

Harry laughed and said, "Nah, not unless you break anything."

"Alright we're in," He glanced over at Sadie, "Uh, I think. Are we Sadie?"

"Yes," Sadie said, she shook her head in almost fond exasperation at Theo, “We're in."

"I wouldn't mind living with you," Draco admitted, "Just until Grimmauld Place is ready to live in."

"I agree with Draco," Hermione said with a smile, "It would help us out an awful lot."

"I know for sure that I wouldn't mind the company," Susan said with a small smile, "And having a place to live is handy too."

"Well I'll visit a lot," Neville said casually, "But Lil and I are spending the summer at Longbottom House."

"Course, that's fine," Harry smiled, "I think everyone else will only be staying temporarily anyway Nev. But you know what with that decided...graduation doesn't seem so sad anymore."

Draco silently nodded his agreement.

Neville nodded too, "But it's still terrifying."

"Agreed," Hermione said with a nervous laugh.

***

Later that Saturday morning the group found themselves feeling slightly nervous as they walked to the antechamber at the back of the great hall for their leaving coffee morning which was traditionally the day before graduation.

"So, it's just us in a room with all of the teachers?" Theo asked with a yawn, he was still tired from the early morning start.

"Theo it's important," Sadie said quickly, "It's our last chance to say goodbye to our teachers."

"And our last chance to thank them," Hermione added, she would probably thank every teacher personally.

"Don't forget the free cake Theo," Draco said which brightened Theo up considerably as the group walked through the strangely empty great hall towards the open door at the end.

"I've never been in that little room before," Lilly said matter of factly, "I always thought it was for storage or something."

"It's nothing exciting," Harry said, he remembered it from 4th Year, "Just a big room with some trophies and a fireplace."

When they entered the room it was fairly full because most of the other 8th Years were there already. It was full of teachers too, some Harry knew well and some that he didn't know so well because he had never taken their subjects. Most of the Ravenclaws were talking to teachers and other students were standing around awkwardly drinking from mugs or eating cake.

As they were surveying the scene a voice welcomed them from nearby and they looked over to see McGonagall.

"Good morning."

"Morning Professor," Theo yawned which made the others snigger, even McGonagall smiled slightly.

"Good morning Mr. Nott. Now, I assume you all know that the purpose of this morning is to discuss your future with your teachers, and say goodbye."

They all nodded and it was then that the group split. Sadie and Draco made their way over to Slughorn, Daphne went towards her Ancient Runes professor. Theo went to talk to the new Muggle Studies Professor. Lilly, Neville, Hannah and Susan approached Professor Sprout, and Hermione surprisingly made her way over to Flitwick. This left Harry alone with Professor McGonagall.

"Thank you Professor," Harry told her with a smile, "For everything you've done for me throughout my time here. As embarrassing as it is to admit…you're one of the only Mother figures I ever had."

McGonagall's smile seemed genuine as she said, "I do not say this to everyone Harry but believe it or not I do have favourites. Watching you overcome the things you had to during your time here made me fond of you. I have been truly proud to see you flourish and I think you deserve every ounce of happiness in the future."

"I think at some point my future will lead me back here," Harry admitted with a slight smile.

"I can assure you that I would always be willing to offer you a job here whenever you want one," McGonagall said fondly. She added with a Dumbledore-esque twinkle in her eyes, "After all, Hogwarts will always be here to welcome you home."

"I'll be sure to remember that," Harry said as he shook McGonagall's hand, he felt sentimental as well as full of nerves and excitement for the following day.

The rest of the coffee morning passed by slowly and nothing much of interest happened as Harry thanked the rest of his teachers, although with Dumbledore dead McGonagall was the one who meant the most to him. The other thing that Harry found interesting that morning was the fact that Professor Dumbledore had ventured from his portrait in the Headmistresses office to see what was going on.

Harry smiled and walked over to the portrait he was lounging in, "Hello Professor."

Dumbledore smiled and his eyes twinkled, "Hello Harry. How are you on this fine morning?"

"Honestly, I'm terrified about tomorrow," Harry sighed, "I'm terrified about leaving but I'm sad too."

"The right road will always bring you back home if you let it, Harry," Dumbledore said cryptically, "Always remember that."

"Do you think I'll come back here as a teacher someday then?" Harry asked his old Professor.

"If that is what you want, yes," Dumbledore replied with a smile, "But it is not what you want at the moment."

"I don't know, I think it is what I want in the long-run," Harry admitted, "I want to become an Auror and I want to adopt Teddy and marry Daphne. Then I want my own kids but when they are all grown up I think I would like to come back."

"And as Minerva said, if you do Hogwarts will always welcome you home," Dumbledore said sincerely.

Harry chuckled to himself at the comment, "But I guess sometimes you have to say goodbye to get on with your life."

"Indeed," Dumbledore said, "And it takes a wise and mature man to realise that. You have become a wonderful man Harry and I am ever so proud."

Harry smiled and glanced down sheepishly, "Thanks Professor," he mumbled through his embarrassment. He felt like a different person, partly due to the war, partly due to his new friends but mostly due to Daphne. However, it was certainly a good change, that much he was sure of.

***

It was 11pm, curfew was over and it was the night before graduation.

Gathered in the 8th Year common room were 8 students, all dressed from head to toe in black. But one was missing.

"Where the hell is Harry?" Theo whined as he lounged on the sofa.

"I would have thought he would be eager," Draco said, he sounded fed up, "After all this _was _his idea."

"Fashionably late," Harry said as he emerged from the boy’s staircase dressed in Dumbledore-esque multi-coloured robes.

Draco let his head drop into his hands, "Potter, the whole point of this is stealth."

Neville chuckled and reminded the others, "He has an invisibility cloak."

"Exactly Nev," Harry said with a grin as he pulled the cloak from his pocket, "For that you can come under it with me."

Neville shook his head in amusement, "And hunch all night with you? No thanks, I'll pass."

"Ah no worries Nev. Daph, fancy it?" Harry asked his fiancé.

Daphne chuckled and said, "Sure," she made her way over to him and looked around at the others, "So, what's the plan?"

There was an awkward silence during which everyone looked around and waited for someone to say something.

"Let me get this straight," Hermione said as she looked at the others, "Nobody actually has a plan?"

“Hermione,” Harry said with a smirk, "No offence but when have any of our plans ever worked?"

"Good point," Hermione said with a smile.

"I think we should just go for a walk around the place while it's ours and nobody else is around," Neville said, "You know, say goodbye to it one last time."

Lilly smiled, "That's a nice idea, even if it is a _little _sentimental."

Harry nodded and grinned broadly, "I think that's a great idea."

And so they went forth on their final adventure at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Harry and Daphne led the way under the invisibility cloak, between them they held the Marauders Map and scanned it for any dangers. Luckily Filch was in the North Tower with Trelawney instead of patrolling. The other Professors were all in their respective offices or dormitories and the corridors were free of all human irritants.

"I think it's the ghosts we're going to have to watch out for," Harry whispered to the others as they sneaked along the 7th floor corridor and got tutted at by the portraits who were trying to sleep.

"What makes you say that?" Daphne asked as she studied the map with the light from her wand.

"Peeves is crashing around in the Trophy Room," Harry pointed out, “And the Baron is haunting the dungeons."

"We'll steer clear of those floors then," Draco said from where he was trying not to fall over Daphne and Harry since they were invisible.

"We should go to the secret baths," Neville whispered.

Daphne's eyes lit up, "That's a _great _idea!"

***

"I'm not going skinny dipping."

Harry laughed out loud, he, Daphne, Theo and Sadie were already in the water which was gloriously warm tonight.

"What makes you think we are?" Daphne asked in amusement.

"I didn't mean that, it was just that _Draco _kept whispering it to me," Hermione said with a glare at her fiancé.

Draco smirked as he jumped into the pool with his boxers on, "It was worth a shot," he said.

Neville had also stripped to his boxers and gotten into the pool and Susan had been in for a little while too. It was only Hermione and Lilly who stood hesitantly by the edge.

"Come on in Lil," Neville said with a smile, "The waters lovely."

"And you're just totally cool with all your friends seeing me in my underwear?" Lilly asked as she crossed her arms at her boyfriend.

"They've seen you in a bikini. What's the difference?" Neville asked cluelessly.

"What's the difference," Lilly mumbled as she pulled off her t-shirt and slipped off her shorts, "I'd say _this _is the difference Neville. I don't _generally _wear lacy bikinis."

Neville's cheeks flushed red and Harry, Draco and Theo snorted at his uncomfortableness, "Alright you win, just get in the bloody water already."

Lilly couldn't contain her slight smirk as she slipped into the water and swam over to him.

"Come on in Mione," Draco said as Hermione still hesitated, "Come and have fun, it's our _last _night."

Hermione rolled her eyes, stripped down to her underwear and got into the water as fast as she could. They _could _have transfigured their clothes into bathing outfits as they had the last time, but then where was the fun in that? And this was their last _ever _night at Hogwarts. They splashed around together and played a couple of stupid games. They had no idea how much time had passed or how late it was and they didn't care either. They supposed they _should _have done because they would have to be up early for graduation but that didn't matter to them at that moment in time.

When they eventually did get back to the common room it _was _fairly late. But as Harry and Draco lay in their beds Harry felt the need to discuss something with his friend, "Hey Draco?"

"Yeah?" Draco replied as he drew back the curtain divider between their halves of the room so he could glance over at Harry.

"I was thinking about the sorting hat and how McGonagall made you wear it that time...I think it makes sense that you would have done well in Gryffindor," Harry said honestly.

Draco had a far off look in his eyes as he said, "If the circumstances had been different…maybe I would have done."

"I know the hat was right about me too. About me belonging somewhere between Gryffindor and Slytherin," Harry admitted, "After all...We all have both dark and light within us, the side we choose to act on is what defines things like our house and our personality."

"We're almost at opposite ends of the same spectrum," Draco mused and Harry nodded in agreement at this.

"Regardless though, I'm glad that we became friends this year," Harry said, he was trying not to sound too cheesy.

Draco chuckled, "Yeah, me too. I would never have admitted it but I really wanted you to take my hand that day… I didn't just try to befriend you because of your fame."

"I'm sorry it took me 8 years," Harry joked.

Draco laughed but said on a more serious note, "I'm sorry too."

Harry nodded as his acceptance of this apology, "It's all in the past now. Are you nervous, about tomorrow?"

"I'm terrified," Draco admitted and Harry was surprised at his honesty.

"Me too but it makes me feel better knowing we're all doing it together," Harry said with a slight smile.

Draco smiled weakly back and nodded, "Goodnight Harry."

"Goodnight Draco."

***

The 8th Year common room was quiet that next Sunday morning.

It was packed with every single student sitting or standing around waiting until 6am when the Great Hall would be open for breakfast but nobody was speaking.

They looked a sight, all of them were wearing their best black robes with their black wizard's hats stuffed in their pockets. Some people were twiddling their thumbs nervously, others were polishing their shoes or playing with their hair. Everyone was anxious and most people were sad because today was the day they said goodbye to Hogwarts.

"Doesn't seem real, does it?" Neville asked Harry from where they were leaning against the wall together, both of them were looking out of the window at the mountains beyond.

"Nah," Harry said distantly, "I never really thought about the day I'd leave this place. It's always been my home."

"At least you have somewhere to call home now," Neville said as he glanced over at Harry, "Imagine if you'd had to go back to Privet Drive."

"I don't really want to imagine it," Harry admitted grimly.

"Are Molly and Arthur coming today?" Neville asked as he leant against the windowsill.

Harry nodded thoughtfully, "Yeah, they owled saying they would be delighted to come."

"They are essentially your parents," Neville said with a smile, "Molly and Arthur are to you, what you and Daphne are to Teddy."

"I never really thought about it that way," Harry admitted but he smiled slightly at the thought all the same.

"I always knew Molly and Arthur would be here for your graduation. But it's weird," Neville said with a sigh, "How much can change in a year."

"Tell me about it," Harry said, a pang of pain shot through him, "It kills me to think we're graduating without Ron."

Neville smiled slightly but Harry didn't catch this, he was too busy staring out of the window.

"We're graduating minus a lot of people that should be here," Neville said, his smile was gone now and a haunted look was on his face, "Gryffindor was fairly lucky but Dean…"

Harry nodded, he understood Neville before he had to finish that sentence, "I don't realise how bad it is sometimes but last night I couldn't help but think that there should have been 42 students from our year graduating today."

"Wow," Neville said as the figure took him by surprise, "And considering that there are only 23 that will be graduating…"

"Exactly," Harry said darkly, "And I know not all of those people died but then where did we lose 19 people?"

"Well Gryffindor lost Lavender and Parvati in the battle and then...Dean," Neville said as a lump rose in his throat. He cleared it and continued, "Seamus was basically kicked out and Ron left. So that's 5 people already."

"And Slytherin lost Pansy and Crabbe in the final battle," Harry said with a small frown.

"Goyle is in Azkaban," Neville filled in, "And Millicent Bulstrode immigrated to Australia at the start of the war."

"How do you know that?" Harry asked in surprise.

Neville just shrugged and said, "Lilly told me, don't ask how she knew."

"Oh fair enough," Harry said as a dark look passed across his face, "Slytherin lost Tracey too. I mean that alone is 5 people."

"I think Hufflepuff lost 4," Neville said and at that point Hannah joined in, they hadn't even realised that she had been listening.

"We did," She said sadly, "Leanne was killed during the war because of her blood status and Morag hid out in America during the war and finished her schooling at Salem. Oliver died saving a little girl when the orphanage he lived in caught fire and Wayne just did his N.E.W.T's at the Ministry, he didn't want to come back without his best friend."

"I'm sorry Hannah," Harry said sincerely.

Neville sighed, "Ravenclaw must have lost a lot more than the other houses in that case..."

"A lot of them probably just did their N.E.W.T's at the Ministry," Harry reminded his friend.

"Haven't you noticed there are only 5 of us?" Terry asked from where he was sitting in a chair behind Harry, "Well 6 if you include Melody."

"Sorry Terry," Harry said apologetically, "What happened to the others?"

"Stephen died in the final battle but you know that Harry. Kevin and Lisa both did their N.E.W.T's at the Ministry. Padma did too because she didn't want to come back without Parvati and Lavender. Su was murdered in the war because her Father supported the light and spoke about it too loudly."

"Merlin," Harry said, shaking his head in disbelief, "I'm sorry Terry, I had no idea how much Ravenclaw lost."

Terry shrugged and said, "We aren't just about brains Harry. We're loyal, we showed that in the war."

Harry nodded and said the sincerest thank you to Terry for what his fellow Ravenclaws had done. He felt even more miserable than before now.

At that moment the clock ticked to 6am and people began to move towards the great hall where it was warmer and where there was food. Although Harry doubted that anyone would eat much that morning. He hung back with Neville as everyone glumly filed from the common room.

"You coming mate?" Neville asked Harry when they reached the landing outside of the common room. Everything was packed in their dorms…it would be on the Hogwarts Express later that day. This was the last time he would see this place.

"I'll meet you there," Harry said gruffly and Neville understood so with a silent nod he made his way down to the great hall alone.

When Harry was sure Neville was out of earshot he glanced towards the portrait of his parents. They were all at the front of it with smiles on their faces.

"Good luck today son," James said with a proud smile.

Lily had tears in her eyes as she nodded, "We wish we could be there to see it, Harry."

"But we'll be watching from somewhere," Remus said with a smile.

Sirius finished on a comedic note, "And whatever you do don't fall off of the stage like James did!"

"I didn't _fall_ off, you pushed me!" James retorted.

"I did not!" Sirius objected, "I bumped into you slightly and you fell off! That does not constitute pushing!"

Harry chuckled as he watched his Father and his Godfather start to wrestle each other in the portrait. Lily and Remus looked at each other and rolled their eyes. He smiled at the people in the portrait, it was to be moved to Potter Manor once he graduated, it was one of the greatest gifts he had ever received and he still thanked Dean so much for it, even if he wasn't here with them today.

"Well I better go," Harry said with a smile, "But I'll see you guys in your new home tomorrow."

"Please tell me it isn't Grimmauld Place," Sirius said as his wrestling match with James ceased, "I don't _ever _want to go back there."

"It isn't Grimmauld Place, Sirius," Harry said in amusement, "It’s the newly refurbished Potter Manor and you'll be hanging in pride of place in the drawing room."

Sirius puffed his chest out and James did the same. They looked like over-stuffed pretentious birds and it made Lily and Remus descend into another fit of the giggles. Harry had a grin on his face as he turned away from them and made his down the staircase of the Eastern Tower for the final time...

**TBC :)**


	63. Graduation

When Harry arrived in the great hall everyone was chattering away but those at the 8th Year table looked nervous and sad. Combined with the fact that everyone was dressed in black it looked like they were preparing for a funeral.

Harry sat down at one of the few gaps in the table which happened to be in between Neville and Draco, and opposite Hermione and Daphne who were both reading the Daily Prophet.

"Is anyone gonna talk?" Harry asked as he poured himself a glass of pumpkin juice, "It's not like this is a funeral or anything."

Draco smiled slightly, "Feels a bit like it."

"The death of our lives as students," Theo joked from his spot next to Draco.

"You should put that in your speech," Neville said with a snigger.

Theo laughed loudly and said, "I might do just that."

Hermione looked up from the paper and glared at Theo, "You need to be serious in your speech Theo. You're Head Boy."

"So?" Theo asked as he rolled his eyes.

Hermione was about to respond when McGonagall appeared at the end of the table holding a stack of yearbooks.

"The yearbooks are ready," Daphne said with excitement as McGonagall made her way around the table and handed them out. It was traditional to get a yearbook on the morning of graduation but Harry had gotten so caught up with everything else that he had completely forgotten about it.

Draco got his first and Harry and Theo peered curiously at it. The front cover was simple, it had _"Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry"_ stamped on it with the school logo underneath. Then it said _"Class of 1998/99"_ and underneath that was his name, _"Draco Black"_. There were then the four logos of each house in each corner of the parchment.

Harry's yearbook was then dropped in front of him and he eagerly opened it up to read the message from McGonagall on the front page.

"_The staff of Hogwarts, myself included, are very sad to see you all go this year. _

_This year group, more so than almost any other, have weathered countless storms together and have already achieved much to be proud of. _

_Some of you fought in the war between light and dark, others have fought wars just as difficult inside themselves. Most of you have lost loved ones, some of you have even lost family. Some of you have lost parents, something which no child or teenager should ever have to live through._

_What I find extraordinary about each and every one of you however, is not how many battles you have won but how strong you are, and more importantly, how united you are._

_I will miss every single student that returned for The 8th Year but I am sure that I will see you all again one day, whether as a teacher here at Hogwarts or in the Daily Prophet. I know you will all be successful in whatever you choose to do._

_The war may be over but the hardest battle is still to come, life. My best wishes are with you and remember, help will always be given to those who ask for it. Always feel free to send me an owl._

_Good luck."_

At the bottom of this rather moving speech was McGonagall's signature. Harry smiled as he flicked over onto the next page, it was a lovely little message and he supposed her graduation speech would be similar.

The next page featured a moving picture of the Head Boy and Girl with their names underneath. Then there were pictures of the Prefects who had been in 8th year with their names underneath. At the bottom of the page were the Quidditch captains. All of the pictures on the page moved and Harry smirked at the action shot of him in the Quidditch Captains section.

The next page featured pictures and names of all of the Gryffindor students and Harry was pleased to see that Dean and Ron were both in the yearbook. Harry had known that Ron would be because a few weeks ago they had written out little profiles for their friends which would feature in the yearbook and Harry had helped to write Ron's. At the top of the page the word "_Gryffindor"_ was written in scarlet ink with some facts next to it. The first two were standard, "_Founder: Godric Gryffindor" _and "_Head of House: Minerva McGonagall"_. However, the third fact made Harry chuckle, it said_, "Year: 1991-1999 (with some taking a 'gap year' in 98)"_.

Harry glanced at the pictures, he looked rather cocky in his and more like his Father than he ever had done. Hermione looked more confident than Harry could ever remember seeing her, so did Neville in fact.

Harry smiled as he turned the page to see that this was the 'profiles' page for all of the Gryffindor students. There was a small box for each student with a little note about them that had been written by their friends. He scanned over the ones he cared about, the people he actually _liked _and was surprised by how many he had contributed to, it hadn't felt like that many at the time.

"**_Hermione Jean Granger_**

_A beautiful person, inside and out, but don't take her camping! – Daphne Greengrass."_

Harry laughed out loud at this and glanced over to where Daphne and Hermione were giggling, "You do realise hardly anyone will understand what that means?" he asked with a chuckle.

"Thank Merlin," Hermione muttered.

Daphne laughed louder, "I just couldn't resist," she admitted with a cheeky grin. Harry laughed again and looked back once more to Hermione's profile.

"_Her knowledge is only matched by her love of house-elves. Long live spew – Harry Potter"_

Hermione glared mockingly at Harry for this and said, "You spelled it wrong, its S.P.E.W!"

"I know," Harry grinned, "I did it on purpose."

Hermione chuckled and Harry smiled, he had a feeling this yearbook would be full of inside jokes. But the final comment on Hermione's profile was actually hugely touching.

"_She saved me – Draco Black."_

*

"**_Neville Longbottom_**

_Regardless of how famous he gets or how cool he is, I'm always going to think of Neville Longbottom as that sweet boy with a toad who always got stuck in the most ridiculous places. The new Neville is cool but that's the Nev I fell in love with - Lilly Moon._

_But Lil he's a snake beheading, cardigan wearing, authority defying badass! (Who's going to be my Auror partner) – Harry Potter._

_Fatbottom. P.S: please be my Auror partner – Draco Black._

_We all know he'll be mine – Theodore Nott."_

Neville barked out a laugh as he read his entry, "Sorry guys," he said to Draco and Theo, "But in this case I'm Harry's."

This made Harry snigger and Lilly grin suggestively.

"Mind out of the gutter, Lillian Moon!" Neville joked.

"Well if you will say things like that Nev," Lilly laughed.

"What you said was nice," Neville said quietly so that the others wouldn't hear.

Lilly's smile didn't shift, "It was the truth, Neville. I didn't fall in love with some badass guy who beheaded snakes. I fell in love with a sweet guy who was always there for me."

Neville kissed her lightly, "I love you too Lil and even though you keep claiming you _aren't _a romantic I can see right through you."

Lilly grinned at this and looked back down at her own yearbook. It was really lifting all of their moods.

*

"**_Harry James Potter_**

_The bravest man I know (sorry Draco) – Hermione Granger."_

"Oi!" Draco said as glared across the table at Hermione, "I resent that."

"Well you _are _a coward Draco," Theo pointed out casually which made Draco smack him over the back of the head.

Theo merely sniggered and said, "You didn't deny it."

"And Harry is the saviour of the wizarding world," Daphne pointed out with a smirk.

Hermione smiled slightly at Draco's pout, "Calm down Draco, you haven't gotten to what I wrote in your entry yet."

Harry smiled his thanks at Hermione and glanced back to his profile.

"_He gives people second chances, thank you Harry – Draco Black._

_Scarhead – Theodore Nott._

_Hate his hero complex, love him – Daphne Greengrass."_

"Gee thanks Daph," Harry joked as Daphne smirked at him, "And really Theo? Is that all you could think of to write in my yearbook?"

"Pretty much," Theo grinned.

*

"**_Ronald Bilius Weasley_**

_I couldn't have, and wouldn't have, gotten through the war without him. Thanks Ron, for coming back – Harry Potter. _

_A good man doesn't falter, a great man can pick himself up after he does. I wouldn't be alive today without him. Thank you for keeping me going when all I wanted to do was stop – Hermione Granger."_

Harry and Hermione caught each other's eyes across the table and both smiled, they had both done Ron justice in the yearbook, despite how rocky this year had been on their friendship. Harry flicked the page, he was disappointed that Dean didn't have a profile but then again, a picture was better than nothing.

*

Next were the Hufflepuff pages. There were only 6 pictures on the first page, each with the name underneath and the 'fun facts' (aka the founder, head of house, and year at the top of the page). On the next page were the Hufflepuff profiles, some of which were amusing.

"**_Hannah Abbott_**

_A lovely, beautiful friend who is going to have a great life ahead of her, whatever she decides to do! – Sadie Cauldwell. _

_The greatest friend anyone could wish for. She had the strength to forgive things that should never have been forgiven. It's been a difficult year but you will always be my sister in every way but blood – Susan Bones."_

*

"**_Susan Bones_**

_My best friend since I was tiny. It's been a hard year but you will always be my sister from another mister – Hannah Abbott. _

_One of the most genuine, helpful people that I know. Thanks for keeping it real, Suse – Harry Potter. _

_A girl who's never had it easy in life but has become an amazing person. I wish her so much happiness – Daphne Greengrass."_

*

"**_Zacharias Smith_**

_He doesn't understand sarcasm…He's intelligent, funny, a great person to be around and everybody loves him. Like I said he doesn't get sarcasm – Theodore Nott (Head Boy; as the rule states when nobody else wishes to submit an entry…says it all really!)"_

Harry sniggered at the profile and was amused to see Zacharias giving Theo death glares down the table.

*

Harry flicked the page and looked at the 6 Ravenclaw pictures with the name of the founder, head of house and year at the top again. On the next page were the Ravenclaw profiles.

"**_Terry Boot:_**

_Awesome seeker, have always had so much fun playing Quidditch with him. He kept us all going through the war and saved so many innocent lives – Michael Corner."_

*

"**_Michael Corner_**

_Sunday Quidditch and pizza sessions won't stop! Wish him the best of luck with his Quidditch career because he was an amazing captain and he's one of the best beaters I've ever seen – Terry Boot."_

*

"**_Lillian Moon:_**

_She's beautiful, witty and so bloody smart. Thank you for turning my life around, for being my best friend and for (eventually) letting me fall completely head over heels in love with you - Neville Longbottom._

_Lil is sweet, genuine and caring. But she's also totally punk rock (apart from her Spice Girls obsession…) - Susan Bones._

_Wonderful person, wonderful Healer. So glad she's going to be watching our backs while we protect our country - Harry Potter."_

Lilly grinned, "Thanks Harry and thanks for letting my biggest secret out of the bag Suse," she joked.

Susan laughed, "Somebody had to say it, Lil."

"And I meant what I wrote," Harry said honestly.

Lilly smiled at him once more and turned to Neville, "But really Nev. Could that have gotten any cheesier?"

Neville just grinned and kissed her, "You like the cheesiness really," he said and his eyes sparkled playfully as he looked at his girlfriend.

*

"**_Melody Norris-Filch_**

_I'm so glad she got this chance to live her life on her own terms! – Hermione Granger._

_A funny, intelligent girl who has the best taste in vintage fashion! So happy for her! Good luck and enjoy your life with Roy! – Susan Bones."_

*

Harry flicked over and grinned when he realised that he was now at the Slytherin section. He smirked as he looked at the pictures, Draco looked handsome and confident. Sadie looked quietly gorgeous, Daphne was winking and posing in her photograph which was befitting and Theo was attempting to pose and look sexy in his. Blaise just looked the way he always did.

Harry flicked the page to the profiles, he had contributed to a fair few of them.

"**_Draco Abraxas Black:_**

_Since this is my last chance to say it Draco…I love you, ditch Hermione and we can run away and elope! – Theodore Nott."_

Draco chuckled as he shook his head at his best friend, "Nah mate, I'll stick with Hermione," he said.

Theo pretended to be outraged at this, much to the amusement of the other occupants of the 8th Year table.

"_Everyone deserves a second chance and I'm glad I gave Draco one – Harry Potter."_

"Thanks Harry," Draco said quietly to his friend.

Harry merely nodded and smiled, "Don't worry about it Draco. It's just the truth."

"_The ferret done good – Neville Longbottom."_

"Fatbottom!" Draco growled as he threw a bit of toast at Neville.

The Gryffindor dodged it easily and exclaimed, "Hey! You wrote fatbottom on mine!"

"You're never going to live that one down ferret boy," Hermione teased, at which her boyfriend glared at her.

"_Everyone has their demons. Not all of us can fight them but Draco did – Daphne Greengrass."_

"Thanks Daph," Draco said with a real smile at his friend.

"Just the truth Draco," Daphne said honestly but with a sheepish sort of smile.

"_Everyone can change, I'm glad that Draco did – Hermione Granger."_

Draco got the biggest smile yet at this and leant across the table to kiss her on the cheek, "Thank you," he said, he actually looked quite tearful.

"Aw Draco, are you getting emotional?" Harry teased which made Draco's cheeks even pinker.

“He didn't get emotional over my entry!" Theo retorted with mock anger.

Sadie and Hermione caught each other's eyes and rolled them. It reminded Harry of what Lily and Remus had done when James and Sirius had started fighting and he smiled as he looked back to the yearbook page.

*

"**_Sadie Cauldwell_**

_When I first met her I thought she was quiet and shy and then I got to know her! Sadie is one of the sweetest people I've ever met. We lost someone special and without Sadie I wouldn't have gotten through the aftermath. Don't ever hurt her Theo – Daphne Greengrass."_

In one of his rare moments of seriousness Theo wrapped his arm around Sadie, looked Daphne straight in the eye and said, "I promise I won't."

Daphne, and everyone else who had witnessed the scene, was slightly taken aback by this. It didn't surprise Harry however. Theo was like his Godfather, the joking around was just a mask, he could be serious when he needed or _wanted_ to be.

"_Thank Merlin for house unity, without it I'd never have made such an amazing friend. I wish I'd known her since first year – Hannah Abbott._

_She's the realest thing in my life, she's the light and she's the spark that ignites everything. I love her more than I have ever loved anyone or anything. Thank you Sadie - Theodore Nott"_

Sadie had to fight back tears as she read this entry, "That's the nicest thing anyone has ever said, or written, about me Theo."

Theo looked vaguely embarrassed, "Well it's the truth Sadie and I can be romantic when I want to be. I'm marrying you because I know you're the one, the _only_ one."

Sadie smiled a watery sort of smile and kissed him lightly on the lips, "I love you too Theo. I'm sorry about everything that has happened this year."

Theo shook his head and kept his arm around his fiancé, "You don't have to be sorry for a single thing, Sadie," he said softly.

*

"**_Daphne Greengrass_**

_It might have taken me 7 years but I eventually found an amazing friend who didn't mind spending her evenings studying with me in the library! I wish I had known her for longer but I know we'll be friends for a long time – Hermione Granger."_

"How can we not stay friends?" Daphne asked Hermione with a chuckle, "After all those two are practically inseparable," she said as she pointed to Harry and Draco who smirked in unison.

"Very true," Hermione chuckled.

"_She taught me some of the most important lessons in life – Susan Bones._

_She's been there for me through everything. Without her I wouldn't be here today. I love her to death – Sadie Cauldwell."_

"Sadie, that's so sweet," Daphne said with a watery smile as she got to her feet and hugged her best friend.

"It's only the truth Daph," Sadie said as she hugged her friend back, "You're my best friend, you always will be."

"You'll always be mine too," Daphne whispered as she pulled away from her friend and sat back down next to Harry.

"_She saved me from myself and taught me how to have fun again – Harry Potter."_

"So cheesy Potter," Daphne teased.

Harry only smiled, "I don't care," he said honestly and he truly didn't. His eyes found the engagement ring on her finger which was sparkling in the early morning rays of sunshine. Everybody knew what she meant to him, how important she was and how he felt. He didn't see any reason to hide it or shy away from it anymore.

*

"**_Theodore Roosevelt Nott_**

_He was there for me throughout everything and without his strength and courage I would never have survived the war. Thank you for keeping me going and thank you for being the best friend I could ever ask for – Draco Black."_

"Draco, you do care!"

The table erupted with laughter as Draco and Theo shared a 'manly' hug, at Theo's insistence of course.

"_The only person who's more of a skinny runt than me – Harry Potter."_

"Oi Potter! I'm not a skinny runt!"

"You kind of are though."

"I am not!"

"Well you aren't exactly a macho man are you?"

"Whose side are you lot on?"

"_He saved me (sorry Harry and Draco, had to be done) – Neville Longbottom."_

This caused another wave of laughter and _another_ bromantic hug.

"_Once a man whore, now whipped as hell (well done Sadie) – Blaise Zabini."_

"Ah Blaise, a man of very little words," Theo said sarcastically, he shook his head in amusement at his friend’s comment.

Blaise smirked at his friend from further up the table, but true to form said nothing.

*

"**_Blaise Zabini_**

_A good friend throughout even the toughest times at Hogwarts. When I needed someone with a brain he was always there but he's the hardest person in the world to find! - Draco Black._

_He's practically invisible and I'm pretty sure he can walk through walls. He isn't around much because that's just Blaise for you but he's always been there when it's important and when it matters – Theodore Nott."_

Harry glanced up to see Blaise's reaction and frowned when he didn't see him anymore, "Where _did _Blaise go?"

"Doesn't that just prove our point?" Draco asked Theo as the two friends chuckled together about Blaise's absence.

*

Harry wondered momentarily if Blaise had an invisibility cloak before flipping the page to what was now the Quidditch section. This page featured the Gryffindor Quidditch team with the words "_Winners of the 1999 Quidditch Cup_". There was a picture of the team holding the cup and then individual pictures of the team members with their position and name underneath. Harry was there as Captain and Seeker then Dennis was there as Keeper and Ginny, Natalie McDonald and Demelza Robbins as Chasers. Neville and Samuel (a 6th year) were there as Beaters, although there was a mention to Dean who had been the Beater up until his untimely death.

The next page was of the runners up, the Slytherin Quidditch team. There was a picture of the team as a whole and then Draco as the Captain and seeker, Daphne, Sadie and Gabrielle as the Chasers (again there was a mention of Tracey as the original Chaser). There was also a photo of Blaise and Theo as Beaters and the 7th year boy Maxwell who had been the Keeper.

Next was the Hufflepuff team with Justin as Captain and Seeker, then Megan, Ernie and Mason as the Chasers, Hannah and Susan as the Beaters. Then there was Zacharias as the Keeper.

Ravenclaw were last with Michael as the Captain and Beater, although the job had been shared with Terry towards the end of the year. Mandy, Luna and Laura (a 5th year girl) were there as the Chasers, as was Anthony Goldstein as the other beater. Terry was there as Seeker and Paul Clearwater as Keeper.

The next page surprised Harry, he hadn't expected anything like this to be in the yearbook. The page had the words _"Dumbledore's Army"_ in large letters at the top. Next to this were two small sentences.

"_Years Active: 1995-1998"._

"_Teacher: 'Professor' Harry James Potter."_

Harry chuckled at McGonagall's sense of humour. There was also a quote underneath these facts, _"It is important to fight and fight again, and keep fighting, for only then can evil be kept at bay though never quite eradicated."_

The rest of the page consisted of pictures of all the members, not just those in 8th Year but older and younger students and those who had died too. It made Harry swell with pride and he had to force back his tears too.

"That's a lovely addition to the yearbook," Hermione said as she looked at the page. Harry nodded, he was quite lost for words at the fact it had made it into the yearbook.

Harry then turned the page and smiled as he realised that it was the prom page. The words "_1999 Prom_" were emblazoned at the top of the page and the rest was filled with photographs. In the middle of the page was a photo of Harry, Draco, Neville and Theo all standing together smiling in their best dress robes. There was a picture of Draco and Neville hugging, and one of Draco and Harry laughing at something, then one of Draco and Hermione dancing and kissing. There was a picture of Harry and Daphne dancing and one of Harry and Hermione dancing too. There was also a picture of Neville and Lilly smiling at the camera and a couple of pictures of Sadie and Theo.

"That was definitely a night to remember," Harry said fondly as he caught Daphne's eye, he had very fond memories of the prom.

"That it was," Draco grinned as he looked at the photographs of him proposing to Hermione on the stage.

Hermione was still rather embarrassed about the public nature of the whole thing so she blushed at his words, but that didn't stop her from smiling broadly at him as she looked up from her yearbook, "It certainly was," she agreed softly.

The next page in the yearbook was a summary of the awards Hermione and Theo had given out at Prom, Harry chuckled as he scanned through them once more. On the following page were 15 baby photos with the words at the top, _"Guess who the baby Witch or Wizard became!"_

Harry cringed as he realised a baby picture of himself was there, he didn't look too strange in it but he knew Hermione at least would be able to tell.

"Harry, is that you?" Daphne asked in surprise.

Harry blushed slightly and Hermione chuckled, "Yeah that's him."

"Aw you were so cute then Harry," Susan said as she looked on, "What happened?"

Harry laughed at this and tried to see if he knew any of them, "Is that you Mione?" Harry asked as he saw a toddler with mouse ears on her head smiling at the camera.

Hermione blushed and nodded, "I think I was about 1 or 2 in that picture," she said.

"And look, little baby Draco!" Theo teased, he pointed at a picture of a cute little blonde haired baby boy.

"Oh shut up, look at you," Draco said as he sniggered at baby Theo who was looking very surprised and wearing what looked to be a very posh blue cashmere cardigan.

"Nice cardigan Theo," Sadie teased.

Theo's cheeks flushed and he said, "Well I can't insult you because look how cute you were," he said as he pointed to a picture of a little blonde haired girl with pigtails who looked as if she was trying to eat her finger.

"I was not cute," Sadie objected, "I was a fat baby, look at my face."

"You were not," Daphne said as she looked at her own photo, "Mine is horrible, I've got such a chubby face."

"Is that you?" Harry asked as he looked at the photo she had pointed at which was of a girl with pure blonde hair and bright blue eyes pouting and wearing a sunhat, "Aw, you were cute Daph."

"Ugh, yeah right," Daphne objected.

"Oh Lil, is that you?" Susan asked as she looked at a picture of a young dark haired girl.

Lilly's cheeks flushed very slightly, "Yeah and I hoped none of you would notice. Look at the state of me."

Neville laughed, "You look like you've been pulled through a hedge backwards."

"My Dad took that picture right after I thought it would be a good idea to tumble down a huge hill," Lilly said with a shake of her head, "It’s so embarrassing."

"But cute," Neville said with a grin.

"Wait, you must be in there Nev," Draco said as he glanced down to the yearbook, "Is that you?"

Neville rolled his eyes, "Yep that's me, the kid with the fat face and buckteeth."

The others chuckled and Lilly patted her boyfriend on the shoulder, "Don't worry Nev, I still think you look cute."

Neville chuckled, "So who haven't we found yet?" he asked as he glanced around at his friends, "Susan, where are you?"

"The only ginger girl there," Susan said as she pointed to a picture at the bottom of the screen of a toddler with short curly red hair and lots of freckles smiling very broadly.

"Aw so cute and innocent," Harry said with a smirk, "What happened?"

"Shut up Potter," Susan said with a chuckle, "I was such an ugly baby."

"You're quite cute actually, for a ginger baby," Hannah teased, she laughed as Susan threw a bit of bacon at her which she dodged deftly.

They figured out that the others were a young Ron, a baby Ernie, a baby Zacharias (who was wearing a miniature suit which gave everyone a laugh) and a baby Blaise who was actually laughing, probably the only picture of him doing so.

The next page was probably the most emotional because the title was, _"The Fallen."_

There were pictures of those who had not made it to 8th Year or had died since it began. There were 12 pictures on the page in total, some were teachers and others were pupils.

"_Albus Dumbledore: 1881-1997 – Died in the Battle of the Lightning Struck Tower._

_Charity Burbage: 1965-1997 – Murdered for her pro-Muggle views._

_Oliver Rivers: 1980-1997 – Died saving orphans from a Death Eater attack._

_Leanne Fox: 1980-1997 – Murdered due to her blood status._

_Su Li: 1980-1997 – Murdered due to her Father's political stance._

_Lavender Brown: 1980 – 1998 – Died in the Battle of Hogwarts._

_Parvati Patil: 1980 – 1998 – Died in the Battle of Hogwarts._

_Stephen Cornfoot: 1980-1998 – Died in the Battle of Hogwarts._

_Vincent Crabbe: 1980-1998 – Died in the Battle of Hogwarts._

_Pansy Parkinson: 1980-1998 – Died in the Battle of Hogwarts._

_Remus Lupin: 1960-1998 – Died in the Battle of Hogwarts._

_Severus Snape: 1960-1998 – Died in the Battle of Hogwarts._

_Dean Thomas: 1980 - 1999 - Murdered by rogue Death Eaters after the war._

_Tracey Davis: 1980 - 1999 - Murdered by rogue Death Eaters after the war."_

At the bottom of this page was a quote, _"The life of the dead is placed in the memory of the living – Marcus Tullius Cicero.”_

This page caused a fair amount of sadness at the table but the last page was more promising. It was a blank space for signatures. After graduation they would get each other to sign the yearbook, either on the Hogwarts Express or at any after parties.

This thought jogged Harry's memory, "I'm having a post-Graduation party tonight,” he said to those in his vicinity, “Everyone in our year is invited, just pass the word around the table. It's at my house, they should know how to get there because of the New Year's party."

"Nice, I was hoping you would," Draco said with a grin as he passed the message along his side of the table, Neville did the same in the other direction and Daphne and Hermione did the same on the other side of the table.

With the excitement of the yearbook wearing off Hermione went back to reading the paper but it didn't take long for her to speak up again.

"Oh my gosh!" Hermione exclaimed, "Harry, the part of London your house is in was hit by a dreadful storm!"

"Was it?" Harry asked in shock, this was genuine at first because he had forgotten all about the second stage of he and Neville's plan.

Hermione nodded and continued, "The bones and relics they found in your street were all blown away, all traces are completely gone."

"Oh, that's weird," Harry said with a smirk in the general direction of Neville who grinned.

"At least the houses seem to be okay," Hermione said, she shook her head and went back to her paper.

Daphne however narrowed her eyes, she had seen this exchange between Harry and Neville and she had also seen the smirk on Draco's face. She wasn't going to mention anything now but she would do later.

All of the time they had spent reading through the yearbook had passed so much time that breakfast was coming to an end and everyone was leaving the hall as it would be converted for graduation.

"Time to wait in the entrance hall for an hour," Daphne said with a slightly nervous sigh as the 8th Years filed out of the hall to where a small waiting area was set up.

"It won't be that long," Hermione assured her friend, although she was more nervous than a lot of the others because she had her Head Girl speech to deliver.

***

The large oak doors to the great hall creaked open and Harry swallowed a lump in his throat. They seemed to take forever to open and a wave of déjà vu rushed over Harry when they finally did.

McGonagall stood with her pointed hat and green robes, she had a tight smile on her face, "Are you ready?" she asked the group of students.

It took Harry back to his first moments in Hogwarts and he smiled fondly. There were some stiff nods and nervous replies of, "Yes." McGonagall then led the students into the hall which had been completely transformed.

There was a long stage at the end of the hall where the Head table normally was and all of the house tables were pushed up against the walls. Instead there were rows of benches with a walkway clear in the middle of the room. It looked eerily similar to Cedric's memorial.

McGonagall led them all to a row of seats at the front of the stage. This was the part that took time, they had only actually been waiting outside for around half an hour.

The next little while was spent getting everyone seated in the right order. It was alphabetical, with the person whose second name was first at the far left hand side of the stage and the person whose second name was last at the far right side. This was so they could walk onto the stage, accept their certificate and exit the stage at the other side and sit down at the end of the row with everyone moving up a seat every time someone got up to accept their certificate.

Over half an hour later everyone was seated with a shaky, pale Hannah up first and a stout Blaise on last. Draco was up second which made Harry smirk and think to himself that this was probably one of the few times he wished he was still a Malfoy.

There was one empty seat in the line near the end between Zacharias and Blaise which perplexed Harry but he didn't have to wonder about it for long because a few moments later none other than Ron Weasley walked through the door wearing black robes and his black wizards hat. The others had all been forced to put theirs on by now. Harry grinned when he saw Ron walking in, he was being allowed to graduate, he must have passed all of his N.E.W.T's at the Ministry.

Ron had a brief word with McGonagall that nobody could hear and shook her hand then made his way to his seat via Harry.

"Alright mate?"

"Hey," Harry said, he was still in shock, "I'm glad you're here."

"Glad to be here," Ron said with a grin, "McGonagall let me come back and graduate."

"I'm glad," Harry said, he was still grinning like an idiot, "I'm having a post-Graduation party tonight," he added, "At Potter Manor, come round if you like."

"I might come round for a bit if Katie's alright with it. We aren't together anymore but I'm trying to keep an eye on her at least," Ron said with a shrug, "I'll see you later."

"See you later mate," Harry said as Ron made his way towards his seat.

After that the guests began to arrive. There weren't any assigned seats so those who arrived first got the best ones. Molly and Arthur were among the first to arrive, and Daphne's Mother and sister also arrived early. Hannah's parents arrived early too, as did Theo's step-mother and his half-sister Lacey who waved excitedly at her half-brother when they sat down in the front row.

Harry smiled at Andromeda as she entered the hall with Teddy in her arms and Narcissa by her side. They got good seats and tried to convince the little boy _not _to run over to Harry or shout "DAFFEE" at the top of his voice.

Not long after that John and Elizabeth Granger entered the hall and sat in the two seats Narcissa had kept for them which made Hermione smile fondly. Between this, the holiday in the Alps and her prom dress she was beginning to feel very accepted by Draco's Mother.

The hall filled up quickly after that and some of the guests were amusing to watch. It was funny when Filch and Lockhart walked into the room awkwardly together and sat down in the second row. Melody looked like she couldn't decide if she was more embarrassed or amused. The Delacour's looked very over-dressed and out of place when they entered. Blaise's Mother tried to chat up at least three men on-route to her seat.

Sadie's Mother and her Auror brother Sorenson arrived and waved as they sat down. Sadie was one of the paler, more nervous people in the line. In fact, she looked like she might throw up.

Harry glanced along the row at Susan who looked a little sad. There were only a couple of minutes now until the ceremony would start. The teachers all took their places in seats on the stage, apart from McGonagall whose job it was to shut the doors before they could start. She had just gripped the door to push it shut when a final guest walked into the hall.

Susan's eyes lit up when she saw Percy exchange a few words with McGonagall and stride down the walkway to the seat his parents were saving him in the front row. He grinned at Susan as he walked towards her. She had known that he was out of the country so she hadn't expected him to be able to make it, it meant a lot to her to see him there. She grinned back, suddenly she looked a lot less nervous.

McGonagall then pushed the doors shut and strolled down the walkway and up the stairs onto the stage. She took a deep breath and began to deliver her opening speech, "Hogwarts first ever '8th Year' are a mismatched group of students and Merlin knows they have been difficult," she added which caused some chuckling.

"However this year group are incredibly gifted and incredibly strong," McGonagall said on a more serious note, "I myself am very proud of this year group. To talk in more detail about this is Hermione Granger, the Head Girl."

McGonagall stepped away from the podium and sat down in her seat on the stage. Hermione shakily made her way to the stage, she got an encouraging smile from Draco on her way. When she reached the podium she took a breath and began.

"I always wanted to be Head Girl and I thought about how I would give this speech a lot for a long time," Hermione admitted slightly sheepishly, "But I realised when I started writing it out that it isn't the kind of thing you can plan. Hogwarts has been home to all of us for the last 7 or 8 years and leaving it will be sad for all of us. It's also something more however, it's an adventure, it's the next step. It_ is_ terrifying in some ways, to think about leaving the safety of these walls but it's exciting too. It's our chance to live our life on our own terms. School is just one stepping stone in our lives and there are so many more to come, like having our own homes and not having to share a dorm," there were some nods of agreements at this from the students. Hermione smiled slightly, "Today we look back on Hogwarts and the amazing memories I know we all have of it but we also look forward to the start of our lives as independent adults.'

As Hermione finished her speech and stepped back there was much clapping and cheering. She blushed beetroot and left the stage, she was happy to be back in her seat with the spotlight no longer on her.

McGonagall stepped forward once more to the podium and smiled, "Thank you Miss. Granger," she said as she glanced at Hermione, "Our second speech is from our Head Boy, Theodore Nott."

Harry had no idea what this would be like as Theo got to his feet looking confident, rather than pale and nervous as Hermione had. He strolled onto the stage and took the podium. Even McGonagall looked concerned as she sat back down in her seat to watch Theo give his speech.

"Fellow Students, you all know me as the fun Head Boy who doesn't take things seriously and who likes to have a laugh," Theo said, "And while most of the time that's me, today is different. Draco once said he didn't think I had a serious bone in my body but I do and if anytime is a good time to show it then I think it's today. As Hermione said, today is a day to say goodbye to something we have known so well for such a long time but today is also the start of the rest of our lives. Today we say goodbye to our friends but that doesn't mean we're losing them, and we'll make new friends along the way too. Some of us have met that one special person, some of us are engaged and planning weddings, and some of us haven't met that person yet but they will find them along the way because that's life. You lose friends and you make them, you fall in love, you get married, you have children. Those are the stepping stones Hermione talked about, and I think I can speak for all of us when I say that Hogwarts has prepared us for everything the world is going to throw at us. On behalf of all of us I would like to thank our Teachers for giving us those skills."

There was a stunned silence and then everyone clapped. Theo's speech had been amazing, Draco was smiling somewhat proudly but Neville and Harry hadn't expected this and were exchanging shocked looks as they clapped Theo off of the stage.

Sadie was smiling and she looked like she was trying to hold back tears, of course she had probably seen this more serious side of Theo that was so foreign to most of the other students. Theo grinned as he took his seat, he winked at Harry and Neville after seeing their shocked looks.

A similarly surprised McGonagall took the podium once more, "Thank you for that moving, and uncharacteristic speech Mr. Nott," she said with an odd sort of smile towards Theo who did a mock bow.

"Now it is time to press on with the individual certificates. For those in the audience unfamiliar with a Hogwarts graduation I shall explain what will be happening today. Each student will be awarded a certificate signed by myself as proof that they have completed their schooling, in other words, passed their N.E.W.T level exams. I can confirm now that every student has achieved this and is eligible to graduate," McGonagall said, there were sighs of relief amongst the students at this news, "The student will be awarded a certificate with their Hogwarts grade level attached. As many of you may know the passing grade levels ranges from an O or Outstanding, an E or Exceeds Expectations and finally an A or Acceptable. This will be deduced for each student by their average grade in their N.E.W.T level exams. The results of these exams in more detail will be given via owl within the next week. So with that clear we shall begin."

Hannah looked as white as a ghost as McGonagall collected her first roll of parchment and unrolled it. She held it up for a moment and smiled, "Miss. Hannah Abbott."

Hannah shakily made her way to the stage where McGonagall smiled and handed over the roll of parchment, "Well done Miss. Abbott," she said, "An Exceeds Expectations."

Hannah smiled, she was happy about this, it was what she had expected.

"Thank you professor," Hannah said as she accepted the roll of parchment. McGonagall then tapped the Hufflepuff crest on her robes which changed so that it now had a pure golden edge around it now. Hannah went along the row of professors and shook their hands and thanked them then made her way off of the stage. Everyone moved along as she sat down next to Blaise.

"Mr. Draco Abraxas Black," McGonagall called as she held the second roll of parchment.

Draco looked pale as he got to his feet and walked towards the stage. He kept his eyes on the floor as he climbed the steps, Harry was fairly certain he was trying not to fall. When he reached McGonagall Draco looked like he might actually throw up.

"Congratulations Mr. Black," McGonagall said as she handed Draco the roll of parchment, "An Outstanding."

Draco was slightly surprised which showed a little as he accepted the parchment. His hands were actually shaking slightly. McGonagall then tapped his crest to convert it.

"Thank you Professor," he said sincerely, he then shook the hands of all of the teachers and left the stage without falling off.

"Miss. Susan Bones."

Susan didn't look quite as nervous as the others, she seemed quietly confident as she climbed the steps to the stage and stood in front of McGonagall.

The Headmistress smiled at her and handed her the roll of parchment, "Congratulations Miss. Bones, an Exceeds Expectations."

McGonagall then tapped and converted Susan's Hufflepuff crest. Susan beamed, "Thanks Professor!" she said happily as she shook her hand then did the same to all of the other teachers. She then skipped off the stage to some chuckles and sat down next to Draco. They grinned at each other and hi-fived which made Harry chuckle from where he was sitting twiddling his thumbs as he gradually got nearer the front.

Terry Boot was up next and he got an O, after him Mandy Brocklehurst made her way up to the stage where she too was awarded an O.

"Miss. Sadie Cauldwell."

Sadie made her way to the stage shakily and her face was beyond pale. When she reached McGonagall the Headmistress gave her the roll of parchment she was holding out and said, "Congratulations Miss. Cauldwell, an Outstanding."

Sadie beamed as McGonagall tapped her Slytherin crest. She shook McGonagall's and the other teacher's hands and left the stage.

Michael Corner then got an O, and Gabrielle received an E. Justin also got an E after that and Anthony Goldstein received an O. Eventually Hermione was called up.

"Miss. Hermione Jean Granger."

Harry watched his best friend carefully as she stood up, she looked slightly pale but she held herself up confidently. The war had changed her, but not necessarily in an entirely bad way. She was used to having to hold her head high now and she didn't like them but she could handle speeches and public appearances. That was something a lot of others in their year graduating today couldn't.

McGonagall smiled proudly at Hermione as she held out the roll of parchment to her. Hermione accepted it and McGonagall said, "Congratulations Miss. Granger, an Outstanding."

Hermione's smile could have lit up the whole of the great hall and out of the corner of his eye Harry caught two other people grinning as proudly as himself; Draco and Ron. McGonagall then tapped Hermione's Gryffindor crest and gave it a golden edge.

"Thank you Professor McGonagall," Hermione said as she shook the Headmistresses hand then did the rounds with the other teachers. When she left the stage she still had a grin on her face and her parents were grinning proudly in the audience too.

"Miss. Daphne Greengrass."

Harry smiled as Daphne got to her feet. He knew that she was nervous but she wasn't showing it. Daphne held her head high as she strolled up onto the stage, she wasn't shaking, but she was a little pale. It was the only small sign that she was nervous. When she reached McGonagall she smiled politely and McGonagall smiled back as she handed the roll of parchment over which Daphne accepted.

"Congratulations Miss. Greengrass, an Outstanding," McGonagall said with a small smile as she tapped her house crest.

Daphne beamed at this and shook her hand, "Thank you Headmistress," she said as she then shook the other teacher's hands and was applauded off of the stage. Harry was incredibly proud, although he had known all along that Daphne would do well. She was intelligent, far more intelligent than she wanted people to believe sometimes.

Megan Jones got an E after that, then it was Neville's turn.

"Mr. Neville Frank Longbottom."

Neville looked nervous as he made his way to the stage but he was hiding it well. He smiled at McGonagall and accepted his certificate from her.

"Congratulations Mr. Longbottom," she said, "An Exceeds Expectations."

Neville grinned and thanked McGonagall as she tapped his crest. He had known he would never get an O but he had hoped he would manage an E. After all he had been getting A's and fails a lot before he returned to 8th Year so an E was an amazing achievement for him. He was still beaming as he took his seat back down in the hall. Ernie got an O after this and accepted it gratefully.

"Miss. Lillian Moon"

Lilly was stoic, she was good at swallowing her nerves generally. As she got to her feet she looked confident but those who knew her best knew that she wasn't at all. She _had _to get an O overall, because if she didn't she wouldn't have passed all of the subjects she needed to get into her programme. Her nerves weren't so much about the people watching because there was only her Mother in the crowd out there. Instead Lilly's nerves were about the grade she would be awarded. She smiled at McGonagall when she reached her and accepted the roll of parchment held out to her.

"Congratulations Miss. Moon," McGonagall said simply, "You have been awarded an Outstanding."

Lilly grinned and Neville actually cheered, much to her amusement. She could have hugged McGonagall, she was _that _happy. Instead she opted for a vigorous handshake, "Thank you Professor!" she said cheerfully as she left the stage.

"Say hello to Trainee Trauma Healer Lillian Moon!" Neville whispered across Ernie as he beamed proudly at her.

"And Auror Neville Longbottom!" Lilly grinned happily as the graduation ceremony continued.

Melody was next and she got an E which Harry found impressive considering how much magic and magical theory had changed since she was originally at school. It was then time for another member of their group to be called onto the stage.

"Mr. Theodore Roosevelt Nott."

Theo didn't seem nervous at all as he got to his feet with a confident smile and strolled to the stage. Harry was wondering how he would do but he hoped Theo would get an E because he basically needed one to get into the Auror selection process. Theo greeted McGonagall with a smile and accepted the roll of parchment she handed to him.

"Congratulations Mr. Nott, an Outstanding," McGonagall said, she sounded a little surprised herself as she tapped his crest. Theo smirked at this, he shook McGonagall's hand and then did the same with the other teachers but decided to leave an impression by jumping off of the stage instead of walking off like a normal person.

Theo grinned along the row at his shocked friends. They all knew Theo was smart but he had been doing little to no work this year so barely anyone could believe he had gotten an O. Apart from Sadie of course, who he had kept up all night with his late night studying during the exams so that nobody knew he was actually studying.

Sally-Anne Perks was awarded an A after that, which she didn't seem particularly phased by. A pass was a pass after all. When she did finally take her seat though it meant that it was now Harry's turn.

"Mr. Harry James Potter."

Harry didn't think he would feel nervous; he had felt okay until his name was called. His stomach churned as he got to his feet and glanced at Molly, Arthur and Andromeda who was getting Teddy to clap with his little chubby hands. The sight made Harry smile broadly and he turned this smile towards McGonagall as he approached her on the stage. She smiled back at him ever so slightly and held out a roll of parchment to him.

"Congratulations Mr. Potter, an Exceeds Expectations," McGonagall said and Harry smiled because that was great as an average. As a whole he wasn't Hermione or Daphne or Draco or Sadie. Intellectually he was average so the grade was exactly what he had expected and hoped for.

"Thank you Professor McGonagall," Harry said as she tapped his crest and shook his hand. As he did the rounds shaking the hands of all the other teachers and saying goodbye he found it much more emotional than he had originally thought that he would have.

By the time he had walked off of the stage, without falling off (Sirius had put the thought in his head), Harry felt emotionally drained and exhausted.

There were only a few people to go after that. Sally Smith got an A and didn't look particularly happy about it, Zacharias Smith was given an A too and he stormed off of the stage before he could turn into a beetroot or a plum. In fact, Harry was reminded violently of his Uncle Vernon.

"Mr. Ronald Weasley."

Ron looked a little pale as he got to the stage and Harry suspected it was partly because he felt like he didn't fit in with this year group. When he got there he smiled anxiously at McGonagall as she handed him his certificate.

"Congratulations Mr. Weasley, an Exceeds Expectations," McGonagall said and, like Harry had been, Ron was thrilled with this result because it was exactly what he had been hoping for. Realistically he knew that no matter how hard he tried he wasn't capable of an Outstanding but now he had a good qualification to get a good job and he had graduated high school. As she had with everyone else McGonagall tapped his Gryffindor crest to turn it golden. He then shook her hand and those of the other teachers before leaving the stage.

Finally, the last student was called up.

"Mr. Blaise Zabini."

Blaise looked cool and casual as he made his way up onto the stage. McGonagall smiled at him but he didn't smile back. She held out his certificate which he accepted with a small nod.

"Congratulations Mr. Zabini," McGonagall informed the Slytherin, "An Outstanding."

"Thank you," Blaise said quietly. McGonagall then converted his crest and shook his hand. He quickly shook the hands of the other teachers and then left the stage.

"That marks the end of the Graduation of the class of 1998/99 from Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry," McGonagall announced finally, "Thank you all very much for coming along. We will be sending your children home shortly via the Hogwarts Express."

With that their family members began to file out of the hall with shouted goodbyes and waves as the 8th Years were forced to wait on one side. When the hall was finally empty McGonagall stepped forward and said, "Follow me."

Harry began to wonder if what Daphne had said about leaving Hogwarts on the boats was true as they followed McGonagall out of the great hall into the entrance hall. He ended up walking with Ron oddly enough considering the fact that he was the first friend he had made on his way to Hogwarts. They entered a room known as the Chamber of Reception that Harry hadn't been in since he had first arrived at Hogwarts. It brought back memories of Ron, and Draco. They then made their way down a similar flight of stairs and Harry knew after a few minutes that they were heading to the harbour under the school where the boats were, he recognised this place even after such a long time.

"We're going to the harbour," Harry muttered to Ron, Hermione had now caught up with them and heard him.

"So Daphne was right, we do leave by boat," Hermione said in surprise.

"Blimey that will be weird," Ron said.

"Very much like déjà vu," Hermione agreed as they walked down the steep flight of stairs towards the harbour. They arrived there a few minutes later, in the gloomy, dimly lit, damp underground harbour. All three of them smiled when they saw Hagrid waiting there for them by the little boats.

"Harry, Ron, Hermione," Hagrid said, he sounded a bit emotional, "I'll be sad ter see you go."

"We'll come back and visit Hagrid," Hermione promised.

Harry nodded, he felt rather sad to leave Hogwarts and Hagrid who had been a constant friend to him, "And we'll always owl you Hagrid."

"Yeah we promise," Ron said.

Hagrid burst into tears and pulled all 3 of them in for a bear hug. When he finally let them go it was because McGonagall told him in an undertone that they had to get the students on the boats.

There were several calls of, "Three to a boat!" as the group all climbed into the little boats. Harry, Ron and Hermione were in one together and they set off first. It was strange, the way it turned out, regardless of the friend groups they had formed in this last year they ended up in boat groups very similar to those they had arrived in. Only three could fit in a boat but some people were in two's. Draco, Theo and Blaise were in a boat together. Daphne and Sadie were also in one together and it looked as if they were both missing Tracey in that moment. Neville, Lilly and Susan were sharing a boat, as were Terry, Anthony and Michael, and also Mandy, Megan and Hannah. Ernie, Justin and Zacharias were all sharing a boat towards the back of the fleet and nearby them were Melody, Sally and Annie.

Hagrid led the group of boats from the front on a larger boat. As they left the harbour the magnitude of what they were leaving behind sunk in. They sailed across the silent lake and took in their final views of the magnificent castle where they had effectively grown up. The sun was shining and it looked spectacular as they all stared at it silently. Some were crying, others were glad to be gone, and some, like Harry and Ron were just emotional. It must have been easier for Ron but for Harry it was heart-breaking. He consoled himself with the knowledge that although he was leaving a large part of his life behind by leaving Hogwarts, he was starting a whole new chapter with Daphne. It was certainly a day of mixed emotions.

The trip across the lake seemed to take half the time now compared to how long it had taken to get to Hogwarts when they first sailed in the darkness that night 8 years ago. Before they knew it the boats were at the harbour and it was time to get out. As they walked up the coast to the station where the gleaming red Hogwarts Express was waiting for them Hermione stood between Ron and Harry and held both of their hands. None of them wanted to let go and it had nothing to do with romance or any long lost love or feelings.

In effect they had all just left everything they had ever known and all they could cling onto from that part of their life was each other, so until they had to, until the others started to arrive off of the boats and make their way to the station platform, they held on tight and they didn't let go.

**TBC :)**


	64. We've Been Through it All

Harry, Hermione and Ron's sentimental moment didn't last long. The others started to arrive on the platform and Ron let go of Hermione's hand.

"I better get back," Ron said with a sigh.

"You aren't getting the train?" Hermione asked, it hadn't even occurred to her that he might not.

Ron shook his head, "Nah, I'm apparating home. It's faster."

"Lucky you," Harry said with a chuckle, "We aren't allowed to."

"Perks of being an honorary graduate," Ron said with a grin, "I might see you later anyway, at the graduation party."

"Yeah I hope you can make it," Harry said as he hugged Ron, "See you later mate."

"See you," Ron said with a smile, he then hugged Hermione and they said their goodbyes.

Ron spun on his heel on the platform and in seconds he was gone.

"Where'd the Weasel go?" Draco asked as he approached Hermione and put his arm around her.

"He's allowed to apparate," Hermione said slightly huffily.

"Well, maybe it's a good thing we aren't allowed to. After all this is our last time on the Hogwarts Express," Harry said with a sentimental smile as Daphne and Sadie approached them.

"True," Draco said thoughtfully, "And it was where we called our truce," he added with a chuckle.

“Not to mention where it all began...the greatest love story - I mean rivalry - to grace this school," Daphne teased with a grin as she reached the group.

Harry laughed out loud and put his arm around his fiancé, "Not quite."

"Oh yeah, it started right here," Hermione said as she joined in with the teasing, "With the hand shake that almost was."

"Oh the handshake!" Theo said dramatically as he too joined in with the teasing, "If only he had taken my hand Theo! We could have been great together!"

Harry burst out laughing at this final comment, "Did you _actually _say that?" he asked.

Draco's cheeks flushed slightly, "I meant as friends Potter. We could have been a great partnership."

"You're all wrong anyway. It _didn't _start here, the first time Draco and I met was actually when we were getting our robes fitted at Madam Malkins," Harry smirked.

Hermione frowned, "How did I never know that?"

"You never asked," Harry and Draco echoed.

"So did you speak or did you just see each other?" Daphne asked.

"We spoke, Draco was going on and on about Slytherin and how he _knew _he was going to be there. He also said some pretty nasty stuff about what he would do if he became a Hufflepuff. Long story short, he had _no _idea I was Harry Potter and I thought he was a dick," Harry explained.

"What did you say about Hufflepuff's exactly?" Susan asked with narrowed eyes.

Draco paled a little, "Uh, nothing," he lied which caused a wave of laughter to go around the group of friends.

"What did I miss?" Neville asked as he joined them with his arm around Lilly.

"Oh just Harry and Draco's civil partnership," Daphne said casually.

Neville chuckled while Lilly snorted in amusement. Hermione elaborated, "We were just discussing the Hogwarts Express and its sentimentality."

"Oh yes it must be so sentimental for you two," Susan joked, "That loving moment where you smashed his nose in for example Draco."

"Okay Susan so it's had its ups and its downs, but ultimately Draco and Harry's Hogwarts Express relationship is unbreakable," Theo said in that same dramatic tone.

Draco shook his head in amusement as they boarded the train which was only two carriages long since there were so few students leaving on it today.

Harry chuckled and kept his arm wrapped around his fiancé as he followed Draco and Hermione onto the train. The two carriages on the train were the first class carriages which were larger and much homelier so they settled into a large compartment with comfortable benches.

"And so we are homeward bound," Harry said as he looked out of the window. The train had just started to move slowly out of the station.

"For you maybe," Draco said from where he was sitting opposite Harry, his arm was still wrapped around Hermione, "Everyone else is going to _your _home."

"Ah who cares," Daphne said with a smile, "We'll all be together, it will feel like Hogwarts."

"Only smaller," Hermione pointed out.

"I'm feeling pretty left out here," Neville said in amusement, "I reckon Lil and I are going to have to come round for dinner every second night."

Harry laughed, "Well you can stay tonight anyway, it will be a late one with the graduation party."

"Alright," Neville agreed, "But you guys have to come to Longbottom House for dinner sometime in the summer. I know it's half the size of your house Harry but it's still pretty neat."

"It's a deal," Harry smiled at his best friend, "But for now...who's up for a game of Wizards Chess?"

***

The train journey passed fast in the end, the friends passed the time by playing games of Wizards Chess and Exploding Snap. The time was flying by faster than they realised and before they knew it the train was whizzing into London.

"Wow, we're almost there," Hermione said as she looked out of the window.

"That was fast," Lilly said as she glanced down at her watch.

"It always seems to go faster I find," Harry said thoughtfully, "The train to Hogwarts seems to take all day but the train back whizzes by."

"Yeah," Draco said with a slight nod.

"So what happens now?" Harry asked the others as the train pulled into Platform 9 ¾.

They had talked briefly about life after Hogwarts. Ultimately everyone would move in with him in Potter Manor until they could sort out alternate measures. But he knew some people were planning on going home and spending some time with their families first.

"We're heading to Longbottom House," Neville said as he pulled his trunk off of the train, "But we'll see you tonight anyway."

"And you already know I'm going back home Harry," Hermione said as she grabbed Crookshanks before he could try and escape, "I might stay a little longer than a week but I'll be back before Sadie and Theo's wedding."

"I'm going home to finalise some plans with my family for the wedding," Sadie informed the others as they made their way off of the train, "But I'll only be a few days."

"I’m not," Theo said with a snort, "My sister is alright but you know I don't really get on with my Step-mother, I'm going straight to your house Harry."

"I'm heading to Greengrove House for a bit," Draco said, "But I don't know how long I'll stay. We'll all be together tonight for the party anyway though."

"I'm going home," Daphne said as they finally got off of the train, she kissed Harry lightly, "Just for a couple of days but you'll see me tonight at the party."

"Sure," Harry said as he kissed his fiancé again, "I'll see you tonight."

"I love you," Daphne said as she kissed him once more before hurrying over to where her Mother was waiting.

"What about you Susan? You coming with us?" Harry asked the Hufflepuff as Neville and Lilly, Sadie and Theo, and Draco and Hermione said their goodbyes and departed.

Susan nodded slightly glumly and said, "It's not like I've got anywhere else to go."

"How about my place?" A voice asked from behind her. Harry smirked, he had seen Percy coming.

Susan jumped and turned around, she grinned when she saw Percy. In an uncharacteristic show of her emotions she jumped up and hugged him. Percy laughed and hugged her back, "Well done on graduating."

"Thanks," Susan said with a slightly pink tinge to her cheeks, "I thought you were out of the country chasing evil and all."

"I was," Percy said with a chuckle, "I don't know when you got my owl but I was called out early on Friday morning to Asia."

"I got your owl yesterday morning," Susan said, "And I doubt even you can catch a Death Eater that quickly."

Percy raised an eyebrow at her, "You underestimate me Susan, caught and back in Azkaban by lunchtime yesterday."

Susan laughed at this and said, "So you're even more badass than I originally thought."

Harry smiled slightly from where he was trying to look like he wasn't eavesdropping as they kissed. So were they a thing now? He wondered, but he didn't dare ask Susan that, Daphne had warned him that she was sensitive about the issue.

"Harry," Susan called. He turned around and tried his best to look positively surprised and inquisitive.

"Now that you've finished eavesdropping," Susan smirked, "I'll see you later for the party and I'll_ probably_ move in then.'

Harry laughed, "I'll have a room prepared for you," he joked which made her laugh.

"I'll see you later," Susan said as she hugged Harry and left with Percy, they were holding hands as they walked through the barrier which made Harry happy.

"So Potter, what now?"

Harry turned around to where Theo was waiting, the rest of the platform was pretty much empty.

"To the basement with the personal bar in Potter Manor," Harry said with a grin.

"Now that's my kind of roommate," Theo smirked as they apparated away from the station.

***

The first port of call for the two boys when they got back to Potter Manor was to dump their incredibly heavy Hogwarts trunks in their bedrooms. This meant Theo got first pick of the bedrooms and Harry couldn't help but laugh as he acted like an excited kid looking through all of the bedrooms and eventually picking the best one.

The basement of the house didn't have any bedrooms, neither did the ground floor. The 1st floor was dominated by the drawing room but there were also 5 small single bedrooms on that floor, one of which had a miniature potions lab attached. Theo skipped this floor and made for the second floor where the bedrooms were larger. There were 6 bedrooms on the second floor, 3 of which had studies attached and 4 of which had ensuite bathrooms. Theo picked the largest room but he didn't know that he wouldn't be living here for much longer anyway because he would soon have his own house.

With the crucial part over, Harry said to his friend, "Right, do you want a proper tour of my newly refurbished basement?"

"Didn't this whole house just get refurbished?" Theo asked.

"Yes it did," Harry replied with a chuckle, "But I wasn't content with the basement layout so I changed it slightly."

"You weren't content with it?" Theo asked with a snort, "You had your own bloody Room of Requirement."

"Oh I still have that," Harry said with a grin as he led Theo down the stairs at the end of the hall to the basement. Before they had emerged in a corridor with only one door leading off of it but the layout was slightly different.

When they emerged this time they weren't in a corridor. Instead they were in a large, old-fashioned style kitchen where Kreacher was working away on something.

"Master Harry," Kreacher said as he bowed to Harry, "Kreacher is preparing food for Master Harry's party tonight."

"Oh thanks Kreacher," Harry said with a grin, "Can I try some?"

"Of course Master Harry," Kreacher said as he fetched a tray full of typical party food. Harry and Theo tasted some and it was delicious.

"That's great Kreacher," Theo said, "I wish my Step-Mothers house elf was as good as you."

Kreacher turned slightly pink and bowed so low that his nose touched the floor, then he thanked them profusely.

Harry smiled at this and continued with his tour, in the middle of the kitchen there was a long wooden bench which Harry only really used when he was home alone. Otherwise he used one of the dining rooms. There were 3 doors leading off of the kitchen, Harry pointed to a door half the size of any ordinary door and said, "That's Kreacher's bedroom and that is the pantry."

"So what's through there?" Theo asked as he pointed to the door at the other side of the kitchen.

Harry pushed the door open and beckoned them in, "This is still my Room of Requirement but as you know I like it to be a bar and chill area, sometimes with a duelling platform. This is where I'm having the party tonight, the ballroom is too big and formal."

"Makes sense," Theo said, he added with a smirk, "And it does have a bar."

The room didn't have the duelling platform at the moment. Instead it was a long, thin room with a sizeable mini bar at the far end and lots of comfortable seats and tables with a small dance floor area.

"Now this I recognise," Theo said, "But that I don't," he pointed to a door on the right wall of the room which hadn't been there before.

Harry grinned, "This is the new part," he said as he led Theo to the door and pushed it open. He walked through and let Theo follow him. The new room was a large swimming pool and there were two more doors leading off of the room.

"Wow, this is neat," Theo said with a grin.

"I know," Harry said, “This is a heated pool and through that door is the changing room," he smirked, "Then through the other door is a sauna."

"Seriously?" Theo asked in disbelief, "You're just showing off now."

"Hey I was raised with no pocket money or birthday presents, I think I can splash out on a luxury house," Harry joked with a grin, "Anyway you live here now so you have full access to everything I'm showing you."

"Nice," Theo grinned, "I'm definitely not going to complain about that," he admitted.

Harry smirked, "So do you fancy a swim and then a drink?"

"Sounds like a good plan to me," Theo replied. By the time the graduation ceremony had finished and due to the length of the train journey they didn't actually have that much time to kill until the party.

After all it was 7pm now and the party began at 8.30pm but then again Harry and Theo didn't take hours to get ready like their fiancé's…

***

At 8pm Harry and Theo made their way upstairs to get ready for the party. It was a casual affair with just the people from their year invited so he didn't bother dressing up too fancy. Instead Harry flung on a shirt and a pair of jeans then changed his trainers for smarter shoes. He wandered downstairs to the basement where the party would be and expected to be on his own for a few minutes until Theo arrived. Instead however he was waiting for a full half an hour until his friend materialised at 8.30pm.

"What the hell took you so long?" Harry asked with a raised eyebrow when Theo finally sauntered in wearing almost exactly the same thing that he had been wearing before (black trousers and a green shirt).

"I was getting ready," Theo said as if this were obvious.

"It doesn't take half an hour to get ready," Harry scoffed as he surveyed his friend.

"It does sometimes," Theo said.

"How do you take _30 minutes _to get ready?" Harry asked as he shook his head in disbelief.

"Easy, 5 minute toilet break, 10 minute shower, 5 minutes grooming time, 5 minutes getting dressed, 2 and a half minutes to look in the mirror and admire yourself then 2 and a half minutes to get downstairs," Theo rattled off with a smirk.

Harry added this up in his head and nodded, "Fair enough, but you took so long to get ready that people will start arriving any minute."

Kreacher was upstairs by the door letting people in and showing them to the 'party room' in the basement so Harry didn't have to worry about trying to hear the doorbell all the way down here.

On his word people started to arrive, Hermione was first of course and Draco arrived only minutes after her. He greeted her as if they hadn't seen each other for days rather than hours which made Theo and Harry roll their eyes at each other. When Sadie arrived next Theo merely smiled and kissed her on the cheek. Harry expected Daphne to be fashionably late. Among the on-time guests were Ernie, Justin, Neville and Lilly who all arrived around the same time.

As more and more people arrived Harry realised that almost everyone had made it, even people he wasn't sure about like Hannah, Melody, Megan and Mandy. Even Blaise and Ginny showed up together and in her baggy dress it was _just _beginning to become obvious that Ginny was pregnant. Terry, Anthony and Michael arrived together and greeted Harry with hi-fives. It was nearing 9pm and Daphne still hadn't arrived but this didn't surprise Harry. There was no sign of Ron either and Harry really hoped that his old friend would make it tonight. Sally, Annie and Gabrielle all showed up, and unfortunately so did Zacharias Smith. Susan arrived shortly after him with a grin on her face and a bounce in her step.

"Well we all know what you were up to earlier," Harry teased as he offered her a drink, he was acting as the barman at the moment.

"No, you only know because you were so rudely eavesdropping," Susan said with a raised eyebrow.

"Was it that obvious?" Harry asked as he handed her a small firewhiskey.

"Yes," Susan said simply, she added, "And the reason I'm in such a good mood I will have you know Mr. Potter, is that Percy asked me to go official with him"'

"That's great Susan," Harry said with a smile, "You better go tell the girls."

"Are you kidding? I'd better wait for Daphne, she'd kill me if told them before she got here," Susan said with a chuckle.

Harry rolled his eyes slightly, "I don't think she knows how to tell the time," he said as the doors opened and the woman they were discussing walked in. Everyone else was dressed down in fairly casual dresses or jeans and shirts but Daphne didn't seem to know the meaning of dressing down. She was wearing a fairly short black dress with a transparent middle and back and a golden decorated bust.

Harry rolled his eyes as she strolled towards him. Susan smirked, "Are you just realising what you've let yourself in for?"

"Yep," Harry said as he shook his head in amusement, "But then again you're one of the ones she'll be taking dress shopping."

"I'm one of the bridesmaids?" Susan asked in shock.

Harry bit his lip, "Oops, I wasn't supposed to mention that," he admitted.

On the train he and Daphne had talked quietly about such things and Daphne had explicitly told him not to tell anyone, "Pretend you don't know," Harry whispered as Daphne approached.

"Sure," Susan chuckled, she leant against the bar as Daphne finally reached them.

"Hey latecomer," Harry said as he leaned across the bar and kissed her.

"Fashionably late," Daphne said simply.

Harry just laughed, "What can I get you?"

"Firewhiskey please barman," Daphne said, she chuckled when Harry slid her glass across the bar to her in record time.

"Not a bad turnout," Daphne said as she looked around. People were mostly standing or sitting around talking and drinking at the moment.

"Almost everyone's here," Susan agreed as she surveyed the room.

"I don't see Ron," Daphne noted which surprised Harry, he didn't think she paid that much attention to the redheaded boy.

"No, he isn't here yet," Harry said, a tinge of sadness in his voice, "He wasn't sure if he would make it, with Katie being pregnant and all."

"I'm sure he'll turn up, even if it's only for a little while," Daphne reassured her fiancé. She kissed Harry lightly and said, "I'll talk to you later, I need to tell my bridesmaids that I've picked them," she joked.

Susan laughed, "So did I make the cut?" she asked jokingly.

Daphne grinned and linked her arm through Susan's, "Of course you did," she said to her friend as they walked towards the table where Hermione, Sadie and Lilly were sitting.

Harry smiled as he watched Daphne happily chatting to her friends, it was so nice to see considering how closed off and cold she had been when they first met. In less than a year he felt they had gone through so much together and changed so much, it felt amazing.

"A picture would last longer," A familiar voice joked.

Harry grinned across the bar at his friend, "Ron, hey, I didn't even see you come in."

"I know, you were pretty preoccupied daydreaming there," Ron said, his amusement was clear.

Instead of blushing as he would once have done due to a comment like that, Harry just grinned, "It's not my fault that she's the most amazing person I've ever met."

Ron smiled slightly, "You really love her, don't you?"

Harry nodded, he took his eyes off of Daphne to focus on Ron, "Yeah, I really do," he admitted.

"I would never have said this a year ago but I'm glad things turned out the way they did," Ron said as he accepted the butterbeer that Harry handed him, "I would never have thought you, or Hermione, would have ended up with Slytherins but you both work well together…" he trailed off, "My prejudices were stupid and I regret them but I think things have turned out for the best."

"Thanks mate," Harry said honestly, that meant a lot, "But things probably didn't turn out as expected for you either."

Ron shrugged and looked thoughtfully at the wall, "I never thought I'd be a Dad so soon but I can't wait at the same time. Everything happens for a reason as Ginny always says."

"I think we're all better people now to be honest," Harry said with a small smile, "I mean look at Hermione...she's never been so confident and Daphne taught me how to have fun after the war. No offence mate but you could be a right arsehole sometimes and whether it was what happened with Lilly, or the baby I don’t know. But something has knocked it out of you."

Ron chuckled, "No offence taken," he said, "You're right, I could be an arsehole."

"Harry!" Daphne called from the table not so far away from the bar, "Come tell the girls about your groomsmen!"

Harry nodded, "Two minutes Daph," he said and she nodded and turned back to her friends.

Harry turned back to Ron, "I wondered if you wanted to be one of my groomsmen," he said, "I mean Draco and Theo will be there too so if you're uncomfortable with it-"

"Nah," Ron cut Harry off, he grinned at his friend, "I'd love to mate."

"Great," Harry said with a grin, he was genuinely pleased, "Well I better attend to my fiancé's demands," he said as he jumped over the bar, "Thanks for coming by tonight Ron."

"No problem Harry," Ron said simply as Harry walked towards the girls.

***

After walking away from Harry, Daphne had sat down and told her friends what she and Harry had decided on the train.

"So Sadie, I want you to be Maid of Honour," Daphne said which made her friend squeal excitedly and hug her tightly.

"And Hermione, Lil and Susan, I want you guys to be my bridesmaids. I know you're only supposed to have 3 including the Maid of Honour but I couldn't decide," she admitted somewhat sheepishly.

They all laughed and talked in more detail about what sort of colours or themes Daphne had in mind and she told them they were wondering about a winter themed wedding not this winter but next winter. Then they started to question Hermione and her ideas for her wedding to Draco.

"Well I don’t know about themes or dates or venues yet. But I have decided that I want you to be my Maid of Honour Daph," Hermione said to the Slytherin, "If you want to be of course."

"Don't be stupid Mione," Daphne said with a grin, "Of course I'll be your Maid of Honour."

"Thanks Daphne," Hermione said as she hugged her friend, "I can't imagine it being anyone else."

She turned to the Lilly, Sadie and Susan and said, "And I want you all to be my bridesmaids obviously, and Ginny too but I haven't asked her yet."

There was yet another round of hugs and then more talk of when and where Hermione and Draco should get married. Hermione said that all she really knew was that they wanted to get settled into their jobs first.

By the time Daphne called Harry over they were at the point of talking about groomsmen.

Harry smiled as he walked over and sat down in one of the armchairs with his butterbeer, "Now I would happily tell you of my choices but I think I ought to tell my groomsmen first," Harry said with a chuckle.

"Ah you're boring," Hermione said as she called the boys over from a nearby table, they sauntered over and leaned on the back of armchairs.

"What's up?" Draco asked.

"Harry's just releasing the pivotal groomsmen information," Daphne said dramatically which made Harry laugh.

"Nev, I want you to be my best man," Harry said to his fellow Gryffindor who actually got slightly teary as he hugged him.

"Thanks Harry, I'm honoured," Neville said as they had a 'manly' hug which Theo and Draco watched with amusement.

"And I want you guys to be my groomsmen," Harry said to Draco and Theo when Neville eventually let go of him, "Along with Ron, if you can handle that."

"Weasel? Nah, I ain't doing it," Theo said, he smirked and added, "Nah I'm kidding, course that's okay."

"Yeah, we'll put up with him for you Harry," Draco said with a chuckle.

Harry grinned happily, "Good, I'm glad we all agree."

"I suppose I should announce mine then," Draco said with a small smile, "Harry, I want you to be the Best Man."

"WHAT?" Theo practically screeched which drew all attention to him, "After everything we've been through Draco? You pick _him_?" Theo actually sounded genuinely hurt but Draco was grinning.

"Shut up you fool, I'm joking. Course you're my best man!" Draco said with a grin towards his best friend.

At this Theo actually let out one or two genuine tears that only those in the closest vicinity saw as he hugged Draco and said under his breath, "Thanks man."

"Don't sweat it," Draco said as he patted Theo on the back. After clinging on for a good few minutes Theo finally let go and drank what was left of his firewhiskey.

"So," Draco said, he was still vaguely amused at Theo's reaction, he turned to Harry and Neville, "I wondered if you two would be groomsmen? I asked Blaise earlier, he agreed."

"I'd love to," Harry said with a fond smile.

Neville nodded and smiled too, "Me too Draco," he said and with that they all raised a glass and toasted the engagements.

***

The sophistication of the night ebbed away as certain guests left and more alcohol was consumed. By around 2am in the morning the only people left were the usual suspects which included Harry, Daphne, Hermione, Draco, Neville, Lilly, Sadie, Theo, Susan (and Percy who had appeared sometime around midnight). The party had been relatively uneventful, Zacharias had been escorted out by Kreacher after getting into a fight with Theo which resulted in the Slytherin pushing him into Harry's pool to much amusement. But other than that it had just been an enjoyable night, most people had been tired from the long day and had left early. Blaise had anxiously taken Ginny back to Hogwarts the minute the clock hit midnight.

"I think we should play a game," Daphne suggested with a grin, the remaining 10 were sitting around in armchairs in a loose circle.

"Alright, I'm game," Susan said with a smirk, "How about truth or dare?"

"Nah," Harry said with a shake his head, "We always play that."

"Why don't we play "Snog, Marry, Avoid"?" Hermione asked playfully.

Susan and Daphne shared a disbelieving look and then they both looked at Hermione.

"What?" Hermione asked, she looked vaguely self-conscious.

"It was "Snog, Marry, Avoid" when we were 12 years old Hermione," Susan chuckled, "It's more like "Shag, Marry, Avoid" now."

Hermione blushed slightly at this, "Oh, right," she said rather naïvely. Draco merely chuckled and put his arm around her.

"Alright I think it's a good idea," Daphne said with a grin, she grabbed one of the empty firewhiskey bottles from the nearest table and put it on the floor then muttered a charm under her breath, "You know the drill right? Whoever the bottle lands on first gets asked the question, whoever it lands on second asks the question."

"Got ya," Harry said with a grin and Daphne spun the bottle.

It spun fast then slowed down, eventually it landed on Harry and then Susan. The redhead grinned and Harry grimaced, that was never a good sign.

"Draco, Neville, Theo," Susan said wickedly.

Harry groaned and thought about this for a moment, "Marry Neville," he said for which he got sniggered at by his best friend, "Shag...Draco and avoid Theo."

"Pfft," Draco muttered, "Like I'd marry you anyway scarhead."

Hermione chuckled in amusement under her breath at the fact Draco seemed vaguely offended.

"Oi, why would you avoid me Pothead?" Theo asked indignantly.

"Sorry Theo," Harry joked, "Don't wanna become another number in your list of conquests."

Theo shook his head in mock disbelief, "You'd regret it."

The firewhiskey bottle was spun once more, this time it landed first on Draco and then second on Daphne which worried the male Slytherin.

"Harry, Neville, Theo," Daphne said as she smirked at Susan who was sitting next to her.

Draco groaned, just as Harry had earlier but answered, "Marry Theo."

Theo sighed sadly, "Sorry Draco, I'm engaged now, you missed your chance."

Draco chuckled in amusement then grimaced, "I can't believe I'm saying it but shag Potter."

Harry snorted in amusement as Draco finished, "And avoid Neville."

"Why?" Neville asked as he pretended to be affronted by this.

"Uh fatbottom, remember?" Draco remarked.

"Rear of the year Draco," Neville said with a wink.

Draco actually growled, he didn't like to be reminded of the fact he had lost out on that award to Neville.

The next culprits were chosen by Draco who spun the bottle which landed first on Neville and then second on Sadie.

Sadie grinned and shared a glance with her evil female friends, Neville had a feeling he knew what was coming, "Draco, Theo, Harry."

"Marry Harry," Neville said as he glanced at his fellow Gryffindor, "Just to return the favour," he joked which made Harry laugh.

He then grimaced as he said, "Shag Theo."

"Sure thing Nev, upstairs, right now, you and me," Theo joked which earned him a slap around the back of the head from Sadie to much sniggering from the others.

Neville laughed as he finished, "And avoid Draco."

"Wouldn't want you anyway, fatbottom," Draco muttered under his breath which caused Neville and everyone else in the room to roll their eyes.

Next Neville spun the bottle which landed first on Theo and then on Hermione who grinned wickedly.

"Come on then," Theo said as he predicted her next move, "Ask me which one of my best friends I want to shag."

Hermione chuckled and said, "Harry, Neville, Draco."

"Well I would marry Draco obviously because he's just such a sexy beast," Theo said, and Draco grinned in amusement, "And I'd shag Neville because he clearly wants me,” he winked at Neville who shook his head in amusement, “And I'd avoid scarhead."

The others all laughed loudly at this and it seemed to echo throughout the entire house.

***

The next morning was amusing because everyone arrived for breakfast nearer to noon and everyone, including Hermione, looked rather rough.

Theo had phrased it perfectly however, "Hey you only graduate once!"

The days had flown by after that with the population of the house growing as more and more people came back from their visits at their parent's houses. Harry loved having so many people in Potter Manor and he knew Daphne felt the same having only really grown up with her sister. All of the rooms bar one on the second floor were completely filled within a week and the house was buzzing with excitement as Sadie and Theo's wedding drew nearer.

"Have fun picking out the dress," Harry said to Daphne in an undertone as he kissed his fiancé on the cheek one morning at breakfast. It was Monday now, just after a week since they had left Hogwarts and everyone was here (minus Neville and Lilly).

"She'll be fine," Daphne said with a smile as she glanced over to her best friend, "Sadie isn't the kind of person that will take hours to pick a dress."

"No, but I feel sorry for whoever you drag along when you go dress shopping," Harry commented with a smirk, "You'll probably have to camp in the shop, it will take a whole weekend."

"Oh shut up you," Daphne said with a small smile, she couldn't tease him properly about it because she knew it was pretty accurate.

"Are you ready?" Sadie asked, she had barely eaten, was fully dressed and bouncing up and down on the balls of her feet.

"We're ready," Daphne said as she got up from her seat, “And I gather you're a little excited.”

"Just a bit," Sadie said with a grin which made everyone chuckle.

"Have a good day with the dress picking," Theo said as he kissed his fiancé.

"Remember that the dress robes have to match the colour scheme," Sadie said as she kissed Theo.

"Yes ma'am," Theo said with a salute.

Sadie laughed, "Have a good day, I'll see you tonight."

"Bye," The boys all said as they waved the girls out of the house.

Once they were gone and the door was shut Harry turned to Draco, Theo and Neville, "It doesn't take 6 hours to pick some robes and get them adjusted does it?"

"No, it takes 2," Theo said simply.

"3 if you include time for a drink in the Leaky Cauldron afterwards," Draco said with a smirk.

"So basically we have 3 hours to kill," Neville said with a grin.

Harry nodded, "Are you guys thinking what I'm thinking?"

"Time for a duelling competition?"

"I was thinking time for a swim."

"Well, I want a sauna."

***

"You do realise that they aren't going to do anything until lunchtime, right?" Hermione asked the other girls as they walked down Diagon Alley.

"I'm well aware of that," Sadie said with a chuckle.

"Yeah, they'll claim that it won't take 6 hours to get dress robes," Lilly added.

Daphne rolled her eyes, "I bet they'll realise it's not as easy as they think it is when they actually get there."

"As long as they get the right dress robes in the end then it won't be a disaster," Susan said in an attempt to soothe Sadie who looked slightly anxious.

"Here we are," Sadie said with a deep breath as they reached the bridal shop.

"Nervous?" Daphne asked as they walked in arm and arm with the others behind them.

Sadie nodded, "A little," she admitted.

An overly enthusiastic Italian woman greeted them when they walked in and half an hour later Sadie had picked 4 dresses and she was trying them on while Daphne, Hermione, Lilly and Susan sat around waiting to see them in incredibly comfortable chairs.

"I don't know how we're going to help her pick," Hermione said to the others, "Sadie could look gorgeous in rags."

"It must be a Slytherin thing," Lilly said with a chuckle, “You're the same Daphne. You all look so amazing all of the time."

"Slytherin charm," Daphne joked as Sadie emerged from the changing room in her first dress.

It was very Princess-like with a large white puffy skirt and a strapless white lace effect corset. Sadie looked lovely in it.

"What do you think?" Sadie asked, she looked a little unsure of herself.

"I don't know," Daphne said honestly as she looked at her best friend.

"It's a lovely dress," Hermione said.

"And you look beautiful in it," Lilly added.

"It's just not quite…you," Susan said truthfully as Sadie looked in the mirror and turned around a few times.

"It's too big and puffy for you Sadie," Daphne said.

Sadie nodded, "Yeah, it just doesn't look right does it?"

Daphne and Susan shook their heads.

"Onto number 2 then," Sadie said as she disappeared into the changing room once more.

When she emerged a few minutes later she looked even more amazing in the second dress. It was more figure hugging and was drawn in at her waist then fanned out towards the bottom. It was fairly simple with an elaborate lace bust.

"You look gorgeous Sadie," Daphne said.

"You think so?" Sadie asked, she looked unsure again, "I don't know."

"Maybe it's just too simple for you," Hermione suggested.

Sadie nodded, "Maybe," she said as she disappeared once more to try on dress number 3.

"I thought you said she wasn't picky?" Lilly asked Daphne with a chuckle.

"Well it _is _her wedding dress I suppose," Daphne laughed.

When Sadie emerged wearing the 3rd dress she still looked amazing. This dress was similar to the last one but the skirt was a little bigger. All of the dresses so far had been strapless and this one was the same but from the skirt upwards the top was decorated with lace effect flowers, only they didn't extend to the neckline of the dress like the last one had.

"That's lovely Sadie," Susan said with a smile, "Very simplistic."

"Yeah," Sadie said as she turned around and looked at it, "A little too simplistic I think."

"Merlin Sadie I thought this would be easy," Daphne joked which made her best friend laugh.

"Hey you only get married once Daph," Sadie said with a smile.

"Unless you're Blaise's Mother that is," Daphne muttered, the others sniggered at that.

"I'm going to try the last one on," Sadie said and she disappeared once more.

When Sadie emerged wearing the last dress there was an awed silence.

"Is that good?" She asked nervously.

"Wow," Daphne said eventually. The final dress was absolutely stunning. The skirt was bigger than the last one but without being too big and puffy like the first dress had been. It was the only dress not to be strapless and it suited Sadie all the more for it. The most beautiful part were the sleeves which came down to the elbow and made a simple dress looked beautifully elegant.

"You look great," Lilly smiled.

"I really like this one," Sadie admitted as she examined herself in the mirror, "It's not too big or too small, just the right size."

Susan and Hermione agreed that they loved the dress and after another 20 minutes of deliberation Sadie decided that it was the one that she wanted. She paid for it with Theo's elf as her fiancé had demanded, he wasn't letting her pay for any part of the wedding. Traditionally of course her Father would have paid for it but as he was in and out of Azkaban at the moment that wasn't going to happen. He hadn't even made it to her Graduation.

With the dress chosen they had a quick lunch and then hopped back into the shop to pick the bridesmaids dresses. Sadie decided on blue dresses to match the theme of the wedding, the boys had been ordered to get dress robes according to that colour too.

Thankfully it didn't take as long for the bridesmaid's dresses to be picked, tried on and tailored to fit. This time the roles were reversed as Sadie sat in the comfortable chairs waiting for her bridesmaids to emerge wearing their dresses.

"What do you think Sadie?" Daphne asked as she emerged first from the changing room.

"Yeah do we look good enough for your wedding?" Hermione asked with a chuckle as she emerged next followed by Susan and Lilly.

They all wore the same dress in two different colours. The dresses were strapless, floor length and fairly simple in style. Each dress had a ribbon beneath the bust. Susan and Hermione wore navy blue dresses with a pale blue ribbon and Daphne and Lilly wore pale blue dresses with a darker navy blue ribbon.

Sadie laughed at their sense of humour, "You all look great," she said happily.

With the dresses bought they still had a little time to spare so the girls decided to drop by the ice cream parlour before heading back to Potter Manor.

***

"I suppose we should go now," Theo said as he glanced at the time.

"Yeah," Draco said as he stretched and got to his feet, they were relaxing in the chill/bar room after a swim.

Harry and Neville agreed and 10 minutes later they dragged themselves down Diagon Alley to Madame Malkins.

"It's not that I'm not enthusiastic about the wedding," Theo was saying to the others as they wandered along in the bright sunshine eating ice creams, "I can't wait for the wedding, I just hate all of this," he waved his ice cream around at the street, "Shopping for flowers, shopping for invitations and bloody lace tablecloths!"

"I think that's the part most men hate," Harry pointed out with a smirk as they neared the shop.

Theo groaned, "And now we have to spend the next couple of hours getting stabbed and picking the right colour to match the bloody bridesmaids dresses."

This had Harry, Draco and Neville sniggering of course.

"I think I'll just ask Lil if she wants to elope and go to Hawaii," Neville joked as they finished their ice creams, "Skip the whole engagement thing you know?"

"I'd do the same if I thought for a second Daph would go for it," Harry retorted.

"What about you Draco?" Neville asked, he was the only one to stay relatively quiet so far.

He smiled slightly, "It's ironic actually because Hermione and I…well there are a few people we really want at our wedding but neither of us have a lot of friends or family. We would never run off and elope but we will have a nice little quiet wedding. It will be nowhere near the hassle of this."

"Good for you mate," Theo said, he looked like he wished that was what Sadie had wanted. Harry had never seen Theo stressed out, not even through their N.E.W.T's but he was stressed out of his mind with this wedding.

"Can I help you with anything?"

Theo smiled at Madam Malkin, "Yes, I'm looking for a set of dress robes this colour," he said as he handed her a fabric in the colour they had chosen which was pale blue, "And 4 sets of dress robes in this colour," he handed her another piece of fabric which was a dark navy blue.

"Of course," she said with a smile, "Wedding is it?"

Theo nodded, "Yeah, a very stressful one."

Madam Malkin laughed and led them all into the back room where there were more podiums, "I'll do the groom first," she said as she held out the dress robes in the colour he had shown her and put them on Theo so she could tailor them to fit properly.

"So how much more do you need to do before Saturday?" Draco asked Theo from where he, Harry and Neville sat on the side-lines.

"Too much," Theo replied with a sigh, "We need to pick the rings up tomorrow from the jewellers and I need to take Lacey to get her flower girl dress."

"Who's going to be the pageboy?" Harry asked as he propped his feet up on the arm of the chair Draco was sitting in.

"Uh Sadie's Nephew Oscar," Theo replied, "Her brother Sorenson's kid."

"Is Sorenson married?" Neville asked with a frown.

"Nah," Theo answered, "He got a girl pregnant in his 7th Year, Oscar was the result."

"What age is he?" Harry asked.

"He'll be 5 now, won't he?" Draco asked Theo who thought about this for a moment and then nodded.

"Yeah, I need to get his dress robes sorted out too, that's Thursday's job," Theo said with a roll of his eyes.

"Have you paid the registrar?" Draco asked as he ticked things off on a piece of parchment.

"Yeah and we donated to the Church," Theo said, he was pretty organised despite what Sadie thought.

"You've got everything sorted for the reception, haven't you?" Draco asked as he looked at his list.

"Yeah," Theo said. He and Sadie were getting married in Bath Abbey, "It's in the ballroom of Nott Manor. That was the easy part."

Draco ticked this off too, "And you have your international passes to apparate for the honeymoon sorted out?"

"Yep," Theo said quickly.

"And you've booked the honeymoon?"

"Course I have," Theo said with a chuckle, "2 weeks in Paris."

"Was that the first thing you booked?" Neville asked with a chuckle.

"Pretty much," Theo admitted.

"Right," Neville said, "Have you hired the photographer?"

"Yeah," Harry said, "I called in a freebie for him with Dennis."

"What about a band for the reception?"

"Yeah, we hired the band that play the Christmas concerts in Hogsmeade," Theo said.

"Sadie's sorted out the cake hasn't she?" Harry asked.

Theo nodded, "She sorted out the cake and hired the house elves for the food."

"The invitations went out last month," Draco mumbled, "Have you got the rehearsal booked?"

"Yeah, 9am on Thursday," Theo said as he got stabbed by Madam Malkin.

"And you've got the place names and the order of seating for the meal sorted?" Draco asked.

"Sadie's done that," Theo said with a yawn.

"Well then I think you're pretty much set," Draco said as he folded up his piece of parchment.

"Thank Merlin," Theo sighed.

"Alright you're done," Madam Malkin said and Theo gratefully got off of the platform and let Madam Malkin start on the groomsmen's robes. Blaise couldn't make it because he was at St. Mungo's with Ginny for a check up on the baby so he had told Theo his measurements which he had given to Madam Malkin so she could fit his dress robes later in the week, Blaise could pick them up when he had time that way.

Still, even without Blaise it seemed to take forever for Draco, Harry and Neville to get their robes fitted and when they eventually left the shop with the robes in hanger bags to stop them from getting creased it was 5 minutes until 5pm, the time they had agreed to meet the girls back at Potter Manor for dinner.

They hurried up Diagon Alley to the Leaky Cauldron and apparated to the doorstep of Potter Manor hoping that the girls were running late.

When they walked into the informal dining room however it wasn't empty as they had hoped.

Daphne, Hermione, Sadie, Susan and Lilly were already seated and were waiting for the boys to show up.

"Oh there they are, 2 minutes late," Daphne said with an amused smirk when they skulked in.

Sadie cocked her head at Theo, "We _know _you didn't leave the house until about 3 hours ago."

"What? How do you know that?" Theo asked, this made Harry and Draco roll their eyes.

"They probably didn't know you idiot," Draco said as he jokingly hit Theo over the back of the head, "But you just confirmed it for them."

"Exactly," Daphne smirked.

"Bloody female logic," Theo mumbled as he sat down at the table.

***

By Friday all of the outfits were in order, the rings were safely locked away in Sadie and Theo's bedroom and the last minute things had been sorted out. The rehearsal that morning went well so all that was left were the hen and stag nights.

"I can't believe I'm getting married tomorrow," Sadie said, she shook her head in disbelief as she walked down a muggle street in London with Daphne's arm linked in her right arm and Lilly's linked in her left arm. Hermione and Susan were walking slightly behind the trio.

"I can't believe it either," Daphne admitted, "It’s come around so fast."

"It's kind of insane," Sadie said, "And I'm not just talking about my outfit," she added with a chuckle.

Sadie was wearing a pink dress and had been decorated by her so-called friends with a pink feather boa, a cheap looking plastic tiara and a sash saying 'bride to be'. The other girls weren't any better with Daphne sporting devils ears and the others wearing bunny ears, they all had the same pink feather boas too. Daphne of course had been in charge of organising this so it was moderate in comparison to what she had expected.

"Are you going to tell me where we're going yet?" Sadie asked the others in amusement, it had been kept as a secret from her all week no matter how much she nagged at her friends to tell her.

"Nope, it's still a surprise," Lilly said with a grin.

"What do you think the boys will do?" Sadie asked curiously. Behind her Susan and Hermione shared a glance.

"Oh nothing big," Daphne lied, thankfully she was a fairly good liar, "They will probably just go out for a few drinks at the Hogs Head."

"Yeah you're probably right," Sadie said.

"They aren't going for a few quiet drinks are they?" Susan asked Hermione in a whisper.

Hermione shook her head and whispered back, "I have no idea what they _are _doing but I overheard them talking about going to watch Quidditch at the big stadium in Barcelona."

"I overheard them a few days ago discussing the merits of strip clubs in Amsterdam," Susan whispered.

"Was that Draco's idea or Harry's?" Hermione asked as she rolled her eyes.

"I think it was Neville's actually," Susan said with a raised eyebrow.

"What are you two whispering about?" Sadie asked as she turned to Hermione and Susan.

"Nothing," Susan lied with a bright smile, "We were just talking about where we're taking you."

"Are we nearly there yet?" Sadie asked impatiently.

"We are here and you are so bloody impatient," Lilly said in amusement as she and Daphne dragged Sadie through a door with bright flashing lights above it.

"How do you think she'll react when she realises Daphne brought her to a muggle strip club?" Hermione asked Susan in an undertone as they followed them in.

"I'm sure we'll find out soon enough," Susan chuckled and sure enough 5 minutes later after sitting down at a table close to the stage Sadie realised.

"Daphne you haven't," Sadie said as she looked at the type of people in the club and glanced to the stage where the curtain was beginning to be drawn back.

Daphne tried her best to look innocent as Sadie looked at her in horror. The curtains were pulled back, revealing men in very little clothing doing provocative dances.

"You did!" Sadie said, she shook her head at her best friend.

"Have a drink," Daphne said through her laughter, "Relax, unwind, enjoy yourself," she winked which made Sadie blush bright pink.

***

"So where are we going?" Neville asked Draco and Harry as he looked across at them, they were all dressed up for the stag night but still hadn't decided what to do. Blaise was absent, he was willing to be part of the wedding but with Ginny pregnant he was trying to look after her and didn't want to disappear on the stag night. Given the kind of things they had talked about doing that was probably a good thing.

"Let's just go to Vegas," Harry said with a smirk.

"Las Vegas?" Draco asked in disbelief, "In America?"

"Aw come on, let's be spontaneous! It will be great!" Neville said, he was instantly on Harry's side.

"But what if something goes wrong and we're stuck there?" Draco said, "This is Theo's wedding, we can't screw it up for him."

"We won't screw anything up," Harry said as he tried to convince Draco.

"Stop worrying about your boyfriend Draco," Neville sniggered, "The wedding doesn't start until 2pm tomorrow, we'll apparate back early tomorrow morning."

"It will be fun Draco, come on," Harry said with a grin, "Where's the Slytherin in you?"

"Alright fine," Draco gave in with a smirk, "I'm in, let's do this."

"I'm pretty sure you were trying to surprise me," A new voice said as Theo emerged grinning and holding an extendable ear, "But I was kind of eavesdropping."

Harry laughed at this, "So what do you think?"

"I think Las Vegas here we come baby," Theo said as he grinned broadly at his friends.

** _TBC :) _ **


	65. The Ultimate Hangover

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If it isn't too obvious, the title (and pretty much basic plot) for this chapter comes from the hilarious movie, "The Hangover". The original, because we all knew sequels are rubbish!

"What do you mean you don't know where he is?"

"I mean we’ve lost him and I've no idea where to find him!"

"How could you have lost him?” Harry panicked, “He's getting married in 7 hours!"

"Not if he's dead in the middle of Las Vegas somewhere!" Draco snapped.

"He's not dead!" Neville said irritably, "But we do have to find him."

"How?" Draco asked in disbelief, "Las Vegas is huge!"

"I don't know how we're going to find him! I don't know what we're going to do!" Harry despaired.

"I'll tell you what we're _not _going to do," Neville said firmly, "And that is tell Sadie or any of the girls for that matter. They'll freak out."

"We need to tell them what's going on," Harry pointed out, "I mean we're supposed to _be _there in 6 hours!"

"And we will be. We’ll _find _Theo, we'll give him a sober up potion and nobody will be any the wiser," Neville said simply.

"Come on then," Harry said as he got to his feet a little shakily, "Let's ask around the hotel..."

"What the hell did we do last night?" Draco asked as he reached into his bag for a sober up potion.

"I remember gambling," Harry frowned.

"And Theo trying to convince us to break a lion out of the zoo," Neville said slowly.

"Shit, you don't think he actually tried and got eaten alive, do you?" Draco asked with wide eyes.

"No," Harry scoffed, "He isn't that stupid."

"I don't know about that," Draco muttered, "He did drag us into that strip club."

"Yeah well at least nobody tried to drunkenly sleep with us," Harry yawned as he took a sober up potion himself, "Nobody knows who we are in Muggle America. Do either of you two have _any _idea where Theo could be?"

"None," Draco replied, Neville shook his head too.

"Great," Harry muttered as they all changed and left the hotel room to ask about Theo. They had no luck on their way down to the reception and they did ask every single person who they saw. Eventually they reached the reception of the swanky hotel that they were staying in and approached the woman behind the desk.

"Hey," Harry said with a smile, "Have you seen our friend? He's getting married in 7 hours and we haven't seen him."

"He's tall and skinny," Draco cut in.

"- and he has dark hair," Neville added, "And brown eyes."

"His name is Theo," Harry said.

"Theodore," Neville corrected.

"Yeah, Theodore Nott," Draco said with a nod.

"Theodore Roosevelt Nott," Harry chimed in.

"Sorry," The American woman behind the desk said, "I haven't seen him. Is he a Brit like you guys?"

"Uh yeah," Draco frowned, “Why?"

"With a name like Theodore Roosevelt? He's _British_?" The young woman said in amusement.

"His Mother was a history student," Neville said offhandedly, "Thanks for your help. Come on guys, we have to split up if we're going to find Theo."

***

"We need to floo Daphne," Draco said as he looked pointedly at Harry.

"Do we really need to floo her just yet?" Harry asked sheepishly.

"We've searched the entire hotel," Neville said as he flopped onto the sofa in their hotel room, “And he isn't here. So yeah we need to floo her now, just make sure Sadie doesn't find out."

"Oh come on! Why do I have to be the bearer of bad news?" Harry exclaimed.

"Because Vegas was _your _idea Potter and Daphne is your fiancé," Draco said dryly as he threw some floo powder into the fireplace, "So get on with it."

Harry shot his friends a glare and stuck his head in the fireplace. He said the address where the girls were getting ready (Cauldwell House) and thankfully Sadie wasn't in the drawing room when his head appeared in the flames.

"Harry!" Daphne smiled, "What's up?"

Harry grimaced, "We've lost Theo."

"You've _lost _Theo?" Daphne reiterated in disbelief.

"How the hell did you manage to lose him, Harry?" Hermione hissed as she moved closer to the fire.

"He wasn't here when we woke up this morning!" Harry said, “We can't find him anywhere!"

"So you've lost the groom?" Lilly asked with a raised eyebrow, "In Vegas?"

Harry nodded, "We were really drunk last night. There were lions in a zoo and strip clubs...he could be anywhere."

"Oh for the love of Salazar," Daphne murmured, "Have you got anything of his with you?"

"Uh yeah, we have his coat..." Harry said as he turned and briefly scanned their hotel room. He spun his head around to look at the girls once more, "Why?"

"Because if you have something of his you can do a location charm, you idiot!" Hermione exclaimed.

"Shit!" Harry said loudly, "How the hell did I not think of that?"

"Probably because you still look drunk as hell," Daphne retorted, "This is Sadie's wedding, Harry! She _needs _her future husband to show up. Do a location charm, find Theo, for Salazar's sake give him a sober up potion and get him back here!"

Before Harry could respond the floo cut out. He stood up and looked at his friends, "Well… Daphne is very pissed off with me and how the hell did none of us think of a location charm?"

"Shit," Draco and Neville muttered as their eyes fell on Theo's abandoned jacket sitting on the back of a chair.

***

In England it was a beautiful sunny morning and Bath Abbey looked beautiful and scenic in the summer weather. Sadie had started getting ready early in the morning, as had her bridesmaids. They had gotten up at the crack of dawn and had some breakfast with a little bit of hangover potion in their coffee. They had appointments all morning for hair and makeup and while Sadie was in one of these appointments the girls discussed the 'loss' of the groom.

"What are we going to do?" Hermione whispered.

"Nothing, now they've worked out that they can use a location charm they'll find Theo easily," Lilly whispered.

"They'll get him back here in time," Daphne agreed, "All we can do is make sure we keep Sadie calm and make sure that she has no idea that her future husband is currently missing."

"I'm going to kill Draco for taking him to Vegas," Hermione muttered.

"I wouldn't, it was Harry's idea," Lilly said with vague amusement.

"I know it was and I _am _going to kill him," Daphne murmured, "Especially if Theo doesn't show up."

Their conversation was interrupted by the opening of the door which distracted them. Sadie walked in wearing her dress with her bridal hair and make-up all finished. She looked stunning and they all told her that.

Sadie smiled and said, "Do you think the boys are getting on okay?"

Lilly was one of the better liars so she said, "Oh they're fine Sadie. They'll probably have a long lie, you know what that lot are like."

Sadie chuckled her agreement and Daphne smiled at her best friend, "It's time to head to the Church," she said, "We'll sort out the last minute things there."

"Okay," Sadie said, she held onto Daphne's arm to apparate.

"You seem nervous," Daphne said.

"Oh I'm not nervous at all," Sadie said sarcastically as together they spun and appeared around the back of Bath Abbey. 5 minutes later Sadie was sitting down in a back room with Daphne and her Mother, she was staring at herself in the mirror and trying desperately not to throw up.

"In a few hours you will be Mrs. Sadie Nott," Lotus, Sadie's Mother, was saying as she adjusted Sadie's hair which had been left down and curled.

"I know," Sadie said as she swallowed hard, "I'm so nervous."

"Don't be," Daphne said with a smile, "You and Theo are perfect. You have nothing to be nervous about."

"Daphne's right," Lotus said, "Everything will run smoothly and when it's over you'll be surprised that it went so well."

Sadie nodded as she tried to believe this, "Theo and the boys should be here by now shouldn't they?" she asked, she had a feeling that something was wrong.

"Probably," Lilly said, "But don't worry about it. Hermione and I will go check."

"You should go too Daphne," Sadie said, "And make sure everything is alright."

"I will if that's what you want Sadie," Daphne said, she tried not to give away the fact that she was now a little worried too. She disappeared from the room with Lilly and Hermione, leaving Sadie alone with her Mother and Susan.

"Please tell me they're here?" Daphne murmured as they stepped outside of the church.

"No and they are half an hour late," Hermione said as she bit her lip.

"Is Sadie getting worried?" Lilly asked quietly, "She seemed kind of worried."

"A little but I'm trying to convince her its fine," Daphne said quietly.

Hermione sighed, "If they ruin Sadie's wedding day I'll kill them all!" she snapped, she was about to go on a rant as they stared into the emptiness beyond the church. All of a sudden a loud crack made them all jump.

Daphne rolled her eyes when she saw that Theo, Harry, Draco and Neville had just apparated outside of the Church. They were still dressed in their ordinary clothes although thankfully they were carrying the hanger bags with their wedding clothes in them.

The first sign that something was off with them was the fact that all 4 of them were wearing sunglasses, even Harry who Hermione had _never _in all the years she had known him seen wear sunglasses.

"So you found him then?" Hermione asked as she crossed her arms over her chest.

"Yeah, all fine like you said it would be Daph," Harry said with a smile.

"And what are the sunglasses then, a fashion statement?" Lilly asked sarcastically.

"It's summer, Lil," Harry said simply.

"Liar," Hermione said as she pulled Draco's sunglasses off. His eyes were bright red and bloodshot, "You're still hungover, aren't you?"

"A little," Draco said, but Daphne just raised an eyebrow at this.

"What?"

"You look like shit," Daphne said simply, she grabbed the other boy's glasses, "You all do."

"Well we did find Theo on the roof of the hotel," Harry said as he glared at his Slytherin friend.

"I was tired!" Theo said defensively.

Daphne shook her head in disbelief, "Come on, I'll sneak you in so Susan can sort you all out. There is _no _way Sadie is seeing you like this!"

Daphne, Hermione and Lilly slipped back into the church and the 4 boys followed her like puppies into a side-room next to the room Sadie was getting ready in.

"Merlin!" Susan exclaimed when she saw the boys.

"Do we look that bad?"

"Yes," The girls echoed.

"Do some glamour charms on them please Susan," Daphne said, "Sadie will freak out if she sees them like this."

"What happened to you lot anyway?" Susan asked as she did a few glamour charms to sort out their bloodshot eyes, the dark marks beneath their eyes and their pale complexions.

"We went to Las Vegas," Neville said with a yawn.

"Which was really stupid," Lilly remarked as she cocked her head at Neville in amusement.

"It seemed like a good idea at the time," Harry said defensively.

"I bet it did," Susan said with a chuckle, "Your face is sorted Theo."

"I had a feeling something like this might happen," Hermione admitted as she narrowed her eyes at them.

"Right best man you're next," Susan said as she pushed Draco into a seat and performed the same glamour charms she had just performed on Theo.

"Is this what being a girl is like?" Draco whined.

"Yes but you also have to put up with whiny men," Lilly teased which made Draco roll his eyes.

"We aren't all that bad," Harry said, he seemed to be the least hungover of them all.

"Just some of you," Susan said with a chuckle, "Right you're done, Harry you next."

"Why am I last?" Neville asked.

"Because you look like you're going to spew on me," Susan said and she wrinkled her nose at Neville.

Susan quickly sorted Harry out and then said, "Okay you're done, come on Neville you next."

Looking much less like he would throw up Neville sat down across from Susan who expertly performed the glamour charms. The 4 boys all looked much more respectable after the emergency glamour charm treatment but there was still a lot to be done.

"The wedding starts in an hour and a half so get changed you lot," Hermione said.

"Quickly," Daphne added, she left the room to tell Sadie that the boys had arrived. She knocked on the door and popped her head in, "The boys are here, they are just getting ready now."

"Perfect," Sadie said with a sigh of relief, "Thanks Daph, you're the best."

"I know," Daphne said with a broad smile before she disappeared from the room once more.

***

"I'm just going to check over the ceremony arrangements with the vicar sweetheart, I'll be back soon," Sadie's Mother said as she kissed her daughter on the cheek.

"Okay, thanks Mum," Sadie said with a smile.

Her Mother left the room which left Sadie alone with Daphne.

"You look terrified," Daphne said with a small smile.

"I am," Sadie admitted sheepishly, "It’s all happened so fast…my brain is just catching up."

"If this is how you're reacting imagine how scared Theo is," Daphne joked which made Sadie laugh.

"I think everyone must feel scared on their wedding day," Sadie mused thoughtfully, "But I think it's more nerve-wracking when you have written your own vows."

"I think it's really nice," Daphne said as she put Sadie's veil on for her, "And I think you and Theo are perfect for each other. You might have tried to hide it for years Sadie but Tracey and me always knew you liked Theo, and his complete undying love for you was pretty obvious too from about 2nd year."

Sadie smiled but it wasn't an entirely happy smile, "I wish she was here today Daph, it should be the three of us in here…"

"I know," Daphne said, she fixed Sadie's veil in place and hugged her friend, "But she's watching from somewhere."

"I like to think the same," Sadie admitted, she wiped her tears away before they could roll down her face and ruin her make-up, "When I dreamed about my wedding day…I knew you would be my Maid of Honour but I just always thought that Tracey and Pansy would be my bridesmaids."

"War changes everything Sadie," Daphne said as she sat down next to her friend, "And I miss them too. I miss my Father…but look at how things are, we're both happy and alive."

"And that's what matters," Sadie said with a smile, "Thanks Daphne, I don't know where I'd be without you."

"Sad and lonely," Daphne said with a smile, she was quite sad too. She could just imagine Tracey being here, she could almost hear her voice.

"Are you nearly ready to go?" Daphne asked and with a slightly pale face Sadie nodded.

"I'll go get the girls then," Daphne said with a smile, she disappeared from the room and popped her head in next door where thankfully all of the boys were ready.

"How you doing Theo?" Daphne asked, Theo was pacing up and down the room.

"Nervous," Theo admitted which was something that he didn't admit to very often.

"So is your soon to be wife," Daphne said as she walked into the room and patted Theo on the shoulder, "Don't worry about it."

"We've been trying to tell him this," Harry said with a smile, "But nothing seems to work."

"I'll be fine, I just want to get started," Theo said as he wrung his hands.

"Good," Daphne said as she turned to the girls, "Because I'm collecting the bridesmaids so we can get started."

"We're ready," Hermione said, she got to her feet followed by Lilly and Susan.

"See you in the church Theo," Daphne said, she kissed him on the cheek. Theo nodded and the girls disappeared from the room.

***

"Theo, sit down," Neville said in amusement as he watched his friend pace.

"You're going to wear a hole in the floor," Harry added with an amused chuckle. They were gathered in this little room waiting for it to be time to move into the church.

"What if she runs away? What if she doesn't want to marry me? What if she's realised I'm not any good for her?" Theo asked, he spouted all of this off very quickly.

"Theo, she realised you weren't any good for her a long time ago and she's still marrying you," Draco said with a smirk as Harry and Neville sniggered at the state Theo was in.

"Are you sure?" Theo asked and Draco nodded, he put his arm around his best friend’s shoulder, "Stop worrying. Sadie loves you, she's not going to run away."

"She probably thinks you're going to make a run for it," Neville joked which made Theo glare at him.

"She should know I'd never do that," Theo said softly as he sat down for the first time, "I've been in love with her since the moment I saw her."

"How did you meet?" Harry asked with a smile, Theo and Sadie were perfect for each other.

"Yeah, did you know each other before Hogwarts?" Neville asked curiously.

Theo shook his head, he was still smiling, "Nah, we met on the Hogwarts Express…"

"_What are you freaking out about Draco? Obviously we're going to be in Slytherin, look at our family histories, it's our legacy!" An 11 year old Theo was saying to an 11 year old, rather scared looking Draco._

"_But what if I'm sorted into Gryffindor or something?" Draco asked anxiously._

"_You won't be," Theo said as he patted his friend on the shoulder, "You've got Slytherin written all over you."_

_The two boys were walking up the Hogwarts Express searching for a compartment._

"_Come on," Theo said, "We'll ask these two if we can sit with them."_

_He pointed to a carriage with two blonde-haired girls in it and pushed the door open, "Hey, do you girls mind if we sit with you? Everywhere else is full."_

"_Sure," The girls said in unison._

"_Thanks," Draco said as he followed Theo in and pulled the doors shut, "I'm Dr-"_

"_Draco Malfoy," One of the girls said, "That’s who he is Sadie, my Mother went to school with his Mother."_

_Draco nodded and smiled, “I’m surprised you remember me, I haven’t seen you since my 8th birthday party.”_

_She shrugged, “Well I’m Daphne, in case you forgot.”_

"_I'm Theo Nott," Theo said as he sat down heavily next to Draco, "But you probably knew that too."_

"_Never heard of you actually," Daphne said which made Draco snigger._

"_Shut up you," Theo said as he nudged his best friend, "I'm sure you're mistaken. My family are very influential."_

"_Not influential enough clearly," Daphne said with a smirk._

"_Daph don't be so rude," The second girl said._

"_Yeah Daph, Merlin you're so rude," Theo said, he shook his head and tutted mockingly._

"_Theo Nott," Theo said as he shook the other girl's hand._

"_Sadie Cauldwell," She said with a smile and Theo felt something then that he couldn't explain, he smiled broadly at the girl and for the rest of the train journey he talked to her, learning as much as he could about her._

"You know, that story has many parallels with how my parents met," Harry said with a smile, after hearing Theo recount how he first met Sadie, "Only sadly it didn't end so happily."

Theo smiled, "I guess I should think myself lucky then, not that I don't already mind you," he said as he gazed at the wall looking like his mind was far away.

"Have you ever seen him like this?" Harry asked Neville in an undertone, his fellow Gryffindor shook his head.

"I have," Draco said quietly, "This is how Sadie has always made him."

"I think this is how my parents were," Harry said as he revealed something to his friends that he had only ever told himself before, "I think Sadie and Theo's relationship is really similar to my parents."

"Without the war and a scummy rat I think you're right," Neville said with a smile, "I think they are a perfect example of how your parents should have been."

"Alright you two the time for being sentimental is over," Draco said as he glanced at the clock, "Time to get started Theo."

Theo nodded, he looked incredibly nervous now.

"Stop worrying," Draco said to his best friend as they walked out of the door together and it made them both smile as they remembered that first train to Hogwarts. The parallel of that day with Draco freaking out and Theo calming him down with today was almost amusing but it was also nostalgic and it made Draco realise that after today everything would change because Theo would be a married man.

As the two friends walked down the corridor to the entrance to the church Harry, Neville and Blaise (who had just appeared, almost out of the woodwork) followed them. They reached the door and walked into the church. There were already some guests seated in the front few rows and more were filing in as Draco steered Theo into position by the altar.

"She's going to turn up right?"

"Of course she is," Draco said as he placed his hand on Theo's shoulder.

Theo scanned the crowd and his eyes eventually fell on his Step-Mother who was in the front row on her own. Lacey would be sitting next to her later but she was outside with the bridal party at the moment because she was the flower girl.

Salvadora Nott had never felt like a true Mother to Theo because he had always missed his real Mother who he had lost very young but in that moment she seemed to sense something was wrong and got to her feet.

"Stop worrying," Salvadora said when she reached Theo, "You know how crazy Sadie is for you, she isn't going to run away."

Theo nodded, somehow he believed her more than he did Draco, "Thanks…Mum," Theo said, it was something that he was fairly sure he had never called her.

Salvadora was shocked by this and it showed. She smiled, her eyes a little watery, "That's what family is for," she said and she hugged Theo briefly. This was also something that she had never done, "Try not to look so terrified."

Theo nodded as she made her way back to her seat.

***

"Alright Sadie we're ready when you are," Hermione said from where she, Lilly and Susan were holding her train.

"I'm as ready as I'll ever be," Sadie admitted as she grabbed Daphne's arm.

Daphne chuckled and linked her arm through her best friends, "We'll move now then before you change your mind," she joked as she held the door open and helped Sadie through it.

"Don't worry, I'd never change my mind about marrying Theo," Sadie said, she smiled as they walked down the long corridor. It seemed to take forever but eventually they reached a little hallway area in between the doors from the outside and the doors to the actual chapel part of the church.

Waiting in this area was Sorenson (who was walking Sadie down the aisle), Oscar and Lacey, the pageboy and flower girl. Oscar looked incredibly adorable in his little navy blue dress robes.

"You look beautiful sis," Sorenson said, he hugged Sadie and linked his arm through hers.

"Thanks," Sadie said a little shakily as she got into position ready to enter the church.

"Deep breaths Sadie," Daphne whispered from behind her, she placed her hand on her shoulder, "We've got a couple of minutes until it's time to go in."

Sadie nodded, she closed her eyes and went to her happy place…the moment she had realised that she was in love with Theo…

"_Sadie!"_

_Sadie looked up, she felt exhausted and ill. _

"_Theo," She said quietly, she was full of relief as he hurried towards her._

"_What did they do to you?" Theo asked angrily as he cut the ties binding her._

"_Nothing," Sadie lied, "How did you get in here?"_

_Sadie had been in a locked room in the dark tower and ties had been binding her hands and feet together._

"_The Carrows are at a Death Eater meeting," Theo said as he helped Sadie to her feet, "And I flew onto the roof to get you but I set off the caterwauling charm so we don’t have much time.”_

"_Ah!" Sadie cried out when she tried to put her foot down on the ground._

"_Is it broken?" Theo asked._

_Sadie shook her head, "I don't know," she admitted._

_Without a second thought Theo lifted Sadie up in his arms and rushed down the spiral stairs as fast as he could so that they could escape before the Carrows came back. Sadie didn't even worry about him falling. In that moment for the first time she trusted him completely. _

"_Where's Pansy?" Sadie asked as she tried desperately hard to keep her eyes open._

"_She got out last night, snuck out while the Carrows were doing the rounds," Theo explained when they reached the bottom of the stairs. _

_Theo pressed his finger against Sadie's lips as they heard voices in the corridor. Quickly he pulled them both into a broom cupboard and carefully shut the door and placed Sadie down on her good foot._

_They were pressed very closely together in the broom cupboard and even in her exhausted state of mind, Sadie blushed slightly at the contact. They held their breath as the voices passed them on the stairs. The voices belonged to Crabbe and Goyle who were obviously patrolling the area in the Carrows absence. They must have noticed the absence of the security troll and in a moment, they would discover that Sadie was gone too._

_“Come on,” Theo whispered. He opened the door and lifted Sadie up effortlessly once more. They emerged onto the main sixth floor corridor and Theo saw Daphne waving them over from the entrance to the central tower. They_ _ rushed through the thankfully deserted area to the central tower which acted as a shortcut to where they needed to go. _

_Theo didn't seem to be struggling with carrying Sadie's weight as he carefully but quickly made his way down the spiral staircase to the bottom where two large double doors stood ajar._

"_There you are," Draco hissed from where he was keeping guard outside of the doors, "You took longer than expected."_

"_I think Sadie has broken something," Theo said, "She can't walk."_

"_Come on then," Draco said, he led them out of the central tower onto the 2nd floor corridor, "We need to get her back so Trace can look her over."_

_Theo nodded, "Don't worry," he whispered to Sadie, "We'll be back soon."_

_Sadie and Theo had been friends for years but something different had been developing throughout the war and his concern for her today made Sadie realise that she might be falling in love with him. _

_The trio rushed along the 2nd floor corridor and made their way through a locked door which Draco made sure to lock behind them. The corridor was flooded and water came up to their knees but they were used to this so they waded through it into their hide-out, it was a disused bathroom that they had cleared out and used as a place to sleep where the Carrows couldn't find them. _

"_Sadie!" Daphne called out, she looked anxious as Theo put Sadie down on one of the makeshift beds, "What happened?"_

"_She might have broken something, I had to carry her here," Theo said, he sat down next to Sadie and kissed her on the cheek, "You're safe now," he whispered and in that moment just before she passed out Sadie looked at Theo and thought to herself…I want to marry him one day…_

"Stop daydreaming sis," Sorenson said, he nudged his sister slightly and smiled at her, "It's time."

Sadie took yet another deep breath as the double doors began to open. She saw the Church, filled with guests and then at the end of the aisle she saw Theo, he looked pale and terrified.

The music began to play and Sadie began to walk forward, her eyes were locked on Theo. It was as if she was gliding towards him and all of her thoughts and worries about today completely left her head.

Theo had imagined for the last month what Sadie would look like today but when the doors opened and she began to walk down that aisle his breath caught in his throat because she looked more beautiful than he could have imagined in his wildest dreams. Her hair flowed over her shoulders, her veil covered her face but didn’t conceal her smile. She looked like an angel and her dress was absolutely perfect for her.

Theo barely noticed the rest of the bridal party but his best man and groomsmen did. To Harry, Daphne looked more beautiful than he had ever seen her in the dress Sadie had chosen, it was one of the few times she left her hair down and natural rather than fixing it to be curlier or straighter instead of leaving it in its natural wavy state. To Draco, Hermione looked equally as beautiful, he was used to seeing her with her hair pulled up out of the way or left bushy, but today it had been loosely curled and it looked beautiful. To Neville, Lilly looked amazing wearing the bridesmaid dress because Lilly didn't really wear dresses as often as the other girls did. Her hair was unusual too because it was almost always poker straight but today it was curly, just like Hermione and Susan's hair.

Neville looked away from Lilly to see Theo's reaction and realised that Theo hadn't started breathing yet, he rolled his eyes and nudged Harry. Harry frowned but realised what Neville meant so nudged Blaise and pointed to Theo. Blaise nodded and nudged Draco who frowned and looked around, it was only then that he realised what was going on.

Draco nudged Theo gently which made him gasp, "Breathe you fool, you don't want to faint on your wedding day," he whispered jokingly into his best friend’s ear.

"Thanks Draco," Theo whispered.

Neville and Harry glanced at each other and rolled their eyes in amusement.

Theo hadn't been able to take his eyes away from Sadie as she drifted down the aisle, in his mind it was in slow motion but she eventually reached him and when she did she grinned broadly at him.

"I'm proud of you sis," Sorenson whispered as he took Sadie's hand and placed it in Theo's as tradition stated. He lifted her veil and kissed her on the cheek before taking his seat next to their Mother who looked like she was crying already.

Sadie beamed at Theo as she gripped his hand tightly. Lacey and Oscar sat down at the front of the church for the moment and Daphne, Hermione, Lilly and Susan all stood next to Sadie.

"Ladies and Gentlemen," The vicar, a short man with a large moustache, said, "We are gathered here today to witness the marriage of Theodore Roosevelt Nott and Sadie Cauldwell."

Theo glanced around at his groomsmen, he had expected them to chuckle or smirk at his name but they were all smiling. He chuckled on the inside and thought to himself, _this is probably the only time they won't laugh at my name_.

"Today Theodore and Sadie will be united in body and soul for life," The vicar said as he smiled at the young, happy couple who appeared to be almost glowing with happiness.

"I must now ask if any man can show just cause as to why Theodore and Sadie may not be lawfully joined together. Let him speak now, or forever hold his peace," The vicar said, he paused to see if anyone objected.

There was silence so the vicar continued, "Do you Theodore Roosevelt Nott, and you Sadie Cauldwell, promise to comfort, honour, protect and be faithful to each other for as long as you both may live?"

"I do," Theo said without taking his eyes away from Sadie's.

"I do," Sadie said quietly but loud enough for it to be acknowledged.

"Then I would ask you to give your vows to one another," The vicar said with a smile.

Sadie and Theo then turned to face each other and entwined both of their hands. They had chosen to make their vows a mixture of traditional and personal. The personal would come first.

“Sadie, I have never told you this,” Theo began, his voice shook a little, “But throughout my darkest days during the war you were the guiding light that saved me from the darkness that might have overwhelmed me," he took a deep breath, "Throughout the month I spent imprisoned I thought of you, I thought of seeing your face again and seeing your smile," he paused for a breath once more, "The healers said it was a miracle that I lived but I wasn't the miracle, you were. You saved my life then and you made me realise how blind I had been in not seeing that I was crazily in love with you."

Sadie was already crying slightly, she carefully wiped her tears away with her finger so she would not smudge her make-up.

"I want to thank you for saving my life but I also want to promise that the love I felt then will never fade and that I will give you all of me for as long as I live," Theo finished, he looked slightly emotional himself.

All of the girls were crying and even Draco looked a little teary.

Sadie had to take a moment to compose herself as her Mother and Theo's Step-Mother both sniffed and clutched handkerchiefs in the front row.

"Theo," Sadie began, "I realised I was in love with you when you saved me during the war, I was close to giving up when you walked in and carried me to safety," it was strange really, how they both talked about the war without previously discussing their vows, "I have never told you this but that day just before I passed out I couldn't help but think to myself, I want to marry him someday," there was an 'aww' from the audience and Sadie's Mother sobbed louder.

"There were so many times after that day that I could have given up but I didn't because I remembered that thought and each day that passed convinced me more that it might truly happen one day. I lost a lot in the war but ultimately I gained you from it and that made every sacrifice worth it," Sadie's voice shook slightly as she got emotional, "So I promise to love you for every day of my life and to cherish every moment that we spend together."

Theo was actually in tears, although he tried very hard to hide it but those closest to him saw. Sadie's hands shook in Theo's as she finished speaking and took a shaky breath.

The vicar looked like he might burst into tears too as he moved onto the traditional part of the vows, "Do you Theodore Roosevelt Nott take Sadie Cauldwell to have and to hold from this day forward? For better, for worse, for richer or poorer, in sickness and health, to love and to cherish until death do you part?"

"I do," Theo said, his voice was rough with emotion.

"And do you Sadie Cauldwell take Theodore Roosevelt Nott to have and to hold from this day forward? For better, for worse, for richer or poorer, in sickness and health, to love and to cherish until death do you part?"

"I do," Sadie said softly, she was unable to stop her happy tears from falling now.

With a helpful hand from Sorenson, Oscar walked forwards, he held a pillow with the rings on it.

"Place the ring on Sadie's finger Theodore," The vicar said as Theo picked up Sadie's wedding ring which was a simple golden band with diamonds set around the edge. His hands shook a little as he placed the ring on Sadie's finger and slid it into place.

"And would you please place the ring on Theodore's finger Sadie?" The vicar asked. Sadie's hands also shook as she slid Theo's simple golden band onto his finger.

"I am now delighted to pronounce you man and wife," The vicar said with a beam, "You may now kiss the bride!"

All of their friends and family cheered as Sadie and Theo kissed, it was the best and most emotional kiss they had ever shared together. The only kiss that rivalled it was one that Theo couldn't remember and that Sadie had only told him about months later…

"_Draco please!" Sadie begged, "I have to go, please."_

_Theo had now been imprisoned in the dark tower for a month by the Carrow's for saving Luna Lovegood's life when she had been caught trying to get food for her and the others working for the light. _

"_Fine," Draco relented, "But if you get hurt or…something else happens...we warned you."_

"_She'll be fine," Daphne said as she glared at Draco, "She's a good fighter, you just never give her the chance to show it."_

"_Then she can show it tonight," Draco said shortly, "Come on we **need **to go now or we have no chance of helping him."_

_Daphne nodded and she, Draco, Pansy, Sadie and Tracey left their secret bathroom hide-out, waded through the flooded corridor, rushed along the 2nd floor corridor and entered the central tower._

"_Sadie you can guard the tower," Draco commanded but Sadie shook her head, "**No **Draco, he saved me and now I'm doing the same for him."_

_Draco opened his mouth to argue when Tracey cut in, "I'll stay here.”_

_Draco glanced at her, “Are you sure?”_

_Tracey nodded, “I’m the worst fighter. Put me in the place where we’re least likely to encounter the opposition.”_

"_You need to get Theo out of there," Daphne agreed with a nod, “You and Sadie.”_

"_Right come on you three," Draco said to Pansy, Daphne and Sadie. The three of them made their way up the central tower as fast as they could. Sadie had never been allowed on these rescue missions before so this was new to her, the last time she had been on this staircase Theo had been carrying her in his arms. _

"_Alright we need someone to guard this end of the tower," Draco said when they reached the top, "And I've got a feeling little miss perfect is going to refuse."_

"_Draco, you saved Pansy because you're in love with her aren't you?" Sadie hissed._

_“Of course I am,” Draco responded._

"_Well I am in love with Theo and I don't care if he doesn't notice me or have any idea about the way I feel but I **am **going in there and I'm going to save him. I won't let him die," Sadie said intensely as she stared into Draco's eyes._

"_Okay you made your case," Draco said with a small almost proud smile, "Daphne, stand guard."_

_Daphne smiled and nodded. She pulled out her wand, Draco turned to Sadie, "Come on then warrior princess."_

_Sadie didn't smile, she couldn't, not when Theo was in danger. She knew that he could be dead up there by now but she was trying not to think about this possibility. When they reached the sixth floor corridor, Neville and Seamus created a loud, explosive distraction that drew all of the Death Eaters away from the tower. _

_Draco and Sadie ran towards the tower together but encounter Filch and Mrs. Norris patrolling the staircase._

_Draco had barely raised his wand but then in a flash Filch and his cat were both lying stiff on the ground, not dead but frozen. He turned in surprise to Sadie who was holding her wand and glaring at them._

"_Petrificus Totalus," Draco mumbled as he looked at the frozen bodies, "You can do speechless magic. Impressive."_

"_Told you I could be useful," Sadie said as she ran up the staircase after Draco. In minutes they reached the top of the tower where the cells were located. All of them had cast-iron doors and spells that stopped magic being used inside them. It was like Azkaban without the Dementors._

_“Get Theo, I’ll keep watch,” Draco said. He took his wand out and stood atop the stairs, fully expecting a horde of Death Eaters to come up them. _

_Sadie looked through the windows until she found the cell where Theo was. _

"_Theo" Sadie called through the gap in the door._

"_Sadie!" A weak voice called back, "Is that you?"_

"_It's me, I'm going to break you out, stay away from the door," Sadie called._

"_Okay," Theo called back._

_Sadie waited for a moment and then pointed her wand at the door, "Bombarda!"_

_There was a small explosion at the base of the door which was enough to force it from its hinges and it fell backwards into the cell. _

_Sadie rushed in when the smoke cleared and found Theo sitting on the floor at the back of the cell, he looked exhausted and weak like he hadn't eaten for days but he was alive._

"_I'm so glad you're okay," Sadie whispered as she drank in his features, she had truly been worried that she might never see him again._

"_Me too," Theo said with a small smile._

_Sadie leant forward and caught his lips in a gentle, soft and passionate kiss. After that he fainted._

_“Is he alive?” Draco asked from the corridor._

_“Barely,” Sadie replied. _

_Draco ran into the room and picked his best friend up, “Come on, let’s escape via the roof while Longbottom keeps that lot busy.”_

_Sadie followed him onto the roof._

_“Accio broomsticks.”_

_Two brooms broke out of the shed in the grounds and flew up to them. Sadie jumped on one and Draco got on the other, supporting Theo as he did so. They flew off into the night before the Death Eaters could even begin to climb the tower._

"I love you," Theo whispered as he kissed Sadie once more.

"I love you too," Sadie beamed, she looked out at their friends and family who were clapping, cheering and crying.

They linked arms and walked down the aisle out of the church followed by the rest of the procession.

The Maid of Honour and the Best Man followed arm in arm.

"That was beautiful," Daphne said as she wiped her eyes.

"I never thought it would be that emotional," Draco admitted with a small smile.

"It's interesting that they both talked about the war," Daphne mused.

"Not really," Draco said with a smile, "It's how they fell in love after all. I remember Sadie that day when we saved Theo, I'd never seen her so passionate before."

"She proved herself to you that day," Daphne remembered, "You loved taking her on the rescue missions after that."

"She was good," Draco said simply, both of them smiled.

"Do you think we'll ever tell Harry and Hermione about those days?" Daphne asked, they had never discussed those dark days during the war. They had never told their other halves about how they had conducted rescue missions to save those on the side of the light and tried not to get killed themselves in the process.

"One day I think we will," Draco admitted, "But everyone has secrets."

Behind Daphne and Draco, the other bridesmaids and groomsmen walked arm in arm. Blaise walked with Susan then behind them were Neville and Lilly. Finally, bringing up the rear were Harry and Hermione.

"Who would have thought we would have been this emotional over the wedding of two Slytherins," Harry said to Hermione who was still drying her eyes.

"The war changed a lot," Hermione said simply, "But I didn't realise how much it changed things for the Slytherins, let alone for us."

"I think they were fighting their own battle in Hogwarts while we were fighting ours across the country," Harry said thoughtfully.

"Do you think they will ever talk to us about it?" Hermione asked Harry curiously.

"I think one day they might," Harry said, "Do you think we'll ever tell them everything we went through in the war?"

"I'm not sure," Hermione admitted with a frown, "Maybe one day."

"Maybe," Harry said as they reached the doors to the church.

Behind Harry and Hermione Lacey helped Oscar walk from the church. Traditionally the bride's Mother and the grooms Father should have followed but as Theo's Father wasn't here and he didn't have much family Lotus walked from the church on her own. Bringing up the rear was supposed to the groom's mother and the bride's father but Sadie's Father wasn't here so Salvadora walked from the church arm in arm with Sorenson instead.

When the procession had left the church it was time for pictures. Eventually it was time to move on. Sadie and Theo disappeared ahead of the others to apparate to Nott Manor and the rest of the wedding guests began to follow.

**TBC :)**


	66. Love and Marriage Goes Together, Like a Golden Carriage

When the bridesmaids, groomsmen and the rest of the general 'bridal party' arrived at Nott Manor they were led upstairs to a large ballroom where lots of long tables were set up for the meal.

All of the other guests were already seated when the bridal party were announced and took their seats at the top table.

There were two seats left in the middle once everyone was seated for Sadie and Theo. Next to where Sadie would sit Sorenson was seated and next to where Theo would sit Lotus was seated. On Sorenson's other side was Salvadora and on Lotus's other side would have been where Theo's Father should have been sitting, instead Lacey sat there. Next to Lacey was Daphne and next to Salvadora on the other side was Draco.

At the table nearest the top table Hermione, Susan, Lilly, Harry, Neville, Blaise and Ginny were all seated.

"Ladies and gentlemen," Sorenson said loudly, "Please welcome Mr. and Mrs. Nott!"

There was much cheering as Sadie and Theo walked in hand in hand and took their seats in the centre of the top table.

Sorenson then stood and clicked a spoon against a glass to get everyone's attention. The room fell silent and Sorenson smiled at everyone with ease, being an Auror he was used to public appearances and he seemed in his element, "I would like to thank everyone for coming today. Traditionally of course this would be our Father's job but as he can't be here today I would instead like to welcome you all to the meal and reception, I hope you all enjoy yourselves!"

Sorenson sat back down with a smile and squeezed Sadie's hand, she was still slightly upset about the fact that her Father was locked up in Azkaban instead of being here at her wedding.

After Sorenson had opened the meal the orders were taken and the first course was served. At the smaller table in front of the top table the friends talked amongst themselves as they ate.

"Trust Theo and Sadie to have great food at their wedding," Harry said with a chuckle as he tucked in.

"It's almost as good as the stuff they serve at the Ministry Balls," Neville agreed, he looked like he was enjoying the food immensely.

Hermione rolled her eyes at her two friends, "Is food all men care about?"

"Not entirely," Neville said.

Lilly laughed, "I disagree with that, looking at the way you lot eat."

"It did feel like a fairytale wedding today, didn't it?" Hermione asked with a smile.

"Yeah," Lilly said as she glanced up at Sadie and Theo, "I felt like I was in a story book."

"I wouldn't know," Harry said with a chuckle, "I never did read them as a kid."

"I have no idea what Muggle fairy tales are like," Susan admitted in amusement, "Everyone dies at the end of Beedle the Bards tales, unless you read the Beatrix Bloxam versions with their sickly happy endings."

"That's pretty much what Muggle fairy tales are like," Hermione admitted with a sheepish smile, "The girl always gets the prince and they all live happily ever after...apart from in the original Hans Christian Anderson or the Grimm fairytales, they are far more realistic."

"That's stupid though, the ones that have happy endings all of the time," Neville mused, "All that's teaching young girls is to wait and do nothing and you'll get a prince."

"I know," Harry agreed, "At least Beedle's tales have morals behind them that teach kids things."

"Beedle the Bards tales teach life lessons," Blaise spoke up, he had barely said anything all day as he watched the proceedings quietly, "They teach that death is as much a part of life as birth is. They teach that desire and ambition are not always good traits but ultimately they teach that with determination and a pure heart you can achieve anything in life."

"Wow," Harry said, the others were all equally stunned.

"That was pretty deep Blaise," Ginny said with a smile.

Blaise shrugged and went back to his soup, he left the others stunned into silence.

Shortly after their discussion about fairy tales the first course was finished and the plates vanished from the tables. The orders were then taken for the main course and while the food was being prepared downstairs by the house elves it was time for the speeches.

First Sorenson stood up to give a speech, traditionally it would have been Sadie's Father giving a speech at this moment in time but Sorenson was doing so instead.

"When I first met Theodore Nott," Sorenson began, and Theo chuckled under his breath, he clearly knew what was coming, "He was an irritating 12-year-old boy who came to our house for my sister's 12th birthday party. He was hyperactive, cocky and an annoying git," Sorenson said which earned him chuckles from the crowd, "In the space of an hour he had scared away our pet Clabbert, wrecked our garden and had accidentally set fire to the tent we were having the party in," this elicited more laughter from the guests and most of it came from the table where Harry and Neville were sitting.

"I swore when he left the house that day, and my Mother did too, that there was no way we'd be seeing him again," Sorenson said as he shook his head in amusement, "But Sadie continued to be friends with him and we put up with it because she seemed happy. There was a condition though, he wasn't allowed back in our house for _years _after that. I remember the day I really began to appreciate that friendship though. I was at work and received a letter from Theo that said my sister was in trouble, she had been captured helping those working for the light in Hogwarts during the war. He told me not to worry, that he would get her out and that he felt I ought to know. I didn't believe him but two days later I got a letter from Sadie saying she was okay, that Theo had gotten her out. From that moment forward I haven't thought of Theodore Nott as the idiotic child wreaking havoc in my back garden. Instead I think of him as the heroic man who saved my sisters life and for that reason he deserves Sadie as his wife more than anyone else ever could."

Sadie was a little teary as Sorenson sat down to cheers and clapping, she wrapped her arms around her brother, "Thanks Sorenson," she said softly because it was one of the first signs he had given her to acknowledge that he was happy for her to be with Theo.

The next speech was going to be by Draco who looked a little nervous as he got to his feet to give it, "Theo's my best friend, we've known each other since we were little kids," Draco began with a small smile, "I remember when we were growing up, Theo would always swear he would never get married. He thought he was a real little academic, always banging on about how marriage was pointless and how he would never meet anyone who would make the hassle seem worth it. But then we got on the Hogwarts Express together to go to Hogwarts and start our 1st year. We ended up sharing a carriage with two girls, one of whom was Sadie. I knew from the moment he ditched me to talk to her for the whole journey that he might have found that one person who would make him change all of his views. He didn't realise it straight away, in fact it took him far longer than it should have done to realise. But during the war Theo finally realised how close he was to losing Sadie and he understood how much she meant to him for the first time," he paused for a breath, Sadie was still crying and now Theo looked teary too.

"I love Theo like a brother, I always have done and seeing him as happy as he is with Sadie makes me happy because I know now that he'll be alright. I've always worried about him being alone for the rest of his life because of his old attitude to marriage but now I know he's got someone who loves him and cares for him and I know that will never change," Draco's voice broke a little, "And that makes me happier than words can describe."

There was much cheering as Draco sat down and took a large gulp of wine.

"Oh" Harry whispered to Neville at the table in front of the top table, "I think he's finally realising he's letting go of his best friend."

Neville sniggered but Hermione shot Harry a glare which told him to 'shut up'. Up at the top table it was time for the final speech, the Maid of Honours. Daphne got to her feet, she looked a little bit nervous but not anywhere near as much as Draco had.

"Well I never thought we would get to this moment," Daphne admitted with a chuckle, "I've known Sadie since before we started Hogwarts and she was always a fairly quiet person with a hidden sneaky, mischievous side. When Theo walked into our compartment on the Hogwarts Express that day I knew it was the start of something," Daphne said with a smile, "But she refused to see what everyone else saw for years until eventually during the war she realised that what everyone had been telling her was right, she was totally mad for Theo."

Theo smirked at this and Sadie shook her head in amusement.

"It took even longer for them to both admit to each other how they actually felt mind you," Daphne said as she rolled her eyes and got chuckles from the crowd, "But I am so glad that they did. I never thought _anyone _would be able to tame Theodore Nott but if anyone can I know it's Sadie. She's probably the only person he listens to and trusts completely, apart from Draco of course," this caused another wave of chuckles as Theo winked at Draco.

"I think Sadie and Theo complement each other perfectly and I've never been happier for Sadie," Daphne finished, she smiled at her best friend as she took her seat to cheers and claps.

As everyone calmed down from the speeches the main course was served and Harry and Neville spent most of it discussing how amazing the food was which caused much eye-rolling from the girls, especially when Susan joined in.

***

"What do you think they will dance to?"

"Something wizarding I suppose," Hermione said as she stood with Lilly, they were both drinking from wine glasses as the tables were cleared away to make way for the dance floor.

"I haven't heard much wizarding music you know," Lilly mused, "Even though I've been a part of this world for so long."

"There isn't much difference," Susan told her, "The songs are very similar but the words are more…magical, I guess."

"And our instruments are better," Daphne said with a smirk.

Susan laughed and agreed, "Yeah we enchant them to play so we don't need a whole band to do it for us."

As they talked the tables had been cleared away and replaced by smaller circular ones surrounding a large square dance-floor.

"Do you know what the music for the first dance is?" Hermione asked Daphne who shook her head.

"No, Sadie's kept it very quiet," Daphne admitted, it was clear that she was curious about the song choice however.

At the end of the room a small band was set up and it began to play as the girls watched. The musical instruments did play themselves in the background. There was one man who was clearly the main singer and two other men who were the backing singers but other than that there was nobody to play the instruments.

Theo took Sadie's hand and led her out to the dance floor as the opening notes of a song began to play. They looked so blissfully happy as they reached the middle of the dance floor. Theo placed his hand on Sadie's shoulder and Sadie placed hers on his arm then they joined hands with their free hands and began to move effortlessly together to the music.

The singers opened their mouths and began to sing the words of the song and Harry smiled at how fitting the song was for Sadie and Theo.

"_I remember what you wore on the first day,_

_You came into my life and I thought hey,_

_You know this could be something,_

_Cause everything you do and words you say,_

_You know that it all takes my breath away,_

_And now I'm left with nothing."_

"I remember everything about that day on the Hogwarts Express," Theo whispered to Sadie as they glided around the dance floor together.

"Me too," Sadie admitted with a small smile, "I'll never forget any part of it."

"Neither will I," Theo promised as he kissed Sadie lightly on the lips.

"_So maybe it's true,_

_That I can't live without you,_

_And maybe two is better than one,_

_But there's so much time,_

_To figure out the rest of my life_

_And you've already got me coming undone_

_And I'm thinking two is better than one."_

"When did you realise you wouldn't be a playboy bachelor forever?" Sadie asked Theo with a smile, she felt perfectly content as they danced together.

Theo smiled, he recalled the moment as clearly in his head as if it had just happened, "The morning after I saved you from the tower in 7th year," he admitted, "I sat up all night talking to you, I was just praying that you would wake up and when you did I knew one way or another I'd never be the same again."

Sadie's cheeks were slightly pink as she beamed at this, Theo smiled, "So what made you realise?"

"The day I saved you," Sadie said, she drew parallels with the moment that Theo had known.

"I don't remember it all that well," Theo admitted, he only knew what he had been told already by Sadie.

Sadie smiled, "I know you don't remember it but I kissed you and then levitated you back to our hide-out and I got pushed out so everyone could work to save your life. I was watching from the side-lines just praying you'd make it so I could tell you how I felt."

"Why didn't you?" Theo asked curiously, it was something he had always wondered about.

Sadie smiled up at her Husband, "Honestly, I never had the guts."

"_I remember every look upon your face,_

_The way you roll your eyes,_

_The way you taste,_

_You make it hard for breathing,_

_Cause when I close my eyes and drift away,_

_I think of you and everything's okay,_

_I'm finally now believing."_

"Sadie?"

"Yeah?"

"I'm glad I eventually got the guts to ask you out," Theo admitted with a sheepish smile, "I mean I know it took a good prod from Daphne, but I'm glad I did it."

"I'm glad too," Sadie admitted, talk about an understatement.

"_That maybe it's true,_

_That I can't live without you_

_And maybe two is better than one_

_But there's so much time,_

_To figure out the rest our lives,_

_And you've already got me coming undone,_

_And I'm thinking two is better than one._

_And I figure now that all is said and done,_

_Two is better than one."_

As the song ended everyone clapped as Sadie and Theo kissed in the middle of the dance-floor. With the initial first dance over it was time for the other formalities which included the Best Man and Maid of Honour dancing together. Theo and Sadie continued to dance in the middle of the floor and Draco approached Daphne.

"Harry can I borrow your fiancé for this dance?" Draco asked in amusement.

"Ah I suppose so," Harry said with a smirk, "Since it is tradition after all."

Daphne chuckled at Draco's outstretched hand and took it. They walked onto the dance floor together and effortlessly slipped into the dance position as a different song played in the background.

"How about a dance Hermione?" Harry asked as he held out his hand to her. Hermione smiled and took his hand then let him lead her onto the dance floor.

The others followed suite with Neville and Lilly making their way over, along with Susan and Percy, and Blaise and Ginny.

Even Salvadora came onto the dance floor to dance with Sorenson, and Lotus rather sweetly danced with Lacey while Oscar ran around hyperactively. They all danced together, every so often they changed partners but they all laughed, let their hair down and refused to let themselves worry about the world for the moment.

***

"It's time to cut the cake!" Daphne announced excitedly with their photographer, a certain Dennis Creevey, on her heels.

Sadie and Theo pulled themselves off of the dance floor to the spot where a large three tier cake was standing. Atop it were two moving figures that looked very much like Sadie and Theo, they were waving happily. The cake had pale blue icing to match the theme of the wedding and everyone gathered around as Sadie held the knife in her hand and Theo helped her to cut the first slice of cake.

Everyone clapped and took photos as Neville said, "I can't wait to try that cake."

After they had all eaten cake it was time for the last planned event of the evening which was Sadie's dance with her Father, or in this case Sorenson. At the same time Theo was to dance with his Mother, or in this case his Step-Mother, Salvadora.

"Well done Sadie," Sorenson said quietly to his sister as they danced together, "You've already created a better life for yourself than I did."

"Don't say that," Sadie said somewhat sadly, "You have Oscar."

"I know," Sorenson said with a smile, "And I love him more than anything in the world. But you and Theo did things the way I wanted to. You're married now and you're going to have a bunch of little monsters and a house. It's how I wanted to do things but Oscar came along."

"It doesn't matter how you get there," Sadie said as she leant up and kissed her brother on the cheek, "You're a fantastic Dad and Oscar loves you. Anyway we don't have a house, we're living with Harry after the honeymoon."

"I wouldn't be so sure about that," Sorenson said cryptically as the song ended.

***

Meanwhile Salvadora said to Theo, "I'm pleased for you Theo. I think Sadie's very good for you."

"Thank you," Theo said, he was rather proud that he managed to get to this point where everyone in his life was proud of him and he was grateful that they all liked Sadie.

"I must admit there was a stage when I wondered if I would ever attend your wedding," Salvadora said honestly, "And I was very worried about the way you were behaving but I'm so grateful to Sadie for saving you from that life."

Theo nodded, his thoughts were far away, "I'm just as grateful to her," he said with a smile.

At that point Lacey rushed over and asked, "Mum, can I dance with Theo now?"

Salvadora chuckled, "Of course you can," she said, she kissed her step-son on the cheek and left the dance floor.

"Come here squirt," Theo said fondly as he held his sister’s hands.

"I'm not a squirt," Lacey objected as she danced with her older brother.

"You are to me," Theo said, “Look how tiny you are.”

"I am not tiny!" Lacey said as she glared at her brother.

"Alright you're not tiny," Theo conceded with a smile, "Are you happy that Sadie married me?"

Lacey nodded, "I like Sadie, she's nice. I don't know why she married you."

"Oi that's not fair," Theo said as his sister stuck out her tongue at him.

Theo narrowed his eyes at her, "I'll get you for that," he said as he tickled her and she shrieked loudly with laughter.

Somewhere amongst all of her giggling the song ended and Sadie walked over to Theo.

"Hey," Theo said with a smile as he threw his sister over his shoulder easily, "What's up?"

Sadie laughed as Lacey hit Theo on the back and asked her to let him down, "Harry and the others have something to tell us."

"That sounds interesting and cryptic," Theo said as he put Lacey down, "Run along you, there's extra cake in the kitchen, I bet Cookie will give you a slice if you ask nicely."

Lacey grinned and rushed away in the direction of the kitchen. Theo turned to Sadie and slipped his hand in hers, "What do Harry and his mysterious gang have to tell us?"

"I have no idea," Sadie admitted, "They were giving nothing away."

"That's because it's a surprise," Harry said with a grin as the bride and groom reached them on the edge of the dance floor.

"Wow this isn't just a couple of you," Sadie said as she looked at the group gathered. Harry, Draco and Neville were at the front with Daphne, Hermione, Lilly and Susan all in on it too.

"We have a wedding gift for you," Draco said with a smirk.

"And I know you said you would open all of your gifts when you got home from your honeymoon," Neville added, "But we have to give you this one now."

"Okay…" Theo said with narrowed eyes, "Should we be scared?"

"Nah of course not," Harry said happily, "This is your present," he held out a small box to Sadie who took it with a frown.

"Go on then, open it," Daphne said with a grin.

Sadie carefully removed the lid from the box and was even more confused when she found a set of keys with three silver keys attached to it.

"What do they open?" Sadie asked but Theo was now looking at his friends suspiciously.

"The littlest key opens the summerhouse in the garden,” Neville said matter of factly.

“The middle key opens the gate to your roof garden,” Draco added.

"And the big key unlocks the front door to your newly renovated 10 bedroom, 6 story house at number 11 Grimmauld Place," Harry said casually.

Sadie and Theo stared at Harry in shock for a moment. As they tried to comprehend this Harry added, "It's from all of us, we all contributed."

"You're serious?" Theo asked, he was still completely shocked, "We have our own house?"

"We're serious," Draco said with a grin.

"Wow," Theo said and Sadie nodded, she was speechless.

"Thanks guys," Theo said completely seriously as he hugged every single one of his friends and then grabbed his wife and hugged her, "We have a house Sadie!"

"I know!" Sadie said with a grin, the shock began to wear off and the excitement took over, "Thank you so much, all of you, but thank you Harry because I know this was your idea."

Harry shrugged and blushed slightly as Sadie launched herself at him and kissed him on the cheek while Theo, Draco and Neville roared with laughter.

Sadie made Harry dance with her after that and for the rest of the night the friends danced and laughed and didn't have a care in the world. It was a wonderful way to live and Harry loved it.

***

As the evening wore on the reception drew to a close which meant that it was time to say goodbye to Sadie and Theo as they left for their honeymoon.

"Thanks for everything today Draco," Theo said quietly to his best man, he hugged him and pretended to say goodbye when what he really said was, "Owl me updates of the Quidditch league yeah? Sadie's banned newspapers."

Draco chuckled and said, "Sure mate," then added, "Have a good honeymoon."

Theo nodded and waited for his wife to finish saying goodbye to Daphne.

"Promise you'll look after Swiper for me," Sadie was saying to her best friend, she was referring to her tabby cat.

"I promise," Daphne said as she shook her head in amusement, "I have a cat too remember?"

"Sorry," Sadie said with a blush, "I just don't leave him alone very often."

"Don't worry, he'll have great fun with Lightning" Daphne said, it was a source of great amusement to Draco and Theo that Daphne's cat happened to be called Lightning and Harry happened to have a lightning bolt shaped scar.

"Okay, I trust you," Sadie said with a smile as she hugged Daphne.

"Have a good time on your honeymoon," Daphne said as she kissed her best friend on the cheek.

"I will," Sadie said, she took Theo's hand and let him help her into their vehicle which was a beautiful pale blue carriage that looked like a smaller version of the one that had brought the Beauxbatons students to Hogwarts during the Triwizard Tournament. Two large pure white hippogriffs were at the front to pull it. On the back of the carriage hung a sign that said "Just Married."

"Bye!" Sadie and Theo called as the Hippogriffs took off and the carriage began to rise into the air and move away.

Everyone stood in a crowd out in the garden waving to the carriage and when it began to move further away most people began to apparate home until eventually only a few people were left watching the carriage become a dot in the sky.

Draco and Harry wound up standing alone with the others standing slightly further away, they were both staring at the dot in the distance.

"It's funny isn't it?" Harry said thoughtfully, "How a war can change absolutely everything."

Draco nodded and mused, "Yeah, you can't go back to being the same after it, can you?"

Harry shook his head, he never thought he would be here today at the wedding of two Slytherins he had barely known before returning to do an 8th Year at Hogwarts.

"It changes us all," Draco said as the dot vanished behind a cloud.

Harry smiled slightly and took his eyes away from the sky to glance over at Daphne who was smiling and laughing with Hermione. Neville stood nearby with his arm around Lilly, and Percy and Susan were talking in undertones about something.

"I'm glad it did," Harry said as he turned his gaze to Draco.

"Maybe things didn't turn out the way we expected them to before the war," Draco said with a small smile as he looked over to his fiancé who looked radiant as she grinned and talked to Daphne. They had both let go so much, now that they weren't in the middle of a war they seemed so much more free, "But I think they turned out better."

"I think you're right," Harry agreed, maybe he hadn't ended up with Ginny like everyone had wanted and expected him to but then that wouldn't have been realistic because he had loved Ginny before the war, then the war had turned him into a completely different, almost unrecognisable man. Ginny had been his teenage girlfriend; Daphne was his future wife.

Draco smiled slightly, he looked once more at the sky rather than at Harry, "We go into a war as naïve children Harry and we emerge as men. I can't see a world in which the war wouldn't have changed us."

Harry smiled fondly at his Slytherin friend, "You know something? For a moment there you sounded like Dumbledore."

"Shut up Scarhead."

**TBC :)**


	67. Muggle Conversation: 101

"Hermione, move!"

"I'm going to miss the bit with Olivia Newton John in a skin-tight leather outfit!"

Daphne raised an eyebrow at her boyfriend, they were all gathered together in the movie theatre room of Longbottom House. It was one thing Potter Manor didn't have, so this was where they spent their Friday nights as of now, "Woah Potter, steady on."

Harry smirked at her, "Hey, Muggles have better clothes than us. You have to admit that much."

"Definitely sexier," Draco said as he peeked around the side of Hermione at the huge projector screen, "Although I do prefer Jennifer Grey in "Dirty Dancing"..."

Hermione crossed her arms in front of them, "I have to tell you something."

"In the middle of our movie night?" Neville asked in amusement, "And just to throw in my two cents by the way, I'm pretty fond of Carrie Fisher myself."

Lilly snorted, "Because of the slave girl outfit?"

Neville grinned mischievously, "Maybe."

Hermione rolled her eyes, "Honestly, you lot are a nightmare! And it can't wait because if I wait then I'll have to interrupt in the middle of "Fight Club" and I'm sure you would be a lot more unhappy about that."

"Fair point," Harry said with a nod, "We’re all listening. What's up?"

"My parents want to throw a graduation party for me," Hermione said with a roll of her eyes, "It's their way of explaining to my posh Muggle family that I'm not going to university. It's this stupid thing at the house and it's tomorrow night."

"And we all have to go?" Draco guessed.

"My Mother's invited you all, yes," Hermione said as she surveyed her friends.

"Well," Harry said in amusement, "That's fine for me and Lilly since we’re used to dealing with Muggles. How the hell are this lot going to fit in though?"

"Not easily," Susan grinned, "And I can't go by the way, sorry."

"Date with Perce?" Ginny guessed as she glanced over at the redhead. Now that school was over her pregnancy was common knowledge and all of her glamour charms had been removed. She was sitting with her feet up on a footstool, she had one hand resting lazily on her stomach.

"Yep," Susan said, "He's taking me to some Ministry thing in Austria, could be fun."

"He nearly got arrested for punching the Austrian Minister in the face a couple of months ago," Ginny said in amusement, "Keep him away from the vodka."

"I didn't know Percy drank vodka," Susan laughed.

"Well after that last incident in Austria, he probably doesn't," Harry snorted in amusement.

Hermione shook her head in amusement, "What about the rest of you?"

"I'll go and I'll drag Daph along with me," Harry said as he smiled at his best friend.

"And I'm kind of obliged to go since I'm your fiancé," Draco said grudgingly.

"Yes, you are," Hermione agreed as her eyes landed on Neville and Lilly.

"I'm happy to come along," Lilly said simply, "Not sure how well Nev will cope though. He'll probably try and talk to Muggles about Quidditch or something."

"I've seen enough Muggle movies to make conversation with them," Neville pointed out, "I can talk about transvestites and singing plants...and sinking ships, like the Titanic."

Hermione couldn't help herself, she laughed out loud, "Neville if you talk to my family like that they will probably think you're insane...or gay."

"Or both," Harry chortled.

"We need to train you guys up," Lilly laughed, "Tomorrow morning."

"Train us how to do what, talk to Muggles?" Draco asked in disbelief.

"Yes, exactly," Hermione said in amusement, "You'll need a cover story. They'll ask what you guys are going to do now that school is over. You can't tell them you're going to be Aurors and Curse Breakers. They really will think you're insane."

"Fine," Daphne said with a wave of her hand, "Muggle Conversation 101 it is, but tomorrow morning."

"Not now," Harry agreed, "We're going to miss the finale!"

"And the flying car!"

“I miss Arthur’s flying car,” Harry mused, “I wonder if it’s still roaming free in the forbidden forest…”

***

"Alright. Are you three ready?"

"This is ridiculous," Draco remarked from where he was leaning against the wall with his arms crossed over his chest.

"No, it's essential," Hermione corrected him, "Because if any of you say something stupid in front of a room full of Muggles you are breaking the Statute of Secrecy."

"And therefore the law," Harry said matter of factly.

"So you're judging us on our ability to be Muggles?" Daphne asked in amusement.

"Precisely love," Harry said with a smirk, "For your own good."

"And our amusement," Lilly said with a wink in Neville's direction.

"You're first Draco," Hermione said with a slightly wicked smile, "So when they ask you what your job is, what do you say?"

Draco rolled his eyes and drawled, "I work for the government."

Lilly, who was a dreadful actress, put on a ridiculous posh person voice (she was from the East End of London), "Oh, what department of the government?"

"The Ministry of Defence," Draco replied, his lips quirked up in amusement.

"And what does that entail?" Harry asked with a grin.

"I'm afraid I can't answer that," Draco said very matter of factly, "It's classified."

"Are you like James Bond or something?" Hermione asked through her laughter.

Draco frowned, "Uh, what is James Bond?"

"See! All Muggles know who James Bond is!" Lilly exclaimed.

"Even I've seen some James Bond films, Draco," Neville said in amusement, "He's a British spy. Like the Muggle equivalent of a Hit Wizard, I guess."

"Right," Draco said, "And how do I answer that question Hermione?"

"You laugh and say, oh no its very boring," Hermione said with a wave of her hand, "Or something like that anyway."

"Now Draco. What do you say if you are asked where you went to school?" Harry asked the blonde boy.

"I went to private school in Scotland," Draco replied.

"Oh, is that where you met Hermione?" Harry asked.

"Uh, yes it is," Draco guessed.

"Hermione's cover story is an all-girls private school, Draco," Lilly said with an amused grin.

"Well how was I to know that?" Draco exclaimed, "I know as much as possible about the _real _Hermione not the fake Hermione!"

Hermione laughed, "I know Draco, that's why we are doing this. Tell them that you went to a nearby all boys school."

"How did we meet then?" Draco asked with a frown.

"I punched you in the face on a night out," Hermione said thoughtfully, "You thought it was pretty hot so you started following me around. We went to a party together the following year but we didn't get together until our last year of school."

"Alright," Draco frowned, "What if they ask how I proposed?"

"Say that our schools are a partnership," Lilly piped up, "So they have a joint prom. Then tell them the truth, that you proposed at prom."

"Okay...is there anything else I should know? Or anything else I _shouldn't _say?" Draco asked in exasperation.

"What do you do in your spare time?" Hermione asked, "What would you say to that?"

"I play sports," Draco replied.

"Oh, like football?"

"No way, I hate football," Draco said distastefully, it was the only Muggle sport he _did_ know anything about.

"Ah, cricket then?"

"How the fuck can you _play _a small irritating bug?" Draco asked loudly.

Harry burst out laughing, "It's the name of a sport Draco. Don't you know anything about cricket?"

"No," Draco said in disbelief, "Can't you just quickly explain the rules?"

Hermione snorted, "There is no way to quickly explain the rules of cricket. But if there's a lull in conversation tonight by all means ask someone to do that, it will keep you occupied all night."

"So I don't play cricket then?" Draco asked with a raised eyebrow.

"No, you would never be able to carry off that lie," Harry grinned, "We need to give you an easy sport to talk about...something like golf."

"Golf?" Draco asked with a frown.

"It's a sport," Lilly explained, "A very boring one. You hold a golf club and you hit a ball into 18 little holes in the ground. Sometimes the hole is farther away, sometimes there is sand or water for the ball to get stuck in. But ultimately all you do is hit it into a hole."

"Like Quidditch but with only a quaffle and on the ground with a smaller hole," Draco said with a nod, "Easy. I can do that."

"Perfect," Hermione said in amusement, "You pass the test. You are officially allowed to speak to Muggles. Daph, you're next."

Daphne stepped forward and raised an eyebrow at her friends, "Go for it then."

"What do you say if you are asked what you do for a living?" Lilly asked her friend.

"I work in a bank," Daphne replied matter of factly.

"Oh, what do you do there?" Hermione asked.

"I'm a Curse Breaker."

Harry let his head fall onto the table with a thump as he laughed loudly, "You can't say that! If you tell a Muggle you're a Curse Breaker they'll think you're Indiana bloody Jones! Curse Breakers don't work in banks in the Muggle world, Daph!"

"What do they do then?" Daphne asked irritably.

"Well they _don't _have to go into dangerous dark magic vaults after a family has died out and examine their possessions for curses. They also don't get contracted by the bank to go into old wizarding households and break curses or wards," Hermione said in amusement.

"Generally they are explorers or archaeologists in the Muggle world," Lilly laughed, "Exactly like Indiana Jones."

"So what do I say that I do then?" Daphne asked as she crossed her arms.

"Just say that you're a secretary in a bank," Harry said with a wave of his hand.

"A secretary?" Daphne asked dryly, "I have been accepted into one of the most elite programmes in the UK! Under the instruction of Bill bloody Weasley himself! I mean he's only the most amazing curse breaker this country has ever seen! I am _not _a secretary!"

"What else can we say she does that's a bit more inventive?" Harry muttered.

"We'll have to think of something to keep her quiet," Hermione murmured back.

"I can hear you guys you know!" Daphne snapped, but she didn't actually look too angry as she raised an eyebrow at her friends.

"Alright then Daphne," Lilly said in amusement, "You _don't _work in a bank. You're an explorer and an archaeologist. You travel the world looking for old artefacts, alright?"

"Alright," Daphne agreed, "I travel the world looking for old artefacts and then I break curses on them-"

"- No!" Harry interjected as he laughed uncontrollably, "You don't mention the curse breaking thing, ever! Most Muggles think that's nonsense!"

"Well you never mentioned that before!" Daphne exclaimed as even Draco and Neville cracked up on either side of her.

"We're telling you now," Hermione chuckled, "Don't mention the curses. Talk about countries where you _get _curses like Egypt and Peru. But don't actually mention the curses."

"Alright, I get it!" Daphne said with a roll of her eyes, "What else do I need to know?"

"Where and how did you and Hermione meet?" Lilly asked calmly.

"Uh we went to the same school," Daphne replied, "But we weren't in the same house so we didn't share a dorm. We met in Ancient Runes - shit, no I mean uh foreign language - class."

"And how did you meet Harry?" Hermione asked, "Because you didn't go to the same school, remember?"

"I know, I know," Daphne said offhandedly, "Draco is my friend because I met him through you when you started dating him. And Harry is Draco's best friend so when you guys started dating I met Harry and we fell in love, blah blah blah."

Lilly grinned, "Perfect. So what do you do in your spare time?"

"I read," Daphne replied.

"Oh, what authors do you like?" Hermione asked, she knew that Daphne really could answer this one easily.

"I like the classic stuff mostly. Horror, romance, mystery. The Bronte sisters, Edgar Allan Poe, Jane Austin, Jules Verne, oh and Tolkien obviously."

"Great," Harry chuckled, "You'll do just fine. Just talk about Muggle literature and-"

"- Don't mention curse breaking, I get it," Daphne said with a roll of her eyes but a smile was playing on her lips.

"Right," Lilly laughed, "Last but certainly not least! Will Neville Longbottom take to the stage?"

Neville chuckled as he stepped into the middle of the dancefloor and surveyed the three people sitting behind the desk, "Ask away my lady."

Lilly chortled at that, "So Neville. What do you do for a living?"

"I work in the government," Neville said matter of factly.

"Ah, which department?" Harry asked.

"The Ministry of Defence," Neville replied.

"Okay, what do you do there?" Hermione asked in her best posh voice. She had kind of lost her accent since starting Hogwarts.

"Can't say," Neville said with a grin, "It's classified."

"Oh wow so you're like a spy?" Lilly asked in a false fan girl voice.

"It's all a bit James Bond at times, yeah," Neville replied smoothly.

"You can't say that," Lilly laughed, "You can't go around pretending to be James Bond!"

"But James Bond is cool!" Neville exclaimed.

"That doesn't mean you can say you're a spy just for the sake of it," Hermione said as Harry laughed uncontrollably once more, "You have to say the same thing as Draco. Say it's all boring paperwork mostly."

"Fine," Neville said, "What else do I need to answer?"

"Where did you go to school?" Hermione asked.

"A private school in Scotland with Draco and Harry," Neville replied.

"And how did you meet Hermione then?" Lilly asked.

"Oh we've been friends for years, since we were 11," Neville said.

Hermione looked at her friend fondly, "Neville, you can't say that. If we went to separate schools we wouldn't have become friends that quickly."

"Right," Neville said sheepishly, "That's a good point. What _do _I say?"

"Say you met me through Draco when we started dating," Hermione laughed.

"Next question. How did you meet me?" Lilly asked with a smirk.

"Uh," Neville floundered, "We met because you were friends with Hermione and she started dating Draco?"

"That will do," Harry said with a smirk, "What do you do in your spare time, Neville?"

"Well, I love Herbology," Neville said brightly.

Lilly let her head drop onto the table in exasperation, "You can't say that! They'll think you're mental, tell them that you like gardening."

"And that you have an allotment," Hermione added through her chuckles.

"What the hell is an allotment?" Neville asked in disbelief.

"Right," Lilly said with a grin, "People with houses that don't have gardens sometimes get given bits of land by the local government. They can plant fruit and vegetables there, or just plants in general. It's like a greenhouse but its outside and the plants don't try and eat you."

"And if people ask you what kind of things you plant there _don't _tell them anything wizarding," Harry added, "Say that Audrey, your creepy venomous tentacula thing, is a Venus Fly Trap."

"A what?" Neville asked bluntly.

"A Venus Fly Trap," Hermione said with a smile, "It's a plant that eats flies, it has a mouth but it can't hurt humans."

"_Unlike _a venomous tentacula," Lilly said in amusement.

"As Theo would know," Draco chortled. Theo was still on his 2-week honeymoon with Sadie at the moment which was probably a good thing. He would certainly have broken the Statute of Secrecy if he had been allowed to attend the party.

"Is there anything else?" Neville asked in amusement.

"Nope, you pass the test, _just_," Lilly grinned.

"There is one more thing," Harry said, "And I'm directing this at Draco and Neville more than you Daphne. We'll take the motorbikes but we _can't _fly."

"How far is Oxford from here by road then?" Daphne asked curiously.

"About an hour," Hermione replied.

"On motorways and country roads," Harry added, "And I've forged driving licences for you both. Terribly illegal but there we have it. I just need to give you a lesson on how to drive now."

"I know how to drive the bike," Draco scoffed.

"So do I," Neville said with offence, "I've driven it on the road before!"

"Yeah and you didn't have a grasp on anything about the roads," Lilly said in disbelief, "Like the speed limit, or one way systems!"

"Or box junctions," Hermione added, "Which to be fair, most competent drivers can't bloody work out either."

"You also don't seem capable of filling the bike with petrol," Lilly said with a raised eyebrow, "And also, you drive on one side of the road, _not _into oncoming traffic."

"The girls are right so before we go I'm going to give you both a lesson on the theory of driving on Muggles roads," Harry said with an amused smirk.

"Wonderful," Draco remarked dryly.

***

"John! What on earth is that noise?"

John frowned up at Elizabeth as she stood in front of the window. There was a loud roaring from outside, like the rev of an engine, "It sounds like a car or a motorbike love."

"A motorbike" Elizabeth frowned, "That can't be Hermione surely. She would never get on something as dangerous as a motorbike."

The room was full of Hermione's Aunts, Uncles and cousins along with all of their children. They were going to surprise Hermione when she and her friends arrived at the house. Outside a black and green bike pulled into the driveway and parked. John and Elizabeth stood by the window curiously as the rider pulled off their helmet and shook back their shoulder length blonde hair.

They both gasped when they realised who the rider was and their shock turned to horror when he helped a woman off of the bike. She pulled her helmet off and shook out her long, curly mane of hair. That was the final straw for John and Elizabeth, they abandoned their surprise plan and swiftly made their way out into the front garden.

"Hermione!" Elizabeth exclaimed, "I thought you had more common sense than to get on a death trap like that!"

"And had I known you had a motorbike I would not have given you my blessing so easily, Draco!" John snapped in agreement.

"It's fine," Hermione said as she tried not to roll her eyes, "Draco's a good driver."

"I don't care how good a driver he is, Hermione!" John remarked, "Do you know how dangerous motorbikes are?"

Hermione opened her mouth to reply when the loud rev of another engine filled the street. She had to hide her smirk as her family moved to the window and the door to see what the fuss was about. A black motorbike pulled into the drive and parked next to Draco's. John and Elizabeth were looking fairly faint as Harry and Daphne got off the bike and shook their hair out as they did so.

"Harry!" Elizabeth said in disbelief, "I would have thought you _of all people _would have more sense than to ride something as dangerous as a motorbike!"

"Sorry Mrs. Granger," Harry said sheepishly, "I like the adrenaline rush."

"But we drove to the speed limit, Mrs. Granger," Daphne assured the woman, "That's actually why we're late. Draco wouldn't go above 50 miles an hour on the motorway."

Elizabeth's eyes flashed angrily and she opened her mouth to voice her opinion when a third loud rev distracted her. Neville's red and black bike pulled into the drive and he parked up on the other side of Draco's bike.

"Oh for the love of Jesus!" Elizabeth exclaimed under her breath.

This time Neville jumped off of the bike after he had shut the engine off and he helped his miniscule girlfriend jump down. They took their helmets off and at this point John was looking slightly amused but Elizabeth looked like she was going to blow her top at any moment.

"Neville! Honestly, Hermione told me that she had _responsible _friends!" Elizabeth breathed.

"Sorry Mrs. Granger," Neville said somewhat sheepishly as he put his arm around Lilly, "By the way this is my girlfriend Lilly, I don't think you've met."

"We haven't," Elizabeth said, "But it's lovely to meet you Lilly."

"You too Mrs. Granger," Lilly said with a slight smile.

Elizabeth's cheeks were fairly red as she turned her eyes toward her daughter, "You and I will be talking about this later, Hermione," she said in an undertone.

"Understood," Hermione muttered under her breath, "Can we go inside and join my surprise party now?"

John chuckled at his daughter’s sassiness but Elizabeth looked affronted by it. She didn't get in trouble though because John walked over to her and hugged her, "Of course we can. Come on in sweetheart."

They all walked into the living room and Hermione's family shouted a belated and out of sync, "Surprise!"

Hermione laughed and waved to them all as she kicked her shoes off in the hallway. As her friends all stood around her she whispered, "Draco, please tell me you are wearing a long sleeved shirt."

Draco frowned, "No, I'm wearing a short sleeved shirt. Why?"

"Don't take your jacket off," Hermione muttered, "You know _why_."

"They'll ask me to take it off," Draco whispered, "I'd be rude not to."

"Just say you don't want to" Hermione snapped, "Say you're cold."

"Alright," Draco said quickly as he kicked off his shoes while everybody else hung up their coats.

"Won't you take your coat off, Draco?" Elizabeth asked politely as the others made their way into the living room.

"Uh I'd rather not," Draco replied.

"And why is that?" She asked curiously.

"Well I'm a little cold," Draco lied.

"In June?" Elizabeth asked with a chuckle, "Heavens, don't be silly. Do take your coat off."

"I... uh…like I said. I'd rather not," Draco said as he swallowed.

"I'm starting to think that you have something to hide, Draco," Elizabeth said as she narrowed her eyes at the wizard.

"No," Draco lied, "I just...like my coat."

"That is a terrible excuse," Elizabeth said and for a fairly short woman she managed to be very intimidating, "So _please _take your coat off Draco."

Draco grimaced as he slipped his coat off, and Elizabeth's eyes immediately went to his forearms. Her face paled, "What is _that_?"

"It's a tattoo," Draco said weakly as he looked at the image on his left forearm, "Of a dragon."

"A dragon?" Elizabeth half shrieked.

"Because my name means dragon," Draco continued, "And I thought it was cool."

"Motorbikes _and _tattoos!" Elizabeth said as she turned her gaze to her daughter, "We will certainly be talking about this later young lady!"

Hermione rolled her eyes, "What's the big deal about tattoos Mum? Everybody has them!"

"Do _you _have them?" Elizabeth asked hotly.

"No, but my friends all do," Hermione said offhandedly.

"Do you have a tattoo, Harry?" Elizabeth asked sharply.

"Uh, no," Harry lied, _badly_.

"Where is it?" Elizabeth asked simply.

Harry bit his lip, Hermione's Mother was scary, he could see where she got it from, "It's on my arm...in the same place as Draco's."

"And is it also a _dragon_?"

"No, it's a Phoenix..." Harry said sheepishly.

"And you Neville?" Elizabeth asked as she spun around to look at the boy.

Neville looked quite terrified as he replied, "Uh yes. Harry, Draco and I got them at the same time in the same place...mine is of a lion."

"A lion," Elizabeth tutted, "I don't suppose you _respectable _ladies have tattoos?"

"I have a lightning bolt on my wrist," Daphne admitted as she showed Elizabeth the underside of her wrist, "Because my cat is called lightning..."

Harry shot her an amused smirk, he knew her lightning bolt tattoo had a double meaning.

"I hate to disappoint you Mrs. Granger," Lilly said sheepishly, "But I have a raven tattoo on my foot..."

Elizabeth sighed, "Well if you _all _have them and you all did so well in school I suppose I cannot argue with you. But you and I will still be having words later, Hermione."

"Yes, Mother," Hermione muttered.

"Don't you mutter at me young lady," Elizabeth said quietly as she slipped past them to the kitchen to grab drinks.

***

"I can't believe you managed to get away with that!" Lilly grinned.

"What do you mean?" Neville asked cluelessly as they sat in the little bar area of Potter Manor later that night.

"You told one of Hermione's cousins that Nessie was a Kelpie and then managed to convince her, _a veterinary student, _that a Kelpie was a variation of the Kraken and that it was a mythological beast," Lilly exclaimed.

"Well, I realised my mistake when I said Kelpie," Neville said sheepishly, "I just had to try and find a way to fix it."

"She did look at you like you were mad for the rest of the night," Harry laughed.

"Well she didn't think you were _that _mad," Daphne said with a chuckle, "Hermione's Uncle wanted to send me off to the loony bin."

"You did tell him that your biggest goal was to break the curse on the long lost tomb of the ancient sorcerer Amun-Ra," Hermione pointed out.

"I know," Daphne cringed, "But I didn't realise it would sound that crazy. I thought Muggles believed in exploring tombs and things."

"Yeah but we told you not to mention curses," Harry said through his chuckles.

"And what did you go and do? Mention a curse!" Lilly laughed loudly.

Draco grinned, "So what you are in fact saying is that I was the only pureblood who _didn't_ fuck up tonight."

Hermione grinned, "I don't know if I would go that far. You did get cricket and golf mixed up..."

"How was I supposed to know the difference between a golf club and a bat?" Draco asked defensively.

"Or a wicket and a hole for that matter," Harry chortled, "Which are very different by the way."

Draco rolled his eyes, "Hey, I think I did alright compared to Neville."

"Yeah you were pretty dreadful," Lilly said as she glanced at her boyfriend.

"I don't have to deal with Muggles normally," Neville shrugged, "So I tried to go off of what I knew from films..."

"Yeah, I got that impression when you were talking to my Aunt who lived in the Pacific and you asked her if she had ever been to that island where the dinosaurs were reborn," Hermione laughed, "She looked at you like you were either an idiot or a crazy person."

"Thank God he didn't talk to your Irish cousin about the Titanic," Harry said though his laughter.

"Yeah Neville, Kate Winslet wasn't on board the Titanic," Lilly grinned, "And neither was Leonardo DiCaprio."

"You mean Jack, right?" Neville asked curiously.

"Yeah the actor who plays him is called Leonardo Di - you know what, never mind," Lilly said as she laughed at the blank look on Neville's face.

"Muggles are quite difficult," Neville yawned, "I'm exhausted after today."

"You're going to have to get used to it," Lilly pointed out in amusement, "I know my Mum and Dad know about you being a wizard and all. But at some stage you'll have to meet my Muggle family, you know my Aunts, Uncles and cousins? And they _won't _know."

"Well I'll jump over that hurdle when I get to it," Neville said with a slight smile at his girlfriend, "But in the meantime I guess I'll just watch more Muggle films."

"Contrary to wizarding belief they aren't actually an accurate representation of Muggle culture," Lilly laughed, "Ask Theo that and he'll tell you that they only watch films in every Muggle Studies class because the teachers are generally washed up hippies."

"Well at least Theo paid enough attention to work out that much in Muggle Studies," Harry said and the others laughed at the comment. They were missing Sadie and Theo a little but their group was so large that even with the absence of two members it could hold up just fine.

Harry, Draco and Neville suspected that Theo wouldn't be happy when he got back and found out that his friends had gotten tattoos without him, and he would probably jump on the bandwagon and get one too. He still had one week of his honeymoon to go and when he returned the four of them would all be leaving their other halves for a weekend. They would be spending it on the Auror training base to be a part of the selection process. They had been training hard, jogging, eating better than normal and working out. They knew it was going to be intense and they all wanted to make sure that they did their best to get accepted. Those going into Auror training started earlier than everyone else whose courses began around the start of August on the whole. It meant that they were spending all of their free time lounging around watching movies (or in Neville and Lilly's case building a greenhouse) while Sadie and Theo were honeymooning in Paris.

***

"When Theo comes back you and him will have to keep these in your mouth for a month," Harry said late that night as he sat up with the boys after the girls had gone to bed.

"Leaves?" Draco asked with a frown.

"Mandrake leaves," Neville said, "For becoming an Animagus like Harry and me."

"Exactly," Harry grinned.

Draco's eyes widened, "Seriously?"

"Uh-huh," Harry said with a smug grin, "The girls didn't really work on the potion properly until after graduation but they've got it to the point where it's nearly finished. It needs to stew for two weeks before they add the final ingredient and then it has to stew for another two weeks. After that it will keep for a month so if you guys pop them in your mouth at the same time you'll both be Animagi in just over a month."

Draco grinned, "That's totally cool. I just wish I didn't have to wait for Theo."

"You know he'd go mental if you didn't," Neville laughed.

"He's going to be pissed enough about the tattoos," Harry chortled.

"Well if he will go away and sleep with his wife on a beach for 2 weeks of course he's going to miss the fun!" Draco joked.

Harry snorted, "I wouldn't tell Sadie that's how you think they're spending their honeymoon."

"I've not heard from Sadie," Draco admitted in amusement, "I've been sending Theo cuttings from the prophet to keep him up to date with the Quidditch league. Sadie banned newspapers."

Neville snorted in amusement, "So you're his black market newspaper supply guy now?" he joked.

"Exactly," Draco smirked, 'Draco Malf - shit, its Black now - Draco Black, criminal extraordinaire."

Harry barked out a laugh at his friend's behaviour, "Try Draco Malfoy, extraordinary arsehole."

"Oi, I resent that Scarhead!"

**TBC :)**


	68. The Grand Homecoming

** The 8th Year **

** Chapter 68 – The Grand Homecoming **

** **

“Do you really think this is a good idea?” Hermione Granger asked her fiancé with a very typical, very sceptical look.

Draco looked at her incredulously from his spot behind a large wooden coat stand, “What could possibly be bad about it?”

“Well,” Daphne whispered from halfway up the stairs, “Theo and Sadie are newlyweds and they are coming home to their new house for the very first time. Do you really think they want all of us here?”

“Who else would give them the grand tour?” Harry asked.

“I’m sure they would find everything themselves,” Lilly pointed out.

“The girls have a point Harry,” Neville admitted, “What if they don’t want a big surprise party?”

“Shh!” Harry cut in as they heard noises outside. Everyone shrunk back into their hiding places and the lights went out in the corridor which left them all in darkness.

The door opened slowly and two people stepped into the hallway. They were giggling and whispering when the lights went on and their friends all jumped out with shouts of, “WELCOME HOME!”

Sadie and Theo jumped apart from what had clearly been a compromising position and looked like deers caught in the headlights as a massive ‘WELCOME HOME’ banner fell from up high and confetti rained down on them from above.

Daphne, Hermione and Lilly shared knowing looks while Neville shook his head in exasperation.

“Uh…” Sadie floundered as her cheeks transitioned from pink to scarlet.

“Seriously?” Theo asked his friends in disbelief.

“What?” Draco asked cluelessly, “We’ve missed you guys so we threw you a surprise welcome home party! You didn’t have other plans, did you?”

“Uh yeah!” Theo said irritably, “I had plans to christen my new house by ravaging my new wife in every-”

“Theo!” Sadie shrieked before he could go any further.

Daphne sniggered and said under her breath in a sing-song voice, “Told you this was a bad idea.”

Draco looked mildly offended but Harry at least had the gall to look sheepish and guilty, “Right…we just thought you might have wanted to you know…catch up…with you being gone for two weeks and all.”

“Oh of course we do Harry,” Sadie said gently as she realised Theo had kind of hurt Harry’s feelings, “And it was really sweet of you to do this. We just weren’t expecting it.”

“Yeah we were expecting to find the biggest bedroom in this place and-”

“-Sleep!” Sadie cut in before Theo could finish, “Because we’re really tired, you know with the apparition sickness.”

“Right,” Harry said with a nod, “Yeah, of course. We’ll just head off and let you guys get some sleep then.”

“We can catch up tomorrow,” Sadie suggested, “You could all come around for lunch and tell us all about the renovation of the house, I’m sure we won’t be able to find all of its secrets before noon.”

“That’s a wonderful idea Sadie,” Hermione said with a smile, “Let’s all go home and get a good nights sleep then catch up over lunch tomorrow.”

“Funny, it’s almost like you suggested we do lunch tomorrow instead of throwing a surprise party tonight,” Lilly said sarcastically.

Daphne piped up, “I’d just like to say that I concurred with the lunch plan.”

Sadie smiled slightly and looked at Neville, “What about you Neville? You’ve been fairly quiet.”

“I went along with the surprise party plan,” Neville admitted sheepishly, “But I realised before those two idiots did that it was a bad idea.”

“Hey!”

“Oi!”

Sadie smiled in amusement, “We appreciate the thought, if that helps.”

Neville gave her a sheepish nod and said, “Come on guys, let’s head home.”

Harry nodded as he dragged himself towards the door, “Yeah, sorry for barging in on your night.”

Draco scoffed as he brushed past Theo, “It’s not like they’ve had two weeks to shag on beaches or anything. You would have thought he missed us at least a little bit but clearly not.”

Sadie held her hand up against her face and shook her head in amusement at Hermione, Daphne and Lilly, “Is he really jealous right now?”

“Yeah,” Hermione said with a half-smile, “I think I’m going to have to deal with that tonight…”

Theo glanced guiltily over his shoulder but Harry, Draco and Neville had already left through the front door, “Do you think I need to apologise to him tomorrow?”

“Oh I’m sure Hermione will have cooled him off by then,” Lilly smirked, “Sorry for cock-blocking you Theo.”

Theo snorted in amusement, “For that comment, I forgive you.”

“I’m a terrible best friend,” Daphne admitted as she hugged Sadie, “I should have stopped them.”

Sadie shook her head, “Don’t worry, I know what those two are like when they get an idea in their heads.”

Daphne rolled her eyes, “Tell me about it. Have a good night you two,” she added with a wink as she, Hermione and Lilly vacated the Nott’s new house.

Sadie sighed as she glanced at Theo, “That’s totally killed the mood hasn’t it?”

“I bet I can bring it back,” Theo said with a mischievous glint in his eye as he picked his new wife up and carried her up the narrow staircase towards the master bedroom.

***.

“Do you think we should get up and explore our new house?” Sadie asked Theo as she propped herself up on her elbow in their new bedroom.

“I’ve already established that I like the bedroom,” Theo said as he shot her a grin.

“And that luxurious en-suite bathroom with the jacuzzi is pretty nice,” Sadie admitted with a smile, “But there’s a whole house to explore Theo! I don’t want to spend the whole morning lying in bed when we could be investigating it!”

Theo smiled fondly at her, “Alright then, but I refuse to put on any clothes apart from a dressing gown before 11am. Deal?”

“Deal!” Sadie grinned as she jumped out of bed and raked in their suitcases. She threw her own dressing gown on and held his out for him, “Come on! Let’s explore!”

Theo found her child-like excitement quite endearing so he got out of bed, threw on his dressing gown and slipped on his slippers. Sadie had already dashed out into the hallway so he followed her out and noticed for the first time how clean looking it was. The carpets were beige and the walls were white. It was kitted out with electricity rather than with gas lights like most old wizarding houses. All of the light fittings and accessories were silver, “Thank Salazar they didn’t make everything gold like they did in Potter Manor.”

Sadie laughed, “Draco was one of the main people involved in redecorating. Do you really think he would have let Harry and Neville Gryffindor-ise our house?”

“No,” Theo admitted with a guilty look, “I really need to apologise to him later, don’t I?”

Sadie just laughed again, “I really don’t think you did anything wrong but you two do kind of act like an old married couple.”

“I know we’re overly dramatic a lot of the time,” Theo admitted as they headed upstairs, “But I do think I offended him for real this time.”

“He probably just missed you a bit more than you missed him,” Sadie reasoned, “If anything he’s probably just a little upset, you know how touchy Draco is.”

Theo nodded his agreement as they emerged onto the top floor of their new home. It was spread across 4 levels, 5 if you included the basement as a floor. The master bedroom was on the 2nd floor, it was huge and had the most luxurious bathroom attached to it. Also on the 2nd floor were two small double bedrooms and a small bathroom to serve them both. All three bedrooms were decked out with white and silver trappings, it was very neutral which meant that Sadie and Theo could change the theme of any room if they so wished.

“Ooh there are more bedrooms up here,” Sadie said as she peeked her head into several doors, “There are four actually and one of them has an ensuite.”

“Is it as nice as ours?” Theo joked.

Sadie chuckled, “Of course not. It doesn’t have a jacuzzi with mood lighting, or his and hers sinks.”

“I thought the rose petals in the jacuzzi were a nice touch,” Theo admitted, “Do you reckon that was Hermione’s idea?”

“Well, I doubt it was Draco’s,” Sadie said with a slight frown, “Theo?”

“Yeah?” Theo said as he stepped out of the bathroom that he had been inspecting.

“There are stairs here,” Sadie said, she looked up at a set of wooden stairs leading to a hatch, “But this should be the top floor.”

“It’s probably just the attic,” Theo shrugged.

“Do you want to check?” Sadie asked a little cautiously.

Theo smiled at her, “Is that because you’re too scared to go up?”

“Pretty much,” Sadie admitted with a cute, but sheepish, smile.

“Alright,” Theo said as he began to climb the stairs, “But as this was a muggle house, I’m sure there’s nothing scary in the attic.”

Sadie nodded but watched anxiously all the same. Theo reached the top of the stairs and unlocked the bolt on the hatch. He pushed it open and got a surprise when natural sunlight flooded the corridor. Theo took another couple of steps and looked out, “Woah Sadie, you have got to come up here!” he said as he climbed the last few steps and disappeared from view.

Sadie followed him up and gasped in surprise when she saw where the hatch led. The 3rd floor was the top floor but their friends had managed to squeeze a little terraced roof garden into their high-rise London home.

“Oh Merlin…” Sadie said. The roof terrace was small, you could fit a bench in or a small outdoor table and not much else. It had been cut into the attic space because on one side they could see the roof of the house where the rest of the attic existed. The terrace itself wasn’t particularly spectacular but the views were what made it so special. A whitewashed wall surrounded the terrace on the three sides where it was open to the air. It was high enough to make it safe but not so high that it obstructed the view of London that it gave them. The roof terrace in Potter Manor showed all of the highest landmarks in London from a distance but Sadie and Theo were so much closer in their new home that they could see Big Ben, the Tower of London and St. Pauls Cathedral very clearly.

“This has got to be the best part of the house,” Theo said as he leant on the wall and looked out as London awakened.

“It must have been magically modified,” Sadie said as she looked around, “This is a terraced house. We shouldn’t be able to see anything in either of those directions.”

“Who knows what kind of clever spell they used,” Theo said, “Does it really matter? The view is real, look at the people walking on the street below. No spell can fake that.”

Sadie nodded, she leant against the wall and looked out at London too, “I wonder if Draco and Hermione will put the same thing into their house when they move in.”

Theo glanced to the right where Number 12 Grimmauld Place was situated. They could see that the house was attached to theirs but it seemed to end where the third floor was, there were no higher floors or a roof.

“Maybe when they take all of the protective charms off it we’ll be able to see the rest of the house,” Theo mused.

Sadie nodded thoughtfully and tore her gaze away from London, “Come on, we haven’t even looked at the lower floors yet.”

Theo smiled at his wife, “Alright, lead the way,” he said as he followed her back into the house. He made sure to shut the hatch and re-bolt it before he jogged to catch up with Sadie. When he eventually caught up with her she was on the 1st floor.

“Theo! You have got to see this room!”

Theo chuckled and followed her into a large reception room. He understood why she had wanted him to see it from the moment he walked in. The room was narrow and long, like many rooms in the old Georgian terraced house. There was a large archway in the centre which split it somewhat, but it was essentially a drawing room in two halves. At either end of the room there were floor to ceiling windows that opened like doors, upon closer inspection Theo realised that both of them led to small balcony areas which were just wide enough to fit a couple of chairs on.

“Isn’t this just beautiful?” Sadie gushed.

The room was very elegant and grand. It had solid oak floorboards and the walls had been painted in a pastel green colour that Theo was sure Sadie loved. He expected that had been Daphne’s handiwork, the green worked well with the two large silver chandeliers that hung in the room. It was large but it seemed cosy with two fireplaces to keep it warm. It had been kitted out with beige sofas and armchairs that had silver studs on their sides. There were lots of little touches that were really nice, like a beautiful fully stocked drinks cabinet.

“I take back what I said about the roof terrace being my favourite part of the house,” Theo admitted sheepishly, “This is amazing.”

“All it’s missing is a family tree,” Sadie said thoughtfully as she stepped through the archway into the smaller part of the room, “But I suppose we could do that ourselves-”

Theo followed her into the room to see why she had suddenly stopped speaking, “Oh,” was all he could say as he took in the room. There were floor to ceiling windows leading to the second balconied area and on the wall to their right was another fireplace. However, the wall to their left was what had caught both of their attentions. The pastel green wall contained a beautiful depiction of a silver tree at the heart of which were the names “Theodore and Sadie Nott”. Sadie reached out and touched her name and the tree came to life, branches stretched out and extended to reveal her entire family tree.

“Oh my…”

“It’s just like the one in Nott Manor,” Theo said as he touched his name. Sadie’s branches of the tree drew themselves back in and his family tree stretched out in front of them, “Draco designed it to be just like it…”

“With a nice little addition,” Sadie said with a soft smile, “Look.”

Theo followed her finger and smiled when he saw the name, “Hermione Granger” on his family tree, “Yeah…this was definitely all Draco.”

“You probably do owe him an apology,” Sadie admitted as she smiled sheepishly at her Husband, “He was just excited to show you all of his hard work.”

“I know,” Theo said as he put his arm around Sadie, “And I was a horny, selfish bastard.”

“He should be used to that by now,” Sadie teased as she let Theo lead her out of the room.

Theo laughed at that and asked, “Is there anything else interesting up here?”

Sadie shook her head, “Not really, there are two bedrooms on the other side of the corridor and a small bathroom connecting them. I think you could probably fit double beds in them at a push but they have singles in them at the moment.”

Theo glanced inside one of the rooms, “Good size for a nursery though or a kid’s room.”

Sadie looked up at him in surprise.

“What?” Theo asked when he saw the look on her face.

“You’re thinking about that?” Sadie asked, the surprise on her face was clear.

Theo smirked, “You don’t have to sound so surprised. I want everything you want Sadie; I can’t wait for us to be surrounded by lots of hyperactive brats.”

Sadie laughed, “I’m thrilled that you’re thinking ahead Theo but you have three years of Auror training to get through first and I have my Alchemy course to finish.”

Theo smiled at her, “I know, I wasn’t saying that we should do it right now, I promise. Do you want to check out what’s downstairs?”

Sadie nodded and the two of them made their way down onto the ground floor. The banner from the night before had been removed and the confetti that had rained down on them was also gone.

Theo frowned, “They left before we went upstairs, didn’t they?”

Sadie nodded slowly, “So who cleaned up?”

Theo got a knowing look in his eyes, “I have an idea…if I’m right we’ll find out soon enough.”

Sadie’s frown deepened as she followed him into one of the three doors leading off of the corridor. They had stepped into a large, grand dining room. The cornicing and fireplace seemed to be the original Georgian ones, like they were in the drawing room upstairs. There was a deep green rug laid out on the floor and atop it was a lovely solid oak dining room table with matching chairs that seated 10 people.

“There’s another door there,” Sadie noticed as she pointed towards the far end of the room. Behind them there was a large window that looked out onto the street and let in lots of light. However, at the other end of the long, thin room there were two large glass double doors and they were letting in a lot of light too.

The couple walked the length of the room and pushed the doors open. They immediately saw why so much light was streaming in, this was a sort of ‘morning room’. The wall in front of them was made completely of glass and looked out onto their small garden. This was a fairly small room, it had a little four-seater wicker table with matching, comfortable chairs. It was more of a place to dine casually rather than to entertain lots of guests like the formal dining room they had just walked through.

“There’s access to the garden from here,” Theo said. Sadie hadn’t even noticed it but one of the glass panels in front of them was actually a door. Theo placed his hand on the handle, it automatically recognised him and swung open. The two of them stepped out into the tiny garden onto a small patio-ed area. It fitted a table for four on it but no more. There were a few steps down into a grassy area of the garden where they would be able to fit a swing set or a wendy house if they so wished when they did decide to have children. It seemed fairly private because it was surrounded by a high fence on all three sides.

“It’s small but do we really need anything bigger?” Theo reasoned.

“And we could magically expand it if we wanted to,” Sadie said as she stepped back into the house.

“That’s true,” Theo said as he accompanied her back through the dining room into the entrance hallway. They opened the door adjacent to that of the dining room and saw that it led to a cosy little downstairs sitting area. Three out of four walls were adorned with floor to ceiling bookcases and the fourth wall featured another Georgian fireplace. There was also a door in that wall that led to a small but functional study. They discovered that the final room on the ground floor was a bathroom.

“I wonder if there are stairs to the basement like in Number 12,” Theo said as he walked the length of the corridor. Sure enough, there was a door at the end and when opened it revealed a staircase. The lights came on automatically as Theo led the way down the stairs into the basement floor of the house. Like in Number 12, when you reached the bottom of the stairs you found yourself in the kitchen. However, this kitchen was much nicer than the one next door.

It had the same oak floorboards as the rest of the house but it was almost styled like a country kitchen. The cupboard doors were a pastel green and the worktops were made from solid wood. The kitchen also featured a beautiful range cooker, a porcelain sink and another fireplace. At the centre of the kitchen was a large oak table with two matching benches. There were three doors leading off of the kitchen, Theo assumed that one of them had to lead to the pantry but that begged the question; where did the other two go?

His question was answered before he even had to vocalise it because one of the doors, which was about a third smaller than the other two, opened.

“Oh!” Sadie gasped in surprise when she saw the door opening. She had assumed after all, that they were home alone.

“Oh!” The startled house elf squeaked as the poor thing jumped into the air, “Oh! Deely is sorry Master and Mistress Nott! Deeley was not knowing that you was awake!”

“That’s okay,” Theo assured the house elf, “My wife just got a surprise because she didn’t know that we had a house elf.”

Deeley nodded, her eyes were still very wide, “Mr. Draco said it was a surprise Master Nott.”

“Draco hired you?” Theo asked as he felt guilty for the umpteenth time that morning.

Deeley nodded again, “Deeley knew Dobby, Master Nott.”

“Oh,” Theo realised, “Well, welcome to the Nott family then Deeley.”

Deeley beamed broadly, “Master Nott must not worry about Deeley’s work ethic. Deeley does not want clothes or holidays like Dobby.”

Sadie smiled, “It would be okay if you did Deeley.”

“No, no,” Deeley said with a shake of her head, “Deeley is a good house elf Mistress Nott.”

“Well Deeley,” Theo said, “I understand if it’s too short notice but would you maybe be able to throw together some lunch for eight people? Nothing fancy, maybe just some soup and bread?”

Deeley nodded vigorously, “Of course Master Nott. Deeley will get to work right away.”

Theo smiled, “Thanks Deeley, oh there’s another thing. Can you tell me where that door leads?”

He pointed to the door on the other side of the kitchen. He assumed that the door next to Deeley’s room led to the pantry.

Deeley nodded, “Oh yes Master Nott! It’s a special room, Mr. Harry says you think about what you want it to become and then it becomes it!”

Theo grinned and looked over at Sadie, “We have our own room of requirement!”

Sadie laughed at his enthusiasm, “What do you want it to be?”

“What do you want it to be?” He countered.

“I have a luxury bathroom upstairs, a garden and a roof terrace,” Sadie said with a smile, “Not to mention a stunning drawing room. This house already has everything that I could want or need, you pick what you want it to be.”

Theo shot her a sheepish look, “I know it’s copying Harry but I would kind of like a man cave with a bar and a duelling platform. I’m not sure I want the swimming pool though; I think that’s a bit excessive.”

Sadie laughed, “Well make it into a man cave then,” she said as she smiled fondly at her husband.

Theo put his hand on the door, shut his eyes tightly and envisioned the room in his head. After a few seconds there was a click and the door swung open of its own accord. He practically bounded into the room and Sadie had to try very hard not to laugh as she followed him inside.

“This is amazing!”

The room had certainly become what Theo had wanted. It had a very cosy feeling despite the walls all being bare red stone. There were fireplaces at either end of the room though and it was lit by gas lighting unlike the rest of the house. Sadie supposed that the magic in the room would have interfered with the electricity. The room was very large because it took up half of the basement floor (and it had probably been expanded with magic as well). It had everything Theo had dreamed of, on one side there was a small bar which was surrounded by comfortable sofas and armchairs in the same emerald green as those in the Slytherin common room. In fact, the whole room had an air of the Slytherin common room; the duelling platform on the other side of the room was green and silver and looked far grander than the basic wooden one in Potter Manor.

“I really need to think up a good apology before the others arrive,” Theo admitted as he looked around his dream room, “What time is it?”

“I don’t know,” Sadie said. As she looked around the room for a clock there was a pop and a grand roman faced clock appeared on the wall in front of her.

Theo grinned, “That’s neat.”

“Yes,” Sadie agreed, “But the fact it’s half 11 really isn’t.”

“Yeah,” Theo agreed as he reluctantly walked towards the door, “We better get ready before the others arrive.”

“Yes, we better,” Sadie said with a knowing smile as she took his hand and dragged him out of his mini room of requirement.

***.

“Happy Homecoming!” Hermione said with a smile as she stepped into the hallway of Number 11 Grimmauld Place with a large box in her hands.

Sadie smiled at her, “Thanks. What’s in the box?”

“Dessert,” Hermione said cheerfully, “I would say it’s from Draco and I but I made it this morning while Draco huffed so…”

Sadie rolled her eyes, “Theo has spent the last half hour going over different apology strategies with me. Where is Draco?”

“Still huffing,” Hermione said matter of factly, “He was having a duel with Harry so I left them to it and said I would explain their lateness.”

Sadie laughed, “Theo’s still upstairs. Here, let me take that and pop it in the kitchen.”

Hermione handed Sadie the cake and the two women walked towards the basement stairs, “So, how was the honeymoon?”

“Amazing,” Sadie admitted with a big smile, “Paris was romantic and it was so hot as well.”

“Yeah, I did notice that tan,” Hermione said, “It’s only going to get better though isn’t it? With you working in Egypt soon.”

“Not all of the time,” Sadie reminded her, “I’ll only be in Egypt sometimes. I’m going to do as much of my studying as possible from the London Headquarters.”

“I know but still,” Hermione said with a wave of her hands, “You’re going to see much more sun than I will while I’m stuck in an office in the Ministry.”

Sadie smiled sheepishly at her, “I suppose when you put it that way…” she said as she deposited the cake in the pantry, “Thank you so much for everything you guys did with the house by the way, it’s amazing.”

Hermione smiled proudly, “Oh don’t thank me too much. Draco and Harry were the ones behind everything, they just roped me in to help with a couple of tricky spells.”

“Let me guess, the roof terrace and the family tree?”

Hermione chuckled, “Exactly. You have Daphne to thank for the interior design, the green with the silver touches was all her idea.”

“I thought it might have been,” Sadie admitted, “Where is she anyway? You and Draco are still living with her and Harry at the moment, aren’t you?”

Hermione nodded, “Yeah, not much has changed since your wedding to be honest. Susan did move out though.”

Sadie grinned, “Why do I get the feeling she moved into a certain Weasley’s London bachelor pad?”

Hermione returned her friends grin, “Spot on. She was staying there all of the time and after about the 5th walk of shame at 8am Harry told her just to move in with Percy already.”

Sadie laughed, “And she did?”

“Yep, that very same day,” Hermione said with an amused smile, “Draco and I want to move out but restoring Grimmauld Place isn’t as easy as we thought it would be. Before we’re allowed to officially move in we need to get the place signed off by the Pest-Sub Division of the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures, and by the Investigation Division of the DMLE. Nobody was allowed to go anywhere near it last week because it had to be fumigated when we had the Ministry guys come in to inspect it.”

Sadie made a face, “What kind of stuff was living in there?”

“Doxys,” Hermione said and she began to tick things off with her fingers, “Rats, termites, oh and there were some bundimun in the basement.”

“Ah,” Sadie grimaced, “So they got rid of everything?”

Hermione nodded, “They got rid of everything but we still aren’t allowed in. The Investigation Division are sending out a couple of guys tomorrow and until they have made sure every nook and cranny of that house is free of dark magic, we don’t get in.”

Sadie bit her lip, “I’m sorry, that sucks.”

Hermione shrugged, “It’s a pain but it means that the house will be safe by the time we get in. Merlin knows how long it will take to redecorate once they’ve turned the place upside down though…they are getting rid of the house-elves heads on the wall and the portrait of Sirius’s mother that screams profanities at everyone who enters though so we owe them a thank you for that.”

Before Sadie could comment on that, the floo in the kitchen whirred to life. A disembodied voice said, “Floo Signature of…Daphne Greengrass.”

“Allow access,” Sadie replied.

Hermione looked impressed, “You installed a signature floo system overnight?”

“It took me 15 minutes this morning,” Sadie admitted, “Is it supposed to be hard?”

Hermione laughed out loud, “Well considering most people get the Department of Magical Transportation out to do it for them, I would be inclined to say yes.”

Sadie looked vaguely impressed with herself as Daphne stepped out of the flames. She flicked her hair back out of the way then dusted herself down before beaming at Sadie, “Hey Mrs. Nott!”

Sadie chuckled and hugged her best friend, “Hey, look I am so sorry about last night.”

“Oh don’t be sorry,” Daphne said with a snort, “You had every right to be angry at us. It was a terrible idea. Hermione, Lil and I tried to convince them of that beforehand but you know how stubborn they are.”

“Yeah,” Sadie said sheepishly, “Theo feels guilty.”

“Where is Theo?” Hermione asked.

“Upstairs, preparing his apology for Draco,” Sadie said with a roll of her eyes.

“You’re not serious?”

“I wish I wasn’t serious,” Sadie said as she shook her head.

Daphne sniggered, “Well, we should have plenty of time to discuss the saucy details about the honeymoon before the gruesome twosome arrive. When I left they were trying to cut each other’s heads off and disembowel each other so I think the duel will go on for a bit.”

“What did they fight about?” Sadie asked. She surveyed her friend in amusement as Daphne made herself at home and set the kettle onto the stove and started to boil it.

“Oh, nothing,” Daphne replied.

Hermione shook her head, “Draco just had lots of pent-up frustration because he felt spurned by Theo and Harry always likes the adrenaline rush of a good duel.”

“There are other ways to give Harry an adrenaline rush mind you,” Daphne smirked.

“Which I don’t need to hear about,” Sadie said quickly, “As the one person in this room who hasn’t slept with Harry Potter.”

“I haven’t slept with Harry Potter.”

“Neither have I!”

Sadie spun around and saw the owners of the two voices. Neville and Lilly had arrived, clearly through the front door, and they had made their way downstairs without the others noticing.

“I definitely haven’t slept with Harry Potter,” Theo added as he stepped in behind the couple, “I have standards.”

Daphne rolled her eyes, “I see two weeks of post-marriage bliss on the beaches of France hasn’t changed you one bit Theo.”

“Oh you wouldn’t like me anymore if it had Daph,” Theo said as he nudged her in the ribs.

Daphne elbowed him out of the way, hard, and Sadie chuckled to herself, “No wonder you two never hooked up. You act like brother and sister most of the time.”

“He’s annoying enough to be my brother!”

“She’s bratty enough to be my sister!”

“See?” Sadie said with an amused grin as her Husband and her best friend continued to bicker.

Lilly shook her head in amusement and held out a bag, “We brought wine and firewhiskey. I picked the wine and the firewhiskey is from Neville’s secret stash that everyone knows about.”

Sadie laughed, “Thanks very much. Hermione brought dessert and our new house elf is making soup for lunch. She’s lovely, I really need to thank Draco for that one.”

Hermione’s nose went up in the air very slightly, “I was against that part of the present.”

Neville cut in before a debate about the welfare of house elves could begin, “We know you don’t like house elves Hermione, but we can get into that another day can’t we? Everyone just wants to know what Theo and Sadie got up to on their honeymoon.”

“We squeezed a lot in,” Sadie said.

“Yes, we did,” Theo said with a look on his face which was far too suggestive, “I definitely squeezed a lot-”

“Theo!”

Daphne punched Theo for good measure but before a fight could break out, the floo whirred to life for the second time.

“Floo Signatures…Harry Potter and Draco Black,” The disembodied voice announced.

“Allow access,” Theo said.

“I guess the duel is over then,” Hermione remarked as Harry stepped out of the fireplace, followed by Draco. Both of them looked to be in fine health so the duel clearly hadn’t gotten too out of control.

“Did you win baby?” Daphne asked absentmindedly as she took two more mugs out of the cupboard.

“You don’t actually live here you know,” Theo muttered under his breath.

Daphne just smiled sweetly over at Theo in response to this comment.

“Of course I won, I’m Harry Potter,” Harry said as he shot a smug grin in Draco’s direction.

Draco rolled his eyes, “He only won because he used dirty tactics.”

“That doesn’t sound like you mate,” Neville said.

“Yeah, don’t you finish like every duel with Expelliarmus just to prove a point?” Theo added.

“I don’t want to get typecast,” Harry joked as he leant against the kitchen worktop, “What do you guys think of the house by the way?”

“We love it,” Theo said honestly, “We had a brief explore this morning and it’s amazing, it’s so much more than we expected.”

“Well that’s what best friends do isn’t it?” Draco said, “They do nice things for their friends because they love them and appreciate them.”

The dig was really obvious and most of the occupants of the room rolled their eyes or shared amused looks with their other halves. Theo on the other hand bit his lip, “I know, I’m really sorry for being a dick last night alright? You just wanted to show off the house and I was more interested in shagging my wife, I’m a horny shallow bastard okay?”

“Apology accepted,” Draco said with a nod.

Theo smiled, “We liked the rose petals in the jacuzzi by the way, that was a nice touch.”

“I’m guessing that was your idea Daph,” Sadie piped up, “Or yours Hermione.”

Draco scoffed, “As if, it was my idea.”

Theo looked at his friend in disbelief, “Seriously?”

“Obviously, I’m more romantic than those two combined,” Draco remarked.

“Charming,” Daphne said as she shot Hermione an amused look.

Theo looked a little emotional as he said, “Thanks mate, are we gonna hug it out?”

Draco groaned, “I don’t do hugging it out Theo, not unless Harry forces me to.”

Daphne sniggered at that and Sadie told her to get her mind out of the gutter as Theo tackled Draco to the floor with the strength of his make-up hug.

“Has all that’s wrong with the world been put to rest now?” Daphne asked in amusement as she clicked her fingers and sent mugs of tea in every direction. They hovered in front of the drinker until that person plucked them from the air.

“You might want to re-think this whole career thing and just be a housewife,” Theo teased, “Your domestic charms are better than Sadie’s.”

Sadie glared at her Husband and Daphne smacked him around the head, hard.

“My domestic charms are great because I’ve got a house full of people and a house elf who has rules,” Daphne said with a roll of her eyes, “Kreacher seems to have developed a sense of independence since he met Winky at Hogwarts. He only cooks the main meals now and he needs plenty of notice if there are visitors coming over so guess who makes breakfast and lunch every day?”

“I bake,” Hermione said sheepishly, “I just can’t cook very well…”

“That’s an understatement,” Draco snorted, “The last time you tried to cook you nearly burnt down Potter Manor.”

“I did not!” Hermione exclaimed, “The chicken was a bit chargrilled but it was edible!”

“Edible?” Harry cut in, “It was burnt to a crisp!”

“You’re going to have to learn to cook before you guys move in next door,” Theo said in amusement, “Because I’m fairly sure you’re not going to have a house elf…”

“We certainly will not!” Hermione agreed.

“So who will have Draco’s meals on the table for him when he gets home every night?” Theo joked.

“He can cook his own bloody meals thank you very much!” Hermione said, and it was clear that she was starting to get riled up.

“I think we should head upstairs,” Harry said quickly, “I’m feeling pretty peckish, is anyone else feeling peckish?”

There was a general murmur of agreement so the argument between Theo and Hermione was narrowly avoided. Theo led the way up the stairs onto the ground floor and Draco fell into line with him, “I’m either going to have to cook my own meals or starve, I figured that out a while ago,” he muttered under his breath.

“You should send her on that training course,” Theo said with a wicked smirk, “The one for new wives that teaches them domestic spells.”

“Do you honestly think I would survive doing that?” Draco retorted with a raised eyebrow, “She keeps talking about this muggle thing called a freezer and something called microwave meals. Apparently she can cook them so I guess that means we’ll have to install electricity in Grimmauld Place.”

Theo snorted, “You’ll be living with Harry and Daph forever then.”

“Tell me about it,” Draco mumbled as they reached the dining room. The group of eight filed in and took their places around the table.

“So,” Neville said conversationally, “What did you guys do in Paris?”

Sadie smiled broadly, “Well, we went to the Louvre which was lovely until Theo got thrown out for trying to steal the Mona Lisa.”

“I wasn’t trying to steal it!” Theo cut in, “I saw this thing in a muggle movie where there was a secret message written on the back of the American Declaration of Independence so I wanted to check if there was anything on the back of the Mona Lisa. I just lifted it off the wall and all these alarms started going off.”

“Yeah probably because they thought you were trying to steal one of the most valuable paintings in the world,” Neville said through his laughter.

“Muggles are so touchy,” Theo said with a roll of his eyes.

Sadie shook her head in exasperation, “So that was on our first day. The next night we went to the Moulin Rouge and Theo got thrown out of there too because he couldn’t help himself when the music started playing, so he got up on stage and started doing the can-can with the female dancers.”

Harry roared with laughter at that, “Really? They threw you out for that.”

“The French are very touchy,” Theo said with a wave of his hand, “It probably didn’t help that I called them froggy bastards when they told me to get off of the stage.”

Sadie looked at her Husband with fond exasperation in her eyes, “So on the third day we went up the Eiffel Tower and Theo snuck his broom up with him by shrinking it and putting it into his pocket. So there we were at the top of the Eiffel Tower having this lovely romantic moment when Theo climbs up on the railings because he wants to try flying off of the tower, in broad daylight with Muggles all around us!”

Draco shook his head, “Seriously, Theo?”

Theo did look a little sheepish about that one at least. Sadie continued, “So the muggle police dragged him off and tried to arrest him but when he started talking about how he had a magical broomstick and therefore could fly off of the Eiffel Tower they released him to me and apologised profusely for the fact that I had just married someone who was terminally insane.”

Lilly sniggered at that, “Well that part is right.”

“Oi, I resent that Moon!”

“She’s right though!” Draco said. The others echoed their agreement and the ground floor of Sadie and Theo’s house was filled with the wonderful sound of laughter.

***.

After lunch the ladies disappeared into the drawing room to discuss saucy honeymoon details and the like. The men on the other hand withdrew to Theo’s man-cave. While their other halves drank wine and talked about their sex lives, the men were drinking firewhiskey and making small talk.

“Oh, I forgot to tell you mate,” Neville said as he slapped Theo on the back, “We all got tattoos when you were on your honeymoon.”

“Wizarding ones?” Theo asked in disbelief, “You got tattoo’s without me? All of you?”

“It was a spur of the moment thing,” Draco said a little guiltily, “We had a couple of drinks and we decided it would be a good idea to get matching tattoos.”

Theo narrowed his eyes at him, “Matching? The three of you got matching tattoos without me? You fucking bastards!”

“We had a feeling you would react like this,” Harry admitted, “So we have good news too.”

“Forget the good news, I want to see your bloody tattoos!” Theo said irritably.

The three men lifted their sleeves up so that their tattoos could be seen. They were magical tattoos but to Muggles they appeared to be stationary. That was a good thing considering how angry Hermione’s Mother had been when she found out that they had tattoos, had she known they were magical ones she probably would have fainted.

“I got a Phoenix for my animagus form,” Harry said as the mighty bird flapped its wings, “And because of the whole thing about a Phoenix rising from its ashes, it reminded me of the war so I thought it was kind of symbolic.”

“And I got a lion,” Neville said, “Also because of my animagus form but as a symbol of Gryffindor too. I mean I know you all slag me off for it but I reckon beheading that snake with the sword of Gryffindor was my proudest moment.”

Theo nodded thoughtfully, “What did you get then Draco? You don’t know what your animagus form is yet.”

“I know,” Draco said, “So I got a dragon, partly because my name literally means dragon but also because I’m fairly sure that my animagus is going to be some form of dragon. I read up on it and your animagus form is a mixture of your own character and personal traits so a dragon would make sense.”

“Right,” Theo said with narrowed eyes, “So what am I going to get?”

“Well I suggest you wait about a month,” Harry said as he handed Theo a small wooden box.

“Why a month?” Theo asked as he looked at the box tentatively, “And is this going to hurt me?”

“Not if you let me teach you properly,” Harry said with an amused smile, “Go on, open it.”

Theo opened the box and frowned, “A leaf? Oh! A mandrake leaf! Are you serious? Is the potion ready?”

“It will be in a months’ time,” Harry said matter of factly, “I gave Draco his leaf this morning so now all you need to do is pop that in your mouth and keep it in there for the rest of the month and you will be good to go.”

“Awesome,” Theo grinned as he popped the leaf into his mouth, “Sadie’s gonna hate me for the next month mind you.”

“Well you should have plenty to keep you occupied,” Draco said, “Or have you not had time to read your post yet?”

Theo shook his head, “It’s all lying on the kitchen table but with you guys coming around and the new house, I haven’t had time to open it. Why? Have the full N.E.W.T results come in yet?”

“Nah, their due in next week sometime,” Neville replied.

“We did all get our information packs for the Auror Training Selection Process though,” Harry said with a grin.

Theo sat up in his seat at that, “Did we? What did they say?” he asked eagerly.

“It’s this weekend,” Draco said, “And it’s a weekend long thing. We need to be there for 9am on the Saturday and we’ll be let out when we’re finished on the Sunday, whatever time that is.”

“It’s at the Auror Training Facility on the outskirts of London, you know the one where we did our work placement?” Neville added.

Theo nodded, “Did they give us any more details about what we’ll need to do?”

“Not much,” Harry admitted, “They just told us when to be there, that we aren’t allowed any contact with the outside world for the time that we’re there and then they gave us a brief summary of what we will be assessed on but it literally just said something along the lines of, you will be tested to and beyond your physical and mental limits to ensure that only the best of the best succeed in getting through to the next stage.”

“He’s paraphrasing but they really didn’t tell us anything more than that,” Draco added.

“And when we get our N.E.W.T’s through next week if we haven’t gotten the right grade in any of the required subjects we might as well just not show up,” Neville said, “They said it in a politer way than that but that was the impression I got.”

Harry and Draco nodded their agreement. Theo blew out a breath of air and nearly spat out his mandrake leaf which made the others snigger in amusement, “I was going to be profound there but I can’t really do that with a mandrake leaf hanging out my mouth,” Theo joked as he shoved the leaf back in.

“How’s this for profound? Anyone fancy opening another bottle of Ogden’s?”

** _TBC _ **


	69. Exams and Elf's

“Guys, the N.E.W.T results are here!”

Daphne had never seen or heard the current occupants of Potter Manor move faster than they did when she shouted up the stairs that Monday morning. She shook her head in amusement as she heard clattering and hurried footsteps on the floors above.

“That has to be a record,” Hermione said when Daphne stepped back into the kitchen and sat down across from the Gryffindor girl.

“Tell me about it,” Daphne said as she picked up the Hogwarts letter with her name on it, “Do you think we should wait for the boys before we open them?”

“I didn’t,” Hermione admitted sheepishly.

Daphne looked over and laughed when she realised that Hermione had already ripped into her letter, “How did you do?”

Hermione let a grin break out onto her face, “I got 6 Outstandings.”

Daphne smiled broadly at her, “Well done! Didn’t I tell you that all of your panicking was for nothing?”

“I’m just relieved,” Hermione admitted, “I know for sure that I’ll be starting my new job in a couple of weeks now.”

“Yeah,” Daphne said as she began to open her letter, “That’s why I’m kind of nervous about opening mine. If I haven’t done well enough then I won’t be starting my Curse Breaking course anytime soon.”

“What do you need?” Hermione asked.

“I need O’s in Ancient Runes, Arithmancy, DADA and Charms,” Daphne said as she held the letter with shaky hands, “And I need an E in Transfiguration and Potions.”

Hermione scoffed, “You will have done that, easily. Go on, look at it.”

Daphne grimaced slightly as she unfolded the paper and scanned her results. After a tense few seconds she blew out a sigh of relief, “Thank Salazar, I did it!”

“All O’s?” Hermione guessed.

Daphne shook her head, “I got an E in Herbology but it was the one class I didn’t actually need anyway so I can handle that.”

Hermione smiled broadly at her friend, “Perfect! How do you think the boys have done?”

Daphne got to her feet and put the kettle on the stove, “I don’t think you have anything to worry about with Draco if that’s what you mean. He only needs five E’s and he’s been the second best student in our year since 1st year.”

“Has he?” Hermione asked in surprise.

Daphne turned around and looked at her friend with a frown, “You didn’t know that?”

Hermione frowned and shook her head, “Is that why he didn’t like me? Because I beat him in every class?”

“He pretended he didn’t like you because it was easier than admitting that he wanted you,” Daphne smirked, “But the whole know-it-all thing? I reckon that was probably jealousy yeah.”

“Right,” Hermione said quietly, “I can’t believe I never knew that. I mean, I always knew that he was smart of course, but the second best student in the year…”

“Uh-huh,” Daphne hummed, “Harry on the other hand though...I’m sure he’s nailed DADA, Charms and Herbology but Potions and Transfiguration are his weaker subjects.”

“I’m sure he will be fine,” Hermione said honestly, “He got an E in his O.W.L’s for both Potions and Transfiguration. He just scraped an A in Astronomy and a P in Divination. The only one he really flunked was History of Magic.”

“Really?” Daphne asked curiously as she poured out two mugs of tea and two mugs of coffee, “I always liked History of Magic.”

“So did I,” Hermione admitted, “I found it interesting to learn about the past wars and revolts. I think Harry would have done too but he always had so much on his mind and Binns made it easy to nap through that class.”

Daphne nodded thoughtfully. Before either of them could say anymore however, the two men stepped into the kitchen in their pyjamas.

“N.E.W.T results?” Harry asked anxiously.

“On the table love,” Daphne said as she nodded in the direction of the two letters.

Harry and Draco both grabbed their letters and tore into them as quickly as they could. Daphne and Hermione watched their other halves curiously and cautiously as their eyes scanned their results.

“Yes!” Harry said, “I’ve done it! I’m in the Selection Process!”

Daphne smiled broadly at him, “I knew you could do it. How did you do?” she asked as she handed him his coffee.

“I got three O’s, two E’s and an A,” Harry beamed.

Daphne grinned, “That’s amazing! Was your A in Divination?”

Harry laughed, “Yeah but it’s better than the P I got for my O.W.L. I got an O in Potions Daph, an O!”

Daphne chuckled as Harry put his coffee down on the table and drew her in for a hug, “You deserved it, you wrote an amazing Potions project.”

“It wasn’t that good,” Harry argued, “How did you do?”

“I got an E in Herbology,” Daphne said as Harry held her tightly, “But O’s in everything else.”

“I knew you would manage it,” Harry said, he was bursting with pride, “You’re brilliant.”

“I know,” Daphne said as she smirked up at him.

“How did you do Draco?” Hermione asked her fiancé as Harry finally released Daphne.

“I’m in,” Draco said as he looked up from his letter. He seemed stunned by this result, “I’m actually going to get to go to the Auror Training Selection Process.”

Hermione smiled proudly at him, “Of course you are, you worked hard all year for this.”

“I got one E,” Draco admitted as he looked up at his other half, “But I always knew Transfiguration was my weakest class. Did you get O’s across the board?”

“Yeah,” Hermione replied with a wide grin.

Draco returned her grin and pulled her in for a hug, “I’m proud of you Hermione.”

Hermione smiled into the embrace and said, “Thanks Draco. I had better go and write a letter to my Mum, she’ll want to know how I did in my exams.”

“I’m going to floo Longbottom House,” Harry said as he sipped from his coffee and walked towards the fireplace, “I want to know how Nev and Lil got on.”

“When you’re done can I floo Theo?” Draco asked, “I hope he didn’t flunk Herbology after that incident with the Venomous Tentacula, he needs an E to get into the process.”

“I’m sure he scraped by,” Harry chuckled, “But yeah, you can use the floo as soon as I’m finished.”

He knelt in front of the fireplace and threw some floo powder in then he said in a loud, clear voice, “Longbottom House.”

The floo whirred to life and Harry dipped his head inside it. For a brief moment until Neville allowed him access all Harry could see was the inside of a chimney. After that though the kitchen of Longbottom House came into view.

“Have you had your post this morning?” Harry asked eagerly.

Lilly was pottering around making breakfast and Neville was sitting at the kitchen table, close to the fireplace.

He grinned at his best friend, “You mean have I read this?”

Harry nodded eagerly, “How did you do? Are you in?”

“I’m in,” Neville said cheerfully, “And I did way better than I thought. I got four O’s and two E’s.”

“Well done mate!” Harry said proudly, “I’m in too! I scraped an A in Divination but apart from that I got E’s and O’s too.”

“How did the others do?” Neville asked as he nibbled on a piece of toast.

“Draco got one E and the rest O’s,” Harry replied, “Hermione got O’s across the board and Daph got an E in Herbology but an O in everything else. How about you Lil? Are you going to be running around after us Aurors?”

Lilly turned around and grinned at him, “You bet I am.”

“She only went and got O’s across the board,” Neville said with a ridiculously proud smile, “I wouldn’t want anyone else stitching me up.”

“Me either,” Harry admitted.

Lilly rolled her eyes, “Aw you guys, you’re making me blush!” she joked.

Harry laughed loudly, “Anyway, I better get off the floo. Draco wants to floo Theo and Sadie to find out how they did.”

“I’ll give it half an hour before I floo then,” Neville said, “And I can’t wait until Saturday.”

“Neither can I,” Harry admitted, “See you later Nev!”

“See you Harry!”

He pulled his head out of the floo and cut the connection.

“So? How did they do?” Daphne asked expectantly.

“Well Neville’s going to be coming to the process with us this weekend and Lil is going to be stitching us up,” Harry said cheerfully, “They both aced their exams.”

“That’s great!” Daphne said as Draco walked towards the fireplace, “I just hope Theo and Sadie have done as well.”

“I don’t think it’s Sadie we need to worry about,” Draco said. He threw some floo powder into the fireplace and knelt down in front of it, “Number 11 Grimmauld Place, London.”

“I’m sure Theo has done fine,” Daphne said.

Draco looked a little sceptical as the floo whirred to life but before he could say anything else he had dipped his head into the fire. Like when Harry had floo-ed Neville, there was a moment when Draco’s head was in limbo somewhere in the chimney of the house. However, once Sadie or Theo had accepted the call and allowed access, their sparkling new kitchen materialised before him.

“Good morning Draco,” Theo said cheerfully, “Why ever could you be calling so early this fine Monday morning?”

Draco rolled his eyes, “You know why I’m calling, you idiot. Please tell me you passed your exams.”

“You almost sound desperate,” Theo grinned.

“Well surprisingly, I’d kind of like to have my best friend as my Auror partner,” Draco said sarcastically.

“Aw, how cute!” Sadie teased as she poked her head out of the pantry, “We don’t have any eggs honey, do you want a bacon and sausage muffin instead?”

“That sounds amazing babe,” Theo called over his shoulder. He turned back to Draco and said, “Don’t worry mate, I scraped through like I always do.”

“What did you get?” Draco asked curiously, after he had blown out a sigh of relief of course.

“Three O’s, Three E’s and a T,” Theo replied, “The one I flunked was Muggle Studies though so it doesn’t matter. I even managed to get an E in Herbology, I suppose the rest of my exam must have been on point.”

Draco chuckled, “Despite the incident at the end with the Venomous Tentacula.”

“Yep,” Theo grinned, “How did you guys all do?”

“We’re all going to the process on Saturday,” Draco said happily, “Harry and Neville got a mix of O’s and E’s. I got an E in Transfiguration but aced everything else, Daph got an E in Herbology but O’s in the rest of her classes and-”

“- and the Princess got O’s across the board,” Theo finished.

Draco laughed, “Yeah, and she would kill you if she heard you call her that.”

“Good thing she can’t hear me then,” Theo grinned.

“Lil got O’s across the board too,” Draco said, “So she’ll be stitching us up when we get into stupid situations.”

“Wicked,” Theo grinned, “Sadie got 6 O’s and an E in DADA so she’s chuffed to bits. Looks like everyone is going to get into the courses that they wanted to get into.”

“It’s a miracle,” Draco laughed, “Anyway, I better get back. Harry and I have been duelling every day to try and train ourselves for the process.”

“Do you mind if I pop over later to join in for a bit?” Theo asked, “I think a couple of weeks of lazing on beaches and eating fattening food has made me lose my touch a bit.”

Draco snorted in amusement, “Sure, see you later mate.”

***

“Honey?”

Hermione looked up suspiciously, “You never call me honey.”

“I do sometimes,” Draco argued, “I mean I have, once or twice, haven’t I?”

“No,” Hermione said as she narrowed her eyes at him, “What do you want?”

“Nothing!” Draco said a little too quickly, and a little too defensively, “I just wanted to talk to you about the house.”

“Have you heard anything else about it?” Hermione asked hopefully, “I know they only went in there on Monday so they have only had a few days to look around but I was hoping they might be done soon.”

“They won’t be,” Draco admitted, “I did talk to them this morning. They have cleared the attic and removed the house elves heads from the staircase. They originally thought it would be a three-day job but they didn’t realise quite how stubborn Walburga Black is. They found a secret door into another part of the basement too so that needs to be investigated.”

“Why? What’s inside it?” Hermione asked anxiously.

“I don’t know,” Draco said honestly, “They wouldn’t tell me over the floo but it’s all going to be in their oral report when they finish on Friday.”

“Friday?” Hermione asked irritably, “That means we won’t get any work done before you go off to the Auror Training Process on Saturday! I mean, what can I even do while I’m waiting for you to install the electricity?”

“I don’t know,” Draco replied honestly, “And _I _am not installing the electricity, just so you know. I spoke to Harry and he told me that the best idea was to get a Muggle electrician in to do it.”

“Great!” Hermione snapped, “It will take weeks then!”

“Would you rather I killed myself playing with muggle bloody cables?” Draco asked her, just as irritably.

Hermione shot him a glare, “No.”

“Then don’t complain about how long it will take him to do it,” Draco said matter of factly, and perhaps a little smugly, “But look, that wasn’t what I wanted to talk to you about. I’ve been thinking about how we’re going to manage things once we move in, things like the housework.”

Hermione narrowed her eyes at him again, “Right?”

“And I obviously know that you’re against house elves but what if we got someone else in to help?” Draco asked.

“Someone else?” Hermione asked cautiously, “What do you mean?”

“Someone human,” Draco said tentatively, “A cook.”

“A cook?” Hermione asked in that high-pitched voice that meant she was trying not to lose her temper, “Look Draco, I know my cooking might not be the best but I will not have you employ a cook in our household!”

“I would pay her, it would be fair unlike with house elves,” Draco said quickly.

“I don’t want servants!” Hermione snapped, “We are not bloody Victorians! Why can’t you just do the cooking when we have guests and let me cook using the microwave?”

“I have no idea what this microwave thing is,” Draco said, “And how is it fair that I be the one to cook every time we have all of our friends over? Harry, Theo and Neville don’t cook, they have house elves!”

“How many times do I need to tell you? I will not have a house elf!”

Draco sighed heavily and reached into his pocket, “Then maybe you should think about this. I would pay for it for you and it only takes an afternoon.”

Hermione snatched the pink leaflet from him and looked down at the front page, “You cannot be fucking serious.”

When Hermione started swearing Draco knew that he had really pissed her off, “There’s no shame in-”

“No shame?” Hermione shrieked, this was it. She had blown her top, the shouting was about to commence, “You just gave me a leaflet titled “Becoming the Ultimate Housewife”, you’re lucky I haven’t blasted you into the bloody wall! If you wanted a housewife and a house elf and a woman to fill with heirs, then you shouldn’t have proposed to me! No house elves, no cooks and no fucking courses on how to be a perfect housewife!”

“Hermione-” Draco tried to cut in as she stormed in the direction of the door.

“You heard me Draco!” Hermione roared. Before Draco could say anymore Hermione had swept out of the room. He heard her stomp through the house and after a minute or so he heard the front door slam with a thud. It was at that point that he let out a long-suffering sigh and dropped his head into his hands.

***.

“Uh…hi Hermione.”

“Hi Lilly,” Hermione said irritably, “Do you mind if I stay here for a bit? If I go back to Potter Manor I think I might actually murder my fiancé.”

“He didn’t tell you to go on the domestic course, did he?” Lilly asked with a grimace as she stepped back so that Hermione could walk into the house.

Hermione stomped into the entrance hall of Longbottom house and thrust a leaflet at her friend, “This bloody thing you mean?”

Lilly made a face, “Oh dear…I think you should come to the kitchen, you need a cup of tea.”

Hermione nodded and followed Lilly through the entrance hall into the kitchen. Longbottom House was significantly smaller than Potter Manor, it only had two floors but those two floors were very spacious. The second floor was filled with 8 bedrooms and plenty of bathrooms. The first floor sported a large formal dining room, a living room, a library/study, a lovely big bathroom and a beautiful country style kitchen with an attached pantry and cloakroom.

Neville had also extended down into the basement which gave them slightly more living space. Half of the basement was unusable due to flood damage that had occurred while the house was empty. However, the space underneath the kitchen and library had been converted into a cinema room kitted out with a projector, and a smaller bar/sitting room.

Hermione’s favourite thing about the house wasn’t inside though, she loved the terrace that ran the length of the front of the house. Longbottom House looked great from the outside, it was whitewashed and grand looking like Potter Manor. The terrace had the most beautiful views out over the gardens (which of course were kitted out with a pond, a large vegetable plot and a greenhouse). Longbottom House had a different feel from Potter Manor and the Grimmauld Place houses because it was further away from London. It felt far more like a country retreat and the fact that the views from every single window were of Exmoor National Park just completed that feel.

“Oh that looks lovely Tokey,” Lilly said kindly to the house elf that was pottering away in the kitchen.

The elf turned its large hazel eyes on Lilly and smiled broadly, “Thank you Miss Lilly! Mister Neville says chicken hotpot is your favourite!”

Lilly smiled, “It is, and that smells much better than my Grandma’s.”

The elf blushed and bowed lowly, “Thank you ever so much Miss Lilly. Is Miss Lilly wanting Tokey to fetch tea?”

“No, I’ll get the tea,” Lilly said with a wave of her hand as she popped the kettle on the stove, “Did Neville tell you where he went this morning Tokey?”

“Yes Miss Lilly,” Tokey said with a fervent nod, “He said he was training with Mr. Potter.”

“Ah,” Lilly said with a nod, “Okay, thanks Tokey.”

Hermione had been watching this exchange with mild interest. She had seen many people treat house elves like scum and she had seen many people treat them like they were slaves. However, she had never seen someone treat a house elf like a human, like a friend, until now.

“So,” Lilly said as she put some tea leaves in a pot and turned to face Hermione, “Draco had the conversation about ‘the help’ with you.”

“How did you know about that?” Hermione asked as she tore her eyes away from Tokey.

“He asked my advice,” Lilly said with an amused smile, “He wanted the opinion of a Muggle-born on how you would suggest to another Muggle-born that they really need to consider a house elf or a domestic training course.”

“And you agreed with him?” Hermione asked in disbelief.

“No, I told him you would curse his bollocks off if he tried to suggest either,” Lilly said matter of factly, “Clearly he didn’t listen.”

“Clearly,” Hermione fumed, “I mean have you even looked at this thing?”

Lilly glanced curiously at the leaflet and snorted. The front page had a picture of a young, pretty witch smiling angelically. She winked at them from the cover as the title sparkled above her, _“Becoming the Ultimate Housewife.”_

“Just a touch sexist,” Lilly said sarcastically.

“It gets worse,” Hermione said as she flipped the leaflet open to show Lilly the two page spread about this afternoon course.

Lilly shook her head in disbelief as she read aloud, _“We can teach you in just three hours how to become the perfect housewife! Our course teaches basic cooking and cleaning charms that will leave your house sparkling and your husband smiling!”_

“Do you know what it reminds me of?” Hermione asked angrily, “Around the time of World War One, do you remember all the promotional posters about how women could help the war effort by rationing and about how their place was in the home while their husbands fought?”

“Yeah, it does have a certain early 20th century sexism feel to it,” Lilly admitted, “I mean this last page about the oath of the perfect housewife is total bullshit. Have you read it?”

“I didn’t get that far,” Hermione admitted, “I stormed out of the house before I could do something I would have regretted in the morning.”

Lilly snorted in amusement, “Listen to this. _I believe that homemaking is a noble and challenging career._

_I believe that homemaking is an art requiring many different skills._

_I believe that homemaking requires the best of my efforts, my abilities and my thinking._

_I believe that no task is too humble that contributes to the cleanliness, the order, the health and the wellbeing of the household._

_I believe that a homemaker must be true to the highest ideals of love, loyalty and service._

_I believe that a home must be an influence for good in the neighbourhood, the community and the country.”_

“Is that the biggest load of pureblood bullshit you have ever heard or what?” Hermione asked as the kettle screeched to a boil.

Lilly scoffed as she poured out the tea, “It sounds exactly like the kind of crap they teach pureblood girls to prepare them for marriage. I mean Daphne and Sadie both went to finishing school, did you know that?”

“I knew that Daphne did,” Hermione admitted, “But I didn’t realise that Sadie had too.”

“Their Mothers literally paid for them to go and spend a summer learning how to curtsey and dance,” Lilly said in disbelief, “They were taught how to use silverware properly and the most elegant way to drink out of a wine glass. All for what? So they would attract a rich Husband?”

“I think that’s exactly why,” Hermione said as Lilly set a cup of tea down in front of her.

“Well I suppose their Mothers must be happy then,” Lilly mused, “I mean Theo’s family own houses in practically every country in Europe. Between farming rare forms of Gillyweed and running a firewhiskey distillery they are loaded.”

“And Harry has lots of money,” Hermione said with a nod, “He has Potter Manor and all of the money in the Potter family account. Mind you, Daphne didn’t really need a man with money did she? Her Father ran the biggest shipping business in Britain, he shipped wands to Japan and firewhiskey to Canada.”

“And he shipped in illegal immigrants and black market products too,” Lilly said darkly, “He was always in trouble with the law. That’s where all the Greengrass money came from, crime.”

“What about Sadie?” Hermione asked with a frown, “Her family made their money through legitimate means didn’t they?”

Lilly shrugged, “I don’t know whether you could call it legitimate. Her Father invented the sneakoscope which is where all of their money came from but rumour has it that he stole the idea from a German wizard and then erased his memory.”

“We should have introduced him to Lockhart,” Hermione joked.

Lilly laughed and sipped her tea, “It’s funny though, isn’t it? Sadie and Daphne ended up with everything their parents wanted but neither of us set out to find a rich man and make him our husband.”

“No,” Hermione agreed thoughtfully, “But that’s because it isn’t about that, is it? We fell in love and then everything else came after that. Sometimes it’s an issue that Draco grew up with a Mother who was a housewife and a house elf to do all of their cooking for them and I grew up with two parents who worked and fed me on microwave meals and microchips.”

“Oh I loved microchips,” Lilly admitted with a smile, “And I do get it you know. It’s not quite the same with Nev and I because he had a fairly similar upbringing to me. It was just him and his Gran, they had money but Augusta didn’t really use it. She bought what they needed and they got by just fine.”

“How about you?” Hermione asked, “Did both of your parent’s work?”

Lilly nodded, “My Dad worked away a lot because he was an entertainer. He used to go on tours and be gone for weeks at a time so most of the time it was Mum and me. My Mum worked in a care home so she worked long unsociable hours, I got pretty good at being my own company.”

Hermione nodded thoughtfully, “The thing is, it’s not that my family don’t have any money. My parents are paid well with both of them being dentists, I grew up in a nice house and we went on holiday to France every year you know? It’s just that we didn’t have servants.”

“I think that’s just a pureblood thing,” Lilly said honestly, “I mean let’s face it, in the muggle world you don’t have servants unless you’re a lord or a lady but here everyone with a decent sized house and a seat on the Wizengamot has a house elf. It’s going back to that whole ‘the wizarding world is so Victorian thing’ though. A hundred years ago it wouldn’t be uncommon for most well off families to have a house full of servants.”

“Still,” Hermione said as her eyes lingered on Tokey’s back as the elf disappeared into the pantry, “Do you really think it’s right?”

Lilly bit her lip, “I know your opinion Hermione, I heard all about your elvish protection welfare society-”

“Society for the Promotion of Elvish Welfare,” Hermione corrected quickly.

“Yeah,” Lilly said sheepishly, “And I understand what you’re trying to prove with that. The thing is, house elves don’t think they need any more rights.”

“That’s because they don’t know any better!” Hermione exclaimed, “They are slaves Lilly! They don’t get paid, that makes them slaves.”

“Does it really though?” Lilly asked calmly, “Compare the situation with an old fashioned muggle one. There would be a big muggle household with a lord and a lady, they would entertain royal guests and the like, yes?”

Hermione narrowed her eyes but nodded, “What does this have to do with house elves?”

“I’m getting to it,” Lilly said, “That house would always be close to a village. What would the people in that village do? Well sure some of them would run a pub or an inn. Some of them would have a trade but then what about the poorer of them? They would be employed on the farms that the people in the big house owned. Then what about the rest? The women who weren’t allowed to farm?”

“I get what you’re saying Lilly but it’s a totally different situation,” Hermione said, “The girls who worked as servants were paid.”

“They were paid the most minimal fee,” Lilly argued, “In return for their service they got a room in the big house, they got three square meals a day and the most meagre pay. It was enough to take back to elderly parents and just help them get by but that was all it was. Their pay was their board and their food, how is that any different to a house elf?”

“House elves don’t get any pay at all,” Hermione replied, “They don’t get any holiday. They don’t even get to wear proper clothes.”

“Tokey doesn’t wear a ragged old pillowcase,” Lilly pointed out, “She has several and I wash them every day for her. I don’t force her to do anything that she’s uncomfortable with, she doesn’t clean the basement because it scares her and I’m totally fine with that. I do everything that I can, I won’t ask her to do something if I can do it myself but at the same time, having someone to keep a big house like this clean and to cook when Neville and myself are busy is really handy.”

Hermione sighed, “I know you treat her right and trust me, I am not trying to imply that all wizards treat their house elves like slaves but some do and that isn’t right.”

“It isn’t,” Lilly agreed, “And by all means try and change that. Try and find a way for house elves to leave their masters service if they are being mistreated but you cannot try and free all house elves Hermione. For them it’s just like serving the lord and lady in the big house, you know the way that a girl’s Mother would recommend her to the lady when she was looking for a new maid because she had been a maid at the house and her Mother had been a cook? That’s how it is for house elves, it’s an honour to serve the family that their ancestors served.”

Hermione sighed deeply, “I just can’t see it that way.”

“Well think about it this way then,” Lilly said matter of factly, “You’ve seen that person who desperately wants work dragging themselves into the job centre day after day haven’t you? Even someone like you with a privileged background knows how sad and desperate that person looks.”

Hermione only nodded.

“That is a house elf who doesn’t have a family to serve,” Lilly said, “A house elves health is tied to their family. Serving a family makes them happy and healthy, when they don’t have that they have no purpose and there is nothing more pitiful than seeing a depressed house elf in that state.”

Hermione frowned to herself as she remembered Winky’s mental breakdown after she had been freed by the Crouch family.

“You would be doing a house elf a favour by bringing them into your home, making them a part of your family and treating them well,” Lilly said honestly, “You would be doing them an injustice by refusing to employ one and trying to force that upon others.”

Hermione looked up at her friend, “Is that really how it works?”

Lilly nodded, “Talk to Draco about it. That house is going to be yours as much as it is his so if going to meet the house elf that the agency pair you with will help you then do it. Don’t leave it all to Draco, go with him and meet the house elf. I think it might just change your opinion. If it doesn’t then that’s fine but at least that way you can say that you tried to do things his way.”

Hermione sighed again as she pushed herself to her feet, “Alright, I will. How does it work, being paired with a house elf?”

“You go to The House Elf Allocation Agency in London,” Lilly explained, “They ask you about your requirements first of all. It’s simple stuff like the size of your house and the services you require of your house elf because some have specialist skills.”

“Like?” Hermione asked curiously.

“There are more mature elves who are great at keeping an eye out if you have young children,” Lilly replied, “And there are young elves who make good play mates for young children if you don’t have many other friends with children. There are elves who are particularly good at cooking and elves who can cook but whose speciality is cleaning. They don’t ask you any super personal questions, they just want to get an idea about what kind of house elf would fit in with you best.”

“Then what?” Hermione asked.

“They pair you up with an elf,” Lilly replied, “You get to meet the elf and talk to them. When we met Tokey we instantly knew we would take her in. She had been cast out by an abusive family, they wouldn’t tell us who because of confidentiality issues, and she just wanted a quiet life. I asked if she would mind doing a bit of cooking and cleaning in a big house and she got upset because she didn’t think she could handle a big house all by herself. I didn’t realise that this doesn’t count as a big house in the wizarding world, she had come from a five story wizarding manor.”

“Ah,” Hermione said with a slight smile.

“So this was like a retirement home for her,” Lilly said with a smile, “I liked her personality straight away so we said we would take her on and she has fitted in just great.”

“So you can go and meet the elf, then change your mind?” Hermione asked carefully.

Lilly nodded again, “If you meet the elf and still think that it’s wrong then you are under no obligation to take that elf or any elf on.”

“Okay,” Hermione said with a small nod, “I’ll talk to Draco about it.”

Lilly smiled at her friend, “Good, I really think the two of you would struggle without an elf. You’re both going to have such busy full-on careers after all.”

Hermione nodded once more, “Thanks for all of your help Lilly.”

“Anytime,” Lilly said cheerfully.

***.

“Who are you and what have you done with Hermione Granger?”

Hermione rolled her eyes and let her hands rest on her hips, “You heard what I said.”

“I heard it,” Draco agreed, “I’m not convinced the words ‘let’s consider a house elf’ came from your lips. Have you been imperiused? Has someone polyjuiced into you?”

Hermione glared at him, “Draco, I’m serious. We need to talk about this.”

Draco raised his hands, “Okay, I’m listening. My fiancé, who has sworn blind since she was 15 that she will never own a house elf, has just suggested that we consider owning a house elf.”

Hermione sighed and sank down into an armchair, “Lilly gave me a different perspective on it. She suggested that I would be doing house elves more harm than good by keeping them out of work. I am not saying that we should definitely get one either, all I’m saying is that it wouldn’t hurt to go down to the agency and give it a go, would it?”

Draco stared at her speechlessly.

“I mean we could do the whole pairing test and meet the elf they pair us with,” Hermione continued, “And if I still feel like it’s wrong then we will have to come up with another solution but if Lilly’s right and I end up feeling sorry for the house elf and wanting to take it in, then we will. Won’t we?”

“Uh…yeah,” Draco said with a frown.

“Are you okay with that plan?” Hermione asked slowly.

Draco nodded as he caught her eye, “I’m fine with it. I’m just amazed that Lilly managed to change your mind.”

“She didn’t change my mind,” Hermione said, “She just gave me a different perspective.”

Draco nodded again, “Alright, when do you want to do this?”

“Once we actually have access to the house,” Hermione replied, “You need to focus on getting through the selection process first so let’s start thinking about it seriously next week, okay?”

“Okay,” Draco said, he shook his head in disbelief as he turned away from her. He was stunned that she had taken such a drastic U-turn in a mere matter of hours.

***.

“Lillian Moon, you are the mistress of persuasion.”

Lilly turned around and raised an eyebrow at Draco, “Do I need to be worried that you’re trying to seduce me?”

“He better not be,” Neville said from his spot next to Lilly, “Or I _will _kill him.”

“Don’t worry Fatbottom, I’m not trying to seduce your girlfriend,” Draco said dryly, “I’m just amazed that she managed to convince my fiancé to consider owning a house elf.”

Lilly smirked at the blonde boy, “I can be very persuasive when I want to be. I can also be very dangerous so remember that before you come into my infirmary with stupid injuries.”

Neville grinned at her, “I like it when you get authoritive.”

Draco groaned, “That’s more about your sex life than I ever needed to know.”

“Hurry up Hermione!” Harry shouted from further along the second row. They were all gathered in the cinema room in the basement of Longbottom House. It was Friday evening and they had decided to get together and enjoy film night to take their minds off their worry about the Auror Training Selection Process.

“Yeah, the movie is starting!” Daphne called up the stairs.

“Oh hush, I’m here,” Hermione said as she appeared with a large bowl filled with sweet snacks. She divided it into several smaller bowls then slipped into her seat next to Draco. She was completely oblivious to the conversation that had just occurred.

“So what are we watching tonight?” Hermione asked.

“It’s called _“Braveheart” _and it was Theo’s choice so blame him if it’s shit,” Neville replied.

“What’s it about?” Draco asked.

“You’ll find out if you watch it,” Theo replied sarcastically.

Draco rolled his eyes but he fell silent as they all settled in to watch the film. They were all enjoying it well enough until….

“Hold up, pause it!”

Neville rolled his eyes but paused the film at Draco’s request, “What’s the problem ferret?”

Hermione hid an amused smile as Draco pointed at the screen, “What is _that_?”

“What?”

“That white thing in the background!”

“It’s a white van,” Hermione replied, “It’s a muggle form of transport usually used by builders and tradesmen.”

“What’s it doing on a 13th century battlefield then?” Draco asked in disbelief.

“This film wasn’t made in the 13th century Draco,” Harry said in amusement, “It was made later and the people filming it obviously didn’t notice that there was a white van in the background until it was too late.”

Draco scoffed and shook his head, “What a continuity error,” he complained.

“Alright, I’m getting the impression that you’re not happy about the white van. Can I put the film back on now?” Neville asked as he shot Lilly a vaguely amused look.

Draco rolled his eyes once more and allowed Neville to put the film back on. They watched in silence for a few more minutes until Neville asked curiously, “What is this battle anyway?”

“Oh it’s the Battle of Stirling Bridge,” Theo replied nonchalantly.

Draco narrowed his eyes, “Where’s the bridge?”

“What?”

“The Battle of Stirling Bridge must have been fought on a bridge,” Draco pointed out, “They don’t call it the Battle of Hogwarts because it was fought in Hogsmeade, do they?”

“Merlin Draco, you take everything so literally,” Hermione groaned.

“Well if you’re going to make a film based on real life events you need to at least make it properly!” Draco objected.

“Nothing about this film is right, that’s why it’s hilarious,” Lilly pointed out, “I mean does Mel Gibson _sound _Scottish to you? He’s a bloody Aussie!”

“Honestly,” Draco scoffed under his breath.

“Stop muttering under your breath or I’m going to silence you for the rest of the movie,” Susan piped up from the row behind them where she had been sitting, rather silently, with Percy.

Draco rolled his eyes irritably but he did try and refrain from making such comments for the remainder of the film. Although the others commented on things like the fact Edward I was a dickhead and that the love story between William Wallace and the prince of England’s wife was totally unbelievable.

When they reached the end of the movie they all headed upstairs into the kitchen. Nobody really wanted to go home yet because it was still early and they were having a good night.

“I’ll go into the store room and get another keg of butterbeer,” Theo had offered as the group shuffled out of the cinema and headed upwards. Nobody thought any more of it than that until the basement door burst open and Theo ran into the room wearing nothing but his boxers, with blue paint all over his face and his body screaming at the top of his lungs, “FREEEEEEDOOOOOOM!”

As their mad friend streaked across the kitchen of Longbottom House, Draco summed up how he, Harry and Neville were all feeling.

“For the love of Merlin, we’re going to have to share a room with him for the next 24 hours.”

**TBC**


	70. The Auror Training Selection Process

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The next few chapters are all centred around the selection process in great detail so it is probably best to read them all in one go! :)

** **

“Are you nervous?”

Draco shuffled from one foot onto the other and looked up at his friend as they waited in line in a large grey foyer, “We all are, aren’t we? War heroes or not.”

Neville nodded as they all took a step forward. They had been waiting in line for about 10 minutes with everyone else who would be going through the Auror selection process today.

“I didn’t think there would be this many people,” Theo admitted.

Harry glanced around the foyer thoughtfully, “Neither did I but I suppose that this is the hard bit, isn’t it? A lot of people can get the required grades but not everyone can prove they can handle the pressure.”

Draco swallowed harder than he needed to and nodded as they all took another step forward. They were almost at the front of the cue now, “Yeah, there isn’t even any guarantee that all four of us are going to meet the mark.”

“Try to stop worrying,” Harry said quietly, “If you doubt yourself then they’re going to doubt you too. We all know you can do this and I think deep down you do too.”

Before Draco could comment any further on this they had reached the front of the line and he was the first to walk forward. He gave his name and his date of birth then he was given a badge and told to head into the lecture hall down the corridor. As Draco walked away, Harry, Neville and Theo each stepped forward and were given name badges and told the exact same thing.

They filed into the lecture hall one by one. Draco had saved seats in the front row, everyone who had come in before them had instinctively opted for the back or middle row and they had been towards the end of the line. Nobody in the hall was talking, they were all sitting in an uncomfortable silence as they looked around for any sign of the people who could become their superiors.

After Theo had taken his seat, the main door to the hall slammed shut which made some people in the back row jump. Harry resisted the urge to roll his eyes as a side door at the front of the room opened and two men clad in Auror robes walked in.

“Good morning!” One of the men boomed. He was tall and stocky with greying black hair and a rather intimidating scar across his face. The other Auror was a man with dark brown hair who looked a little younger, scrawnier and shorter than his colleague.

“My name is Auror Sumner and this is my colleague, Auror Sheppard,” Sumner continued in his loud, clear voice, “And I would like to welcome you all to our selection process.”

Sheppard stepped forward and continued, “Over the course of the next 48 hours you will be put through your paces. If you don’t come out of this weekend feeling black and blue then we consider ourselves to have failed you.”

“We want the best,” Sumner added, “We don’t get the best by giving you written tests and looking at your grades. We push people to their limits and the ones who don’t break are the ones we want.”

Sheppard surveyed the room full of people, “Normally about 15 candidates get to this stage and we then cut that number done to 5.”

“But we’ve had a war since then,” Sumner said, “So we loosened up our entry requirements last year and we extended that offer this year. Last year we had 33 people throw their hats into the ring and war heroes or not, we only took on 8 of them.”

“This year there are 34 of you,” Sheppard continued, “And we’ll be surprised if we take on double figures. Auror training isn’t the hardest course in wizarding Britain to get into for no reason. The people who are selected after this weekend are going to become responsible for the security of our country. That is _not _something that we take lightly, it’s hard for a reason and if you can’t hack it now then you would never be able to hack it a year down the line.”

“With that being said, does anyone want to leave?” Sumner asked.

Harry turned around and looked at those in the rows behind. There was some shuffling but nobody moved from their seats.

“Good,” Sumner said as he clapped his hands together, “Right then, let me explain to you how we’re going to do this. We are going to split you into two groups and test you on three different areas that are essential in our line of work.”

“Those three areas are your physical abilities, your magical abilities and your mental capabilities,” Sheppard said as he ticked each one off on his fingers, “We’ll be testing your physical and magical abilities today then we give you a night to recover before we test your mental capabilities tomorrow.”

“We used to test candidates on all three in one day,” Sumner added, “But we had too many candidates passing out by the time we got to the final set of tests so we decided to change the formula a little bit.”

“That doesn’t mean any of this is any easier though,” Sheppard reminded them.

Sumner nodded, “So everyone in the front row is going to be in group 1 with me. You 6 in the middle row there, you’re with me too.”

“The back row and the rest of the middle row,” Sheppard addressed, “You’re going to be in group 2 with me.”

“No more chit-chat!” Sumner said, “I want you on your feet. My group first, follow me and we’ll get started.”

The front row and half of the middle row got up and followed Sumner out of the room by the side door. They emerged into a grey corridor that looked fairly similar to every other grey corridor in the Auror training complex, and they were led along it for a little while. They passed various classrooms on the way and eventually they seemed to reach their destination; it looked like a hospital waiting area.

The grey walls had become white and the room was filled with uncomfortable looking armchairs. At the far end of the room there were a series of doors labelled as “Testing Room 1” through to “Testing Room 5”.

“Alright, listen up!” Sumner called in his loud, booming voice.

The room instantly fell silent, “As you can see we have five testing rooms. We’re going to test you on both your physical and magical ability, five candidates at a time. Each candidate will be assessed by a Senior Auror like myself and by a standard red robe. You won’t be able to see the Aurors assessing you but trust me, they can see your every move so if you try to cheat they _will _know. Now, like a lot of things in the wizarding world these testing rooms are a lot bigger on the inside than they look on the outside. Once you go through that door you will progress through a series of rooms. There is no time limit and each room has a plaque that tells you what is expected of you. My best piece of advice is, read those plaques very carefully and ensure you understand exactly what is required of you before you start the task. Is that understood?”

There were a mumble of “Yes’s” and a series of nods.

Sumner continued, “Good. Now here is the crucial part, we have a different way of scoring each room but every room that you are going to face today can be failed. If you fail a room, the Aurors assessing you will announce this and you will be asked to leave. You will not get to proceed any further in the process and only those of you who are left will be assessed on your mental capabilities tomorrow. Is that clear?”

There was another series of nods and mumbles.

“Right then, let’s get started!” Sumner barked, “When I call your name and your door number I want you to stand in front of your door but I _do not _want you to enter that door until I say so!”

He clicked his fingers and a list appeared in front of him, “Agnew, Johnathon: Door 1. Black, Draco: Door 2. Carmichael, Eddie: Door 3. Flanagan, Roisin: Door 4. Harper, Maxwell: Door 5.”

Draco looked incredibly pale as he took his place in front of the door to testing room number 2. Lined up with him were another 3 men (one of which had been a 7th year Slytherin they had vaguely known throughout their 8th year) and a mousy, scared looking woman.

“On the count of 3, you will enter the room and your test will begin,” Sumner informed them, “3…2…1!”

**TBC **


	71. Draco's Selection Test: Part One

Draco’s heart was beating out of his chest as he pushed open that white door and stepped into the testing room. He took a breath to steady himself as he surveyed his surroundings. He had expected something a little more spectacular than a white room but that was what he found himself standing in. The room was small and square, it looked completely ordinary at first glance but once you looked closer it became apparent that there were several holes in the walls.

Draco tried to force down his nerves as he looked at the plaque in front of him. It read;

_“When you cross the line, stinging charms will be fired at you in quick succession. This test requires you to place your wand in the holder beneath this plaque. Should you be hit with 12 or more stinging charms you will fail this room.”_

Draco placed his wand nervously into the holder beneath the plaque. As he had expected the holder then retreated into the wooden base of the plaque which meant he wouldn’t get his wand back until he had either completed this room or failed it. The concept made him mildly nervous, he was good at shield charms but this was a test of his reflexes. Without his wand he had to solely rely on his own senses and reflexes in order to avoid being hit by the stinging charms.

He glanced down at the red line on the floor and hesitated before crossing it. Draco wanted to think up a strategy before starting the room but he knew that there wasn’t really a strategy that would help him through this. He had to be able to listen for the hissing sound that signified that a spell was imminent, he had to be able to identify within less than a second where that spell was coming from then duck, jump or swerve.

So rather than trying to think up a strategy that he wasn’t sure would even work, he simply stepped over the line. Immediately he heard the tell-tale hissing sound and instinctively he jumped; it worked and the spell shot under his legs. When he heard the second hiss he ducked and the spell flew over his head. On the third hiss he swerved to the side and narrowly avoided being hit by the spell. He quickly realised that every time he dodged a spell the next one came just a little bit faster. All the same, Draco managed to rely on his sense of hearing for the first minute or so. At that point the spells started to come out two at a time which meant he had to duck to avoid one and throw himself across the floor to avoid the second, at the same time.

“Shit!” Draco cursed as he was hit by one of the spells for the first time. It stung like a bad burn at the point of contact but he tried to ignore it so that he could concentrate on not being hit by anymore.

That final minute was far harder and it seemed to drag on for a lot longer. Draco was beginning to see why Sumner and Sheppard had told them that they would be black and blue by the end of the weekend, he lost count of how many times he threw himself into a wall to avoid being hit by a stinging charm and this was only the first room out of Merlin knew how many. In the last 20 seconds the spells began to shoot out at an even faster pace and at that point Draco was hit a further two times.

He breathed a huge sigh of relief when a loud click signified that the door opposite the one he had entered through had been unlocked. He picked himself up off of the ground and dusted himself off as he walked through the door into the second room. The door snapped shut loudly behind him and Draco looked around at his surroundings in this very different looking room. It seemed like he was outside, the sky was blue and the sun was shining brightly in the sky above. He knew, because of his fiancé’s extensive knowledge of Artificial Weather Charms, that this wasn’t real. He was still inside some sort of room, like the room of requirement, and it was generating this image.

Laid out on the field before him was some sort of assault course, it was huge and it was laid out over a hilly terrain. Draco was sure of one thing; it wasn’t going to be easy. The plaque before him read;

_“When you cross the line, we will begin to time you from our observation area. This obstacle course will test every element of your physical strength and if you fail to complete it within the 3-minute timescale you will fail this room. You may use your wand but only against any magical obstacles you come across, you will receive a 5 second penalty for using your wand for any other means.”_

“3 minutes?” Draco muttered as a wooden drawer extended from beneath the plaque. He shook his head in disbelief as he took his wand and holstered it safely in a holster on the side of his leg. He looked out at the massive assault course and sighed, he was positive he would fail at this hurdle.

This was another task where there was no strategy that would help him. He just had to attack every obstacle as fast as he could and hope that he managed to get through in less than 3 minutes.

The first obstacle was a set of three wooden hurdles which gradually got higher, so Draco took a running start. He darted over the red line and vaulted over all three set of hurdles with ease. He kept the momentum going as he reached a low net that he knew he needed to crawl under. Unfortunately, it wasn’t just any old ground he needed to army crawl through, it was boggy and muddy which meant he was going to get filthy.

All the same, he dropped to the ground and pulled himself through the mud. It was harder than it looked because the mud tried to pull him in so he was fighting against it as he tried to pull himself through. When he reached the end and pulled himself up he was already breathing heavily.

Draco ran forward to the next obstacle and he could have groaned when he realised that he now needed to army crawl up a steep hill in a very narrow tunnel. He dropped to the ground once more and entered the tunnel, he was slippery because of the mud he had just traversed through so he slipped and slid as he tried to pull himself up the steep incline. He managed it, even if he was exhausted by the time he reached the top.

Draco didn’t have time to take a breath though. At the top of this incline there was a fairly narrow wooden beam stretching across a ravine. There was nothing to hold onto and a very steep drop down into fast-flowing water if he was to slip.

He stepped onto the beam carefully and mumbled to himself, “This isn’t real. You won’t actually die if you fall.”

His words of reassurance didn’t actually make him feel much better. He kept his eyes forwards and avoided looking down. He put one foot in front of the other as carefully as he could. He amazed himself by getting across the beam without slipping once and he breathed a sigh of relief as he ran towards the next obstacle.

Draco jumped onto a net and began to scale it with ease. When he reached the top he climbed over and glanced down, it was a much bigger drop than it had been a climb. He knew he had to take a risk though and he had a split second in which to make his decision. He had been fairly slow in some of the sections he had just gone through and he could see at least 4 obstacles in the distance ahead of him. If he climbed down this net carefully then he definitely wouldn’t finish within the 3-minute time limit.

“Merlin, Potter you’ve been a bad influence on me,” Draco muttered as he threw caution to the wind and let go of the net. He let gravity pull him downwards and then grabbed the net again nearer to the bottom. He cursed as his hands slid on the rough rope, he knew he would have friction burns but he could deal with them later.

Putting the injuries out of his mind, Draco jumped the short distance to the ground and then ran to the next obstacle so he could take it with some momentum. He grabbed onto a rope and swung himself across a small river, he managed to jump off and avoid dropping himself into the water fairly easily.

Not that it would have mattered anyway, the next part of the assault course forced him to get wet. He had reached a lake that looked fairly deep and it was clear that he had to go through it. Running around it would probably constitute as cheating and it would take so long that he would never finish within the required time. Draco threw himself into the lake and swam as fast as he could towards the first of four wooden beams. He ducked under the water and emerged on the other side of it, then he felt the tell-tale tug at his legs that indicated Grindylows were lurking nearby.

Draco managed to remain calm as he grabbed his wand and shot a burst of boiling water downwards. It must have hit the creature because its grip on his leg loosened and he was able to swim towards the second beam. He got under that one and the third one with no further issues, swimming had always been a strong point of his after all. However, as he ducked under the final beam and emerged he saw the demonic looking creature that was a Kappa staring him down.

Draco rolled his eyes, was he meant to fight it? He didn’t have time and he knew he could outswim a Kappa with ease so he ignored the creature and swam to the lake’s edge. He had pulled himself out of the lake before the Kappa had even reached the shallower waters.

He knew that his time was limited by now and Draco could still see a few obstacles up ahead. He ignored his aches and pains and tried not to shiver as he approached a high wooden pole with hand and feet holds on either side. He scaled it as quickly as he could considering that he was soaking wet and therefore bogged down. When he reached the top of the pole he saw a wooden handhold that he had to grip. He gripped it as best as he could with slightly sweaty palms then launched himself from the pole down a zip line. He shut his eyes as it sent him flying towards the ground, he didn’t like heights much.

At the bottom, Draco hit shallow muddy water. He knew that there would be magical creatures lurking in it so he wasn’t surprised when he felt a sharp nip to his right ankle, “Shit,” he cursed as he shook off the offending Dugbog and pushed on. The water was so murky that he couldn’t see anything beneath it so he was bitten two more times before reaching dry land.

Draco wanted to breathe a sigh of relief when he saw the final obstacle but he knew that this wasn’t over yet so he approached it as quickly as he could. This final obstacle was a large wooden platform that he would have to army crawl through. It was narrow and had three levels, Draco was glad he had a slim, seekers build as he pulled himself through the first level. Once he had done so he had a very narrow space in which to twist his body around and pull himself up onto the next level, it was easy enough because of his build but he was wet and tired now which hindered his progress slightly. He crawled through the next level and pulled himself up once more. The finishing line was in sight now which spurred him on, he darted forward, flung himself down the metal pole at the end of the platform and sprinted forward past the red line that constituted the finishing line.

As soon as he was over the line he doubled over and allowed himself to start catching his breath. At first he thought he had failed because there wasn’t anything to say that he had passed this room. There was no door as there had been in the first room which meant that there was no click to signify it had been unlocked and that he could therefore move forwards. Draco was still breathing heavily as he pulled himself up and looked ahead of him, where there had only been a field moments before there was now a white wooden door. He breathed another sigh of relief as he approached the door and stepped through it into the next room.

It was very surreal to step through a door in the middle of a field and emerge on the edge of a cliff. This room was playing havoc with his senses but he supposed that was part of the test. He could tell that the skill he would have to display in this room would be flying because apart from the plaque that gave him his instructions, the only other thing on this clifftop was a broom rack with a selection of three broomsticks. Draco performed a drying charm on his clothes and his hair and allowed himself a few more minutes to get his breath back as he read the instructions on the plaque;

_“When you leave the clifftop, we will begin to time your progress. Throughout this flight course there are 12 golden hoops which you must pass through. Should you miss any hoops we will deduct 5 seconds from your overall time. Should you take any longer than 2 minutes you will fail this room. You may choose between the three broomsticks on offer, choose wisely.”_

Draco glanced around at his surroundings. He was on a clifftop in a hot, arid climate. The sun was beating down and shone brightly in the sky ahead, he knew that it would make it easier to spot the glinting golden hoops that he had to fly through but it was also going to be an obstacle because it could obstruct his vision. He had his Quidditch Captain head on as he assessed the conditions, overall he thought that the sun would help more than it would hinder him.

Next, he turned to the rack and looked at the three broomsticks on offer. The choices were the most up to date edition of the Comet, a Nimbus 2001 and a Firebolt. He knew that the Firebolt was the fastest but some people claimed that the Nimbus had better manoeuvrability. Personally, Draco found the manoeuvrability on the Firebolt just fine. He didn’t even consider the Comet, it was too old, too slow and too laggy for his liking. Without thinking on it much he took the Firebolt from the rack and mounted it.

He wasn’t at all worried about this task so he pushed himself off of the clifftop and immediately saw the first golden hoop straight ahead. He had been right about the sun helping, the hoop sparkled which made it easy to see from a distance. Draco passed through it and as soon as he did the next hoop appeared. This first part of the flying course was through a narrow ravine between two clifftops but Draco didn’t find it particularly challenging. He passed through the fourth hoop and then flew out of the ravine into a wider part of the course, however there were new obstacles in this part of the course. There was a fast-flowing river beneath him and several fallen trees which had gotten lodged between the two cliffs, there were also some tall trees obscuring the view in the distance.

He had to swerve between the cliff and a tree to hit the 5th hoop but that was nothing considering the dodging and diving he had done in 2nd year when he and Harry had flown beneath the Quidditch stands. He had been significantly smaller then of course. The next few hoops were easy enough to hit, he just had to fly close to the water and swerve in-between the fallen tree trunks but none of this was particularly challenging for him. He sped through the course with ease as the ravine narrowed once more towards the end. Draco knew as he passed through the 12th hoop (which was in the middle of the narrowest part of the ravine yet) that he had definitely passed that room with a good time.

There was another clifftop ahead which Draco landed on. He dismounted the broom and looked around as he waited for something to happen. Surely enough, after a few seconds, a white door appeared in the side of the cliff. Draco grinned to himself and walked through the door into the fourth room. He looked around himself once more and frowned, he appeared to be in a muggle street somewhere. It looked like any generic street in any muggle city, there wasn’t really any way of telling where it was unless you had been there before.

Draco stepped forward and read the plaque before him;

_“When you cross the line, you will be required to chase down a suspect. However, you may not use your wand to aid you in this task. When you place your wand in the holder provided, we will provide you with a picture of the suspect. If you fail to catch the suspect within 3 kilometres you fail this room.”_

A wooden drawer emerged from beneath the plaque. Draco placed his wand inside it and withdrew a wizarding photograph. It featured a tall, thin young man who was glaring at Draco from the photograph. The drawer shut, taking his wand with it, and Draco stepped over the red line on the ground.

All of a sudden a heap of people materialised. Muggles with shopping bags and buggies crowded the street and it was all Draco could do not to curse loudly. Of course there was a plot twist, it wasn’t as easy as just chasing a guy down the street. He spotted his suspect straight away and he darted after him. He pushed his way through the muggles with all of the force that he could muster and gradually began to gain on the suspect. He could see a high wall at the end of the street and he figured that was where the 3-kilometre zone ended so he pushed with everything he had and he just managed to catch the guy before he reached the wall. He dived on the suspect and tackled him to the ground, it hurt like hell but he didn’t let his pain show as the scene dematerialised.

The suspect disappeared as did all of the muggles. Draco pushed himself to his feet and looked at the wall expectantly. After a few seconds there was a click and a door materialised onto it. He opened it and stepped through, expecting to emerge into another room that was set to test him. Instead he emerged into a small room that looked like a waiting area. It was empty apart from a couple of comfortable looking armchairs, a table with basic potions and medical supplies and a water fountain with plastic cups beside it.

A disembodied female voice spoke to him from somewhere that he couldn’t see, “Congratulations Mr. Black, you have successfully passed the physical aspect of our selection test. You have 10 minutes to patch yourself up and refresh before starting the next test which will assess your magical capabilities.”

The voice said no more than this so Draco walked over to the fountain and downed a cup of water. It honestly tasted better than water had ever tasted, he poured some onto his face for good measure as he perused the supplies on the medical table. He found a cream that treated burns and he used this to treat the red, raw friction burns on his hands. Beyond that he didn’t have any injuries apart from bruises and aches so he decided that it was a good idea to take a pepper-up potion. It gave him a fresh boost of energy and eased some of the aches and pains that were related to physical exhaustion.

As he sipped at another cup of water Draco allowed himself to feel a little bit proud. He knew he still had a long way to go yet and he had a feeling that the magical tests would be harder than the physical ones. Then again, apart from playing Quidditch he didn’t do much to keep himself physically fit but he did duel with Harry every single day so magically he had trained himself up as well as he could do.

His 10 minutes were over very quickly. The female voice spoke to him once more to announce this, “Your 10-minute rest period is over Mr. Black. Please proceed through the door to begin our test on your magical abilities.”

Draco frowned as he realised that there was only one door. The door that he had entered the room through had disappeared, leaving only the door at the far end. He stepped through it and was un-surprised when he found himself in an actual place rather than in a room. This time he was in a generated part of Diagon Alley. He had Gringotts behind him and a crowded street full of witches and wizards ahead of him. He glanced down at the plaque and read the instructions;

_“When you cross the line, Death Eaters will appear in the alley. Your task is to take down as many as you can, however, there are rules. You will be penalised for hitting civilians and taking a Death Eater down without killing them is preferable. We cannot question a dead Death Eater but we can force veritaserum down the throat of a captured one.”_

It made Draco nervous that there was no information on how you knew if you had passed or failed the room. Previous tasks had stated that if he failed to complete it within a certain timescale he would fail but this one was far less helpful. A wooden drawer emerged from the plaque containing Draco’s wand, he took it out and surveyed the alley before him. He knew it would be hard to do this without hitting any civilians but he had confidence in the accuracy of his spell-casting.

He stepped over the line and with a whooshing sound, Death Eaters appeared amongst the crowd. They wore dark cloaks and the tell-tale masks that protected their identities, people in the alley began to scream and run which made it harder for Draco to locate the Death Eaters and aim at them accurately because he was being jostled by frightened witches and wizards.

Draco quickly realised that he needed a vantage point so he shot a silvery rope from his wand which attached itself to the railing of the balconied area above the door into Gringotts. He pulled himself up and started to aim at the Death Eaters from his high vantage point. He took out 3 with stunning charms as they ran towards the Leaky Cauldron in an attempt to flee the alley. He took out a further 2 with bone breaking curses before they could try and climb up to reach him, it left them writhing uselessly on the ground in pain. He wasn’t sure how many more there were but he could see another 2 amongst the screaming witches and wizards. He managed to take out one with a stunning charm but he accidentally hit a civilian as he tried to hit the second one. He didn’t want to risk hitting anyone else and being penalised so he shot a piercing charm at the Death Eater, he had been aiming for his shoulder but he hit him in the head and it was clear that he had killed him.

Draco tried not to focus on that as his eyes scanned the alley. He couldn’t see any more Death Eaters in the distance and for a moment he wondered if he had gotten them all. However, it was then that he heard a noise from behind him. He spun around and was alarmed to see a Death Eater emerge from the door behind him. He knew that a stunning charm wouldn’t take effect quickly enough to stop the Death Eater from hitting him so he acted on instinct and used a piercing charm to the chest. It knocked the Death Eater back and enabled Draco to bind him with magical rope.

As soon as he turned back to the alley he saw another Death Eater climb over the railing. He hit the man with a stunning charm and he fell backwards off of the balcony. Draco grimaced as he looked down at the puddle of blood that the Death Eater was lying in, he was fairly sure that he had killed that one too.

He was on high alert now as his eyes scanned the alley once more. He didn’t really see the last Death Eater quickly enough, he was just about to escape into the Leaky Cauldron. Draco knew a stunning charm wouldn’t be that effective from this distance so he opted for a piercing charm but because of the distance he only hit the man in the leg which meant that he managed to escape into the pub.

“Bugger,” Draco cursed to himself as the scene in the alley dematerialised. The witches and wizards disappeared, as did the bound, dead and unconscious bodies of the Death Eaters. Draco hoisted himself down from the balcony and waited for something to happen but nothing seemed to change.

He sighed heavily, he had failed. He had killed two of the Death Eaters and let one get away, he must have failed. He stood and waited for the disembodied voice to tell him this but he was surprised when it did speak.

“You have passed this room Mr. Black,” The female voice said, “Please proceed into Gringotts bank to begin your next task.”

Draco’s eyes lit up with surprise at that but he did not question it. He simply opened the door and stepped into the bank which wasn’t actually anything like Gringotts bank on the inside. He was actually standing in something that looked similar to a firing range, but the catch was that _he _was in the area where the things you fired at usually were and a Death Eater stood with his wand held high in the part where you would usually fire from. The reversal of the roles made him nervous as he looked at the instructions on the plaque before him;

_“When you cross the line, the Death Eater will fire spells of varying levels at you which you must shield. In order to pass this room, you must not be hit by more than 5 spells. Note that the killing curse counts as 2 spells because it is the only spell which can kill you.”_

Draco nodded to himself, it seemed fairly easy. He knew that there would be red herrings in there; the kind of spells that you can’t actually shield against. He stepped across the red line on the floor with his wand at the ready and the Death Eater began to fire straight away. The first few spells were easy to defend with a basic shield charm but after that it became clear that a standard “protego” wasn’t going to cut it anymore so Draco had to use stronger shield charms. This wasn’t a problem either, Draco was pretty good when it came to shield charms. Granted, he wasn’t as good as Harry but shield charms were a bit of a speciality of his. However, he did trip up eventually when the Death Eater fired a cutting curse at him which he hadn’t encountered before. As a result, Draco didn’t know that it wasn’t shieldable so it sliced a gash into his upper arm which was more than a tad painful. Thankfully it was on his left arm which he didn’t hold his wand in so it didn’t hinder him any further, it just bloody hurt. As the spells got increasingly dangerous Draco was hit by one more, he hadn’t been aware that a standard “protego” didn’t work against “glacius”. The charm turned his shield to ice which meant the shield topped backwards on top of him which also hurt quite a bit.

All the same, Draco ignored the blood staining his arm and the pain he felt throughout his body and pushed himself to his feet just in time to hear the words “Avada Kedavra”. The moment he saw the green light flying towards him his instincts set in and he dropped to the ground. He let his entire body go limp as he dropped heavily onto the hard, concrete floor. It hurt like hell, especially when his chin hit the solid concrete but Draco’s instinct when faced with the killing curse had always been to drop to the floor and play dead, he had learned a long time ago that it was the safest thing to do.

He groaned to himself as he lay on the ground aching and bleeding. He pushed himself up with some real difficulty and he was glad when he saw that the Death Eater was gone. He really felt black and blue now, his body shook from the effort that it took to push himself to his feet and he was really glad that he had decided to take that pepper-up potion.

“You have passed this test Mr. Black,” The disembodied female voice said, “Please make your way to Ollivander’s wand shop, you will find sufficient medical supplies there.”

Draco dragged himself out of the bank into the bright sunlit alley once more. He was starting to worry that he wouldn’t be able to push through this, especially if there was going to be a duel at the end which he fully expected there to be. He crossed the alley and made his way into Ollivander’s. Like Gringotts, it looked completely different on the inside. Draco found himself inside a fairly small room with nothing in it apart from a dummy about the height of an average man.

He ignored the plaque to begin with and looked through the medical supplies on the table next to the door. He applied a cream made with powdered dittany to the cut on his arm which acted as a temporary solution because it weakly joined the skin back together. He also took a pain potion and downed it, he breathed a sigh of relief as the aches in his body gradually ebbed. He spat out a mouthful of blood and read the plaque at the entrance of this room;

_“When you cross the line, you will have 2 minutes to fire as many spells as you can at the dummy provided. You will lose points for using the same spell more than once or for using dark magic, you will gain points for portraying any highly skilful spells.”_

This one also seemed fairly simple although Draco suspected that he would have temporary memory loss about the number of spells he knew as soon as the time limit began to tick away. He stepped over the line and immediately began to fire spells at the dummy; he started off with the basic spells they had learned in their early years at Hogwarts like “Flippendo” and “Expelliarmus”. He just shot spell after spell at the dummy as they popped into his head, but the more spells he fired the harder it was to keep track of the spells he had and hadn’t used. He was fairly sure he used Expelliarmus twice but he managed to get through without using a single dark magic curse. Towards the end of his allotted time he suddenly realised that the patronus charm would probably count as skilful magic so he sent his patronus (which was no longer an otter and was now a dragon) flying towards the dummy.

A loud buzzing sound announced that his time was up and Draco waited for the disembodied voice to tell him what to do next.

“Congratulations Mr. Black, you have passed this room. Please proceed to the final task by using the door ahead.”

Draco looked up at the door which had just appeared at the other side of the room. He was prepared for a duel as he stepped through the door into the final room so he wasn’t surprised when he realised that there was nothing in it apart from a duelling platform. Standing atop that duelling platform was a middle aged woman with cropped blonde hair who smiled at him, “Congratulations on getting this far Mr. Black. Would you join me up here?”

Draco climbed up onto the duelling platform and took his place at the opposite end from the woman.

“I’m Auror Carter,” She introduced herself, “And as you may have guessed, your final challenge is to duel a real, experienced Auror. Does that make you nervous?”

“Well,” Draco said honestly, “I’ve duelled Harry Potter a good few times and he’s the third best in all of Britain so not really.”

Carter raised an eyebrow at him, “We’ll see about then, won’t we?”

Draco didn’t want to appear as overly confident but he couldn’t help the smirk that came to his face at that. He and Auror Carter walked towards each other, bowed and then took their places at either end of the platform as the duel began.

Draco let the Auror make the first move to assess what kind of spells she was going to throw at him. She started off with the basics, “Expelliarmus!”

“Protego! Stupefy!”

“Protego! Petrificus Totalus!”

Draco matched her fairly basic spells but it became clear to the Auror very quickly that she would get nowhere with O.W.L level spells so she upped her game a little bit.

“Reducto!”

“Protego, Bombarda!”

You couldn’t shield against a blasting charm as strong as that which the Auror knew. She ducked and let the spell hit the wall behind her. Draco threw a stunning charm at her but she was on her feet before it was halfway across the platform and she blocked it with ease.

“Impedimenta!”

“Protego! Relashio!”

“Protego! Expulso!”

The duel was getting far more dangerous now. The spells that were flying back and forth were fully capable of doing serious harm to their victims but Draco hadn’t broken a sweat yet and he wasn’t finding things particularly difficult. This Auror had fast reflexes but this duel was nowhere near as fast paced as those he and Harry shared. There had been no attempts at beheading or expelling the entrails of the combatant yet either which made the whole thing awfully boring. As Draco defended and dodged cutting and blasting curses, his mind whirred as he tried to think of a way to beat the Auror. He didn’t want the duel to go on for too long, the speed of which you could disarm your opponent was a key factor when assessing a person’s duelling capabilities after all. He knew her reactions were too fast for him to knock her out with any spell that he knew so he resorted to using sneaky tactics.

Draco defended a blasting curse that Auror Carter had thrown at him and then said, “Fumos!”

The spell enveloped the entire room in smoke for a few seconds. He heard the Auror coughing so he knew that the smoke had reached her. In the few seconds that he had before he came back into her view Draco disillusioned himself and used an illusion charm to create a false image of himself. He moved forward slightly and to the far right side of the duelling platform as the smoke began to clear.

“Stupefy!” The Auror called as soon as ‘Draco’ came back into view.

At the same time Draco whispered, “Expelliarmus” and sent a spell shooting at the Auror from thin air. She had been concentrating on the fake image of Draco as she waited for him to defend so by the time she noticed that another spell was flying towards her she didn’t have time to defend against it. The spell hit her and yanked her wand out of her hand, it flew through the air into Draco’s hand and he disillusioned himself with a grin.

The Auror raised another eyebrow at him, “Sneaky but effective, exactly what I would expect from a former Slytherin. May I have my wand back?”

Draco walked towards her and handed her back her wand.

“Do you always use sneaky tactics to win your duels?” Auror Carter asked curiously as she led Draco off of the duelling platform towards another white door.

“I normally use dirty tactics when I’m duelling Harry,” Draco admitted, “But that’s because it’s the only way I can beat him. When I’m duelling for real I’ll only use sneaky tactics if I can’t disarm the opponent any other way.”

“Well if it works we can’t knock it,” Auror Carter admitted, “Unless you’re using dark magic in which case you will be disciplined.”

“Yes ma’am,” Draco said with a nod.

They had reached the door and Carter led Draco through it into another waiting room. This one was far larger, around the same size as the one he had waited in before being told which door to line up in front of for his test.

“Sit down Mr. Black,” Auror Carter said as she motioned towards the chairs in one corner of the room.

Draco took a seat in the empty waiting room and watched as the Auror walked towards a desk. She picked up a brown folder and flicked it open, she scanned it curiously then walked over to Draco, “Would you like to hear your performance report for the first two tests?”

Draco nodded, “Yes, please.”

Carter took a seat next to Draco and began to detail his test results, “You did very well in the physical tests. You took 3 hits out of a possible 12 in our test on your reflexes. You completed the physical assault course in 2 minutes and 50 seconds, I particularly liked your strategy of letting gravity take you down the net. That was a very brave tactic from a former Slytherin.”

“Harry Potter has been a bad influence on me,” Draco said with a roll of his eyes.

Carter smirked, “Well it’s a good thing he has been. If you had tried to tackle that net the way it should have been done you would have failed. Your best score by far was in the flying assault course, we estimate that it should take 1 minute and 38 seconds to complete that course on the Firebolt and we got an International Quidditch player in to test that. You completed the course in 1 minute and 37 seconds.”

Draco grinned, “Take that Potter.”

“Mr. Potter has yet to set a time,” Auror Carter reminded him.

“He’ll struggle to beat that though, won’t he?” Draco asked.

“Anyone would struggle to beat that,” The Auror admitted as she ignored the smug look on Draco’s face, “You didn’t do quite as well in the suspect chase but you did get him, even if you did cut it a little fine.”

Draco nodded and the Auror flipped the page, “Now onto your magical ability. You scored 35 points out of a possible 40 on our accuracy test in Diagon Alley. I was particularly impressed with your tactic of getting up high for that one. We changed that test after the war to make it take place in a simulated Diagon Alley and out of 35 candidates last year, not one of them thought to do that. Your total score was 36 in the end but you lost a point for hitting a civilian, the only way you could have improved that score would have been to take all of the Death Eaters out effectively but frankly the fact you hit all 10 was impressive.”

Draco nodded again, “Thank you.”

“You did well in the shielding test too,” Auror Carter continued, “You were only hit with 2 spells and we rated your reaction to the killing curse as adequate. It didn’t hit you but you did do injury to yourself through the way you chose to avoid it so there is room for improvement there. On your spell casting test, you acquired 25 points, you fired 22 spells but you lost 2 points for repeating two of them. You didn’t use any dark magic and you did show skilful magic with your patronus charm. Finally, I have already told you I was impressed with your duelling capabilities, if unsurprised by your tactics.”

Draco nodded again, “So what happens now?”

“You wait here,” Auror Carter replied, “If anyone else in your heat passes they will join you in this room. Your friends will join you in here too if they pass their heats, it will get busier but as it stands you are the first one to pass both of our tests.”

Draco smiled proudly, “So that’s it for today? I just get to sit around and wait?”

Auror Carter nodded and got to her feet, “Yes, but don’t let your guard down. Today you faced the easy tasks, tomorrow you’ll face the hard ones.”

She got to her feet and left the room. Draco was just beginning to wonder how long he would be left to his own devices for when one of the five doors opened and two people emerged from it. One of them was one of the guys who had gone into the testing rooms at the same time as Draco and he was accompanied by a tall man in red Auror robes. Draco tried not to be too nosy as the Auror went through the man’s report with him as Carter had done with him. When he had finished the Auror left and the man approached Draco with a grin, “So we’re the first two to make it through huh?”

“Looks like it,” Draco replied.

“I’m Eddie by the way,” The man said, he was slightly taller than Draco and a lot stockier, his build was similar to Neville’s, “Eddie Carmichael.”

“Draco Black,” Draco said as he shook the man’s hand.

Eddie blew out a breath and sat down next to him, “You’re Harry Potter’s friend aren’t you?”

Draco simply nodded, he much preferred being referred to as Harry Potter’s friend rather than as ‘that kid who was a Death Eater’, “Yeah, do you know him?”

Eddie snorted, “I know of him but doesn’t everyone? I’ve never spoke to the guy though; I was a couple of years above you in school.”

“What house were you in?” Draco asked curiously.

“Ravenclaw,” Eddie replied, “I always wanted to be an Auror but I figured I’d take a couple of years out first to get some experience, you know?”

Draco wasn’t really sure what to say to that so he just nodded. This guy seemed nice, if a little talkative. Thankfully, he wasn’t stuck alone with him for too much longer because another door opened and a third candidate stepped out. Draco immediately recognised him as Maxwell Harper, he was accompanied by a fairly short red-robed Auror with dark brown hair.

“Hey look, another one,” Eddie said cheerfully.

Draco nodded, “I know him, he was in my house at Hogwarts.”

“Another Slytherin eh?”

“Yeah,” Draco replied, “He’s a year younger than me. I figured he’d pass the physical but I wasn’t sure about the magical part.”

“I found the physical well harder than the magical ability test,” Eddie admitted, “Didn’t you?”

“Yeah, the physical was harder,” Draco agreed as the Auror who had accompanied Maxwell left the room. The younger Slytherin boy grinned as he approached them, “Two Slytherins through already, nice one Draco.”

Draco smiled at him, “Nice one Max, how did you do?”

“Scraped by on a couple of them,” Maxwell shrugged, “But I still got through, that’s the main thing right?”

Draco nodded at him, “Yeah, do you reckon anyone else will get through?”

Maxwell shook his head and sat down on Draco’s other side, “Nah, Auror Lorne just told me that I was the last one to pass from our heat.”

“I guess we just need to wait and see how the next heat do then,” Draco said thoughtfully. His eyes flickered to the doors as he kept his fingers crossed for his three friends while Eddie cheerfully introduced himself to Maxwell.

**TBC **


	72. Neville's Selection Test: Part One

Harry, Neville and Theo made small-talk as they waited for it to be their turn to enter one of the testing rooms. They were all nervous for Draco but they knew that there was nothing they could do to influence what would happen to him now. They kept themselves to themselves and didn’t mingle with the others waiting in the room with them. Time seemed to drag on but as there was no clock in the room and none of them were wearing watches, they had no way of knowing how much time had actually passed when Sumner’s voice brought them all to attention once more.

“Alright, heat 2!” Sumner called, “When I call your name, line up in front of your door! Hastings, Serafina: Door 1. Kavanagh, Lesley: Door 2. Longbottom, Neville: Door 3. Marston, Harrison: Door 4. Nott, Theodore: Door 5.”

Harry smiled weakly at his friends and wished them good luck. He hated being a Potter sometimes, he was _always _last, it made him miss Ron a little bit if only because “W” came after “P” in the alphabet.

Neville shot Theo a small, encouraging smile as they stood a couple of doors apart.

“On the count of 3 you may enter your testing room and begin,” Sumner instructed them, “3…2…1.”

Neville opened the door and stepped into the room nervously. He hadn’t been sure what to expect but he had expected something more intimidating than a small room. He took a step forward and immediately realised that there was more to this room than met the eye because there were lots of little holes in the walls. He glanced down at the plaque and read his instructions.

_“When you cross the line, stinging charms will be fired at you in quick succession. This test requires you to place your wand in the holder beneath this plaque. Should you be hit with 12 or more stinging charms you will fail this room.”_

Neville groaned once he had finished reading this piece of information. He slotted his wand into the holder and shook his head. He wasn’t built like a seeker like Harry, Draco and Theo. He was taller and he was bulkier, that was great for tasks that required strength and power but not so much for something like this which required him to be swift and flexible.

All the same, he stepped over the line on the ground and immediately heard the tell-tale hiss that indicated that a spell was about to shoot out of the wall. He managed to dodge the first few, it was easy enough for him to duck and swerve to avoid the spells but because he was quite heavy (from muscle weight rather than fat) he found it harder to avoid the spells that required him to jump. As a result, he had already been hit twice when the spells began to shoot out of the walls two at a time. At that point Neville cursed to himself, he tried his best to avoid being hit but he would swerve to avoid the first spell and hit the wall so hard that he didn’t have time to duck to avoid the second one. He wasn’t sure how many times he had been hit by the time the spells stopped coming but he knew that several spots on his legs burned like hell and he could see a burn mark on his arm, he was fairly sure he had lost part of his right eyebrow too.

Neville glanced anxiously at the door as he waited for a sign to say that it was unlocked. He was expecting it to magically open or something of that ilk but when nothing happened at first he grew anxious that he had failed the task. He breathed a sigh of relief when a click indicated that the door had been unlocked and he hurried through it into the next room.

He recoiled slightly when bright sunlight hit him. The previous room hadn’t been particularly dark but then again he hadn’t expected to go from it into a wide, open field. He could tell straight away that the next task would be to tackle this huge obstacle course that was laid before him. He couldn’t see the entirety of the course but he scanned what he could see before reading the plaque in front of him;

_“When you cross the line, we will begin to time you from our observation area. This obstacle course will test every element of your physical strength and if you fail to complete it within the 3-minute timescale you will fail this room. You may use your wand but only against any magical obstacles you come across, you will receive a 5 second penalty for using your wand for any other means.”_

A wooden drawer slipped out from beneath the plaque containing Neville’s wand. He slipped it into its holster on his leg and took a step back. Like Draco had, he ran over the line so that he could have a bit of momentum for the first obstacle. He used the strength in his upper arms to vault over all three hurdles with ease then dropped down onto the boggy ground and crawled underneath the large net. He sank into the mud a little more than Draco had because he was heavier but because of the strength he had built up in his upper arms (through playing as a Beater for the past year) and his legs (through jogging around the lake every morning with Lilly), he found it easy to pull himself through the obstacle very quickly.

Once he had come out of the other end he pulled himself up and ran towards the next obstacle. He hadn’t broken a sweat yet and he wasn’t breathing particularly heavily but he did know that he was going to find this next obstacle a little difficult. The steep incline he was going to have to crawl up wasn’t a particular issue for him but the tight tunnel that he had to crawl through was. He managed to fit himself inside of it but his shoulders and arms scraped against the rough wooden sides as he began to pull himself up the steep incline. He wasn’t slipping around too much because he was lodged so tightly in the tunnel but the tight squeeze did slow his progress slightly. He could feel splinters of wood penetrating his skin but he pushed on regardless, it wasn’t a bad pain compared to some of the things he had endured under the Carrow’s anyway.

When Neville reached the top of the hill and pulled himself out of the tunnel he breathed deeply. It wasn’t because he was relieved, it was because he hadn’t been able to suck in a proper deep breath for the entirety of the time he had been squeezed into the tiny tunnel. He had to stop himself from groaning when he saw the next obstacle, it was a wooden beam over a high ravine. He didn’t really have a problem with heights but he did have a problem with balance, as proven by his uselessness on a broom as a youngster. He stepped onto the wooden beam carefully and put one foot in front of the other. He knew that he couldn’t rush over this obstacle so he took his time and made sure that he made it across without falling into the fast-flowing water beneath.

He knew as he stepped off of the wooden pole that he had a lot of time to make up so he wasted no time in throwing himself onto the high net. He found it fairly easy to pull himself up and launch himself over the edge. He scaled his way down the rope net and dropped as soon as he was at a sensible height from the ground.

Neville knew he had an advantage in that he didn’t need any time to get his breath back between obstacles. His breathing had only just begun to get heavy and he reckoned that he was at least halfway through the obstacle course now. He ran at the rope in front of him and swung across the shallow river below, he dropped down without landing in the water and ran to the edge of the lake.

“Where’s the bloody Gillyweed when you need it,” Neville mumbled to himself as he jumped straight into the deep water. He was a very strong swimmer so he wasn’t particularly worried about this part of the course, in fact he was fairly sure that he would be able to make up quite a lot of time. He sucked in a breath and ducked under the water, he managed to swim underneath the first two wooden beams before he had to come up for breath. Even then, he wouldn’t have needed to come up so quickly if he hadn’t been grabbed by a couple of Grindylows.

“Accio fish!” Neville said as he kept himself afloat in the deep water.

All of the fish in the water floated up to the surface and the Grindylows greedily swam away from Neville to scoff them. Neville shook his head in amusement at how easily satisfied Grindylows were. He ducked underneath the water once more and swam beneath the final two wooden beams. He emerged as he neared the shallower water where he saw a rather mischievous looking Kappa waiting for him. Neville stood up to his midriff in the water and said, “Good day sir Kappa!” as he bowed to the Japanese creature.

The Kappa looked so pleased to be addressed as such that he bowed back to Neville. In doing so, the water in the cap of his head sloshed out which drained him of his power, “Aw man,” the Kappa despaired in a squeaky voice, “I haven’t had a bite of anyone yet.”

“Sorry!” Neville called back to the Kappa as he pulled himself out of the lake, “You seem like a nice guy, I hope someone messes up so you can get some food.”

“Thanks!” The Kappa called back squeakily as Neville ran forward onto the next obstacle. He was starting to feel the strain of the course now because his soaking wet clothes made him a lot heavier and his next obstacle was a high pole that he had to scale.

He blew out a breath as he gripped the handholds and began to climb the pole. Heights really didn’t bother him but the thought of falling did so he tried his best not to look down. He lost his footing a couple of times because his feet were slippery but he didn’t fall so he pushed on. At the top of the pole he gripped the wooden handle and shut his eyes as he launched himself off of the zip line, he sped down at quite some speed and didn’t open his eyes until he landed in the shallow marshy water below.

Neville knew that there would be magical creatures in the marshy water so he cast a precautionary shield charm around his lower legs and waded through the water as fast as he could. When he emerged from it he ran towards the last obstacle and shook his head in disbelief when he saw the size of the gaps he would have to crawl through in the wooden contraption.

“Seriously?” Neville muttered as he pulled himself onto the first level. He barely had room to move his arms so pulling his entire body weight along was incredibly difficult. When he eventually did reach the end he had to twist his body so much to drop down into the narrow gap between the two levels that it really hurt, “Did you design this thing for runty gits like the rest of my friends?”

Neville pulled himself up onto the second level with difficulty and pulled himself along. He found it even more difficult to pull himself up onto the last tier and he was fairly sure he pulled or twisted something in his back while doing so. He limped forward and threw himself down the pole before running over the red finishing line on the ground, grimacing all the while.

He let himself fall onto the ground to catch his breath as he waited to find out how he had done on the obstacle course. He was fairly sure that he had passed, despite struggling through the tight tunnel he had made up the time pretty well throughout the rest of the course. It was just a question now of whether that last obstacle had royally screwed him up or not.

“Please proceed through the door onto the next section of the test Mr. Longbottom,” A disembodied male voice said, “Medical supplies will be provided for you.”

Neville pushed himself to his feet and looked up. Where there had only been a field a moment ago, there was now a door. He stepped through it and was momentarily blinded by the bright sunlight streaming down. He appeared to have emerged in a warmer climate, the sun was brighter and the air felt very humid. Neville had of course realised that this was some sort of room of requirement, he expected it was one of the simulation rooms that he had heard recruits and Aurors talking about during the week he spent doing work experience on this base.

On the clifftop where Neville was standing there was nothing more than a plaque, a rack containing three broomsticks and a small table with a few potions on it. He was fairly sure that one of them was a pain potion so he knocked it back and breathed a sigh of relief as it began to work its magic. As the effects of the potion began to reach his extremities Neville read the plaque before him;

_“When you leave the clifftop, we will begin to time your progress. Throughout this flight course there are 12 golden hoops which you must pass through. Should you miss any hoops we will deduct 5 seconds from your overall time. Should you take any longer than 2 minutes you will fail this room. You may choose between the three broomsticks on offer, choose wisely.”_

Neville could fly now thankfully but it still wasn’t his strongest skill and he was aware of that. He could hold himself up on a broomstick in the air but he wasn’t the fastest or the deftest and for that reason he wasn’t sure that he could control a Firebolt adequately. He knew that the Comet would be too slow and lurchy for him, it reminded him of the school brooms that he had hated so much. Naturally, that left the Nimbus 2001 which was what he had used during his tenure as Beater of the Gryffindor team for the past year.

Neville stepped forward, grabbed the Nimbus and mounted it. He took a deep breath; he really wasn’t looking forward to this task. Realistically he knew that all he could do was take it easy and hope that he managed to finish within the required time limit. He pushed off and flew through the first golden hoop, he could have rolled his eyes when he realised that the first few hoops were contained within a narrow ravine. It wasn’t as tight as some of the gaps he had been forced to squeeze through in the physical assault course however so he managed to make his way through it without causing himself injury. He was grateful when the course widened out but since he wasn’t the most agile he did find it difficult ducking underneath fallen tree trunks and swerving between trees and the edges of the cliff. All the same though, Neville was pleased when he reached the end of the course and dismounted the broom because he had managed to do it without missing any of the golden hoops. He waited anxiously to find out if he had completed the task within the required time limit and he breathed a sigh of relief when a door appeared in the side of the cliff.

Neville stepped through it into the next ‘room’ and he frowned when he took in his surroundings. He looked around at what looked like any ordinary muggle street and noticed a few familiar landmarks, a pub called “The Penny Farthing” with a sign that was half hanging off stood on the corner of the street and an old police box that had been nicknamed by the locals as the TARDIS was rotting just to his right.

“So I’ve just stepped into the East end of London,” Neville said as he looked around thoughtfully, “I can nearly see my girlfriend’s Mum’s flat from here.”

Nobody said anything, despite the fact that Neville knew that the Aurors assessing him could hear him. He couldn’t believe quite how small a world it was as he read the plaque in front of him;

_“When you cross the line, you will be required to chase down a suspect. However, you may not use your wand to aid you in this task. When you place your wand in the holder provided, we will provide you with a picture of the suspect. If you fail to catch the suspect within 3 kilometres you fail this room.”_

As it had before, a wooden drawer emerged from the bottom of the plaque. Neville put his wand inside it and took a wizarding photograph out. A young man with shaggy blonde hair who looked eerily like a young Grindelwald smiled mischievously back at him. Neville grinned because he had a plan, he stepped over the red line and all of a sudden the street became crowded with muggles bustling about their daily business. Neville spotted the young blonde haired suspect immediately but he didn’t chase the man, instead he darted to his right and ran down a narrow back alley that ran adjacent to the street. It was empty because all it led to was the back gardens of the houses that faced onto the street on the other side, this meant that Neville could run a lot faster than the suspect who was caught up in a crowd.

He got about halfway along the back alley and then jumped onto the garage of one of the houses. He dropped down into the back garden and vaulted the gate to emerge on the street on the other side. Neville smirked as he saw the suspect running straight towards him, however he wasn’t looking forward, he was only glancing behind him. Neville barged into him and knocked him unsuspecting to the ground where he tackled and held him tightly.

He felt fairly confident, and a little smug, about that one as the scene dematerialised and the street became empty once more. Neville got to his feet, dusted himself off and looked around for a way out. In the wall up ahead he saw that a door had appeared so he walked towards it slowly in order to get his breath back. Chasing the suspect hadn’t been difficult for him but he had knocked the breath out of himself with the force he had knocked the guy to the ground with.

When Neville reached the door and stepped through it, he expected to emerge into another test. He was relieved when he realised that this was some sort of waiting area which meant that the first part of the test was over. He scanned the room and saw the water fountain, the medical supplies and the comfortable chairs, he was already halfway to the water fountain when he heard the male voice that had spoken to him earlier.

“Congratulations Mr. Longbottom. You have passed the physical aspect of our selection test. You have 10 minutes to refresh yourself before we start the next test which will assess your magical capabilities so have a drink, patch yourself up and take a breather.”

Neville didn’t need to be told twice. He downed a cup of water and perused the medical supplies on the table. The pain potion he had taken before starting the flying obstacle course was still working its magic and the only other injuries he had obtained were friction burns and splinters from crawling through the tight wooden tunnel. They didn’t even hurt anymore so Neville didn’t bother healing them, he just sank down onto one of the comfortable chairs and enjoyed his 10 minutes of rest and relaxation.

They were over very quickly, Neville felt like his bottom had just touched the seat when the male voice said, “Your 10-minute rest period is over Mr. Longbottom. Please proceed through the door to begin our test on your magical abilities.”

Neville followed the disembodied voice’s instruction and stepped through the door. After the last few rooms that he had faced he wasn’t surprised to emerge in a place rather than a room. This time he wasn’t in the muggle world though, he was in Diagon Alley which was crowded with witches and wizards shopping and socialising. He looked around and realised that his position in the alley was just in front of Gringotts bank, with this established he read the plaque before him;

_“When you cross the line, Death Eaters will appear in the alley. Your task is to take down as many as you can, however, there are rules. You will be penalised for hitting civilians and taking a Death Eater down without killing them is preferable. We cannot question a dead Death Eater but we can force veritaserum down the throat of a captured one.”_

A wooden drawer emerged from beneath the plaque once more and it contained Neville’s wand. He took it out and surveyed the alleyway, there was no way of knowing where the Death Eaters would appear yet so he had no way of knowing where to set himself up to best defend against them. Neville took a step forward so that he was over the red line on the ground and the Death Eaters immediately began to materialise throughout the alley.

Neville knew he had to get up high to have a chance of hitting the Death Eaters without taking out a lot of civilians so he apparated onto the roof of Ollivander’s and took out two with stunning charms. A couple of the other Death Eaters spotted him and began to run up the alley towards the Leaky Cauldron so Neville apparated onto the roof of Flourish and Blotts and took them out from behind with stunning charms. He twisted around as fast as he could on the roof and looked back down the alley as he tried to spot the other Death Eaters. He saw one lurking in the doorway of Eeylops so he hit him with a piercing charm to the shoulder before he could retreat into the shop. By his count that was 5, however he didn’t know how many Death Eaters there were. He grew suspicious because he couldn’t see any on the street below but nothing had happened to say that he had passed the task.

Neville realised why this was when he heard a noise from behind him. He spun around and saw a Death Eater pulling himself out of the chimney, he was aiming to stun the man but before he had a chance to utter the words the Death Eater had pulled his wand on him. Neville panicked a little and shot a piercing charm at the man as he ducked, as a result he hit the Death Eater in the head and he fell lifelessly into the chimney.

“Bugger,” Neville muttered as he apparated further down the alley onto the roof of Ollivander’s for a better view. He saw another Death Eater creeping towards the Leaky Cauldron using the shops as cover. He couldn’t get a clean shot at the guy because there were too many people running about screaming and panicking so Neville decided to improvise. He used a cutting curse to cut one of the chains that held up the sign to the apothecary in the hope that it would swing down and knock the Death Eater out. However, what he didn’t account for was the fact the sign was made of metal and had very sharp corners so it actually slit the Death Eaters throat as it swung to the ground.

“Shit,” Neville cursed, that was two deaths now which he suspected would go against him. All the same he had to remain calm so he scanned the alley for any further Death Eaters and managed to hit one with stupefy just before he got to the Leaky Cauldron, however he was a little too far away so the spell didn’t quite work correctly. Neville was about to apparate down from the roof when he saw another Death Eater running through the screaming crowd, he tried to send a stunning charm flying towards him but lost his footing and slipped slightly which meant that the charm actually hit a civilian. He could have cursed at his own clumsiness as he tried to hit the Death Eater for a second time but the spell only just brushed his hand so he managed to escape into the Leaky Cauldron too.

He was starting to give up hope when he saw the final Death Eater. He didn’t want to lose that one too so he wasted no time in shooting a stunning charm at him. However, he didn’t expect the Death Eater to fall face first into a barrel of water which would surely drown him.

“Seriously?” Neville despaired as the scene dematerialised, “The sign killed the guy and that one just happens to fall into the bloody water! Are you taking the piss? This is like the bloody Cornish pixies all over again! Why is it always me?”

“You have passed this test Mr. Longbottom,” The male voice announced and it sounded distinctly amused, “Please proceed inside Gringotts bank to begin your next test.”

Neville was still shaking his head as he apparated down from the roof and yanked open the door to Gringotts. He stepped inside and frowned as he realised that this wasn’t the inside of Gringotts at all. Instead of being in a grand bank full of goblins, he was in a firing range and he seemed to be the target. Neville looked from the motionless Death Eater who was pointing his wand at him to the plaque before him;

_“When you cross the line, the Death Eater will fire spells of varying levels at you which you must shield. In order to pass this room, you must not be hit by more than 5 spells. Note that the killing curse counts as 2 spells because it is the only spell which can kill you.”_

Neville smiled slightly as he stepped over the red line. He didn’t envision himself having any problems with this task because he knew that he was bloody good at shielding charms. They were one of Harry’s specialities and Harry had spent a lot of time teaching Neville in their 5th year. It was when they had really bonded over the situation with their parents and as a result the two of them had spent a lot of their spare time in the room of requirement together.

The Death Eater began by using charms that were easily defendable with a simple “Protego” charm. After a few spells they began to get more complicated but Neville knew lots of different types of shield charms so he continued to block every single one with ease. He knew they must be getting near the end of the task when the spells began to become interspersed with spells that were unshieldable. He managed to dodge those spells because he knew that they couldn’t be shielded against. When the Death Eater threw “Glacius” at him, Neville acted quickly. He knew that there was no magical shield that could protect against the ice curse but it could be blocked by something solid. Neville conjured up a large block of stone which the curse hit. It turned the block to ice which meant that Neville could remove it from his way by simply tapping it. The ice block fell apart and Neville had to act quickly as he saw a very familiar green light soaring towards him. It didn’t give him any sort of flashback, after all it had been thrown at him several times in the war, especially during the final battle. Neville simply threw himself to the side to avoid the beam of green light.

After that the Death Eater disappeared and Neville looked around, “Was that it?” he asked, perhaps a little too cockily.

The male voice spoke to him once more, “You have passed this test Mr. Longbottom. Please make your way into Ollivander’s wand shop.”

Neville left the bank feeling pretty good about himself. He was doing a lot better than he had expected, he thought he might crumble under the pressure but the war seemed to have prepared him pretty well for the Aurors tests. He crossed the sunny alley and stepped into Ollivander’s which, like Gringotts, wasn’t really Ollivander’s. This room also resembled a firing range, there was a dummy at the far end and a plaque by the door which Neville read;

_“When you cross the line, you will have 2 minutes to fire as many spells as you can at the dummy provided. You will lose points for using the same spell more than once or for using dark magic, you will gain points for portraying any highly skilful spells.”_

Neville nodded to himself. It seemed fairly simple, it was essentially a test to establish the range of spells that he knew. He didn’t think he would find it particularly difficult so he stepped over the line to begin the test. Neville began by using the only skilful spell that he knew which was the patronus charm, his patronus bounded across the room and disappeared behind the dummy. After that he began to fire every spell that he knew at the dummy from the basics like “Expelliarmus” right through to every blasting curse and cutting charm that he knew. He was fairly sure that he didn’t use any spells more than once and it wasn’t difficult for him to avoid using dark magic because he didn’t know any dark curses apart from Sectumsempra and even then he used it very rarely.

A buzzer announced that his time was up so Neville slipped his wand into its holster and waited for the disembodied voice to tell him where to go next.

“You have passed this test Mr. Longbottom, please proceed through the door ahead.”

Neville hadn’t noticed any other doors in the room but as he looked around he realised that another door had appeared at the other side of the room. He walked through the door and wasn’t surprised to find that it contained nothing other than a duelling platform. Atop that duelling platform was a man dressed in deep red Auror robes. He was fairly short, not much taller than Harry in fact, and he had dark brown hair.

The Auror smiled at Neville. “Well done for getting this far Mr. Longbottom, my name is Auror Lorne and I’ve been the one assessing you today.”

“You mean listening to my rants?” Neville quipped as he climbed up onto the platform.

Auror Lorne smiled, “You have been a rather amusing candidate to assess,” he admitted.

Neville chuckled, “Well I’m glad my misfortunes keep someone amused. I’m assuming that this set up means the final task is a duel?”

“Indeed,” Lorne replied, “Are you ready to start?”

“Ready as I’ll ever be,” Neville replied. He and Lorne walked to the centre of the duelling platform, bowed to each other and then walked back to their respective places at the ends of the platform. With that, the duel began.

Auror Lorne began with the more basic spells just as Auror Carter had with Draco. After all, their aim was to assess the candidate’s ability not to kill them by bombarding them with dangerous hexes straight away.

Lorne began by using spells that wouldn’t do Neville much harm like “Expelliarmus” and “Stupefy”. Neville didn’t use any offensive spells to begin with, he simply defended against the Aurors spells to get a gauge on the Aurors skill level and style of duelling. He worked out that his spellcasting was quick and that accuracy was his strong point which meant that Neville couldn’t afford to let his shield drop for one moment.

Once he had realised this Neville began to fight back by throwing cutting curses and stunning spells at the Auror. He defended every single one with ease and Neville could see that he wasn’t getting anywhere. He wracked his brain to come up with a way of bringing the Auror down as he defended against a couple of more sinister curses.

In the end he let the Gryffindor inside him win out and decided that brute force might actually be the answer here. He began to throw every blasting curse that he knew at Auror Lorne, one of his strengths lay in the power behind his spells and this came in very handy with blasting charms. He hit the Auror with the spells in quick succession and Neville could see that his plan was working, the Aurors shield charm had transitioned from a bright blue to a feeble pink but he was so busy trying to defend against blasting curse after blasting curse that he hadn’t realised yet.

The moment the shield shattered Neville got straight in there with, “Expelliarmus!” and disarmed Auror Lorne.

The Auror brushed the ashes off of his robes and smiled at Neville, “Good duel Mr. Longbottom. Do you mind giving me my wand back?”

“Sorry,” Neville said as he walked to the other end of the platform and handed Auror Lorne his wand.

“You fight like a Gryffindor,” Lorne said with an amused smile, “Brute force combined with an air of foolish bravery. You didn’t have a shield charm up while you bombarded me with curses. You’re lucky there wasn’t an enemy behind you, you left yourself open to attack.”

“Noted sir,” Neville said with a nod as they stepped off of the platform together, “What house were you in, if you don’t mind me asking?”

“Hufflepuff,” Lorne replied, “I had to work on my duelling, it didn’t come naturally to me. I know more spells than the average red robe around here and I’m great at thinking up strategies but putting them into practice was never my strong point.”

“I have a friend like that,” Neville said thoughtfully as he let his thoughts drift to Theo. He wondered how his friend was getting on in testing room number 5, he wondered whether he had reached this point.

“If he’s anything like me, he’ll pass with flying colours,” Lorne assured Neville as he led him out of the testing area into a waiting area that looked very similar to the one he had been in with Harry and Theo.

Neville glanced around and grinned when he saw Draco looking bored out of his mind as Maxwell Harper and Eddie Carmichael had a very animated conversation over of him. Draco caught his eye and grinned when he saw Neville.

Lorne chuckled at the sight and said, “Just take a seat over there Mr. Longbottom, I’ll grab your performance report and let you know how you did overall.”

Neville nodded and took a seat at the opposite side of the room from Draco. Lorne came back over to him with a brown file in his hands, he flipped it open and took a seat next to Neville, “So let’s go over your results in the physical first. You took 7 hits out of a possible 12 in the first test designed to test your reflexes,” Lorne began.

“Yeah, not a strong point of mine,” Neville said sheepishly.

Lorne chuckled, “I know I’m shorter than you but I’m stocky too. Being swift and agile is always harder when you have a build like ours. You still passed which is all that matters. Your time on the physical assault course was 2 minutes and 48 seconds. I particularly liked the fact you fed the Grindylows instead of using violence against them and I don’t think I have ever seen someone hold a conversation with a Kappa in the 6 years I have been a trainer here.”

Neville smiled slightly, “They’re nice enough if you actually get to know them.”

“When they aren’t sucking your blood,” Lorne said with a vaguely amused look.

Neville just shrugged.

Lorne continued, “I will mention the difficulty you faced with the tunnel. You are one of the bigger guys we’ve had try out so it’s not something that has come up before but those tunnels are very narrow so we will take that into consideration.”

“Thanks,” Neville said with a nod, “I appreciate that.”

Lorne continued, “Now onto the flying assault course, you did just fine in that. You weren’t the fastest but you didn’t pick the Firebolt and you did about as well as you could with the Nimbus. We reckon it should take about 1 minute and 45 seconds and you did it in 1 minute and 50 seconds. You did well in the suspect chase too, even if you did have a slight advantage.”

Neville grinned, “I can’t help that the street you chose happened to be near my girlfriend’s Mums house.”

Lorne smiled slightly, “All the same, you showed initiative and we like that here so that was a definite pass. Now onto our tests on your magical abilities, you scored 32 points out of a possible 40 in the accuracy test. You hit all 10 Death Eaters which not everyone manages to do so that’s a plus point, you did lose a point for hitting a civilian but 32 is a good score. You could have improved it by effectively knocking out those two that got away and by not accidentally killing a few, even if your narrative of the event was rather amusing.”

Neville rolled his eyes, “That task literally summed up my life so far. If anything stupid can go wrong it does and it happens to me.”

“Hey, you passed didn’t you?” Lorne said calmly, “And you absolutely aced our tests on your shielding ability. You didn’t get hit by a single spell and we were very pleased with your response to the killing curse. You did great in the spell casting too, you got 25 points overall, 20 of those were for the spells that you managed to fire and you gained 5 bonus points for your use of the patronus charm. You weren’t docked any points in that test because you didn’t use dark magic and you didn’t repeat any of the same spells.”

Neville nodded, “And my duel?”

“A clear pass,” Lorne replied, “We deduced from your duel and the other tasks we set you that your strong points are blasting charms and shield charms. We like your duelling technique too. Your performance report is very good so far, just make sure you keep it up tomorrow with your mental tests.”

Neville nodded and smiled at the man, “I’ll do my best, thank you Auror Lorne.”

Lorne smiled back at him and patted him on the shoulder, “You’re welcome,” he said genuinely. As the Auror got up to leave the room Neville approached Draco who moved out of his spot between Maxwell and Eddie. The two friends sat down next to each and Draco patted Neville on the back, “Well done.”

“You too,” Neville grinned, “Didn’t I tell you that you could do it?”

“Hey, we haven’t done it yet,” Draco reminded him, “This is just day one, remember?”

Neville nodded and glanced at the five doors, “Am I the first one through?”

Draco nodded, “Who else was in your heat?”

“Theo was in it if that’s what you’re really asking,” Neville said as he shot his friend a knowing look.

“I thought that he might be,” Draco said as his eyes darted anxiously towards the doors.

Neville smiled at his friend, “I know it’s hard for you but try to stop worrying about your boyfriend, alright?”

Draco glared at Neville, “Shut up Fatbottom,” he muttered.

Neville smirked at the blonde boy and leant around him to congratulate Max on getting this far. As he did so Eddie, who was beginning to get on Draco’s nerves a bit, cheerfully introduced himself to Neville.

**TBC **


	73. Theo's Selection Test: Part One

“3…2…1!”

Theo was more nervous than he cared to let on as he stepped through that white door into the testing room. Despite the fact he was known as the joker amongst their group of friends, Theo did try his best and he really wanted this. He knew he wasn’t as much of a natural as some of his friends when it came to physical challenges so this part of the selection process gave him the most concern.

He surveyed the room and had worked out before he even read the plaque that spells of some variety were going to be coming out of the holes in the walls;

_“When you cross the line, stinging charms will be fired at you in quick succession. This test requires you to place your wand in the holder beneath this plaque. Should you be hit with 12 or more stinging charms you will fail this room.”_

Theo sighed as he put his wand in the wooden drawer and looked down at the red line on the ground, he had been right to worry about passing the physical. He wasn’t the tallest and he had always been described as runty or ratty by his friends. In fact, he had a very similar build to Harry but thankfully he did have a bit of height on his Gryffindor friend. He knew that his build meant that he should be good at dodging spells but Theo had never had the best reflexes, his sister had worked that out early on and she still got a kick out of throwing things at him and watching him try and fail to catch them. That was why he had played as a Beater on the Slytherin Quidditch team, he was great at hitting things that were flying at him but not necessarily catching or avoiding them.

All Theo could think about as he crossed the red line was how embarrassing it would be to end up failing at the first hurdle. He did better than he had expected at first though, because the spells were being generated by the room rather than being shot out of a wand, there was a slightly longer delay between the hiss that indicated the start of the spell and the spell itself.

That worked to Theo’s advantage. He listened for the hisses and managed to make sure he wasn’t in their firing line, he had very good senses which helped him out a lot. He fell into a spot of trouble when the spells began to fire out of the wall two at a time. He managed to avoid one but he didn’t have enough time to work out where the second one was going to hit so he spent about 30 seconds cursing loudly as he was hit by stinging charm after stinging charm.

By the time the spells stopped firing, Theo felt black and blue. His clothes were singed and ruined, he could tell that he had been hit a lot of times from the burning sensation he felt on his legs, arms, torso and back. The pain was bearable compared to the pain he had felt during the war though, Theo stepped over the red line and looked at the door ahead of him, he wasn’t really expecting it to open if he was honest. He had lost track of how many spells had hit him but he knew it had to be pretty close to the 12 that would constitute a fail.

When a loud click indicated that the door had been unlocked, Theo blew out a relieved breath, “You owe me a new set of Levi’s by the way,” he said to no one in particular as he stepped through the door.

He blinked a couple of times as his eyes began to adjust to the new lighting conditions. Once he had stopped squinting he let his eyes roam over the obstacles laid out on the hilly terrain before him. He shook his head again and muttered, “I should have said yes when Nev asked me to start running around the lake with him.”

Theo glanced down at the plaque, as he suspected that this wasn’t going to be easy for him;

_“When you cross the line, we will begin to time you from our observation area. This obstacle course will test every element of your physical strength and if you fail to complete it within the 3-minute timescale you will fail this room. You may use your wand but only against any magical obstacles you come across, you will receive a 5 second penalty for using your wand for any other means.”_

A wooden drawer emerged from beneath the plaque and Theo took his wand out of it. He slipped it into his pocket and shook his head, “3 minutes, I can’t even get from the ground floor to the roof of my house in 3 bloody minutes.”

He had already doomed himself to fail before he had even started but then again, Theo was a bit of an eternal pessimist. He took a running start and found it easy enough to vault over the hurdles because he didn’t weigh a lot. Crawling underneath the net wasn’t too much of a struggle for him either. He pulled himself to his feet after completing the first two obstacles then ran towards the third one. He didn’t have a problem fitting into the tight tunnel but pulling himself up a steep hill when he was wet and therefore slippery and also, not very physically fit, was a struggle.

Theo struggled on but he felt like the moment he got somewhere he slipped back down to the start. On his third attempt he managed to pull himself out at the other end of the tunnel but he was panting like he had just run a marathon, he knew if he managed to get through this he would seriously need to work on his physical fitness.

He knew that he needed to make up on the time that he had lost so he threw caution to the wind and tried to cross the wooden beam suspended above the rocky ravine a little too quickly. He lost his footing slightly and slipped but he didn’t fall, he just used some very inventive swear words and took it a little bit more easy from there on.

Thankfully, Theo found the next obstacle fairly easy to defeat. He scaled the large rope net and threw himself over the top then clambered down it with the flexibility and speed of a monkey. He was so light and flexible that he found that part very easy. He jumped off of the net and ran at the rope that he had to swing across the river on. Theo grabbed it and swung a couple of times to gather momentum before dropping down onto the river bank.

He ran to the edge of the lake and shook his head when he realised that he had to swim. He was a strong enough swimmer but he was positive that there would be magical creatures in this lake and he wasn’t the most adept at dealing with them or magical plants for that matter. Theo began to swim across the lake as fast as he could, he hoped if he was quick enough the magical creatures would just ignore him.

However, this plan wasn’t the most successful. Theo had gotten past two of the four wooden beams when he felt something grab his leg. He shook it hard to try and shake off the offending Grindylow then he felt a sharp nip to his lower leg.

“Fuck!” Theo cursed, “Bloody Grindylow, reducto!”

The spell caused a blast under the water which forced all the Grindylows downwards. Theo was in a bad enough mood as he swam on and ducked underneath the last two wooden beams. He was fairly sure he wasn’t going to do this, he could see a good few obstacles up ahead and he had no idea how much time had passed. Just as Theo thought things couldn’t get any worse he felt a sharp pain in his arm and he looked over to see a Kappa chewing on it.

“Oh come on!” Theo exclaimed as he blasted the Kappa off of him and waded out of the water, “I don’t want to work for the fucking DRCMC, what’s with the flesh eating demon?”

The Kappa laughed wickedly as Theo dragged himself towards the next obstacle and tried to ignore the pain in his arm and the blood that was dripping from the wound. Under normal circumstances Theo wouldn’t have found it difficult to climb up the high wooden pole but his arm was hurting more than he cared to let on so it did slow his progress slightly.

When he reached the top, he grabbed the wooden handlebar and grimaced in pain as he threw himself off of the pole and let the zip line take him down into the marshy water below. Supporting his weight with an arm that was literally soaked in blood was not the easiest thing in the world.

Theo cradled his arm as he waded through the marshy water. He ignored the sharp stinging pain he felt in his ankles as some kind of creature nibbled at him, he just pushed on through the water as fast as he could. He could have sighed in relief when he saw the last obstacle but he knew he was going to have to pull his black and blue body through it.

Army crawling through the wooden platform was harder now that his arm was bleeding and his ankles throbbed. All the same he managed to pull himself through the first level and he had no problems twisting around and pulling himself up onto the second level because he was fairly short and light. He dragged himself along the second level then ran across the top of the platform. He used his good arm to slide down the pole and then he half ran/half limped over the red ‘finishing’ line on the ground.

Once he was over it Theo let himself fall onto the grass as he caught his breath and realised the full extent of his injuries. He literally hurt all over and after the number of disastrous mistakes he had made in that task he was 100% positive that he had failed and that this was the end of the selection process for him.

Theo made a face when he looked at his injuries for the first time. He had several puncture wounds on his ankles and lower leg, then there was a bite mark from the Grindylow. By far the worst one however, was the wound on his arm. That Kappa had taken a good old bite out of him, it was bleeding heavily and although it was just a flesh wound it was a pretty gross gaping one.

“Please proceed through the door onto the next section of the test Mr. Nott,” A disembodied male voice said from somewhere above him, “Medical supplies will be provided for you.”

“Thank Salazar,” Theo mumbled as he looked up for the door that the voice had spoken of. As he had been inspecting his injuries he had completely missed the appearance of a white door in the middle of the field in front of him. He pushed his way through it and ignored everything as he made a beeline for the little table full of medical supplies to his right.

He applied a powdered dittany cream to the Kappa wound on his arm and he breathed a sigh of relief as it messily closed up the painful wound. He lathered it onto his lower legs too but he ignored the burn marks from the stinging charms, they barely hurt compared to everything else he had been hit with since. He tossed back a blood replenishing potion for good measure too, it had been hard to tell how much blood he had lost from the wound on his arm because the water had made it look like he was bleeding more than he probably had been.

Once he no longer felt like he was about to bleed out, Theo looked at his surroundings. He grinned when he saw the brooms and the bright sun shining down on the clifftop. He liked flying and he liked flying quickly, he didn’t really think he would have a problem with this one;

_“When you leave the clifftop, we will begin to time your progress. Throughout this flight course there are 12 golden hoops which you must pass through. Should you miss any hoops we will deduct 5 seconds from your overall time. Should you take any longer than 2 minutes you will fail this room. You may choose between the three broomsticks on offer, choose wisely.”_

Theo wasted no time in picking up the Firebolt and mounting it. He probably should have taken a minute to assess what he could see of the course but this looked like so much fun so he just pushed off and allowed the test to begin. He soared through the ravine and he felt great about how he was doing as he hit the first four hoops.

However, when he reached the wider part of the ravine he realised that he was flying far too fast. He was pushing the firebolt to its limit and at that speed by the time he saw his next hoop he couldn’t get to it in time to fly through it. This error in his judgement meant that he missed 4 hoops in the first section of the course, after that he pulled up a little and made sure that he hit the rest of them.

When he landed on the clifftop at the end of the course Theo cursed under his breath. If he had counted right and he had missed 4 hoops then that meant he would have 20 seconds taken off of his overall time. He knew he had to have set a good time to be able to scrape through this one. He breathed another sigh of relief when a door materialised in the side of the cliff in front of him. He stepped through and looked around at the muggle street he had just stepped into. He knew he had to read the instructions carefully this time and make sure that he didn’t rush into this one;

_“When you cross the line, you will be required to chase down a suspect. However, you may not use your wand to aid you in this task. When you place your wand in the holder provided, we will provide you with a picture of the suspect. If you fail to catch the suspect within 3 kilometres you fail this room.”_

A wooden drawer emerged from beneath the plaque once more. Theo put his wand inside it, reluctantly, and took the wizarding photograph out. The suspect he was chasing was a tall, lanky man with greasy looking hair. Before he crossed the line to start the test Theo looked around the street to see if he could come up with some sort of plan or strategy this time. He didn’t want to run into it blindly and nearly screw it up like he had with the flight test.

He grinned when he saw a scooter sitting by the side of the road because a plan began to formulate in his head. When he crossed the red line he got a surprise because the street suddenly became full of muggles, but it didn’t hinder his plan too much. He saw the suspect that he was after turn around and then disappear into the crowd. Theo ignored this however and ran over to the scooter by the side of the road, he managed to hotwire it within a few seconds. He jumped on, started the engine and sped down the street honking his horn to force pedestrians out of the way. They screamed and jumped out of his way which gave Theo a clean path towards his suspect who was approaching a wall at the end of the street. He sped up and skidded to a halt in front of the suspect. The man turned and began to ran back down the street the way he had come but Theo was close enough to jump off of the scooter and tackle him to the ground now.

The moment he had subdued the suspect the scene around him dematerialised. The man he was holding to the ground disappeared, as did all of the muggles who had previously been crowding the busy street. Theo got to his feet and brushed himself off, he glanced around for any obvious sign of where he should go next. He was fairly sure that he had passed that one, surely enough he noticed a door in the wall in front of him.

He wasted no time in heading through the door into a very neutral white waiting room. Theo glanced from the table full of medical supplies to the water fountain. He had just begun to walk towards it to get himself a drink when the male voice that had spoken to him earlier filled the room, “Congratulations Mr. Nott. You have passed the physical aspect of our selection test.”

“Just,” Theo mumbled to himself.

“You have 10 minutes to refresh yourself before we start the next test which will assess your magical capabilities. I suggest that you have a drink and take a breather, medical supplies are provided and I would put some more cream on that Kappa bite if I were you.”

Theo was sure that he heard a hint of amusement in the man’s voice as he glanced down at the Kappa bite on his arm. Surely enough, the wound had opened up slightly again. He downed a glass of water and lathered more cream onto the wound then he slumped down into a seat and enjoyed the quickest 10-minute nap of his life.

“Your 10-minute rest period is over Mr. Nott. Please proceed through the door to begin our test on your magical abilities.”

Theo got to his feet and walked towards the door. He hoped that this next set of challenges was a bit more suited to him, physicality had never been his strong point but he was very capable magically and he was intelligent too, despite the fact that he played the clown.

“Diagon Alley,” Theo mused as he looked at his surroundings. He could tell that he was in a simulated version of the alley because some things weren’t quite right. Fortescue’s looked like it had before the war but it had been repainted when it had been re-opened, Gringotts didn’t have a new roof where a dragon had burst through it either.

Theo glanced down at the plaque and read his instructions;

_“When you cross the line, Death Eaters will appear in the alley. Your task is to take down as many as you can, however, there are rules. You will be penalised for hitting civilians and taking a Death Eater down without killing them is preferable. We cannot question a dead Death Eater but we can force veritaserum down the throat of a captured one.”_

Theo decided to use his brain this time. He looked around the alley and tried to work out what his plan of action would be before he actually started the task. As far as he knew this one wasn’t timed but it didn’t hurt to take his time and come up with a plan. He assumed that the Death Eaters would appear amongst the crowd of people which would mean targeting them without accidentally hitting civilians would be difficult. Stunning spells had a high chance of misfiring off of mirrors or shop fronts so he wanted to avoid them but spells like piercing charms which could take a Death Eater down would kill them if Theo’s aim was even slightly off. He needed a spell that wouldn’t harm a civilian if it accidentally hit them but which would take down a Death Eater, regardless of the distance it was thrown from.

By the time he stepped over the red line 5 minutes after he had entered the room, Theo felt confident that he had a good plan in place. The moment he crossed the line the Death Eaters appeared and the crowd began to disperse as people screamed, panicked and ran. Theo used the chaos to his advantage, he managed to hit 3 Death Eaters with “Petrificus Totalus” in the initial chaos.

After that they began to hide or flee towards the Leaky Cauldron. Theo overturned a barrel full of flobberworms outside the apothecary and jumped up onto it to get a better vantage point. He aimed at the back of one of the fleeing Death Eaters and shouted, “Incarcerous!”

The Death Eater fell to the ground, bound and gagged. Theo quickly adjusted his aim and hit the second fleeing Death Eater in the back with the same spell. He too fell to the ground where he could do nothing more than wriggle uselessly like a worm.

Theo jumped down from the barrel onto the slippery ground where the flobberworms were trying to escape. He snuck along the alley and kept his eyes on the shop fronts where he suspected the Death Eaters would be hiding. He spotted one in the entrance of Ollivander’s and hit him with a stunning charm because he had a clean shot. This spooked another Death Eater who began to run up the alley, Theo chased him and managed to get close enough to hit him with a binding charm. Like his comrades, the Death Eater fell to the ground bound and gagged.

He wasn’t sure how many more there were but Theo couldn’t see any at the far end of the alley close to the Leaky Cauldron. He snuck back down the alley and kept his eyes peeled once more, he spotted one hiding in the doorway of Flourish and Blotts, he knew there was a chance any spell he fired would miss and hit the window behind the Death Eater which could cause it to backfire so he decided the safest choice was to throw a jelly legs jinx at the man. He fell to the ground which gave Theo a chance to get closer and bind him.

As Theo ran forward another Death Eater ran out from a shop on the other side of the alley. Theo jumped up onto a stand full of school textbooks and hit him in the back with a binding curse then he jumped back down and surveyed the alley. By his count he had taken out 9 already but he had no idea how many more there were or whether there was a time limit on this task. He snuck his way back to the spot where he had started by the apothecary and that was when he spotted the last one, Theo darted forward to throw a spell at the man but he had forgotten about the spillage of flobberworms. As a result, his spell flew over the Death Eaters head and Theo skidded into the side of Gringotts bank. He shot a piercing charm at the Death Eater who was seconds away from retreating into Knockturn Alley. He hit him in the arm but he didn’t have time to get another shot in before the man disappeared down the dark close.

“Bugger,” Theo muttered as he rubbed his arm, he had whacked his funny bone off of the hard stone wall, “Why is it always magical creatures that slip me up?” he added as he turned back to the alley. He frowned as he realised that it had suddenly emptied, all of the Death Eaters he had subdued were gone, as were the crowds of people.

“You have passed this test Mr. Nott,” The male voice said, “Please proceed into Gringotts bank to begin your next test.”

Theo stepped inside Gringotts and frowned. This was most definitely not the most ancient wizarding bank in Britain, it was a firing range and he was the target. He glanced down at the plaque in the hope that it would give him a bit more information;

_“When you cross the line, the Death Eater will fire spells of varying levels at you which you must shield. In order to pass this room, you must not be hit by more than 5 spells. Note that the killing curse counts as 2 spells because it is the only spell which can kill you.”_

Theo didn’t feel too nervous about that. He was better at shielding than he was at dodging, he relied on his magical abilities more so than his physical ones which he knew was a weakness of his. He stepped over the line and began the task, he easily defended against the first few spells which required nothing more than a standard shield charm. Even when the Death Eater ramped up the intensity of his spells Theo found it easy to defend with a couple of more advanced shield charms.

He took his first hit when the Death Eater fired “Glacius” at him. He knew that he couldn’t shield it with a magical shield so he intended to conjure some sort of large rock but he didn’t do it in time. He ducked to avoid the curse but the beam of ice just brushed the side of his head and holy shit, it hurt.

It was because of this that Theo made his second mistake. His head throbbed and the world around him spun as he pulled himself to his feet. His brain didn’t really register that there was a green light soaring towards him and he certainly didn’t hear the words “Avada Kedavra” being uttered. As a result, the killing curse hit him square in the chest, however it did not kill him. It made him inhale sharply and it brought him back to his senses. Once he realised that he had just been hit by the killing curse he swore loudly, “Shit!”

Surely that was an automatic fail? Theo thought to himself as he waited for the disembodied voice to tell him the bad news.

“Well done Mr. Nott, you just died,” It said, again Theo detected a hint of amusement there, “But you still passed this task. Please proceed to Ollivander’s wand shop where medical supplies will be provided.”

Theo still felt a little lightheaded as he stepped out into the sunlit alley. The bright sunshine made his head throb so he made his way across the alley into Ollivander’s as quickly as he could. He breathed a sigh of relief as he stepped into the dingy, dark shop. Except, it wasn’t Ollivander’s on the inside, it was another type of firing range.

Theo ignored that for the moment though, he went to the medical table and perused the supplies. He took a pepper-up potion which he felt clear his head then he rubbed some sort of burn cream onto the side of his head where the beam of ice had brushed him. He blinked a couple of times and felt his head clear. He glanced down to read the plaque as the potion continued to work its magic;

_“When you cross the line, you will have 2 minutes to fire as many spells as you can at the dummy provided. You will lose points for using the same spell more than once or for using dark magic, you will gain points for portraying any highly skilful spells.”_

Theo wasn’t worried about this room either. His range of spells was pretty good and he felt confident in his spell casting in general. He wasted no time in stepping over the line and throwing everything that he knew at the dummy. Unlike the others there was method in his madness, he started off with spells he had learned in 1st year and gradually fired off every spell he could remember learning in quick succession. He was starting to worry that his time was running out as he reached 5th year so at that point he made sure he cast a patronus because he figured it would count as skilful magic. That change in his tactics threw him off slightly so he used one spell again but he was sure that he hadn’t accidentally used any dark magic spells or curses as a loud buzzer announced that his time was up.

“You have passed this room Mr. Nott, please proceed through the door ahead.”

Theo looked up as a door materialised on the wall behind the dummy. He was feeling pretty good about himself as he walked through the door into a large room that was empty apart from a duelling platform. He felt his heart sink, he had expected a duel but he had also been worried about it. He had been practicing loads of mock duels with Harry, Draco and Neville but he was the weakest out of the four of them and they all knew it.

Standing atop the duelling platform was a tall middle-aged man with short light brown hair. He smiled at Theo and said, “Congratulations on getting this far Mr. Nott. I’m Auror Mitchell, I’ve been the one assessing you today.”

“So you’re responsible for all of these injuries,” Theo joked as he climbed up onto the platform.

Mitchell smiled slightly, “I think your lack of animal handling skills are to blame actually.”

“I applied to be an Auror for a reason,” Theo said as he glanced at his Kappa wound which was now oozing, “I don’t like magical creatures.”

“Or magical plants so I hear,” Mitchell smirked, “I heard about an incident involving you and the venomous tentacula.”

Theo snorted, “You heard about that?”

“Your reference may have mentioned something,” Mitchell said with a sly smile.

“Of course she did,” Theo said with a fond smile, “Good old Minnie.”

Mitchell chuckled, “Now, as you may have guessed, your final challenge today is to duel me.”

Theo nodded, “Are there rules?”

“Don’t kill me and don’t use dark magic,” Mitchell replied, “Other than that, anything goes.”

Theo grinned, “Excellent,” he said as he and Mitchell walked to the middle of the platform, bowed to each other and then took their places at their respective ends of the duelling platform.

After that, the duel began. Auror Mitchell began by using basic charms that couldn’t do Theo much harm and Theo got right in there with his duelling tactic. He liked to fire as many spells as he could think of at his opponent in quick succession because it guaranteed that they would slip up and not effectively shield against one of them.

However, Theo didn’t just throw dangerous curses at Auror Mitchell, he alternated between cutting and blasting curses and the silly jinxes that he liked to use in his pranks. It caught Mitchell off guard, he had to switch very quickly from using “Protego!” to defend against Theo’s trip and jelly legs jinxes to using a more powerful shield charm to defend against the more lethal curses being thrown his way.

“Reducto!”

Theo worried that Mitchell might be able to defend against him better as he worked out what his duelling tactic was. All the same, he kept throwing charms at the man and it didn’t take long to catch him off guard in the end.

“Riddikulus!”

“Protego! Expelliarmus!”

“Protego! Densaugeo!”

“Protego! Bombarda!”

Theo defended against the blasting charm and then sent a cutting charm straight towards the Auror. It was a rather nasty cutting charm that couldn’t be defended against with a shield charm but he had lulled the Auror into a false sense of security so he threw up a shield charm as he had done to defend against Theo’s last few schoolboy hexes. The cutting curse slashed through the Aurors shield and sliced his upper arm open.

“Expelliarmus!”

The Aurors wand flew into Theo’s hand and as soon as he caught it, he made his way over to the man and performed a basic healing charm. As Mitchell’s wound began to sew itself back together Theo handed him his wand.

“Interesting tactic,” Mitchell said as he glanced at his arm, “You used some pretty inventive home-made spells there. I haven’t seen anyone use Levicorpus in a duel since Sirius Black’s selection test…”

Theo grinned, “I’ll take that as a compliment sir, he was a prankster extraordinaire.”

Mitchell surveyed Theo, “So that’s the tactic, lull your opponent into a false sense of security with schoolboy hexes then catch them unawares.”

“I learned a while ago that you can get away with a lot when people don’t expect anything of you,” Theo admitted, “That’s why I play the clown and study for my exams in secret.”

Mitchell laughed, “Yeah, Sirius would have been proud to call you his protégé. I remember how he would spend his days goofing around in class and his nights studying with Remus.”

Theo snorted to himself at that, from what he knew about Harry’s Godfather, he was fairly sure that whatever Sirius was doing with Remus all night long that it wasn’t studying. If Mitchell noticed this, he didn’t say anything as he led Theo off of the duelling platform.

“Does this mean I’ve passed then?” Theo asked.

Mitchell nodded as he opened a white door at the other side of the room, “By the skin of your teeth on some tasks but a pass all the same.”

Theo grinned broadly as he looked around the room they had just emerged into. Draco positively beamed when he saw Theo walk into the room. The blonde boy bounded across the room and hugged his best friend, “Thank Merlin! You took forever, I was so worried! Holy shit, what happened to your arm?”

“I got bitten by a Kappa,” Theo said with a vaguely amused smile, “But it’s good to feel appreciated.”

“If you don’t mind Mr. Black, can you relinquish your grip on your boyfriend so I can debrief him?” Mitchell asked with an amused smirk.

Draco’s cheeks flushed pink as he let go of Theo and nodded, “Uh yeah, I’m just proud of you mate.”

Theo shot Draco an amused grin as he sat down on the other side of the room and watched Mitchell walk over to a desk. He picked up a brown file and walked back over to Theo, he flicked it open as he took a seat next to him, “Let’s begin with your physical results, shall we?”

“Do we have to?” Theo asked with a grimace.

Mitchell smirked as he glanced down, “Yeah, we have to. You took 10 hits out of a possible 12 on our test of your reflexes, 2 more hits and you would have been out.”

“Yeah, I’m not the most agile,” Theo said sheepishly.

“We noticed,” Mitchell said, “You finished the assault course in 2 minutes and 58 seconds.”

Theo whistled, “I knew it was tight but I never realised it was that tight.”

“You did pretty well in a lot of aspects of the course mind you,” Mitchell said, “You scaled that net faster than anyone else has so far. Climbing up hills doesn’t seem to be a strong point of yours though and don’t even get me started on magical creatures.”

“Don’t get me started on magical creatures!” Theo objected, “My arm is killing me! What do Kappa’s and Grindylows have to do with Auror training anyway?”

“You need to be capable of dealing with unexpected things. What would you do if you were called to a scene with multiple casualties and you established that it had been a dragon attack rather than a human suspect?” Auror Mitchell quipped.

“I would floo my best friend’s girl and get her to come and give the dragon a hug. She’s into animal rights, saving house elves, all that crap,” Theo said with a wave of his hand.

Auror Mitchell seemed to be struggling not to laugh, “You need a basic grounding in the handling of magical creatures Mr. Nott.”

“You should tell Draco that,” Theo said with a smirk in Draco’s direction, “He doesn’t have the best track record with Hippogriffs.”

“He didn’t get bitten by every magical creature on that assault course though,” Mitchell reminded Theo as he looked back down at the page, “Now, your flying assault course. Your time was actually pretty damn good. We reckon the fastest time a candidate should be able to set on the Firebolt is 1 minute and 38 seconds, you did it in 1 minute and 39 seconds. However, you lost 20 seconds for missing four of the hoops.”

Theo grimaced, “So my time was 1 minute and 59 seconds?”

Mitchell nodded, “You seem pretty good at scraping by the skin of your teeth.”

“Story of my life,” Theo admitted sheepishly.

“Your suspect chase,” Mitchell continued, “You hotwired a scooter.”

“The rules just said I couldn’t use my wand,” Theo pointed out.

“How do you know how to hotwire a scooter?” Mitchell asked, “And you know it’s illegal, don’t you?”

“In the muggle world,” Theo said, “I doubt we have that written into any of our laws.”

“We have a law that states that we must adhere to muggle laws while in the muggle world,” Mitchell pointed out, “Ask your best friend’s girl if you don’t believe me, I’m sure she could verify that for you.”

“I’m sure the princess could,” Theo muttered under his breath.

“So how did you know how to hotwire a scooter?” Mitchell asked again.

“My Muggle Studies teacher had to take a couple of weeks off sick with pox,” Theo said honestly, “We had a sub and he taught us.”

“A teacher taught you how to hotwire a vehicle?” Mitchell asked in disbelief.

“A _substitute _teacher,” Theo emphasised.

Mitchell shook his head in disbelief, “Right, thankfully you did much better in the tests on your magical abilities. In our accuracy test that we conducted in Diagon Alley you scored 38 points out of a possible 40 which we were very impressed with. You are the first candidate so far today who hasn’t hit any civilians.”

“Yes,” Theo said with a fist pump, “No civilian casualties, that means I’ve done one better than Draco _and _Nev!”

Mitchell tried not to look amused as he continued, “So you hit all 10 Death Eaters which we like to see. You took 9 of them out effectively and cocked one up by slipping on the flobberworms that you unleashed.”

“Yeah, we know about my track record with magical creatures,” Theo said with a wave of his hand.

“But you didn’t kill any Death Eaters so we would have been able to question all those captured,” Mitchell added, “I liked the fact you realised that stunning charms could rebound so used binding charms instead. It was very fast and very effective; we were impressed with your results on that one.”

Theo looked quite proud of himself as Mitchell went onto the next test, “Now onto the shielding test. You were hit with 2 curses but one of them cost you double because it was the killing curse.”

“Yeah, not my finest moment,” Theo admitted. 

“In all fairness, you had a pretty bad head wound,” Mitchell admitted, “We wondered about sending in a Healer when we saw you take that hit.”

“I’ve got a hard head,” Theo said with a wave of his hand, in reality his head still really hurt.

“We were impressed with your spell casting too,” Mitchell continued, “You acquired 28 points in that round. You fired 24 spells but used the same spell once which lost you a point. You gained 5 points for your use of the patronus charm however. We were impressed by the range of your spells and by your speed.”

“Thanks,” Theo said in all seriousness.

“And you know what I think of your duelling technique,” Mitchell said as he shut the file, “So that’s you done for today. If you wait here with your friends we will inform you of your next move once every candidate has completed their physical and magical tests. I’m going to send a Healer in to take a look at that Kappa wound for you as well so sit tight, alright?”

“Yes sir,” Theo as he shook the Aurors hand.

Mitchell smiled at him as he got to his feet, “Congratulations Mr. Nott,” he said as he walked towards the door.

Theo was buzzing as he got to his feet and made his way over to his friends. Neville got up and patted him on the back, “Well done mate.”

“You too,” Theo said as he grinned, “That’s it now then isn’t it? Harry’s going to do it, how can he not?”

“You never know,” Neville said thoughtfully, “It’s highly unlikely but he might make a big mistake.”

Theo snorted, “Nah, all of that is going to be a piece of piss for Harry. I barely scraped through the physical though, another 2 seconds in the assault course and I’d have failed and another second on the flying assault course and I’d have been out on my ear.”

Draco frowned, “You’re great on a broom though.”

Theo looked a little sheepish, “Yeah, I just sort of tried to go too fast and I may have missed a hoop or two…”

Neville shook his head in amusement, “And a Kappa did that to you?”

Theo glanced down at the oozing wound on his arm, “Yeah, a Kappa took a chunk out of my arm, a Grindylow had a bite too, whatever was in that bog nibbled away at me and then I slipped on an overturned barrel of flobberworms in the Diagon Alley simulation…”

Neville burst out laughing, “Mate, you need to get better at handling magical creatures.”

“And plants,” Draco cut in with an amused grin.

Theo rolled his eyes but he wasn’t actually irritated with them. He was just absolutely thrilled that they had made it this far, he sat down on Draco’s other side and said, “So did anyone else finish from our heat Nev?”

Neville nodded, he motioned over to the area where Eddie Carmichael and Maxwell were sitting. They had now been joined by a tall girl who looked a little older than them, she had dark brown hair and deep brown eyes, she looked like a bit of a tomboy, “She did, her name is Lesley and she was 2 years above us in school.”

“She was a Hufflepuff,” Draco added.

“She seems nice enough,” Neville continued.

“Fair enough,” Theo said, “Mind you, not everyone who gets through today is going to get through tomorrow, are they?”

“Tomorrow is the mental torture,” Draco said quietly, “Only the toughest are going to survive that.”

“Try not to be so pessimistic,” Neville said as he glanced towards the doors, “And keep your fingers crossed for Harry, I reckon he must be going in the next heat.”

**TBC **


	74. Harry's Selection Test: Part One

Time seemed to drag for Harry when Neville and Theo entered their testing rooms. He had no one to make small talk with anymore which meant that the minutes seemed to take hours to pass. The number of people in the waiting room had really dwindled now, none of them had really tried to make friends with anyone that they didn’t know so it had been a fairly silent, fairly awkward few hours.

“Alright, time for the next heat!” Sumner’s voice boomed.

Harry perked up at that. Theo had gone at the end of the last heat and “N” wasn’t a million miles away from “P” so he was really hoping that he would get to go in this heat.

Sumner stepped forward and said, “When I call your name I want you to line up in front of your door! O’Connor, Ann-Marie: Door 1. Potter, Harry: Door 2. Redford, Jessica: Door 3. Sandford, Miriam: Door 4. Telford, Samuel: Door 5!”

Harry practically bounced out of his seat and stood in front of the door to Testing Room 2. He glanced behind him into the waiting area which was practically empty now. There was an odd number which meant that the last heat looked like it would consist of two people. One of them was a dark skinned girl who looked a little older than them and the other was a scrawny, scared looking boy who Harry would have guessed was a year younger than himself.

“On the count of 3 you will enter the room and begin your test,” Sumner instructed them. Harry was practically bouncing on the balls of his feet as he began his countdown, “3...2...1.”

Harry entered the room immediately and looked around as he tried to work out what the task was going to be. He had a feeling it would have something to do with dodging spells but he looked down at the plaque for confirmation;

_“When you cross the line, stinging charms will be fired at you in quick succession. This test requires you to place your wand in the holder beneath this plaque. Should you be hit with 12 or more stinging charms you will fail this room.”_

Harry smiled to himself. He wasn’t particularly concerned about this one; he had spent his entire life dodging spells. He was small and quick, that was what made him such a good seeker. He placed his wand into the wooden holder that had emerged from beneath the plaque then crossed the line to begin the test.

He had expected it to be like real combat when you didn’t know where the spell was coming from until you saw the flash of light. However, this room clearly simulated spells which made his job much easier. There was a tell-tale hissing sound that came before each spell so Harry knew what direction the spells were coming from a split-second before he actually saw the light.

The room was quite small so he had to be quick and he hurt himself a little as he threw himself around the room into various walls. He would duck to avoid one spell and then he would need to dive across the room to avoid the next one.

The spells began to come out of the walls two at a time after that which only made Harry feel more like an acrobat. He would jump then swerve then duck and roll, he was really getting into the rhythm of it and enjoying himself and he hadn’t been hit once. However, that couldn’t last forever and he knew it. The people watching him obviously thought he was finding it a little too easy because the spells began to fire out of the walls three at a time and it was only then that he actually began to struggle.

He had to balance on one leg and press himself against a wall to avoid being hit by two of the stinging spells but the third one hit the top of his shoulder. He didn’t even hiss in pain, it felt like a paper cut to him if he was honest. However, he did curse himself because at that point the spells stopped firing.

“Ugh! Really? I was _that _close to getting through without getting hit once!” Harry exclaimed as a loud click signified that the door in front of him had been unlocked.

He shook his head as he stepped through the door because he was frustrated at himself. He frowned when he emerged into a bright sunny field but he grinned when he saw the obstacle course laid out before him, “This looks fun,” he said as he clapped his hands together and looked down at the plaque;

_“When you cross the line, we will begin to time you from our observation area. This obstacle course will test every element of your physical strength and if you fail to complete it within the 3-minute timescale you will fail this room. You may use your wand but only against any magical obstacles you come across, you will receive a 5 second penalty for using your wand for any other means.”_

Harry took his wand from the wooden drawer beneath the plaque and he popped it in its holster on his upper thigh. He wasted no time in attacking the first obstacle, like everyone else he took a running start and vaulted over the hurdles with ease.

He knew that he looked like a weedy little runt but Harry was far fitter than he looked. He threw himself to the ground and made his way through the mud beneath the low net very quickly. It also helped that he really didn’t mind getting dirty having spent a year on the run with no running water.

He pulled himself to his feet when he emerged from the net and he darted over to the next obstacle which was the tunnel on the steep incline that the rest of his friends had struggled with in one way or another. Harry dropped down to the ground once more and began to pull himself up, it was slippery which was a bit of a challenge but he was so light that pulling himself up the steep incline wasn’t particularly hard.

Harry hadn’t even broken a sweat as he pushed himself to his feet atop the little knoll. However, he didn’t like the look of the wooden balancing beam that crossed the ravine. He knew it was stupid for him to have a fear of heights considering how much he loved flying, he felt safe when he had a broomstick to hold onto but when he could just fall…it was a different story.

He knew his time was good so far so he allowed himself a moment to take a deep breath before stepping onto the beam. Harry tried his best not to look down but he had to look at the beam to make sure that his feet were steadied, he shut his eyes tightly when he realised that the wooden beam actually moved slightly as he put his weight onto it. He took another breath and concentrated on his feet rather than the drop below him, it seemed to take forever to cross but in reality he knew that it was seconds.

Harry blew out a sigh of relief as he stepped back onto solid ground again. He knew he had to make up time so he ran and jumped onto the rope net. Scaling it was as easy for him as it had been for Theo, he threw himself over the top and made it down in record time. Once he was satisfied with the drop he let go, fell to the ground and landed rather gracefully on all fours.

He then took a run at the rope and grabbed onto it. He allowed himself to gather a bit of momentum to get him across the river then he dropped down onto the opposite bank and jogged towards the lake. He was actually very grateful to Dudley and the bullies he had been friends with when they had been younger, it was thanks to him that Harry was so good at running, he had spent the first 11 years of his life running from them after all.

The moment he reached the lake and saw how deep it was he knew that he was at a slight disadvantage. Harry could swim, he had taught himself when he realised that he was going to have to do a task in the Black Lake in his 4th year. All the same, while Harry was capable of swimming he wasn’t the strongest swimmer in the world or the fastest.

He waded into the water and pushed off. He swam as fast as he could but he could feel the strain of it already, running didn’t make him out of breath but he found swimming a lot more physically taxing. He reached the first wooden beam and ducked under it, he needed to hold onto the second one and take a breather but he managed to get underneath it all the same. He could tell that he was halfway across the lake now but just as he realised that fact he felt something grab his ankle.

“Grindylows,” Harry muttered irritably as he shot a stunning charm into the water. He didn’t know whether it had burned the Grindylow or stunned it but the creature let go which was all that he cared about. He pushed on and ducked underneath the third and fourth beams. He was really out of breath by the time he saw the Kappa looking at him with hungry eyes. Harry knew that he couldn’t outswim the Kappa but he didn’t want to spend a lot of time trying to trick it into bowing either so he threw up a full body shield charm and waded the short distance to the edge of the lake.

Harry felt incredibly unfit as he jogged from the lake to the next obstacle which involved heights _again_. He was huffing and panting, but he tried to ignore his exhaustion as he grabbed the handholds on the wooden pole and began to climb it. He didn’t have to look down this time, he kept his gaze ahead as he scaled the pole as fast as he could. Harry knew that he would be faster if he wasn’t wearing soaking wet clothes, he cursed his decision to wear jeans today.

At the top of the pole Harry grabbed the zip line and shut his eyes tightly before launching himself off of the high platform. He only opened them when his feet him the ground, the force pushed him forward so that he ended up on his knees in the shallow, marshy water. He got to his feet and began to wade through the water, he swore under his breath when he felt a sharp pain in his ankle. Harry could tell that he had been bitten by something so he threw up a magical shield around his feet as he continued to push his way through the water.

When he stepped out of it, he looked ahead and realised that the next obstacle was the last one so that gave him a boost of energy. He ran towards it and threw himself onto the first tier, he army crawled through the tight gap between the two slats of wood and found it easy to twist his body around in the tight gap in-between tier one and two. He pulled himself up, crawled through the second tier just as quickly and then pulled himself onto the top of the wooden platform. He bypassed the pole and just took a running jump off of the platform, he landed on all fours once more and did a forward roll over the finishing line.

By the time he had finished he was out of breath but he felt like he had set a pretty good time and he had found the obstacle course pretty fun too. He stayed on the grass for a minute or two until his breathing began to return to normal and that was when he heard a disembodied female voice speak to him.

“Please proceed through the door onto the next section of the test Mr. Potter.”

Harry looked up and noticed that a door had materialised out of nowhere in front of him. He wasted no time in heading through it because he was excited to see what the next room would hold. At first he didn’t notice the broomsticks on the clifftop, he was blinded by the bright sun temporarily but once he had blinked a couple of times and looked around his face broke out into a grin. He already knew that he was going to ace this task before he had even read the plaque;

_“When you leave the clifftop, we will begin to time your progress. Throughout this flight course there are 12 golden hoops which you must pass through. Should you miss any hoops we will deduct 5 seconds from your overall time. Should you take any longer than 2 minutes you will fail this room. You may choose between the three broomsticks on offer, choose wisely.”_

Harry didn’t have to weigh up his options, he knew that he wanted the Firebolt. He didn’t need a strategy or a plan to get through this task, flying had always come naturally to him. He picked the Firebolt up, mounted it and set off from the clifftop.

The first part of the assault course was easy, the ravine was tight but he had flown through tighter spots. The two that came to mind were his 2nd year when he and Draco had flown underneath the stands and in his 4th year when he had been chased through mountains by a great bloody dragon. This was far easier in comparison, when the ravine opened up Harry pushed the Firebolt because he knew that he could, he weaved with the grace of a bird between trees and cliffs, he soared underneath fallen tree trunks and let his feet skim along the water. He actually forgot that he was doing a task because he was enjoying feeling the sun on his skin and the wind whipping through his hair so much.

The ravine got tighter again towards the end of the course but Harry did not let up his speed. He soared through the tight, twisty ravine and landed gracefully on the clifftop that marked the end of the course. He didn’t want to appear cocky but he knew the moment he had dismounted that he had done well.

Surely enough, a door materialised in the cliff side in front of him almost immediately. Harry grinned as he yanked it open and stepped into the next room. He could tell straight away that the room was a simulated area of London but he had no idea what area of London it was. He glanced down at the plaque to find out more;

_“When you cross the line, you will be required to chase down a suspect. However, you may not use your wand to aid you in this task. When you place your wand in the holder provided, we will provide you with a picture of the suspect. If you fail to catch the suspect within 3 kilometres you fail this room.”_

Harry placed his wand in the wooden holder that had emerged from beneath the wooden plaque. He then picked up the wizarding photograph and glanced down at it, his suspect was a young man with jet black hair and shifty eyes. Knowing this Harry looked up at the street and contemplated the best way to successfully chase down the suspect. He grinned to himself as an idea formed in his head.

Harry knew what he was going to do so he didn’t waste any more time. He stepped across the line and was unsurprised when the street suddenly became full of muggles. Of course, it would have been far too easy if he had literally just had to chase someone down an empty street. He saw his suspect disappear into the thick crowd straight away so Harry ran after him and kept his eyes on the dark haired man as he chased him through the crowd and around the corner. As they entered a wider part of the street the crowd began to thin which gave Harry the perfect chance to put his plan into motion. The informational plaque had said _no wands _but it did not specify no magic so Harry decided he would use this to his advantage. Once he had gotten close enough to his suspect Harry held out his hand and flicked it towards the man’s feet.

The dark haired man that he was chasing grunted as he suddenly tripped to the ground. This gave Harry a few seconds which was all he needed to catch the man up. He reached him just as he had gotten back onto his feet so Harry tackled him and held him down on the ground.

The moment the suspect hit the ground the scene dematerialised and went back to being a boring, empty muggle street. Harry grinned as he dusted the muck off his hands, he looked around for his way out and saw that a door had appeared in the wall in front of him.

He was feeling pretty good about himself as he walked through the door. He didn’t know how many tasks would be included in each test so he was expecting another simulated environment. He hadn’t expected to walk into a waiting room but it was clear that this was what that was.

“Congratulations Mr. Potter, you have successfully passed the physical aspect of our selection test. You have 10 minutes to patch yourself up and refresh yourself before starting the next test which will assess your magical capabilities,” The disembodied female voice that had spoken to him said.

Harry glanced at the medical table, he felt a little smug that he didn’t need it. Apart from the slight burn mark where he had been hit by one stinging charm he didn’t have any injuries. Instead he opted for water, he walked to the fountain and downed a cup of water before pouring himself another. He collapsed into a chair and allowed himself a brief moment of rest as he sipped at it.

The 10-minutes passed very quickly. Before Harry knew it the female voice was speaking to him once more, “Your 10-minute rest period is over Mr. Potter. Please proceed through the door ahead to begin our test on your magical capabilities.”

Harry followed the instruction and stepped through the white door. After the simulated situations he had faced in the physical test he was expecting to emerge into a similar situation so he was unsurprised when he found himself in Diagon Alley. Before he read the plaque he looked around, he could tell that this had been programmed before the war because this wasn’t Diagon Alley as he knew it now but it was similar enough to feel real. He glanced down at the plaque to find out what his task for this room would be;

_“When you cross the line, Death Eaters will appear in the alley. Your task is to take down as many as you can, however, there are rules. You will be penalised for hitting civilians and taking a Death Eater down without killing them is preferable. We cannot question a dead Death Eater but we can force veritaserum down the throat of a captured one.”_

Harry surveyed the busy street and tried to come up with the most effective way to take out Death Eaters without hurting any civilians. He knew he would have to keep it to charms that couldn’t do any harm to civilians like binding and stunning charms. He took his wand out of the wooden holder beneath the plaque and twirled it between his fingers thoughtfully, without knowing where the Death Eaters would materialise or how they would act there was only so much planning that he could actually do.

So, he threw caution to the wind and stepped over the red line. The Death Eaters immediately began to apparate into the street which caused complete chaos. Amongst the chaos Harry disillusioned himself (because he didn’t have his trusty invisibility cloak on him today) and slipped into the crowd. The Death Eaters had no idea where he was which made it easy for Harry to chase them and get a clean shot. He took out four with binding charms in quick succession and this caused the other Death Eaters to panic and disperse. He spotted a couple running towards the Leaky Cauldron but the others seemed to shrink away from prying eyes.

Harry focused on the ones that he could see first, he pulled himself onto the canopy above Fortescue’s and crouched there as he aimed at the back of one of the fleeing Death Eaters. He hit him with a full body bind which was incredibly effective. Harry then turned his attention to the other fleeing Death Eater who was a little further away, he was _just _out of range for a stunning charm or a full body bind to work so over the screams on the alley below Harry whispered, “Incarcerous!”

Ropes wrapped themselves around the man’s body and he fell to the ground in a heap. Harry had taken out 6 Death Eaters and when he had watched them apparate into the alley he had spotted 10 wisps of black smoke. By his reckoning that meant there were 4 more lurking about somewhere. He still had an advantage because they didn’t know where he was so he dropped down silently and crept along the edge of the alley, all the while he kept his eyes peeled for men in black cloaks wearing creepy masks.

Unsurprisingly, they weren’t that difficult to spot. One was lurking outside of Weasley’s Wizard Wheezes, Harry took him out with a whispered, “Petrificus Totalus.”

He spotted another Death Eater hiding behind a row of cages outside of Eeylops and he found it hard to get a clean shot at that one, regardless of the angle he tried to attack from. In the end Harry aimed at the man with a piercing charm in the hope that if he hit him it would knock him back which would enable him to stun the Death Eater. However, the charm only brushed his shoulder and before Harry could do anything more the Death Eater had fled inside the pet shop.

Harry cursed to himself as he looked around the alley for the remaining 2 Death Eaters. He saw one on the balconied area above the door to Gringotts and he took him out with a stunning charm. The last Death Eater had obviously been tracking him via the direction of his spells because at that moment Harry sensed someone behind him. He turned around just in time to see a large Death Eater advancing on him. He knew that a stunning or binding charm would be ineffective because of the slight delay so he acted on instinct and shot an arrow out of his wand. It hit the Death Eater in the shoulder which knocked him back for long enough to allow Harry to perform a full body bind on him.

When this Death Eater fell the scene dematerialised. Harry was a bit frustrated with himself again, he had gotten so close to a perfect score but he had let one Death Eater get away and that made him want to curse himself. The unconscious bodies of all the Death Eaters he had managed to subdue vanished and then so did the panicked crowd of witches and wizards. Harry took that as a sign that he had passed the test so he made himself visible again and glanced around the deserted alley as he waited for something to happen.

“You have passed this test Mr. Potter,” The female voice informed him, “Please proceed inside Gringotts bank for your next task.”

Harry slipped his wand back into its holster and stepped into the bank. He frowned because he immediately realised that this wasn’t the bank at all, it was a firing range.

“I’m the bloody target,” Harry mumbled to himself, “Story of my life.”

The Death Eater opposite of him did not move so Harry read the plaque to establish what he was supposed to do;

_“When you cross the line, the Death Eater will fire spells of varying levels at you which you must shield. In order to pass this room, you must not be hit by more than 5 spells. Note that the killing curse counts as 2 spells because it is the only spell which can kill you.”_

Harry grinned, he knew that he ought to do well on this one because shield charms were his speciality. He had always been very good at them, to the extent that he had taught better classes on shield charms to the DA and to the 8th Years in his brief tenure as ‘professor’ Potter than some of their DADA teachers had throughout the years.

As he stepped across the line, Harry felt very confident. The Death Eater began by firing spells that were easily defendable with “Protego” but Harry did not let his guard drop because he knew fine well that the spells would get more difficult to defend. Surely enough, the Death Eater ramped up the intensity and began to throw spells at Harry that required stronger shield charms but Harry defended them with ease too.

When the Death Eater began to throw in spells that were not defendable with a magical shield charm, Harry had to get inventive. He knew that he could just duck or swerve to avoid the charms but that was boring. Instead he blocked them by conjuring blocks of stone to protect himself, he found it interesting to see how spells affected various types of rock and stone.

He knew that it wasn’t possible to defend against “Glacius” so when the Death Eater fired it at him Harry simply threw up a wall of fire to protect himself. The ice melted immediately when it made contact with the intense heat of the fire and Harry felt pretty good about himself as he let the fire wall drop.

That all changed when he saw the flash of green light leave the Death Eaters wand. When he heard the words “Avada Kedavra” being uttered he heard them in Voldemort’s voice. He didn’t shut his eyes but the room around him seemed to dissolve and become the Forbidden Forest. He heard his Mother scream, he heard Hagrid howl, he felt the coldness that was death envelope his entire body. The last time he had seen that curse flying towards him he had died, he had actually died and gone to purgatory and then through some miracle he had come back. If that wasn’t cause for post-traumatic stress then he didn’t know what was.

Harry sucked in a breath of air so violently that it came as a gasp. He knew that he only had seconds before the spell reached him so he did the first thing that came to mind and dropped to his knees. The spell flew over his head but he had been seconds away from death for the first time in over a year and that had really, truly scared him.

He did not get up straight away and he was aware that his breathing was coming rather heavily when the female voice spoke to him again, “You have passed this task Mr. Potter. Please proceed into Ollivander’s wand shop.”

Harry blew out a breath and pushed himself to his feet. He took his time as he stepped out of the bank into the sunny street, he wanted to give himself a moment to catch his breath and to get his head back in the right place. He knew that his response to the killing curse hadn’t been good enough but he couldn’t focus on that right now. He sucked in another breath then stepped into Ollivander’s and quickly realised that it was nothing like the real shop, it was actually another firing range. This time he wasn’t the target which he was grateful for, the target appeared to be a dummy on the other side of the fairly small square room.

Harry glanced down at the plaque to read the instructions for this room;

_“When you cross the line, you will have 2 minutes to fire as many spells as you can at the dummy provided. You will lose points for using the same spell more than once or for using dark magic, you will gain points for portraying any highly skilful spells.”_

Harry nodded to himself as he got his head back in gear. He didn’t actually know that many spells, he figured he was going to have to throw every duelling spell he knew at the dummy and hope for the best but he didn’t know as many inventive home-made spells as Draco and Theo. He knew he could cast spells quickly and he suspected that a patronus charm would count as skilled magic so he just had to hope he knew more spells than he thought he did.

Without thinking on it any further Harry stepped across the line and began to fire spells at the dummy. He didn’t have a tactic, he just fired the spells as they popped into his head. The first one was “Expelliarmus” of course. He threw every duelling spell that he could think of at that dummy and he amazed himself with how many he remembered, he was even using spells that he hadn’t used in duels since the duelling club in 2nd year. However, as his time began to run out his spell knowledge seemed to dwindle, in his panic he slashed the dummy with “Sectumsempra” which he knew would lose him points because he was fairly sure that it would count as dark magic. He was about to start floundering because his limited spell knowledge was beginning to show but at that point a loud buzzer announced that his time was up.

Harry was actually very grateful for that. He breathed a sigh of relief and looked around as he waited for his next instruction.

“Well done Mr. Potter,” The female voice said, “You have passed this room. Please proceed through the door ahead.”

Harry looked ahead just as a door materialised in the wall. He stepped through it and smiled knowingly when he saw that the only equipment in the room was a large, grand duelling platform.

He smiled at the woman standing atop the duelling platform and she smiled back at him, “Congratulations on getting this far Mr. Potter. My name is Auror Carter and as you may have guessed, your final task is to duel me.”

Harry climbed up onto the duelling platform, “And are there rules with this duel?”

“You cannot kill me and we frown upon the use of dark magic,” Auror Carter replied, “But I am expecting an impressive duel from you. Your friend, Mr. Black, told me that he was not at all worried about duelling a qualified Auror because I was no match for you.”

Harry laughed at that, “Well I am the third best dueller in Britain,” he said with just a touch of arrogance.

Auror Carter began to walk towards him, “Then I suppose I ought to make sure I am at my best.”

“I don’t want you to go easy on me if that’s what your implying,” Harry said as he walked towards her, “I’m no ordinary Auror trainee.”

“I may have noticed,” Carter said as she raised an eyebrow at him. Harry was fondly reminded of McGonagall. They reached the middle of the duelling platform, bowed to each other then retreated to their respective ends of the duelling platform.

The duel began immediately and Auror Carter made sure not to pull any punches with Harry. Her spell casting was faster and she bypassed the ‘basic’ duelling charms. That was probably a good thing because Harry had got stuck in there with a pretty powerful blasting curse.

Harry didn’t really have a duelling tactic, he just fired whatever he could at his opponent until he saw a convenient opening. As soon as he saw that opening he took it, regardless of whether it was risky. He supposed he duelled like a true Gryffindor even if he had Slytherin traits in other aspects of life.

Harry tried to distract Auror Carter by using spells that she wouldn’t necessarily have seen in a duel too often. He fired a stream of boiling hot water at her but she countered it by conjuring a fireball and throwing it at Harry.

Harry threw up a shield charm to defend against the fireball which meant that it bounced off of his shield and soared back in her direction. For the next few seconds they played ‘ping-pong’ with the fireball as it bounced from shield charm to shield charm. After that, Harry got bored so he extinguished the fireball and threw a rather nasty cutting curse at the Auror.

Carter avoided the unshieldable curse and left herself open as she prepared a powerful blasting curse behind her shield charm. It was the sort of curse that took a few seconds to power up and leave the wand so Harry seized this opening.

He used speechless magic to turn the wall behind the Auror into a mirror and as the blasting curse left her wand he threw up a shield charm to protect himself against it. From behind his shield charm he cast “Expelliarmus” and aimed at a spot just above Auror Carter’s shoulder. The Auror hadn’t realised that the wall behind her had become a mirror so she just assumed that his spell had missed. She opened her mouth to throw a counter-curse in his direction but before she could do so, his spell rebounded off of the mirror and hit the Auror in the back. Her wand was plucked from her hand and it soared through the air to Harry who jumped to catch it.

Auror Carter smiled at him with a hint of amusement, “I was told that you finished every duel with Expelliarmus.”

Harry rolled his eyes as he walked towards Carter’s end of the platform, “I don’t finish every duel with it, why does everyone insist that I do?”

“Perhaps because you killed one of the darkest wizards who has ever lived with that spell,” Carter said matter of factly.

Harry shrugged as he jumped off of the platform, “I don’t think that means I deserve to be typecast.”

Carter smiled again, “That was a good duel Mr. Potter. I didn’t expect sneaky tactics like that from a former Gryffindor however.”

“I don’t really have a duelling technique,” Harry admitted, “I just see an opening and go for it.”

“Regardless of the risk factor,” Carter commented, “And that is very noble of you.”

“Were you a Gryffindor by any chance ma’am?” Harry asked her.

Carter shook her head as they reached the white door. She pulled it open and led Harry through it, “No, I was in Ravenclaw.”

Before Harry could say anything else he heard a cheer. He grinned in amusement when he realised that it had come from Draco, Neville and Theo. Carter rolled her eyes but she was trying to conceal a small smile, “Settle down boys, your compadre still has to be briefed.”

Harry chuckled as Carter directed him towards a seat at the far end of the room. He sat down in the incredibly comfortable chair and watched her take a brown file from the only desk in the room. When she had it in her hand she walked back over to him and took a seat by his side, “Well Mr. Potter, your physical test results were frankly, bloody impressive.”

Harry grinned, “Really?”

Carter nodded as she flipped the file open and continued, “You performed exceptionally well in our test on your reflexes. We actually ramped up the volume just for you, you took 1 hit out of a possible 12 but I’m sure you would have gotten a perfect score if we hadn’t made it harder for you.”

“Thanks for that,” Harry said with a hint of frustration, “Do you know how annoying it is that I was _that _close to a perfect score?”

Carter smiled, “Sorry but we had to test you. If it makes you feel any better, the last time someone scored that well was about 5 years ago. Now onto your time on the assault course, you completed it in 2 minutes and 42 seconds which is a great time. We were impressed by how fast you were, you flew through most of the obstacles, you set a record time on the net for this group of candidates.”

Harry smiled proudly at that, he was glad that he had done well but it was good to hear his strengths and weaknesses from another point of view.

“That course did flag up a few weaknesses too,” Carter added, “Swimming being one of them.”

“Yeah,” Harry admitted, “I’m not the strongest swimmer, I can admit that. If I had been in open water I would have really struggled.”

“That’s something we can improve on,” Carter assured him, “The other thing I picked up on was that you seem to have a fear of heights.”

“Not exactly,” Harry admitted, “I have a fear of falling. I’ve been knocked off of broomsticks and I’ve fallen down the side of a school with a dragon on my arse, I guess it left me a little bit scarred.”

“That might require a bit of fine tuning to fix but I’m sure we will get there,” Carter said as she glanced back down at his file, “I don’t need to say much about the flying assault course. You did it in a time of 1 minute and 37 seconds, I have already told one candidate today that it’s a record time. We got an international Quidditch star in here to test the course and he set a time of 1 minute and 38 seconds.”

“Who was the other candidate?” Harry asked as his eyes darted across the room.

“Mr. Black,” Carter replied.

Harry grinned, “Which one of us was faster?”

“You both set a time of 1 minute and 37 seconds,” Carter replied diplomatically.

“Oh come on!” Harry said, “What about milliseconds? One of us must have been faster.”

“I couldn’t disclose that information even if I knew it Mr. Potter,” Carter said with a stern look, “As competitive as you and your friends seem to be.”

Harry smiled sheepishly, “It’s a bad habit,” he admitted.

Carter shook her head in amusement and continued, “Now, the suspect chase. We did specify that you shouldn’t use magic.”

“No,” Harry cut in, “You specified that we couldn’t use our wands. I _didn’t _use my wand.”

Carter raised an eyebrow at him, “Technically there’s nothing I can do to punish you for that one because you’re right. You’ve flagged up a loophole that I am sure will be fixed before next year’s selection process begins.”

Harry smiled sheepishly, “Sorry, but I like to think of it as thinking outside the box.”

“Indeed,” Carter said as she fought back another smile, “Now onto our test on your magical abilities. You did very well on our accuracy test in Diagon Alley. You hit all 10 Death Eaters which is what we like to see and you managed to subdue 9 of them through the most effective means possible which scored you 38 points out of a possible 40.”

“Do you know how irritated I was that I didn’t manage to get a perfect score on that one too?” Harry quipped.

“No one is perfect Mr. Potter,” Carter reminded him, “Not even the Chosen One.”

Harry rolled his eyes, “Please never call me that, ma’am.”

Carter glanced back down at her notes, “You are one of only two candidates who have managed to succeed without hitting any civilians thus far, if that takes your interest.”

“Was the other person Neville?” Harry asked curiously.

“No,” Carter replied, “It was Mr. Nott.”

Harry glanced over at Theo with an impressed look on his face, “Really? I didn’t expect that…”

Carter ignored his contemplations and continued, “We were incredibly impressed with the shielding charms you used in our shielding test. You clearly know a broad range and the shield charms that you did put up were very impressive. I had no idea you were so interested in geology however.”

Harry smiled at that, “I got a bit bored,” he admitted.

Carter smiled back at him, “Now, your reaction to the killing curse was rated as adequate. You avoided being hit by it which is more than your friend Mr. Nott managed, but I did see you freeze and I noticed your eyes glaze over. Am I right in saying it triggered a flashback?”

Harry nodded as a dark look passed across his face, “The last time someone fired that curse at me I died and somehow, by some miracle, managed to come back to life. I didn’t think it had left that much of a mark on me but…”

Carter nodded as he trailed off, “If you succeed tomorrow and you are chosen as one of our new trainees we are going to get you help with that. We’ll put you in touch with the hospital on site and make sure that mental health Healers talk to you about everything you went through, is that okay?”

Harry nodded, he hated the thought of seeing a therapist but if it was the difference between becoming an Auror or not then he would do it.

Carter seemed satisfied with his response because she continued, “You did well in our test on your spell casting too. You fired 25 spells overall which is the most anyone has managed today, you gained points for your use of the patronus charm but unfortunately you lost some points for using dark magic.”

Harry nodded, “I’m really sorry about that, it didn’t really occur to me until afterwards that it was dark magic but I mean…of course I know that it is, I’ve seen what it does.”

“Everyone makes mistakes Mr. Potter which is why we don’t automatically fail people for using dark magic curses,” Carter explained, “It can be hard to discern what constitutes as dark magic especially with homemade curses like that one.”

Harry nodded as Carter finished, “And you know what I think of your duelling. Overall your technique is good but I worry that perhaps it’s a little too risky. If you are accepted into the programme we will gradually fine tune that though.”

“Thank you,” Harry said as he shook her hand, “I really appreciate you going through everything with me.”

“It was my pleasure,” Carter said with a small smile, “Now go and join your friends, I can tell that they’re dying to compare their experiences with yours.”

Harry laughed and made his way over to his three excitable friends. When he reached them he grinned and said, “We did it! All four of us have passed the first stage!”

“I think it calls for a group hug!” Theo said and he forced them all to have a good old group cuddle, much to the amusement of the other candidates who had made it this far.

Draco managed to wriggle out of the embrace first. Harry glanced around the room, “So do we know who everyone else is?”

Neville nodded, “Max Harper, he was a Slytherin in the year below us.”

“Yeah, he dated Mandy Brocklehurst,” Harry remembered.

Neville nodded again, “Exactly, the guy with him is Eddie Carmichael, he was a Ravenclaw two years above us in school. The girl over there with the dark hair is Lesley Kavanagh, she was two years above us as well but she was a Hufflepuff.”

“I don’t know who she is,” Draco said as he nodded in the direction of another girl who was being briefed by Auror Mitchell.

“Jessica Redford,” Harry replied, “She was in my heat.”

The girl had dark red hair and looked relatively unassuming, Harry wasn’t sure what age she was from a first glance. He tore his eyes away and looked back to his friends, “So they really cut it down already and we still have tomorrow to go.”

Draco nodded, he was trying not to think about tomorrow, “So how did you do in today’s tests?”

“Aced the physical,” Harry said with a grin, “And did pretty damn well in the magical part too. I got a joint record on the flight assault course.”

Draco narrowed his eyes at his friend, “You’re taking the piss, aren’t you?”

“Nope,” Harry smirked, “1 minute and 37 seconds.”

“I can’t believe you!” Draco exclaimed, “Every time I think I’m better than you at something! One of us must have been faster, what about milliseconds?”

“I asked Auror Carter but she wouldn’t tell me,” Harry said honestly, “Can’t we just agree to be jointly awesome on this one?”

Draco huffed, “No, I wanted to have beat you to that. You got way more awards for Quidditch than me.”

“Yeah in the fake awards ceremony our classmates ran,” Harry snorted, “It’s not exactly official is it?”

Theo sniggered in amusement, “But for Draco it’s still a sore spot. Hey Draco, at least you weren’t the worst at anything. I got bitten by everything remember?”

Harry snorted in amusement, “What bit you?”

“Well the Grindylows and the marshy creatures-”

“Dugbogs,” Neville cut in.

“Yeah those things,” Theo said offhandedly, “They had a good nibble at me but the Kappa left a scar.”

Harry grimaced when he saw the wound on Theo’s shoulder.

“You should have seen it before they sent a pretty healer in to tidy it up for him,” Neville joked.

“Oh, don’t you be calling any healers pretty apart from Lil,” Harry said with a grin, “She’ll cut your balls off.”

“Don’t put the idea in her head, I’m convinced she would actually do it,” Neville joked.

The others all laughed, despite Draco’s huff they were all in good spirits because regardless of scores or times, all four of them had passed two out of the three tests they had come here to sit. All in all, it had been a bloody good day.

**TBC**


	75. The Eye of the Storm

Harry, Draco, Neville and Theo spent the next little while comparing their experiences in the testing rooms. It made the time pass incredibly quickly and before they knew it, everyone from their group had been tested.

The dark-skinned girl that Harry had noticed earlier was the only one to emerge from a testing room from the final heat (although that heat had only consisted of two candidates anyway). She was briefed by Carter and then she joined the rest of the group, however before she could introduce herself the main door into the waiting room opened and Sumner stepped in.

“Congratulations to everyone who got this far,” He said as he clapped his hands together, “I’m going to take you down to the canteen for lunch now and then we’ll reconvene with Auror Shepherd’s group and see how many of you have fallen by the wayside already.”

“He’s a ray of sunshine,” Theo whispered as they were led from the room into the maze of corridors.

“I don’t think they’re all like that,” Harry whispered back, “Auror Carter is nice.”

Theo shot his friend an amused grin, “I bet you think so.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Harry asked defensively.

“I saw her raising her eyebrows and being all flirty with you,” Theo said as he waggled his eyebrows, “Older woman in a position of authority, she’s attractive, she’s _blonde_.”

Harry rolled his eyes, “I’m quite happy with my fiancé, thanks very much,” he said as Draco and Neville sniggered.

They hadn’t really been paying attention to where they were going but they had emerged into a large canteen that was very loud. Recruits and Trainers were all chatting away as they had their lunch. Sumner boomed out orders to the candidates, they had half an hour in which to eat then he would be dragging them back to meet up with the other group.

“They really cut us down, didn’t they?” Harry asked as he sat down at a large table and surveyed the people who had gotten through from their group, “There was like 20 people in our group to begin with.”

“17,” The dark-skinned girl piped up, “And they cut it down to 9. I’m Blanche by the way.”

“I’m Harry,” Harry said with a smile.

Blanche smiled and shot an amused look in the direction of Draco and Theo, “I know. I’m surprised Drakey hasn’t realised who I am yet.”

Draco’s eyes widened as he caught Theo’s eye. Theo frowned but then he caught on and the two boys exclaimed, “Blanche Zabini!”

“Zabini?” Neville quipped, “As in Blaise’s sister?”

“Half-sister,” Blanche said with a wave of her hand, “Our Mother goes through men like a flobberworm goes through lettuce.

“How many of you are there?” Theo asked curiously, “When I met Blaise he said he had a lot of siblings but he never gave me a number.”

“There were ten of us,” Blanche replied, “But Blake and Beau were killed during the war. Don’t apologise for it, they joined the Death Eaters so I don’t know what they expected to happen.”

Harry looked down awkwardly.

Blanche continued, “So there are eight of us now and Blaise and I are the middle kids.”

“Out of eight?” Harry asked in disbelief.

“Yep,” Blanche replied, “Blaise is my baby brother but Beatrice and Billie are both younger than us.”

“Bea is in 6th year isn’t she?” Draco asked.

Blanche nodded, “She will be going into 6th year after the summer yeah, and Billie will be going into 3rd year. Brent is a year older than me and he’s a lawyer in the DMLE. Then there is Byron, he’s a waste of space like his Dad I have no idea what he’s doing these days.”

“What about Blaine? Wasn’t he training to be an Auror?” Theo piped up.

“He’s been an Auror for a while now,” Blanche said with a nod, “He works with Sorenson Cauldwell, they have been partners for ages. Belinda is the oldest, she’s a Juror in the DMLE.”

“Your family have a thing about the DMLE, don’t they?” Harry asked curiously.

“Apart from the two that Voldemort radicalised,” Blanche replied sarcastically.

“Your Mum has a thing about the letter B though, doesn’t she?” Neville remarked.

Blanche rolled her eyes, “Apparently our names all have double meanings. My Dad was white so she named me Blanche, original right?”

Draco snorted in amusement, “Why is Blaise called Blaise then?”

“Mother thought it sounded like blasé and apparently Blaise’s Dad literally never got excited about anything,” Blanche replied.

“Blaise definitely takes after him then,” Theo grinned.

Blanche laughed at that, “Yeah my brother doesn’t have the biggest personality in the world. It’s kind of hard when you come from a family as huge as ours though.”

“I’m interested in the size of your family,” Neville said as he leant forward, “I’d like to talk to you about lead paint sometime.”

“Oh give it up Neville,” Draco said irritably, “So you discovered that lead paint in old wizarding houses was the cause of infertility, when are you going to drop it?”

“Never,” Neville said with a grin, “They ought to give me an order of Merlin, don’t you think?”

Blanche raised an eyebrow at him, “In answer to your question, my Mother used her first Husbands life insurance to build herself a custom-made Manor.”

“Ah,” Neville said with a nod, “That makes sense.”

The others shook their head in amusement. They wanted to talk to Blanche more because she seemed like the kind of person that they could all get on with, but at that point Sumner reappeared and informed them that lunch was over. They all got to their feet and they were lead through another maze of corridors back into the lecture hall where they had begun their day.

They sidled into seats in the front row and waited for Sheppard’s group to arrive. A few minutes later they filed in and Harry did a quick headcount, there were only 8 of them. They sat down in the row behind Harry and his friends as Sheppard joined Sumner at the front of the hall.

“So day 1 is over,” Sumner said, “You get to spend the rest of the afternoon resting and meeting the people who could become your fellow trainees. Tomorrow is going to be a very hard day so I suggest that you all get an early night in preparation for it. 17 of you have gotten this far which is something to commend yourself on. However, we normally lose half of our candidates to the physical and magical tests and then we lose another half after our test on your mental capabilities. Enjoy yourselves tonight but remember, only half of you will be sitting in this lecture hall at this time tomorrow.”

Sheppard nodded, “Follow me, I’ll show you to your temporary dormitories where you also have a shared common room.”

They all got to their feet once more and followed Sheppard into the grey corridors. Harry kind of felt like he was being led around the place like a sheep. He had no idea where the corridors went to or from, he really hoped he would get a map if he got through the training process or he would get lost more than he ever had done at Hogwarts.

After about 5 minutes they were led into a corridor which had several rooms leading off of it. Sheppard halted them and said, “That door at the end leads to your common room where we have stored the overnight bags that you brought with you. There are four candidates to a dorm, girls and boys are _not _allowed to share. Pick your rooms and get some rest like Sumner advised.”

The moment Sheppard left the corridor there was a mad dash. Harry, Draco, Neville and Theo made sure that they were able to get a dorm room together and the others all branched off. With their rooms claimed they all migrated towards the common room at the end of the long corridor.

“So, who is everyone?” Harry asked his friends in an undertone as he surveyed the busy common room.

Draco began, “Well from our group there’s us four, Max, Eddie Carmichael the annoying Ravenclaw guy.”

Neville scoffed, “He’s not annoying, he seems like a nice guy.”

“He’s annoyingly nice,” Theo agreed, “Then there’s Lesley Kavanagh, she was 2 years above us in school and she was a Hufflepuff, oh and there’s Blanche.”

“I don’t know anything about that other girl who got through from my heat,” Harry said as he glanced over at her, “Other than that she’s called Jessica.”

The others didn’t seem to know anything about her either but they did know about some of the people from Sheppard’s group, “I know a few people who got through from Sheppard’s group,” Neville said, “They were in Ginny’s year at school.”

“Which ones?” Harry asked nosily.

“The two girls by the fire,” Neville said. They looked towards the girls in question, one of them had a short blonde bob and looked fairly petite, the other one had dark brown hair and was tall and lanky, “That’s Emily Wilde and Jane Doyle, Gin shared a dorm with them. Oh and Douglas was in her year too, he was a Hufflepuff.”

“Which one is he?” Draco asked.

“The ginger one,” Neville said as he nudged his head in the younger man’s direction, “I can’t remember his surname. I know Mark as well, Mark Anderson, see the fairly small guy over by the bookcase?”

Harry nodded and Neville continued, “He was in Ravenclaw, he was in Dennis Creevey’s year, he got his N.E.W.T’s a year early, he’s really smart.”

“Do we know anyone else?” Harry asked his friends in general.

“I know her,” Theo said as he nodded his head in the direction of a pretty girl with light brown hair, “That’s Ophelia Wood, she was in the same year as your first love Harry.”

Harry rolled his eyes, “I assume you mean Cho?”

Theo grinned at him in amusement, “Yeah, they were both in Ravenclaw so they were friends.”

“I don’t suppose she’s related to Oliver Wood, is she?” Harry asked curiously.

“She’s his younger sister,” Theo replied.

“Hold on, how do _you _know this?” Draco asked Theo with an amused look.

Theo shrugged, “I may have dated Marietta Edgecombe briefly while we were in school. Don’t judge me!”

Harry snorted in amusement and made a joke about Theo dating traitors. They all laughed and temporarily forgot about their nerves about the mental tests that they would be subjected to tomorrow. Throughout the course of the late afternoon and early evening they gradually found out who the other candidates were. There were a few who were the same age as them who hadn’t gone to Hogwarts like Louisa Dumas, a pretty fair haired girl with a French accent who had been educated at Beauxbatons. There was also Julian Wells, an arrogant twat who none of them liked from their first impressions of him. He had been born in Britain but raised in Europe so he had gone to school at Durmstrang. There was Isaac Crichton as well who had been home-schooled because his parents had feared for his safety and refused to send him to Hogwarts. Harry supposed he could understand that, given everything that had happened at Hogwarts in his time there. The girl they hadn’t been able to identify, Jessica Redford, had gone to Hogwarts for three years and had been in the year above them, her parents had pulled her out of school after the incident with the Basilisk in Harry’s 2nd year and she had been home-schooled ever since.

That evening, Harry couldn’t help but survey the occupants of the room and wonder how many of them would still be here by the time they had completed their selection tests tomorrow.

* * *

On Sunday morning the group of candidates got up at 8am, had breakfast at 8.30am and gathered in the lecture hall at 9am. By the time they had all been registered and given name badges the day before they hadn’t really gotten started in the lecture hall until about 9.30am so their start time was slightly earlier today.

“Welcome to day 2 candidates!” Sumner boomed in his cheerfully sarcastic way, “Because there are only 17 of you left we won’t be splitting you up into two separate groups today. We will be testing you in heats again like we did yesterday however.”

“Today is going to be one of the toughest days of your life,” Sheppard continued, “Yesterday we wanted to make you black and blue, your physical and magical stamina was our priority. Today, we’re looking at your mental stamina.”

“We told you yesterday that we want the best, we _need _the best,” Sumner said firmly, “And that isn’t just about how fit you are or how many spells you know. It’s about your mental strength, today we’re going to delve into your psyche, we are going to use everything that we know about you to find your weak spots and identify your breaking point. Once we know it, we’re going to try our best to break you. If any of you are uncomfortable with that then I suggest you leave now.”

Like the day before there was a little shuffling but nobody actually left.

Sheppard smirked, “Good. Now, those of you who pass the mental test will be subjected to one more test. We’re going to put you into groups and give you a case file. You will have 2 hours to solve that case and we will be monitoring you closely as you try to do so, by the time we are finished with you today we _will _know who this year’s new recruits are going to be.”

“Let’s get going then!” Sumner boomed.

All 17 candidates got to their feet and followed Sumner out of the side door at the front of the room. They were led to the same waiting room that they had spent a large chunk of the previous day in and just like the previous day Sumner began to boom out orders straight away.

“You did this yesterday so you know the score. I’m going to call your name and give you your door number, you’re going to line up in front of that door and you are not going to enter until I have counted down from 3,” Sumner boomed, “You are going to face a series of rooms again but you _cannot _fail the first room. From the second room onwards however, if you do not meet the requirements you will not be able to complete the test. Understood?”

There was a mumble of yes’s and a lot of nods.

“Good! Let’s get this started with heat number one then! Anderson, Mark: Door 1. Black, Draco: Door 2. Carmichael, Eddie: Door 3. Crichton, Isaac: Door 4. Doyle, Jane: Door 5!”

Harry gave Draco an encouraging smile as he lined up in front of the door to Testing Room 2. It was a bit like déjà vu considering that this was the same room he had been tested in the day before. The other candidates looked as nervous as Draco did as Sumner began his countdown.

“3…2…1!”

**TBC!**


	76. Draco's Selection Test: Part Two

“3…2…1!”

With a rather shaky breath Draco opened the door and stepped into the first room. He found himself in a fairly small potions lab which had no windows. He frowned as he contemplated what this could have to do with his mental strength. Like in the physical and magical tests there was a plaque which provided further instruction;

_“When you cross the line, you will be faced with a scenario that will challenge your morals. There is no right or wrong choice in this test but it gives us a gauge on your moral compass. Think carefully about your options and act on your own gut feeling. You will find a brief outline of the scenario you are faced with in the drawer provided.”_

The moment Draco finished reading the plaque a wooden drawer emerged from beneath it. Draco took out the only object in the drawer which was a scroll of parchment, he unrolled it and read his scenario carefully;

_“A magical disease has spread across the globe and has killed millions of witches and wizards. Everyone is under a strict quarantine to avoid the disease spreading any further, you have spent this time in quarantine developing two potions in your home laboratory. You know that one of these potions is a cure but you do not know which one, the other potion is an earlier attempt at a cure which is deadly. Once you figure out which potion is the cure you will be able to use it to save millions of lives. You have with you two people who are under you care and the only way to identify the cure is to give each of these people one of the two potions. One person will live, the other will die, and you will be able to start saving lives with the cure.”_

Draco sighed as he crossed the line to allow the test to begin. He doubted that this was going to be timed and he was anxious to see who the two people under his care were going to be. The moment he crossed the line they materialised on a ragged old sofa at the far end of the room.

“Of course,” Draco muttered under his breath, “I have to choose between my Mother and my fiancé,” he shook his head and looked at the two vials of potion on the desk before him.

He frowned as he weighed up all of the possible options that he could see here. The way he saw it, he had two. He either gave the potions to the only two women he loved and risked losing one of them or he didn’t give them the potions and let himself be responsible for the demise of the wizarding race.

“So if I don’t give them the potions I am basically the destroyer of the wizarding race,” Draco mumbled to himself, “And if I don’t identify a cure they’re both going to die anyway and I’m going to die too.”

He began to pace the small lab, “Or I give them both the potions and risk one of them dying. I have no idea which potion is which and I’m assuming I will be penalised for using magic to test them. Then again, if I test the potions with magic I could risk damaging the compound which would mean that the cure wouldn’t work anyway so magic is out of the equation.”

Draco frowned over at his Mother and Hermione who were silent and sat with their eyes downward. He knew they couldn’t talk to him because they weren’t real but he really needed Hermione to guide his moral compass in the right direction at the moment. He sighed, “So if I give them the potions I’m taking a complete risk. I have no idea which one of them is going to live and which one of them is going to die…but what else can I do?”

He wracked his brain as he tried to think outside the box, “I could take one of the potions myself and then leave a note in case the one I take is the deadly one…Hermione or my Mother would find the note in my lab and realise that I had taken the deadly potion. They would be able to distribute the cure that way…but what if I hadn’t left any written record of how I made it? Hermione is talented but what if she wasn’t able to recreate the cure?”

Draco let his head fall into his hands, “Wait! If I was to take one potion and I died I would know the other one was the cure…that’s it! I don’t have to give both of them a potion, I only need to give a potion to _one _of them. If they live then the potion I gave them must be the cure but if they die then the other potion is the cure.”

For a moment Draco was very pleased with himself for coming up with this loophole but then he realised that there was still a big problem with it, “Now I just need to decide whose life I’m going to put at risk…either way I have a 50% chance of killing whoever I pick so I either kill my Mother or my fiancé…”

He sighed and let his head fall onto the desk. He had to weigh up both options logically and rationally because he couldn’t let his heart make this decision. His heart didn’t want either of them to die which meant he had to rely on his head.

“Hermione has just got a job in the DMLE,” Draco mumbled to himself, “She’s going to make big changes. She has all of these plans for the department and she’s friends with Harry Potter so she has the right links to really push change through. If she were to die prematurely it would put all of that risk, she still has her whole career and her whole life ahead of her…”

“If my Mother was to die there would be some upset,” Draco said to himself, “I would be upset, it would devastate Aunt Dromeda but at least she would still have Teddy to hold onto. My Mother doesn’t want to go back to work, I doubt she will re-marry and I know she can’t have any more children. Logically, I have to pick her.”

His decision was made but Draco still hesitated as he picked up one of the vials. He took a rather unsteady breath and walked over to the small sofa. He felt sick to his stomach as he held the potion out to his Mother.

She took it from him, uncorked it and drank it in one gulp. Draco watched her anxiously as he took the vial back from her. At first nothing happened and Draco allowed himself to hope for a few seconds that he had managed to do this without killing either of them but then his Mother began to convulse and she foamed at the mouth. Draco shut his eyes tightly as she choked and slumped down onto the sofa.

There was a click and when Draco looked up he realised that a door had appeared in front of him. He sighed and was about to walk through the door when a familiar disembodied female voice spoke to him, “You found a loophole which enabled you to save your fiancé but the consequences of your actions were that you lost your Mother and that you know her death is on your hands. However, you have saved the lives of millions of witches and wizards across the world.”

Draco yanked open the door and said sarcastically, “Thanks for that Auror Carter, but it doesn’t make the fact that I just killed my own Mother any easier.”

Auror Carter’s voice said no more so Draco surveyed the room he had just walked into. Before he could even locate the plaque, let alone read it, a Dementor appeared out of nowhere right in front of him.

Draco jumped so violently that he smacked the back of his head off of the wall. He grabbed his wand from its holster, shut his eyes and pictured the look on Hermione’s face as he had proposed to her on stage at the prom. When he opened his eyes he pointed his wand at the dementor and roared, “Expecto Patronum!”

His patronus leapt at the Dementor. It was an interesting sight to behold because his patronus was a fairly large, intimidating looking dragon. The Dementor shrunk back and when the patronus had chased it into the opposite wall it disappeared into a puff of smoke.

Draco glanced around the room in an attempt to let his heart rate get back to normal. There were only two things in this room, one of them was the informative plaque and the other was a wardrobe. Draco’s heart sank when he saw the item of furniture because he instantly knew that it would contain a boggart. He read the plaque all the same;

_“If you did not manage to defeat the Dementor, you have failed this room. If you did defeat the Dementor, congratulations but you are not finished yet. There is a boggart in the wardrobe which you will have to face when you approach it. If you fail to overcome the boggart then you will fail this room.”_

Draco felt incredibly nervous as he walked towards the boggart. He had no idea what it would materialise as now, when he had been younger his biggest fear had always been his Father which was why he had been so reluctant to confront a boggart in front of a class of his peers.

He neared the wardrobe and it burst open. Draco took a step back instinctively as a version of himself strutted out of the wardrobe. He was older and his hair had been swept back into a ponytail. He realised, with a sickening feeling, that he looked like his Father. All Draco could do was watch as two more figures emerged from the wardrobe, one was an older version of Hermione. She looked much the same but she had bags under her eyes and a world weary expression on her face. The third figure was a young boy with curly blond hair and grey eyes, Draco swallowed as he realised that this boy was their son.

He took another step back as a scene began to play out in front of him. The older version of himself was shouting at Hermione but it was a silent scene so Draco could not hear the words that were being said. Hermione was crying and the little boy was cowering behind her as if he were afraid of Draco. This made Draco’s eyes fill with tears, he felt like he was frozen to the spot as he watched himself strike Hermione across the face and then pull his wand on the frightened little boy that was his son. With a jolt he realised what he was watching, he realised what his greatest fear was…it was that he would become his Father.

Knowing this seemed to help him snap out of it. He raised his wand and tried to say, “Riddikulus” but nothing really came out of his mouth. He cleared his throat and blinked to get the tears out of his eyes then said loudly and clearly, “Riddikulus!”

The spell hit the boggart and the scene changed instantly. Draco and Hermione were sharing a large armchair and they had the little boy on their laps, all three of them were smiling and laughing as they read a book together. Draco cleared his throat and hastily wiped his eyes as the scene dematerialised and the wardrobe door snapped shut.

Another loud click let him know that he had passed the room. Draco took his eyes off of the wardrobe and walked through the door that had just appeared beside it. This room was some kind of dungeon which immediately told Draco that he was going to have to withstand torture to pass this test. There was a red line on the ground and an informational plaque next the door which Draco read;

_“When you cross the line, the door will lock and you will be subjected to torture by the hand of a Death Eater. You are required to place your wand in the drawer provided and in this drawer there is a piece of information. The Death Eater will try and extract this information from you but your task is to protect it at all costs. If you give up this piece of information you will fail this room.”_

“Well it won’t be the first time a Death Eater has tortured me,” Draco muttered as he placed his wand in the wooden drawer beneath the plaque and picked up the small scroll, “It will be the first time they’ve done it for information rather than for fun though.”

He unrolled the scroll and scanned it, _“We are getting Potter to the safe house using seven decoys.”_

Draco frowned as the piece of paper combusted in his hands. As he looked down at the smouldering ashes he found himself wondering if that was a real piece of information from the war. He did not dwell on it for too long as he crossed the red line on the ground, he figured the sooner he could get this over and done with, the better.

The moment he was over the red line a masked Death Eater appeared and shackled him to the wall by his hands and feet. Draco looked up at the Death Eater expectantly as the robed man aimed his wand in Draco’s direction.

“Do you know where Potter is?”

“Why would I know where Potter is?”

The Death Eater slashed his wand through the air and sliced Draco’s arm open with a cutting curse, “You’re friends with him, is he with the muggles?”

“What muggles?”

“Don’t play around with me if you want to live boy!” The Death Eater said as he slashed Draco’s other arm.

“Who says I want to live?”

The Death Eater growled angrily, “You know we can’t touch him when he’s with the muggles but they can’t leave him there forever. Where are they moving him to?”

“I don’t know,” Draco replied as the deep cuts in his arms stung like hell.

“Yes, you do,” The Death Eater hissed, “Shall we see if the cruciatus curse loosens your tongue?”

“By all means, let’s try it and find out,” Draco said calmly, “But I doubt you can cast it with the same power as Lord Voldemort so I highly doubt it will work.”

The Death Eater took this challenge on board. He pointed his wand at Draco and yelled, “Crucio!”

Simulation or not, it hurt the same as it would in real life. It wasn’t anywhere near as strong as Voldemort’s curse though which Draco took some solace in. He gritted his teeth but didn’t shout out in pain as the curse forced him to his knees.

“We know that you are friends with Potter so _where _is he?”

“I wouldn’t tell you even if I did know,” Draco hissed.

“We can offer you far greater things than Potter can,” The Death Eater said.

“I don’t want glory and I don’t want to be some dark lords bitch,” Draco said as he felt like every bone in his body was slowly breaking, “So trust me, you can’t offer me anything that I want.”

“Let’s see if you’re still as loyal when you feel like your flesh is burning,” The Death Eater said, with a thrust of his wand he upped the volume of his cruciatus curse. Draco groaned but still didn’t shout out in pain.

“How are they moving Potter?”

“I don’t know,” Draco said through gritted teeth.

“Are they going to use the floo? Are they apparating him out?”

“I do not know, how many times do I have to say it!”

“You’re lying!” The Death Eater hissed. He twisted his wand and it felt like Draco’s spine was twisting, he gritted his teeth and groaned in pain once more.

“Black, where is Potter?”

“I will never tell you,” Draco hissed as the pain reached its peak.

“Fine,” The Death Eater said. All of a sudden the pain stopped and Draco looked up in surprise, he couldn’t have passed that easily, could he?

“Clearly the Cruciatus curse doesn’t work on you,” The Death Eater continued, “But there are other ways to make you talk. Which of your bones should we crush first? I think we’ll start with a knee cap…”

The Death Eater pointed his finger at Draco’s knee then balled his hand up into a fist. This time Draco did cry out in pain because the curse had just crushed his knee cap to pieces, he fell to the ground in pain.

“If you want to have any bones left, tell me where Potter is.”

“No,” Draco said through the haze of pain.

The Death Eater crushed his other knee bone and Draco cried out in pain again, “I will never tell you where he is so you might as well just kill me!”

“I am not killing you until every bone in your body is broken and I know where Potter is and how they are moving him,” the Death Eater growled. He clenched his fist again and this time Draco felt his shoulder bone shatter, he screamed out in pain and shut his eyes tightly. He knew that it would all stop if he told the Death Eater what he wanted to know and for a moment he was tempted. Then he thought about how horrible it would feel to disappoint one of the few people who had believed in him and given him a second chance and despite the pain, that gave him his fight back.

“Who is helping move Potter? Is Moody in on it? Are there any Ministry insiders?”

“I don’t know,” Draco said quietly, he didn’t have the energy to shout anymore.

The Death Eater growled in frustration. He got to his knees on the floor and grabbed Draco’s arm, “When they find your body, I want them to know what you are Black,” he spat.

Draco didn’t understand what that meant at first but then he felt a searing pain in his arm. He cried out in pain then looked down to see that the Death Eater was carving something into his arm around his dark mark. The sight sickened him and all of a sudden, he was somewhere else.

The Death Eater had gone and Draco was standing in his old home. He was watching the love of his life shaking in pain as his Aunt carved out the word “Mudblood” into her arm.

“Hermione! No! Hermione!” He screamed as he tried to get to her, but he couldn’t move because his feet were stuck to the floor and he wasn’t even sure if his words were getting out.

A searing pain in his arm brought him back to reality and he was sweating and shaking on the floor once more as the Death Eater finished his masterpiece. It read, “Traitor.”

“I would rather be a traitor than a Death Eater,” Draco spat.

Upon these words, the Death Eater vanished and a door opposite the one that he had come through opened. Draco couldn’t move and his vision was blurry but he saw someone in white robes walking towards him.

A soft voice said, “Here, drink this. It will reverse any injuries you received in this room.”

Draco reached for the potion blindly and threw it back in one gulp. It took immediate effect; his vision began to return to normal and all of the pain began to ebb away. After a few minutes he got to his feet a little shakily and sighed with relief when he realised that he felt normal once more.

He frowned, the door was still there but the healer who had come through it was gone. He was starting to wonder if he had been seeing things as he walked towards the door and hurried through it. he was grateful to leave the room.

In the next room there was nothing but a table and two chairs. Sitting in one of those chairs was Auror Carter. She smiled at Draco, “You have done very well so far Mr. Black, please sit down.”

Draco took a seat opposite her and looked up at the Auror expectantly.

“This task tests if you have any psychopathic traits, it is part of the extremely careful vetting we do for all candidates,” Carter explained, “You must take a small dose of veritaserum before we begin. Will that be a problem?”

Draco shook his head.

Carter handed him a phial with the smallest amount of veritaserum in it. Draco sipped the foul-tasting potion and handed her back the phial. She smiled at him and continued, “I am going to say a series of statements. To each statement you must tell me if you disagree completely, disagree, neither agree or disagree, agree or agree completely. Do you understand?”

“Yes ma’am.”

“Then we will begin,” Auror Carter said as she dipped her quill into some ink and said, “I rarely follow the rules.”

“Disagree.”

“I admit that I often mouth off without thinking.”

“Agree.”

“I’ve often done something dangerous just for the thrill of it.”

“Disagree completely.”

“I enjoy high speed flying.”

“Agree.”

“I enjoy gambling for real money.”

“Disagree.”

“I enjoy doing wild things.”

“Disagree.”

“I like to have sex with people I barely know.”

“Disagree completely.”

“I am an impulsive person.”

“Agree.”

“I keep getting in trouble for the same things over and over.”

“Agree.”

“I have used illegal spells such as the unforgiveable curses.”

“Agree completely.”

“I enjoy taking risks.”

“Disagree.”

“I easily get bored.”

“Disagree completely.”

“I always miss appointments.”

“Disagree completely.”

“I never plan out my weekly activities.”

“Disagree.”

“I am a rebellious person.”

“Agree.”

Carter glanced over the notes she had been taking, “Okay Mr. Black, you can take the antidote for the veritaserum,” she said as she passed him a phial. He took it immediately and watched her nervously.

“Your average score was 2.3,” Carter informed him.

“Is that good or bad?” Draco asked nervously.

“Very good,” Carter replied, “An average score of 4 or above worries us.”

“So I’ve passed?” Draco asked with relief.

Carter smiled at him, “You have. Now proceed through the door behind me for your final interview with two Senior Aurors.”

Draco nodded as he got to his feet, “Thank you ma’am,” he said as he opened the door and stepped into the final room of the test.

Like the room he had just come from, all that it contained was a table but there were three chairs. Sitting in one chair was Senior Auror Sheppard and sitting in another was an Auror who Draco didn’t recognise.

“Welcome to the final interview Mr. Black,” Sheppard said, “This is my colleague, Senior Auror O’Neill.”

Draco swallowed, he didn’t know what the final interview was, but he had an inkling that it wasn’t going to be easy.

“We need to ask you some pretty hard-hitting questions today,” Sheppard continued, “But we would ask you to remain calm and to co-operate with us as much as possible.”

“Yes sir,” Draco said with a nod, he could feel and hear his heart thumping.

“Shall we start with the obvious one? Why would the son of a notorious Death Eater want to become an Auror?”

Draco had expected that question, he knew he would have to expect that question for the whole of his career if he successfully became an Auror.

“I wanted to become an Auror before I knew that my Father was a notorious Death Eater, as you put it,” Draco replied calmly, if slightly coolly, “I knew my Father wasn’t a good man and I never liked the way he treated my Mother but until I went to Hogwarts, I had no idea what he was.”

“In that case, what made you want to become an Auror?” O’Neill asked.

“When I was 6 years old, my Mother took me into Diagon Alley,” Draco began, “My Father was away on a business trip, or so I thought. He didn’t allow luxuries so when he would go away my Mother would take me out for ice cream or to a Quidditch match. That was the day of the 1986 summer attack.”

“We always suspected your Father of orchestrating that attack,” O’Neill said.

“I don’t know if he orchestrated it if that’s what you’re asking,” Draco said bluntly, “But I knew he was involved. My Mother had no idea or she would never have taken me to Diagon Alley that day. I remember hearing the fight afterwards…it got violent but I never knew what it meant until I was older.”

“Why did the attack make you want to become an Auror?” Sheppard asked.

“A blasting spell hit the canopy above Fortescue’s, my Mother and I got trapped underneath when one of the wooden supports split and fractured her wrist,” Draco said as he looked down at his hands, “I just remember the shouting and the screaming, then there was a flash of red and then there were these men fighting the Death Eaters like they had no fear. One of them came over to us…I could never recall his name or his face, but he spoke to me and stopped me from crying while a healer looked after my Mother. Ever since that day, I wanted to become an Auror.”

Sheppard smiled slightly, “That Auror was me, Mr. Black.”

Draco stared at him for a moment then smiled, “Well I never got the chance to thank you so…thank you.”

O’Neill rolled his eyes, “Alright there’s more cheese in this room than there is on an original Chicago pizza. At least we know that he’s not bullshitting us though Shep.”

Draco frowned, “I assumed there was a truth ward on the room anyway?”

“Not exactly,” Sheppard said, “But that antidote to the veritaserum you took earlier? It was just water.”

“Typical,” Draco said with a vaguely amused smile.

“Sorry son but we’re not going to spend this whole interview telling cute stories,” O’Neill said, “You did some horrible things during the war, didn’t you?”

Draco swallowed, “Yes.”

“Did you ever kill anyone?”

“Yes,” Draco replied quietly.

“How many?”

“Two,” Draco replied as he stared at his hands, “To become a Death Eater, you have to kill a muggle.”

“We’re aware of that,” O’Neill said sharply, “Who did you kill? A pretty young girl? Defenceless, easy prey?”

“No,” Draco said in a hoarse voice, “He was a homeless man, a heroin addict. I found him outside a club shooting up after…after raping a girl.”

“Do you think that makes you any less guilty? What are you, a vigilante keeping the streets clean?” O’Neill asked darkly.

“I don’t think it makes me any less of a murderer if that’s what you mean,” Draco said quietly.

“What about the other one? What’s your excuse for that one?” O’Neill asked.

“It was Valentine’s Day…Death Eaters kidnapped my girlfriend and my friends’ girlfriends. We went in to get them back and Dean Thomas died, so did his fiancé Tracey Davis. There was a wand fight in a dimly lit cave. I killed one of them, Harry killed another and Susan killed the last one.”

Sheppard nodded, “We are aware of that occasion. We know that you were all pardoned for it but we appreciate you not glossing over what happened.”

“Here’s the next question, how exactly did you fool a war heroine into falling in love with you?”

“If you think that anyone can fool Hermione Granger then you have another thing coming,” Draco said coolly.

“I would beg to differ,” O’Neill said, “She’s intelligent, beautiful and brave, don’t you think she deserves much better?”

“No, I don’t actually,” Draco said with an icy look, “I think being with someone who loves you completely is enough for anyone.”

“How did you do it? Was it a love potion or a compulsion charm?”

“It was neither and if you don’t believe me, feel free to ask my fiancé yourself,” Draco said coolly, “If anyone can judge me for my conduct over the past few years it would be the woman who was there for almost all of it. I will happily take any criticism that you have regarding my aptitude to be an Auror on board but when it comes to Hermione, with all due respect sir that is none of your business. For what it is worth though, I would go through hell and back for her. In fact, I already have and yes, she loves me. Most days I don’t know why but she does and nothing you can say will make me doubt that.”

“You went through hell and back for her? Does that include when you watched her get tortured in your house by your own Aunt?” O’Neill asked.

“That was the worst part of my war,” Draco said quietly, “I could handle the cruciatus curse, I could even handle being Voldemort’s bitch but I couldn’t handle seeing her be treated that way. She is so pure and to watch that be torn away from her before my very eyes…I couldn’t have helped even if I had wanted to, my Father made sure of that. Before they brought her up, he put a sticking charm on my feet and said it was because he knew how weak minded I was.”

“I don’t think you’re weak minded, not after seeing the amount of pain you went through out of loyalty to Harry Potter,” Sheppard pointed out.

Draco shook his head, “I’m a different person now than I was before but the point is…Hermione and I talked about what happened that night and we came to the same conclusion. During the war, both of us did what we had to do to survive. For Hermione, it was going on the run with Harry and for me, it was not helping her that night. If I had interfered I would have been killed and…I’m not Harry Potter, I’m not the hero. Back then I thought that made me a lesser man, I thought that made Hermione care less for me than she did for him but now I realise that not every girl wants the hero. Sometimes a girl just wants a man who is good for her, whether that man is a good man or not is another matter.”

“Do you think you are a good man, Mr. Black?” Sheppard asked.

“I think I’m a good enough man for Hermione and I think I’m a good enough man to be considered a friend by Harry Potter,” Draco said, “And honestly, that’s enough for me.”

“Now Mr. Black, there is only one more question we have to ask you today,” Sheppard said sincerely, “And I’m afraid that it won’t be an easy one.”

“None of them have been,” Draco said honestly.

Sheppard nodded, “What was it like, being hugged by Lord Voldemort?”

Draco looked between Sheppard and O’Neill, who was the older of the two. He couldn’t work out if this was a joke or not but the moment he saw a slight sparkle in Sheppard’s eye he laughed and shook his head, “With all due respect sir, that question was a dick move.”

Sheppard grinned, “That bad, huh?”

“I would honestly go as far to say I preferred his cruciatus curses to his hugs,” Draco said distastefully.

Sheppard patted him on the back, “Understandable. You did well today Mr. Black, regardless of your result, I wanted you to know that.”

“Thank you sir,” Draco said as he got to his feet and shook Sheppard’s hand.

“Well done Mr. Black,” O’Neill said as he also shook Draco’s hand, “I’m sorry for the rude questions but I was the bad cop today.”

“He’s always bad cop,” Sheppard muttered as he led Draco out of the room into a large white waiting room. Once more, he was the first person here, “Take a seat Mr. Black, when all of the recruits who have passed are gathered in this waiting room we will swing by to tell you what happens next.”

Draco nodded and smiled to himself. He knew that passing this stage wasn’t any guarantee, there was still the mock case to go but he felt like he had gotten through the worst of it. He sat down in a comfortable armchair and waited nervously for his friends to join him, he could have groaned when Eddie Carmichael, the annoying older Ravenclaw, bounded out of one of the testing rooms.

Eddie grinned and made a beeline for Draco, “Alright! We did it, Aurors in the making!”

“There’s still a final test,” Draco said dryly.

“Come on man, we withstood physical torture,” Eddie scoffed, “Mock case file is going to be a piece of piss.”

Draco resisted the urge to roll his eyes as he looked towards the doors once more. He sincerely hoped that it wasn’t a piece of piss for Eddie because Draco found him to be very irksome. No one else from their heat emerged from the doors in the coming minutes so Draco sighed and tried to ignore Eddie’s constantly ramblings as he waited for his friends.

**TBC.**


	77. Neville's Selection Test: Part Two

“Alright boys and girls! Time for heat 2!”

“Where do you think he went?” Harry whispered to the others.

“I don’t know,” Theo whispered back, “Maybe he’s in on this part of the test?”

“You’ll find out soon I suspect Nev,” Harry said under his breath.

Neville nodded nervously as Sumner called them all forward.

“Dumas, Louisa: Door 1.

Harper, Maxwell: Door 2.

Kavanagh, Lesley: Door 3.

Longbottom, Neville: Door 4.

MacLeod, Douglas: Door 5.”

Neville was as white as a sheet when he took his place in front of the door. He was more nervous for the mental tests than he had been for the physical and magical combined but Harry and Theo both understood why. Neville was, and always had been, terrified of the fact that he had a weakened mental state because of what had happened to his parents.

“3…2…1…Go!”

The door unlocked and Neville stepped in, terrified of what would greet him on the other side. He frowned as he took in his surroundings, he seemed to be in an abandoned warehouse. It was dark and there was no roof on this thing so he deduced that it was night time. He already felt on edge as he read the plaque in front of him;

_“When you cross the line, you will be faced with a scenario that will challenge your morals. There is no right or wrong choice in this test but it gives us a gauge on your moral compass. Think carefully about your options and act on your own gut feeling. You will find a brief outline of the scenario you are faced with in the drawer provided.”_

Neville took a breath and pulled out the drawer beneath the wooden plaque. He knew that he shouldn’t struggle too much with this one because he had pretty strong morals but knowing that and being able to make a tough call was a different situation all together.

His hands shook as he looked down at the parchment in his hand and read the scenario that he had been given, “_You are the leader of a small group of Aurors. You are on your way back from a completed mission when one of your men steps into an explosive ward. The ward alerts the enemy to your presence and as the Auror steps out of it, explodes and injures him badly. If the enemy finds your injured man, they will torture him and kill him. If you try to take him with you then your entire group will be captured. The only way to prevent this injured Auror from being tortured is to kill him yourself.”_

Neville cursed to himself as the scene materialised in front of him. An Auror was lying on the ground in front of him, both of his legs were missing and lay a few feet away from him. There was blood everywhere, another two Aurors were crouched over the injured man. They were all frozen in position but Neville got the point, it was to make him visualize the situation.

He sighed as his mind went into overdrive. The easiest way for him to come to an informed decision was to bounce ideas off of Harry but Harry wasn’t here so he had to compromise.

“I’m not insane,” Neville said as he looked up at the roof, “But my partner in crime isn’t here so I’m just going to have to pretend that he is to work this out.”

He knew the Aurors were watching him but nobody said anything. He looked at a spot directly in front of him and imagined he was talking to Harry, “So are there any other options apart from killing the Auror? Yes, I know I don’t have a lot of time to make the decision…we are probably in an anti-apparition zone and if we take the injured Auror then it’s going to slow us done. If we decide to take him then I need to make that decision sooner rather than later. I have to think about this logically for a minute, carrying an injured man will impair our own ability to fight and the enemy might catch up, if we take him then I would be endangering everyone on this mission.”

“Time is ticking Mr. Longbottom,” A disembodied voice said.

All of a sudden, the scene came to life which made Neville jump.

“Sir! What is our next call?” One of the Aurors next to the injured man asked.

Neville hesitated and looked down at the injured man. He took a step closer and watched the man writhing in pain, “Neville, please,” he begged.

“I don’t think I can save you,” He told the injured Auror, “You would slow us down, I don’t think we would make it out.”

The Auror grimaced in pain, “I don’t want you to save me. Please Neville, put me out of my misery and get out of here. There’s no need for all of us to die, we all have girls to get back to, we all have families.”

Neville hesitated once more. In his head he could hear Harry’s voice telling him to hurry up and make a decision.

“Just do one thing for me Neville,” The injured man said, “Tell Rebecca that I’m sorry the last thing that we did was argue and tell Jack that I died a hero, tell him I died saving a bunch of muggles or something, please.”

Neville swallowed hard. This man had a wife back home, he had a son. How could he do this?

“Neville, please,” The man begged again, “Make it stop. If the Death Eaters capture me they’ll torture me to insanity. Just end this now, you can do it kindly.”

Neville swallowed the lump in his throat and took a shaky breath. He didn’t want anyone to suffer from the same fate as his parents, but he also knew that killing this man meant taking away a Husband and a Father. He knew that he had to make the decision sooner rather than later if he wanted to get the rest of his men out of there so he went with his head rather than with his heart.

He knelt by the mans side and placed his wand on his chest, “I’m so sorry,” he whispered.

The man shook his head, “Do it, please.”

Neville took another breath and then stopped the man’s heart with a simple medical charm. It was quick and it was painless, in seconds he had taken the man’s life.

The scene dematerialised, and a loud click alerted Neville to the fact that a door had appeared ahead of him. He began to walk over to it and as he did so a disembodied voice spoke to him, “You saved the lives of every Auror in your group by allowing the injured Auror to die. However, all actions have consequences. In this case, you would have to be the one to tell the Aurors wife and son that he had died in action.”

Neville nodded glumly and grasped the door handle, “Go figure,” he said.

He didn’t have time to feel sorry for himself for long because the moment he stepped through the door into the next room a dementor swept down on him. He jumped back, drew his wand and visualised the night he and Lilly had danced together after they had finished restoring Longbottom Manor.

“Expecto Patronum!”

A huge bear bounded out of his wand and tackled the dementor. It shrieked and drew back into nothingness, Neville glanced around warily after that in case there were anymore surprises. All he found was a plaque which read;

_“If you did not manage to defeat the Dementor, you have failed this room. If you did defeat the Dementor, congratulations but you are not finished yet. There is a boggart in the wardrobe which you will have to face when you approach it. If you fail to overcome the boggart then you will fail this room.”_

Neville took a step towards the wardrobe and briefly thought about how relieved he was that the boggart no longer took the form of Professor Snape. He could just imagine the laugh that would have given the Aurors observing his selection test.

After his initial relief, Neville felt nervous because he realised that he didn’t know what his boggart’s form was anymore. He did know that it would be something far more sinister than Professor Snape these days. He took a deep breath to prepare himself and stepped forward once more.

The door burst open and the boggart took form. Neville felt sick to his stomach when he saw Lilly, deep down he had known that she would feature in his worst fear. She was being tortured and to make it worse, she was being tortured with the cruciatus curse. She was on her knees screaming in pain, her body writhing and twisting.

Neville froze. His worst fear was seeing what had happened to his parents happen to Lilly. Her screams were blood-curdling and it made his blood boil with rage. He could feel his rage fuelling his magical power so he raised his wand and roared, “Riddikulus!”

The charm hit the boggart and the scene instantly changed. The cruciatus curse changed to a tickling charm, Lilly was no longer screaming, she was laughing. He paused for a moment and caught his breath. What he had just seen had terrified him because Lilly wasn’t just any healer, she was a trauma healer. He knew that meant there was every chance that what he just witnessed could really happen to her and if it did…Neville worried that it might break him.

A click snapped him out of his thoughts and he took another deep breath to steady his nerves before walking through the door that had just appeared. The moment he emerged in the room, he knew that there was going to be an element of torture because this was clearly a torture chamber.

There was a plaque in front of him and then in front of that, there was a red line. Neville stepped forward and read it;

_“When you cross the line, the door will lock and you will be subjected to torture by the hand of a Death Eater. You are required to place your wand in the drawer provided and in this drawer there is a piece of information. The Death Eater will try and extract this information from you but your task is to protect it at all costs. If you give up this piece of information you will fail this room.”_

Neville had known that something like this would come up but he was also dreading it. He wasn’t an idiot, he knew his own mind. His weakness was his parents and more specifically, the way they had been tortured. He could feel and hear his own heart beating as he opened the drawer and unrolled the small roll of parchment that was hidden within it.

_“There will be a raid on a suspected hide-out for Death Eaters who escaped the war tomorrow night.”_

The moment Neville had read this information, the piece of parchment burst into flames and a loud click came from behind him. Neville spun around and realised that the door behind him had disappeared, he was now locked in this room.

“When are they going to raid us, Longbottom?”

Neville jumped and spun around, while he had been lamenting the loss of the door, a Death Eater had appeared behind him. He swallowed his fear and replied, “I don’t know.”

The Death Eater pointed his hand at Neville’s knee cap and clenched it into a fist. Neville cursed loudly in pain and fell to the ground as his knee cap was crushed to pieces, “Don’t play dumb with me. You are an Auror, you know there’s going to be a raid so tell me where and I’ll let you live.”

“I’m not a dirty Auror, this isn’t the dark days before the war,” Neville said through gritted teeth, “I will not tell you anything.”

The Death Eater clenched his fist again and Neville’s other knee cap was crushed. He cried out in pain from the floor as the Death Eater advanced on him, “How many men are they sending?”

Neville said nothing so the Death Eater started to break bones in his legs, “Do they know who is hiding out there?”

Another bone was broken, “When is the raid going to be?”

“I won’t tell you!” Neville shouted.

The Death Eater was starting to get frustrated now, “Fine, I think we need to try a new tactic. Why don’t we see how far we can push you with the cruciatus curse? Will you last longer than your parents?”

Before Neville could get angry about that comment, the Death Eater had raised his wand and shouted, “Crucio!”

Neville screamed in pain as the curse wracked his body. The fact that several of his bones were already broken just meant that the cruciatus curse hurt more.

“When is the raid, Longbottom?”

Neville gritted his teeth and said nothing as the pain intensified.

“If you don’t tell me then I guess I’ll just have to find that girlfriend of yours,” the Death Eater said vindictively, “The two of you can get a suite in St. Mungo’s, just like your crazy parents.”

Neville gritted his teeth and shut his eyes tightly. He saw flashes of green and heard screams, he imagined his parents being tortured in their home back at Godric’s Hollow. He saw Lilly screaming in pain, like she had been when he saw his boggart.

The Death Eater laughed, “Are you crying, Longbottom?”

Neville was shaking but it wasn’t because he was crying, it was because he was losing control of his magic. When he looked up at the Death Eater, there was a fire burning behind his eyes and without touching his wand, he blasted the Death Eater back into the wall, burning him badly in the process.

There was silence in the room for a moment, all Neville could hear was his own heavy breathing. He was sure he had failed as he shut his eyes and pictured Lilly, he remembered the dancing and the paint fights as they had decorated the house. He remembered the circus and their graduation, all of the kisses and all of the times he had made her laugh. It calmed him and brought his breathing back to normal.

When Neville opened his eyes, he realised that a door had materialised in front of him. There was no way he could get up and walk through it so he was grateful when a healer walked in. She knelt by his side and told him that everything would be okay if he took a potion. He trusted her and took it, surely enough he began to feel his pain ease.

He got to his feet shakily when he felt able to. He took a deep breath and looked around, he was just waiting for someone to tell him that he had failed. After all, he had lost control of his magic. When nothing happened, Neville walked through the door tentatively.

He was relieved when all the next room contained was a table, two chairs and a woman he didn’t recognise dressed in red Auror robes. The woman, who was middle-aged with reddish blonde hair, smiled at him, “Take a seat Mr. Longbottom. I’m Auror Cadman and I will be assessing you for this next test.”

Neville sat down, “Was that real?”

“None of the injuries you received will bother you in real life,” Cadman said, “They were simulated.”

“They felt real,” Neville said honestly.

“They are designed that way,” Cadman said somewhat sympathetically, “Now, this next task will test if you have any psychopathic traits. It is an essential part of our vetting programme. Do you consent to taking a small dose of veritaserum before we begin?”

Neville nodded, “Of course, I understand.”

“Thank you for your co-operation,” Cadman said as she handed him a phial with a tiny amount of veritaserum inside it.

Neville drank it in one sip and handed her back the phial. Cadman smiled and explained, “I will read you 15 statements and I need you to tell me whether you disagree completely, disagree, neither agree nor disagree, agree or agree completely with them. Do you understand?”

Neville nodded, “Yes ma’am.”

“I rarely follow the rules.”

“Neither agree or disagree.”

“I admit that I often mouth off without thinking.”

“Disagree completely.”

“I've often done something dangerous just for the thrill of it.”

“Agree.”

“I enjoy high speed flying.”

“Disagree.”

“I enjoy gambling for real money.”

“Disagree Completely.”

“I enjoy doing wild things.”

“Agree.”

“I like to have sex with people I barely know.”

“Disagree Completely.”

“I am an impulsive person.”

“Agree.”

“I keep getting in trouble for the same things over and over.”

“Disagree Completely.”

“I have used illegal spells such as the unforgiveable curses.”

“Agree Completely.”

“I enjoy taking risks.”

“Neither agree nor disagree.”

“I easily get bored.”

“Disagree Completely.”

“I always miss appointments.

“Agree.

“I never plan out my weekly activities.”

“Agree.”

“I am a rebellious person.”

“Agree.”

Cadman glanced down at her notes and scribbled for a few minutes. When she was finished she looked up at Neville with a smile, “We get concerned with a score higher than 4 Mr. Longbottom, your average score was 2.8.”

“Good to know that I’m not a psychopath,” Neville joked.

Cadman didn’t seem to see the funny side of it, “It is merely a precaution Mr. Longbottom, not a certain thing. Would you please proceed through the door behind me for your final interview with two senior Aurors?”

Neville nodded, “Thank you ma’am,” he said simply.

He stepped through the door behind her into another interview/interrogation room. It also had a table but there were three chairs in this room and two of them were occupied by Senior Aurors. One of them was Sumner but Neville didn’t recognise the other one.

“Welcome to the final interview, Mr. Longbottom,” Sumner said curtly, “This is my colleague Senior Auror Landry and we’re going to be asking you some pretty tough questions today.”

“Ask away,” Neville said as he sat down opposite the two men.

“We have to start with the question on everyone’s minds,” Sumner said, “Are you really good enough to be an Auror?”

Neville bit back his anger at that comment, “Yes. I fought alongside Harry Potter, I thought that might have stood for something. I held my own against Death Eaters in the final battle, I beheaded that snake. I’m assuming you understand the significance of that.”

“You killed a couple of Death Eaters and you destroyed a horcrux. Do you really think that makes you good enough to be here?”

“Yeah, I do,” Neville said as he felt his anger building up.

“You were a bumbling fool before all of that. How do you expect to live up to your parents reputation or to better it?”

“By not getting cursed by Bellatrix Lestrange,” Neville said irritably.

“That’s something else we need to ask you about,” Sumner said, “They were some of the best Aurors we had but they were caught and tortured. How do we know that you won’t be as weak as them? You could end up being nothing but a thorn in our side, a drain on our resources.”

“They weren’t weak,” Neville said angrily, “They were great Aurors but regardless of how great someone is, hours of torture will weaken them! Call me weak if you want but at least I fought, I didn’t spend the whole war hiding. I was in that school stopping those vindictive bastards they called teachers from torturing pupils! Where were the Aurors then? Where were they in the final battle? I didn’t see either of you two blast a werewolf off of one of your close friends!”

“Alright son,” Landry, the older and kinder looking of the two, said, “We understand that you went through a lot in the final battle but have you ever had the cruciatus curse used on you for a prolonged period of time?”

“I had it used on me every time I tried to stop the Carrows torturing 1st years,” Neville said darkly, “Maybe it wasn’t used on me for a long period of time but having it cast on you nearly every day, it helps you build up a resilience.”

Landry nodded, “We are sorry about the insensitive nature of these questions, but we do have to ask them.”

“Our next question concerns Harry Potter, he’s your best friend, is that right?”

“Yes, he’s one of them,” Neville replied.

“How would you feel if the two of you were selected and paired up? You would be in his shadow for your whole career,” Sumner pointed out.

Neville snorted, “With all due respect sir, I’ve been in his shadow since the day I met him. I don’t think there are many people out there who can outshine Harry Potter and to be honest, I’m okay with that. I’m not Ron Weasley, being second best really doesn’t bother me because frankly, second best is better than the position I was in for most of my time at Hogwarts. As for being in Harry’s shadow, well there isn’t a greater wizard’s shadow to occupy sir.”

Sumner looked vaguely impressed with this answer but he tried to hide it, “Alright, what about your girlfriend then, Miss. Lillian Moon?”

Neville frowned, “What about her?”

“She is training to be a trauma healer, if she qualifies she will be working alongside Aurors. Is that going to affect your work? What if she gets hit while caring for an Auror on the field and you see it happen?” Sumner asked sternly.

“As much as I hate the fact that she’s putting herself in danger, I know that Lilly is smart enough and strong enough to take care of herself. At the end of the day, I know she would kill me if she thought I compromised my job or hers because of my personal feelings for her,” Neville replied calmly, “Our relationship is based on mutual respect.”

“I can see that,” Landry said with a slight smile, “I think we’re done here. Do you, Sumner?”

Sumner nodded, he got to his feet and shook Neville’s hand, “You did well today. Congratulations Longbottom.”

Landry shook his hand too, “Congratulations on getting this far and best of luck.”

Neville bit back a grin as Sumner led him outside. His eyes scanned the waiting room and he grinned when he saw Draco.

“You can talk to Mr. Black once we have gone through your performance review,” Sumner said as he flipped open a brown file, “I am assuming that you want to know how you did?”

Neville nodded, “Yes sir.”

“Alright, test one, your moral compass. The team noted that it was interesting that you weren’t sure how to make a decision without Harry Potter but that all the same, they agreed with the decision that you came to in the end,” Sumner began.

Neville smiled sheepishly, “I can’t help it, Harry and I bounce off each other. It’s how I come to my best decisions.”

“It worked so we can’t knock it,” Sumner admitted, “Test 2 was the Dementor and boggart test. We couldn’t fault your patronus and you didn’t let the fright of a Dementor springing on you knock your confidence. The boggart, again you defeated it, albeit a little aggressively.”

Neville simply nodded, he was worried about the feedback he would get on his physical torture test.

“Room 3, physical torture,” Sumner said, “You withstood pain very well and you loyally defended the information. We were worried that the cruciatus curse might be a weak point for you but you handled it better than we were expecting. I have to bring up how you defeated that Death Eater though, you didn’t have your wand on you and that blast looked very much like accidental magic.”

“I did lose control of it for a second,” Neville admitted, “But I brought it back under control. I never used to be able to do that, I’ve been training myself.”

“It is still a concern,” Sumner admitted, “So if you were to get in, we would be sending you to a mental health healer to help you bring that under control.”

“I understand that Sir.”

Sumner nodded, “You did fine when we vetted you for psychopathic traits and your final interview was very well handled. Overall Longbottom, well done.”

“What happens next sir?”

“Go and catch up with Mr. Black while you wait for the rest of the candidates who have managed to pass this test,” Sumner said, “Once everyone has been tested, we will sort you into pairs and assign you a mock case file.”

“Alright, thank you sir.”

Sumner nodded and got to his feet. He left without another word so Neville headed over to Draco, the blonde man looked relieved to be able to talk to someone other than Eddie Carmichael. He hugged his friend and said, “Thank Merlin, I’ve been going out of my mind.”

“What because you want me to be an Auror with you that badly?” Neville asked in surprise.

Draco rolled his eyes, “No you idiot, because I’ve been stuck with _him _for Merlin knows how long.”

“Gee, thanks Draco,” Neville said with a weak smile as he sank down into a seat next to his friend, “That was rough, wasn’t it?”

Draco nodded, “They didn’t pull any punches, that’s for sure.”

“Yeah,” Neville sighed, he glanced to the testing doors, “I guess I was the first one out?”

Draco nodded, “Was Theo in your heat?”

Neville shook his head, “No, you’re going to have to wait a bit longer to see if your boyfriend made it, sorry.”

“Don’t joke Neville,” Draco said quietly, “Having just gone through that…I’m not sure Theo is strong enough.”

Neville sighed, “No…neither am I. Maybe we need to have a bit more faith in him though.”

“Maybe,” Draco said somewhat hopefully.

They began to compare notes on their tests to pass the time. Eddie got involved in the conversation, as he always seemed to. As they waited, a few more people emerged from the testing rooms. The first was Lesley Kavanagh, one of the girls they had briefly spoken to the day before.

The last person from Neville’s heat to make it through was Maxwell Harper which made Draco grin, “Well done Max!”

Max grinned, “Two Slytherins through already this year, would you look at that?”

Draco chuckled and the two of them got to chatting about their experiences of the mental tests. Eddie seized the chance to start talking at Neville which Draco looked far too pleased about as he threw his friend an amused smirk.

**TBC.**


	78. Theo's Selection Test: Part Two

“Heat 3!” Sumner boomed as he stepped into the room, clapping his hands loudly as he did so.

Harry and Theo shared nervous glances, they had a feeling that they would be up next.

“Nott, Theodore: Door 1.

Potter, Harry: Door 2.

Redford, Jessica: Door 3.

Wells, Julian: Door 4.

Wilde, Emily: Door 5.”

They all lined up, Harry glanced over at Theo and mouthed, “Good luck.”

Theo, who looked very pale, nodded in response.

“3…2…1…Go!”

Theo swallowed his fear and stepped through the door into the first room of his selection test. He wasn’t sure what he had expected to walk into but he certainly hadn’t expected it to be a small, cramped boat. He frowned and took in his surroundings, he was definitely on a boat and that boat was sinking, in the distance a huge cruise ship was aflame. Straight ahead of him was a plaque which he read carefully;

_“When you cross the line, you will be faced with a scenario that will challenge your morals. There is no right or wrong choice in this test but it gives us a gauge on your moral compass. Think carefully about your options and act on your own gut feeling. You will find a brief outline of the scenario you are faced with in the drawer provided.”_

“Great,” Theo murmured as he opened the drawer and withdrew a scroll of parchment, “I need to use my non-existent moral compass.”

He unrolled the scroll and read his scenario very carefully, he had learned that it was best to have some semblance of a plan before stepping over the line;

_“You are on a cruise ship when there is a fire on board which forces the ship to be abandoned. The lifeboats are carrying many more people than they were designed to carry. The lifeboat that you are in is sitting dangerously low in the water, a few inches lower and it will sink. The sea starts to get rough and the boat begins to fill with water, you lose your wand in the struggle. If nothing is done it will sink before the rescue boats arrive and everyone on board will die. However, one of the people on board is badly burned and may die before the rescue boat arrives.”_

Theo cursed the fact that he was going to have to work this out without a wand. He crossed the line and the scenario began to play out. The sea began to slosh, people screamed and shouted, it all felt very real.

“I can’t use a buoyancy charm because I have no wand,” Theo mumbled to himself, “And I can’t transfigure anything into a new boat either…”

He took a breath and surveyed his surroundings, he felt lost without his wand and he knew that the Aurors would view that as a weakness. There were no other boats nearby and there was no way to signal any of the boats in the distance. Going back onto the cruise ship wasn’t an option either, the flames were consuming it incredibly quickly.

The boat lurched and sank a little further into the water. Theo jumped and grabbed the side to steady himself. He took that moment as an opportunity to survey the people on the boat. There were about 20 people cramped into the small lifeboat, Theo instantly spotted the badly burned man. Of the remaining passengers, most were children.

He swallowed as the boat lurched again, he knew that he didn’t have long to make this decision. If he failed to come to a decision then they would all die and he reckoned the Aurors would definitely count that as a fail. The right thing to do would be to start a debate and come to a joint decision about throwing the burned man overboard but he wasn’t sure they had time for that. He also knew that there would be objections but it had to be done or all of these innocent children would be lost at sea.

Theo swallowed hard and murmured, “I wouldn’t want anyone else having someone’s death on their conscience so here goes…”

The boat lurched again and Theo seized his chance, he leant forward and pushed the man overboard while the wave lapped up over the sides of the little boat. The moment he had done so the scene paused.

Theo frowned as he waited for something to happen. He heard a click and realised that a door had appeared in the middle of the sea, “Way to ruin the illusion,” he said as he began to walk over water to get to the door.

As he did so, a disembodied male voice said, _“By throwing the injured man overboard, you saved the life of every other person on board the boat. However, every action has its consequences. In this case, when the rescue boat reaches port, you get off and see a woman with three small children in tears, this is the family of the man you threw overboard.”_

“Yeah well, at least I saved all of those kids,” Theo said, to justify his decision to himself. He stepped through the door into the second room before the disembodied voice could say anymore to him.

He hadn’t expected to see a Dementor the second he stepped into the room so it made him jump. He fumbled for his wand but by the time he had grabbed it, the Dementor was nearly upon him. He didn’t need to shut his eyes to conjure up his happiest memory, it was from his wedding day. Theo didn’t think he would ever tell anyone apart from Draco but, his happiest memory was just of watching Sadie laughing as she danced with Daphne.

“Expecto Patronum!”

His patronus, which was a large dog, ran down the Dementor and it disappeared into fog.

“Way to give me a heart attack,” Theo said to the empty room as he walked up to the plaque and read what it said;

_“If you did not manage to defeat the Dementor, you have failed this room. If you did defeat the Dementor, congratulations but you are not finished yet. There is a boggart in the wardrobe which you will have to face when you approach it. If you fail to overcome the boggart then you will fail this room.”_

Theo wasn’t particularly worried about that because he had defeated a boggart before, in 3rd year for the first time as well. He didn’t see it as a particularly challenging thing, but he did get a shock when he realised that his boggart had changed form. When it emerged from the wardrobe it was in the form of Sadie.

He frowned as Sadie walked towards him and began to speak, “I’m leaving you Theo. Why would I want to stay here in Britain with you when I can live in Egypt? There are curse breakers out there who are better looking than you, not to mention smarter.”

Theo swallowed and raised his wand, it wasn’t real but it was playing on some pretty damn real fears.

“I am free without you Theo. I don’t know why I ever married a womaniser like you anyway, it’s not like you would stay faithful to me and you certainly aren’t husband material. Why would someone like me ever want to have children with someone like you?”

Theo got angry at that, it gave him the drive he needed to raise his wand and say, “Riddikulus!”

It hadn’t been difficult, all he had to do was shut his eyes and remember a moment on their honeymoon. They had just been escorted away from the Eiffel Tower by the muggle police, then Sadie had gotten really pissed at him so they had resolved the issue with angry sex. Then they had had make up sex, just for good measure and as they were lying in bed together Sadie had burst out laughing and told him that she loved him, idiotic traits and all.

When he opened his eyes to look at the boggart it was now Sadie and himself, but Sadie didn’t look so cruel and she was holding a small baby. Theo smiled slightly as a click let him know that the door was unlocked and that he had passed this room.

He stepped into the next room and immediately, he felt sick. It was apparent that this was some sort of dungeon designed with one purpose in mind, torture. He swallowed hard and nervously read the plaque in front of him;

_“When you cross the line, the door will lock and you will be subjected to torture by the hand of a Death Eater. You are required to place your wand in the drawer provided and in this drawer there is a piece of information. The Death Eater will try and extract this information from you but your task is to protect it at all costs. If you give up this piece of information you will fail this room.”_

Theo knew there was no point waiting to cross the line because there was no strategy to withstanding torture. You could either do it or you couldn’t so he opened the drawer and read the line of information written on his secret scroll;

_"The code to the vault is 0-3-6-4."_

The parchment burst into flames the moment Theo had read it so he instantly stepped over the red line, he wanted this to be over as quickly as possible. The moment he was over the line, a Death Eater appeared before him.

“Do you know how to get into that vault?” The Death Eater asked.

“What vault?” Theo asked, he thought playing dumb might work.

The Death Eater held his hand out and clenched his fist, shattering one of Theo’s knee bones. It made Theo groan in pain and fall to the ground.

“Don’t play smart with me. Where is the entrance to the vault?”

“Oh I don’t know, that’s why they make them secret you see,” Theo said sarcastically, “But of course an ogre like you wouldn’t know that.”

The Death Eater growled and shattered Theo’s other knee bone, “Tell me how to get into that vault, Nott!”

“I think not,” Theo said, he was in agony, but he was determined not to show it.

The Death Eater flicked a finger towards Theo, it snapped a bone in his leg so badly that it pierced the skin. That one did make him scream in pain, “Is it a password or a code?”

“Not telling,” Theo said in a sing-song voice.

The Death Eater snapped another bone, this time in Theo’s arm, it hurt just as bad as the one in his leg had but he was determined not to give up his information, even though the pain was getting so bad that it was making him feel sick. He wasn’t Harry Potter or Neville Longbottom, he wasn’t a naturally brave person.

“Maybe the cruciatus curse will loosen your tongue, smart arse,” The Death Eater said angrily.

“Oh it’s worth a shot I guess,” Theo said.

“Crucio!”

Theo didn’t want to look weak but he did scream in pain because having your body twisted and contorted hurt like hell when you had broken bones sticking out of you.

“Where is the vault?”

“Didn’t I say that I wasn’t telling you? Is this the best you can do by the way?”

The Death Eater upped the volume of the curse and Theo cried out in pain to begin with.

“Where is the vault?”

Through clenched teeth Theo said, “Shit, you’re not a very good Death Eater, are you? The last time I was tortured the guy tried to rip my intestines out of me. You’re just making me twitch a little.”

“Little smart arse,” The Death Eater muttered as he broke another bone in Theo’s arm for good measure, “Maybe you won’t be so clever when I threaten to kill your sweet little wife if you don’t tell me what I want to know.”

“You leave my wife the hell out of this,” Theo said angrily, “You can do what you want to me but if you touch one hair on her head, my friends will hunt you down and kill you.”

“Touched a nerve there, have we?” The Death Eater smirked.

At that, the Death Eater disappeared. Theo sighed in relief and felt a wave of pain rush over him. The world went black as his body went limp and his head hit the ground, hard. He wasn’t sure how long he was out for but when he woke up he felt fine and he seemed to be cured of all of his injuries.

“Feeling better?”

Theo jumped and looked up, “Sorenson?”

“You have been healed,” Sorenson said, he cocked his head, “All injuries inflicted in here can be undone with a simple potion since none of them are really real. I’m not even assessing you by the way, I just wanted to be here to observe.”

“Are you still making sure that I’m good enough for your sister?” Theo asked, he got up on shaky feet and took a deep breath.

“No, I’ve known for a while that you are good enough for Sadie, I just wanted to spy on you,” Sorenson said honestly, “But I am starting to think you have a pain fetish.”

Theo winked, “Just ask your sister.”

Sorenson rolled his eyes, “You’re an idiot. Go through that door for the next test.”

Theo chuckled under his breath, “Alright, thanks Sorenson.”

He went through the door, that he was fairly sure hadn’t been there before, and emerged into some kind of interrogation room. There was a desk with two chairs, sitting in one of them was a middle-aged balding man in red Auror robes.

“Please take a seat Mr. Nott. My name is Auror Campbell and I will be assessing you on this next test,” Campbell said.

Theo nodded and sat down across from the Auror, “What is the next test?”

“We are testing you to ascertain whether you have any psychopathic traits. It is a very important part of the strict vetting we undertake for this programme. I will require you to take veritaserum to ensure you answer honestly. Is that going to be a problem?”

“No, sir,” Theo replied.

The Auror handed him a phial with a small amount of veritaserum in it and he took it straight away. Theo handed the empty phial back to the Auror.

“Thank you Mr. Nott. I will read you 15 statements and you must tell me whether you disagree completely, disagree, neither agree nor disagree, agree or agree completely with each statement. Do you understand?”

Theo nodded.

“Are you ready to begin?”

“Yes sir,” Theo replied.

“Alright,” Campbell said, “Statement 1. I rarely follow the rules.”

“Agree completely.”

“I admit that I often 'mouth off' without thinking.”

“Agree Completely.”

“I've often done something dangerous just for the thrill of it.”

“Disagree.”

“I enjoy high speed flying.”

“Agree.”

“I enjoy gambling for real money.”

“Disagree Completely.”

“I enjoy doing wild things.”

“Agree.”

“I like to have sex with people I barely know.”

“Disagree Completely.”

“I am an impulsive person.”

“Neither agree nor disagree.”

“I keep getting in trouble for the same things over and over.”

“Agree.”

“I have used illegal spells such as the unforgiveable curses.”

“Disagree Completely.”

“I enjoy taking risks.”

“Disagree.”

“I get bored easily.”

“Agree Completely.”

“I always miss appointments.”

“Disagree.”

“I never plan out my weekly activities.”

“Agree.”

“I am a rebellious person.”

“Neither agree nor disagree.”

Campbell said nothing for a minute or two as he scribbled on the piece of parchment in front of him with his quill. It just made Theo feel even more nervous, he really didn’t want to be told that he had the potential to become a psychopath.

“We get concerned with an average score that is higher than 4 Mr. Nott,” Campbell explained as he looked up, “Your score was 3.1.”

“Phew,” Theo said with a grin, “I really didn’t want to be a psychopath.”

Campbell saw the humour in the joke, “Today is your lucky day. Would you please head through the door behind me to your final interview?”

Theo nodded as he got to his feet, “Yes sir, thank you.”

He felt more nervous than he had all day as he stepped through that door into the final room. There was something very final about a final interview, funnily enough. He was so close that if he screwed up at this final hurdle, it would just make it all the worse.

The room he walked into was far less intimidating than he had been expecting. It looked very similar to the room he had just left, the only difference was the fact there was an extra seat, and an extra person.

Sitting opposite the only vacant chair were two Senior Aurors that he didn’t recognise. The first, a woman with short curly brown hair smiled at him, “Congratulations for getting this far Mr. Nott. I am Senior Auror Weir and this is my colleague, Senior Auror Bates. We need to ask you some difficult questions in this final interview.”

Bates didn’t look as nice as Weir. He was short and stout in stature and had a frown that seemed to be permanently pasted onto his face. There was no debate over who was the good cop and who was the bad cop here, that was for sure.

“So Mr. Nott, would we be right to say you are part of a fairly close-knit friend group that also includes Mr. Potter, Mr. Longbottom and Mr. Black?” Weir asked.

Theo nodded, “That’s right.”

“What do you have to offer us then?” Bates asked, “Mr. Potter is the saviour of the wizarding world and Mr. Longbottom is his snake killing sidekick. Even Mr. Black, although he may not have been on the correct side during the war, is a powerful duellist. It seems to me that you’re the weak link here so what do you bring to the table?”

Theo kept his cool because he knew that they were trying to get a rise out of him, “Harry did save the world that’s true and Neville beheaded a snake, big deal. I’ll tell you what I bring to the table that those two don’t, I’m not a Gryffindor. I don’t run stupidly and blindly into situations, I assess the situation logically and then I decide the best course of action. As for Draco, yes I’m not as powerful as him but I would debate whether I was smarter. He has a great mind but sometimes his lack of common sense is astounding. I’ll tell you what I bring to the table, common sense, and it’s my common sense that’s going to keep those three idiots alive.”

Weir smirked slightly which made Theo happy, she obviously liked his answer. Bates’s permanently glued on scowl didn’t shift though.

“How do we know that we can trust you to be a good Auror, Mr Nott? Given your past, we are wary,” Bates began, “How do we know that you aren’t cruel like your Father?”

Theo swallowed, he didn’t know why he was surprised. He should have known that they would have dredged up all the shit in his past, “I am nothing like my Father. I hate that man and all that he stood for, trust me. Maybe it isn’t an acceptable thing to think or say but when he died…I was happy.”

“Given your Father’s crimes, that is understandable,” Weir said kindly.

“What you say may be so, but even the purest people can have secrets,” Bates added, “We don’t know what you have locked away. Your Father had lots of things locked away, like your Mother for instance.”

“How dare you,” Theo hissed as he rose to his feet, “How fucking _dare _you? What my Father did to my Mother was disgusting and it’s why I wanted this job in the first place! If you lot had done your job and looked out for vulnerable women forced into marriages with _monsters _like my Father then my Mother would be alive today but she slipped through the cracks, like so many others! You didn’t care about getting justice for her until she was lying on a slab in your morgue! I won’t be that kind of Auror, I want to help living people!”

He was still fuming as he paced the floor of the interrogation room under the watchful eye of the two senior Aurors, “My Mother was killed, in the most horrible way, for falling in love! I don’t think anyone should be forced into marrying someone they don’t love and I don’t think anyone should be punished because of who they love either.”

“Our apologies for the insensitive question Mr. Nott,” Weir said as he placed a hand on his arm, “Would you please sit down?”

Theo’s blood was boiling but he didn’t want to look like he wasn’t obeying orders, so he sat back down and tried to get his temper under control.

“We understand that this is a painful topic of discussion, but we have to explore it,” Weir explained.

Bates nodded, “We need to make sure that you are completely clean before we accept you into this programme. We don’t know how many people you have killed or hurt-”

“I haven’t killed anyone,” Theo cut in, “Not ever.”

“You have to understand our position here Mr. Nott,” Bates continued, “After all, boys learn all that they know from their Fathers and your Father was sick and twisted. We saw with your boggart that you are terrified of your wife leaving you. What would you do if she did find someone better? Would you take a leaf out of your Father’s book?”

That was the final straw for Theo. He threw Bates back against the wall with wandless magic and fumed, “You have no fucking right to go there! I love my wife more than I have ever loved anything or anyone. I would never hurt her, I would kill anyone who tried to put her in pain. I am terrified of her leaving me because I don’t want to lose the one person who loves me unconditionally, despite all of the stupid shit I have done but for you to accuse me of ever thinking about doing what my Father did…that’s not fucking acceptable!”

“Mr. Nott,” Weir said gently as she grabbed his arm.

Theo threw her arm off of him, “No! I was a kid! I was a kid in that house when he killed my Mother! He put me in that basement with the blood stains when I was bad, what you did said was just acceptable.”

“Sorry Mr. Nott,” Bates said from the floor, “You are right, we went too far.”

“Your Mother was a wonderful woman,” Weir said quietly, “She worked in the DMLE and nobody had a bad word to say about her.”

“She didn’t deserve what happened to her,” Bates agreed as he got to his feet and dusted himself off.

“It is clear you are all Almina,” Weir finished, “And that you are nothing like your Father so we apologise for the line of questioning.”

“Thank you,” Theo said breathily, “And I am sorry for throwing you into a wall.”

“Don’t be,” Bates said, “Bad cop or not, I deserved it.”

Weir nodded her agreement which made Theo smile slightly, “Congratulations Mr. Nott,” she said as she led him out of the room, “I just need to go over your report with you then you can join your friends.”

Draco and Theo grinned at each other when they locked eyes. Neville rolled his eyes and shook his head at the interaction between the two friends, once Theo had looked away from Draco he grinned at Neville and gave him the thumbs up.

“Alright so test one,” Weir said as she opened up a brown file, “You did well on the morality test despite the fact you claimed to have no moral conscience.”

“I didn’t think I did have one,” Theo joked.

“I think we both know that’s not true,” Weir said with a smile, “You saved the lives of everyone on that boat by sacrificing one man.”

“Even though that man had a family,” Theo said quietly.

“And the fact you feel regret for that earns you points, trust me,” Weir said honestly, “Yes, that family lost out but so many others were saved because of what you did. Had you saved the injured man, he would have died before reaching the rescue boats and we would have called you foolish. Your response was logical and calculated, we like that.”

Theo smiled proudly at that.

“Test 2, we couldn’t fault your defeat of the Dementor despite the fact it surprised you,” Weir said, “And your defeat of the boggart was also fine. It did flag up a weakness for us though, combined with your physical torture test.”

“My wife, I know,” Theo said quickly, “And unfortunately, Sadie is always going to be my weakness.”

“I don’t think there’s any shame in that Mr. Nott,” Weir said with a slight smile, “Now onto the torture test. You didn’t give anything away which was great but like I said, it flagged up a weakness or two. We can’t really change the fact that you react badly to someone threatening your wife but we can change the fact that you were a smart arse to that Death Eater.”

“It’s in my nature ma’am.”

“Well you need to change that nature when you’re at work,” Weir said firmly, “Because the fact of the matter is, you got injured far more than anyone else here because of the fact you were being a smart arse.”

“Understood,” Theo said, and he did mean it.

“Your psychopathic traits test was fine and your final interview was well handled,” Weir said, “We went too far and we really are sorry for that. Despite that though, you remained relatively calm, given the circumstances.”

“So what happens next?” Theo asked.

“You celebrate with your friends and wait for everyone else to finish being tested,” Weir said, “Once everyone who has passed is gathered in this room we will pair you all up and give you a mock case file.”

“Alright, thanks ma’am,” Theo said. He got to his feet, shook her hand then positively ran over to Draco.

“I’ve been so nervous,” Draco said as he allowed his friend to hug him, “I was worried you wouldn’t be able to handle it.”

“Which part the physical torture or the probing interview?” Theo asked sarcastically.

“Both,” Draco admitted.

Theo tutted, “You need to have more faith in me. Where’s Harry?”

Neville frowned, “What do you mean?”

“Well…he was in my heat,” Theo said slowly, “And he would have finished before me. Wouldn’t he?”

“I would have thought so,” Draco said cautiously, “You don’t think…”

“No,” Neville said quickly, “This is Harry we’re talking about. If we all got here, he’ll manage it, won’t he?”

Theo bit his lip, “Don’t you remember what Professor Lupin said about Dementors? The more bad things there are in your past, the harder it is to overcome them.”

“So?” Draco asked, “What does that have to do with anything?”

“Harry probably has more bad stuff in his past than we do,” Neville said quietly, “And these tests are all about our mental strength.”

“Oh,” Draco realised, “Oh shit.”

“Yeah,” Neville echoed as he glanced nervously at the doors to the testing rooms, “Oh shit.”

**TBC.**


	79. Harry's Selection Test: Part Two

“3…2…1…Go!”

Harry’s heart was beating out of his chest as he stepped into the testing room. He was well aware of the fact that he had always found it harder to conquer his mental demons than he had his physical ones. So far this testing experience had been easy but he knew that this was the hard part for him.

He took in his surroundings before reading the plaque in front of him. He was at a Quidditch ground, a pretty big one with a fancy top box. He figured that meant it was a pretty big game and therefore a good target for someone like a Death Eater to attack. With this in mind he stepped forward and read the plaque;

_“When you cross the line, you will be faced with a scenario that will challenge your morals. There is no right or wrong choice in this test but it gives us a gauge on your moral compass. Think carefully about your options and act on your own gut feeling. You will find a brief outline of the scenario you are faced with in the drawer provided.”_

“Great,” Harry muttered as he pulled the scroll of parchment from the drawer, “I’m going to have to try and work around my hero complex, as Daph and Hermione like to call it.”

There was no response to this so Harry unrolled the parchment and read the scenario that he had been assigned;

_“You are at a Quidditch game and the daughter of the Minister for Magic has been taken hostage. The enemy demands that you hand over the Minister in exchange for his daughter. If you do not, he says that he will set off the proximity charm on the stand above him. This will cause an explosion which will kill everyone in the stand. Do you hand over the Minister, effectively signing his death warrant, or do you attempt to rescue the girl at the risk of destroying a stand full of civilians?”_

Harry had no idea what he was going to do as he stepped over the line but he knew that he worked best when he was thinking on his feet, therefore there was no point hanging about to formulate a plan.

“Mr. Potter, are you going to save my daughter or not?”

Harry jumped, Kingsley had just appeared before him, “Don’t worry Kingsley, I’ll save your daughter but I won’t let you die in the process.”

“And I will not let you kill a whole stand of civilians just to save me,” Kingsley countered.

“I won’t do that,” Harry assured him, “I’ll find a way round it.”

“And how are you going to do that?” Kingsley asked.

“I don’t know yet but I’m working on it,” Harry said as he looked at the stand in question, “I can’t evacuate the stand because if I do, it will set off the proximity charm. There are portkeys of course but the moment they activate the proximity charm would go off and there’s no way to make sure every portkey would activate at once.”

“He would set off the proximity charm the moment he saw you setting up portkeys,” Kingsley pointed out, “He’s hiding underneath the stand and there are extensive protective charms between him and us.”

Harry hummed thoughtfully for a moment, “There is a way to do this Kingsley, I just need to work it out…the only way I will get near this guy is with the element of surprise. I need to distract him and to minimise the risk, I need to get those spectators out of here somehow.”

“But how?” Kingsley asked desperately.

Harry frowned, “I can’t use multiple portkeys but what if I only need to make one portkey? Didn’t Hermione say you can make literally anything into a portkey, no matter how big or small?”

Kingsley looked confused, “That is correct.”

Harry grinned, “Then I have a plan. Stay here Kingsley,” he said as he approached the stand carefully. He knew how to make something into a portkey but this was slightly more complicated because his plan was to turn the entire stand into a portkey. It took him a good while but he worked it out and when he was finished, he made his way back over to Kingsley.

“What have you done?” The Minister asked him.

“I’ve made the stand into a portkey,” Harry whispered, “In about 30 seconds it’s going to activate, taking everyone out of here.”

“But that will activate the proximity charm!”

“Proximity charms,” Harry began as the portkey whirred into action, “Have a delay.”

Surely enough, the stand disappeared from sight and about 2 or 3 seconds later, there was an explosion in mid-air, where the proximity charm had been set up on the spectator’s area of the stand. After all, nobody was stupid enough to put a proximity charm around _themselves._

The man orchestrating the attack looked so surprised to be suddenly standing in the middle of an empty field that he dropped his wand and loosened his grip on the Ministers daughter. Harry used a summoning charm to bring the girl over to him, then he pushed her into Kingsley’s arms so that she would be safe.

Before the enemy could grab his wand, Harry broke through his protective enchantments and stunned him, once he was on the ground Harry made sure that he was bound well so that he couldn’t escape then the scene paused once more.

Harry had to admit, he felt pretty proud of himself for that one as a click signified that he was free to move into the next room. He looked around and saw that a door had appeared in the middle of the pitch but before he could go though it he heard Auror Carter’s disembodied voice say, “All actions are supposed to have a consequence. However, in this case, you found a loophole which enabled you to save the entire stand of spectators, the Minister and his daughter. Congratulations Mr. Potter.”

Harry grinned, “Why thank you Auror Carter,” he said as he stepped into the next room.

He had been on a high from his victory so when he sauntered into the next room he hadn’t expected a Dementor to come out of the blue towards him. He heard his Mother scream inside his head and as he shut his eyes to conjure his happy memory he saw a flash of green. It never stopped but he could control it now, he didn’t pass out anymore.

He pictured Daphne saying yes and grinning after he had proposed to her and it blew away the screams and the light. He opened his eyes and calmly said, “Expecto Patronum.”

His stag patronus sauntered out of his wand and casually bucked the Dementor into nothingness with all the careless attitude of Harry’s Father, it almost made him smile. He had hoped that this meant that he had passed the room, but he knew that it wasn’t going to be that easy. The fact there was a plaque in front of him confirmed that;

_“If you did not manage to defeat the Dementor, you have failed this room. If you did defeat the Dementor, congratulations but you are not finished yet. There is a boggart in the wardrobe which you will have to face when you approach it. If you fail to overcome the boggart then you will fail this room.”_

Harry hated boggarts, he knew that he could defeat them but he still hated them because the fact of the matter was, they always involved death for him. He sighed and walked towards the wardrobe, dreading what might come out of it.

The door opened and all of a sudden the floor of the room was scattered with bodies. The bodies weren’t just random people either, they were the bodies of every single person that he loved. Theo and Sadie were lying together as if they had been hugging. Neville lay over Lilly, like he had died protecting her. Hermione and Draco were holding hands like Remus and Tonks had been. Then came the worst one, Daphne. Seeing Daphne lying cold and lifeless was bad enough but she was holding Teddy.

Harry had to swallow the bile that rose in his throat. He shut his eyes tightly as for a moment he found himself back in the great hall after the final battle. He remembered the bodies lining the great hall, the bodies of people who he had cared about.

He felt his magic begin to get out of control. His body shook and he could feel the ground beneath him beginning to shake too. He took a deep breath as he heard Daphne’s voice in his head telling him that it wasn’t real, that she and Teddy were fine.

When he opened his eyes there was a fire in them. He channelled the magic that had been flowing dangerously through his body and threw the boggart back into the wardrobe without saying the incantation. Rather than the doors just slamming shut, the boggart was thrust into the wardrobe and the wardrobe then went up in flames. Within seconds, it was just a pile of sparkling ash.

Harry frowned, he hadn’t known that it was possible to kill a boggart but that appeared to be what he had just done. A click pulled him out of his thoughts, he looked away from the pile of ash and realised that a door had appeared next to it.

He took another breath to calm himself down and get his thoughts in order, then he stepped through the door into the next room. He knew the moment he walked in that this was going to be the torture part of the test but he read the plaque in front of him all the same;

_“When you cross the line, the door will lock and you will be subjected to torture by the hand of a Death Eater. You are required to place your wand in the drawer provided and in this drawer there is a piece of information. The Death Eater will try and extract this information from you but your task is to protect it at all costs. If you give up this piece of information you will fail this room.”_

Harry didn’t actually feel too nervous about this test which probably wasn’t surprising given how much torture he had gone through over the years. He opened the drawer, unrolled the scroll and read the piece of information;

_“The Minister is in a safehouse in Shetland.”_

Knowing this, Harry stepped over the red line and a Death Eater materialised in front of him. It wasn’t a real Death Eater, just someone dressed in the robes to try and intimidate and scare him.

“Where is the Minister, Potter?”

“How should I know?” Harry retorted.

“Because,” the Death Eater said as he crushed one of Harry’s knee caps with ease, “We think,” he crushed the second knee cap, “You took him there.”

Harry hadn’t let out a noise of pain at all, despite the fact the two injuries had been agonising and had forced him to the floor.

“Even if I had,” Harry said through gritted teeth, “And I didn’t by the way, I wouldn’t tell you.”

“Cut the crap Potter,” The Death Eater said calmly, “I could break your bones all day.”

“I’ve had worse days,” Harry said, it was the truth.

“Is he somewhere remote?”

“I will tell you nothing,” Harry said firmly.

The Death Eater began to get angry at that. He snapped a bone in Harry’s leg, “Is he in Britain?”

Another bone was snapped, “Where is he, Potter?”

The Death Eater then crushed his shoulder bone which was the most painful injury so far, “If you don’t tell me where he is then I’m going to have to use the cruciatus curse on you.”

Harry glared up at the Death Eater but remained silent.

The man smirked viciously, “Crucio!”

Harry didn’t even cry out in pain as the curse wracked his body.

“Where is he?”

“Is he in Britain?”

The Death Eater amped up the pain level on the curse.

“Did you take him there?”

“Dammit Potter! Where is he?” The Death Eater roared as he amped up his curse to the full pain level.

Harry now felt like every muscle in his body was being torn apart but his lips still remained tightly sealed shut.

The Death Eater ended the curse and holstered his wand, “Alright, I didn’t want to have to play it this way but you leave me no choice. Tell me where he is or I’ll hunt down your fiancé and torture her before your eyes until you tell me what I want to know.”

“They don’t call my fiancé the ice queen of Slytherin for nothing,” Harry said quietly, “She can look after herself. You would never find her and if you did, she wouldn’t tell you anything.”

“Maybe not,” The Death Eater agreed, “But that kid of yours is pretty cute. You would hate to see anything bad happen to him, wouldn’t you? What’s the Minister for Magic’s location in return for little Teddy’s life?”

“Don’t you dare touch him,” Harry hissed, “You can do anything you want to me but if you touch him or Daphne, I will kill you.”

“Not if I kill you first,” The Death Eater said calmly.

“If you kill me first then someone else will kill you,” Harry growled, “You can trust me on that one.”

“Tell me where the Minister is and your family are safe,” The Death Eater said calmly, “It’s that simple.”

Harry shook his head, “I will never tell you where he is, do you hear me? Never!”

Harry must have done enough because at that point the Death Eater vanished. The adrenaline rush began to wear off the moment he had done so and when it did, Harry suddenly felt very weak and very sick.

He didn’t black out but the world around him became blurry. He was vaguely aware of someone dressed in white approaching him but he could barely see anything and his ears were ringing. He knew that he was on the verge of passing out as something was shoved down his throat. Whatever it was, it took a few minutes to work but then his vision began to return to normal and the pain slowly began to ebb away.

After a few minutes, Harry was able to glance over himself. He sighed with relief when he realised that all of his injuries had been healed, he got to his feet and looked around. He hadn’t heard a click but he was hoping that a door had appeared.

Surely enough, there was a door straight ahead of him. Harry still felt a little shaken as he walked towards the door and headed through it. He wasn’t sure what would be waiting for him on the other side so he was glad when it was just an interrogation room.

There was a table with two chairs, Auror Carter was occupying one of them. She smiled at him, “How are you feeling, Mr. Potter?”

“Like I just got beaten within an inch of my life,” Harry said honestly, “Simulated or not, those injuries felt real.”

Carter nodded, “We design them that way. We need this experience to feel realistic.”

“I understand that,” Harry said honestly as he sat down opposite her, “Is this another test?”

“Yes,” Carter replied, “As part of our strict vetting procedure, we have to test you for any psychopathic traits you might exhibit.”

“Okay,” Harry said slowly.

“I need your oral consent to take veritaserum so that we can get accurate results,” Carter continued, “Is that alright?”

“That’s fine,” Harry said.

Carter smiled at him and handed him a phial with a small amount of veritaserum in it. Harry took the potion and then handed the phial back to the Auror.

“Thank you Mr. Potter,” Carter said, “Now, I am going to read some statements to you. I need you to tell me whether you disagree completely, disagree, neither agree or disagree, agree or agree completely with each statement. Do you understand?”

“Yes ma’am,” Harry said with a nod.

“Perfect, we will begin then,” Carter said, “The first statement is; I rarely follow the rules.”

“Agree Completely.”

“I admit that I often 'mouth off' without thinking.”

“Agree Completely.”

“I've often done something dangerous just for the thrill of it.”

“Neither agree or disagree.”

“I enjoy high speed flying.”

“Agree Completely.”

“I enjoy gambling for real money.”

“Disagree Completely.”

“I enjoy doing wild things.”

“Agree.”

“I like to have sex with people I barely know.”

“Disagree Completely.”

“I am an impulsive person.”

“Agree Completely.”

“I keep getting in trouble for the same things over and over.”

“Agree.”

“I have used illegal spells such as the unforgiveable curses.”

“Agree Completely.”

“I enjoy taking risks.”

“Neither agree or disagree.”

“I get bored easily.”

“Agree.”

“I always miss appointments.”

“Disagree.”

“I never plan out my weekly activities.”

“Agree Completely.”

“I am a rebellious person.”

“Agree Completely.”

Carter frowned as she did some scribbling onto a piece of parchment. To Harry, it felt like it took forever for her to finally look up at him, “Well Mr. Potter, your average score was 3.8.”

“Is that bad?” Harry asked, “You’re saying that likes it’s a bad thing.”

“It’s a little close for comfort,” Carter said, “We get worried when someone scores higher than 4.”

Harry raised an eyebrow at her, “I’m that close to being a psychopath?”

“You’re that close to displaying some psychopathic traits but it’s a pass all the same,” Carter said with a kind smile, “Would you care to head through the door behind me? It will take you to your final interview with two Senior Aurors.”

Harry nodded and got to his feet, “Of course, thank you Auror Carter.”

Carter just nodded back in return as Harry opened the door and stepped into the final room. He was nervous about this because it was an interview, he had gotten better at public speaking thanks to Daphne but he still preferred actions over words.

This final room was similar to the one he had just left. However, instead of Auror Carter sitting across from him he had Senior Auror Sheppard and an older gentleman that he didn’t recognise.

“Mr. Potter, congratulations on getting this far,” Sheppard said, “Please take a seat.”

Harry sat down and Sheppard said, “You know who I am and this is my colleague, Senior Auror Landry. We need to talk to you about some difficult subjects today.”

Harry just nodded, he was sure his parents would pop up somewhere or that the war would be mentioned. Both of those were things that he didn’t like to talk about.

“Let’s start off with our big issue,” Sheppard began, “You have a tendency to disobey the rules time and time again. We know that Dumbledore let you get away with it in school but you have to do what we say here. Do you really think you can carry on acting this way and become an Auror?”

Harry knew that he had to bite back his temper because it would only get him in trouble here, “I don’t break the rules because I’m a troublemaker. I break rules because they are stupid and sometimes they need breaking. Yes, students weren’t supposed to be out after curfew but had anyone else realised that my DADA Professor had Voldemort hanging out on the back of his head? No, they hadn’t. Was anybody else volunteering to fight the Basilisk that was getting ready to kill off muggle-borns? Nope just 12 year old me. Then there was the time someone nearly killed me by breaking the rules for me and entering me into the Triwizard Tournament,” Harry said as he ticked all of these things off on his hands, “So yes, I broke rules when I was in school but I did it to save lives.”

Landry smiled, “Good answer son.”

“Next question,” Sheppard said as he shot Landry a stern look, “Why did you kill Voldemort?”

“Excuse me?” Harry asked in disbelief.

“You didn’t have to kill him,” Sheppard pointed out, “You could have taken him down and handed him over. We could have put him in his own personal prison, just like Grindelwald.”

“I didn’t intend to kill him,” Harry said honestly, “I used Expelliarmus, not the killing curse. There was a link between our wands, something to do with them both having a phoenix feather from the same bird, and it was _his _killing curse that rebounded via that link and killed him.”

“So you don’t get a thrill out of killing then?”

“No,” Harry said irritably, “What kind of stupid question is that? I don’t get a bloody thrill out of it but I don’t regret the fact that it happened either. I know for a fact that myself and plenty of other people wouldn’t feel safe with Voldemort locked up, him dying was the best thing for a lot of people.”

“And then there was the glory it brought you,” Sheppard added, “You do love the fame, don’t you? We all know that you have told lies in the past to get famous.”

Harry lost his temper at that, “If you want to question me then that’s fair enough but don’t talk about all that bullshit! I was victimised as a teenager for telling the truth about Voldemort, the truth that nobody _including _your corrupt department, wanted to know! That’s why I wanted to join the Aurors, I wanted to make sure that I helped to turn it around. I wanted to get rid of all the dirty Aurors who jumped over to the dark side at the first sign of danger so you have some nerve saying I lied to get famous!”

“Alright son,” Landry said calmly, “Just settle down, we understand what you have been through and we would be very grateful to have you join us.”

Harry sighed, Landry was clearly the good cop and Sheppard, who Harry had initially liked, was being a bit of a dick.

“We have a few more questions to ask you before we finish up here Mr. Potter,” Sheppard said, “We need to talk to you about your Slytherin influences.”

“My Slytherin influences?” Harry asked in disbelief.

“You hated Slytherins for years and then all of a sudden you befriend Draco Malfoy, did he have any blackmail on you?”

“For the love of Merlin,” Harry cursed, “This is ridiculous! No, he didn’t have any blackmail on me. We realised that our feud had been petty so when we returned to school we called a truce and then we realised, embarrassingly enough, that we actually got on great.”

“What about your fiancé then?” Sheppard asked, “How do you go from hating Slytherins and dating the very wholesome Ginny Weasley, to dating the self-confessed ice queen of Slytherin?”

“Why is it any of your business how I ended up with Daphne?” Harry asked as he shook his head in disbelief at the two men.

“It’s our business if she forced you into it,” Sheppard said, “So was it a love potion or a compulsion charm? How did the bitch hoodwink you?”

Harry got to his feet angrily, so angrily that he flipped the table, “She is not a bitch and she did _not _hoodwink me! I’m with her because I fell in love with her and I will stay with her because she is amazingly clever and beautiful. She’s only 19 and she’s already a wonderful Mum to Teddy. She is an amazing woman and frankly, I don’t see why the house she was in at school should come into consideration at all!”

“Calm down Mr. Potter,” Sheppard said as he righted the table, “It was a question we had to ask.”

“No, it wasn’t,” Harry said angrily, “It was none of your business and if your last question is about Teddy then you better think very carefully about how you word it.”

Sheppard and Landry shared a glance, Harry had clearly called it right then. Their last question _was _about Teddy.

“We just worry that your attachment to your Godson might affect your work,” Landry began, “As you say you are only 19 yet you care quite regularly for a very young child. This combined with an intensive training program is going to be a huge commitment. How are you going to manage that?”

Harry took a breath to calm himself, “I’m not an idiot, I know that it’s going to be hard. I’ll be training and Daphne has just started her new job too but I’m going to manage it because I have to. Teddy doesn’t have much but he does have me and Daphne and however we work it, we’re going to do the best for that little boy. Do you have kids, Aurors?”

Landry nodded, “A daughter and a grandson.”

Sheppard smiled slightly, “Two sons,” he admitted.

“Then you know exactly how it is,” Harry said quietly, “You can’t plan how you’re going to do something. I can’t tell you how I’m going to manage, I just know that somehow I will because I _have _to for Teddy.”

Sheppard nodded, “That’s a perfectly acceptable answer Mr. Potter. I apologise for what I said about your fiancé, please don’t take it personally, it’s just a line of questioning that I had to pursue.”

Harry shook his head, “I understand. I’m sorry for losing my temper and flipping the table.”

“You were perfectly within your rights to do so,” Landry said, “But Kingsley really wasn’t kidding when he said you had a temper.”

Harry looked a little sheepish, “Yeah, he was right there,” he admitted.

Sheppard chuckled and shook Harry’s hand, “Congratulations on getting this far Mr. Potter. Please come with me.”

Harry followed the Senior Auror to door and Sheppard said, “Try not to run to your friends the moment you see them, I do need to do your report with you first.”

Harry grinned sheepishly at that. The moment he stepped out into the waiting room he looked for his three friends and he grinned when he saw them all anxiously awaiting him. They cheered when they saw Harry and Sheppard chuckled under his breath as he opened the brown file which contained Harry’s report.

“I’ll make this as quick as possible so you can celebrate,” Sheppard said with an amused smile, “Test one was all about morality. You excelled in that, I don’t know why that surprised us given what we have heard about your hero complex. You weren’t supposed to find a loophole, nobody has ever managed that in that scenario before.”

“Is that good or bad?” Harry asked.

“Good,” Sheppard admitted, “But it was also a little risky. Did you really know that proximity charms have a delay?”

“I do,” Harry said sincerely, “I would never have done what I did otherwise.”

Sheppard seemed convinced because he nodded and continued, “I couldn’t fault your defeat of the Dementor and you managed something I have never seen a candidate do before. You killed a boggart.”

“I didn’t think boggarts could be killed,” Harry said with a frown.

“Oh, they can be,” Sheppard said, “But it takes an immense amount of magical power and in addition to that, the power has to be controlled perfectly. It was an amazing thing to behold Mr. Potter, the fact you did it without an incantation was just the cherry on top of the cake.”

Harry smiled slightly as he felt himself swell with pride.

“However, you do owe us a new boggart,” Sheppard added.

“Sorry,” Harry said sheepishly.

“As far as physical torture goes, you can really withstand a lot of pain,” Sheppard said.

“I’m used to it,” Harry said quietly, “Physically at least, but not when they threaten my family.”

“All of us are loyal to our family Mr. Potter,” Sheppard admitted, “I would have reacted exactly as you did if anyone threatened my wife or my two boys.”

That made Harry feel slightly better but he knew that Daphne and Teddy were one of his weaknesses, he knew that they always would be.

“Your psychopathic traits test was a little close for comfort but I think that’s just because of the fact you’re a thrill seeker,” Sheppard continued, “And your final interview went well, even if you did throw a table at us.”

“Sorry,” Harry said sheepishly, “I just don’t like people talking badly of Daphne. Her and Teddy are my everything, I can’t believe anyone who knows her would have a bad word to say about her. Well, apart from Theo but he’s an arse.”

Sheppard laughed at that, “I’m saying nothing,” he said as he shut the report, “But I am done if you want to go and celebrate now.”

Harry grinned and jumped to his feet, “Thank you sir,” he said as he bounded over to his friends.

“We did it!” Theo exclaimed when Harry reached them.

“All four of us,” Neville beamed.

“Oh no, not another group hug,” Draco groaned, but it was too late, Theo grabbed him from one side and Harry grabbed him from another.

When they finally released Draco, he looked very disgruntled, much to the amusement of the others.

“What happens next?” Harry said, he still felt like he was flying up on cloud number 9.

“Once everyone has been tested, they pair us up and give us a mock case,” Theo replied.

“So we haven’t quite passed yet,” Harry said.

“We’ve done the hard part now though,” Neville pointed out, “Nothing can be worse than what they just put us through.”

“True,” Harry agreed as he glanced around the room to see if anyone else from their heat had made it.

“It’s just me and you so far,” Theo said as he realised what Harry was doing, “But I finished half an hour before you, we were freaking out. We thought you had failed.”

“I had a really long morality test,” Harry said as he turned back to his friends, “I had to save a whole bunch of people including the Minister and his daughter. I found a loophole but it took me ages.”

“Just another day in the life of Harry Potter,” Neville joked.

Harry chuckled at that but glanced back around to the doors when he heard one open. A girl emerged and Harry frowned, “Which one is she again?”

“Emily Wilde, Gryffindor from Gin’s year at school,” Neville said offhandedly.

“There are only two people in the last heat,” Harry said to his friends, “And one of them is Blanche, I hope she gets in, I kind of like her.”

“She’s got a surprising amount of personality, considering the fact she’s related to Blaise,” Theo joked.

It made the others laugh, the air was far less tense now that they all knew they had made it this far. The four of them moved the armchairs to get comfortable and spent the next little while comparing notes. None of them talked about how much their boggarts forms had scared them or about all the weaknesses their final interviews had brought up. After all, those were subjects to be discussed in the small hours of the night with the women they trusted above everyone else.

No one else from Theo and Harry’s heat got through but eventually the last heat finished. Both Blanche and Ophelia Wood made it through which brought the total amount of candidates left down to 10.

“Alright boys and girls!” Sumner boomed as he walked into the waiting room with Sheppard by his side, “Get your arses down to the canteen for lunch. I’ll be back to collect you in just under an hour then you will be doing your final test. Fuel up, your going to need your brains for this next one.”

As the group began to follow Sumner to the canteen Theo suddenly said, “Harry, what did Sheppard mean when he said you owe him a boggart?”

**TBC.**


	80. The Mock Cases

“I am so glad that’s over,” Blanche Zabini said as she fell into a chair at the table Harry, Draco, Neville and Theo were sharing.

“Me too,” Ophelia Wood agreed as she took the last remaining seat, “Mental and physical torture is not my idea of a fun morning.”

“Just another day at the office for some of us,” Neville said as he shot Harry an amused look.

“So you enjoy torture then Nev?” Harry joked, “I’ll have to ask Lil if you’re into that.”

Neville snorted in response and Theo sniggered, “Funny you should say that. My brother-in-law crashed my test and asked if I had a pain fetish.”

The others all laughed, “What did you say?” Ophelia asked.

“That if he wanted to know he would have to ask his sister,” Theo said with an amused grin.

Draco whistled, “Sorenson Cauldwell is not a guy you want to be on the wrong side of. Have you seen the size of him? He would crush you like a bean.”

“Thanks for the confidence,” Theo said as he clapped Draco on the back, “Great best mate you are.”

Harry shook his head at the pair of them, “Do you think this last test is going to be hard?”

“Compared to everything else, I doubt it,” Blanche replied, “It’s just a mock case.”

“What do you reckon they’ll do?” Neville asked, “Give us a case file and ask us to find out who did it?”

“Probably,” Harry replied, “But you say that like they will all be murders. I imagine they will variate, if we do become Aurors we won’t just be going after murderers. We’ll be looking at kidnappers and all sorts of major crimes.”

“To begin with,” Draco cut in, “For two years after we graduate we will be doing all sorts of stuff but then we get to specialise.”

“How do you know that?” Theo asked in surprise.

Draco shrugged, “Aunt Dromeda gave me some of cousin Dora’s old Auror training books so I read them.”

“Did anyone else read a book to prepare themselves for today?” Harry asked with a grin, “Or was that just Hermione Granger’s fiancé?”

Neville laughed loudly, “You two are literally perfect for each other.”

“The Slytherin prince and his Gryffindor princess,” Theo said as he made a face, “It makes me want to puke.”

Draco rolled his eyes and threw a crust of bread at Theo, “Shut up, you prat.”

Everyone laughed and the air felt so much more comfortable. Deep down, they all knew that the hardest part was behind them now and most of them were actually looking forward to their mock case file. The rest of lunch passed quickly and before they knew it, Sumner had come to get them.

The 10 candidates followed him through the maze that was the Auror training complex until they reached the same waiting room they had emerged into after their mental tests. It had been transformed though, the room was split into 5 sections and each section was separated by screens. In each section there were two chairs, a table kitted out with parchment and quills, and a blackboard with lots of different colours of chalk.

“Alright guys, listen up!” Sheppard said as he slipped into the room, “We are going to pair you up and give you all a mock case file. To keep things easy and so we can assess you all fairly, you will all be given a murder case. You are going to have an hour to sift through the evidence and find out who the killer is. We want to know who, why, where and when. Once you think you know all of the answers make sure you are ready to present to myself as well as to the rest of the candidates. Is that clear?”

“Yes sir,” Everyone replied in unison.

“Great so pair number one is Harper and Wilde,” Sheppard began, “Come over here and get your case file.”

Maxwell, the Slytherin who had been in the year below them, and Emily, a Gryffindor who had also been in the year below them, walked over to Sheppard.

He handed them a brown folder, “I want you to solve the murder of Sophia Johnson, a Ministry worker from London. Take the cubicle at the back there and don’t start until I say so.”

“Yes sir,” They said before heading over to their cubicle.

“Pair two is Carmichael and Kavanagh,” Sheppard continued.

Eddie, the Ravenclaw who had been a few years above them, and Lesley, the Hufflepuff who had been in Cho’s year, walked up to Sheppard to receive their case file.

“I want you two to solve the murder of Brynn Briarson, a dragon tamer from Wales. Take the cubicle next to Harper and Wilde.”

“Yes sir,” They said. Then they headed over to their cubicle.

“Pair three is going to be Wood and Zabini,” Sheppard said as he glanced up from his parchment. He rolled his eyes, “Yes boys, that means the golden foursome will be staying together in some form. Don’t get too excited now.”

Harry, Draco, Neville and Theo couldn’t help but chuckle at that as Blanche and Ophelia walked over to Sheppard. He handed them a case file and said, “I want you to solve the murder of Rebecca Frume, muggle wife of a famous alchemist, from Wiltshire. Have the middle cubicle.”

“Yes sir,” Blanche and Ophelia said before heading over to the cubicle in question.

“Pair number four,” Sheppard said as he looked towards the four over-excited boys, “Longbottom and Nott.”

Neville and Theo shared an amused look. They weren’t sure how well they would work together but they got on as friends so that was a good start.

Harry shot Draco a grin because he realised that this meant he was going to be paired up with the Slytherin.

Theo and Neville walked up to get their task and Sheppard handed them a case file, “I want you guys to solve the murder of Damien Chambers, notorious thief and scumbag from East London. Take the front left cubicle.”

“Yes sir,” They said in unison. They shot Harry and Draco one last grin before stepping into the cubicle.

“Which leaves former schoolboy enemies, Black and Potter,” Sheppard said as he beckoned them forward, “I want you two to solve the murder of Howard Jackson,” he handed them a case file, “Auror from Arbroath up in Scotland. Take the front left cubicle.”

“Yes sir,” They echoed as they slipped into the final cubicle.

“Alright you have an hour to solve these cases, your time starts…now!”

GGG.

“So,” Neville said as he flipped open the case file and slid Theo a picture, “This is Damien Chambers. He has a long list of priors from petty theft right up to assault on an Auror.”

“Nice guy,” Theo said sarcastically, “Why do we care that he died, exactly?”

“Because even if you murder a bad person, it’s still murder,” Neville pointed out, “He was 28 years old, born in East London, his parents died when he was young.”

“Raised in a life of crime,” Theo said with a nod, “It’s a common story. How did he die?”

“He was found underneath a railway bridge near the Tower of London,” Neville replied, “Without his head.”

“What?”

“He was beheaded,” Neville said as he looked up at his friend, “They found his head a few metres away.”

Theo made a face, “That’s disgusting. Did they manage to work out if his head was severed magically or manually?”

Neville glanced over the report, “Medical examiners report states that the rough pattern suggests an object like a machete. Definitely not magical, the wound wasn’t clean cut enough.”

“So a muggle might have done this,” Theo said.

“Could well have done,” Neville agreed, “The report also says he died without any toxins in his system so he wasn’t on drugs and he hadn’t been drinking.”

“Anything else of note in there?”

“Just that they found tiny shards of glass in his feet and lower legs,” Neville replied.

Theo frowned, “Right, when did they find the body?”

“Dog walker found him at 6.30am in the morning,” Neville replied, “So what are we thinking? Work out the why first?”

“We can’t work out the why until we know the who,” Theo said slowly, “We can’t work out what the motive is until we have a suspect.”

“But if we trace his movements then we could work out why he was killed based on what he was doing the night before his death,” Neville pointed out.

“There are too many variables,” Theo said with a wave of his hand, “Trust me, my way is better. Do we have a list of suspects in there?”

“Look yourself,” Neville said somewhat irritably as he slid the file over to Theo.

Theo ignored Neville’s remark and thumbed through the file, “Alright so we have a spurned drug addict lover plus a whole bunch of loan sharks that wanted him dead.”

“Why would a loan shark kill a thief?” Neville cut in, “You can’t squeeze money out of a dead man. If they let him live until his next heist then they would get their money.”

“Fine, what about the spurned lover?” Theo asked, “Maybe he was moving on and she was jealous.”

“And you said that my way had too many variables?” Neville retorted as he grabbed the timeline of the victims movements from the file, “Let’s try it, shall we? The victim was found at 6.30am by a dog walker. Before that he was last seen at 3.05am by a taxi driver, he was dressed in black and was glancing around like he was paranoid.”

“All that proves is that he was going to rob somewhere,” Theo pointed out, “It’s hardly evidence of anything. Is it?”

“Maybe not on it’s own but he was last seen very near the Tower of London and his body was found near there too,” Neville pointed out.

“So?”

“This guy was a thief of all sorts but it seems like his speciality was being a jewel thief. He used magic to penetrate muggle buildings, what nice jewels do they keep in the Tower of London, idiot?”

Theo frowned, “The crown jewels…holy shit, do you think he was trying to steal the crown jewels?”

“Even if he was, it doesn’t explain his death,” Neville admitted, “If the authorities had caught him they wouldn’t have beheaded him, they would have arrested him.”

“So what is the link between the crown jewels and his death…” Theo mused, “Could the shards of glass be from where he broke into the building?”

“Yes,” Neville said slowly, “Which implies that he got in but something happened before he could get the jewels.”

“Somebody stopped him,” Theo realised.

“But who,” Neville mused, “I think we can rule out the suspects on that list of yours. This wasn’t someone that the victim knew.”

Theo thumbed through the case file for any further information, “I think you might be on the right lines, there is a list of the security staff who were working at the Tower that night and…there is the background report for all of them too.”

“Any of them flag up anything out of the ordinary?”

Theo shook his head as he flicked through them, “No, most of them have clean records but…”

“But what?” Neville asked as he looked over Theo’s shoulder.

“One of the guys they questioned doesn’t seem to exist,” Theo said with a frown, “There is no birth certificate on record for him or a national insurance number.”

“So he has a false identity,” Neville realised, “What kind of people have false identities.”

“Apart from Hit Wizards, you mean?” Theo said.

Neville frowned, “And government workers.”

“What?”

“The Muggle government,” Neville said quickly, “Haven’t you heard of MI5 and MI6?”

Theo shook his head, “What are they?”

“The Muggle equivalent of Hit Wizards and Unspeakables, all mixed into one,” Neville said quickly, “If an undercover MI5 worker killed Chambers then he wouldn’t exist because they take careful procedures to cover up their identities when they employ them.”

“Why would a government worker want to kill a thief though?” Theo frowned, “Isn’t that still a pretty brutal way to punish a thief?”

“It’s not about the fact he’s a thief,” Neville said, “It can’t be…not for the government to be involved. It has to be something bigger than that.”

“Something bigger than stealing the crown jewels?” Theo snorted.

“Hey, it wouldn’t be the first time that-”

“What?” Theo asked, Neville had stopped mid-sentence.

“Theo, that might just be it!” Neville said excitedly, “It wouldn’t be the first time that someone had tried to steal the crown jewels.”

Theo frowned, “I’m not following Nev.”

“What if,” Neville began as he grabbed a piece of chalk, “The crown jewels were stolen before and the government failed to retrieve them. What if Chambers went to steal the jewels and came across a huge conspiracy.”

Theo’s jaw dropped, “He would realise straight away that they were a fake because he was a jewel thief.”

“Exactly,” Neville said, “So the undercover government worker could have killed him to cover it up.”

“Holy shit…that’s twisted,” Theo said, “But also kind of exciting. Here’s the only thing I don’t get though, why the beheading? Maybe it was to frame someone else, what does that old saying go like? There is no honour amongst thieves.”

“Thieves don’t behead each other though,” Neville pointed out, “Beheading is generally a punishment reserved for traitors. That’s kind of what makes it appropriate actually.”

“I think we might have actually worked this out,” Theo said with a grin as he also grabbed a stick of chalk, “Nice work Nev!”

Neville chuckled as he hi-fived Theo, “Let’s get this down while it’s fresh.”

GGG.

“Do you want to read or listen?” Harry asked Draco as he flipped open the case file.

“Read,” Draco replied as he reached for the file.

“I wanted to read,” Harry objected.

“Why did you bother asking then Pothead?” Draco retorted.

“It was a rhetorical question.”

Draco rolled his eyes, “Just make a copy of the case file and give it to me.”

“Deal,” Harry said. He copied the case file and handed it over to Draco, he already had a feeling that this wasn’t going to go down very well. He and Draco were friends but they both liked to be in charge so he had a feeling that they were going to clash with this task.

“Okay so our victim is Howard Jackson, 31 years old, been an Auror for just over 10 years,” Draco said as he scrawled this information onto the chalk board.

“His body was found at an Auror base on Salisbury plain,” Harry continued, “Do you know what they use it for?”

“It’s an abandoned village,” Draco replied, “They use it for training purposes but it’s not just any kind of training.”

“Oh are we talking special ops?” Harry asked.

Draco frowned, “What’s that?”

“Muggle army,” Harry replied, “Special operations, they do the jobs that require extra care.”

“Yes well for us that is known as Elite Squad and yes, that’s what they do at Salisbury plain,” Draco said, “Our guy was training a new bunch when he was killed.”

“They found his body in an alley behind what was once the village pub,” Harry explained, “Do you think he was trying to apparate away?”

“Possibly but I expect the base will have anti-apparation wards up,” Draco said.

“If he was injured then he would have been panicking,” Harry pointed out, “So he might have tried to apparate anyway.”

“I don’t think he had time to panic, he was bludgeoned to death,” Draco said with a raised eyebrow.

“That’s a very physical way to kill someone for a witch or wizard. I’m assuming you have to be magical to get into that base?” Harry asked.

Draco nodded, “There are anti-muggle wards up.”

“They might have killed him in a physical manner to avoid being traced,” Harry mused, “All Aurors have to register their wand signature so that if they accidentally kill a civilian in combat it can be traced back to the Auror who did it.”

“You think that means an Auror did this?” Draco asked.

“Well it makes sense, doesn’t it?” Harry asked, “Why else would you bludgeon someone to death when you could use a killing curse?”

“True,” Draco mused, “Are you glancing over the Medical Examiners report?”

“Uh-huh,” Harry hummed, “Not that it gives us a lot to work with. ME reckoned that the attacker was male because of the strength required to inflict these injuries. She also reckoned that he was about 6 foot tall.”

“No physical evidence on the body and no sign of the murder weapon,” Draco added, “If he had any sense he would have destroyed it immediately.”

“And an Auror would know how to kill someone without leaving any physical evidence,” Harry added, “It all points towards the fact he was killed by another Auror.”

“Even if that is true, and it is a wild assumption by the way, then what is our motive?” Draco countered, “Why would an Auror kill one of his own? They live by a strict code of honour.”

“I know,” Harry said, “But people can break codes.”

“Speaking of codes…” Draco said as he pulled a piece of parchment from the case file, “The ME found a coded message in his pocket.”

Harry frowned, “Do you have any idea what kind of code that is?”

“It’s nothing I’ve ever seen before but cracking it might be the key to solving this case,” Draco said.

“You took Ancient Runes, didn’t you?” Harry asked.

Draco nodded, “What does that have to do with a coded message?”

“Runes, codes, same thing,” Harry said with a wave of his hand, “The point is, you know more than I do. Why don’t you work on cracking that code while I look through the list of suspects and the timeline of our victims last movements.”

“Alright,” Draco said, he sat down with a quill and a piece of parchment and began to work out different variants of codes that he had encountered to see if any of them looked similar.

Harry sifted through the list of suspects and managed to narrow it down to two people. He knew from the ME’s report that it couldn’t have been a woman which left Jackson’s estranged brother who was a criminal and his best friend, an Auror who a witness had seen him fight with on the morning that he had been killed.

Once he had done this, he glanced over the timeline of events and noticed a recurring theme regarding this best friend Auror.

“Draco, I think I’ve got something,” Harry said.

Draco looked up, “Yeah?”

“Yeah, our victim’s best friend was an Auror. They were partners actually, his name was Daniel Cove,” Harry said, “According to this timeline he might well have been the last person to see Jackson alive. On top of that, a witness saw them arguing about 2 hours before Jackson’s body was found.”

“Alright so he had the opportunity,” Draco conceded, “But what about motive? Did that witness happen to say what the argument was about?”

“She only heard snippets,” Harry replied, “But she got the impression that it was about Cove’s wife and she said it was very heated.”

“What did Cove say when he was questioned?”

“He said that he and Jackson did argue,” Harry said as he looked down at the witness statement, “Apparently Jackson had blown off Cove and his wife for a joint dinner date and it wasn’t the first time it had happened.”

“That doesn’t seem like the kind of thing that would cause a heated argument between two close friends,” Draco frowned.

Harry nodded, “That’s what I was thinking. Cove was lying about the reason that they argued.”

“Did Cove’s wife give a statement to confirm his alibi for the murder?” Draco asked.

“Yeah, she said that around the time that Jackson was murdered, Cove floo-ed her to check how she was getting on,” Harry replied, “Because she was…pregnant.”

Draco’s frown deepened, “Pregnant.”

“Yeah, Draco are you thinking what I’m thinking?”

“I’m thinking that if Cove’s wife was pregnant with another man’s baby, Cove would really want that other man dead, Auror partner or not,” Draco said.

Harry nodded excitedly, “Catch this, one of the Aurors who found Jackson’s body called him a notorious charmer so charming his best friends wife wouldn’t be difficult.”

“It’s definitely a motive,” Draco agreed, “Auror partner or not, I would kill you if you slept with my fiancé.”

“Again you mean,” Harry joked.

“Yeah well, same to you,” Draco said with a vaguely amused smile, “I was just starting to get somewhere with that code by the way. It is a mixture of runes and muggle military code. I had worked out that there was a time and a place on there.”

“What if Jackson was planning to meet Cove’s wife?” Harry asked, “What if she was going to leave Cove for his best friend?”

Draco whistled, “That couldn’t have been easy for the guy to hear. The time was 12 noon and the place was somewhere in Salisbury town.”

“Jackson was killed at around 11.30am,” Harry said slowly, “If we’re right then he was killed before he could meet up with Cove’s wife.”

“Which definitely gives Cove the best motive for murder,” Draco realised, “And a sketchy alibi. He could have killed Jackson right before or after he floo-ed his wife.”

“Not to mention that his wife could be covering for him,” Harry added, “Surely she would have suspected that it was him who killed Jackson. If she was scared of him then she would lie to support his alibi.”

“I think we have him,” Draco said as he threw Harry a piece of chalk, “Let’s get this down so we’re ready to present it.”

GGG.

“Alright guys, that is time!” Sheppard called when his stopwatch hit the hour mark, “I want everyone up front with me right now!”

Nobody was stupid enough to disobey the Senior Auror. Everyone made their way up to the front of the room, some people looked more nervous than others about presenting their case.

“We are going to go around the cubicles and each pair will present their findings,” Sheppard explained, “Let’s start with the first pair, Harper and Wilde, you two are up.”

They didn’t look particularly nervous as they led the group to their cubicle. Everyone gathered around the blackboard as Maxwell stood on one side of it and Emily stood on the other side.

Maxwell looked fairly confident as he started them off, “Alright so we were tasked with finding out who murdered Sophia Johnson, a goodwill Ministry worker who was trying to help children and families who were orphaned or split apart by the war.”

Emily looked a little more nervous as she took over. Although she and Maxwell were the same age, she looked far younger. She was fairly petite and cutesy looking with a blonde bob and a pretty face. Harry knew it was wrong but he judged her by her looks when he first saw her and had thought she would never get this far.

“She was found on the site of a new orphanage that she was overseeing the building of,” Emily began, she wrung her hands together but her voice didn’t shake, “Her body was found inside a concrete block which made it hard for the Medical Examiner to find any physical evidence linking her to her killer. The ME did discover that she had been reaching for something before she died, we assumed that it was probably her wand.”

“The ME also established that she had died from a blow to the head,” Maxwell said, “With a very heavy object. It made it look unlikely that a woman had done it but we couldn’t find a male suspect who fitted the bill at all. Then Emily had an idea.”

“I wondered whether the victim could have gotten the blow from falling hard onto something rather than being hit hard,” Emily explained, “And the more we looked into it, the more the evidence seemed to build up. It looked like someone had pushed her, she had hit her head and died then they had put her into the block of setting cement to cover it up.”

“It meant that our killer could be a woman so we started to look into one of her co-workers,” Maxwell said, “A woman by the name of Rosa Smith who was working on the project with our victim. We discovered that they had been good friends up until a week or so before our victims death so we had to try and work out why they had started arguing.”

“We had a look at the Gringotts account for the orphanage project and noticed that there were a few inconsistencies,” Emily added, “Money was coming from the Ministry fund allocated for the project but money was also coming in from our victims own account. With a little extra research we worked out that our victim was embezzling money illegally from the Ministry for the project.”

“Once we had worked that out, we realised that this co-worker had argued with our vic, accidentally killed her and then thrown her into the cement to cover it up,” Max finished.

Sheppard looked vaguely impressed, “Pretty good, don’t you think Sumner?”

They all frowned, they hadn’t seen Sumner since he had led them into the room.

“Not bad,” Sumner’s voice said from above.

Everyone looked up and saw Sumner sitting on a balcony above the room, he was smirking.

Sheppard looked around at the stunned faces, “That’s right, Sumner watched your every move from up there. We aren’t just interested in your findings, we’re interested in how you came to these conclusions. As for your case presentation Harper and Wilde, it’s not bad. You have the correct killer and you also have the correct cause of death, almost. You did overlook the fact the victim was reaching for something though, it wasn’t her wand.”

“What was it sir?” Maxwell asked.

“It was her colleague’s hand,” Sheppard replied, “You were right to say that this was an accident. She didn’t mean to kill her colleague and friend, she pushed the victim and she hit her head on the concrete mixer. This left the victim disorientated so she fell back towards the setting concrete. Her colleague reached out to save her.”

“Damn,” Max said, “We were close.”

“Very close,” Sheppard agreed, “And either way, you would have had your killer arrested which is the main thing. How did they work together, Sumner?”

Sumner clearly had a sonorus charm on his voice because he spoke in a normal tone when he replied, “They worked well together. Wilde was happy to let Harper take the lead but she came up with as many great ideas as Harper did. I could see a good cop, bad cop thing working very well there. Harper was methodical and logical, Wilde was more emotional but because of that she could put herself in the victims shoes which helped her come to different conclusions.”

Sheppard looked impressed as he looked over at the pair, “Good job Harper and Wilde.”

They both looked fairly pleased with themselves as Sheppard turned to the next pair, “Alright, Carmichael and Kavanagh, take us to your cubicle.”

The next pair did so. Eddie had no problems with confidence, he happily took point at the front of the blackboard and puffed his chest out. Harry had to bite back an amused smile as he noticed Draco shaking his head in disbelief, he had made it clear that he didn’t like the guy. Lesley Kavanagh was a lot quieter, she had mid-length brown hair and looked like quite a withdrawn tomboy.

“So we were tasked with finding out who killed Brynn Briarson who was a dragon trainer from Cardiff. He worked at the only remaining dragon reserve in Britain which is in Snowdonia National Park,” Eddie began, “He was found in his cabin on the grounds of the dragon reserve. He had been strangled to death, at first we thought it was some kind of spell but then we read that the ME had found small shards of metal in the wound so we figured he had been killed manually with some sort of wire.”

“Only magical personnel would be able to get into the reserve,” Lesley said quietly, “So we knew it had to be a witch or wizard, and we knew it had to be one of the members of staff.”

“There weren’t many staff there so that narrowed it done,” Eddie added, “It looked like a crime of passion and there was only one female worker at the reserve. Briarson didn’t have a wife or girlfriend so we figured that he was sleeping with his co-worker and she killed him in a fit of rage but we had to work out the how.”

“In the witness report, we found out that Briarson had argued with the woman the day before over the welfare of a dragon,” Lesley said, “Many dragon trainers view the dragons they raise like children. If Briarson had intended to report her bad treatment of the dragon then she probably would have lost her job and the dragons she loved.”

“So she killed him,” Eddie finished.

Sheppard looked between them in disbelief, “That’s your conclusions?”

Eddie nodded, “How close are we?”

“About as close as Antarctica is to experiencing a heatwave,” Sumner said from above.

Draco and Theo both sniggered behind their hands which made Harry and Neville exchange amused looks.

Sheppard flipped open his copy of the case file, “Alright let’s start with the how. The victim was strangled, you got that much right. However, just because there were shards of metal does not mean he was killed without magic. His killer used a magical whip charm to suffocate him. As for the whole spurned lover killing him in a passion, it is plausible I suppose but not with a female lover. If you had bothered to read the page on background information on Briarson then you would have known that he was gay.”

Harry couldn’t help but snigger at that piece of information, Neville nudged him in the ribs for it.

“You were almost onto something when you said that she killed him because of the fact he was going to report her and therefore cause her to lose her job,” Sheppard admitted, “Briarson was killed because he was planning to expose the mistreatment of dragons at the reserve by some of the trainers. This would have caused the reserve to close but there was someone who would have lost out more than anyone else if that had happened.”

Eddie hit himself in the head, “The Head Keeper!”

“Too little too late Mr. Carmichael,” Sheppard said, “But yes, he was killed by the head keeper. Was there a reason you didn’t mention the odd message the victim received via floo before he died?”

Eddie frowned, “What odd message?”

“So you didn’t read the witness reports fully either then,” Sheppard realised with a shake of his head, “One of the workers on the reserve heard snippets of a floo conversation the victim had. It was encrypted so they had no idea who he was talking with but he said that he was going to meet with the person on the floo that evening with the information he had gathered. This floo conversation happened within hearing distance of the Head Keepers office.”

“Shit,” Eddie muttered.

“Yeah, shit is the right word,” Sheppard said as he looked up at Sumner, “How did they work together, Sumner?”

“They didn’t,” Sumner replied, “Miss. Kavanagh barely said a word, Mr. Carmichael completely took over and didn’t let her get a word in edgewise. I think we can put blame on both sides there, Mr. Carmichael should not have been so overbearing but Miss. Kavanagh should also have worked harder to be heard.”

Sheppard nodded and looked back at the pair, “Stay here. Once the other pairs have finished presenting their cases you will be escorted from the premises. Unfortunately, your journey towards becoming an Auror ends here.”

Harry was sure that he heard Draco sigh with relief upon hearing that news.

“Wood and Zabini, I sure hope you can do better than that,” Sheppard said as he indicated that they should lead the group to their cubicle.

“So do I,” Blanche joked as she stood on one side of the blackboard, “Do you want to kick things off for us Fee?”

Ophelia, who was tall and very pretty with long brown locks and deep brown eyes, smiled, “Sure. We were asked to find out who killed Rebecca Frume. She was a muggle and the wife of renowned British alchemist, David Frume. They lived in Wiltshire together and Mrs Frume worked as a dog beautician.”

“We had no idea what that was,” Blanche cut in, “But we figured it had something to do with cutting dogs hair and making them look nice. At first we thought it was irrelevant but then we found out that Frume’s body had been found stuffed into one of the kennels where she kept the dogs she worked with, in the backyard of their home.”

“Her body was found by Mr. Frume,” Ophelia said, “So we immediately suspected him, as typical as it is to suspect the husband when a woman dies. We looked into the ME’s report and discovered that she had several bruises on her body which seemed to be from around the time of death but that they hadn’t killed her. The cause of death was that she had been suffocated by a python which made no sense to us at first because pythons aren’t exactly native to rural Wiltshire. Once we read the witness statements though, we realised that Mr. Frume keeps a weird and wonderful menagerie in his backyard for experimentation purposes.”

“Which just made us hate the sick bastard even more,” Blanche admitted, “So we talked about the likelihood of one of these animals escaping and came to the conclusion that even if it _did _escape, it couldn’t stuff a woman into a kennel, regardless of any weird experiments our crazy alchemist did on it.”

Harry chuckled under his breath, he was really beginning to like Blanche and Ophelia, they were down to earth.

“And Mrs. Frume couldn’t stuff herself in that kennel either,” Ophelia added, “So all of the evidence was pointing at Mr. Frume, he owned the murder weapon and he had the opportunity to kill Mrs. Frume because he was working in his underground lab in the basement of the house at the time of the murder.”

“The only thing we were missing was a motive,” Blanche continued, “Then Fee noticed something strange about her clothes from the autopsy photograph so we had a second look at the ME’s report. When the victim came in, she had been dressed in crumpled clothes which could easily be explained by the fact she was shoved into a dog kennel.”

“But the weird thing was that she had her top on back to front, her bra wasn’t fastened right and the zip on her jeans was undone,” Ophelia said, “Blanche joked about it by saying she had either gotten dressed in the dark or she had been dressed by a guy. That gave me an idea, most men don’t have the slightest clue about how a woman wears her clothes so I started to wonder if the victim had been naked when she died and had been dressed afterwards.”

“If the victim had been naked then it implied that she had been having sex before she died,” Blanche said, “So a look at the foreign bodies report that the ME filed told us that she had no drugs in her body but she did have a small amount of alcohol in her system. It also told us that traces of sperm had been found, implying that she had sex before being killed.”

“With this in mind we came to the conclusion that Mrs. Frume had been having an affair,” Ophelia finished, “When her Husband walked in on her and her lover, he beat his wife first which explains the bruises and probably rendered her unconscious. Then he set his python on his wife to kill her. We can only assume that her lover got away, we think he was hiding and refusing to come forward as a witness because he was scared of Mr. Frume. Either way, once Mr. Frume had killed his wife, he dressed her and shoved her in the kennels, perhaps to make it look like an angry customer had killed her instead.”

Sheppard nodded, “I’m impressed. You were correct about the cause of death and about the motive. Mr. Frume did walk in on his wife having sex with her lover and he did beat her to within an inch of her life before setting his snake on her. You used the forensic evidence available to you very well so good work on that. You did only miss one detail but it was a bonus anyway. The lover didn’t manage to get away, Frume killed him too but there was no body to find. Any guesses why?”

Blanche made a face, “Please tell me he didn’t cut the guy up and feed him to the python.”

Sheppard smirked, “That’s exactly what he did.”

“Sweet Salazar, I hate this guy,” Blanche muttered under her breath.

“So do we, that’s why he’s rotting in Azkaban,” Sheppard said with a vaguely amused smile, “How did they do, Sumner?”

“Very well,” Sumner replied, “They worked well together. Neither of them fought for lead of the case, they just split up and tackled different aspects to get through the evidence faster. They read everything thoroughly, Wood was the logical one who came up with most of the conclusions based on forensic evidence. However Zabini was the one who was able to look at the evidence in a different, more practical light to come to the more surprising conclusions that Wood hadn’t considered. Overall, they make a great team.”

Sheppard smiled at the two girls, “Congratulations Wood and Zabini, great work.”

“Thank you sir,” They echoed as Sheppard turned to Theo and Neville, “Longbottom and Nott, let’s see what you managed to come up with.”

Theo and Neville led the group to their cubicle, Neville stood next to the chalkboard and Theo pushed himself up onto the table. He gestured at Neville, “If you would like to start us off Mr. snake killer, sir.”

Neville rolled his eyes, “We were tasked with finding out who killed Damien Chambers. He was a thief of all sorts but his speciality seemed to be jewels and he was from the East End of London. He grew up in a life of crime, he was an orphan, general scumbag for the most part but I don’t think that means he deserved to get his head whacked off.”

Theo shrugged, “He was found underneath a railway bridge close to the Tower of London with his head lying a few feet away from him. The cause of death was obviously decapitation and from the ME’s report it looked like it had been done by hand. The wound was too rugged to be caused by magic, magical decapitation tends to leave a cleaner wound, less blood you know?”

“So we suspected a muggle rather than a witch or wizard,” Neville said, “To try and work out who had killed him, we traced his last movements. The victim was found by a dog walker at around 6.30am but he had last been seen at around 3am by a taxi driver. That witness had seen him dressed in black near the Tower of London so we started to speculate about whether our jewel thief was planning on stealing the crown jewels.”

“We followed that line of investigation and worked out that the shards of glass the ME had found in his feet and legs implied he had successfully managed to break into the tower but that he hadn’t been able to steal the jewels. We couldn’t work out why someone had killed him for attempting to steal the jewels rather than just arrested him then Neville made a comment about how it wouldn’t be the first time that someone had tried to steal the crown jewels.”

“It made me realise something,” Neville continued, “If someone had stolen the crown jewels before and the authorities hadn’t been able to find them then the ones under guard in the tower were fakes. If our jewel thief got close enough to steal them then he would know straight away that they were fake and we think that he was killed to cover that up. Our best guess at the who is an MI5 agent, one of the guards working in the tower that night was there under a false identity. By all accounts he didn’t exist at all, he had no birth certificate, national insurance number or bank account.”

“Once we had worked that much out, we realised that our unnamed government worker had killed Chambers,” Theo said, “So that he couldn’t tell the world that the crown jewels were fake. We disagreed on the reasoning behind the fact the victim was beheaded, I thought it was because there is no honour amongst thieves but Neville thought it was because, as far as the government were concerned, Chambers had committed treason and treason was punished with beheading back in ye olde times.”

Sheppard nodded, “Good work boys. I must admit, I gave you a difficult one. With both of you being wizarding, I wasn’t sure how much you would know about muggle government bodies.”

“My girlfriend is a muggle-born,” Neville said with a smile, “With a huge thing for Pierce Brosnan and the Bond films.”

Sheppard laughed, “I guess that makes sense. Anyway, as I was saying, you were virtually spot on. The victim was beheaded by a government agent to cover up the fact that the crown jewels are actually fake. You were wrong on your reasoning behind that though, they weren’t stolen and replaced with fake jewels. They were nearly stolen and it was too close a call so the real crown jewels were taken and hidden somewhere nobody would be able to find them. The ones in the tower are fakes, very good fakes but fakes all the same.”

“What about the beheading?” Theo asked, “Which one of us was right?”

“Mr. Longbottom was,” Sheppard replied, “As far as the government are concerned, he committed treason and as Mr. Longbottom said, the punishment for treason was often beheading.”

Neville shot Theo a smug look at that as Sheppard looked up, “What did you make of that, Sumner?”

“Well I can’t fault their conclusions,” Sumner said, “But as for how well they worked together…well Longbottom definitely took the lead out of the two of them but they disagreed on how to do things, not to mention on certain conclusions that they were reaching. I think as much as they are clearly friends, they clash when working together.”

“Alright, noted,” Sheppard said as he looked at the two boys, “Well done all the same boys. Right wonder boy, how did you and Black get on?”

Harry had to bite back the urge to roll his eyes at that. He and Draco led the group over to their cubicle and then they stood on either side of the blackboard to present their findings.

“So we were asked to find out who killed Howard Jackson,” Harry began, “He was an Auror who was found dead in a camp on Salisbury field. Draco knew that the purpose of the camp was for training the Elite Squad Aurors so we figured it would have pretty tight security. With that in mind, we knew that whoever killed Jackson had to have had access to the base so our prime suspect was probably an Auror.”

“The ME’s report stated that Jackson had been bludgeoned to death, the force it would have taken to kill someone that way implied that it had been a man. In addition to that, the angle of the blows led the ME to believe that the killer was about 6 foot tall,” Draco explained, “The ME had also found a coded message in the victims pocket so I started to try and decode that.”

“While Draco was doing that, I started to look at the list of suspects and I managed to narrow it down to two because we knew the killer had to be a man,” Harry said, “That left his estranged brother and his best friend and Auror partner Daniel Cove, but his brother was only 5 foot 6 so it was unlikely that he could have killed Jackson. As well as being physically able to kill Jackson, the Auror partner had the opportunity to do so too. He was the last person to see Jackson alive a few hours before his death and the last thing they had done was argue.”

“According to his witness report, Cove said they argued because Daniel had cancelled on plans to have dinner with he and his wife,” Draco said, “But we thought that sounded like a petty thing for two best friends to have an argument about, especially when a witness had described that argument as very heated so we started to think that Cove was hiding something.”

“We looked back over at the witness reports and realised that Cove’s alibi was sketchy. He said he had been on the floo to his wife at the time that Jackson had been murdered but he could easily have killed Jackson just before or after he floo-ed his wife,” Harry continued, “Through that discussion we also discovered that Cove’s wife was pregnant which gave us a brainwave.”

“We figured that if Cove’s wife happened to be pregnant with another man’s child then Cove would really want that other man dead, regardless of whether it was his Auror partner or not,” Draco said.

Harry nodded, “One of Jackson’s fellow Aurors had also called him a notorious charmer so it wasn’t unbelievable to think that he could have charmed his Auror partners wife which gave Cove motive.”

“I had also just begun to decode the message,” Draco added, “It was a mixture of runes and muggle military code and I had managed to get the time, 12 noon, and a place, Salisbury Town, out of it. Harry worked out that Jackson was planning to meet Cove’s wife, maybe to run away with her. Either way, it looked like Cove’s wife was going to leave him for his best friend.”

“Jackson was killed half an hour before he was supposed to meet Cove’s wife so it looked very likely that Cove had killed him before that meeting could take place,” Harry finished, “And we suspected Cove’s wife of covering for her husband with her alibi. Once the news came out that Jackson was murdered, she would surely have started to suspect her husband and by that same logic, she must have been afraid of him.”

Sheppard grinned, “Spot on boys, great work. I cannot fault anything that you just said, you got everything right and you didn’t miss a trick either.”

Harry and Draco shared a grin at that news. Theo and Neville rolled their eyes at each other behind them.

“What did you make of that Sumner?” Sheppard asked.

“Can’t fault their conclusions,” Sumner agreed, “But I can say that I don’t think they are best suited with each other. These two are very similar, too similar I think. There was an element of arguing about who was in charge and they worked very well independently but I believe that they did that to avoid any further arguments. Mr. Potter and Mr. Black are both leaders at the end of the day and two leaders shouldn’t work together.”

“Noted, thank you Sumner,” Sheppard said as he turned back to the pair, “Alright then everyone, back up front with me.”

The group walked to the front of the room and Sumner came in to escort Eddie and Lesley out of the room.

As he did so, Sheppard smiled at the others, “Congratulations. Everyone in this room has just been accepted into our Auror training program.”

Harry, Draco, Neville and Theo all shared grins at this news.

“And in addition to that, this little task was to help us pair you up,” Sheppard continued, “The pairs I am going to put you in now are the pairs you will remain in until you are all fully fledged Aurors in three years’ time. This little task has shown us who works well together, and who doesn’t.”

The four boys looked at each other somewhat nervously, they had been the only ones who were given the feedback that they hadn’t worked that well together so they were worried about getting separated.

“Wood and Zabini, you two made a great team so we don’t see any reason to change it,” Sheppard began, “Same goes to you guys, Harper and Wilde.”

This left the four boys, they all breathed a sigh of relief. One way or another, they would all be together.

“I’ve taken on Sumner’s advice about you four,” Sheppard said as he looked at them, “Potter and Black, you are both leaders. Longbottom and Nott, don’t take offence but you are both sidekicks so Potter we would like you to have your snake killing sidekick back and Black, you can have your boyfriend back.”

Harry shot Neville an amused smile as Theo jumped on Draco and pretended to cry with happiness. It made the rest of the room burst into laughter, even Sheppard cracked a smile.

“Alright break it up ladies!” Sheppard cut in, “Head home and enjoy a few days of rest and relaxation, we will be in touch with you soon to tell you what happens next.”

**TBC.**


	81. Home is Where the Heart Is

** The 8th Year **

** Chapter 81 – Home is Where the Heart Is **

** **

When Harry and Draco walked into Potter Manor late on Sunday afternoon, neither of them were surprised to see their other halves anxiously awaiting them.

“How did it go?” Hermione asked the second the door had shut behind them.

Daphne didn’t say anything as she surveyed Harry, “They’re in.”

Hermione spun around to look at her, “How do you know?”

“It’s written all over your face,” Daphne said to Harry with a slight smile, “You’re in, aren’t you?”

Harry grinned, “We’re in.”

Hermione squealed and ran over to Draco, she practically jumped on him to hug him. Draco laughed and hugged her back, “I guess you’re pleased about that then.”

“I’m so proud of you,” Hermione beamed as she released him.

Daphne hadn’t been quite so dramatic, she just hugged Harry tightly and said, “I knew you could do it but there was a tiny part of me that was still nervous for you.”

Harry chuckled, “Thanks. We found out who our partners are too.”

“Are you two together?” Hermione asked curiously from where she stood by Draco’s side.

Harry shot Draco an amused look, “No, apparently we’re not compatible.”

Daphne snorted, “What is this, a dating company?”

Draco chuckled, “No, they put us into pairs and asked us to solve a mock case file. We were together and so were Theo and Neville. We were told that since we were both leaders, we couldn’t work together.”

“And Neville and Theo clashed too much,” Harry added, “So I got my snake killing sidekick back and Draco got his boyfriend back.”

Hermione smiled slightly, “As much as we all joke about you and Theo, you will be glad of that won’t you?”

“There’s nobody I would trust to have my back more than Theo,” Draco admitted.

“And there’s nobody I would rather have by my side in a fight than Nev,” Harry said, “So we’re all happy.”

“Good,” Daphne said with a smile, “I figured you would have had a pretty physical weekend so I made the bathroom nice for you. Fancy discussing it in a nice hot bath?”

Harry grinned, “Definitely,” He said as he let her lead him up the stairs.

“We’ll just stay down here in case you two get carried away!” Draco joked.

Harry snorted in amusement, “Carried away? Like there’s any chance with you two here, when are you moving out again?”

“Shut up Potter!” Draco retorted.

***.

“So, how was it?”

“It was good,” Harry said, he was lying in a very big, very comfortable bath and after the weekend he had just had, it felt like heaven.

“Really?” Daphne asked, “It wasn’t hard?”

“It wasn’t easy,” Harry admitted, “But I knew it wasn’t going to be. I think I did pretty well though, the physical test wasn’t an issue, it was actually kind of fun. There was an obstacle course and a flying course, is it weird that I enjoyed it?”

Daphne laughed, “No, you’re an adrenaline junkie. Did you really not find any of it difficult?”

Harry opened his eyes to look at her, “Some parts were harder than others. The magical ability test was okay too, I don’t want to sound cocky but I had experience with most of the stuff they tested us on.”

“What did they test you on?” Daphne asked curiously.

“We had to take down Death Eaters in a mock attack on Diagon Alley, then we were tested on how good our shield charms were and on how many spells we knew. They finished it off with a duel, like I thought they would,” Harry replied, “If anything, it was annoying how close to perfect I got on some tests. I only missed one Death Eater in that mock attack and there was another test where we had to dodge spells, I only got him once and it was right at the very end.”

“Hey, nobody is perfect,” Daphne pointed out, “And if you start to believe that you are then you’re more likely to get hurt.”

Harry smiled at her, “You really are going soft.”

Daphne rolled her eyes, “Hey, I’m wearing an engagement ring now and I’m thinking about adopting Teddy with you. You’re not going to go and get yourself killed right when I’m getting the hang of this whole commitment thing, are you?”

Harry chuckled, “I’ll be careful, I always am.”

“So what else did they test you on?” Daphne asked as she threw a clump of bubbles at him.

Harry shook his head in amusement, “Just mental stuff. Whether we could defeat a Dementor and a boggart, withstand torture, that kind of thing.”

Daphne gave him a knowing look, “Give it up.”

“Give what up?” Harry asked innocently.

“I can read you like a book and you are a terrible liar,” Daphne said, “It wasn’t all easy, some parts were really hard and you need to talk about those things.”

“Coming from the person who bottles everything up?” Harry asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Exactly, I know how hard it is to keep everything inside,” Daphne pointed out, “So when you have a perfectly good person to talk to, then talk to that person.”

Harry sighed, “It just brought up some bad memories from the war but I really am fine.”

“Bullshit,” Daphne said sternly.

“I don’t want to talk about it Daph,” Harry said as he looked her in the eye for the first time.

Daphne narrowed her eyes at him, “You realise that not telling me is pointless, don’t you? Because Draco will tell Hermione or Neville will tell Lil so I’ll work out what they did to you in there eventually. If I have to find out from someone else then I’m going to be pissed but if you tell me now, then I’m going to be sympathetic and trust me, you will definitely prefer sympathetic.”

Harry chuckled at that, “You’re right, I will prefer sympathetic.”

Daphne smirked, “So what happened?”

“They tested our moral compass,” Harry began, “Which really was easy for me because I found a loophole. I was supposed to have to pick whether I saved the Minister for Magic or his little girl, if I saved the girl then the bad guy was going to set off a proximity charm on a stand full of spectators but I turned the whole stand into a portkey and saved everyone.”

“Why doesn’t that surprise me?” Daphne asked, her tone implied that she was exasperated but her smile said otherwise.

Harry smiled a little, “The second task was the Dementor and the Boggart. The Dementor was easy but the Boggart…I don’t like my new worst fear.”

Daphne frowned, “Why? What is it?”

“It was everyone that I knew, dead,” Harry replied quietly, “Theo and Sadie were hugging and Neville was lying over Lil and Draco and Hermione were holding hands.”

“What about me?” Daphne asked gently as she took his hand underneath the water.

“You were holding Teddy,” Harry whispered.

Daphne’s face fell, “Oh…Merlin Harry, that is awful.”

“Yeah,” Harry said as he tore his eyes away from her, “It made me sick and I defeated the Boggart with wordless magic but I kind of…well I killed it.”

Daphne’s eyes widened, “You killed it? They are very hard to kill.”

“Yeah, that’s what Auror Sheppard said too,” Harry admitted, “I thought he would be pissed but apparently it impressed them.”

Daphne nodded, “It shows how powerful you are I guess. Did you say that they tortured you in there?”

“Yeah, to see if we could withhold information,” Harry replied, “The physical torture was fine. I could handle the bone crushing curse and the cruciatus curse. I could even handle it when they threatened you because you’re one of the most powerful witches that I know and you could easily have been an Auror if that was what you had wanted.”

“But?” Daphne said.

“But when they threatened Teddy,” Harry said with a shake of his head, “I just lost it.”

“They threatened Teddy?” Daphne asked in a dangerous tone of voice, “Our one year old…” she trailed off because she wasn’t quite sure what she should call him.

“Yeah,” Harry said with a nod, “I don’t really know what he is to us anymore either but I know he’s probably the most important thing in my life.”

“And he’s a baby, how sick are these Aurors?” Daphne asked angrily.

“I know why they did it,” Harry admitted, “They have to identify our weaknesses and Teddy…he’s a weakness, so are you.”

“They can hardly hold it against you though,” Daphne pointed out.

“They don’t, they understand,” Harry said, “Because they have wives and kids too. If you think what I just told you is bad though, you should hear some of the things they asked me in my final interview.”

Daphne frowned, “I’m listening.”

“They had to ask tough questions, I’m fairly sure there was a truth ward or something up so we couldn’t lie,” Harry said, “I think it was partly to see how we reacted and partly to see if there were any skeletons in our closet. They asked me a couple of stupid questions like why I killed Voldemort instead of turned him in then they started asking about you and Teddy.”

“What did they say about Teddy?” Daphne asked cautiously.

“They implied I wouldn’t be able to do my job as an Auror because of Teddy,” Harry admitted, “They asked how I would cope with caring for a young child and going through the tiresome experience of Auror training.”

Daphne scoffed, “They have no right to ask you about that! It’s like saying if you have kids you can’t be an Auror, that’s ridiculous!”

“I told them as much,” Harry said honestly, “And in answer to their question I said that we would manage because we have to. Teddy needs us, one way or the other we’ll make it work. Won’t we?”

Daphne frowned up at him, “Of course we will. Why did you make that into a question?”

Harry shrugged, “We had a serious discussion about adopting him Daph, that’s a big thing to ask of a 19-year-old, he’s my Godson but you don’t have that kind of obligation to him. I would understand if it meant we…that our relationship…”

“If it broke us up?” Daphne asked hotly, “How can you say that I have no obligation to Teddy? He is your Godson, but I love you Harry and I want to spend the rest of my life with you. That makes him my responsibility too, I wouldn’t have had that discussion with you if I wasn’t okay with it.”

“I just needed reassurance,” Harry admitted, “It’s a big thing to do when we’re so young.”

Daphne nodded, “Yeah, it is but if anyone can do it then it’s us.”

Harry smiled at her, “Sorry, I should have put a bit more faith in you, in us. That whole interview just made me doubt things a little, they really asked some searching questions.”

“About us?” Daphne asked.

Harry nodded, “Yeah, about us.”

“Let me guess,” Daphne said dryly, “They asked if I manipulated you because I’m a horrible, slimy Slytherin snake?”

“Pretty much,” Harry replied, "The first mistake was that they called you a bitch and the second mistake was that they asked how you had forced me into our relationship, whether it had been a love potion or a compulsion charm.”

“Fucking bastards,” Daphne cursed, “What did you say? You better have defended me.”

“Of course I defended you!” Harry exclaimed, “I flipped a table and told them I fell in love with you because of your beauty and your intelligence and that I didn’t see why your Hogwarts house made a damn bit of a difference to them.”

Daphne smiled slightly, “Really?”

“Really,” Harry said as he caught her eye, “You didn’t need any potion or charm to hoodwink me, from the moment I started talking to you when we started 8th year I knew.”

“You knew what?” Daphne asked as she leant in closer.

“I knew you were the one,” Harry replied simply.

Daphne smiled, she was now very close to his face, “Cheesy talk like that will get you everywhere Mr. Potter,” she murmured as she captured his lips in a kiss.

***.

When Theo stepped through the fireplace into the kitchen of No.11 Grimmauld Place, he smiled. It was the first time he had been away from the house for longer than a couple of hours and coming home felt amazing. He had never had a happy home to come home to but the moment he stepped into the kitchen he smelled the makings of a home-made meal combined with the vanilla candles that Sadie liked the smell of.

As he brushed the ash from his clothes he heard the sound of footsteps above. Sadie had clearly heard the floo go and seconds later she rushed into the kitchen with pink cheeks.

“You’re back!”

Theo chuckled as she threw herself at him. He picked her up and spun her around, when he placed her back down he leant in and kissed her. Sadie kissed him back passionately and when she drew back her cheeks were even more pink than they had been before.

“I need to go away for the weekend more often,” Theo joked as he ran a hand through his hair.

Sadie smiled sheepishly, “I missed you.”

“I guessed,” Theo said with a grin, “Do you want to know how it went?”

“I want to know everything,” Sadie said eagerly, “Do you know if you got in? Did they tell you straight away or are they making you wait?”

“They told us,” Theo said, he couldn’t keep the smile off of his face, “We got in, all four of us.”

Sadie squeaked in excitement, “That’s great Theo!”

“It gets better,” Theo said as he pushed himself up onto the dining room table, “We got paired up.”

“Ooh, did they put you with Nev?” Sadie asked as she began to open cupboards in search of something.

“Initially, yeah,” Theo said with an amused smile, “We had a mock case to solve and they paired us up. They put me with Nev and we kind of clashed, Draco and Harry argued over who was the leader when those two were paired up so-”

“So they put you with Draco,” Sadie finished.

Theo nodded, “And to be honest, I’m glad. I get on great with Nev but Draco will always be my best friend and now that he’s my Auror partner, I’ll always be able to have his back.”

“And he’ll always have yours,” Sadie said with a smile, “Things are only going to get worse now. You’ll spend more time with Draco than you do with me.”

“Yeah but Draco doesn’t have the same assets that you do,” Theo said as he shot her a suggestive look.

Sadie chuckled, “Save that for later. For now, tell me all about the weekend,” she said as she poured out two glasses of red wine.

Theo grinned, “Well it wasn’t easy but I got through it. I thought the physical fitness test was pretty hard to be honest, those three are way fitter than me.”

“I’d beg to differ,” Sadie pointed out.

Theo raised an eyebrow at him, “I thought we were saving that for later.”

“We are,” Sadie said with an amused smile, “What kind of stuff did they test you on?”

“There was a reflex test,” Theo began, “We had to dodge spells and I…well I sucked at that. Then there was an assault course which was fine, apart from all the magical creatures.”

Sadie smiled slightly, “Did they attack you?”

“Yes and it’s not funny!” Theo objected, “Do I look like a piece of meat to every magical creature in existence?”

“Are you stripping?” Sadie asked with a raised eyebrow.

“No, I’m showing you my first war wound,” Theo said as he tossed his shirt onto the ground and showed her his arm.

“Ouch! What did that?”

“A bloody Kappa!”

“Why didn’t you just trick him into bowing?” Sadie asked with a frown.

“Because I know nothing about magical creatures, clearly,” Theo said with a roll of his eyes.

“Yeah, we’re going to have to fix that. Let me talk to Luna and see if we can give you a crash course before you’re a fully qualified Auror,” Sadie said, “Does it hurt?”

“Nah, not anymore,” Theo replied, “But it hurt like hell at the time.”

“Guess that teaches you not to get bitten by a Kappa again,” Sadie said as she bit her lip to try and stop herself from laughing, “You still did okay on the course though, didn’t you?”

“I finished it within the time limit but I only had 2 seconds to spare,” Theo answered, “And I nearly screwed up the flying assault course too but that was my own fault. I tried to go too fast so I missed some of the hoops we had to fly through which gave me a time penalty. Oh, I hotwired a scooter but I kind of got in trouble for that.”

“Isn’t it illegal?”

“In the muggle world, yeah,” Theo replied, “But-”

“But we have a law which states that breaking laws knowingly in the muggle world is still a breach of the law generally,” Sadie cut in, “So technically, it was still breaking the law.”

Theo rolled his eyes, “Semantics. Anyway, the test on my magical abilities went better.”

“That doesn’t surprise me,” Sadie said honestly, “I figured that would be your strong point. As much as you try to hide it, you’re smart.”

Theo smiled at that, “Thanks love.”

“So what did they test you on?” Sadie asked as she sipped from her glass of wine.

“It was all in a simulated version of Diagon Alley,” Theo began, “The first part was a Death Eater attack.”

“That’s a bit close to the truth, isn’t it?” Sadie asked with a frown.

“I think that was the point,” Theo admitted, “They wanted to know we could handle real life situations like that. I think I did pretty good, I got them all, accidentally killed one but that’s no great loss really.”

“Your best friend was once one of those Death Eaters you’re talking about,” Sadie pointed out, “Try to show some empathy.”

“I was once one of those Death Eaters,” Theo reminded her.

“They marked you, but you weren’t one of them,” Sadie said, she grabbed her Husband’s hand, “You were always on the right side, even if you didn’t want to admit it.”

Theo shrugged, “It didn’t always feel that way love.”

“Well it was that way,” Sadie said firmly, “Although I don’t know why I told you to show empathy, it’s never been a strong point for you.”

“True,” Theo admitted.

Sadie sighed, “You’re going to have to get better at it though, Theo. With this job…if you can’t show it for real you’re going to have to learn to pretend.”

Theo tried to resist the urge to roll his eyes, he hated it when Sadie was condescending, “I’m sure I can learn. Do you want to know about the rest of the test?”

“Of course I do,” Sadie said, she knew that she had offended him but it had needed to be said.

“I did okay on the shielding test but I did kind of freeze up when they fired the killing curse at me,” Theo admitted.

“They used the killing curse?” Sadie asked in disbelief.

“Oh not for real,” Theo said with a shake of his head, “If it hits you, it doesn’t actually kill you. It’s just to see what your reaction to it is and my reaction sucked because it hit me.”

“I’m getting more and more glad about the fact Draco is going to be there to keep you safe from now on,” Sadie said with a slight frown, “Because that’s really disconcerting to hear.”

“I didn’t see it coming in all fairness,” Theo said to defend himself, “I got hit by another spell and I had a head injury. You know me Sadie, I’m usually totally on the ball.”

“I know,” Sadie said but she still chewed on her lip nervously.

“They did a test to see how many spells we knew as well then they finished it off with a duel which I totally aced,” Theo finished, “I know I’m not the most powerful dueller, not compared to Harry, Draco and Nev but the Auror who tested me did say that she liked my duelling technique.”

“The distract-your-opponent-with-weird-arse-spells technique?” Sadie joked.

“You joke but the Auror really thought it was clever,” Theo said with a smirk.

“That all sounds fairly tame to be honest,” Sadie admitted, “I thought it was supposed to be really hard.”

“Well there were mental tests too,” Theo said, “But they weren’t that hard. We had a situation that was supposed to challenge our moral compass-”

“Stop pretending you don’t have one,” Sadie cut in, “I know you better than that. What did they make you do?”

“It really wasn’t that hard,” Theo said honestly, “I was on a ship which went on fire and there was this injured guy on our lifeboat. I had to decide whether to throw the injured guy overboard and save everyone else on the boat or to let him live which would mean the boat would sink.”

“So you threw him overboard,” Sadie realised.

“Yeah,” Theo said with a nod, “It was a no brainer but then I found out that the consequence of choosing that course of action was that when the rescue boat got back into port, I would have to see a woman with three kids crying.”

“His family.”

Theo nodded, “Yeah.”

“Please tell me you felt at least a little guilty for that,” Sadie said as she looked at him cautiously.

“Of course I did, I’m not a sociopath,” Theo scoffed, “I felt terrible but the majority of the people on that boat were kids so by throwing that guy overboard, I saved a whole bunch of kids. Who knows, one of those kids might have gone on to cure cancer or something.”

“True,” Sadie said with a slight smile, “Was it all like that?”

“Nah,” Theo replied, “There was a Dementor and a Boggart to defeat, both of which were fairly easy. I mean school kid spells, you know?”

“What form did your boggart take?”

“Why?”

“Because something flashed in your eyes when you started to tell me about it so I think it’s something bad,” Sadie replied.

Theo didn’t really want to tell her but he knew that it was a conversation they would have to have soon anyway, ideally before she left for Egypt.

“It was you.”

“Me?”

“You,” Theo said as he stared down at his hands, “It was you telling me that you had met someone better in Egypt, you telling me that you were leaving me because there were smarter, better looking people out there.”

“Theo,” Sadie said with a sigh, “How many times do I have to tell you? You don’t have to worry about that. Maybe there are smarter, better looking people out there but I don’t want anyone else, I want you.”

“I know,” Theo said as he reached out and grabbed her hand, “I just…you’re the best thing in my life and the thought of losing you, it terrifies me. Alright?”

Sadie nodded, she reached out and grabbed his hand, “Okay, as long as you promise that it isn’t anything more than that.”

“It isn’t,” Theo promised.

Sadie looked at him for a moment then nodded once more, “What else did they test you on?”

“They made sure we weren’t psychopaths, I’m not by the way,” Theo added as an afterthought, “Although Harry came pretty close, Auror Sheppard reckons it’s because he’s an adrenaline junkie.”

“I guess that makes sense, people who seek dangerous thrills do have the potential to become a threat,” Sadie said thoughtfully.

“Since when were you a psychologist?” Theo asked in amusement.

“I just know a little about a lot, okay?” Sadie said with a roll of her eyes, “Did they torture you? Lil said she thought they would test to see how you handled being tortured.”

“Yeah, they gave us a piece of information and told us to protect it while a Death Eater tortured us,” Theo said with a wave of his hand, “It was fine,” as he said the words he remembered the excruciating pain of his bones crushing to dust. He remembered screaming as the cruciatus curse burnt his skin but he tried not to show it. He didn’t want Sadie to worry anymore than she needed to.

“Theo, being tortured isn’t fine,” Sadie said gently.

“It was only for 10 minutes,” Theo said, “Nothing worse than slowly starving to death in the dark tower, honestly.”

Sadie didn’t look convinced but before she could say anymore, Theo started talking again.

“Then they finished the whole thing off with a final interview,” Theo said in an effort to keep Sadie distracted so that she couldn’t question him further on the torture subject, “They said they had to ask some pretty hard hitting questions but…I didn’t expect them to talk about my Mother.”

Sadie’s eyes widened, “They had no right!”

“They thought they did,” Theo said dryly, “Apparently they had to make sure that I wasn’t cruel like my Father.”

“You are nothing like your Father!” Sadie exclaimed, “How dare they! Oh if I could curse those Aurors I would!”

Theo smiled slightly, “As cute as that is, I don’t think it would be helpful.”

“Are you okay?” Sadie asked softly, “I know how much you hate talking about your parents.”

Theo shrugged, “I’m fine. I got through it, didn’t I?”

“Yes, but-”

“I’m fine Sade,” Theo said as he raised his wine glass, “Let’s just celebrate the fact I did it, alright?”

“Alright,” Sadie said, she wasn’t convinced but she knew when she could push and when she needed to shut up.

She raised her glass to his and in unison they said, “Cheers.”

***.

“Those two are totally going to have sex upstairs, I’m not going up there for at least an hour,” Draco said distastefully.

“Maybe they missed each other this weekend,” Hermione said as she grabbed a couple of mugs and set the kettle on to boil, “I missed you.”

“Did you?”

“Why do you sound so surprised?” Hermione asked as she raised an eyebrow at him, “Surprisingly, I like to spend time with my fiancé.”

“I know, it’s just…you’re better at entertaining yourself than Daph is,” Draco said with a vaguely amused smile, “You’ll just read a book or something but Daph is restless.”

“You’re telling the person who had to spend the whole weekend with her,” Hermione said with a roll of her eyes, “I introduced her to bowling on Saturday afternoon then I took her to the cinema on Saturday night. Then on Sunday I was hoping to get some downtime to read that new book by Joan Seaworth but she was bored so I ended up stuck shopping in London _all day_.”

Draco grinned.

“Why are you looking at me like that?” Hermione asked him self-consciously.

“Because you’re complaining about the fact you had to have a girly weekend rather than spending a weekend alone with your books,” Draco said with a smile, “And it just made me realise how much I love you.”

“Going away for the weekend made you soft,” Hermione said with a small smile.

“Maybe I missed you too,” Draco said with a shrug, “I didn’t have a nice relaxing weekend, it was hard.”

“You knew it would be,” Hermione said as she placed a mug down in front of him. She sat on the opposite side of the table and cradled her own coffee, “Do you want to tell me about it?”

“You’ll force it out of me if I don’t tell you, won’t you?” Draco asked her with a fond smile.

Hermione smiled back, “Yep.”

“Then I guess I don’t have a choice. To be honest, there were parts that were okay. The physical test was fine for the most part. There was a test where we had to dodge spells to test our agility and I was good at that, being a seeker and all. Then there was a physical assault course and a flying course, I found both of them okay. The flying course was actually kind of fun and I set a new record for the time, then Harry had to go and equal it.”

Hermione bit her lip, “Ah, I bet that didn’t go down well.”

“Somebody had to have been faster,” Draco said, “In milliseconds, I will find out who.”

“I’m sure you will,” Hermione said as she took a sip of coffee to hide her amused smile.

“Then I had to subdue a suspect, that was fine as well,” Draco continued, “And the next set of tests were on magical ability.”

“Oh, you should have been fine with those then,” Hermione said, “You’re one of the most powerful wizards I know.”

“After Harry and Neville,” Draco pointed her.

“It doesn’t have to be a competition,” Hermione said firmly, “Settle for being one of the best of your generation, okay?”

Draco shrugged, “It started off in Diagon Alley. We had to capture Death Eaters that were attacking the alley, it looked really similar to the wartime attacks.”

“How did you do?” Hermione asked.

“Okay, I think,” Draco replied, “I got 7, nearly got 1 and killed 2. They looked down on killing them because if we kill them we can’t question them.”

“Never mind the fact that killing is bad,” Hermione pointed out, “It’s a sin.”

“Since when were you religious?” Draco asked her with a raised eyebrow.

“I’m not,” Hermione said, “But-”

“No buts, you don’t get to tell me that killing is a sin when you don’t believe in religion,” Draco said, “Because if you don’t believe in religion then you don’t believe in sins.”

Hermione rolled her eyes, “It’s a phrase, alright? I really don’t want to get into a debate on religion with you on a Sunday night so just tell me about the rest of your tests.”

“They tested how well we could shield and how many spells we knew,” Draco said, “Both of which I found easy enough. Then there was duel with one of the Aurors testing us at the end. I won, obviously.”

“You’re a good dueller,” Hermione said with a smile, “You can hold your own against Harry and that’s saying something.”

“The Auror seemed impressed enough,” Draco said, “They noticed that I favour sneak tactics and strategy over pure power. That’s how I beat Harry, he just throws everything into a duel without thinking about it. Typical Gryffindor.”

“Hey,” Hermione objected, “Sometimes I think you forget that I was a Gryffindor too.”

“Honestly, most of the time I do,” Draco admitted.

Hermione raised an eyebrow at him, “And what is that meant to mean?”

“You’re as loyal as a Hufflepuff, as smart as a Ravenclaw, as brave as a Gryffindor and you can be as sneaky as a Slytherin. You embody so many traits of other houses that sometimes I do actually forget,” Draco told her.

Hermione smiled slightly, “I guess I’ll take that as a complement.”

“That was how it was intended,” Draco said honestly.

Hermione looked up and caught his eye, “What else did they test you on?”

“They had a whole bunch of mental tests,” Draco replied, “The first one was a morality test. We got given this scenario and we had to decide what to do, either way people died.”

Hermione nodded, “Typical morality test, often used in muggle psychology. I’m intrigued that they used it in a wizarding setting. What did you have to do?”

“The scenario had been that a disease had wiped out a lot of witches and wizards across the world. I was in a lab where I had developed two potions, one was an early attempt at a cure which was poisonous and the other was a cure. I didn’t know which one was which and I had two people under my care. The only way to test it was to give each of them a potion.”

“Knowing that one of them would die,” Hermione said with a nod, “Who were the two people? Harry and Theo?”

“You really don’t have any idea how important you are to me, do you?” Draco asked her with a surprised look, “You were one of them obviously.”

“And Theo was the other?” Hermione guessed.

“No, my Mother was,” Draco said, “Why are you so fixated on Theo?”

“Well the two of you do share a rather profound bond,” Hermione said with a slight smile, “What did you do?”

“I found a loophole, sort of,” Draco said, “I realised that I didn’t have to give both of you a potion, I could give one of you both of the potions. If the first one didn’t work then I would know it was the cure and you would both live. If the first one killed the person I gave it to then I knew the other one was the cure.”

Hermione nodded.

“So I gave the first potion to my Mother and…she died,” Draco finished.

“You killed your Mother for me?” Hermione asked in disbelief.

Draco looked up and caught her eye, “There’s no much I wouldn’t do for you, Hermione.”

Hermione glanced down with pink cheeks.

“Have I embarrassed you?”

“No,” Hermione said honestly as she looked up and gave him a sheepish look, “It’s just…when you get intense like that…well I would normally do something that I can’t do in Harry and Daphne’s kitchen.”

Draco smirked, “Those two are probably going to be upstairs for a while.”

Hermione shook her head, “Oh no…no way.”

Draco raised an eyebrow at her, “Come on Hermione, are you a Gryffindor or not?”

Hermione narrowed her eyes at him, “Don’t challenge me.”

“Why? Because I know you’ll rise to it?” Draco asked as he walked around the table and pulled her to her feet.

“That’s exactly why,” Hermione said, “This is Harry’s kitchen, it’s not happening.”

“Fine,” Draco shrugged, “I guess this is why I always forget you’re a Gryffindor though. It’s not like you actually act like one, here was me thinking I would get to have wild, crazy sex now that I have a Gryffindor girlfriend-”

Before he could say anymore, Hermione grabbed him and pulled him in for a kiss. He doubted that she noticed him smirking against her lips.

***.

Neville knew that Lilly would be excited that he was back, but he didn’t expect her to pop out of nowhere seconds after he had stepped into the entrance hall.

“Nev!”

She was such a little pocket rocket that he had seconds to work out that she was hurtling towards him. As a result, he ended up flat on his back with her on top of him.

“There’s no way that you got in with those reflexes,” Lilly chuckled as she got to her feet.

Neville groaned, “I was hurting enough thanks Lil,” he said as he pushed himself to his feet, “And for your information, you are looking at Auror Recruit Longbottom.”

Lilly grinned, “I knew it! Guess that means I’m going to be fixing you up soon. Come on, I made dinner!”

“You are really excitable,” Neville said with a fond smile as she grabbed his hand and pulled him into the kitchen.

“Well I’ve missed you,” Lilly said, “And I really want to hear about how it went. Did they tell you straight away that you were in?”

Neville nodded and sank into a chair in the kitchen, “Yep, and they paired us up.”

“Ooh, let me guess. You’re with Theo?” Lilly asked as she began to uncover several dishes that were laid out on the table.

“No…Lilly, what is going on?” Neville asked with an amused smile.

“I made you a welcome home feast,” Lilly said cheerfully, “I got bored this weekend Nev, really bored. I tidied the whole Manor, then I went to the cinema with Daphne and Hermione to see _“The Blair Witch Project” _which sucked really badly. Then I got bored today so I cooked, a lot.”

“You really aren’t good at being idle, are you?”

“Nope,” Lilly said as she bit her lip, “What do you mean, you aren’t paired with Theo?”

“Exactly how it sounds,” Neville said with a smile, “Harry is my Auror partner.”

Lilly sighed in relief, “Don’t tell Theo, but I feel so much better knowing that. You and Harry are two of the most powerful wizards that I know, I think you will make a great team.”

“Thanks Lil,” Neville said with a smile, “The whole weekend was actually okay. The physical test was a bit challenging, there was this obstacle course which was designed for skinny runts but I got through it. Oh and there was a flying assault course too, I wasn’t the fastest but I managed it.”

“Did all of our running pay off?” Lilly joked.

“Kind of,” Neville said with a smile, “I had to chase a suspect down and I managed it. I think it just helped me build up stamina though.”

“What other kind of tests did they do?” Lilly asked curiously.

“They tested our magical ability, starting with a mock Death Eater attack in Diagon Alley,” Neville said, “I thought I would be good at that, having fought Death Eaters during the war but I had really bad luck. Sometimes I think I’m cursed.”

Lilly laughed, “You’re not cursed. What happened?”

“I accidentally knocked a Death Eater down a chimney. Then I severed one of the supports of a metal sign hoping one of the Death Eaters would run into it and get knocked out but it slit his throat,” Neville admitted sheepishly, “Then to top it all off, I stunned one of them and he fell unconscious into a barrel of water and drowned.”

Lilly tried to hide her amused smile, “Yeah, you’re cursed.”

Neville chuckled, “Apart from that, I think I did okay in the magical tests. I didn’t find the shielding test or the test to see how many spells I knew difficult. The last test was a duel which was okay since I’m always duelling Harry, Draco and Theo.”

Lilly raised an eyebrow at him, “Are you seriously telling me that Auror training selection was easy?”

“Not exactly,” Neville said honestly, “Today we had our mental tests and they were the hardest part of the whole weekend.”

Lilly frowned, “They didn’t torture you, did they?”

“A little,” Neville admitted, “But the first thing they tested was my moral compass. They gave me this horrible situation where I was in charge of a group of Aurors. One of them had lost both of his legs and the bad guys were coming for us. I had to make a choice.”

“Save him and risk the lives of every other Auror or let him die,” Lilly said quietly.

Neville nodded, “It was horrible. Either way, somebody was going to die.”

“What did you do?” Lilly asked as she reached over and took his hand.

“I didn’t want him to suffer,” Neville said, he was unable to look her in the eye at the moment, “I knew if I left him there, he would be captured and tortured. I knew they would humiliate him so I…I used a charm to stop his heart.”

Lilly didn’t say anything after Neville told her this. He chanced a glance up at her and saw her frowning deeply, “How could you make a decision like that? I don’t think I could.”

“You might have to Lil,” Neville said gently, “What are you going to do if there’s an attack and lots of people are injured?”

“I would treat those with the worst injuries first,” Lilly replied.

“What if you had 5 minutes to save who you could and get out?” Neville asked, “Would you still waste time on the ones who were probably going to die or would you save the ones who had a chance at living?”

“Honestly Nev, I’ve never thought about it like that,” Lilly admitted, “I don’t know what I would do. How did you manage to make a decision like that under pressure?”

“Because,” Neville said quietly, “Because it’s not the first time I’ve had to do it.”

Lilly looked up in surprise, “What?”

“During the final battle my friend, Lavender, she was attacked by Greyback,” Neville said as he kept his gaze down, “Hermione blasted him off of her and he fell out of a window but…she was still alive after the attack.”

Lilly’s eyes widened as she realised where Neville was going with this.

“She had been bitten and she was really badly hurt,” Neville said, his voice was almost a whisper now, “If she did live, she was going to be a werewolf so she begged me to…” his voice broke.

“It’s okay Neville,” Lilly said gently as she gripped his hand, “I understand. You don’t have to say it.”

“No,” Neville said hoarsely, “I do, I need to tell someone. I stopped her heart, quickly and painlessly. I didn’t want her to suffer, not like my…not like my parents did.”

Lilly sighed and wrapped her arms around him, “I’m sorry, I’m sorry that I never knew that.”

“I’ve never told anyone,” Neville admitted as he opened his eyes, he wasn’t ashamed about the fact that there were tears in them, “And I don’t really want to talk about it anymore.”

“That’s okay,” Lilly said softly, “Why don’t you just finish telling me about the tests?”

Neville nodded and cleared his throat, “They tested us for psychopathic traits and they made us defeat a Dementor and a Boggart. They tortured me but it was nothing I couldn’t handle, you know what it was like with the Carrows during the war.”

Lilly nodded, she could tell that something was bothering him but she knew that it wasn’t about the torture.

“Then there was a final interview,” Neville said, “They asked us tough questions to see how we reacted. I think I must have been under veritaserum or something because I couldn’t lie but Lil…there’s something I need to talk to you about.”

“You can talk to me about anything,” Lilly assured him.

“Something came up time and time again during the mental tests,” Neville said as he looked up at her with red, bloodshot eyes, “My boggart took the form of you getting tortured then…when the Death Eater was torturing me he threatened you and…in my final interview they questioned me on how I was going to cope with you being a trauma healer. They asked me what I would do if I saw you get hurt in the field.”

Lilly frowned, “Where are you going with this, Nev?”

“I just…I need to know if you want to be a trauma healer forever or if this is just something you want to try at the moment,” Neville said.

Lilly’s frown deepened, “I don’t know. I won’t know until I’ve done it for a while, if I absolutely love it then I don’t see any reason to change.”

“I’m not sure I can handle it Lil,” Neville said quietly, “You putting yourself in danger every day. I don’t know what I would do if something happened to you, if I…if I lost you.”

“Neville,” Lilly sighed, “I’m a big girl, I can look after myself. I passed all of the tests, that means I’m capable.”

“I know you’re capable,” Neville said honestly, “But just because you’re capable, that doesn’t make it the right thing.”

“Who are you to say whether it’s the right thing for me or not?” Lilly asked as she began to get worked up, “It’s my life and it’s my choice.”

“I’m in your life now Lilly, doesn’t that mean something?” Neville asked hotly.

“It doesn’t mean you get to dictate!” Lilly exclaimed, “Maybe you’re used to witches being meek and doing what their other halves want but I’m not from this Victorian world Neville!”

“Is that really what you think of me?” Neville asked angrily, “That I’m some old-fashioned pureblood who wants to control you?”

“Well you’ve started to act like one lately!” Lilly bit back, “With your Manor and your house elf and your seat on the Wizengamot. How are you any different to Draco or Theo?”

“First of all, I don’t see why you make that an insult,” Neville argued, “Draco and Theo are good to their other halves, they don’t control them. Yes, I have a seat on the Wizengamot which I want to use to bring about change and yes, I have a Manor but you picked the house elf Lillian!”

“That’s not the point and don’t call me Lillian!” Lilly scoffed, “The point is you want to control what job I do, I’ve wanted to be a healer for years and I’ve gotten into one of the most elite programmes there is! I won’t give that up, not for anything.”

“Not even for me?” Neville asked.

“Not even for you,” Lilly said firmly, “And if you say that you would give up being an Auror for me then you’re lying.”

“No,” Neville said coldly as he got to his feet, “I wouldn’t be because frankly, you are far more important to me than a job. I would give up anything for you, including being an Auror but since you clearly don’t feel the same I think I’ll pack a bag and leave for a while.”

“Neville-”

“I don’t really feel like being around you right now,” Neville cut in as he swept out of the room. In minutes he had packed a bag and left, slamming the door loudly behind him.

***.

“I can’t believe I let you talk me into that.”

Draco grinned, “I am so glad I talked you into doing that.”

Hermione shook her head and tried to fix the mess that was her hair, “If Harry and Daphne ever find out…”

“Don’t worry, they won’t,” Draco said as glanced around the kitchen, “It looks just like it did before.”

Hermione shook her head and cast a glamour charm on herself, “I’m making another pot of coffee.”

Draco smirked, “I never even got to finish telling you about the selection process, you distracted me.”

“I think you will find,” Hermione said as she let the kettle boil, “That you distracted me.”

“True,” Draco said with a sly smile, “Do you want to hear the rest?”

“Of course I do,” Hermione said.

“I was telling you about the mental tests, wasn’t I?” Draco asked.

“Yes, you had just told me about the moral compass test,” Hermione said as she busied herself with the coffee.

“Ah, yes,” Draco nodded, “So after that I had to defeat a Dementor, then a Boggart.”

“Well both of them are fairly straightforward,” Hermione said, “Depending on the form your boggart takes of course.”

“Yeah,” Draco said with a frown, “My worst fear these days is very psychological.”

Hermione turned around to look at him, “Go on…”

“My worst fear is that I become my Father,” Draco admitted.

Hermione sighed, “Oh Draco, you know that will never happen. Don’t you?”

“Clearly not, or it wouldn’t be my worst fear,” Draco pointed out.

“Your Father was a cruel, vindictive man but you are nothing like him,” Hermione said, “Despite his best efforts, you are a good man.”

Draco frowned, “Do you really believe that?”

“Of course I do,” Hermione said, “I don’t know why you’re doubting it all of a sudden.”

“The Aurors, they made me doubt it,” Draco admitted, “They asked me how I had made you fall in love with me…whether it was a love potion or a compulsion charm.”

Hermione scoffed, “And you let that get to you?”

“Well they have a point,” Draco said.

Hermione raised an eyebrow at him, “If you used a love potion on me, you are dead meat.”

“No, that’s not what I mean,” Draco said as he shook his head, “The point they were making was that you are this beautiful, intelligent war heroine and I’m…me. I know that it’s working now but it’s never going to work in the long-run, is it? I mean how would we explain to our kids that my Father is responsible for that scar on your arm? What would you do when they went to Hogwarts and got treated like shit because their Dad was a Death Eater? You don’t want that kind of life.”

“Since when do you get to tell me what kind of life I do or don’t want?” Hermione asked hotly.

“Hermione, I know you think you love me now but I’m afraid that if I don’t let you go, you’re going to grow to resent me,” Draco admitted quietly.

“Stop trying to tell me how I’m going to feel,” Hermione said irritably, “You don’t know how I’ll feel in 5 or 10 years’ time any more than I do. I know there are going to be challenges ahead but there were challenges when we first got together, and we got past them.”

“This is different, Hermione,” Draco said with a sigh, “A life with me is a life with a lot of baggage. It’s not the perfect, happy life you would have had with Ron.”

“I wouldn’t have had a perfect, happy life with Ron because I didn’t love Ron!” Hermione exclaimed, “I love you, despite everything! I know I shouldn’t and sometimes I don’t know why I fell in love with you. I like everything in my life to be rational but what I feel for you isn’t, I can’t explain it because it’s not something I think, it’s something I _feel_.”

“Only you could come up with a totally logical argument then finish it with something completely illogical,” Draco said with a fond smile.

“Don’t smile at me like that,” Hermione said irritably, “5 seconds ago you were talking like you were going to leave me and now you’re giving me that bloody smile?”

“I’m sorry,” Draco said sincerely, “I just…they got in my head.”

“Yeah, I can see that,” Hermione said, she was still worked up and Draco knew he was going to feel the consequences of speaking his mind for at least a day, “I thought you were smarter than that. Since when do you let people get in your head?”

“When it concerns you and what’s best for you, I can’t help it,” Draco said honestly, “I didn’t realise it until this weekend but Hermione, you’re my biggest weakness.”

“I hate you.”

“No you don’t,” Draco said with a smile, “You love me.”

Hermione groaned, “You can’t just nearly leave me and then say stuff like that, Draco!”

“Why not?”

“Because!” Hermione exclaimed, “Mixed signals!”

“Why don’t we go upstairs?” Draco suggested, “Then I can make sure you know exactly where you stand.”

Hermione scoffed and got to her feet, “After that? No chance.”

Draco groaned and let his head fall onto the table as she stalked out of the kitchen.

“Note to self, never speak your mind to Hermione again if you want sex,” He mumbled.

**TBC.**


	82. I Think It's Time to Take a Heart Break

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter title comes from the song:  
Heart Break by Lady Antebellum

Harry sighed heavily when he heard the doorbell ring downstairs.

“Draco or Hermione will get it,” Daphne said before he could even think about getting out of bed.

“They went out,” Harry said, “I heard them leave.”

“One of the house elves will get it then,” Daphne said, “So don’t go anywhere.”

“Alright,” Harry conceded, he had been home for a few hours and he didn’t intend to leave his bed until the following morning.

Daphne curled up against him and readjusted the book that she had been reading. Harry shut his eyes in the hope that he could get a little more sleep, he needed to catch up after such a busy weekend.

The moment he had closed his eyes, a loud crack made them pop open.

“Kreacher,” Daphne groaned, “Can’t you tell whoever it is to go away?”

“No mistress Daphne,” Kreacher said as he hung his head, “Mister Longbottom is here and he very much insists on seeing Master Harry.”

Harry groaned as he got to his feet, “I can’t wait until we finally have our house to ourselves,” he grumbled as he threw on a pair of trousers, “So we can have sex in every room,” he searched for a t-shirt, “Without being interrupted!”

“Shall I tell Mister Longbottom that, Master Harry?”

“No, Kreacher!” Harry said quickly as Daphne sniggered, “Tell him I’ll be down in a minute.”

“Yes Master Harry,” Kreacher said, he bowed his head once more then disappeared from sight.

“It’s not like Neville to show up out of the blue,” Harry said to Daphne, “Which is the only reason I’m going downstairs. If he’s here then something is wrong.”

“I get it,” Daphne said, “But you better make up for it later.”

“I will, as long as Draco and Hermione don’t come back,” Harry said, somewhat irritably. He really couldn’t wait to have his house back, he wasn’t joking about that.

As he trudged down the stairs, he found himself thinking that Neville better have a really, really good excuse for tearing him away from his fiancé. When he stepped into the kitchen and saw his friend nursing a cup of tea with bloodshot eyes, he knew that something bad had happened.

“What is it?”

“Lilly,” Neville said quietly, “I think…well…we…we sort of, broke up.”

Harry frowned, “What? But you couldn’t wait to get back to her after this weekend. What happened? Did she do something?”

“No, she didn’t do anything,” Neville said as he shook his head, “I did. I told her that I couldn’t handle her being a trauma healer forever and she said that I couldn’t dictate what she could and couldn’t do with her life.”

“Which is fair,” Harry said diplomatically.

“I know,” Neville said, “But then she said she really wanted to do it and she wouldn’t give it up for anything, not even me. She said if I said I would give up Auror training for her then I would be lying but that’s the thing Harry, I _would_. I would give up anything for her and she doesn’t feel the same.”

“Shit,” Harry frowned, “That’s not good.”

“Exactly,” Neville said with a world-weary sigh.

“I mean I don’t know if you want my opinion but if you do,” Harry said slowly, “If you resent her job and she resents you for resenting it…well that’s not going to leave you in a good place.”

“I know that,” Neville said, “But I can’t handle seeing her put her life in danger every day. If something did happen to her in the field and I saw it…I don’t know what I would do.”

“I get that because I hate the thought of Daphne putting herself in danger,” Harry said honestly, “But at the risk of sounding like an agony aunt Nev, I’m not sure that’s the real problem. I think that’s just what brought the real problem to the fore.”

“You think the real problem is that I’m more committed to this than she is,” Neville realised.

Harry nodded, “And I know how your brain works. You’re worried that she’s not as committed as you and you’re worried about that just before she’s due to go to France 6 months. You’re worried she’ll meet somewhere else there.”

“I should have more faith in her though Harry,” Neville said with a frown, “I should trust her.”

“Did you have any worries before this argument?” Harry asked.

Neville shook his head.

“There you go, it stems from the commitment issue,” Harry said, “And to be honest, I don’t know how you can fix that.”

“You mean you don’t know if we can,” Neville said quietly, “And I don’t know if we can either but, I need somewhere to stay.”

Harry sighed, he and Daphne were never going to get the house to themselves at this rate, “Don’t you own Longbottom house? Shouldn’t you have kicked Lilly out?”

“I left voluntarily,” Neville said honestly, “I have you as an option or I could beg Theo and Sadie to let me stay but Lilly…she doesn’t really have anywhere else to go.”

“You both have here as an option, not just you,” Harry said honestly, “And you can stay, but I really think you need to try and work things out with Lilly. When does she leave?”

“A week today,” Neville replied glumly, “But the thing is, if she isn’t as committed to our relationship as I am, how are we going to manage 6 months long-distance?”

“I don’t know,” Harry said honestly, “I know that Daphne and I couldn’t handle it but every couple is different. You should talk to Theo, he and Sadie are going to have to spend weeks apart when she’s in Cairo. If anyone would understand it would be him.”

Neville nodded, he sighed heavily, “What room will I stay in?”

“Well,” Harry said with a grimace, “Daph and I are on the top floor and Draco and Hermione are on the second floor so if you want any peace, I would go with the annex.”

“Yeah, I don’t really want to be near happy couples right now,” Neville said darkly, “The annex has its own sitting room and kitchen doesn’t it?”

“It doesn’t have a kitchen but I can have one of the elves bring you meals,” Harry said as he lifted up the bread bin and picked up a key.

He threw it at Neville who caught it and began to head towards the door.

“Nev,” Harry said before he could leave the room.

Neville paused and turned around, “Yeah?”

“I do have a master key so if I don’t see you for a few days, I’ll be checking in,” Harry said.

“Don’t worry Harry, I can handle a little heart break,” Neville said bitterly as he disappeared from view.

***.

“Where have you two been?”

“At the leaky,” Draco replied with a frown, “Why?”

“And why are you two dressed and downstairs?” Hermione asked, “I thought you weren’t getting out of bed until at least 10am tomorrow morning.”

“We weren’t,” Daphne said as she glared at Harry, “But we have a new lodger.”

Hermione frowned, “What?”

“Neville,” Harry replied, “He’s staying in the annex. He and Lilly have broken up.”

Hermione’s jaw dropped, “What? Why?”

“Long story short, Neville thinks he’s more committed to their relationship than she is,” Harry replied, “I don’t want you letting him know that I told you all of this but I think someone should go and talk to Lilly so…”

“I thought about going,” Daphne said, “But you’re closer to her, Hermione.”

Hermione nodded, she grabbed the bag that she had just placed on the kitchen counter and said, “I’ll go right now. Did Neville let her stay in Longbottom House?”

“Yeah, he was worried that she wouldn’t have anywhere else to go,” Harry said.

“I’ll see how she is,” Hermione promised, “Don’t wait on me for dinner, I can have mine cold!”

***.

“I don’t want to talk to anyone Hermione.”

“I don’t care Lilly, you need to talk to someone,” Hermione called through the door.

“I don’t have to let you in.”

“I know plenty of ways to get in,” Hermione remarked.

“No, you don’t.”

“Yes, I do,” Hermione said, “I’m the smartest witch of my generation. I just don’t generally use my magical knowledge to break and enter, and I would prefer not to start now.”

There was a click and the door swung open. Lilly didn’t look like she had been crying but Hermione could tell that she was upset, “Can I come in?”

Lilly sighed, “If you’re here to lecture me then no.”

“I’m not here to lecture you,” Hermione promised, “I’m here to make sure that you’re okay.”

Lilly obviously believed her because she took a step back and let her walk into the hallway. Hermione made her way straight to the kitchen and Lilly trudged after her. When she walked in, she stopped in her tracks.

“What on earth happened here?”

“I lost my temper,” Lilly said dryly.

“I was going to make a pot of tea,” Hermione said as she looked around the kitchen. There were smashed plates, mugs and glasses all mixed in with food, “But I think I should tidy this up first.”

“I made Neville a homecoming meal,” Lilly said bitterly, “And what does he do, come home and leave me!”

Hermione could tell that Lilly was channelling her emotions. She was upset but she didn’t want to break down so that was coming out as anger. She used repairing charms to fix all of the smashed crockery and glasses. Then she cleared all the food waste away with cleaning charms, within 5 minutes the kitchen was restored to its former state.

“So,” Hermione said as she filled the kettle and put it on the stove to boil, “I want to hear your side of the story.”

“Why? Does Neville’s side paint me as a crazy bitch like Hannah?” Lilly asked.

“Lil, you don’t have to be so aggressive,” Hermione said gently, “I haven’t even spoken to Neville yet so I want to hear how it happened from your point of view.”

Lilly sighed deeply and sank into one of the kitchen chairs, “He was telling me all about the tests and he said that I came up in a lot of his mental tests. Basically, he was telling me that I was a weakness for him which is how we got to talking about my job. He asked me if I wanted to be a trauma healer forever then told me that he couldn’t handle me doing that job forever so I got annoyed because who is he to decide what I do with my life?”

Hermione nodded, “The career path you chose to go down is completely your decision.”

“Exactly!” Lilly exclaimed, “And I said I wouldn’t give up anything to do this job because it’s such a good opportunity. He got upset when I told him that included him but he’s being a hypocrite because I know he wouldn’t give up being an Auror for me!”

“Did you actually ask him that?” Hermione asked.

Lilly frowned, “What?”

“Did you ask him if he would give up being an Auror for you?”

“Not exactly,” Lilly said a little sheepishly, “I said he would be lying if he said he would give up being an Auror for me and he said that he wouldn’t be because he would give it up. But he’s lying Hermione, he wouldn’t. Him and Harry gallivanting all over the country catching bad guys, it’s what he’s always wanted, he wouldn’t give that up.”

Hermione sighed and slid a cup of tea across the table to Lilly, “I don’t mean this to sound condescending Lilly so I’m sorry if it comes across that way but, the thing is. Harry would find it hard to give up being an Auror because all he has ever known is fighting bad guys but Neville is different. He has other things that he’s good at and other things that he enjoys, he loves Herbology and at heart, he’s a family man. I think he would happily be an Auror for a few years then give it up for a quieter life when kids came along.”

“What are you getting at here, Hermione?”

“I’m just saying, from his point of view being an Auror is a good job to do while he’s young. It’s dangerous and it gives him purpose but he wouldn’t do it forever and I think he’s worried that you would,” Hermione explained, “He loves you Lilly and he has watched so many people that he loves die or get hurt, I think he was trying to tell you that he can’t be with you if you are going to go out every single day and put yourself in danger for the rest of your life.”

“But I won’t know if I want to do that job forever until I do it for a while,” Lilly pointed out.

“You do know though,” Hermione said, “If I asked you whether you were okay with you and Neville both having dangerous jobs when you have kids, you would have an answer. Wouldn’t you?”

“No because I’m not like the rest of you,” Lilly said angrily, “I haven’t thought about kids or marriage yet because I’m only 19! I’m not like Sadie, I don’t want to get married before my 20th birthday and I’m not like you and Daphne, I don’t want to be engaged. I want to enjoy being young while I am, I want to travel the world and try new things before I get married and have kids.”

Hermione frowned, “The question is, do you want to do those things with Neville?”

Lilly hesitated for a moment, “I…I don’t know.”

Hermione looked at her in disbelief, “Wow, well…you need to work that out Lil because you’re my friend but Neville…he’s one of the nicest guys I know and frankly, he doesn’t deserve to be screwed around with again. Not after Hannah.”

“Did you seriously just compare me to Hannah?” Lilly asked angrily.

“No, I didn’t,” Hermione said firmly, “I just said, Neville doesn’t deserve to be treated like this. He loves you, he is completely committed to you and for you to just _not know_, that’s not fair.”

“I appreciate what you’re trying to do Hermione but you’re not helping,” Lilly said coolly, “I need to work this out on my own.”

“That’s fine,” Hermione said with an icy tone to her voice, “But if you let Neville go and end up regretting it, I won’t be there for you to come crying to. You’re one of my best friends Lilly but if this comes down to sides, I think I’ll be on Neville’s.”

“Get out of my house, Hermione.”

“It’s actually _Neville’s _house!” Hermione exclaimed irritably as she stalked out.

***.

“For Merlin’s sake, that girl is being an ungrateful bitch!” Hermione exclaimed as she stomped through the entrance hall of Potter Manor, “And frankly, right now I don’t think she deserves Neville! He is one of the nicest guys I know and any girl would be more than lucky to have him. Hannah was too stupid to realise that and now Lilly has no idea how lucky she is either!” Hermione continued as she thrust open the kitchen door, “I mean Neville’s such a nice guy so why does he always get screwed over by bitches like – oh, hi Neville.”

Hermione stopped in her tracks and looked at the occupants of the kitchen. Draco was smirking, Harry was chuckling under his breath and Daphne looked incredibly amused. Neville on the other hand, was smiling fondly at Hermione.

“Thanks for the ego boost Hermione,” Neville said with a hint of amusement in his voice, “But if I’m such a nice guy, why did you turn me down when I asked you to the Yule Ball?”

“Because Viktor had already asked me,” Hermione said honestly, “And…I kind of had a massive crush on our resident arsehole over there.”

“I love you too honey,” Draco said with a raised eyebrow.

“I’m guessing it didn’t go too well with Lilly then Hermione?”

Hermione scoffed, “She kicked me out! Can you believe the cheek? It’s not even her house!”

“Do you want a glass of wine?” Daphne asked as she motioned towards the open bottle on the table.

“Ugh, yes please.”

As Daphne poured Hermione a glass of wine, Neville asked, “So what did she have to say for herself?”

“Well if you were worried that you’re more committed to her than she is to you, then you would be right,” Hermione said irritably, “I could have slapped her, but I didn’t because I don’t condone violence.”

“So is it really over then?” Neville asked, he looked completely crestfallen.

“I don’t know that for sure,” Hermione said honestly, “But I think you have to talk to her before she leaves for France. You can’t spend two weeks apart when you aren’t sure where you stand with each other.”

Neville frowned, “Can I talk to you outside, Hermione?”

Hermione nodded, “Sure, can I bring my wine with me?”

Neville smiled slightly, “Yeah, of course you can.”

“Thank you Daph,” Hermione said as she gratefully accepted the glass of wine and hooked her arm through Neville’s, “Where do you want to go? There’s a magical plant garden out there and there are some ancient variations of the tentacula, venomous and otherwise.”

Neville smiled at her, “That sounds very…relaxing.”

“I had no idea that those two were so close,” Draco said as he watched them disappear from view.

Harry nodded, “Yeah…that’s kind of my fault.”

“You have got to explain that comment,” Daphne said with a raised eyebrow.

“Well,” Harry said sheepishly, “Ron and I sometimes fell out with Hermione for stupid stuff like this one time when she got my new Firebolt confiscated. She was only doing it because she thought it was cursed but I didn’t see it that way. When those things happened, it was Nev that she turned to.”

“Turned to?” Draco asked as he narrowed his eyes, “You better not be telling me that those two-”

“Oh no, no way!” Harry cut in, “They are just really good friends, I swear.”

***.

“So,” Hermione said as she and Neville sat down on a bench in the aforementioned garden, “Why did you want to talk to me alone?”

“I just don’t know what to do,” Neville admitted, “And Harry is my best friend but when it comes to relationship advice, you’re the better person to ask.”

“I can’t tell you what to do Nev,” Hermione said honestly, “That’s something that you and Lilly need to work out.”

“I just need to know…do you think we can work through this?” Neville asked, “Tell me the truth.”

Hermione bit her lip, “Maybe, but it’s not you that needs to make the effort Nev. I don’t want to tell you what she said because I don’t want to hurt you but-”

“Hermione,” Neville said as he grabbed her hand, “I know you’re just trying to protect me but I need to know. Not knowing is worse, believe me.”

“Okay but it’s your funeral.”

“Just tell me,” Neville said.

Hermione sighed, “I told her your thinking, or what I thought you were thinking anyway. I figured you were okay with being an Auror for a while but that you wouldn’t want to do it forever because there would come a time, probably when you had kids, when you would want to change your career. I said I thought the problem was that you were scared that she would want to put herself in harms way forever, unlike you.”

“Well, it seems like you know me better than she does,” Neville said bitterly.

“I know you and Lilly were friends when you were younger but you’ve been my friend for 8 years Neville,” Hermione said with a shrug, “And although most people call me intelligent, I’m actually just highly logical and observant.”

Neville smiled at her, “Which means you can read people, I know.”

Hermione nodded, “So I asked Lilly if she was okay with both of you doing dangerous jobs once you had kids and she said she didn’t know because she hadn’t even thought about kids. She said she wasn’t like Sadie who got married at 19 or like me and Daphne who were engaged. She said she didn’t want any of that, she just wanted to travel the world and see new things while she was young.”

“I could handle that,” Neville said, “As long as she wanted to settle down one day.”

Hermione bit her lip.

“What is it? There’s more isn’t there?”

Hermione nodded, “I asked her if she wanted to do all of those things with you and she said…she said that she didn’t know.”

Neville let his head fall into his hands, “She said she didn’t know?” he asked, his voice was muffled but Hermione thought that he was crying.

“I’m so sorry Neville,” Hermione said as she bit down on her lip again, she hated being the bearer of bad news.

“Why is it always me, Hermione?” Neville asked quietly, “What’s wrong with me?”

“Neville,” Hermione sighed as she tightened her grip on his hand, “There is nothing wrong with you. Anyone would be lucky to have you and I think Lilly will realise that, I just hope she realises before it’s too late.”

“I think it might already be too late,” Neville said as he got to his feet and hastily rubbed his eyes, “I’ll sleep on it but when I go to talk to her tomorrow, unless she has a hell of a good excuse, I can’t see anything good coming from it.”

“I’m sorry,” Hermione said again.

Neville shook his head and sighed, “Don’t apologise Hermione. You’ve only been good to me over the years, I’m lucky to have you.”

“I just wish I could knock some sense into Lil,” Hermione admitted.

Neville shrugged, “She either loves me or she doesn’t. There’s nothing anyone can do about that.”

“Neville-”

“I’m going to bed, see you later Hermione,” Neville said, he sounded completely resigned and it made Hermione miserable.

***.

“Draco! Draco! They just floo-ed! Draco!”

“I can hear you!” Draco said irritably from inside his and Hermione’s bedroom.

“The Aurors just floo-ed Draco!” Harry shouted excitedly through the door.

The door opened and Draco slipped out in a pair of green silk pyjama bottoms, “Who floo-ed?”

“The Aurors,” Harry replied, “I can’t get into the alcove to talk to Nev because he’s put a whole bunch of charms up.”

“You’re about to start Auror training, can’t you disable them?” Draco yawned.

“As a future Auror, yes I could,” Harry replied, “But as his friend, I won’t. I’ll fill him in later if he comes out to stop wallowing.”

“What did they say?”

“It was Sheppard,” Harry said, “And he said that we start on the 2nd.”

“That’s a week today,” Draco realised.

Harry nodded, “He also said that the first two weeks of training are known as the isolation period. While they give us our basic training we have to stay on the base with no contact with the outside world whatsoever. Daphne really wasn’t happy when I told her that but it’s only two weeks then we can commute in from our own homes.”

“Hermione’s going to love that,” Draco muttered, “Did they tell you anything else?”

“Just that we need to be at the centre for 9am on Monday the 2nd of August,” Harry replied, “And to enjoy our weeks downtime because the first two weeks of basic training are really tough.”

Draco yawned again, “Thanks for letting me know, can I go back to bed now?”

“Yeah,” Harry said with a wave of his hand, “I’m going to give Nev until this afternoon then if he hasn’t surfaced I’m dragging him out of the annex for Theo’s thing.”

Draco frowned, “What thing are we talking about?”

“Theo invited us round for drinks in his man cave,” Harry reminded Draco, “Because Sadie and the girls are going for one final night out before Sadie goes to Cairo and Lil goes to France.”

“Do you think Lilly will go?” Draco asked, “After that argument she had with Hermione?”

“I don’t know,” Harry said honestly, “I guess we’ll find out tonight. Anyway, I’m going back to bed too, see you later.”

“See you later,” Draco echoed as he slipped back into his bedroom.

***.

“Theo, can I talk to you?”

Theo nodded and followed Neville to a quiet corner of his mancave, “Are you going to tell me why you haven’t said a word since you got here?”

“Don’t pretend Draco didn’t fill you in,” Neville said irritably, “He probably floo-ed you yesterday.”

“Yeah, he floo-ed last night,” Theo admitted sheepishly, “And I’m sorry Nev, it’s shit.”

Neville shrugged, “It is what it is. I was going to go over and talk to her today but I wanted to make sure I was calm before I did and I’m not calm at the moment.”

“So when are you going to talk to her?” Theo asked.

“Tomorrow maybe, if I’ve worked through everything in my head,” Neville said with a sigh, “I wanted to ask your advice about something though. You know how Sadie has to do two weeks training in Egypt then she’ll have to go back and forth for certain classes?”

Theo nodded, “Are you about to ask me how I’m going to handle the distance?”

Neville nodded, “Yeah.”

“Honestly, I know it’s going to be hard,” Theo replied, “I’m going to keep myself busy with Auror training to distract myself. We’ll floo all the time and we’ll write to each other but that’s not the secret to making it work.”

“What is?” Neville asked.

“Enjoying every moment of the time that we do have together,” Theo replied, “So that when we’re lonely and we miss each other, we have those memories to draw on.”

“So you have to have a strong relationship to make long distance work,” Neville said.

Theo nodded, “Yeah, I guess that’s one way of putting it.”

“I don’t think Lilly and me are strong enough,” Neville said as he began to walk back over to their friends.

“Nev-”

“There’s nothing more to say about it,” Neville said as he clammed up.

Theo shot Harry a look, Harry just shrugged. He had tried to talk to Neville too but he hadn’t gotten anywhere either.

“You need another drink, Draco,” Theo said as the air went a little awkward.

“I’m not having another one,” Draco said, “Hermione is already getting on at me enough without me adding something else into the mix.”

Theo snorted, “What have you done this time?”

“I underestimated her and spoke my mind to her,” Draco said with a roll of his eyes, “I should have known it was a bad idea.”

Theo sniggered at that, “What happened?”

“I was talking to her about all of the Auror training tests,” Draco explained, “And I told her about the doubts the Aurors had put in my head. They said I wasn’t good enough for her and I may have suggested that we were kidding ourselves if we thought things would work out. She got really pissed off and told me that I wasn’t allowed to tell her how she felt and that just because a bunch of Aurors said it wouldn’t work out, it didn’t mean it was true.”

“She has a point,” Harry said,

Theo nodded in agreement, “You and Hermione love each other and make each other happy. Nothing is going to change that, I mean look how much you’ve already overcome.”

“Jeez Theo, you sound just like her,” Draco said with a shake of his head.

“Hey when your fiancé and your boyfriend are in agreement, you know you’re in deep shit,” Harry joked.

“Hey, I don’t find this funny,” Draco objected, “I pissed her off so now she’s withholding if you catch my drift and for two weeks I’m going to be stuck in a dorm with you three idiots. I have needs and when I piss Hermione off, she doesn’t meet them.”

“Don’t underestimate Hermione Granger then,” Theo said as he shot his friend an amused look, “She loves you and she doesn’t care about anything else. When you find a girl who loves you like that, you don’t go around saying shit like you said.”

“Holy shit Theo,” Harry said through his laughter, “Look at you, giving everyone relationship advice.”

“I am the one with a wife,” Theo smirked, “A very hot wife who I have enjoyed in every single room of this house over the last 24 hours.”

Harry rolled his eyes, “Rub it in then, why don’t you? I’ve had lodgers since school finished, one day I’ll have the house to myself.”

“Don’t worry, as soon as my house is finished I’ll be out of your hair,” Draco said, “Because then I’ll have a house of my own with lots of rooms to explore.”

“As long as you don’t piss Hermione off again,” Theo joked.

Harry sniggered, “True. You’re becoming quite the agony Aunt Theo.”

“That kind of has a ring to it,” Theo said with a grin.

Draco shook his head in disbelief, “It’s a scary world that we live in when Theo Nott is the married, responsible one in our friend group…”

***.

When Neville walked into Longbottom House, he felt sick. He knew that he was going there with the purpose of breaking up with someone and potentially losing another friend. It felt like Hannah all over again.

The house was eerily quiet and as Neville stood in the entrance hall, for a moment he wondered if Lilly had already left.

“You’re back.”

Neville swallowed and looked up, “I was at Harry’s.”

“Go figure,” Lilly said from the top of the stairs.

“Can you come down Lilly? We need to talk,” Neville said.

Lilly walked down the stairs, “Kitchen?”

Neville nodded and followed her into the kitchen.

“Do you want a cup of tea?” Lilly asked, the air was incredibly awkward.

“I didn’t come here to drink tea Lilly,” Neville said as he looked up at her, “I don’t want to leave you at a loss so you can stay here until you leave for France but after that-”

“You’ll be at Auror training so why are you kicking me out?” Lilly asked.

“Because I don’t want my ex-girlfriend living in my house,” Neville replied sharply.

“What?”

“Hermione is my friend, she told me what you said,” Neville said firmly, “And I don’t think I want to be with someone who doesn’t know if they want me in their future.”

Lilly’s eyes widened, “Neville, you’re not breaking up with me.”

“That’s exactly what I’m doing Lilly,” Neville said as calmly as he could. Inside he felt sick and his heart was breaking.

“Neville, no,” Lilly said as she took a step towards him, “I know I hesitated on that question but I want to be with you.”

“You’re not sure about that Lilly, but I am,” Neville said, “I wanted to be with you, I wanted to be engaged and married. I wanted kids and all of the things you told Hermione you didn’t want.”

“I said I didn’t want them right now,” Lilly objected, “But I do want all of that Neville.”

Neville swallowed hard and tried to stop the tears in his eyes from spilling. He couldn’t look at her as he said hoarsely, “I don’t believe you Lilly because…I don’t trust you anymore.”

“All because of what Hermione said?” Lilly asked tearfully, “What makes her opinion matter more than mine? I’m your girlfriend!”

“You were my girlfriend,” Neville said quietly, “And Hermione has no reason to lie to me.”

“Neither do I!” Lilly exclaimed, “I love you Neville and I don’t want to lose you!”

Neville frowned and looked up at her. The outburst of emotion had been real and the tears falling down her face were real too.

“Maybe I am struggling with commitment issues but that doesn’t mean that I love you any less,” Lilly said as she looked him in the eye.

Neville knew she wouldn’t be able to look him in the eye and lie but he said, “Sometimes love isn’t enough Lilly.”

“Neville,” Lilly said, her tears fell faster and harder, “How can you do this? All of those years of friendship and everything we’ve been through together, doesn’t it mean anything?”

“It means everything!” Neville snapped. When he looked up at her his eyes were red and bloodshot, “_You _mean everything to me Lilly but this was why I didn’t want to get into a relationship with you! Hannah and I’s friendship was ruined by a bad break-up and I couldn’t bear the same thing happening to you and I.”

“Then let’s make sure we don’t let it,” Lilly begged, “If you love me then you will give this another chance.”

Neville shook his head angrily, “The problem is not me not loving you, alright? The problem is me loving you too much. Yes, this has been a whirlwind thing but I have fallen so hard for you, too hard I think. In a few weeks you went from being one of my best friends to being the most important person in my life and I want so much more from you than you want from me! I want to marry you and I don’t care that we’re young, I want to have kids with you. I can’t be with you if you aren’t sure that you want those things.”

“I don’t know what I want yet Neville,” Lilly said as she wiped the tears from her eyes, “I need time to work it out but I know I want you, I know I need you in my life.”

Neville sighed, “I’m giving you time Lilly, plenty of it.”

“I don’t mean indefinitely Nev,” Lilly said, she stared up at him and those blue eyes managed to melt his heart as usual. They looked so much bluer after all of the tears she had shed.

“How would we even make things work?” Neville asked, “Even if time did help you work out what you want, you would still be living in France for 6 months. How would we manage that exactly?”

“I don’t know,” Lilly replied, “But we have to try. I’m not prepared to give up our relationship in a heartbeat without trying.”

“What do you suggest then?” Neville asked as he looked away from her.

“A break,” Lilly replied, “You have two weeks of isolation as part of your training so why don’t we have this talk again when you come out?”

“A break?”

Lilly nodded, “A break from our relationship.”

Neville sighed again, “Fine but I still need you out of this house after the 31st.”

Lilly nodded tearfully, “I’m sorry Neville.”

“Yeah, I’m sorry too,” Neville said quietly as he turned to leave, “And I don’t want to see you between now and the 31st.”

“What about the joint birthday party?” Lilly asked.

“I don’t want to see you there,” Neville said firmly, “If you need to say goodbye to Sadie before she goes to Cairo then that’s fine, but don’t do it in front of me. If this is a break then it’s a clean one, do you understand?”

Neville couldn’t see Lilly’s face but he could tell that she was crying as she said, “I understand.”

Neville felt like he was breaking his own heart as he walked out of Longbottom House but he couldn’t have another toxic relationship like the one he had with Hannah.

***.

Sadie had known that Theo was holding back when he told her about the tests they had put him through over the weekend. However, she wasn’t aware of the extent of his suffering until Tuesday night. He had carried on as if he were fine, but in all fairness, Sadie had noticed that he hadn’t been sleeping great. She had put that down to the excitement on Sunday night and then down to the fact he had crashed in his mancave on Monday night after all his boozing with the boys.

On Tuesday night, they went to bed together as they usually did but Sadie was woken up abruptly in the early hours of Wednesday morning. At first she thought an alarm was going off outside but as she woke up, she realised the sounds were coming from Theo.

“No! No! Mum, no!” Theo was shouting, his shouts became screams and Sadie couldn’t make out much more than the words ‘no’ and ‘Mum’. She wanted to grab Theo and shake him hard to wake him up but she knew that it could be dangerous to wake someone up abruptly in the middle of a bad nightmare.

He was throwing himself around the bed so violently that it scared Sadie.

“No! Leave her alone!” Theo shouted as he thrashed as if he was trying to fight someone, “Not Sadie! No, not Sadie!”

Sadie bit her lip hard, she had to wake him up from whatever hell was going on inside his head so she placed a hand on his arm and gripped him hard, “Theo, it’s okay,” she said as softly as she could, “I’m here, you just need to wake up.”

“No, no, no,” Theo mumbled over and over again.

“I’m fine Theo, just wake up,” Sadie said in the most soothing voice she could manage.

She must have reached his subconscious because his eyes popped open. He looked terrified and his entire body was shaking, he was also soaked to the skin with sweat.

“Sadie,” Theo gasped, he grabbed her and pulled her in close.

Sadie shut her eyes tightly and hugged him, “Theo, what’s going on?”

Theo’s breathing was still very heavy, “I didn’t tell you everything, I’m sorry,” he said, his voice was thick with emotion.

When Sadie drew back, she was surprised to see tears running down his cheeks, “It was hell Sadie, it was hell.”

“Your nightmare?” Sadie asked, she felt herself getting close to tears. She hated to see Theo like this.

He shook his head, “No, the mental tests they did,” he said, “Every time I shut my eyes I see it…I see it all.”

“Shh,” Sadie shushed him, “Talk to me about it Theo, maybe talking about it will help.”

Theo’s breathing began to slow down, “They threatened you when they tortured me. They crushed and broke my bones then they used the cruciatus curse on me and the pain was…it was so bad but I was just about holding it together then they threatened you.”

“It wasn’t real baby,” Sadie said softly.

“But it could be,” Theo said as he turned his wide, terrified eyes on her, “It could happen and I can’t let it. I can’t let anyone hurt you.”

“Nobody will,” Sadie said, she grabbed his hand and gripped it tightly, “Not when I have my wonderful Auror Husband looking out for me.”

Theo frowned and looked down.

“There’s more, isn’t there?” Sadie asked gently, “What else did they do to you?”

Theo swallowed hard and shut his eyes, “When they interviewed me they asked about my Father and…my Mother. They said that they needed to know that I wasn’t cruel like my Father, they said-”

His voice trailed off because he couldn’t keep it together. He shut his eyes tightly and Sadie saw more tears fall, “What did they say?”

“They said that they needed to make sure that I wouldn’t lose my temper if you left me for someone else,” Theo said quietly, “They thought I would do to you what my Father did to my Mother.”

Sadie swallowed, “Theo, that is disgusting. It was completely out of order of them to say something like that to you!”

“I know,” Theo said tearfully, “But every time I try to sleep I see my Mother trying to claw her way out of that basement then I see myself…I see myself locking you in with her.”

“Theo,” Sadie said firmly, “Snap out of it, you are nothing like your Father! Your Father was a sick, twisted, cold man but you are sweet, caring and brave. Those Aurors shouldn’t have said what they did to you, don’t let them get inside your head.”

Theo nodded and wiped his eyes on the edge of the t-shirt he had worn to bed, “I’m sorry, I should have told you straight away.”

Sadie shook her head, “Don’t be sorry, I understand why you couldn’t talk to me about it.”

“That man terrified me Sadie,” Theo admitted quietly, “That basement made me…I think it screwed me up, the way he treated me. Small spaces freak me out, being locked in somewhere terrifies me. When they put us in that room with the Death Eater then locked the door…”

“You were straight back to your childhood,” Sadie whispered.

Theo nodded and looked up at her through his bloodshot eyes, “I was a terrified kid again, beaten by my Father then locked in the basement where he had murdered my Mother.”

“Your Father was sick Theo, one of the sickest of Voldemort’s followers,” Sadie said, “But you aren’t your Father, just like Draco isn’t his Father. Every time you have the nightmares or you find yourself feeling scared, just tell yourself that.”

“I am not my Father,” Theo said firmly as he wiped his eyes again.

Sadie nodded and looked at him with a fire in her eyes, “Exactly, and if those Aurors try anything like that again, I will give them a piece of my mind.”

Theo looked up and smiled weakly at her, “I always knew you should have been a Hufflepuff.”

Sadie shot him an amused look, “If it wasn’t for the state you were in, I would have hit you for that comment.”

Theo chuckled quietly, “Thanks Sade and…don’t tell any of the guys about this. Okay?”

Sadie smiled slightly, “Don’t worry baby, I wouldn’t dream of ruining your reputation.”

“Knew I kept you around for a reason,” Theo joked in an effort to make the air feel less awkward.

**TBC.**


	83. Breaking Your Own Hearts

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter title comes from the song:  
Breaking Your Own Heart by Kelly Clarkson

“Nev!” Harry said with relief when he walked into the annex and saw his friend lying on the sofa, “Where were you all night? I was worried sick!”

“I was drinking my sorrows away,” Neville said dryly.

“You could have told me,” Harry said, “I thought after talking to Lilly you had…done something really stupid.”

“The only stupid thing I did was let Lilly talk me out of breaking up with her,” Neville said as he opened his eyes and looked at Harry, “Apparently we’re on a break until after our isolation period ends.”

“A break?” Harry asked with a frown, “Like when you can both see other people? That kind of break?”

“I guess,” Neville shrugged, “I didn’t really stay around for long enough to get a definition.”

“Well maybe it’s better this way,” Harry said diplomatically, “You and Lilly have something real, throwing it away after one argument would be careless. Maybe some time will help you both realise what you want.”

“I know what I want Harry,” Neville said sharply, “It’s Lilly who needs to figure things out.”

Harry sighed, “That’s what I mean Nev, maybe some time will make her realise just what she’s missing.”

Neville rolled his eyes, “What is it with all of you saying that? It’s not like I’m some great catch, I’m Neville Longbottom, the idiot who got hung on a chandelier by a bunch of pixies, the stupid boy who can’t get up the grand staircase without falling through the invisible step. So what? I killed one snake, it doesn’t make me a hero.”

“It does, actually,” Harry said sincerely, “Because if you hadn’t killed that snake, when I went into that final duel with Voldemort, he would have won. I don’t know how many lives you saved when you killed that snake but I know it’s a lot. As for the whole being the guy who got caught by the pixies and puts his foot in the invisible step thing, that’s the guy Lilly loves. It isn’t about stupid things like that in the past Nev, it’s about the fact you are one of the most genuine guys I know. It’s about the fact you wear your heart on your sleeve and when you fall in love, you fall hard. That’s what makes you a catch, not the fact you killed a snake once.”

Neville looked up at Harry in surprise, “What the hell was that?”

Harry shrugged and looked down sheepishly, “I’ve been reading some of Daph’s romance books, okay? And…well, you and I are alike. I know what it’s like to fall harder and faster than the other person and I know what it’s like to wear your heart on your sleeve.”

Neville frowned, “You fell in love with Daphne before she fell in love with you,” he said.

Harry nodded, “Yeah, it took her a long time to be able to date me and that was because she had commitment issues but once she got over them…well things changed. She went from being terrified of relationships to saying yes when I proposed to her and now we’re talking about adopting Teddy.”

“What are you saying, Harry?” Neville asked as he looked up at his friend again.

“I’m saying that when two people are in a relationship, they aren’t always ready for the next step at the same time,” Harry said honestly, “By all means, do this whole break thing and see if some space helps, but you might just have to accept that Lilly does want all the same things that you want but that she isn’t quite ready for them yet.”

Neville groaned and let his head fall into his hands, “I was a dick to her yesterday. I banned her from our joint party…I even said she couldn’t say goodbye to Sadie at her goodbye dinner, I said she had to do it when I wasn’t there.”

“Nev, you share all of the same friends,” Harry pointed out, “And that party is 50% mine, you had no right to ban her from it.”

“I know.”

“I’m going to re-invite her,” Harry said, “And that’s not me taking sides, I just…I like Lil and I understand how lonely she must be right now. I’ve had times when all of my friends have abandoned me and it’s not nice.”

“It’s fine Harry,” Neville said with a nod, “I think we do need to give ourselves this break that she was talking about but I don’t have the right to keep her from her friends so talk to her, please.”

Harry nodded and headed towards the door, “Nev?”

“Yeah?”

“Next time you need to talk, just talk to me,” Harry said quietly, “Don’t go out and get wasted on your own. You’re my Auror partner now and you’re my best friend, just talk to me, please.”

“I will,” Neville promised, “I just wasn’t thinking straight, I’m sorry.”

Harry nodded but said no more as he left the annex.

***.

“It’s all my fault.”

Daphne frowned, “What?”

“Neville and Lilly going on a break,” Hermione explained, “It’s all my fault.”

“Why?” Daphne asked with narrowed eyes, “Did you tell him to break up with her?”

“Not in so many words,” Hermione replied honestly, “But he asked for my advice when we talked out in the garden and I think what I said made him break up with her.”

“What did you say?” Daphne asked as she stopped preparing the vegetables.

“I told him what Lilly said, about not knowing whether she had a future with Neville,” Hermione admitted.

“Hermione,” Daphne groaned.

“What?” Hermione said defensively, “He had a right to know! Neville is my friend, I don’t want him to get hurt like he did by Hannah.”

“Lilly is supposed to be your friend too,” Daphne reminded her, “And she probably told you that in confidence.”

“I was just trying to help,” Hermione said a little tearfully.

“The best way to help when couples argue is not to get involved,” Daphne advised her, “Because now Lilly is probably angry at you which she has a right to be by the way, I would be angry too.”

“Should I apologise?”

“This is Lilly we’re talking about,” Daphne reminded her, “Do you really think she would accept an apology at the moment?”

“What do I do then?” Hermione asked as she bit her lip hard.

“Owl her,” Daphne replied, “At least that way she can’t curse you. After that, wait for her to approach you. Once she’s calmed down she’ll talk to you, she’s emotional but she’s also logical. I think that’s part of the problem with you two, you’re too similar.”

You and I argue and we’re not too similar,” Hermione pointed out.

“Friends argue, Hermione,” Daphne said with a slight smile, “We argue because we love each other. If we didn’t argue then it would mean that we didn’t care. Lilly will forgive you, but you have to give her time.”

Hermione nodded and wiped her eyes, “And don’t meddle in any relationships, ever again.”

Daphne gave her a rueful smile, “Something like that, come here.”

Hermione wasn’t proud, she knew when she needed a hug and right now was one of those times. She stepped forward and hugged Daphne tightly, “I feel terrible.”

“I know,” Daphne said as she patted her on the back, “But it’s not irreparable, okay? We will fix things.”

“She didn’t come out with us on Monday,” Hermione said as she pulled back, “But that was before Neville had spoken to her.”

“She’s hurting and when people hurt, they hide themselves away,” Daphne said honestly, “But she will come out eventually and when she does, we just need to make sure that we do whatever we can to help her.”

“Without getting too involved,” Hermione added.

Daphne smiled, “Exactly. Now are you going to help me finish this birthday cake or not?”

***.

When Harry knocked on the door of Longbottom House, there was no answer. When he knocked a second time, he didn’t even hear any movement coming from inside the house so he was sure that Lilly was ignoring him.

He sighed and raised his hand to knock a third time but before he could, the door swung open. Harry had expected to see Lilly but in her place was her house-elf.

“Oh hi,” Harry said brightly, “Would I be able to talk to Lilly?”

“Mistress Lilly is in her bedroom mister Harry,” The elf said, “I is worried about her but she tells me no guests.”

“I’ll say I broke in then,” Harry promised the elf, “I’m training to be an Auror, it could easily be the truth. Where’s her bedroom?”

“Upstairs, first door,” The elf replied, “Please don’t tell her I lets you in mister Harry.”

“I promise, I won’t,” Harry said as he jogged up the stairs and followed the elves directions. He knocked on the door first, he didn’t want to walk in on her getting changed or something.

“I told you Tokey, I’m not hungry!”

“I’m not Tokey and I don’t have any food,” Harry said, “Are you decent?”

“Harry, how the hell did you get in here?”

“I’m training to be an Auror, I know how to pick a lock,” Harry said as he opened the door and peeked in, “Oh thank Merlin, you’re not naked.”

Lilly glared at him, “What do you want?”

“I just came to apologise for Neville being a dick,” Harry said honestly, “He had no right to uninvite you to our party because it’s 50% mine and I 100% want you there. He also had no right to ban you from Sadie’s leaving dinner because it is also _your _leaving dinner.”

Lilly narrowed her eyes at him, “Why should I believe you? Neville is your best friend and your Auror partner, you must be on his side.”

“I hate sides,” Harry said matter of factly as he stepped into the bedroom and flung the curtains open, “And frankly, you look as shit as he does. Minus, the effects of alcohol poisoning.”

“He’s hungover?”

“I think he might still be drunk actually,” Harry said, he had to try not to laugh as Lilly pulled the covers up to shield herself from the bright light streaming in through the window.

“Some friend you are,” Lilly grumbled, “Aren’t friends supposed to be supportive? They don’t just come storming into their friends’ bedroom telling them that they look like shit.”

“I am supportively telling you that you look like shit to get you out of bed,” Harry said matter of factly, “You need a shower because you also smell. There’s no way you’re going to your leaving dinner tonight stinking and looking like shit.”

“You’re right because I’m not going,” Lilly said irritably, “Why would I want to sit in the same room as the guy who just tried to break up with me? I had to beg him to let us have a break so we could see how we felt at the end of it.”

“Look, I don’t do sides, okay?” Harry said, “But you were as much to blame as he was. I think this whole break thing is a good idea, I hope it will give you both some perspective. But break or not, you can’t avoid all of your friends for the next two weeks so get your arse into the bathroom and get your life together.”

“Or what?” Lilly asked as she pulled the cover down and glared at him.

“Or I will come here tonight and drag you to Sadie and Theo’s place myself,” Harry said, “You don’t have to talk to Neville, you don’t even have to look at him if you don’t want to but you do have to come to your own leaving dinner.”

“Fine,” Lilly said irritably, “But I’m not coming to the party.”

“Yes you are,” Harry said as he walked towards the door, “But we’ll have that argument another day.”

***.

“Is Lilly coming?” Sadie asked as she looked around the kitchen of her home.

“She’s coming,” Harry assured her, “I told her if she wasn’t here by 6.30pm, I would go to Longbottom House and drag her here myself.”

“It’s 6.28pm,” Daphne pointed out.

“Yeah but this is Lilly we’re talking about,” Susan said with an amused smile, “She won’t let Harry humiliate her by dragging her here. She’ll be here.”

“She will probably show up at 6.30pm exactly, just to piss you off,” Hermione added.

“What did you two fight about anyway?” Susan asked.

Neville sighed, “It’s a long story.”

“Which means he doesn’t want to talk about it tonight,” Harry said pointedly, “Tonight is about saying goodbye to Sadie and Lil for a couple of weeks, not about Neville and Lilly’s relationship.”

“I hear you, loud and clear,” Susan said as she shot an amused look at Neville, “Would you look at that Nev, the chosen one becomes your Auror partner and your bodyguard at the same time.”

Neville chuckled, “Yeah, it’s kind of annoying actually.”

“Hey, it’s a sought-after service,” Harry joked, “You could at least be grateful.”

Neville shook his head in amusement, but Harry was just glad to see him smiling. The clock ticked to 6.30pm and right on time, the floo whirred.

“Told ya,” Susan smirked.

Harry could have rolled his eyes as Lilly stepped into the kitchen. She was dressed in jeans and a blouse, like most of the other girls. The theme had been smart-casual, so Daphne had shown up in a blouse adorned with diamante’s, naturally.

“Hey Lil,” Harry said with a smile, “You look great and you smell amazing.”

Daphne frowned at Harry’s choice of words, not to mention the fact that Lilly was glaring at him.

“Thanks Harry,” She said stiffly.

Sadie looked between Lilly and Neville nervously, they refused to meet each other’s eyes. She was afraid that the entire evening would be awkward so she said, “Okay guys! Do you want to take your seats? Harry and Daphne over there, Draco and Hermione across from them, Suse and Percy just here and Theo and I are across from you. Nev, you’re the head of the table up here and Lil, that’s you down there.”

Harry could have shaken his head at the obvious separation of Neville and Lilly. He knew it was for the best but everyone else was sitting in a coupling and Sadie had put the two of them as far apart as she possibly could. Neither of them argued against it as they sat down but Daphne did mutter to Harry, “Why did you tell her she smelled nice?”

“Because when I went to see her this afternoon I said she looked like shit and needed a shower because she smelled,” Harry whispered back.

Daphne rolled her eyes, “Arsehole.”

“What? I needed to get her out of bed somehow,” Harry murmured.

“So you insulted her? Honestly, no wonder you and Draco are such good friends,” Daphne said with a shake of her head.

Harry couldn’t say anymore to defend himself, not that he thought it would help anyway, because as soon as everyone was sitting, Theo stood to make an announcement.

“I just wanted to thank all you guys for coming,” He said, “This new job is a big deal for Sadie and although it’s going to suck that she’ll be gone for a few weeks, I know it’s going to be worth it for her.”

Sadie smiled at that, but those who knew Theo best could see the pain and concern in his eyes. He hadn’t disclosed the full extent of his concerns to Sadie and they knew that he never would because he didn’t want to say anything that would stop her from going.

“And then there’s Lilly,” Theo added, “Who has to go spend 6 months in France. Merlin knows how she’s going to cope amongst all those frogs, but when she comes back she’ll be ready to heal us Aurors up.”

Lilly smiled slightly, “The French aren’t that bad Theo.”

Theo made a face, “Each to their own I suppose. Anyway, this might be the last meal we all have together for quite a while so let’s just enjoy it!”

He clinked his spoon against his glass and all of the dishes magically uncovered themselves, “Tuck in!”

Everyone did so, and as they ate, they talked to those sitting nearby them at the table.

“Do you think I should try to apologise to Lilly?” Hermione asked Susan in an undertone.

Susan frowned, “What do you have to apologise for?”

“It’s sort of my fault they broke up,” Hermione admitted sheepishly, “I gave him some misguided advice.”

“Don’t be so harsh on yourself,” Susan said gently, “That doesn’t make it your fault. Trust me, it really was my fault that Neville and Hannah broke up.”

“That was for the best though,” Hermione said as she bit her lip, “Hannah wasn’t right for Neville and unfortunately it took a lot of suffering for him to be able to see that but Lilly…she’s perfect for him. Surely you can see that?”

Susan nodded as she glanced over at Lilly, the dark-haired girl was pushing her food around her plate and refusing to look up at anyone, “Yeah, I can. She keeps him grounded, stops him from starting to think he’s Neville the snake killing hero, you know? She indulges him when he gets all nerdy and wants to talk Herbology, she even offered to help him plant his magical garden at Longbottom House. She introduces him to new things, she challenges him, she is very good for him.”

“Too good to lose,” Hermione said, “And with them being on a break or whatever it is, I think things might go sour.”

“Or they will totally go the other way,” Susan pointed out, “It could make them both realise how stupid they’re being and how much they love each other. At the end of the day Hermione, it could go either way but it’s up to them which way they let it go.”

Hermione nodded, “I know, I’ll stay out of it. I learned my lesson after the last time I tried to meddle.”

“They will work it out on their own, one way or another,” Susan said knowingly, “But nobody can help them with that, as much as we all want to.”

…

At the other end of the table, after seeing how miserable her friend was, Sadie struck up conversation, “Are you looking forward to going to France, Lil?”

“I’m nervous,” Lilly admitted, “I know it’s going to be hard but I think when they actually throw us into training, I’ll be shocked by how hard it is.”

“But it will be amazing to live in another country for a few months,” Sadie said, “I can’t wait to observe another culture, one so different to what I know. I have no idea what wizarding Egypt is like but I can’t wait to find out.”

Lilly smiled, “I’m excited to see France. I’ve never even been abroad before so for my first time leaving Britain to be for 6 months, its quite a big change.”

Sadie chuckled, “I bet you will take to it really well though. Where are you staying?”

“In dorms at the training centre,” Lilly replied, “It’s on the outskirts of Amiens. I think I might try to find out a little about the military history when I’m there. My Great Grandfather fought in World War One and he was stationed in France, he was a muggle, obviously.”

“That’s interesting,” Theo said from Sadie’s other side, “My Grandfather was in the wizarding guards, he was stationed in Belgium in World War One.”

“There was a wizarding contingent in World War One?” Lilly asked in surprise.

“And in World War 2,” Percy piped up from Lilly’s other side, “The wizarding guards fought on horseback didn’t they? They were similar to the force that muggles call cavalry, only with wands.”

Theo nodded, “That’s right, I think some of them rode Thestrals too. Then there were the dragon riders, they destroyed more cities than the muggle bombs did.”

“Did the muggles know?” Lilly asked.

“Only those with the highest security clearance,” Percy replied.

“That’s really interesting,” Lilly mused, “I wonder why we never learned about that in History of Magic.”

“Oh that’s because it’s still in living memory,” Sadie said, “Wizards live longer than muggles so we can’t study things in the near past. Out of respect to those who fought and died, we have to wait until they are out of living memory.”

“I guess that makes sense,” Lilly mused.

“I might see if I can find out anything about my Great Grandfather when I come visit you in France,” Susan said, “He fought out there too.”

“Are you going to come and visit? That would be great,” Lilly said.

“Of course I’ll visit,” Susan said, “We’re not just going to leave you on your own in France for 6 months!”

“How are you two going to work things out, with visits?” Harry asked Theo and Sadie curiously.

“Well for the first two weeks that Sadie is away, I’ll be locked in the Auror training base,” Theo said, “But after that, I guess we’ll just take it in turns when she’s away. One weekend I’ll go to Egypt and another weekend, she’ll come here.”

“I promised Theo I wouldn’t do any of the cool things like the pyramids until he’s there to do them with me,” Sadie said with a smile.

Daphne chuckled, “Yeah, you’ll love all of the mutated corpses Theo. You’ll have to tell me if you like it out there Sade, there’s a chance I could get posted to Egypt for a few months as a curse breaker.”

“Not straight away though,” Harry said with a frown.

“No, I would have to be fully qualified first,” Daphne said, “And I would have to discuss it with you before I even considered it, of course.”

Harry smiled slightly, “I would probably let you go, unless Ted needed you around 24/7 for some reason. You’re not running off to Egypt to get out of potty training.”

“Won’t Andromeda be doing that anyway?” Susan asked with a chuckle, “She is his Grandma after all.”

“Yeah,” Harry said with a slight smile, “We were meaning to tell you guys about that. Daphne and I are really seriously talking about adopting Ted, we don’t know when we’re going to do it but we are definitely going to do it.”

“Wow,” Susan said as her eyes widened, “That’s big.”

“But not surprising,” Percy said thoughtfully.

“You already love Teddy like he’s your own,” Hermione said with a smile.

Sadie nodded, “That’s great, you will be a proper little family.”

“Don’t get too excited just yet,” Daphne said to her oldest friend with a smile, “Like Harry said, we don’t know when it’s happening yet.”

The group all congratulated Harry and Daphne once more then the small-talk moved away from Egypt and France and babies for a while. They talked about Quidditch and Auror training as they finished their meal. Once everyone was full to the bursting, they all headed upstairs into the drawing room where Theo got everyone drinks.

They split up into little groups naturally because of the way the room was laid out and Lilly took this as her chance to catch Sadie alone.

“Sadie, can I talk to you? Out of earshot of the others,” Lilly asked quietly.

Sadie could tell that her friend needed to talk so she nodded, “Of course you can, come out onto the balcony with me.”

Lilly followed Sadie out onto the balcony and the blonde girl pulled the door shut behind her. There wasn’t really room for any chairs out here so Sadie sat down in the warm evening air and let her feet dangle over the balcony edge through the railings.

Lilly chuckled and followed her lead, she already felt better for the warm breeze and the fresh air.

“Is this about you and Nev?” Sadie asked knowingly.

Lilly sighed, “I thought you might be the best person to talk to since you and Theo…”

“Since he was a womanising bastard and nobody understands why I married him?” Sadie guessed.

“No Sadie,” Lilly said sharply, “That wasn’t what I was going to say at all.”

“You were thinking it,” Sadie said with a shrug, “Everybody does but the thing is, that whole macho man thing is just a façade. Underneath that the Theo I love is…he’s worth his reputation.”

“But,” Lilly said as she bit her lip, “Didn’t you worry that he would struggle with commitment? Because of his…past discretions.”

Sadie raised an eyebrow at Lilly, “Why don’t you just tell me what this is about Lil. I find it hard to believe that Nev has commitment issues.”

“He doesn’t,” Lilly admitted, “I do.”

Sadie smiled slightly, “Well maybe you should talk to Theo if you think he’s the one with the commitment issues.”

Lilly frowned, “What do you mean if I _think_?”

“I mean, yes somebody had commitment issues,” Sadie said honestly, “Somebody called off our engagement over an argument once. Somebody tried to run away the night before our wedding, but it wasn’t Theo.”

“Really?” Lilly asked in surprise, “How did I not know that? I mean I know that you gave him the ring back when that list came out during the prank war but how did I not know that you nearly got cold feet?”

“Because the only person who does is Daph,” Sadie said honestly, “Somebody had to track me down and tell me that I was being an idiot.”

“But if you love Theo then why did you do it?” Lilly asked.

“Because I got scared,” Sadie admitted, “Theo has a reputation and most of the time it doesn’t bother me. But the night before our wedding, I realised that most of the world thought I was the fool marrying Theo Nott. Daphne found me and told me that it didn’t matter what the rest of the world thought, it mattered what I thought.”

Lilly nodded slowly and looked out over London. The street below was busy with muggles who were going about their daily business.

“But you got over your fears because you did marry Theo,” Lilly said after a moment of contemplation.

“I realised that Daphne was right,” Sadie said, “I was being stupid, it didn’t matter what anyone else thought. How I felt was what mattered and I knew that I loved Theo. I knew that I wanted to spend the rest of my life with him, I could see our future.”

“What if I can’t?” Lilly asked as she turned to Sadie with tear-filled eyes, “I know Neville is perfect and I love him, I really do. But when I close my eyes, I can’t picture a wedding or kids running around. All that’s there is just…nothing.”

Sadie bit her lip, “Well…don’t take this the wrong way Lil but, I know Ravenclaws are really smart but you guys are highly logical, aren’t you?”

Lilly frowned, “Logical and observant, yes.”

“But being smart and having an imagination, they aren’t necessarily the same thing,” Sadie said.

“Wait…what are you saying, Sadie?” Lilly asked.

“I’m saying, just because you can’t imagine those things, it doesn’t mean that you don’t want them,” Sadie said honestly, “What would you say if he were to propose to you?”

“At the moment, I think I would just cry and run away,” Lilly admitted, “I’m so confused Sadie. It seems like all of you guys want to get married, have kids or adopt them or whatever, but right now I want a career. I want to get through my training and I want to become the best trauma healer that I can be. Beyond that, I don’t know what I want.”

“Which is why you and Neville are having a break,” Sadie realised, “To work out what you want.”

“To work out if I can be what he wants,” Lilly said quietly, “I don’t want to be like Hannah. I don’t want to lead him on, I don’t want to hurt him.”

Sadie nodded, “I understand that and I think what you are doing is very sensible. It must be hard though.”

“It is,” Lilly sighed, “Because, although I don’t know what I want in the future, right now I know that I want Neville and…I miss him.”

Sadie reached over and grabbed her friends hand, “It’s going to get better Lil and I bet those two weeks will fly by. You’re both going to be so busy.”

“Yeah,” Lilly said as she looked down at her hands, “I hope so…but the party is definitely not going to fly by.”

“Just try to avoid each other if you think it will cause a fight,” Sadie said, “And if you need someone to talk to or drink with or dance with, I’ll be there.”

“Thanks Sadie,” Lilly said as she managed a small, but genuine smile.

***.

“I’m not going.”

“Yes, you are,” Harry said.

“I’m not!” Lilly said as she crossed her arms stubbornly, “And I don’t know why you’ve brought Susan as back-up.”

“I’m here because I’m also going it alone to this party,” Susan said, “Perce has to go away for work. I figured we could get ready and go to the party together.”

“So I don’t look pathetic walking in by myself while my…while Neville lives it up?” Lilly asked hotly.

“Neville is not living it up,” Harry told her, “Neville is moping around looking like shit, alright? So don’t try and twist this into something that it’s not. Regardless of what is going on between you two, all of your friends will be at this party.”

“There’s no way we’re going to let you sit around and mope,” Susan added, “You’re coming, even if I have to drag you.”

Lilly rolled her eyes, “Ugh! Why can’t you lot just let me mope in peace!” she exclaimed as she dove under her covers.

Harry shot Susan an exasperated look, “I’ll leave her in your hands. I need to get back to Potter Manor to finish setting things up for the party.”

Susan nodded, “Don’t worry, I’ll get her there,” she promised.

***.

“This looks great!”

“Didn’t I tell you that I was good at throwing a party?” Draco asked with a smirk.

“Hey, who manipulated the weather environment spell to give us a heat wave?” Hermione objected.

Harry sniggered at that, “Thanks Hermione, that’s the most important thing. We can’t have a barbeque without a bit of sun, can we?”

Draco rolled his eyes, “So I set the whole garden up but she gets the high praise because she brought the sun out?”

“Yep,” Daphne said from where she was lying on a sun lounger.

Harry grinned, “What did you do to help, Daph?”

“Oh I made sure everything was where you wanted it,” Daphne said as she looked at him over the top of her glasses.

“From the comfort of her sun lounger,” Draco muttered.

Harry shook his head and chuckled in amusement, “Come on, you weren’t expecting anything more from her, were you?”

“No,” Draco said as he shot his friend an amused look, “I know what she’s like.”

“High maintenance,” Harry mumbled with a smile, “Hard work.”

“I can hear you,” Daphne pointed out.

Harry just shook his head and looked around the garden. It really did look fantastic, Draco had set up tables and chairs on the patio area to make it look like an outdoor restaurant. He had also covered the whole area with a huge gazebo.

“So do I need to do anything?” Harry asked.

Draco shook his head, “All the charms are set up on the Quidditch pitch, I just need to light it up for the game.”

“And I’ve set out all of the jars,” Hermione said, “I’ll fill them all with magical fires just before the party starts tonight.”

“Thanks guys,” Harry said with a genuine smile.

“You shouldn’t have to set up your own birthday party, Harry,” Hermione said with a smile, “We didn’t mind.”

“Speaking of birthdays, where is Neville?” Harry asked.

“We haven’t seen him all morning,” Hermione admitted, “How is Lilly?”

“As miserable as Neville is,” Harry said honestly, “I’ve managed to convince her to come to the party tonight but I doubt we’ll see her this afternoon.”

“Theo floo-ed,” Draco said, “He and Sadie are heading over after lunch.”

“When they get here tell them to keep the public displays of affection to a minimum,” Harry said as he glanced over at the annex, all of the curtains were drawn shut, “It’s going to be hard enough for Nev and Lil.”

Draco nodded, “Sure, I’ll tell them.”

“Are you going to go and talk to him?” Hermione asked with a frown, “I’m worried.”

“So am I,” Harry said honestly, “I’ll see you guys later. Oh Daph, I know you want to sun yourself until you turn into a prune babe but I need you to go the kitchen. The elves need to know what kind of finger food to serve at the party.”

“Alright,” Daphne said as she made a show of how difficult it was to get up from her sun lounger.

Harry grinned at her as he began to walk towards the annex, “Yeah I know, it’s a hard life.”

Daphne shot him a grin in response as she disappeared into the house.

***.

“Neville, if you don’t unlock the door I’m breaking in.”

“It’s not locked,” Neville drawled, “I’ve just been ignoring everyone all morning.”

Harry rolled his eyes and pushed the door open. When he stepped in, he found Neville lying on the sofa again, “There’s a bedroom upstairs in here mate.”

“The sofa is comfy,” Neville shrugged.

“Happy birthday,” Harry said as he shut the door behind him and observed his friend.

“Well, half right,” Neville said, “It is my birthday.”

Harry sighed, “We’re having a party tonight Nev, you could at least pretend to be happy that it’s your birthday.”

“I’m not going.”

“You can’t not go,” Harry said in exasperation, “It’s our birthday party, you kind of need to be there.”

“So I can spend a night trying to avoid Lilly again?” Neville asked irritably, “It was bad enough at the leaving dinner!”

“This is different,” Harry said honestly, “This is a big party, not a small gathering. It will be much easier to avoid her.”

“Oh because that makes it so much better,” Neville muttered sarcastically.

“Look Neville, I know you miss her and I know this sucks, alright?” Harry said, “But you can’t spend the next two weeks moping around the place.”

Neville rubbed his eyes, “I’ll be fine, you don’t have to keep checking in on me.”

“I do actually, because you and Lilly both love each other so much that neither of you are coping with being apart very well,” Harry admitted, “I’ve already spent half an hour at Longbottom House trying to force her to come to the party tonight, don’t make me force you too.”

“Fine,” Neville sighed, “But as for the whole faking happiness thing, I don’t know if I can manage that.”

“Baby steps, I guess,” Harry said as he headed for the door, “You should check out the garden by the way, it looks great.”

Neville just waved an uninterested hand at this comment.

***.

Neville had been dreading the evening for the entire day. For the most part he had locked himself up in the annex but eventually he had been forced to get dressed and head outside for his and Harry’s party.

The first thing he did was grab a drink and the second thing he did was find a quiet corner of the garden to sulk in, it happened to be the magical plant garden. He couldn’t help but nervously watch the door as he waited for Lilly to show up, he wished that he hadn’t because when she did walk into the garden with Susan, she looked amazing.

Neville sighed and tore his eyes away from Lilly, he could see that she was scanning the crowd for him. He saw the relief flood her when she didn’t see him and that made him feel really angry.

“Fine,” He said to himself as he got up, “If she’s so desperate to avoid me, I might as well give her a challenge.”

He knew that it was petty but that was just how he was feeling right now. Neville re-joined the party and put on a fake smile, “Good work with the set-up Harry.”

Harry smiled at his friend, “Thanks but it wasn’t me.”

Draco rolled his eyes, “It was me but Hermione got all of the credit because she made it hot.”

Neville chuckled, “I don’t suppose my illustrious ex has arrived yet?”

“Yeah, her and Susan just got here,” Harry said with a slight frown, “And if you’re on a break, she’s not your ex.”

Neville shrugged, “She might as well be. A break means that we can see other people so I might as well have fun tonight, right?”

Harry and Draco shared a glance, “Uh…” Harry said.

“I wouldn’t,” Draco added, “When girls say a break, I don’t think that’s quite what they mean.”

Neville scoffed, “Well what other point is there to it? Theo, you must be with me on this one.”

“If you had actually broken up then yeah, I would condone this very me-like destructiveness,” Theo said, “But let me put it this way, if Sadie and I were on a break and I tried anything with another girl then she would hurt me, very badly.”

Neville rolled his eyes, “Well, if that is how Lilly feels then I guess it’s her own fault. She was the one who wanted a break so like I told her, if that’s what she wants, it’s going to be a clean one.”

Before his friends could say anymore, he grabbed another drink and disappeared into the crowd.

“Alright Mr. we shouldn’t interfere too much,” Draco said as he looked pointedly at Harry, “Do we interfere now?”

“If we want to save Neville from a nasty fate that probably involves castration, I would say we interfere now,” Theo said.

“Yeah,” Harry sighed, “He’s being self-destructive and she’s being an idiot. It’s time to interfere.”

“I’m starting to doubt that you will ever have a plain sailing birthday party,” Hermione said with a smile as she and Daphne walked over to them.

Harry rolled his eyes, “Well there are no Death Eaters at this one so I guess it’s an improvement. Are you going to help with operation, save Neville and Lilly’s relationship?”

“Of course I am,” Hermione said, “I feel responsible for the mess the two of them are in at the moment anyway. I’ll do anything I can to help.”

“I’ll help,” Daphne said as she sipped a large bright pink cocktail, “I might be slightly tipsy but I’ll help.”

Harry chuckled, “Come on then, let’s get our heads together. How are we going to do this?”

***.

Lilly wanted to spend the party getting drunk and avoiding Neville, but as it transpired, things took a slightly different turn. Lilly was a few of drinks in at the makeshift free bar when an old school friend approached her.

“What’s up Lil? Not the life of the party like you normally are!”

Lilly looked up and smiled, “Oh hey Mikey.”

Michael Corner smiled down at her, “Why are you drinking your sorrows away?”

“Neville and I are…” Lilly frowned, “We’re on a break so being at his joint birthday party isn’t really that fun.”

“Ah,” Michael said with a nod, “I get it. Do you know what’s weird for me? My ex is here too but she’s pregnant with Blaise Zabini’s kid.”

Lilly chuckled, “Yeah, that probably beats me on the weird factor.”

Michael laughed and held out his hand, “Why don’t you dance with me?”

Lilly glanced around but couldn’t see Neville, “I don’t know if that’s such a good idea…”

“Come on Lil, it’s more fun than drinking alone,” Michael said with a warm smile, “And it might even piss Neville off too.”

Lilly smiled slightly at that, “That’s vindictive.”

“The Lillian Moon I knew had a Slytherin side to her,” Michael said as he raised an eyebrow, “Has she changed?”

Lilly was about to say yes, she had changed but then she spotted Neville. He was talking to a blonde girl that she didn’t know, the girl was laughing and it looked very much like he was flirting with her. She swallowed hard as jealousy roared in her chest, then she looked up at Michael once more, “No, she hasn’t.”

Michael grinned, “Then let’s dance.”

…

“Why is Lilly dancing with Michael Corner?” Hermione asked as she facepalmed.

“Because Michael Corner and Lilly sort of have a history,” A new voice said.

Hermione spun around, “Oh hey Gin.”

Ginny smiled, “Hey, you so need to catch me up on whatever is going on with Nev and Lilly, cause right now, it looks like she’s dancing with her ex and Neville is dancing with Em from my year.”

“Yeah,” Harry said sheepishly, “She’s in Auror training with us. As for what is going on with those two, they are on a break.”

“Why?” Ginny asked with a frown, “What happened?”

“Lilly has commitment fears, Neville wants marriage and kids. You can work the rest out,” Draco said with a wave of his hand.

“So their what, seeing other people?” Ginny asked in disbelief.

“Neville interpreted ‘on a break’ that way,” Harry said with a nod.

“And so did Lilly, if that’s her ex,” Theo pointed out.

“Yeah, Michael and Lilly dated in 6th year,” Ginny said, “When I was with…Dean.”

They still hated talking about Dean after all that had happened.

“I’m not bitter about it or anything but Michael actually broke up with me for Lilly,” Ginny continued.

“Lilly doesn’t seem like the type to date someone else’s boyfriend,” Hermione frowned.

“You didn’t seem like the type to have a reckless romance with a former Death Eater to be fair, Princess,” Theo said.

Hermione whacked him over the head, “Call me Princess one more time, I dare you.”

Theo took a step back, “Nope, I’m good.”

Ginny shook her head in amusement, “You’re going to be an Auror but you’re still scared of Hermione?”

“She’s scarier than half the Death Eaters I’ve met,” Theo said in a staged whisper.

Draco smirked, “Keep going and she will hurt you.”

Hermione just nodded as Sadie joined the group, “What’s going on?”

“We’re trying to save Neville and Lilly’s relationship,” Theo informed his wife.

“And catching Gin up on what’s going on,” Harry added.

“Why is she dancing with Michael Corner?” Sadie asked with a frown.

“Because as we just discovered from the oracle of Hogwarts gossip, Michael Corner dated Lil in 6th year. He broke up with Gin for her, what a douche right?” Harry said.

Daphne shook her head, “You sound so gay.”

Harry rolled his eyes and Ginny said, “Yeah but like I was saying, it wasn’t like that. He was already friends with Lilly and they started to have feelings for each other so he broke up with me before anything could happen between them.”

“How long were they together for?” Draco asked curiously.

“About 6 months,” Ginny replied.

“Shit,” Daphne sighed, “If we don’t intervene soon they’ll hook up.”

“How do you know that?” Hermione and Ginny asked in unison.

“Because generally speaking,” Daphne explained, “If someone is upset after a break-up, they are far more likely to sleep with an ex if they dated that ex for over 6 months.”

“You’ll be safe then,” Harry joked, “I never managed a relationship that long before I met you.”

“I guess you’ll have to watch out for Viktor,” Hermione told Draco with a smirk.

“You didn’t date for over 6 months!” Harry exclaimed.

“Yes, we did,” Hermione said sheepishly, “We started dating around Halloween and broke things off at the end of the year.”

“Hermione, are you telling me you secretly dated Krum for a whole school year and didn’t tell me about it?” Harry asked in disbelief.

“Well I couldn’t tell Ron, could I? And if I had told you then you would have told Ron because you two were joined at the hip back then,” Hermione said irritably.

“She has a point,” Theo said.

Draco nodded, “You were rather fond of each other.”

Harry rolled his eyes, “I hope nothing happened, you know…sexually. He was 17 and you were 14, it’s wrong!”

“15, her birthday is in September,” Draco said, “And I agree that it’s wrong but how could you not have noticed? All year she blushed every time the brute smiled at her and then there were all those times she sneaked in from the grounds at night, or the fact she spent far longer than normal in the library.”

Hermione looked up in surprise, “You noticed all of that?”

“I didn’t notice any of that,” Harry muttered under his breath.

“Well I highly doubt that you were insanely jealous all year because you were falling in love with her,” Draco said matter of factly.

“That would be true,” Harry said, he smiled slightly as Hermione blushed deeply and Draco placed his arm around her shoulder.

“Oh hell no,” Daphne said angrily, “Do you see that? I am going to _kill _her!”

As Daphne stalked away, the others looked around in confusion. They followed her line of sight and saw what had outraged her, Neville had moved on from Emily and was dancing with Hannah. The two of them were dancing very closely together and it looked like Hannah was going to try and kiss him.

…

“Hey stranger.”

Neville glanced over, “Oh hey Han.”

“Where’s your other half?” Hannah asked.

“She’s…she’s sort of not my other half,” Neville said with a shrug, “We’re on a break.”

Hannah’s eyes lit up, “Oh, so you’re seeing other people then?”

“I guess,” Neville replied, “But to be honest, I’m just trying to have fun and forget about her tonight.”

“I can get on board with that,” Hannah said with a smile, “Do you want to dance?”

Neville nearly said no but then he saw something out of the corner of his eye. He saw Lilly dancing with Michael Corner who he knew was her ex. He saw Michael throw her back and he saw her laughing. When he pulled her back up, he held her close to him and at that point Lilly looked straight at Neville.

It made his blood boil, “Sure,” he said as he grabbed Hannah and pulled her close as the fast number turned into a slow one. They didn’t talk as they danced but it did bring back memories and feelings for both of them, after all this was someone who Neville had really loved for quite a long time. He was reminded of how much fun they had at the Halloween Ball which seemed so long ago now.

“I’ve missed this a little,” Hannah said as she looked up at Neville.

Neville in his drunken state, decided that it would be a good idea to nod and say, “So have I.”

Of course, it was a terrible idea because it gave Hannah the encouragement that she had wanted. She pressed herself up onto her tiptoes and captured his lips in a kiss.

…

Lilly felt sick when she glanced around and saw Neville kissing Hannah. She knew she could leave here with Michael if she wanted and get revenge but unlike him, she wasn’t willing to stoop that low.

She stopped dancing and tore her eyes away from them as they filled with tears.

Michael followed her line of sight and sighed when he saw what had upset her, “What a dick. Come on, let’s get a drink and get away from those two.”

“No,” Lilly said as she wiped her eyes, “I just want to go, I never wanted to come to this stupid party anyway.”

“Just let me apparate you home, Lil?” Michael asked, “Or let me find someone who can. You’ve had a few drinks and you’re upset.”

Lilly nodded tearfully as Michael put an arm around her, “Yeah? Is that okay?”

“That’s okay,” Lilly said through her tears.

“Come on then,” Michael said gently as he guided her towards the door.

**TBC.**


	84. The Birthday Boys

The moment Neville realised what Hannah was doing, he pulled away and frowned at her. In that split-second he didn’t know what to say, but as it turned out, somebody said it for him anyway.

“You bitch!” Daphne exclaimed as she reached them, she slapped Hannah hard across the face, “What the hell is wrong with you? Did you decide you didn’t do a good enough job of fucking him over the first time? Did you have to come back and give it another try?”

Hannah glared at her and reached for her wand, “Did you just slap me?”

“Yes I did, and don’t even try it honey, I’m marrying an Auror,” Daphne said. With a flick of her hand Hannah’s wand had been yanked away from her.

“Give me that back!” Hannah said as Daphne caught the wand.

“I’ll give you it back as I escort you from the premises,” Daphne said darkly, “And you will not be invited back to this house again.”

Hannah scoffed, “It isn’t your house.”

“Oh I think you will find that it is,” Daphne said as she grabbed Hannah’s arm and pulled her towards the house, “I have the strength to shove you through the fireplace and the authority to block your floo signature so that you can’t bother Neville here again.”

Hannah groaned, “I just wanted him back!”

“You gave up that luxury a long time ago when you were more interested in his fame than in _him_,” Daphne said firmly as she marched Hannah through the house into the kitchen, “So don’t you dare come here and try to ruin the best thing that’s ever happened to Neville.”

“They’re on a break!”

“Yeah and things that are broken can easily be fixed,” Daphne said, “Bye Hannah, have a nice trip,” she said as she pushed the blonde girl into the fireplace and muttered an incantation that banished her from the house.

When she was finished, she dusted her hands off and turned around. She was planning on heading back to the garden but she was surprised to see Neville standing behind her.

“Thank you Daph,” He said with genuine emotion.

Daphne shrugged, “Someone had to slap that bitch, literally.”

“I just…I didn’t realise that you were so loyal,” Neville admitted.

“People need to earn my loyalty and it’s not easy to come by,” Daphne said honestly, “But you are my fiancé’s Auror partner, best friend and future best man so I have to look out for you.”

Neville smiled slightly, “I appreciate that but if you don’t think the others will mind, I think I’m just going to head to bed before I can do anything else destructive.”

Daphne nodded, “I think that would be a very sensible idea.”

Neville stepped forward and hugged her which took Daphne by surprise. She rather awkwardly patted him on the back as he squeezed her tightly.

“I really do mean it, thank you for what you did out there,” Neville said as he pulled back from the hug.

Daphne could only nod in surprise as Neville disappeared from the kitchen. She left shortly after him to inform the others of what had just transpired between Neville and Hannah. When she reached them by the bar they were all whispering in panicked tones.

“What did I miss while I was kicking Hannah out of our house forevermore?” Daphne asked with a frown.

“Lilly, leaving with Michael Corner,” Hermione replied.

“Seriously? And nobody stopped her?” Daphne asked irritably, “I did my part, why didn’t anyone stop her?”

“Because,” Sadie cut in, “We didn’t see them until they were virtually gone.”

“Great,” Daphne sighed, “She’s totally going to throw away the best thing to ever happen to her. Seriously, what is wrong with those two?”

“They’ll work it out, or they won’t,” Theo said with a shrug, “But it’s up to them to work out, not us.”

Harry looked at Theo in surprise, “That is actually very wise.”

“And it makes complete sense,” Draco added.

Theo smirked, “What did I tell you? Married, responsible one.”

“Oh dear Merlin,” Hermione said with a shake of her head, “What is the world coming to?”

***

When Neville woke up on the 31st of July, he felt terrible. It wasn’t just because he had a hangover either, he knew he had treated Lilly terribly.

He took a sober-up potion to kill his headache and looked at the pile of presents at the end of his bed, he hadn’t opened them on his birthday because he hadn’t felt in a celebratory mood but he supposed it would be polite to open them at some point.

As it was Harry’s birthday, Neville decided that he would prefer to open his presents with some company so he levitated them into the kitchen where Harry and Daphne were arguing over breakfast.

“But it’s my birthday so you are obligated to make me breakfast.”

“But I don’t _do _good breakfast. This is why we have multiple house elves.”

“Can’t you just make me breakfast this once? Just one day a year, breakfast and a cup of tea, that’s all I ask.”

“Unless you want toast and butter, I am not making you breakfast,” Daphne said as she placed a mug in front of him, “But there’s your cup of tea.”

Harry shook his head, “I’ll remember this the next time you ask for pancakes in the morning. I’ll just tell you that we have a house elf to make them for you.”

“But you make the best pancakes!” Daphne objected.

“Well then I’m sorry you won’t be getting to try them again,” Harry said.

“Well in that case, I won’t be doing that thing you really enjoyed last night, ever again,” Daphne remarked.

“Daphne,” Harry objected as he spotted Neville slipping into the kitchen, “Morning Nev.”

“Morning Harry,” Neville said with a small smile, “And happy birthday.”

“Happy belated birthday to you,” Harry said, “Didn’t you open your presents yesterday?”

“Nah, I wasn’t really in the mood,” Neville said as he set them down on the table, “I figured I would open them in company.”

“Well you should open yours first since your birthday was yesterday,” Harry said, “Open the big one first, that’s from me and Daph.”

“Alright,” Neville said as he located the present that Harry had been talking about. He couldn’t help but laugh when he opened it, “A pop-up greenhouse?”

“It looks like a joke but it isn’t,” Harry assured him, “There are seeds for over 20 different species of magical plants in there. I figured it would be a good way to get your magical plant garden started at Longbottom House.”

Neville smiled, “That’s really thoughtful, thanks guys.”

“I just wrote the card,” Daphne mumbled.

“Ignore her, she’s playing it cool around you because you hugged her yesterday and she doesn’t know how to deal with affection,” Harry said as he grinned at his friend.

Daphne rolled her eyes, “I really did just write the card.”

Neville chuckled at that and opened the next present which was a t-shirt from Susan that said, _“Don’t mess with me because_…” then on the back it said, _“I’m an Auror.”_

He also had a book about creating your own magical plant paradise from Draco and Hermione, and a collection of rare potions ingredients from Sadie and Theo.

The last present in the pile was so small that Neville had almost missed it and he realised with a lurch that it was probably from Lilly. He opened it cautiously, half expecting it to be cursed but what was inside surprised him.

It was a pocket watch, and as Neville opened the box a piece of parchment fell out. He ignored this and frowned as he examined the watch.

“What is it Nev?”

“It’s a pocket watch,” Neville said, “I think…it looks like my Fathers but his was damaged really badly when the Lestrange’s attacked.”

Neville turned the pocket watch over and frowned, the initials “_F.L.” _were engraved on the back. The watch opened from both the back and the front so Neville opened the front first. On one side was the watches face and on the other was a picture of Neville and Lilly from Theo and Sadie’s wedding. Neville swallowed the lump that rose in his throat at the sight and opened the back of the watch. On one side he could see the mechanics of the watch and on the other was a picture of Frank and Alice on their wedding day.

“Shit,” Neville muttered as he picked up the parchment and unfolded it.

“What is it?” Harry asked.

“I think I might have made a huge mistake,” Neville said as his eyes scanned the note.

_“Neville,_

_I know we’re on a break but I couldn’t not give you this. I know wizards are supposed to get their Father’s watches on their 17th birthday so I’m sorry that this is a couple of years late._

_I know you don’t like to take me to see your parents and I hope you won’t be angry by what I’m about to tell you. I go to see them once a week and I tell them all about us and what you are up to. I think they are really proud that you got into Auror training. _

_I found your Dads watch in the pocket of an old robe and I thought you would want it so I started restoring it for you. I hope you like it._

_Love,_

_Lilly.”_

“I have made a huge mistake,” Neville said as he got to his feet, “I need to talk to Lilly.”

“Nev, wait,” Harry said quickly.

Neville stopped and turned around, “What?”

“Lilly…she left the party with Michael Corner last night,” Daphne said, “The others tried to stop her but they weren’t quick enough.”

“She left with Michael Corner?” Neville asked, his initial reaction to that was outrage, “Michael bloody Corner? Michael, I wear a leather jacket and ride a motorbike so every girl wants me, Corner?”

Harry raised an eyebrow at his best friend, “Nev, you have a flying motorbike and you killed a snake with a fricking sword. That takes some upper body strength, trust me, girls want you too.”

“I don’t,” Daphne commented.

“Yeah well I’m actually quite glad about that,” Harry said as he shot her an amused look.

“I can’t believe she slept with her ex!” Neville said irritably as he ignored Harry and Daphne.

“Neville, you were the one who was all for sleeping with someone else last night,” Harry reminded him, “And if it wasn’t for Daphne then you probably would have slept with your ex too so…”

“No, he had already pulled away when I slapped her,” Daphne said matter of factly, “He definitely wasn’t going to sleep with her.”

Neville nodded, “I need to talk to her but if she slept with her ex in _my _house, I don’t think I could ever forgive her.”

“Well,” Daphne said as she bit her lip, “Good luck with that.”

***

When Neville stepped into Longbottom House, his first thoughts were that it was very quiet. It was still fairly early so he figured that Lilly might still be asleep, he just hoped she wasn’t asleep with Michael Corner.

As he walked up the stairs towards _their _bedroom, he started to feel sick. He didn’t think he could handle seeing her with another guy in there.

When he reached the bedroom door, he knocked and called out Lilly’s name but there was no response so he opened the door slowly and cautiously. He frowned when he realised that the bed hadn’t been slept in, he supposed she could have gone back to Michael’s place though.

He made his way downstairs and began to come to the conclusion that the house was empty because it was so quiet. Before he assumed anything though, he went to the kitchen to ask Tokey if she had seen Lilly the night before.

When he got there, he noticed a scroll of parchment on the kitchen counter and his stomach turned. He began to imagine the worst scenario as he grabbed the scroll and unrolled it frantically. His eyes scanned Lilly’s familiar writing as quickly as they could;

_“Neville,_

_I’ve come to the conclusion that leaving for France early is the best idea for both of us. I don’t want to live in a house surrounded by good memories anymore because it’s too painful and you deserve your own place back, not the annex at Harry and Daphne’s._

_I’m trying not to be bitter and I hope you and Hannah are happy together since you seem to be willing to give her a second chance. I always wondered if I was only filling in the gap she had left in your heart anyway. I realised last night that I couldn’t do this whole ‘break’ thing, Michael took me home because I was upset and I had been drinking, he tried to kiss me and I just felt sick and all I wanted was you. Of course, by that point it was too late to tell you that but I guess that’s my own fault._

_I hope we can try to keep things civil for the sake of everyone else in our friend group. Good luck with Auror training, I know you are going to be great at it and I’m happy that Harry has your back._

_All my love, despite the last few days,_

_Lilly.”_

Neville wasn’t ashamed of the fact he was crying by the time he got to the end of the letter, part of it was relief because she had just left for France, she hadn’t done anything stupid. Another part of it was because Lilly had just broken up with him and she had done it in a bloody letter.

He wiped his eyes and shoved the letter in his pocket. Neville didn’t even bother trying to gather himself before throwing floo powder into the fireplace and heading back to Potter Manor.

When he stepped back into the kitchen, he was glad that nobody else was there apart from Harry and Daphne.

Harry saw Neville’s red eyes and tearstained face and sighed, “I’m sorry mate.”

“She didn’t sleep with Michael,” Neville said quietly, “But she left me.”

“What? Why?” Harry asked sharply.

“She saw me with Hannah and thought that we were going to get back together,” Neville said, “So she left for France and she broke up with me in this shitty goodbye letter.”

“So what are you going to do about it?” Daphne asked.

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, you are Neville Longbottom, you stood up to Lord Voldemort himself. You had a burning hat on top of your head and you didn’t even cry out in pain,” Daphne said, “You beheaded a snake with the bloody sword of Gryffindor. Are you just going to roll over and cry like a baby or are you going to do something about this?”

“You’re right!” Neville said as a determined glint appeared in his eyes, “I’m not going to roll over and do nothing! I’m going to go to France and I’m going to get her back!”

“Great idea!” Harry piped up, “Where in France is she, exactly?”

“Uh…” Neville floundered, “The Centre for Trauma Healing in…Amiens.”

“Where is this centre exactly? Amiens is a big city,” Daphne pointed out.

“I…uh…well, I don’t know,” Neville admitted, “But I’ll find out, even if it takes me all weekend!”

“That’s the spirit!” Daphne said eagerly, “Go find the love of your life Neville!”

“I will!” Neville said, “Thanks Daphne.”

Daphne just smiled at him as he left the kitchen to gather up some of his things from the annex. Once he was gone, Harry looked at her with a smile, “Did you just encourage Neville to go find Lilly in France because you happen to know that Draco and Hermione are going away for the weekend?”

“I did it because those two love each other and it was the right thing to do,” Daphne said.

Harry raised an eyebrow at her, “Uh-huh?”

“And maybe a little bit because I want to make the most of this weekend since we won’t see each other for two weeks,” Daphne admitted with a smirk.

“Merlin, that’s hot,” Harry muttered under his breath as he heard footsteps on the stairs.

Daphne rolled her eyes, “Those two have the worst timing,” she mumbled as Draco and Hermione stepped into the kitchen in their pyjamas.

“Happy Birthday Harry!”

Harry put on a smile for his friends, “Thanks guys.”

“Is Nev up yet?” Hermione asked as she looked at the pile of presents on the table.

“He was,” Daphne replied, “He opened his presents and got something from Lilly that made him cry so he went to Longbottom House to talk to her then came back with a note that she had written him. She basically broke up with him and fled for France.”

“So he’s gone to France,” Harry said, “To win her heart back or something.”

“Well,” Draco said with a raised eyebrow, “That took a surprising turn.”

“You haven’t opened your presents yet,” Hermione pointed out as she poured herself a cup of coffee from the pot on the table.

“I was waiting for you guys,” Harry admitted, “I thought it would be polite.”

“Well we’re here now so go on, open them,” Hermione said.

Harry smiled and began to tear into his presents. There was a box of homemade fudge from Molly and a hand-carved wooden figurine of a snitch from Hagrid. Susan had got him a big box of Honeydukes treats and Ron had given him a Weasley’s Wizard Wheezes selection box.

“Cheap,” Daphne muttered, “I bet he didn’t even have to pay for that.”

“Well he is having a kid so if he’s trying to save money, I don’t really mind that,” Harry said honestly, “It’s the thought that counts, I only got him a box of Bertie Botts for his birthday.”

“He’s become one of _those _friends then,” Draco observed.

“What does that mean?” Harry asked with a frown.

“The ones you stay in touch with because you used to be really close with them,” Hermione said quietly, “You exchange crappy birthday gifts and Christmas cards and meet up once a year but you’re never as close as you used to be.”

“Way to kill the mood on my birthday guys,” Harry said with a sigh as he opened the next present which according to the label was from, _“Ginny and Blaise (I had no say in this, B.Z)x.”_

Harry chuckled at the label before inspecting the present. It was actually pretty thoughtful.

“Is that a sneakoscope?”

Harry nodded, “Yeah, on the note she wrote, “_So you never let an untrustworthy person get the better of you, fat chance you being Harry Potter and all,” _she has a point.”

Draco snorted, “Those things don’t actually work, you know that right?”

“I would have agreed with you once upon a time,” Harry said honestly, “But Ron got me one when he came back from Egypt and I thought it was junk because it went haywire for no reason all year. Then I found out that Ron’s rat was actually a scheming Death Eater who was responsible for my parents deaths so I guess it was actually pretty accurate.”

“Fair enough,” Draco said with a nod, “I take back what I said about it being useless.”

At his very words, the contraption began to whistle and spin. Draco smirked, “On second thought, maybe I was right.”

“Nope,” Hermione said as she smirked at Daphne over Draco’s shoulder, “Daphne is nicking bacon off of Harry’s pancakes.”

Harry snorted and turned to look at his fiancé, “First you refuse to make me them and then you steal my bacon?”

Daphne grinned, “Just testing your new sneakoscope honey,” she said in the sweetest voice that she could muster.

Harry laughed and turned back to his pile of presents, he had a lot this year. The next gift was marked as from “_Neville and Lilly” _which made Harry sigh. He really hoped the two of them would be able to resolve their issues.

“Ooh, what’s that?” Hermione asked as she tried to get a better look at the gift.

Harry smiled, “It’s a painting of an old stone cottage with a key attached.”

“Do you know what that means?” Daphne asked as she appeared behind him.

Harry nodded, “I kept talking about how much we loved our holiday in Devon with Teddy, and Neville mentioned that the Longbottoms owned some property down there. I think this is the key to that cottage.”

“He gave you a holiday cottage for your birthday?” Hermione asked in disbelief.

Draco tutted, “And he keeps saying he’s not a real pureblood.”

Harry chuckled, “I guess I’m lucky to have him as a best friend.”

“You did give him a flying motorbike I suppose,” Daphne mused, “A holiday cottage is a pretty good return gift. We should take Teddy one weekend after your initial training, you know unwind a little?”

“That’s a great idea,” Harry said with a smile as he turned the portrait over and found a note on the back.

_“Harry,_

_I know it seems pretentious, giving you a cottage for your birthday and all, but I didn’t buy it so I guess that makes it a bit less so. Anyway, I remembered you talking about how much you loved having Teddy to yourselves in Devon and how much you enjoyed yourself so I thought you would appreciate this._

_It had been sitting empty for a while so it needed a bit of work but it’s good to go now. Lil decorated it, be warned there is a lot of silver and green. She thought it was only fair since you’ve moved Daph into your shrine to Godric Gryffindor Manor._

_Hope you enjoy it!_

_Love,_

_Neville and Lilly.”_

“Finally, a little Slytherin haven,” Daphne smirked, “I think I probably owe Lilly an apology.”

“I think you probably do too,” Harry admitted, “I really hope those two can sort things out.”

“We all do Harry,” Hermione said, “But try not to let it get you down today, it’s your birthday after all. Open your next present.”

Harry had learned a long time ago that it was best not to question Hermione so he ignored Draco’s amused look and opened his next present which was from Sadie and Theo. They had given him a broom cleaning kit, the most up to date copy of Quidditch Through the Ages and tickets to Puddlemere’s next game. He made a mental note to thank them both when he next saw them although he expected from the nature of the gifts that it had been Theo’s idea.

The next gift was from Hermione and Draco. Harry smiled as he opened the parcels, it was obvious that Hermione had picked one and Draco had picked the other. There was a book all about the best defensive techniques which contained a section on rare and inventive spells. He looked up, “Cool, thank you Hermione.”

“I thought it might come in handy,” Hermione said with a bright smile.

The second parcel was clearly Draco’s gift, it was a very nice dragon hide wand holster, “Woah, thanks Draco!”

Draco shrugged, “I figured you should have a good one, what with your tendency to keep your wand in your pocket.”

“Protecting your future Godkids are you?” Daphne joked.

Draco snorted, “Something like that,” he said as Harry laughed.

“Open mine now,” Daphne said as she slid the final parcel across to him.

Inside the package were three gifts, the first was a photo album that said, _“Our story…so far” _on the front cover.

“I can safely open this in public, right?” Harry joked.

Draco raised an eyebrow at him, “What photographs have you been taking that aren’t suitable for our eyes?”

“That, is none of your business,” Daphne said as she shot her friend a smirk, “And yes, you can safely open it.”

Harry chuckled and opened the album, all of the pictures were wizarding and in most cases, Harry didn’t even know that they had been taken. The first photograph was of himself and Daphne dressed as vampires for the Halloween ball, they were holding the trophy they had won for being the best dressed couple.

“When we won best dressed couple before we were even together,” Harry said with a smile as he read the caption.

“That was the start of it,” Hermione said as she smiled at her two friends.

“The night that the ice queen began to thaw,” Draco smirked, “Merlin, I’m good. I should write poetry.”

“Yeah, don’t quit your day job Draco,” Hermione said with a grin.

Harry chuckled at his friends and flipped the page. The next picture was of the whole group on Bonfire Night. They were in the grounds of Hogwarts and the bonfire was crackling away behind them, Harry could almost hear it as the picture brought the memory back. At the centre of the photograph were himself and Daphne, and Draco and Hermione. Sadie and Theo were there too and Neville was with Hannah. Susan and Lilly stood huddled together, Ginny and Blaise were there too but Ron was missing so he must have taken the picture. Harry had to swallow the lump that rose in his throat when he saw two people who had missed so much since then, Dean and Tracey.

“Yeah,” Daphne said with a sigh, “I found that one hard to look at too.”

Harry nodded and read the caption, _“The night the hero boy asked me out. Did he just ask me? No he spelled it across the sky in fireworks, bloody Gryffindor.”_

“I want a quill,” Harry said as he shot Daphne an amused look.

Daphne handed him one a little cautiously, “Why?”

“Because I don’t like your biased commentary,” Harry said as he scrawled underneath, “_You still said yes.”_

“Touché,” Daphne said with a slight smile.

Harry turned the page again and saw a photograph of himself and Daphne standing in front of his motorbike with their leathers and helmets on. They were outside Hagrid’s hut so it must have been taken not long after Sirius’s old bike fell into his possession.

On the next page was a photograph of himself and Daphne in the 8th year common room. They were both wearing Christmas jumpers and Harry was grabbing Daphne from behind and spinning her around as he pulled her off of a stool. He smiled at the memory, she had been decorating the tree in their common room.

“Who took this?” He asked as he stared at the picture.

“Dean,” Daphne said quietly, “I found his camera and a bunch of film in Tracey’s old trunk when we were leaving Hogwarts. I developed them and there were loads of pictures I didn’t know he had taken. That’s where a lot of these came from.”

That made Harry kind of sad but he was loving the personal nature of Daphne’s gift to him. He silently thanked Dean and turned the page to see a photograph of himself and Daphne dancing together at the Yule Ball. He had thought she looked stunning at the time and looking back on the photograph didn’t change his opinion.

The next photograph was of everyone who had stayed at Potter Manor on Christmas Day. The photograph had clearly been taken on Christmas morning, but Harry had no idea how because everyone who had been there was in the photograph.

The photograph after that made Harry smile. It had been taken on New Years Eve at Potter Manor and the only people in it were himself and Daphne. She was laughing and Harry was smiling at her. Everything that he felt about her could be summed up by that look in that photograph and it made his stomach do strange things. The caption read, _“New Years Eve 1998. Can’t wait to ring in the millennium in just as much style.”_

Harry smiled because that old promise still meant so much to him. He tried not to let his feelings show because he didn’t want to embarrass himself but he could see that Daphne knew how much this gift meant to him.

“We’ll leave you two in peace for the rest of the morning,” Hermione said as she nudged Draco.

Harry resisted the urge to laugh, Hermione had been able to tell exactly what he was thinking, like always. Draco looked a little confused as Hermione half-dragged him out of the kitchen, frowning all of the while.

Harry shook his head, “Guess it was obvious how much this is affecting me then.”

“Only to Hermione,” Daphne said softly, “And me, I’m glad if I’m honest. I put a lot of work into this gift.”

“It really is perfect,” Harry promised. He flipped the page before he could get anymore emotional and the next photograph made him smile broadly. It was of himself, Daphne and Teddy during family planning week. The caption read, _“The week we learned we could be pretty good parents to this little ray of sunshine.”_

Harry looked up at her and smiled, “We will be good parents, won’t we?”

Daphne frowned, “Why would you doubt that?”

Harry sighed, “We’re young and I…I’m a Trainee Auror. It’s a dangerous career and I just don’t know if it’s a stable family to bring a child into. I don’t want Teddy to end up like…”

“Like you,” Daphne said softly.

Harry nodded but refused to look up at her, he didn’t want her to see the pain in his eyes.

Daphne took his hand and spoke softly, “Harry, he won’t be like you for quite a few reasons. The first one being that the war is over and the second one being that you are a wonderful Godfather. I’m not saying Sirius wasn’t but he acted impulsively which is why he ended up in Azkaban, all you want is a good life for Teddy, I think we both know that you will always put him first.”

“Does that bother you?” Harry asked as he frowned up at her.

Daphne smiled slightly and shook her head, “No, that’s the way it should be. A Father should always put his children first.”

“I’m not his Father, Daph,” Harry reminded her.

“You’re as good as, and you know it,” Daphne said firmly, “And if anything happened to you, Teddy would have so many people around who love him. He will _always _have me, then there’s Draco and Hermione, Neville and Lilly, you name it.”

Harry swallowed and nodded, “So he’ll be okay, whatever happens.”

“He’ll be okay,” Daphne promised, “We all will be.”

“Thanks Daphne,” Harry said as he smiled genuinely at her.

Daphne smiled back and nudged his shoulder, “Are you going to finish looking through that? You haven’t even seen the best pictures yet.”

Harry chuckled and tried to hide the tears in his eyes as he flipped the page. The next photograph also featured Teddy, it had been taken on their Easter holiday. It really warmed Harry’s heart to look at the photograph of the little boy toddling along in the sand with Daphne following him, ready to catch him at a moments notice. The caption simply read, “_Our Teddy.” _But somehow it made him even more emotional than the last one had done. He swallowed the lump that had risen in his throat and flipped the page, hoping Daphne wouldn’t notice.

The next photograph had also been taken during the Easter holidays. They were all at the Burrow for Teddy’s first birthday and in the picture, Teddy was beaming while holding the remnants of his chocolate cake, the rest of it was on Daphne’s face. The photograph made him laugh and the caption even more so, “_Plain sponge cake next year…”_

The photograph after that was one that sparked very fond memories. He and Daphne were in the 8th Year common room and they were embracing each other while everyone around them jumped up and down or cheered. It had been the moment that Harry had proposed to her, on the anniversary of the Battle of Hogwarts. The caption made him chuckle, “_The day I agreed to be tied down to the chosen boy for the rest of my life.”_

The following photograph was of Harry and Daphne dancing together at the prom. Daphne looked as stunning as ever, but more to the point, they both looked so happy. Harry flipped the page and smiled at the next photograph too. It had been taken shortly after their graduation, he had his arm around Daphne, Draco had his arm around Hermione, Theo was hugging Sadie, Neville and Lilly were beaming out of the photograph. Susan peered out from the back of the photograph, it had been their last ever day at Hogwarts.

The final photograph, for the moment, was from Sadie and Theo’s wedding. Daphne looked stunning in her bridesmaid attire and Harry scrubbed up okay, if he said so himself. They were standing on either side of the bride and groom grinning at each other. Every emotion in that photograph was so strong, it almost made Harry feel emotional again. The caption read, “_The next wedding will be ours…”_

Harry started suddenly at that and looked up, “What?”

Daphne smirked at him, “You know how last New Year I said I would be standing right next to you to bring in the millennium in style?”

Harry nodded slowly at her, “Yeah, I think about that all of the time.”

“So do I,” Daphne said with a smile, “So it’s going to be our wedding day.”

“Sorry, but at the risk of sounding like the clueless git that everyone thinks I am, _what_?”

Daphne’s smile turned into a grin, “Let’s get married on New Years Eve.”

“This New Years Eve?”

“Yeah, what’s wrong? You’re not getting cold feet already are you?”

Harry stared at her in disbelief, “Daphne, that’s less than 6 months away!”

“And? Have you met me? I can totally plan a wedding in 5 months, a brilliant one at that too,” Daphne said, only a little smugly.

“Are you serious? Or is this just one of your whims?” Harry asked as he studied her.

Daphne shook her head, “No, I’ve been thinking about it for a while and I really want to do it. I know Draco and Hermione want the whole long engagement thing but I don’t. I want to get married before we adopt Teddy and frankly, neither of us are as career minded as those two are anyway. On top of that, New Years just makes sense because of the significance it has for us-”

“Yes,” Harry said as he grinned at her.

Daphne looked up, “Yes?”

“Let’s do it,” Harry said, “Let’s be impulsive and stupid while we’re young. Let’s get married on New Years Eve and if we end up regretting it in a few years, we’ll become swingers.”

Daphne laughed heartily at that and leaned across to kiss him, “It’s a deal.”

“Merlin,” Harry murmured as he kissed her back, “You never fail to surprise me, do you know that?”

Daphne smirked at him, “Yeah, I do.”

“I have one more request though,” Harry said as he pulled back from the kiss, “Let’s keep it a secret.”

Daphne raised an eyebrow at him, “Keep our wedding a secret?”

Harry nodded, “Let’s throw a big New Years party and invite all of our family and friends. Then when they arrive, they’ll realise it’s actually a surprise wedding.”

“How very sneaky and Slytherin of you,” Daphne said with a slow grin, “I love it.”

Harry laughed and leaned in to kiss her, “I love you.”

“I love you too.”

**TBC.**


	85. Long Teenage Goodbyes

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter title comes from the song:  
Long Teenage Goodbye by Lady Antebellum

Neville was in a mad rush so he decided to bypass the International Apparition Centre. Technically, you weren’t supposed to apparate overseas without going through the centre because there was a higher chance of splinching yourself if you were travelling over large stretches of water. This was because currents and wind could cause some complications, but the queues could be ridiculously long and Neville knew that he was a powerful enough wizard so he apparated to Dover then to Calais so that it was just one short leap. Once he was in France, he apparated to the outskirts of Amiens and then stopped because he realised that he had no idea where the Centre for Trauma Healing was.

Neville knew that there limited ways of finding out where it was, the Centre was unplottable so that it couldn’t be stumbled upon by Muggles. As a wizard, once he got near it he would be able to feel the magic of the wards and he suspected he would be able to see it as well. The trouble was working out where the hell it was in this huge city. His first thought was that Theo would be able to work it out so in the quiet little back alley that he was occupying he conjured up a patronus and said, “Theo, I need your logical brain. Where would I find the Centre for Trauma Healing, statistically speaking?”

His patronus darted off and Neville leaned against the wall as he waited for a reply. He supposed he should walk into the town centre and have a drink or something to try and relax, but he knew he would just sit there and look at it. Besides, he didn’t like the French much anyway, he was with Theo on that one.

Neville knew he was asking for a lot so he wasn’t expecting a reply for at least half an hour. When Theo’s patronus bounded at him 10 minutes later, he was surprised to say the least. He was even more surprised when he heard the reply.

“First of all, can I just say, you are such a Gryffindor. You ran off to freaking France to get your girlfriend back and you don’t even know where she is! Secondly, I am honoured that you asked for my help, sorry that it took me so long to reply, it took me 5 minutes to find a bloody map of Amiens, after that it was easy. So this centre, it has to be on the outskirts because Amiens is an old town, there isn’t any easy way to disguise a giant hospital in the middle of somewhere like that. The centre is fairly new but wherever it is, it will be designed to blend in with its surroundings, you’ll probably feel intense magical wards because of that. Anyway, outskirts of Amiens, not the North West or South East though because the River Somme is kind of in the way. There’s a pretty big muggle road network to the South so I think we’re probably looking at somewhere just North of Amiens. My best bet is a commune called Coisy which is about 5 miles North of Amiens as the crow flies. It seems to have been around since about the 12th century, it’s small and remote so it fits the criteria well. On top of that one of the fat friars associates set up a priory there in the 12th century which served as a temporary hospital during both of the world wars. I suspect the Centre is new but it will near the priory.”

“Theo…if you are right about this…” Neville sent back on the now open patronus channel.

“I’m a genius, I’m the best friend ever, yeah I know,” Theo said, “Go be the hero and get the girl so I can go back to bed with my wife please.”

“Okay thanks Theo,” Neville said as he ended the charm. The patronus disappeared and he wasted no time in apparating to this French commune that Theo had told him about. It was early in the morning and this tiny little place seemed completely quiet and abandoned, it was rather eerie. Neville kept his eyes peeled because of that as he ambled along, looking for the priory that Theo had mentioned. After what felt like a lot of walking, he eventually stumbled across something. A high, very old looking wall which he suspected had once housed the Benedictine Priory. As he walked around this wall, he began to feel the magic emanating from it, he knew that this was the place before he actually reached the large, iron-wrought gate. When he peered through it, he could only see a ruin but he suspected that this was some sort of security charm.

Neville took a breath and walked up to the gate. He didn’t touch it because he had a feeling that it was cursed, once he was as close as he could get to the gate he heard a voice in his ear.

“Who are you and what is your business here?”

“British Trainee Auror Neville Longbottom,” Neville said, sounding calmer than he felt, “I’m here to see Trainee Trauma Healer Lillian Moon.”

There was a pause and then, “You are permitted to enter providing that you surrender your wand upon entering the premises.”

“I understand, that won’t be a problem,” Neville said.

There was another pause then the large gates swung open. The moment Neville stepped over the threshold the security charms fell away and he realised that Theo had been wrong about one thing. The hospital was the old priory, it had been modernised by the looks of it but this was without a shadow of a doubt, the 12th century priory. He felt fairly impressed by the scale and beauty of it as he walked down a short gravel path into the main door.

“Your wand, Mr. Longbottom?”

Neville took his wand from his holster and handed it over to the French security wizard on duty, he checked it and nodded, “All is in order.”#

Neville smiled gratefully, “I assume she will be in the dorms?”

The security wizard nodded, “The dorms and the shared common room are the only areas the trainees are permitted to access before their initial training.”

“Thank you,” Neville said as he followed signs for the dorms and climbed the stairs of a high tower, taking two or three at a time when he could. When he reached the top he was in a corridor with about 10 rooms leading off of it, he had a mild panic because he wasn’t sure how he would tell which one was hers but then he saw that each door had a plate with a name embossed on it. He walked up the corridor and felt his heart begin to pound when he saw the one that read, “Lillian Moon.”

He took a deep breath and knocked, he was going to try being polite first but if that didn’t work he would break the door down. After what felt like the longest pause ever, Lilly called, “Yes?”

Neville opened the door and stepped into the small, cosy dorm room. Lilly’s eyes widened when she saw him, “Neville?” she asked in disbelief.

Neville looked sheepish as he shut the door behind him, “I’m an idiot Lilly. I’m a bloody idiot and I don’t deserve you. How stupid was I to force you away for something so stupid? What kind of a boyfriend am I if I react like that to our first fight?”

Lilly looked at him with a frown, “If this is because of what I gave you for your birthday-”

“It’s exactly because of that!” Neville exclaimed, “You restored my Dads watch, you visit my parents in the hospital. You are one of the most caring people I know, I know you love me and maybe I’m just asking too much right now. We aren’t even 20 yet so do you know what, you don’t need to think about marriage or kids yet. All I need to know is that you want me, we can work the rest of it out later.”

Lilly smiled tearfully at him, “Of course I want you, you idiot! All I’ve wanted since I was 12 years old was my goofy best friend with his quirky plants and his tendency to fall through the invisible step. I’m not ready for marriage yet and I’m not ready to commit to saying that I want 2 ½ kids and the perfect suburban life but the one thing I can say with certainty is that I want you and I’ve missed you Neville, so much.”

Neville stepped towards her, grabbed her and pulled her in for a hug. Lilly had other intentions and instead lifted her head and crashed her lips against his. They weren’t the passionate sex kind of couple usually, normally they had their own pace and they had fun but that whole heated sex thing was more of a Slytherin-Gryffindor combination as they so often joked. That morning however, with all of the heightened emotions, things were different. Lilly kissed him hard and harshly and Neville responded in the same way, he held onto her tightly as if he were afraid that she would slip away if he let her go again.

“I’ve missed you too,” He murmured as his lips moved to her neck and his hands pulled her silk nightgown off, “And I will never try to stop you from doing what you want to do again.”

Lilly pulled his face up so that she could look him in the eye, “I’ll never accuse you of something without asking you again,” she said as she captured his lips again, “I’m committed to this Nev, I really am.”

“I know,” Neville whispered against her lips as he backed her up until the back of her legs hit the bed, “I know Lil,” he murmured as he captured her lips and they fell back onto the tiny single bed together.

***

“I don’t want to leave.”

“I don’t want you to leave,” Theo said with a sad smile, “But it’s a chance to do this amazing course, and a chance to see a really interesting country.”

“I know,” Sadie said tearfully, “But the next two weeks are going to be so hard.”

“At least it’s only two weeks love,” Theo said as he pulled her close, “It could be worse. I bet you’re going to love Egypt, all of the exotic curses and the pyramids, not to mention the Sphinx. Think of all the wizarding history you’ll get to see.”

“It’s not the same without you though,” Sadie said quietly, “I know I joke but I think my favourite part of our honeymoon was you trying your best to get arrested. What kind of entertainment am I going to have in Egypt?”

Theo chuckled, “I’ll be able to entertain you after the next two weeks are up. Trust me, you’ll have fun and it will fly by then before you know it, we’ll be together again.”

Sadie nodded and pulled back from the hug, she pushed herself onto her tiptoes to kiss him as she murmured, “I love you.”

“I love you too baby,” Theo murmured back against her lips, “And I’m gonna miss you, but you have to follow your dreams.”

Sadie smiled at him through the tears in her eyes, “You’re the sweetest guy I’ve ever known Theodore Nott.”

Theo grinned at her, “It makes you want me, right?”

The comment would usually have made her roll her eyes or have caused her to hit him, but this time she just laughed weakly and said, “Yeah, it does.”

***

Sadie felt miserable she waited in line at the International Apparition Centre. She knew she should be excited about this new experience but she just wished Theo was there to tell jokes and keep her mind occupied. She trudged through the line, eventually reached the front and was able to apparate to Egypt in a few short bursts. When she got to the Egyptian International Apparition Centre, she already began to have some doubts about her decision. Her first thought was that the wizarding Ministry must have _so _much money because there was gold leaf on everything, the Apparition Centre in England was drab and boring, but this place looked like a palace.

Sadie was aware that she must have looked like a total tourist as she walked with her mouth wide open, taking in everything around her. She got her wand and her luggage checked, then she was cleared to leave the centre. She had coordinates so she could apparate to the Centre for Alchemical Studies and she planned to apparate there straight from the Apparition Centre, she stepped outside and stopped in her tracks at what she saw. In contrast to the gold adorned Apparition Centre, what was outside was disgusting. She seemed to be in some narrow street, somewhere in Cairo. All around were beggars who looked emaciated, she even saw a couple of young children cowering in doorways, the difference made her feel sick.

One of the beggars began to approach her so Sadie panicked and walked down the street as fast as her feet would take her. It took her about 10 minutes to find a quiet enough alley, but as soon as she did she spun on her heel and apparated to the Centre for Alchemical Studies.

When she arrived outside the gate, she took a deep breath and composed herself. The centre seemed to be in the middle of nowhere, but it looked as rich as the Apparition Centre had. In front of her was a large golden gate, set in a marble archway. She had been sent instructions telling her to gain entry to the centre so she raised her wand and spoke clearly, “My name is Sadie Nott. I am here for my induction on the course, Alchemical Studies.”

There was a pause and then, “We have no one enrolled under that name.”

“Oh,” Sadie realised with a jolt, “I’m sorry, I’ll be enrolled as Sadie Cauldwell. I only got married last month.”

There was another pause and then, “Access granted. Please wait in the main foyer Miss. Cauldwell.”

Sadie nodded and took another deep breath as the golden gates swung open. She stepped through them and the Centre came into view. It was possibly the grandest building that she had ever seen in her life, it was huge and it seemed to be made from alabaster, an ancient building material that she knew was fairly exclusive to this part of the world. It had four large domes, each one adorned with gold leaf. On each side of the building were two covered walkways, she couldn’t tell how many pillars held those walkways up but each pillar was also adorned with gold leaf. Straight ahead was the main door into the building which looked to be made from pure gold, she expected that it was merely a gold coating however, gold was far too soft a material to fashion a door from.

Sadie resisted the urge to shake her head as she walked past about four huge, golden water fountains. This place had money, too much money in her opinion. It made her feel apprehensive about the kind of people who would study here.

She reached the main door and pushed it open. From what she had seen on the outside, she had been expecting an overly grand foyer so she wasn’t surprised when she stepped in. Sadie really wanted to scoff, it was over the top, it was garish and she couldn’t help but think how bloody rude it was.

“Ah, Miss Cauldwell,” A voice said.

Sadie jumped and turned to the voice. It had come from an Egyptian woman who was standing just in front of the front desk. She smiled at Sadie, but Sadie got the distinct impression that it was a false smile.

“The induction begins tomorrow, but your fellow students are getting acquainted in the common room, I am Professor Aziz,” She said, “Would you allow me to show you to your new living quarters?”

Sadie simply nodded, her throat had suddenly gone dry and she felt incredibly nervous. Professor Aziz turned around and began to walk down a corridor so Sadie rushed after her. As they made their way through the building Sadie saw more and more unnecessary gold, she really did think that it was ridiculous. She was led up a grand staircase, along another corridor and then up yet another staircase before they reached the living quarters.

“This will be your shared dorm room,” Professor Aziz said as she opened the first door that they came to, “You will be sharing with our other female students, there are 4 of you this year.”

Sadie nodded and looked around the room. There were four double poster beds, even they were adorned with gold leaf. The sheets seemed to be made of silk, it was luxurious, it was worse than Malfoy Manor.

“The other students are getting acquainted in the common room at the end of the hall,” Professor Aziz said politely, “I can see you are very overwhelmed by the grandeur here, it happens more often than you would think. Once you have had time to settle, I would advise that you spend some time talking to them before the induction tomorrow. There will be several tasks that require you to work in a team.”

“I will,” Sadie promised, “Thank you.”

Professor Aziz bowed her head and stepped out of the dorm room. Sadie located her bed, the only one without a trunk on top of it, and quickly unpacked into the mahogany chest of drawers provided. When she reached the bottom of her trunk, she felt a lump rise in her throat as she pulled the final two objects from it. They were two framed photographs, one was of herself and Theo on their wedding day and the second was of herself, Daphne, Hermione and Lilly at their graduation. She placed them both on the bedside table and steadied her nerves as she left the dorm room.

The door to the common room was at the end of the hall and it was ajar. As Sadie approached she could hear people talking animatedly in several different accents, she wasn’t sure why she was so nervous but then she realised, this was the first time she had done something without Daphne or Tracey, or Theo.

She took a breath and stepped into the common room. Before she even noticed any of the people in it, she stopped and stared at the room itself. The common room was clearly in one of the domes that she had seen from outside the building. It was a large circular room with several windows in the upper dome. Every single wall was lined with books in a bookcase that ran around the entire room. In the centre of the room there was something that looked like a furnace but which was in fact four fireplaces, there was even a pot of floo powder above it. The room was filled with comfortable armchairs and sofas, and there were a few tables for studying too, they were made of mahogany too, _of course they are_, Sadie thought to herself.

“Hello there! You must be Miss. Cauldwell!” A chipper, female voice said.

Sadie tore her eyes away from the wall of books and looked at the group of people gathered in the room. The person who had spoken to her was a brunette with a ribbon in her hair, she was smiling very falsely at Sadie.

“Uh, Mrs. Nott technically,” Sadie corrected her, “I was Miss. Cauldwell when I enrolled but I got married last month. It’s probably easier if you just call me Sadie.”

“You’re married?” The brunette asked in disbelief, “Good heavens! What age are you?”

“Priscilla!” A male voice said. Sadie looked towards it, it belonged to a tanned young man with an accent.

The brunette rolled her eyes, “Sorry, that was rude. You just seem rather young to be married, that’s all.”

“I’m 19,” Sadie said, “I had to re-do my last year because my school was overtaken by a dark lord and then almost destroyed in a battle. I also nearly lost Theo, that’s my Husband by the way, in that battle so yes, I married him as soon as I finished school. Did any of you experience the war I’m talking about?”

Every other person in the room shook their heads and Priscilla, the brunette looked pretty miffed.

Sadie nodded, “Okay, so what are you names?”

“I’m Ashwin, we were just going to do a getting to know each other exercise actually,” The tanned boy said, “We were waiting for you.”

Sadie took a seat in one of the armchairs a little gingerly, she felt a bit silly for going off in a rant but she didn’t like it when people judged her, especially when it was people who didn’t know her.

“So I’ll start,” Ashwin said, “I’m Ashwin but you guys can call me Ash, I was born in India but I grew up in Cairo because my Father is pretty high up in the Egyptian Wizengamot. So I’m your local guy, if you want to go sightseeing.”

The next person to speak was Priscilla, “I’m Priscilla, I’m from Kent in England. My Daddy is the magical advisor for the Muggle royal family so naturally, he didn’t want me to go to a substandard school like Hogwarts. So, I went to Beauxbatons for a little while then Mama home schooled me.”

Sadie hated the girl more with every word that came out of her mouth.

“I’m Arielle,” A pretty girl with strawberry blonde hair said, “I was born in Calais and I grew up in Paris. My family moved there just before I started at Beauxbatons because my Father’s company really took off. He runs a broomstick company you see.”

Sadie resisted the urge to roll her eyes at this, did everyone here have famous parents?

“I’m Humphrey,” A tall, muscular boy with a square jaw said, “I’m from Hamburg in Germany. I live there with my parents and my little brother. My Father is Head of the Wizarding Protestant Order there. We live in a cathedral which is pretty cool.”

“I’m Liang,” A thin Asian boy said in a thick accent, “I’m from Beijing in China. My Father is a businessman too. He owns the biggest shipping company in Asia. We ship magical goods all over the world.”

Sadie bit back a comment about how they weren’t the biggest shipping company in the world because she knew who owned that, Daphne’s family.

“I’m Ruben, I’m from Rio in Brazil,” Another tanned boy said, “I’ve been living in Dubai for the past few years. We moved out there because my brother is a Quidditch Player and that’s the best place in the world to play. We could only afford to move out there because my Mother made lots of money when she discovered the wolfsbane potion.”

Sadie was really struggling to bite her tongue now. She could spew a lot of crap about how famous her family were too but she was starting to think that she didn’t want to because if she did, it meant she was exactly like these people.

“I’m Myla,” A beautiful redhead with a genuine smile said, “I’m from Texas in the United States. My Dad works for the president and my Momma is the undersecretary to the Minister for Magic at MACUSA. I love it over there but everyone knows my family so I just wanted a change of scenery away from it all.”

The last person, apart from Sadie, to speak smiled broadly at them all, “I’m Bruce, I’m from Queensland in Australia. My Dads a famous alchemist, he trained under Nicholas Flamel and my Mum works in the Australian Ministry, she used to head the Wizengamot but she’s working towards Minister for Magic now.”

Sadie realised that all eyes were now on her so she decided to tell the truth, “I’m Sadie, I’m from England. My parents are all about new wealth, my Dad invented some stuff which means we have money. Or at least we did, then the dark wizard I was telling you about came back from the dead which really put a crimp in our style because he kept trying to recruit my Dad to join his sordid little crew all because my Mum dated a scumbag in high school who happened to be said dark wizards right hand man. Anyway, my Dad eventually joined them when his entire family were threatened with execution if he didn’t so now he’s spending 5 years in Azkaban thanks to our _fantastic _justice system.”

She enjoyed the fact that every person in the room gaped at her silently, she found it immensely difficult to hide her smirk.

“That’s…” Priscilla began to say.

“Tragic,” Ashwin cut in, “You are of course perfectly right, your justice system is skewed.”

Sadie just shrugged, “It’s corrupt but I guess that’s what happens when a dark wizard manages to infiltrate it.”

Priscilla rolled her eyes at this and Myla piped up, “Oh! If you’re 19 and you fought in the war then you must know Harry Potter!”

Sadie smirked to herself, “Yeah, I know Harry. He’s engaged to my best friend, actually.”

Myla’s eyes widened, “Really?”

Sadie nodded, “He’s also in Auror training with my Husband. We’re all pretty close to be honest.”

“That is…amazing!” Myla said excitedly.

“What did your Father invent?” Arielle asked, “Cauldwell…it sounds familiar.”

“A few things but the sneakoscope most famously,” Sadie replied, “That was why the Death Eaters wanted him, an inventor is always useful when you’re looking to engineer new weapons and spells in a war.”

“The sneakoscope? Wicked!” Bruce said.

Priscilla rolled her eyes, “Did I mention that I’ve met all of the royal family? They are very lovely too you know, not at all arrogant.”

“Yeah, you mentioned that Priscilla,” Ruben said offhandedly, “Hey Sadie, what’s Harry Potter like?”

Sadie felt rather smug when she saw the look of complete indignation on Priscilla’s face, maybe it wasn’t going to be so bad here after all.

***

“A-ha, the prodigal son returns!”

Neville rolled his eyes, “I came here to thank you because you are indeed, a genius.”

Theo grinned at his friend, “I know, guess you found the Centre then?”

“Yep, in Coisy as predicted,” Neville said as he threw himself into a chair in the Nott’s kitchen, “You did get one thing wrong though. The Centre wasn’t near the old priory, the centre _is _the old priory.”

“Ah well, I can’t be perfect 100% of the time but I’ll settle for 99%,” Theo said with a shrug, “Did you two work things out?”

“Yeah,” Neville said with a content sigh, “I think we might be okay after all.”

“See, I told you that it would all work out in the end,” Theo said, “Do you want a drink?”

“It’s 10am,” Neville pointed out.

Theo shrugged, “I’m lonely, I can drink at 10am.”

“Oh,” Neville muttered, “Bugger, Sadie left last night, didn’t she?”

“Yep, off to the next great adventure, without me,” Theo said.

“That sounded awfully bitter for someone who isn’t supposed to be bitter about that,” Neville said with a raised eyebrow.

“I’m not bitter I’m just…I worry she might find someone more likeminded on her course, do you know what I mean?” Theo mused.

“Someone more likeminded,” Neville said with an amused smile, “Someone who is intelligent, into the same things she’s into, that kind of thing?”

“Exactly!” Theo said, “Someone who likes Apothecarial magic as much as she does, ugh what if she leaves me for a Herbologist?”

Neville laughed, “You might not be that up to speed with your plants Theo but you and Sadie are pretty likeminded. You’re both intelligent and witty, you both love reading. You experiment with new potions in your spare time for fun, you love going to Quidditch games together. You both like art, you love to explore and see new things. She’s not going to find anything better than that, you’re safe.”

Theo smiled slightly, “I guess you’re right. We _are _pretty likeminded.”

Neville patted him on the back, “See? No need to drink alone at 10am.”

“But I’m not alone anymore Nev, you’re here,” Theo pointed out, “Which technically means I can have a drink.”

“Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should,” Neville said as he grabbed Theo and steered him towards the fireplace, “We’re going to Potter Manor, Harry and Draco want a warm-up before we start training tomorrow.”

**TBC**


	86. New Beginnings

“Are you going to admit that you’re nervous yet?” Harry asked Daphne with a raised eyebrow.

Daphne rolled her eyes, “Nervous? This is me we’re talking about, I don’t get nervous.”

“Usually you don’t,” Harry agreed, “But this is a big deal for you. You want to prove yourself, it’s okay to be nervous.”

Daphne looked at him with her piercing blue eyes for a moment, “I might be a little nervous.”

Harry smiled slightly, “You’ll be fine, it’s just an induction. You’ll probably spend the whole day reading health and safety shit while being bored out of your skull.”

Daphne laughed, “I know, it’s just…I don’t know what’s going to happen today and I don’t like not knowing what to expect. I’ll be fine once the first day is out of the way.”

“I know you will,” Harry promised as he leant in to kiss her, “And just think about it this way, once you’ve managed to get through today, I get to whisk you away to our holiday cottage for our last night together.”

Daphne rolled her eyes and threw her jacket on, “For two weeks, you make it seem like you’re never coming back.”

“Hey two weeks away from you feels like forever,” Harry said honestly as he kissed her again, “Good luck.”

Daphne smiled at him, “Thanks. I’ll see you tonight.”

“See you tonight,” Harry agreed, he smiled fondly at her as he watched her go.

***

“Why are you freaking out? You do realise that you’ll get a tour of the DMLE then you’ll spend the day doing a shitload of introductory paperwork, right?”

“I’m not freaking out,” Hermione said in a rather high-pitched tone, “I just have nothing to wear!”

“Hermione, you have half a walk-in wardrobe full of clothes,” Draco said, he was glad that he wasn’t in said wardrobe with her because then she would be able to see his amused grin, “You have plenty to wear.”

“Nothing appropriate!” Hermione said in a strained voice.

Draco bit back a smile as he got out of bed and stepped into the wardrobe, “Look love, I know you’re freaking out, don’t try and hide it from me.”

Hermione turned to look at him and bit her lip, “I don’t know what to wear Draco.”

“Black robes,” Draco said as he pulled a set out, “And a colourful blouse, to showcase your individuality,” he grabbed a deep red blouse and handed it to her with the robes.

Hermione smiled weakly at him, “I don’t know what I would do without you sometimes.”

“You wouldn’t dress anywhere near as well as you do at the moment, that’s for sure,” Draco said with a slight smirk.

Hermione rolled her eyes and began to button up her blouse, “Between Daphne dragging me along on shopping trips and you dressing me, that’s probably true.”

“You’re going to be fine today, I don’t know why you’re worrying so much,” Draco said gently.

“Maybe because I’m about to start my job in a Ministry that is renown for how corrupt it is,” Hermione said a little irritably, “Or maybe its because the department I’m going to be working in is the justice department of that Ministry, which got called the most corrupt justice department in Europe just last week in the Daily Prophet!”

“Hermione,” Draco said sharply so that he could get her attention, “That’s why you wanted this job, remember? It’s corrupt as hell but you’re going to change that, you’re going to make things right.”

Hermione blew out a shaky breath, “I know Draco, why do you think I’m so nervous? I’ve put so much pressure on myself…”

“Look Hermione,” Draco said gently, “For the first year you are technically on an introductory course, alright? That means they can get rid of you if you don’t ‘fit’ and that you can leave or switch departments if you end up hating it.”

“I know what introductory means,” Hermione snapped, then she sighed, “Sorry, that was bitchy.”

Draco had to fight to keep a smile from his face, “Yes, it was. The point that I’m trying to make is that you shouldn’t be making any big waves at the moment anyway. Get your feet in the door, ace your introductory course and then start kicking ass.”

“Arse, we’re not American.”

“There’s the know-it-all that I know and love,” Draco said fondly.

Hermione laughed quietly, “Thanks Draco, you’re right. The last thing I need right now is more pressure.”

Draco nodded as he leant in to give her a kiss, “You are going to be amazing and I can’t wait to hear all about it over dinner tonight.”

“I love you,” Hermione murmured as she kissed him chastely.

“I love you too.”

***

Daphne felt more nervous than ever as she walked towards Tower Bridge. There were very few places in London that you could safely apparate to, because the whole city was so busy. This meant that she had been walking towards it for what felt like forever and eventually, she reached the bridge.

The bridge was busy with tourists already, but Daphne knew how to get to the secret wizarding entrance anyway, she had been given instructions via owl. She disillusioned herself then used a bubble head charm and waded into the water. She had to completely submerge herself for a few seconds while she looked for the archway into the lower level of the bridge’s first tower. She stepped through the archway and all of a sudden, the water was gone.

Daphne took the bubblehead charm off, drew in a long breath and cast a drying charm on herself. She looked around, so far nothing about her surroundings were particularly remarkable. She was essentially in a stairwell with nothing but a spiral staircase. She had no instructions from this point onwards so she followed the stairwell up for what felt like a very long time.

At the top of the staircase, there was a singular door so Daphne stepped through it into a small square room where a few people were already gathered.

“Name please?” A cheerful voice asked.

Daphne turned to the voice and smiled, “Come on Bill, you know me.”

Bill Weasley grinned at her, “Got to be professional, name?”

“Daphne Greengrass,” Daphne said as she stepped into the room properly and shut the door behind her, she lowered her voice so that the others wouldn’t hear and whispered, “You know the one who is marrying your adopted little brother?”

Bill shot her an amused look, “Morning Daphne, we’re just waiting on one more person then we’re going to get this show on the road. Take a seat.”

Daphne sat down at the front of the little room, it was set up like a classroom. There were about 10 tables, each of which had an individual chair. Only 4 of the tables had been occupied when she walked in so she supposed this was a pretty exclusive programme.

“So why Tower Bridge?” She asked Bill curiously.

“Because there are no goblins to bother us,” Bill replied with a smile, “And because it’s nice and quiet. The muggles have no idea that there are three towers, the other two are swarming with tourists but this one is just how we like it.”

“Cold, draughty and lit by gas lamps you mean?” Daphne asked with a raised eyebrow, “Muggles might be totally oblivious to magic but they do have heating, electricity and lifts.”

Bill shot her an amused look, “Less cheek, I’m your boss now.”

Daphne smirked at that, “Yes sir,” she said sarcastically.

Before Bill could say anything else, the door opened and the final person walked in. Daphne hadn’t really looked around at the others, she had been too focused on winding Bill up but she had noticed that so far, she was the only girl. However, this last person was another girl.

“Name please?” Bill asked her cheerfully.

“Natasha Kowolski,” The girl replied in a Russian accent.

“Perfect, take a seat Natasha and we’ll get started,” Bill said.

Natasha sat down in the last remaining seat at the front of the room next to Daphne. Bill got to his feet and stood at the front of the ‘classroom’.

“All right guys, you six are this years Trainee Cursebreakers,” Bill said, “And over the course of the next year, we are going to be putting you through your paces. I reckon two or three of you will actually end up qualifying. We normally lose one within the first week and another after the first field excursion. Sometimes we lose a few towards the end of the year when final exams loom too.”

There was an intake of breath from behind Daphne.

“That’s right, there will be exams,” Bill said as he looked over Daphne’s shoulder, “This is no walk in the park. If you want to be a cursebreaker then you are going to have to work your arse off over the next year. Now, the purpose of today is to get all of the paperwork out of the way and brief you on how the next year is going to pan out, roughly. Any questions?”

Nobody said anything so Bill continued, “So a rough outline of the next year then. To begin with we’re going to put you in the cursed room. It is literally a room full of cursed objects, does anyone know why we might have such a thing?”

“Because when a family dies without an heir, the bank has to do something with their stuff,” Daphne piped up, “They sell whatever they can and split the profit between local charities and the upkeep of the bank but the stuff that is cursed gets thrown into a vault until it can be dealt with.”

“Spot on,” Bill said with a nod, “And since all of us important cursebreakers have far more important things to do, we don’t have time to break curses on old family heirlooms. So our trainees spend a good while in that vault to begin with. Once you guys have proven yourself on everyday curses, we assign you a mentor and you get to observe them on real curse breaking missions. If your mentor thinks you’re good enough, they will let you help in the actual breaking of those curses but you will not work unsupervised until you have been given your cursebreaker qualification at the end of your training year. Does everyone understand that?”

There were nods all around so Bill continued, “Perfect. In that case, I want to do a little exercise to introduce you all to each other. You will be working together, at least to begin with, in the cursed vault so it’s not a bad idea for you to know each other a little better. Let’s start by going around the group and finding out what your names are and where you’re all from. Daphne, do you want to start us off?”

Daphne nodded, she spun around in her chair so she could see everyone else in the room, “I’m Daphne Greengrass and I’m homegrown here in England.”

The next person to speak was the only other girl, she had pale skin, dark brown hair and grey eyes “I’m Natasha Kowolski and I’m from Moscow in Russia.”

“I’m Franklin Lowe,” A fairly tall, well structured blonde boy said, “And I’m from Chicago in the United States.”

“I am Husani Farrah,” A dark skinned boy with deep brown hair said in a thick accent, “And I am from Luxor in Egypt.”

“I’m Solomon Sarkey,” A tanned boy with jet black hair said, “And I’m from Ankara in Turkey.”

“I’m Viggo Scheving,” A thin, blonde boy said, “And I’m from Reykjavik in Iceland.”

“Alright, so we’ve got a great range of nationalities here this year,” Bill said, “And everyone speaks brilliant English which means communication won’t be a problem. I want to do a couple of tasks to help break the ice between you guys, we’ll start with the easiest one. I want you all to tell me two truths and a lie, if none of your new trainees guess the lie then you get a chocolate frog.”

Daphne wanted to roll her eyes, she hated getting to know each other games, she thought that they were stupid. However, Bill was in charge and she had wanted to get onto this course so badly, so she knew that she would do it anyway.

“Natasha, why don’t you start us off? Tell us two truths and a lie, everyone else write down which one you think is the lie on the parchment that I’ve provided you with.”

Daphne looked down and frowned, she hadn’t even realised that there was parchment, a quill and an inkpot on the desk until now.

Natasha frowned for a moment before eventually saying, “My boyfriend is a state Prince, my Father was an assassin, I went to school at a former palace which is now a private school.”

Daphne frowned and jotted down, _“Assassin Father,” _as the lie. Mind you, the girl was Russian so she wasn’t completely convinced about that.

“Viggo?”

“I went hillwalking on an active volcano, I’ve stroked a polar bear and my favourite hobby is surfing,” Viggo said.

Daphne smirked and jotted down, “_Polar bears aren’t native to Iceland.”_

“Great, Solomon?”

“I’m descended from the Sultans of Constantinople, I have eight brothers and I have seen the pyramids,” Solomon said.

Daphne scribbled down, “_Sultans of Constantinople.”_

“Husani?”

“I have swum in the Nile, my Father is Kenyan, my middle name is Henry,” Husani said.

“_Henry,” _Daphne jotted down.

“Franklin, what about you?”

“I could have gone to Harvard, my Great Grandfather went over Niagara Falls in a barrel and I have disillusioned myself and flown off of the top of the Empire State Building on my broom,” Franklin replied.

Daphne snorted in amusement, she swithered between Niagara Falls and the Empire State building then wrote down, “_Niagara Falls.”_

“Alright, Daphne, you’re up,” Bill said as he shot her an amused smile.

Daphne smirked to herself and said, “My favourite colour is purple, I can play the piano and I’m engaged to Harry Potter.”

Bill had to turn away to hide his grin as two of the boys scoffed and Natasha actually laughed out loud. Daphne shot Bill a grin while everyone else jotted their thoughts down.

“Alright then, Natasha. What was the lie?”

“That my school was a former palace,” Natasha replied, “It was actually a cathedral.”

“Hold up, your Father was an assassin?” Franklin asked in disbelief.

Natasha shrugged, “Not all of the time, just during the cold war.”

“The war you fought against us you mean?” Franklin asked incredulously.

“Woah, shut the front door,” Daphne said before Bill could intervene, “We literally just killed a dark wizard. Your muggle war problems are way in the past.”

Natasha nodded, “Fair point.”

Franklin didn’t look convinced but he said no more as he glared at Natasha. To diffuse the situation Bill changed the subject, “So no chocolate frogs there, they will appear on your desk if you were right. Let’s move on, Viggo?”

“My lie was that I stroked a polar bear,” Viggo began.

A chocolate frog immediately appeared on Daphne’s desk, she smirked and said, “Polar bears aren’t native to Iceland.”

“True but don’t be too smug,” Bill warned her, “Because they are occasionally seen there, they swim over from Greenland.”

Daphne resisted the urge to roll her eyes at that as Bill moved on, “Solomon?”

“My lie was that I have eight brothers,” Solomon said, “I really am descended from the Sultans of Constantinople but I only have seven brothers, thankfully.”

“I feel your pain,” Bill said with an amused smile, “I have five brothers and one sister and that’s bad enough.”

Solomon chuckled at this and Bill said, “Husani?”

Husani smiled, “My lie was that my Father is Kenyan. My Grandfather was Kenyan but my Father was born in England which is why my middle name is Henry.”

“Very interesting,” Bill said with a smile, “Franklin, what was your lie?”

“My lie was that I could have gone to Harvard,” Franklin said, “I have no Muggle qualifications but my Great Grandfather really did nearly kill himself several times by going over Niagara Falls in a barrel and some say I am a bit of a daredevil too.”

“I would agree with them if you’re flying off of skyscrapers,” Bill chuckled, “Daphne, I personally know what your lie is but I don’t think that any of the others do.”

Daphne grinned, “The lie is that my favourite colour is purple, it’s actually green.”

“No way!” Franklin gaped, “You can’t be serious!”

Daphne smirked, “I’m serious, we’ve been together for nearly a year.”

“I can verify that,” Bill said with an amused smile, “Harry Potter is my youngest brothers best friend and he is most definitely dating Daphne here.”

Natasha raised an eyebrow at Daphne, “Interesting.”

Daphne raised an eyebrow back at her, “Is it?”

Natasha just nodded.

“So now that we all know each other a little better,” Bill said with a smile, “Let’s get on with the really fun part, health and safety paperwork!”

***

Despite Draco’s pep talk, Hermione still felt nervous as she stood in the atrium of the Ministry having her wand checked by the security wizard. It seemed to take a lot longer than it should have done but once it was done, she was free to enter an elevator and make her way to the DMLE. She could hear her heart pounding as she stepped into the busy elevator and kept her gaze downwards to avoid anyone noticing her and talking to her.

When the elevator reached her floor, she dashed out and walked briskly along the corridor until she entered the DMLE. Once she was there, she stopped at the front desk and smiled nervously at the welcome witch, “Hi, I’m here for my induction on the DMLE Development course. My name is Hermione Granger.”

The welcome witch didn’t even look up from the magazine of Witch Weekly that she was flicking through, “Yeah, Miss Clearwater is waiting for you in her office. First door on your left.”

Hermione felt a little relieved when she heard that name because she presumed that Miss Clearwater was Penelope Clearwater. Hermione didn’t know her incredibly well but she did know her at least. She walked down the hall and stopped outside the door that said,

_“Assistant Head_

_Penelope Clearwater.”_

She took a breath and knocked.

“Come in,” A kind voice called.

Hermione opened the door and stepped into the spacious office. Penelope Clearwater smiled up from her desk, she was a very pretty woman with long, slightly curled brown hair and eyes that Hermione had always found very kind.

“Good morning Hermione, take a seat.”

Hermione sat down across from Penelope and immediately felt at ease when she said, “There’s no need to look so anxious. I think you are going to fit in just fine here, you are also the only person on our development course this year so we can all devote plenty of time and resources to you. Not that you will need it, you were brilliant even when I knew you.”

Hermione smiled slightly shyly, “Thank you Penelope. I always found you to be very intelligent and practical too.”

Penelope chuckled, “That’s one way of putting it. Percy liked to call me focused, I always felt that it was an insult.”

Hermione couldn’t help herself, although she was trying to act professional, she laughed at that and said, “Coming from Percy?”

“I know, right?” Penelope said through her laughter, “Anyway, I really must be professional and give you the outline of your course. As you know, it lasts for a year and in that year, you will get to spend a little time in every area of the department. You will be observing for the most part but if the people you are working with are satisfied with your work, they may allow you to partake in certain tasks. There will also be a lot of paperwork I am afraid, it always tends to fall to the trainees.”

“I expected that,” Hermione said honestly.

Penelope continued, “Over the course of the year, we will assess you to see what areas we find you work best in but you will also have a say in what you specialise in. At the end of the year, we will have a meeting and we’ll work out what you are going to specialise in as a fully-fledged Ministry employee.”

Hermione nodded as Penelope explained this.

“Are you aware of how many subdivisions there are in the DMLE?” Penelope asked.

“I know of the Auror office, the Improper Use of Magic Office and the Misuse of Muggle Artefacts Office,” Hermione replied.

Penelope smiled, “That was all that I was aware of before I started but we do so much more here. Would you like the tour?”

Hermione got to her feet eagerly, “Oh, yes please.”

Penelope led Hermione out of the office and down the corridor into an area full of cubicles, “This is the Auror office. The Aurors do a lot more than they used to, budget cuts unfortunately. We used to have an Investigation Department but now we pair all of our Aurors up and they head up their own investigations. We also combined the Witch Watchers with the Aurors, both are in effect highly skilled detectives. There was a time when Aurors just dealt with dark wizards and dark magic but now they deal with serious crimes like murder, manslaughter, that sort of thing.”

Hermione nodded thoughtfully, “So like you said, the equivalent of a muggle detective.”

“Exactly,” Penelope said, “During your stint in the Auror office you won’t be working as an Auror of course, you will be helping Rachel co-ordinate the Aurors. These men and women are brilliant at catching bad guys but without Rachel to tell them who is working on what case and who is on night duty from one week to the next, they would be useless.”

Hermione laughed and nodded, “I could get on board with that.”

“At the back of this lot of cubicles is another set,” Penelope added, “That’s the Magical Law Enforcement Patrol. They are the equivalent of your Muggle police, they do the stuff that’s too boring for the Aurors. You know, drunk Quidditch players causing aggro, crowd control at events like Quidditch games or press conferences, that sort of thing. While you’re working with these guys you will spend a lot of time in the field, it’s not for everyone, a lot of people hate their stint here and can’t wait to get back to the paperwork.”

“I’m sure I could handle it, I grew up with Harry Potter,” Hermione said with an amused smile.

Penelope chuckled and led her through the maze of cubicles to a small bullpen at the back, “These guys are Hit Wizards. A lot of people think they are assassins because of the name but in actual fact their job is to deal with the most dangerous criminals around. They sometimes work in conjunction with the Aurors but most of the time we loan them out to the Muggle police force so that they can catch serial killers or child molesters, the worst scum around basically.”

Hermione nodded, “What will I be doing while I’m in this department?”

“You will be communicating with the Muggle police. Every police department in the UK has a hotline that takes them to us, you answer the calls, decide what is important enough for our Hit Wizards to take on. Then you select a Hit Wizard, give them a cover story and send them off to the Muggles to catch their bad guy,” Penelope explained.

“Alright,” Hermione said, she already had a feeling that she would find it difficult to select only the most serious of cases.

“Let’s go back this way and I’ll show you the rest,” Penelope said, she led the way back through the cubicles into the main corridor. Hermione followed her along it until she paused outside a door.

“That’s the Improper Use of Magic Office in there,” Penelope explained, “They are the people who send you letters when you use magic in the school holidays. They also investigate underage magic and incidents of improper use of magic so there is a lot of paperwork but also a bit of field work too.”

Hermione nodded and glanced to the door to her right.

“Ah that is Wizengamot Administration Services,” Penelope said, “Some people love it, most people hate it. Essentially, all of the paperwork for the Wizengamot so that will involve a lot of sitting around in court rooms taking notes, sending out court notices, it’s completely paperwork, I hated it.”

“I think I might too,” Hermione admitted.

“This one here,” Penelope said as they walked down the corridor slightly, “Is the Administrative Registration Department, it got a bad rep for the things it did during the war, chiefly because of the Muggle Registration Act, but it’s actually a good department to work in. I spent a good two years there, what we do here is register every birth, death and marriage in the wizarding world. People have to come in to register births and deaths and to give notice that they are due to marry so it’s a good job for a people person, you hear interesting stories.”

“It does sound good,” Hermione said, “I do enjoy talking to people and hearing their stories.”

“I honestly loved it,” Penelope said as they walked further down the corridor again, “But like I said, the war gave it an awful reputation.”

“The war gave the whole department and the whole Ministry an awful reputation,” Hermione pointed out.

Penelope stiffened up a little at that, “Yes, well unfortunately there is nothing we can do about that. This is the Department of Intoxicating Substances. What they do is fairly self-explanatory, they make regulation about the consumption of alcoholic beverages and they also monitor the importation and exportation of potions ingredients that can be used as drugs. There is sometimes a tiny bit of field work but it is 99.9% paperwork.”

Hermione nodded and followed Penelope further along the corridor to a point where the light didn’t seem to work properly, as it flickered she could just make out a doorway to a tiny, cramped office, “And this is the Misuse of Muggle Artefacts Office. I will be honest with you, it is something of a joke, people will tell you that they will send you here if you make mistakes.”

“You realise that one of my best friends is Ron Weasley, don’t you?” Hermione asked with a raised eyebrow, “Regardless of what we both think about Percy, his Dad, who runs this department, took me in every summer and treated me like one of his own children.”

Penelope’s cheeks flushed slightly, “Of course, how silly that something like that should slip my mind. My apologies.”

Hermione didn’t say anything to that so Penelope cleared her throat and said, “In that case, you know what the work here entails. Now, we structure the year so that you spend more time in certain departments. You will begin by spending two months in the Auror Office, followed by a month with the Hit Wizards. Then you will spend 2 months with the Magical Law Enforcement Patrol and 2 months with the Improper Use of Magic Office. After that you will spend one month in Wizengamot Administration Services then two months in the Administrative Registration Department and then one month in the Department of Intoxicating Substances. Finally, you will spend your last month in the Misuse of Muggle Artefacts Office. Do you have any questions?”

Hermione shook her head.

Penelope smiled, but it didn’t seem as genuine as before, “Perfect. In that case, we will have tea in my office and start working our way through the paperwork.”

***

When Daphne stepped inside her and Harry’s little holiday cottage, she smiled. She could smell something amazing cooking and she could hear Harry whistling in the kitchen. She kicked off her shoes, hung up her cloak and walked along the hall.

“Ah, look whose home! Was it as bad as you thought?”

“There were getting to know you games and 4 hours of paperwork,” Daphne said as she leant in the doorway.

Harry laughed, “Right up your street then,” he joked as he handed her a glass of wine.

“I could get used to this,” Daphne said as she sat down on the kitchen table, “Coming home to home cooked meals and wine.”

Harry snorted, “Don’t get used to it, once I start Auror training I’m not going to have as much time on my hands.”

“Yeah,” Daphne said quietly. Harry knew that she would never say it but he could tell that she was upset that he would be leaving tomorrow.

“But tonight is not about that,” Harry said before she could get down about it, “Tell me about your first day.”

“Well,” Daphne said as she sipped her wine, “The fact that Bill is my boss is just weird. He made us do getting to know each other games to break the ice so we had to tell two truths and a lie and the other people had to guess which the lie was.”

“Sounds like Bill,” Harry said with a smile, “Did anyone guess yours?”

Daphne grinned, “No, I said that my favourite colour is purple, I play the piano and my fiancé is Harry Potter. They all thought that the last one was the lie.”

Harry grinned back at her, “Your favourite colour is green or silver, depending on the event and your outfit.”

Daphne smiled slightly, “Very good. Nobody believed that you really were my fiancé, Bill had to back me up.”

“That’s because I like to keep you all to myself,” Harry said as he shot her a grin, “Although I don’t know how people can’t know, do they read the Prophet?”

“Probably not, I was the only Brit there,” Daphne said thoughtfully, “There’s only one other girl, she’s Russian and her Dad was an assassin in the Cold War, she’s intense.”

Harry raised an eyebrow at her, “She sounds it. What about the other people? Any attractive men that I need to worry about?”

Daphne snorted, “No, well…one of them is alright looking and he’s Scandinavian but he’s into nature and hiking.”

Harry chuckled, “So no threats then?”

“Definitely not,” Daphne said with a smile, “There’s a guy from Egypt, an American who I can just tell is going to really irritate me and a Turkish guy who thinks he’s the best thing since sliced bread.”

Harry sniggered, “Quite some collection of people then.”

“Hmm,” Daphne hummed thoughtfully, “How about you? Are any of your fellow Trainee Aurors hot enough to tempt you?”

“Away from you?” Harry asked incredulously, “Daph, it would take a full on Veela with an Imperius Curse to do that.”

Daphne raised an eyebrow at him, “Are you trying to charm me?”

“Maybe,” Harry said with a soft smile, “I am leaving for two weeks tomorrow after all…”

“And we do have this little cottage all to ourselves…” Daphne added as she shot him a suggestive look.

Harry knew that look well, he turned the gas off on the stove and walked over to her, “I was planning on having dinner first but I think you have other plans.”

Daphne smirked at him, “Like you said, you will be gone for two weeks. Shouldn’t we take advantage of every minute we have now?”

Harry leant forward and captured her lips in a soft kiss, “Yeah, I think we should.”

“Me too,” Daphne murmured as she kissed him again.

Harry took a step forward and closed the gap between them, deepening the kiss as he did so. He picked her up and she wrapped her legs around his waist, he didn’t stop kissing her as he took them into the bedroom which was rather conveniently right next to the kitchen.

***

When Hermione stepped out of the fireplace into the kitchen of Potter Manor, she was surprised to find it empty. She knew that Draco had been off today and she had sort of been hoping that he might cook dinner or do something romantic. After all, he was going into isolation tomorrow morning.

She sighed and was about to leave the room when she noticed a scroll of parchment on the table. She unrolled it and skimmed the writing with a frown;

_“Hermione,_

_I have a surprise for you. Meet me at Claremont Square._

_Draco.”_

Hermione grinned and hurried towards the front door so she could apparate to the square. She had a feeling that she knew what his surprise was, after all, Claremont Square was opposite 12 Grimmauld Place.

As soon as Hermione reached the gate, she apparated to the square and smiled when she saw Draco waiting in front of a fountain.

“You said you had a surprise for me?”

Draco smiled and hooked his arm through hers, “I do, how was your first day?”

“It was okay,” Hermione replied as Draco led her towards a small gate out of the park, “My boss is Penelope Clearwater, she was a Ravenclaw a few years above us at school, she dated Percy Weasley.”

“Is that a good thing or a bad thing?” Draco asked.

“Well, I thought it was a good thing,” Hermione said honestly, “But now I think it might be a bad thing because I’ve managed to piss her off already.”

Draco sniggered, “How did you manage that?”

“She insulted Ron’s Dad!” Hermione said indignantly, “I got the tour of the DMLE, she was telling me about all the subdivisions because over the next year I have to spend a month or two in each one so that they can work out what I’m good at and so that I can work out what I like.”

Draco nodded and opened the little iron wrought gate for her, “How did that result in her insulting Ron’s Dad or in you pissing her off?”

“Well she started off with the really important things, the Auror Office, the Improper Use of Magic Office, you know?” Hermione said.

Draco nodded and Hermione continued, “Then at the very end of the tour we got to a part of the corridor that had no lighting and she points to this office which was basically a bloody broom cupboard. Anyway, it was the Misuse of Muggle Artefacts Office and she had the nerve to say that it was a joke and that if I made any mistakes my superiors would joke about sending me there.”

Draco grimaced, “Ah, and Arthur Weasley runs it.”

“Yes, and he loves his job,” Hermione said hotly, “After the war he could have done anything that he wanted but he went back to that job because he enjoys it so much. It’s not a joke, what they do is very important, if Muggles were allowed to run around with biting teapots or vomiting toilets then the statute of secrecy wouldn’t stand up for very long, would it?”

Draco shook his head, “No, it wouldn’t. It is an important job, he protects Muggles from wizards cruel practical jokes and you’re right, it’s important to make sure that these items are confiscated and that the Muggles are obliviated. The last thing we need is another witch hunt on our hands.”

Hermione smiled at him and Draco frowned, “What?”

“Nothing,” Hermione said with a fond smile, “It’s just…once upon a time you would be the last person that I would expect to defend Arthur Weasley or the Misuse of Muggle Artefacts Office.”

Draco smiled warmly at her, “Well times change, and so do people. Now, here is your surprise…”

Hermione looked around and realised that they were standing in front of a house, “Welcome home.”

Hermione beamed and she was fairly sure that she had tears in her eyes, the house had obviously had the Fidelius Charm taken off of it because she could see it. The dark, forboding exterior was gone too, in favour of a whitewashed look with…

“Are those golden railings?”

“Gold leaf,” Draco said with a wave of his hand, “I thought the Gryffindor in you would like it, the interior is far more neutral though, sorry.”

Hermione shook her head and let her happy tears fall, “No, I don’t care what the interior looks like. I love it Draco!”

Draco smiled with relief, he opened his mouth to say something else but then a call distracted them.

“Howdy neighbours!”

Hermione and Draco tore their eyes off of each other to look at the house next door to theirs. Theo was hanging out of the drawing room window of umber 11 waving a cowboy hat.

“Way to ruin the moment Theo,” Hermione called back, a little irritably.

“Sorry Princess,” Theo said, he winked at her, threw the cowboy hat out onto the street and disappeared back inside his house.

“I have to spend two weeks with him,” Draco muttered as he picked up the hat and walked towards the front door, “Two whole weeks of him whining about how much he loves Sadie and how much he misses her and talking about how much Egypt sucks.”

Hermione shot him an amused look, “You love him really.”

Draco just rolled his eyes in response to that and placed his hand on the front door, “Blood wards open it, you and I are the only ones who have direct access but in the case of an emergency, Harry can get in too.”

“That’s good to know,” Hermione said as they stepped into the foyer. She took off her shoes and hung her cloak up on a lovely, new coat stand, she was so glad that Draco had gotten rid of the troll leg.

“So,” Draco said with a smile, “I have dinner in the oven to keep it warm but I figured you might want the tour first.”

“I definitely want the tour first,” Hermione said eagerly as she stepped out into the hallway. It was no longer dark and dingy, the walls were a nice, neutral magnolia and the wooden handrail on the stairs had been sanded back and looked brand new. There were brand new brown carpets down too and…

“You installed electricity?” Hermione asked in surprise.

“That was what caused the delay,” Draco admitted, “But I wanted it to be a surprise. It took the electrician forever and it cost me a bloody fortune, I got a plumber in to give the plumbing an upgrade too.”

Hermione grinned, “So there are electrical lights?”

“And plug sockets in every room,” Draco admitted reluctantly, “The only thing I kept as gas was the oven, I have no idea how to cook on one of those new-fangled electric Muggle ones.”

“That’s fine,” Hermione said with a nod, her eyes were now full of tears and then suddenly she couldn’t help it in anymore. She burst into tears and threw herself at him, “Thank you Draco, thank you so much! You installed electricity, I can have a beautiful house full of magical books and everything but I can have electricity back again, thank you!”

Draco smiled and pulled her closer, “That’s alright, I know how much you wanted it and…I want you to be happy, even if that means electricity.”

“You’ll love it,” Hermione promised him as she pulled back from the hug and wiped her eyes, “We’ll get a TV and you will love electricity, trust me.”

“I’ll take your word for it,” Draco said with a smile, he grabbed her hand, “Come on, I want to show you the rest of the house.”

He led her through the newly refurbished house. There were some big changes, the portrait of Sirius’s psychotic Mother had been removed, as had the house elves heads that had lined the staircase. Draco had also moved the kitchen from the basement to the first floor, it was now on your left as you entered the house where the old dining room had been. Across the hall where there had been a small library, he had made room for a dining room big enough for them and all their friends.

Draco insisted on showing her the basement last, so Hermione let him lead her upstairs. The drawing room had been given a makeover and in a nod to their houses, there were two comfortable armchairs by the fire, one was scarlet red, and the other was emerald green. The tapestry had also been restored, all those who had been burned off were now back on the tapestry and Draco had also added people like Hermione and Harry to it. There was also a small bedroom with an adjoining bathroom on this floor.

The second floor had another small bedroom with an adjoining bathroom but this wasn’t the main use of the space. The drawing room had previously taken up two floors due to its high ceiling but Draco had created a whole new room by lowering the ceiling. He had floored this room with solid oak floorboards and it was probably, Hermione’s favourite room in the entire house.

“You made me a library,” Hermione whispered in disbelief. It wasn’t even a small library, it was a huge library, complete with wooden ladders to reach the highest shelves and comfortable armchairs dotted around rather than just tables with uncomfortable wooden chairs. Draco had even put window seats into all three of the high windows that let light stream into the room.

Draco glanced at her nervously, “I hope it’s okay. I took all of the books that weren’t cursed or about dark magic from Malfoy Manor. Then I bought a lot second hand at a bargain rate from Flourish and Blotts. There should be a good range of magical disciplines as well as some histories and the odd wizarding fiction book,” he said, he was talking very quickly now, “And I added a Muggle literature section too with-”

Hermione cut him off before he could finish, she launched herself at him again but this time it was to kiss him, not to cry on him. Draco stopped talking abruptly and kissed her back with as much fervour as she was kissing him.

“It’s perfect,” She said as she pulled back from the kiss, “It is so perfect Draco, thank you.”

Draco smiled and sighed with relief, “Thank Merlin, I was worried you wouldn’t like it.”

“You gave me my own library Draco, how could I not like anything about that?” Hermione asked as she stared around the room, “I could spend all night in here…”

“If you spend all night in here I can’t show you the rest of the house or treat you to the fabulous meal I have prepared you,” Draco said as he grabbed her hand and tried to pull her out of the room, “Or seduce you and keep you in my arms all night until I have to leave tomorrow morning.”

Hermione laughed at that and let him pull her away from the library, “That’s true, I’ll have two weeks to kill when you’re in isolation. I can get acquainted with my library then.”

Draco agreed with her and took upstairs to show her the rest of the house. The third floor was home to another small bedroom and the master bedroom. Draco had kept it neutral again so that Hermione could decorate it however she wished, as long as that didn’t involve red and gold. He had also moved the doorway to the bathroom on that floor so that it was now an ensuite for the master.

The fourth floor hadn’t changed much in terms of layout. The rooms that had once belonged to Sirius and Regulus were now decorated neutrally with a shared bathroom connecting the two. The only change on this floor was in the stairs to the attic, before they had been tucked away behind a door small enough for a house elf and you had to duck to get up them. Now they were proper stairs with a bannister.

“Why did you change the attic stairs?”

“Because they don’t just lead to the attic anymore,” Draco said with a grin, “Let me show you.”

He walked up the stairs and Hermione followed him. At the top of the narrow, steep stairs there were two doors, both at elf height.

“That leads to the attic space,” Draco said as he motioned towards the door on their left, “But this leads to the roof terrace.”

He opened the door, ducked and walked through it. Hermione followed him and smiled when she stepped out. It was a small square, only really big enough for the two sun loungers that Draco had placed here and maybe a few plants. They had an amazing view of London from up here though, as Hermione leant on the railing and looked around she saw something that made her frown.

“Draco is that…”

Draco followed her line of sight and looked sheepish when he saw what had caught her attention, “Uh…yeah I was worried that might bother you.”

Number 12 Grimmauld Place was a narrower house than Number 11 but it had a similar amount of space because it had an extra floor. As such, when Hermione looked down she saw another small roof terrace and Theo was sunbathing on it, completely naked.

“The fact they live next door doesn’t bother me,” Hermione said as she raised an eyebrow at Draco, “The fact our roof terrace looks out onto their roof terrace doesn’t bother me either, unless of course your best friend is butt bloody naked on it!”

“Yeah,” Draco grimaced, “I can see why that would bother you. THEO! Put it away mate!”

Theo opened his eyes and looked up at them. He grinned and pulled a towel over himself, “Sorry mate, tan lines, I hate them.”

“See, he’s a cooperative neighbour,” Draco said as he glanced over at Hermione.

Hermione raised an eyebrow at him, “Uh-huh. Are you going to show me this basement or not?”

Draco was just glad that she wasn’t more angry about Theo’s indecent display. He nodded and they made their way down several flights of stairs back into the entrance hallway. The stairs to the basement were in the same place that they had always been but they didn’t seem so creepy now that they were lit with electric lights. At the bottom of the stairs the door which had once led to the kitchen said in large letters, _“DRACO’S MAN CAVE.”_

“Harry really has a lot to answer for,” Hermione said dryly as Draco opened the door and led Hermione inside.

“It does have its uses though,” Draco said, “I mean it has a bar, it could be used for parties.”

The basement had been completely stripped back and converted into what was essentially a huge function room. It was pretty neat, Hermione had to admit, the exposed stone arch foundations gave it a rustic feel. Draco had kitted it out with a bar, tables and comfortable armchairs and sofas. It could all be pushed aside to make room for a dancefloor though.

“What’s that door?” Hermione asked with a frown.

“Oh it’s not in use,” Draco said with a wave of his hand, “It was just a door that was there, I couldn’t get rid of it.”

Hermione narrowed her eyes at him, “You managed to get rid of a screaming portrait and the decapitated heads of dead house elves but you couldn’t get rid of that door?”

Draco shrugged, “Yeah, it’s an old door you know?”

“Draco,” Hermione said in a warning tone, “What’s that door?”

Draco grimaced and waited for a bollocking as he admitted, “It goes to Theo’s man cave but it’s got really strong wards and locking charms on it so we can’t just come and go as we please. We’ve got to allow each other access, like a floo system.”

Hermione stared at him in disbelief, “Seriously?”

“What? He’s my best friend! I spent 7 years in a dorm with him at Hogwarts, I can’t just go from that to never seeing him,” Draco said defensively.

“Okay, A. You are his _Auror partner, _you will literally see him every day!” Hermione exclaimed, “And B. How difficult would it be to go outside, walk next door and ring his frigging doorbell?”

“What if it’s the middle of the night and I can’t sleep and I’m in my pyjamas?” Draco combatted.

“Do I need to be concerned that you built a door to your best friends house so you can go there in the middle of the night?” Hermione asked as she raised an eyebrow at him.

Draco rolled his eyes, “Very funny, are you really pissed off about it?”

“No, but I do think you are incredibly lazy,” Hermione said with a shake of her head.

“Well let me make it up to you, are you hungry?”

“Starving,” Hermione admitted, a little grudgingly.

“Good,” Draco said, “I made your favourite, chicken hotpot.”

Hermione smiled slightly, “Is that because you thought I would flip my lid when I realised that you had built a door to Theo’s house?”

“Maybe,” Draco admitted as they made their way towards the kitchen.

“Does Sadie know about that by the way?”

“No, Theo said he would tell her when she gets back from Egypt,” Draco replied.

Hermione snorted, “Good luck to him when he breaks _that _news.”

“Yeah I told him that he was on his own with that one,” Draco said with an amused smile, “Now sit down, relax and let me pour you a glass of wine.”

Hermione smiled at him, “I can get on board with that plan and Draco?”

“Yeah?” Draco said, glancing around at her as he pulled the hotpot out of the oven.

Hermione’s smile couldn’t have been more genuine as she said, “Thank you. Despite all of its connections to Theo, this house…it’s perfect.”

Draco grinned at her, “You deserve nothing less Hermione.”

**TBC.**


	87. The Isolation Period

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Pretty much every scene starts with a location for the next few chapters because the gang are so far flung, we would all get lost otherwise!

** _Amiens, France._ **

Lilly had never felt as nervous as she did on the first morning of her training course. She hadn’t had a chance to meet her fellow recruits because she had already been in bed when most of them arrived the previous night. She was glad that she had her own dorm room however, she had been worried that she would have to share for another year.

All Lilly knew about her fellow trainees was that there were 7 of them. She had been observing them discreetly as they waited in line to meet the head of the centre. There were 5 girls, including herself, and 3 boys. 

“Good morning Trainees!” A harsh female voice barked.

Lilly jumped and looked up. The voice belonged to a tall, slim, very strict looking woman who was wearing Healers robes adorned with the French flag, “My name is Madame Tyrannique. I am the Head Senior Healer here at the Centre for Trauma Healing and I will be overseeing your training for the following year.”

Lilly was grateful for the fact that there were a few kinder looking Healers standing behind her.

“If you have any issues you must come to me but you will be working with my colleagues here,” Madam Tyrannique said as she gestured behind herself, “There will be two trainees assigned to each Senior Healer. By the end of the year, I fully expect there to be _one _trainee assigned to each Healer because I have no doubt that some of you will not have the stomach for this job. Yes, we treat broken bones and bad cuts but you will see brain fluid, you will see bones sticking out of screaming patients, you will see blood gushing from people. Frankly, you have to have a very special mindset to be able to cope with this job.”

Lilly glanced around, there were already a couple of green-ish faces.

“I shall make a prediction right now,” Madam Tyrannique said sternly, “One of you will quit, one of you will change course to study a more conventional sort of healing and two of you will go home to work in local practices healing minor ailments.”

Lilly wanted to make sure that she wouldn’t be any of those people. She held her head up a little higher as if trying to prove that.

“Now, I do not believe you have met your fellow Trainees so if each of you could tell us your name and where you are from, that would be much appreciated.”

Lilly was first in the row so she smiled and said, “My name is Lillian Moon but I prefer Lilly. I’m from London in the UK.”

The next person was an unassuming girl with dirty blonde hair and dark brown eyes, “I am Eleonore Valjean and I from Paris in France.”

The next person was a fairly handsome dark skinned boy, “I’m Ayo Farrah and I’m from Cairo in Egypt.”

Next to speak was a girl with dark red hair, she was tall and very conventionally good looking. She smiled and spoke with a thick Texan accent, “Hey all. My name is Savannah Adkinson and I’m from Texas in the United States of America.”

Next was a stocky boy with mousy brown hair, “I’m Michael Smith and I’m from Vancouver in Canada.”

Next in line was a dark skinned girl with beautiful dark brown hair. She smiled very genuinely and said, “Hello, my name is Lucille Williams and I am from Kingston in Jamaica.”

Lilly had a good feeling about Lucille, she seemed like the most genuine of all of the people who had introduced themselves. Next was a very pretty girl with tanned skin and bleached blonde hair, “Hi, I’m Charlotte Thompson and I’m from Wellington in New Zealand.”

The last person to speak was a boy with light blonde hair and very white, shiny teeth. Lilly supposed that a lot of women would find him good looking but he just looked a bit too false for her liking. She liked her men a little rougher around the edges, the thought made her smile slightly as she thought about Neville.

“I am Marcel Bissett and I am from Calais in France,” Marcel said with a very large, very false smile.

Madam Tyrannique nodded and then consulted a list that she had on a clipboard in front of her, “Trainee Moon and Trainee Bissett; you are assigned to Senior Healer Clara Selwyn.”

Lilly really had to resist the urge to roll her eyes. Of all the people she could have been paired with, it just had to be the French glamour king. She zoned out as all of the others were paired off and only started to pay attention when their Senior Healer walked over to greet them.

“Miss. Moon, Mr. Bissett,” Clara Selwyn said with a smile as she shook their hands. She was a very pretty woman with brown hair so dark it almost looked black and piercingly bright blue eyes. She looked older than them but not quite middle aged, Lilly guessed that she was in her mid-20’s.

“Nice to meet you,” Lilly said politely.

“Enchante,” Marcel said, “May I kiss your hand?”

“No, you may not,” Clara said swiftly, “And I will not tolerate any of that French nonsense Mr. Bissett. I am as English as they come, none of your fellow countrymen have managed to charm me in my 10 years in this country so I doubt that you will succeed.”

Lilly smirked as Marcel nodded and said, “My apologies ma’am.”

Clara shot him a defiant look and said, “Now shall we get started? I like to start things off with a tour of the facilities.”

“That sounds great,” Lilly said eagerly, she had only seen the dorm room and the cafeteria so far.

“I hope you’re this eager when the real work starts Miss. Moon,” Clara said with a pointed look, “Now this is the lecture hall. You will attend three classes a week here and you will take all of your written assignments here. The remainder of your course will be physical, that consists of observation and also of physical training.”

“Why is there such a large physical aspect to the course?” Marcel asked.

Lilly raised an eyebrow at him, “Oh I don’t know Marcel, maybe because we’re going to be working with Aurors in the field where there will be bad guys shooting spells at us. I think that’s why it might be a good idea to be fit enough to run away while holding injured people.”

Clara glanced down to hide her smirk, “I would encourage a friendlier attitude to your colleague Miss. Moon. However, you are entirely correct. You may have to treat someone in the middle of a warzone, you need to be prepared for that situation.”

“I understand that there will be a degree of action involved,” Marcel said calmly, “But a warzone? Isn’t that an exaggeration in current times?”

“In current times?” Lilly asked in disbelief, “I literally just saw friends die in a war! I was one of those people treating people in the middle of a warzone while giants stomped around and Werewolves tried to eat people and Death Eaters were everywhere! Do you never look at newspapers?”

“Alright, I should tell you off for your attitude Miss. Moon,” Clara said, “But as one of the trauma healers who served in that war, I can’t find it in me to do so. To worsen things, you were merely a school pupil when you witnessed these things.”

Marcel swallowed, “I am very sorry Miss. Moon. I did not mean to be insensitive. It wounds me to upset such a beautiful girl.”

Lilly rolled her eyes, “I have a boyfriend before you take that any further.”

Clara bit her lip in amusement, she sensed a tumultuous year ahead, “Come on guys, let’s continue the tour. Through here we have the mock operating theatre. The Aurors back home have a simulation room and this is very similar to that, once a week you will work together on an operation. However, the entire thing will be simulated by the rooms very impressive magic. We will be watching and marking you, these marks add up over the course of the year and are very important.”

Lilly nodded and remained silent as they were led up a set of stairs, “These three floors are all wards and operating rooms, each floor has a break room where you can help yourselves to tea and coffee,” Clara told them as she led them through the hospital, “We are an active training hospital after all. Upstairs you have your dorms and a shared common room. In that building over there you have the cafeteria where all meals are provided for you. Below the cafeteria is a swimming pool where you will spend an hour each week. We want to ensure that all of you are strong swimmers in case you ever have to retrieve a patient or a body from water.”

Lilly nodded and listened as she took it all in, “Outside we have the track which you will be running around every morning at 6.30am sharp. It’s a good wake up call as much as anything else. There is also a Quidditch pitch further down that path and the hospital has a team which you can try out for you if you so wish. I think that just about covers it, do you have any other questions?”

“When do we start?” Lilly asked.

Clara chuckled, “Tomorrow morning. Today you have paperwork to fill out and your induction to complete,” she led them through a door at the back of the lecture hall that they had somehow found their way back to. They were in a small classroom full of chatter as all of the other pairs were here with their Healers too.

“First of all, here are your timetables,” Clara said, “Whenever it says, Hospital Placement, that means you will be with me. Everywhere I go, you come too. You will see patients getting admitted as well as check-ups and check-outs. Not to mention all different sorts of surgeries.”

“Do we get to do any field work?” Marcel asked.

“Not until you have been here for 6 months,” Clara replied, “At that point you will be sent out on the odd mission with Auror Trainees from your local countries.”

Lilly frowned as she glanced down at the timetable, “Excuse me Clara, what does Auror Placement mean?”

Clara looked down at her timetable briefly, “Ah yes, you will go back to your home countries on a Wednesday afternoon and work with the Aurors who will be starting field work the same year that you graduate. This is to ensure that you have a working relationship with them before you all start running riot in the real world.”

Lilly grinned brightly at that and Clara frowned, “You seem overly happy about that Miss. Moon.”

“My boyfriend is training to be an Auror,” Lilly explained, “And we won’t see each other much with me being in France.”

“Ah,” Clara said, she smiled and it looked sympathetic, “I understand how hard long distance relationships are. Hopefully this Wednesday workshop will make a difference for you.”

“Hopefully,” Lilly said with a smile.

***

** _Auror Training Base, London._ **

“Are you going to spend the next two weeks looking like a mopey zoo lion?”

Theo huffed.

“Did you just huff? Seriously?”

“Would you guys leave me alone?” Theo said irritably, “I have to spend two weeks stuck in here while my wife galivants around Egypt seeing cool shit with people who are smarter and better looking and more privileged than me. I’m not exactly thrilled about it, alright?”

“Okay can I just make a point?” Harry asked with a raised eyebrow.

Theo glared at him in response.

“I find it hard to believe that there are people in this world more privileged than you,” Harry continued, “Apart from Daph maybe, she’s pretty high maintenance.”

Draco snorted, “You’ve never been to wizarding Europe, have you?”

“I’ve never been to Europe, period,” Harry said.

“What?” Draco and Theo echoed.

“Deprived childhood, remember?” Neville chipped in, “Evil Aunt and Uncle wouldn’t take him on family outings, they were hardly going to put him in their suitcase and take him to the Algarve, were they?”

Harry snorted in amusement at that thought, “Thanks for the support there Nev.”

“You have never been to Europe?” Theo asked again, only slower this time.

“Theo, I’ve never left Britain,” Harry said, “I don’t even have a passport.”

“A what?”

“It’s a thing Muggles need,” Draco said with a wave of his hand, “You need to pay money to get this passport thing and if you don’t have one you can’t leave the country.”

Theo scoffed, “That’s the most stupid thing I’ve ever heard. Here you just go to the International Apparition Centre, tell them whether you’re travelling for business or pleasure and get your wand checked. Once they know you’re not a criminal, you’re good to go.”

“Unless you’re trying to smuggle illegal fauna into the country, in which case they search your trunk and detain you,” Draco said, smirking at Neville.

Neville rolled his eyes, “I didn’t know it was illegal, I just wanted to bring my new plant home with me and I was _6._”

“They bound his hands together and read him his rights, he cried like a baby,” Draco joked.

“How do you know this?” Harry asked, looking between his two friends with an amused smile.

“Because Draco had tagged along on his Dad’s business trip to Austria and Gran and me were coming back from our holiday in Cyprus,” Neville explained.

“So I just happened to be in the right place at the right time, for the perfect blackmail opportunity,” Draco smirked.

“You want blackmail? We were friends back then, remember? You came over to hug me and your Dad whacked you around the head with his cane,” Neville reminded him.

Theo snorted in amusement at that and Harry winced, “Your Dad was a right bastard but it is good to know you had a conscious before Hermione reformed you.”

Draco rolled his eyes, “Very funny.”

“Quit the chatter girls!”

The group of friends fell silent upon hearing that command. They hadn’t heard Auror Sumner enter the lecture hall where they had been killing time for the last half an hour.

“Welcome to the start of Auror training,” Sumner boomed, “I want you all to look around you at the people in this room. When you are all fully qualified Aurors, these people will be your peers and probably even your friends but right now, they are your competition.”

Harry frowned at that and looked around the room, his three friends looked equally as confused. As did the other two pairs, Blanche Zabini and Ophelia Wood, and, Maxwell Harper and Emily Wilde.

“While you are here, you are competing to be the best. We have a leaderboard and we keep track of those getting the highest marks in their classes, that’s both written and practical classes. There will be incentives for those that are at the top of the leaderboard, prizes if you like,” Sumner explained, “So it’s in your best interest to work your arses off.”

Harry and Neville shared a determined look, they were the best and they were also Gryffindors which of course made them more stubborn than most.

“The other reason you’re competing is because not all of you will finish these 3 years,” Sumner said, “By the end of your training period, at least two of you will have fallen by the wayside, one way or another. If we end up with two qualified pairs of Aurors at the end of 3 years, we consider that a good year. Do you understand how high our standards are now?”

“Yes sir,” They all echoed.

Sumner nodded, “Good, now as you were all briefed, the next two weeks are known as the isolation period. There’s a reason for that, a very good reason,” he paused to see if anyone questioned this but nobody did, “The reason is that we want you to bond with your new partner so that when we throw ourselves into the first year of training, you are already close enough to that person that you would kill or die for them.”

Harry’s hand shot into the air.

Sumner knew what was coming before he even said, “Yes, Potter?”

“I have killed for Neville, I’ve also died for Neville in a round-about way, I sort of died for all of my friends which included him,” Harry began, “Oh and I’ve known him since I was 11 so we’ve already bonded.”

“We killed a snake together, not to mention Lord Voldemort,” Neville agreed.

Harry nodded, “So can we just go home for the next couple of weeks?”

“Draco and I have bonded too!” Theo cut in, “We’ve known each other since we were babies and I once shoved a bezoar down his throat because he drank a poisonous potion.”

“Just to clarify, I was three years old at the time,” Draco added, “But he’s right, he’s saved my life and I did kill a Death Eater to save his arse in the final battle.”

“Oh and I jumped in front of a cutting curse for him and lost my small toe on my left foot,” Theo said with a nod.

“He did,” Draco agreed, “He only has 9 toes, and not because of pureblood inbreeding.”

“So I guess we can go home too then?” Theo half said, half asked.

Sumner was trying not to smirk as he crossed his arms over his chest. They could tell that he was finding it difficult to keep his tough-guy act up, “Nobody is exempt from isolation! I don’t care how many snakes or dark lords you’ve killed, I don’t care how many toes you’ve got. Am I clear?”

“Yes sir,” The four boys echoed.

“I have not had to put up with shit like this since I had James Potter and Sirius Black on this base and let me tell you, I will not hesitate to throw their heirs into the same isolation cell that I had to throw those clowns into Merlin knows how many times,” Sumner continued, “Do you idiots understand me?”

“Yes sir,” They echoed. Although Harry secretly found it quite amusing that they were reminding Sumner of his Father and Godfather.

“Right!” Sumner barked, “Now that the class clowns have hung up their oversized shoes, let me tell you exactly why we call this the isolation period. We don’t just leave you on the base and not let you call your partner, your mum or your granny because we’re cold-hearted bastards. We do something much worse than that, you are going to spend the next two weeks in some of the most isolated places we know with only your Auror partner, your wand and a tent.”

There were groans and gasps, all sounds of horror or dread.

Harry raised his hand and Sumner narrowed his eyes at him, “Yes, Potter?”

“Camping then?”

Sumner narrowed his eyes even more, “I suppose you could call it camping but there are no amenities.”

“You do realise, sir, that I literally spent an entire year camping with no amenities while avoiding all of Lord Voldemort’s minions who were scouring the country for me?” Harry said, “So I really feel like I should maybe just get a two-week vacation instead.”

“Potter!” Sumner barked while the others sniggered or chuckled, “I said no cheek and I mean no fucking cheek! You had better think about your attitude during isolation because if it doesn’t change by the time you get back here I _will _kick you to the curb, war hero or not. Do you understand me?”

Harry took it seriously this time, “Yes, sir. Sorry, sir.”

Sumner’s cheeks had been getting gradually redder and redder, he currently looked like a tomato, “So listen up! Sheppard is going to come in here and collect you, one pair at a time. Then he’s going to tweak your wands and dump you in the middle of nowhere. Your wands are being tweaked so that you can’t cast a patronus or try to communicate with anyone in any other way and there will definitely not be any fireplaces where you are going.”

Draco raised his hand.

Sumner looked at him warily, “Yes, Black?”

“What if there are Dementors?”

Sumner rolled his eyes, “There will not be any Dementors Black, we have scouted out where you’re going and we know what you may or may not face there. If we thought there was the slightest chance you would run into Dementors then we wouldn’t disallow the Patronus charm. Do you think we’re stupid? The last thing we want is for a family like yours to bring a lawsuit against us if you get your stupid arse killed.”

Harry and Neville snorted in amusement at these words.

“Are there any other stupid questions?” Sumner asked irritably.

“Is this a test?” Ophelia Wood asked.

“Technically speaking, no,” Sumner replied honestly, “But if you end up half-dead at the end of two weeks in isolation then we might have to reconsider your place here.”

Blanche’s hand shot up next.

“Yes, Zabini?”

“So what do we have to do? Just survive for two weeks?” Blanche asked.

“Yes,” Sumner replied, “It will be up to you to work out where you are and how to survive there. Any further questions?”

Everyone shook their heads so Sumner nodded, “Good. Auror Sheppard will start collecting you shortly, do not leave this hall until he arrives.”

The trainees nodded in agreement as Sumner turned to leave. They all remained silent until the door had clicked shut behind the Senior Auror at which point chatter broke out.

“This is going to be a piece of piss,” Harry said to Neville.

“Is it?” Neville asked, raising an eyebrow at him, “How much do you want to bet that you found it so easy to survive on the run because of Hermione?”

Harry scoffed, “Hey, I never said it was easy but I can totally do it without Hermione. Don’t get me wrong, she was great with the whole finding horcruxes thing but I did the whole on the run thing myself.”

“Really?” Draco asked with a vaguely amused look on his face, “Who cast the protective enchantments on the campsite then?”

“Uh…that would have been Hermione,” Harry admitted sheepishly.

“Who cooked?” Draco asked.

“Oh come on, you cannot call that shitty mushroom soup she made cooking!” Harry exclaimed, “We lived on baked beans and spam for an entire year.”

“She provided you with moral support,” Theo said, he waggled his eyebrows at Harry, “Bet you couldn’t have gotten through without that.”

“Yeah, I’m happy to fill Hermione’s shoes with the other bits but definitely not with that,” Neville said.

Harry rolled his eyes, “That wasn’t like that, alright? It wasn’t about being on the run, it was about the war and being so close to death every day.”

“Can we not talk about how my fiancé spent the war shagging one of my best friends, please?” Draco grimaced.

“Yeah, that’s a good idea,” Harry said, glaring at Theo, “Let’s just stop talking about it, entirely okay? I have experience of being on the run, Nev and me will manage just fine. You two on the other hand…”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Draco asked defensively.

“Well you two are privileged prats,” Neville said, “How are you going to trade your Manors and nice big houses for a tent without killing each other?”

“We used to go camping, when we were kids,” Theo argued.

“You went camping once,” Neville said with an amused look, “And you didn’t even last the whole night. You went home crying because you thought you had seen an omen when it was actually just a stray dog.”

“I can sympathise on that one,” Harry said, although he was still chuckling, “And I love that you know so many embarrassing stories about those two.”

“I don’t,” Theo said as he glared at the Gryffindor, “Some friend you are Nev.”

Before the group of friends could argue any further, Sheppard stepped into the room and called out, “Black and Nott!”

“Good luck,” Harry said to them as they got to the feet, “We were just kidding, I know you’ll do fine.”

“Thanks, good luck to you too,” Draco said.

Neville nodded, “Yeah you’ll be great. Good luck and…sorry Theo.”

Theo smiled and patted Neville on the back, “It’s alright mate, good luck.”

With all good lucks said, the group parted ways. The moment Sheppard had left the hall with Draco and Theo, Harry and Neville looked at each other and said in unison, “They are so fucked.”

They both sniggered, “I mean Draco might be able to make something of it,” Harry continued, “But Theo?”

“If there are any magical creatures there, he will probably get mauled to death, even if its only a Flobberworm” Neville said.

“Forget magical creatures, what about Muggle animals?” Harry asked with a raised eyebrow.

“And he has no idea what sorts of plants are poisonous and what sort are okay to eat,” Neville added.

“Are we really saying that Theo might die in the next two weeks?” Harry asked.

Neville snorted, “Nah, Draco loves him too much to let that happen, he’ll keep him alive.”

“True,” Harry chuckled.

They continued to make small talk, mostly they were wondering what stupid stuff Theo would end up doing or they were discussing where they might end up being stuck for the next two weeks. After about 10 minutes Maxwell and Emily were called out of the lecture hall to be whisked away to their isolated location then Sheppard entered the room again and called, “Potter and Longbottom!”

“Here we go,” Harry said as he and Neville followed Sheppard out of the big hall into a smaller room.

“Wands please boys.”

Harry and Neville handed their wands over while Sheppard tweaked them so that they would be unable to communicate with their other halves. After about 5 minutes he handed the wands back. Then he mumbled a spell under his breath and did some fancy wand work, the result was a portal appearing in the wall behind them.

Harry and Neville both stared into the portal in amazement.

“Alright boys, a couple of things to know before you step on through. If you get into any serious danger I want you to say, _Rursus ut Turpia_. This portal will appear for about 5 seconds and you shoot red sparks through to let us know you’re in trouble. The other thing is this, remember you’re in the real world, not a simulated environment so if you do anything to endanger anyone else or to break the statute of secrecy there will be consequences. Do you understand that?”

“Yes sir,” Harry and Neville replied in unison.

Sheppard smiled, “Alright then, on you go. Good luck.”

“Thank you sir,” Harry said as he stepped through the portal with Neville on his heels.

***

** _Inverarnan, Scotland._ **

“Where the hell are we?”

Theo squinted up at the sky, “Scotland.”

“What?”

“The north of Scotland…” Theo continued, “Not as far up as Shetland or Orkney but definitely further up than Edinburgh,” he shielded his eyes from the bright sun and frowned, “Somewhere in the Grampians.”

“How on Merlin’s Earth, did you know that?” Draco asked as he stared at his best friend in disbelief.

“Uh did you miss the massive mountains that we are literally surrounded by, Drakey?” Theo asked in amusement.

Draco rolled his eyes, “No, I saw the mountains smart arse. How the hell did you work out that we were in Scotland based on the position of the sun?”

“Maybe I wasn’t as shit at Muggle studies as everyone thought I was,” Theo said smugly, “Navigating by the sun, the moon and the stars my friend. That’s what Galileo taught me.”

“Uh…Theo, I know I never took Muggle studies but I’m engaged to a Muggle-born and I’m pretty sure that’s not what Galileo was all about,” Draco pointed out, “Wasn’t it some guy in a ship who worked out how to do that? Marco Polo or something?”

“Don’t even talk to me about Marco Polo, he was an arsehole,” Theo said, “Galileo is my man and we are most definitely somewhere on the West Highland Way.”

“What makes you so sure about that?” Draco asked.

“That sign over there,” Theo said, pointing behind Draco’s head, “The one that says, _You are **here** on the West Highland Way.”_

Draco spun around to look at the sign and groaned, “You didn’t navigate anything by the fucking sun, did you?”

“No I didn’t, I love you man but you are such a Hufflepuff sometimes,” Theo chortled as he whacked Draco on the back.

Draco shook his head irritably, “I’ll tell Susan you said that, she’ll have your balls and you know it.”

Theo shuddered, “That I do, anyways, we know where we are so what now?”

“Walk to Hogwarts?”

“I’m just guessing here but I’m pretty sure that would be classed as cheating,” Theo pointed out matter of factly.

“Yeah probably,” Draco sighed, “Let’s find somewhere to pitch this tent and work the rest out from there.”

“What’s a good place to pitch a tent?” Theo asked.

“Well not a mountain for a start,” Draco said as he shot Theo an amused look, “Let’s look for a clearing in that wooded area over there. That way if it rains we’ll be sheltered from the worst of the weather.”

“It’s August,” Theo reminded him.

“And we’re in Scotland so that means nothing,” Draco remarked, “Plus, there probably won’t be Muggles in the woods, they’ll be using the designated camping spots.”

“Alright, I can get on board with this plan, let’s go,” Theo said cheerfully.

Draco shook his head at his friend as he walked towards the wooded area, whistling as he went.

***

** _The Forest of Dean, England._ **

“Neville…I know where we are.”

Neville frowned at his best friend, “Why do you say that like it’s a bad thing?”

Harry sighed, “Because we’re in the Forest of Dean.”

Neville looked at Harry blankly, “And?”

“The Forest of Dean,” Harry said slowly, “You know, it’s a forest in the South of England.”

“Yeah, I know where the Forest of Dean is,” Neville said, “I just don’t know why you’re acting so weird. This is fine, there are trees which means we have firewood, there will be animals that we can hunt, edible plants that we can harvest. There won’t be many Muggles and there will be plenty of clearings to camp in.”

“Yes,” Harry said, “There are plenty of clearings to camp in, I would know because Hermione and I camped here for a couple of months after Ron left us.”

Realisation dawned on Neville’s face, “Oh…oh….OH! This is where you…you two…”

“Yeah,” Harry said quickly, “This is where it happened.”

“Right,” Neville said slowly as he tried to work out whether he should make a joke about the situation or whether he should tell Harry just to man up. In the end he said, “Well, in that case I better make sure I don’t make any mushroom soup, otherwise you might jump my bones.”

Harry didn’t expect to laugh at that, but it just sort of slipped out. He laughed loudly and heartily, for a moment he thought that he sounded like Sirius.

“Sorry Nev, I didn’t mean to be a downer about it,” Harry said as he looked around at the trees, “It was just…it was a hard time for me but also a pretty amazing time so I just feel kind of conflicted being back here again.”

Neville nodded as he pulled the tent out of the bag Sheppard had given them, “Erecto.”

As the tent began to put itself up, Neville asked, “Do you want to talk about it?”

Harry swithered over the question, “I didn’t talk about it to anyone for a long time. I told Daphne obviously, but I told her what she needed to know and nothing else.”

“Not talking about something like that is a bad idea,” Neville said as he watched the tent, “Especially between best friends.”

“Hermione and I talked about it,” Harry admitted, “Right after I started dating Daphne, I felt bad for not telling her about Hermione and I.”

The tent pinged into position and Neville crawled inside to inspect it. Harry followed him in and as they looked around the tiny tent that would be home for the next two weeks they continued their conversation.

“Top or bottom bunk?” Neville asked.

The tent wasn’t like the one that Harry had used during the war. It was just one room with bunk beds against one wall and a small seating area, that contained no seats. If they wanted to cook they would have to do it outside on an open fire.

“Top,” Harry replied, “Hermione always slept on the bottom bunk during the war…or she did when Ron left anyway.”

“Until you ended up sleeping in the bottom bunk together,” Neville said, “When you and Hermione talked about it, you know after the war? Did it bring back any feelings?”

“I don’t think the feelings ever went away to be honest,” Harry said as he remembered the conversation that had taken place between himself and Hermione that rainy November night…

_When Harry Potter made his way back into the common room he had tried to sneak, but then he fell over after catching his foot on the leg of a table, this of course led to much cursing._

_“Harry!”_

_Harry breathed a sigh of relief; the person by the fire was only Hermione._

_“What were you doing sneaking around?” Hermione asked as she tried to get her heart rate back to normal. _

_Harry untangled himself from his invisibility cloak and made his way over to the fire, he slumped down onto the armchair next to Hermione’s and replied, “I just went to the Room of Requirement, I do that sometimes when I need to think. Why are you still up?”_

_Hermione shrugged and stared into the fire which was almost dead now and was flickering out, “I was thinking some things over too,” she admitted._

_“Wouldn’t it be ironic if we were both thinking about the same thing,” Harry sighed as he watched the flames in the fireplace as they continued to die into embers._

_Hermione laughed weakly, “I doubt you were wondering whether you should tell Draco about what happened between us when Ron was gone.”_

_Harry’s smiled somewhat sadly, “No, I wasn’t,” he admitted, “But I was wondering whether I ought to tell Daphne.”_

_“Really?” Hermione asked in surprise, she tore her eyes away from the fire and caught Harry’s eye._

_He nodded, “I know we only got together this week but she’s been so honest with me these past few days. She’s told me all about her exes and the people she has history with, and I’ve told her about Cho and Ginny, but not you.”_

_“She’s friends with me,” Hermione said with a small frown, “Do you think it would affect our friendship if she knew?”_

_“I really don’t know,” Harry said truthfully, he felt a headache coming on, “Hence the reason I was pigging out on chocolate in the room of requirement.”_

_“I don’t suppose you’ve got any left?” Hermione asked with a small smile._

_Harry smiled back and reached into his cloak, “As a matter of fact I do,” he pulled out his last bar and threw it over to Hermione who caught it swiftly and said, “Thanks.”_

_“So why haven’t you told Draco?” Harry asked curiously._

_“Because you two are practically best friends these days Harry,” Hermione sighed, “I don’t want to ruin what we have, or the friendship you two have.”_

_“He asked me about it a while ago,” Harry admitted sheepishly, “I lied, I told him that nothing had happened and that I loved you as a friend.”_

_“Harry!” Hermione cried in exasperation, “How am I supposed to tell him the truth now? He’ll think we conspired together and lied!”_

_“Well your relationship was a bit rocky at the time, it was before everything was smooth sailing. I didn’t want to tell him the truth and risk it messing things up for you guys,” Harry said, “I just wanted you to be happy and…this whole thing with us, it’s so complicated Hermione. How on Earth do we explain it?”_

_“I don’t know,” Hermione said with a sigh, “All I know is that I was so terrified of losing you that night after what happened in Godric’s Hollow. I just cried over your body for 2 days until you woke up then…well then you know what happened.”_

_“I remember everything Hermione,” Harry said quietly, “I remember you talking to me while I was in that weird coma-like state after the snake bit me. I remember you telling me how scared you were all of the time because you never knew if I would make it through another year.”_

_“You remember all of it?” Hermione frowned._

_Harry nodded, “I remember you telling me that you needed me and that you…well, I heard what you said Hermione.”_

_Hermione’s cheeks flushed, “Why didn’t you say anything?”_

_“Because I figured you didn’t mean it,” Harry said honestly, “You were upset and your emotions were all over the place. I figured once Ron came back, you would realise it was him you wanted not me.”_

_“That never happened Harry,” Hermione said in a whisper._

_“I know,” Harry said as he looked up and finally met her eye._

_“But it was a mistake,” Hermione said as she tore her eyes away from his, “Ginny was waiting for you and I…I thought I had feelings for Ron.”_

_Harry shook his head, “It wasn’t a mistake. I heard you tell me that you loved me that night and I loved you too.”_

_Hermione’s head snapped up, “What?”_

_“I loved you Hermione,” Harry said, “I’m not the kind of guy who would sleep with their best friend just because there was a war going on or because I was horny. It was my first time as much as it was yours and I wanted that to be with someone special.”_

_Hermione frowned at him as he continued, “And it was because you were and always will be my best friend and when it happened, I was in love with you. I had hopes that after the war, if you and Ron didn’t work out, that we could see if we could make something of it but then I saw the sparks between you and Draco and I…I couldn’t interfere with that.”_

_Hermione stared at him in disbelief, “Harry, you should have said something!”_

_Harry shook his head, “Those couple of months in the Forest of Dean were special Hermione and I will always love those memories but you and I would never have worked out in the long-run and if we had tried to, then I think we might have just ruined a great friendship. Everything happened the way it did for a reason.”_

_Hermione nodded slowly, “Yes…you’re right, it did. I can’t imagine not being with Draco, despite all the reasons that it shouldn’t work…he just makes me so happy.”_

_“And Daphne is exactly what I’ve always wanted and needed,” Harry said with a smile, “She’s a breath of fresh air.”_

_“But there are still feelings, aren’t there?”_

_Harry laughed under his breath, “Hermione, you were my first love. There will always be feelings, that doesn’t mean we ever have to act on them.”_

_“Wasn’t Cho your first love or Ginny?”_

_“They were crushes, I was a kid when I was with them,” Harry said with a shake of his head, “What about you? Was Krum your first love?”_

_“No,” Hermione admitted, “And neither was Ron, he was just a crush…I think you were probably my first love too.”_

_“That kind of thing leaves an impression,” Harry said, “Whether you want it to or not.”_

_“I know,” Hermione said quietly, “We really ought to tell Draco and Daphne.”_

_Harry nodded, “We don’t necessarily need to tell them everything though, do we? They need to know that we were together during the war and that there were feelings involved but that we’re past that now. I think the rest of it can stay between us.”_

_Hermione nodded too, “I think you’re right. Thank you Harry, I’ve been scared to have this talk with you in case…”_

_“In case it made you question your decision to be with Draco?” Harry guessed._

_Hermione frowned, “Yes, how did you know that was what I was going to say?”_

_“Because I know you Hermione,” Harry smiled, “Better than you know yourself. That’s why I know Draco is the right person for you, it’s not me, it never was and I think deep down, you know that.”_

_Hermione watched him curiously as he got to his feet. She contemplated that comment, “You’re right Harry, it wasn’t you but you will stay always have a special place in my heart.”_

_Harry smiled at her as he stepped onto the staircase to the boys dorm, “A part of me will always love you too Hermione. Goodnight.”_

_“Goodnight, Harry.”_

Neville raised an eyebrow at him, “That’s pretty intense. Have you really never talked to anyone about this?”

“Well at the time the only people I thought I could talk to were Ron or Draco,” Harry said honestly, “Both of which would have resulted in me losing a friend so no, I never talked to anyone about it.”

“Sometimes it bothers me you know,” Neville said quietly, “Always being passed over by you guys. Your little trio made you so insular and even when you started to let me in, I was never one of you.”

“Until now,” Harry said as he caught Neville’s eye, “Draco and Theo are my friends, Ron is my friend and Hermione…well I always thought Hermione would be my best friend, the one I could always confide in no matter what but things change. You are my best friend Nev, you’re the one I want to talk to about shit like this and you’re the one I want to have my back when I’m out in the field. You’re the one I want to have mock duels with and drink butterbeer with, you’re the guy I want standing by my side when I marry Daphne. Not Ron, not Hermione…you.”

Neville frowned down at the ground, “I’m your best friend?”

Harry nodded, “Yeah, why are you so surprised?”

“I’ve never had a best friend,” Neville said quietly as he looked up at Harry, “All through school I hung around with whoever would put up with me. Most of the time that was Dean and Seamus but they used to talk about me behind my back and Hermione was nice to me, but she always kept me at arms length…I used to have a crush on her too, you know.”

“Sorry,” Harry said sheepishly, “If I’d known that I wouldn’t have told you that story.”

Neville shrugged, “That’s just it though, isn’t it? We both had a crush on Hermione at school but she only ever smiled at me and called me cute in a kind of condescending way, it was _you _she slept with because it was _always _you. Either one of us could have been the boy who lived but Voldemort chose you, Ginny chose you, Hermione chose you. Notice a recurring theme there?”

“Nev, wait-”

“No, Harry,” Neville said quickly, “That’s the whole point of these two weeks, we need to get all of this out in the open so it doesn’t affect our working relationship.”

Harry sighed, “Correct me if I’m wrong but it kind of sounds like you’re saying you wanted to be the chosen one?”

“Yeah Harry, I did,” Neville admitted, “Because you were famous, everyone wanted to be you. The girls went crazy about the whole chosen one thing.”

“Girls tried to seduce me with love potions Neville,” Harry said irritably, “I don’t see how that’s any better than rape frankly and as for being famous, I _hated _it. If you had told me this at the time I would have told you that you were welcome to my life, it’s a miracle I’m not paranoid after having Voldemort on my arse for _7 years_.”

“Yeah, I know it’s stupid and irrational but it was the way I felt for a long time,” Neville admitted sheepishly, “Not now that I’ve got Lil and my own life is headed in a good direction but back then…I was bitter and I wanted to be your friend but I was just a back-up to you. I was so desperate to be your friend that I let myself be the one who ran to when you had a fight with Ron or Hermione and I don’t think you really saw me as anything more until 5th year.”

“You’re right Neville,” Harry said honestly, “I feel shit about it but I didn’t really see you as someone I had much in common with until 5th year. The thing is, it took the war to make me realise that Ron wasn’t who I thought he was, I thought he was brave underneath the mask of cluelessness, I thought he would fight for what he believed in above everything else but it turned out that guy was you Neville, not Ron.”

“What are you saying?”

“I’m saying that I made some mistakes when we were at Hogwarts,” Harry replied, “But now that I’ve grown up and worked everything out, it’s you I want as my Auror partner, it’s you I trust with my life, _not _Ron. You aren’t second best Nev, you aren’t just a back-up Ron. That’s what I’m trying to tell you.”

Neville smiled slightly and Harry was sure that he could see his friend holding himself up a little straighter, “At the risk of sounding really gay…honestly Harry, that’s all I’ve ever wanted to hear from you.”

Harry chuckled, “So you’re not pissed about me and Hermione?”

“Nah,” Neville said as he lay back on the bottom bunk, “I’m jealous, but I’m not pissed.”

“Next time you say that you wish you had been the chosen one, I’m going to punch you in the face, just so you know,” Harry said matter of factly, “Because it was a shit life and I would never wish it on someone as nice as you.”

Neville scoffed, “You say that like you’re not a nice guy.”

“Come on Nev, you’re that typical nice guy,” Harry said as he sat down against one of the tents walls, “You would do anything for anyone, everyone loves you, you’re a Huffledor. I’m a typical Gryffindor, I’m way too stubborn and I bottle everything up until I explode and shout everyone, or curse someone.”

“Yeah, fair point,” Neville said with a vaguely amused smile, “Do you think we should work out an action plan for the next two weeks?”

“Nah,” Harry said calmly, “Let’s just work it out as we go along and stay alive, it’s like the war all over again and after that heart to heart, I’m not convinced you aren’t going to make me mushroom soup and jump my bones.”

Neville just laughed loudly at that comment and they fell into a comfortable silence.

***

** _Inverarnan, Scotland._ **

“See? It really wasn’t that hard.”

“You used magic,” Theo pointed out as he lay on the bottom bunkbed in the tent, “It would have been more of a challenge if you hadn’t been allowed to use magic.”

“Why do I get the feeling you’re going to be really unhelpful over the next two weeks?” Draco asked.

“I’m helpful, I can cook.”

“Do you know a poisonous berry from an edible one?”

“Uh…no.”

Draco shook his head with some sort of fond amusement, “Do you have the faintest idea how to hunt?”

“Yes, I do actually,” Theo said, “But this is the Cairngorms so we can’t hunt.”

“Bugger,” Draco muttered, “Protected area…how are we going to eat?”

“Live on plants like a rabbit?” Theo suggested.

“No, there must be another way…” Draco said with a frown, “What would Hermione do in this situation…transfigure something into food?”

“Nope, Gamps Law, no can do,” Theo said, “Hey I hear Harry says she makes a mean mushroom soup.”

Draco let his hand drop down the side of the bed so that he could hit Theo, “Shut up, I don’t want to think about that. I don’t ever want to think about him and Hermione you know…together, alright?”

“No offence Draco but this seems like a pretty sore spot for you,” Theo mused.

“Uh yeah, it is,” Draco said irritably, “I hated him at the time and he was sleeping with the girl I had admired for years and now he’s one of my best friends so I don’t want to talk about it.”

“I kind of think you need to though,” Theo said as he stood up so that he could look at Draco, “Isn’t the whole point of the next two weeks to get all of our secrets out in the open?”

“It’s hardly a secret Theo, I don’t like what happened between the two of them, they both know that, _everyone _knows that,” Draco said, he was refusing to look at Theo.

“Yeah that part isn’t a secret,” Theo agreed, “But it’s not just because you hated Harry then, there’s more to it than that.”

“Does it matter if there is?” Draco asked coldly.

“Yeah, it does,” Theo replied matter of factly, “Because if we’re all going to be working closely together as Aurors then we need to trust each other and you clearly don’t trust him since he spent the war shagging your precious princess.”

“It’s not that I don’t trust him Theo,” Draco sighed, “I just hate what he did to her. He used her, she was vulnerable, she was lonely and what does he do? He jumps on that opportunity and sleeps with her! I mean it was her first time, in a cold damp tent in the middle of a fucking war. She deserved so much better than that!”

“Yeah this is good mate,” Theo said with a nod, “Keep it up.”

Draco continued, getting more irate as he did so, “Then afterwards he just didn’t mention it for months. He just left her hanging and moved on, you know what he was like with Daphne when we went back to school. I mean how could he treat her like that, Theo?”

“I get your point,” Theo said honestly, “But you can’t exactly advocate treating Hermione Granger well, can you? You were a shit to her for years.”

“Because I loved her and I wasn’t allowed to show it without having my balls cut off by my fucking Father!” Draco snapped.

“Yeah but still, you called her a Mudblood _a lot_.”

“Whose side are you on here?”

“Yours obviously but when I say a lot, I do mean _a lot_,” Theo said, “And you insulted her hair and her teeth and her intelligence _a lot_.”

“Theo I know that we’re supposed to be bonding over the next couple of weeks but if you keep trying to bond with me through the use of harsh honesty, my fist is going to bond with your face,” Draco said through gritted teeth.

Theo considered this for a moment then nodded, “Yeah Harry Potter is a fucking arsehole. He treated Hermione like shit, not like you. You treated her like the sun shone out of her arse from the moment you knew her but that Harry Potter, what a dickhead. The Chosen Prat who fucked Hermione Granger over, right Draco?”

“Theo, shut up.”

“Yeah, shutting up,” Theo said with a nod as he slunk back into his bed.

Once Draco was satisfied that his best friend couldn’t see his face anymore, he smiled slightly and shut his eyes so that he could focus on coming up with an action plan for the next two weeks.

**TBC!**


	88. Far Away for Far Too Long

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter title comes from the song:  
Far Away by Nickelback (yes, I have a diverse taste in music...pop, country, rock, alt, you name it!)

** _Cairo, Egypt._ **

She had been here for a couple of days now and it was safe to say, Sadie hated Egypt. The food was spicy and it made her stomach churn, she had hardly eaten since she got here. The Centre for Alchemical Studies was the most hideous and garish place that she had ever had the misfortune to stay in.

Then there were the people, Merlin, the people she had to study with.

“Good morning Sadie!” Myla said in a high-pitched tone of voice as she skipped alongside Sadie, “Isn’t it a lovely morning to be studying famous alchemists?”

“It’s 6am,” Sadie said dryly without opening her eyes or drawing the curtain around her bed back.

“I know, don’t you just love to be up bright and early?” Myla asked cheerfully.

“No,” Sadie mumbled, “I like to sleep.”

“What was that?”

“Nothing,” Sadie sighed.

“Oh good morning Myla!” Priscilla said in just as high and irritating a tone of voice, “Famous philosophers class today! Don’t you think that will be odd for Brucey? We will be studying his Father!”

Sadie rolled her eyes, their classes didn’t start until 8am so there really was no reason to be up screeching at this time of the morning.

“Oh, that will be weird!” Myla agreed, “He’s just gorgeous, isn’t he?”

Priscilla sighed, “Completely, and that _accent_. Don’t you just love it, Sadie?”

“I prefer an English accent actually,” Sadie said dryly, she had completely lost her happy go lucky attitude since arriving in Egypt, “I’m quite partial to a West Country twang.”

“Sadie,” Priscilla sighed, “You can’t just say that because your husband is from Somerset!”

“Yes, I can,” Sadie said as she held two fingers to her head, “I like Theo’s accent, I don’t like Bruce’s accent. Frankly, I think it’s quite whiny and irritating actually.”

Priscilla tutted, “Unbelievable.”

“Unbelievable,” Myla reiterated, “Shall we go and study together in the cafeteria before class?”

“Oh yes, lets!”

The door shut behind them and Sadie sunk further down into her bed, “Thank Merlin for that,” she mumbled to herself. She was sure she heard Arielle chuckle from the bed next to hers, it turned out that the French girl was one of the more decent people here. She was a little shy but not as irritating as Myla and Priscilla.

***

** _London, England._ **

“I am _so _bored!”

Hermione raised an eyebrow at Daphne, “You’ve been in the job for how long?”

“Two and a half days,” Daphne said, “And yesterday was the first day on the job, the first day was all about paperwork.”

“Yeah mine too,” Hermione said as they ate lunch together in a small café just outside Diagon Alley, “Although it’s not a good sign if you’re bored already.”

“I’m only bored because they chuck the trainees in this cursed room,” Daphne said with a wave of her hand, “It’s basically-”

“A room full of all the cursed objects found in vaults when a family has died with no heir,” Hermione said quickly, “I always thought there would be fascinating things in there! Are they fascinating?”

“Nope, shitty old trophies and cheap arse jewellery with curses on it to make it appear more expensive,” Daphne said with a roll of her eyes, “The curses are all so easy to break, it’s so boring Hermione! Bill said he reckoned we should be getting through about 8 to 10 cursed objects a day, I cleared 21 yesterday.”

Hermione snorted, “Yeah, I understand why you’re getting bored. If it makes you feel any better, I feel the same. I get posted to different departments so that they can assess my ability but they started me off in the admin office. Do you know how boring and soul destroying it is to sit at a desk for 8 hours writing document after document?”

“Probably equal with using the same curse breaking method on one piece of shitty jewellery after another,” Daphne said dryly, “Ugh, I miss Harry! And I miss you and Draco, you did my head in when you lived there because you kept cock-blocking Harry but now the house feels empty and lonely.”

“Little bit too much information there Daph,” Hermione said with a slight smile, “But I appreciate the sentiment.”

“Do you want to come over for like a week-long sleepover?” Daphne asked as she gave Hermione the puppy dog eyes.

“That might work on Harry…and Draco….and probably Sadie,” Hermione said in amusement, “But it won’t work on me. You are not dragging me away from my library for anything, sorry.”

“Well then I can come for a sleepover at your house!” Daphne suggested eagerly.

“Daph, traditionally you’re supposed to wait for someone to invite you,” Hermione said as she tried to hide an amused smile.

“I know but Hermione, I’m lonely and you owe me,” Daphne said, “I let you live at my house for ages.”

“It’s Harry’s house and if I remember correctly _he _let us live there and _you _complained about it,” Hermione pointed out.

“That’s true,” Daphne said, “And I know it makes me a terrible friend but I miss Harry and I miss Sadie and I miss Lilly. I feel like we’re all that’s left here so can’t we just spend some time being lonely together?”

“That makes no sense but yes, we can,” Hermione said as she glanced at her watch, “You can stay at the house for as long as you want but when the boys are back, I’m kicking you out.”

“Fair deal,” Daphne grinned, “I’ll bring my things over tonight, you’re the best Hermione!”

Hermione shot Daphne a smile as she got to her feet, “Yeah, I know. See you tonight.”

***

** _Amiens, France._ **

“Do you believe in love at first sight or should I walk by again?”

Lilly rolled her eyes, “Walk past me as many times as you want Marcel but you will never be anything but irritating.”

Marcel smiled, “Ah, so you say! Can I sit next to you? Since we are partners after all.”

“We aren’t partners,” Lilly pointed out, “We’re just both assigned to Healer Selwyn.”

Before Marcel could say anything else, a Senior Healer walked into the lecture hall and began to talk about the different ways of magically sealing wounds.

***

** _The Forest of Dean, England._ **

“Harry, just kill the deer!”

“I can’t! It reminds me of my Mother!”

“It’s a deer!” Neville said in exasperation, “Do you want to eat or not?”

“I can’t kill it,” Harry said with a shake of his head, “It would be like killing my Mother, I can’t do it Neville.”

“Oh for the love of Merlin,” Neville said, he raised his wand.

“No! You can’t kill it!”

“Harry, it’s a bloody _deer_!”

“You don’t understand Neville!”

“Great,” Neville muttered, “You scared it away, now what are we going to eat?”

“Can’t we just apparate to the edge of the forest, nip into the nearest town and buy rations?” Harry asked as he sat down on a tree trunk.

“I’m pretty sure apparating would count as cheating,” Neville said irritably, “So it’s going to be another night of thistle soup.”

Harry sighed, “I’m sorry but I just can’t…it was a doe Neville. My Mother’s patronus was a doe and she came to me during the war.”

“What?”

“Well technically Snape helped me and his patronus was a doe because he loved my Mother,” Harry admitted, “But that doesn’t change the significance of the occasion.”

“We’re going to starve because Snape sent you his patronus during the war and you thought it was a sign from above? Seriously?”

“Merlin Neville, you’re grumpy when you’re hungry,” Harry said irritably, “It’s like being on the run with Ron.”

Neville glared at him, “Yes, I’m hungry and you are acting like a sensitive little girl. If you can’t kill a deer how are you going to kill a bad guy in a duel if it needs to happen?”

“That’s different,” Harry argued, “In the heat of battle it’s different. I’m sorry I couldn’t kill the deer but I have very little to remind me of my Mother and a doe always makes me think of her.”

“I know, I’m sorry,” Neville sighed, “I’m just a bastard when I’m hungry, and I am fucking sick of thistle soup.”

“I’m sorry Nev, I’ll go and check if my trap caught any rabbits,” Harry said as he shot his friend an apologetic look.

***

** _Tyndrum, Scotland._ **

Draco and Theo awoke to the sound of a soft banging outside their tent.

“What’s that?” Draco asked in a panicked whisper.

Theo’s eyes widened, “Shit! Did we put up Muggle repelling charms?”

Draco frowned, “I thought you did it.”

“I thought _you _did it!” Theo exclaimed.

“Bugger,” The two men muttered at the same time.

“What now?” Theo asked as he glanced at the flap of the tent.

Draco sighed, “Go out there and distract them, I’ll work something out.”

“Distract them how?”

“I don’t know, just distract them!” Draco said as he pushed Theo towards the flap of the tent.

Theo glared at his friend one last time then he unzipped the flap of the tent and stepped outside. He kept his hand close to his back pocket in case he needed his wand for whatever reason but he wasn’t met with a particularly sinister sight. It was just a couple of Muggle tourists pitching their tent.

“Oh good morning!” The woman said brightly, she had some sort of accent but Theo couldn’t work out where she was from. It was either South Africa or Australia.

Theo smiled at her a little nervously, “Good morning.”

“How long have you been camping here for?”

“A couple of days,” Theo said with a nod.

“We’re just stopping here for today then making our way further up,” The woman said, “It’s just so beautiful here, isn’t it? I can feel the magic.”

“Oh…uh…really?” Theo asked as he began to panic, “I suppose it is a…uh…a lovely place. Don’t you think Draco?” he called into the tent.

“Draco?” The man who was with the woman said, “That’s an unusual name.”

“Yeah my family have an obsession with the stars,” Draco said as he emerged from the tent, “Have you introduced yourself Theo?”

Theo shook his head, “No, I’m Theo, that’s Draco.”

“I’m Elsie and this is my husband Rod,” The woman said with a smile, “I was just saying, you can really feel the magic here, can’t you?”

“Uh, magic?” Draco asked with a frown, “No, no, definitely no magic here.”

Elsie frowned at Draco after that comment, “So…uh…what brings the two of you out here anyway?”

“We’re on holiday,” Theo said quickly, the strange look that Elsie had just given them combined with the fact that she was questioning their reason for being here made him panic, “Aren’t we honey?”

Draco shot his friend a brief look of horror before regaining his composure, “Uh yeah…we always wanted to walk the West Highland Way.”

“Oh that’s what we’re doing too!” Rod said eagerly, “You guys should do it with us, we can use the same camp spots.”

“We like discreet camp spots, we try and avoid the sites,” Draco said.

Theo nodded, “Why stay in crowded places when we can surround ourselves with this beauty, right?”

Elsie beamed, “Exactly, wow you guys are _just _like us. It’s so progressive to see a gay couple just so open like you, you must be very brave.”

“Yeah, that’s us,” Theo said, “We’re brave guys.”

Elsie smiled at him, “We were just going to fry up some breakfast. Do you want some?”

“Oh, breakfast sounds great, we’re actually running a bit low on rations,” Draco said with his best polite smile.

“We’re always happy to share with our fellow campers,” Rod said cheerfully, “Come on over and have a seat. We’ll just nip in and grab the gas fire.”

The couple disappeared inside their tent and Draco turned on Theo, “Honey?” he hissed.

“I panicked!” Theo whispered.

“Well now they think we’re gay!”

“Yes but they are also going to feed us,” Theo muttered.

Draco paused, “Are you suggesting we pretend to be gay for the next two weeks for free food?”

Theo frowned slightly, “Yeah, I think I am.”

“That’s the worst idea you have ever had,” Draco whispered.

“Are you a Slytherin or not, Draco?”

“There’s being Slytherin and there’s being Slytherin. This is just being stupid, we could never pull it off,” Draco said.

“Yes we could, we know everything about each other,” Theo whispered as they heard movement inside the tent, “Come on Draco, trust me.”

Draco glared at him, “If this doesn’t work, I will kill you.”

Theo grinned at that, “No you don’t, you love me too much _darling_.”

Draco’s glare just intensified upon that comment.

“Here we go! Let’s light this and have some breakfast!”

***

** _London, England._ **

“I’m worried.”

“About Draco?” Daphne asked as she looked up from the book that she was reading. The two of them had spent the last few hours sitting on the roof terrace together underneath a blanket. They had been immersing themselves in muggle literature as the sun set over London.

“And Theo,” Hermione admitted, “I mean I know that Draco is fairly competent but he’s responsible for Theo now too. He’s far more likely to get himself killed trying to keep Theo alive than he is trying to keep himself alive.”

“I wouldn’t worry too much Hermione,” Daphne said, “At heart, Draco is a typical Slytherin, he’ll always look after himself.”

“Is that supposed to make me feel better?” Hermione asked as she put her book down.

“Yeah, doesn’t it?” Daphne asked, “Anyway, Theo isn’t as bad as you think he is. He lets us all believe that he’s useless but he’s actually pretty competent, he’ll have Draco’s back.”

“I know,” Hermione said with a sigh, “Deep down I know that but I still worry.”

“I get that,” Daphne said with a nod, “I worry about Harry too and he’s this almighty chosen hero who defeated Voldemort. I know how competent he is but that doesn’t mean I don’t worry about him.”

“You don’t need to worry about Harry,” Hermione said gently, “Especially if it’s anything survival related, Harry copes with isolation well, he’ll be okay.”

“Sometimes I wish Harry and I had the same relationship that you and Harry have, the two of you just know each other so well,” Daphne said.

Guilt flitted through Hermione’s eyes briefly but she glanced down before Daphne could notice, “Trust me, you don’t what the kind of relationship that Harry and I have had. So much of it has just been dictated by the need for survival and the effect that has on you…it’s not good, it’s not healthy.”

Daphne frowned, “Hermione, you both did what you had to do to survive during the war. We all did, in our own way. You shouldn’t feel guilty about having to do things you regret.”

“That’s not what I mean Daphne,” Hermione said as she caught Daphne’s eye, “I’m talking about everything that happened between Harry and I when Ron was gone.”

“You were in the heat of battle, you thought you were going to die,” Daphne said, “I understand how that could heighten emotions. I understand why what happened, happened.”

“Daphne, what did Harry tell you happened?” Hermione asked quietly.

“He told me that he nearly died after being bitten by a snake,” Daphne began, “You were worried sick and when he woke up, you kissed, and one thing led to another…”

“That was all he told you?”

Daphne’s eyes widened, “There’s more?”

Hermione bit her lip anxiously, “Look if Harry didn’t say anything, I don’t feel like it’s my place to-”

“It is definitely your place to say!” Daphne snapped, “You were one half of what happened back then Hermione. What exactly did Harry not tell me?”

Hermione glanced down, she couldn’t look Daphne in the eye at the moment, “What he told you, that was how it started but…it wasn’t just a case of two friends being lonely in the heat of the moment. I…I told Harry that I loved him and he heard me, he said that he knew and he…well in a round about way he told me that he loved me too.”

Daphne made a noise that sounded like a muffled cry.

Hermione shut her eyes tightly because she hated the thought of hurting her friend, “We stayed in the Forest of Dean for a while after we got back from Godric’s Hollow and it…it only ended when Ron came back.”

“How long is a while?” Daphne asked in a very quiet voice.

“Daphne-”

“How long, Hermione?” Daphne asked sharply.

Hermione sighed, “A couple of months.”

“A couple of months?” Daphne asked in disbelief, “You were together for a couple of months and he never told me about it?”

“We weren’t together, Daphne,” Hermione said with a frown, “It wasn’t like we spent two months having the time of our lives. We spent two months fighting about the fact we had no idea where the next horcrux was, we spent two months feeling frustrated and angry at the world and feeling like we were never going to survive the war. The sex wasn’t for pleasure, it was an outlet, it wasn’t…it wasn’t always pleasant.”

Daphne frowned, “I hear what you’re saying Hermione but I can’t believe it. Harry’s just…he’s not like that.”

“Not your Harry,” Hermione said quietly, “But that’s why you’re lucky, not me. Your Harry loves you and respects you, he _adores _you and that’s the way it should be. My Harry was a broken mess, we can’t compare our experiences because he wasn’t the same person back then.”

“Yeah I get that but 2 months and he never told me about it?” Daphne said irritably.

“He doesn’t like to think about it or talk about it,” Hermione said, “Harry and I, we talked things over when you two got together. That was November Daphne, it took almost a year for Harry to talk to me about everything that happened between us.”

“What did you decide when you had this discussion?” Daphne asked coolly.

“That we were probably each others first loves but that what I had with Draco and what Harry was starting with you, were far more important than anything that had happened between us,” Hermione said honestly.

Daphne sighed and turned away from Hermione, she suspected that her friend had been crying but didn’t want to admit to this, “I understand what happened, I really do. We all have first loves and I’d be a hypocrite if I got upset with you because my first love was your fiancée but I’m angry with Harry. He should have told me everything.”

Hermione nodded, “Yes, he should have.”

“Does Draco know?”

“Yes,” Hermione said, “I told him everything and he was angry and upset, with Harry more than with me but in the end he understood.”

“I would have understood too, if Harry had just told me.”

“I know,” Hermione said as she put her arm around her friend, “I know Daph and I’m so sorry.”

Daphne shook her head and leant against her friend, she sighed, “No, you don’t have anything to be sorry about. You’re right, it was Harry’s place to tell me, you were just being a good friend.”

“Please don’t be too angry with him when he gets back.”

“I’ll try not to be,” Daphne said, she cleared her throat, “But I won’t just let it slide either, you know me Hermione, I don’t do that.”

Hermione smiled slightly, “And Harry loves you all the more for it.”

Daphne sighed again, “I don’t want to talk about Harry right now. Can’t we just talk about Jane Austen instead?”

Hermione smiled slightly and nodded, “Yeah, of course we can. What did you think of _Emma_?”

***

** _Cairo, Egypt._ **

Sadie had been at the centre for just short of a week when she really began to long for home. She had been eating nothing apart from cereal for breakfast and a sandwich for lunch, some days she couldn’t even keep the sandwich down. The Egyptian food had played havoc with her stomach and the heat made her feel sick pretty much constantly. The other girls that she shared a dormitory with didn’t feel the heat the same way, Priscilla and Arielle had both lived in France and Myla was from a part of America that got really hot in the summer. As a result, nobody let her open the window in the dorm room at night so she wasn’t really sleeping much either.

“Do you feel okay, Sadie?” Arielle asked one night as Sadie hung over the balcony attached to the common room.

“I just feel so hot all of the time,” Sadie sighed, “And there’s hardly even a breeze at 8pm!”

“It’s Egypt in August,” Arielle said by way of explanation, “You look awfully pale.”

“I haven’t been that well since I got here,” Sadie admitted, “I think it’s just a combination of the Egyptian food and the heat.”

“The climate doesn’t agree with everyone,” Arielle said. It agreed with her though, she had a beautiful tan. Unlike Sadie’s pale, blotchy, sunburnt skin.

“I’m glad I won’t be studying here all year,” Sadie sighed, “I’ll be home for a while soon.”

Arielle frowned, “Aren’t you staying at the centre?”

Sadie shook her head, “I explained that I was married and couldn’t spend an entire year away from Theo so they gave me a place on the course but with only half of the year studying here. I spend two weeks here then two weeks at home doing self-study.”

“Oh,” Arielle said, “I guess that makes sense. Just try to get through the next week then, after that you can go back to your lovely cold England.”

Sadie laughed at that, “I never realised how much I would miss the wind!” she joked.

***

** _Bridge of Orchy, Scotland._ **

“I don’t want to leave this tent.”

“Why not? I can smell Elsie’s cooking, it smells amazing.”

Draco glared at Theo as he pulled his t-shirt on, “Believe it or not, I’m not looking forward to another day of hiking through Scotland pretending to be your bloody boyfriend.”

“I think it’s worth it for the food,” Theo said with a shrug, “And at least if I’m spending the day hiking and chatting to a couple of Muggles, I’m not thinking about how much I miss Sadie.”

Draco resisted the urge to roll his eyes, he was surprised it had taken this long for Theo to bring up his wife, “Well I’m sure she’s enjoying herself in Egypt.”

“Yeah that’s the problem,” Theo said irritably, “I don’t want her to enjoy herself too much, you know?”

“She’s not going to cheat on you Theo,” Draco assured his friend, “But I wonder how she’ll feel when she finds out you’ve been cheating on her for two weeks.”

Theo snorted in amusement, “Nah, she’s known about that for ages. Do you remember that time before the wedding when she introduced you as my boyfriend to her parents?”

“Yes, didn’t she say; This is my boyfriend Theo and this is Theo’s boyfriend, Draco?”

“Yeah I’m pretty sure that was what she said,” Theo said with a chuckle, “I bet that’s why they wound us up during the selection process, Sorenson probably said something.”

Draco hummed thoughtfully as they left the tent, “I wonder how Hermione is getting on with her new library.”

“She probably hasn’t slept all week,” Theo sniggered, “We’ll get home and she’ll have read every book.”

“Hermione? Don’t you boys just have some friends with unusual names?” Elsie said cheerfully, “Breakfast?”

“Oh yes please Elsie,” Theo said eagerly.

“So this Hermione? Are her parents fans of Shakespeare?”

Draco nodded, “Her parents both love the theatre but they didn’t have many friends who enjoyed going with them. When they went to see “_A Winters Tale” _they ended up sitting together and Hermione’s Dad asked her Mum if he wanted to go on a date.”

“I never knew that about Mione,” Theo said thoughtfully, “That’s kind of a cute story.”

Draco smiled slightly, “For everyone except Hermione who just has to deal with having a weird name because of her parents love story.”

“You’re named after a star, your name is weirder,” Theo commented.

“Thanks for that Theo,” Draco said as he raised an eyebrow at the boy.

Elsie chuckled, “You boys are just adorable. Do you have any other friends with strange names?”

“Uh…not really,” Draco said as he thought through the names of their friends, “Except Neville.”

“Neville? You don’t hear that one much anymore,” Rod said, “Don’t suppose he was named for the Prime Minister?”

“He was actually,” Theo mused, “His Gran was the illegitimate daughter of Neville Chamberlain so our friend Neville is actually named for his Great Grandfather.”

“How do you know that?” Draco asked in surprise, “I didn’t know that.”

Theo shrugged, “You can kind of be an asshole to Neville sometimes, he’s more my friend than yours.”

“Does he think I’m an asshole?”

“You bullied him all the way through school Draco,” Theo reminded him, “So sometimes he thinks you’re an asshole, yeah.”

Draco sighed, “Shit…I didn’t realise that. I should really apologise to him when we get home.”

Elsie smiled at them, “How many miles do you think we should cover today? Rod and I thought we should aim for the bottom of that mountain in the distance.”

Theo nodded, “Yeah, let’s aim for that and see how we get on.”

“Speaking of love stories and people’s names,” Elsie said, “How did you two meet?”

“Oh we’ve known each other forever really,” Draco replied, “Our parents knew each other so we practically grew up together.”

“So you were childhood sweethearts?” Elsie asked eagerly, “That’s adorable.”

“Yeah,” Theo said with a false smile, “Our Fathers…they led a similar lifestyle so our families came together a lot. Draco and I became friends when we were kids then we went to the same boarding school and we were in the same house so we shared a dorm for 7 years.”

“How did you fall in love, if you were friends originally?” Elsie asked curiously.

They hadn’t discussed a cover story so Theo was completely winging it as he said, “Well…there was always something between us and we both knew it. But we were too scared to act on it because we didn’t want to ruin our friendship. We spent our school years trying to ignore it, you know dating other people then getting jealous and falling out? The usual kind of thing.”

Elsie nodded and dished out some eggs and bacon on plastic plates.

“Then in our last year of school, I got fed up of pretending. We have this other friend, she’s called Daphne, and she had a crush on this guy who Draco hated through school. Daphne is one of Draco’s best friends so I figured there was no way she would get with this guy so we made a bet,” Theo explained, “I said if Daphne ever slept with the guy she had a crush on, I would tell Draco how I felt.”

Elsie nodded again and leant forward, she was following the story with great interest.

“So I told him in the breakfast hall and everyone made a big scene out of it,” Theo said, “We kissed, people cheered and the rest is history.”

“That was bold of you,” Elsie said, “I mean we’re very open-minded people but not everyone is so accepting.”

“Yes, that’s something we have to live with every day,” Draco said with a solemn nod.

Elsie nodded sadly and nipped inside the tent to tell Rod that breakfast was ready.

“You just told you and Sadie’s love story but put my name in,” Draco muttered.

“Best I could do on short notice,” Theo said, he waggled his eyebrows at his friend, “Are you offended I didn’t make up a personalised love story for you?”

Draco rolled his eyes and whacked his friend over the head, “Shut up you arse.”

***

** _Amiens, France._ **

“Is your Dad a thief?”

“What?” Lilly asked Marcel with a frown as she sat on the edge of the swimming pool while waiting for their instructor.

“I just wondered if your Dad was thief because someone stole the stars from the sky and put them in your eyes,” Marcel said smoothly.

“Marcel, do I have to spell this out for you? I. have. a. boyfriend,” Lilly said slowly, “And for your information, my Dad works in musical theatre. In fact he dresses up as a woman for a living and prances about on stage with his boyfriend.”

Marcel gaped at her for a moment. Then the instructor walked in and told them all to get in the pool.

Lilly smirked and jumped in, pleased she had managed to leave Marcel speechless even if it was brief.

***

** _The Forest of Dean, England._ **

“Thank Merlin your rabbit traps finally paid off,” Neville said as he and Harry sat in the entrance of the tent with a fire lit just outside.

“I know, I was so hungry,” Harry agreed, “Not that it’s a foreign feeling mind you.”

“Yeah, you would have gotten used to being hungry during the war I guess,” Neville said thoughtfully, “I know how you feel, it was hard to get food to the Room of Requirement and then to ration it after that. There were some weeks when we barely had enough to keep everyone going.”

“I wasn’t actually talking about the war,” Harry said with a faraway look in his eyes, “I was thinking about when I was kid, living with my Aunt and Uncle.”

Neville frowned, “Did they starve you?”

“No, they just didn’t feed me as often or as much as they fed themselves,” Harry admitted.

Neville’s frown deepened, “Harry…you’ve never actually told me about your life before Hogwarts. I mean I know you lived with your Muggle Aunt, Uncle and cousin but that’s about it.”

Harry sighed, “That’s because I don’t like to think about it, let alone talk about it. Everyone thinks that because I was the chosen one, I grew up with a silver spoon in my mouth but it couldn’t be further from the truth to be honest Nev.”

“Then tell me,” Neville said gently, “Because if we’re going to work together seamlessly like they want us to, we need to know everything about each other.”

Harry sighed but said nothing.

“I mean I always thought I had a crappy childhood,” Neville said in an effort to get Harry to open up, “My Uncle thought I was a squib so he tried to force the magic out of me by holding me out of windows and throwing me off bloody piers.”

“My Uncle used to try and beat the magic out of me so that I wouldn’t be a freak like my parents,” Harry said quietly, “And my Aunt used to hit me with a frying pan if I asked too many questions about what had happened to my parents. My cousin…he used to chase me to school and home from school with his gang of friends, they treated it like a sport, they called it Harry-hunting.”

Neville was trying to keep the horrified look off of his face but he wasn’t sure he was doing a great job, “That’s disgusting Harry.”

Harry shrugged, “It was all I knew then but looking back now, I suppose it was a form of abuse. Do you know I never had a bedroom until I was 11? Dudley had two bedrooms, one to sleep in and one to fill with all of his toys, Merlin he was a spoiled little bloody brat.”

“If you didn’t have a bedroom, where did you sleep?” Neville asked with a frown.

“The cupboard under the stairs,” Harry replied, “There wasn’t any room for a bed so I slept on a mattress. Every time Dudley ran down the stairs he dislodged dust and spiders onto me, the dust annoyed me because I always had a cough but I grew to like the spiders. I used to talk to them because I didn’t have any friends at school so I didn’t have anybody else to talk to. Everyone was too scared of Dudley to be my friend.”

“Fucking hell Harry,” Neville said angrily, “That’s bloody child abuse! Your Aunt and Uncle should have been put in jail for that!”

Harry shrugged, “It doesn’t matter now, it’s in the past.”

“Is it?” Neville asked, “Because I don’t think being locked in a cupboard, being treated like a house elf and being beaten by your own family is the sort of thing that just disappears overnight.”

“I’m fine now Nev.”

“What would happen if I locked you in a small space then?” Neville asked, “Would you freak out?”

Harry smirked at his friend, “I locked myself in a good few broom closets with Daph last year. Stop worrying Nev, I’m fine now.”

“I’m not talking about being locked in a broom cupboard with your girlfriend. What if we were captured and you were locked in a tiny cupboard for days?” Neville said, “Are you sure it wouldn’t get to you?”

“I passed all the Aurors mental tests, didn’t I?” Harry quipped, “I really am past all of it so you can stop worrying, really. I’m more messed up by everything that happened with Voldemort than from what the Dursleys did.”

Neville knew all about Harry’s problems relating to Voldemort so he nodded and said, “Alright,” but truthfully, he didn’t quite believe his best friend.

***

** _Cairo, Egypt._ **

** **

As the second week began, Sadie continued to feel awful. She could barely stay awake in a lab about the alchemical properties of rare stones like the stone of Erised. The window was open and there was the tiniest little breeze coming in, it was giving her so much relief that her eyes kept drooping shut.

“Sadie,” A voice whispered, “Chin up, if you fall asleep you’ll get kicked out of class.”

Sadie’s head snapped up, “Sorry Ash,” she whispered as she rubbed her eyes, “I just can’t sleep at night in this heat.”

“It will pass, August is always a hot month over here,” Ash said, “This breeze comes along in September and it is honestly, heavenly.”

Sadie smiled slightly, “September feels a long way away.”

“You will get used to the heat, just give it time,” Ash said, “And you need to eat, why don’t you eat at dinnertime?”

“The Egyptian food just makes me so ill,” Sadie admitted sheepishly, “It’s too rich and spicy, I’ve never been good with spicy food.”

“I’ll have a word with the chef and see if he can whizz you up something to remind you of home,” Ash said, he shot her a wink and then looked back down at the stones they were studying before the professor could catch them talking.

***

** _London, England._ **

Daphne hated Mondays at the best of times, she hated them even more when she got called to the boss’s office the minute she walked through the door. She knew Bill which made her slightly less nervous but all the same, her heart pounded a little faster than it should have as she walked to Bill’s office and knocked on the door.

“Come in!” Bill’s voice called.

Daphne took a deep breath and composed herself then walked into the office with a smile, “Good morning Bill,” she said.

Bill smiled back at her from where he was sitting behind his desk. However, he was not alone in the office. Leaning against his desk was a man who looked to be in his early 30’s, he had slicked back dark brown hair and icy blue eyes.

“Good morning Daphne,” Bill said cheerfully, “How was your weekend?”

“Good,” Daphne replied politely, “I got well acquainted with Hermione’s new library. How was yours?”

“Great, Fleur and I took Vic over to France for the weekend,” Bill said, “Sit down, will you?”

Daphne obliged and sat down across from Bill. The redhead gestured to the man in the room, “This is Stuart Fawley, he’s one of our Senior Curse Breakers.”

Daphne smiled and shook his hand, “Pleasure to meet you.”

“You too Miss. Greengrass,” Stuart said with a smile, “I’ve heard lots of good things about you.”

“Have you?” Daphne asked as she raised an eyebrow at Bill.

“There’s no need to look so suspicious Daphne,” Bill said, “Stuart is here because he’s going to become your mentor. When I heard that you broke the curses on 119 objects last week, I decided to pull you out of the cursed room. Frankly, your talents are wasted there, that’s almost three times as many objects as we expect trainees to get through in their first week.”

Daphne grinned broadly, “Does this mean I get to go out in the field?”

“That is entirely up to Stuart,” Bill replied, “At first he will let you consult from the office and if you prove that you’re good enough to handle yourself in the field he might well chose to take you out. Do you have any questions for me about this next step?”

“Apart from, when can I start?” Daphne asked eagerly.

Stuart laughed, “Always happy to take on an eager young thing like you Miss. Greengrass. I think we will work well together.”

Bill nodded, although the smile was gone from his face, “If you have any questions or concerns Daphne, you know where I am.”

Daphne nodded, “Thanks Bill, I was getting so bored in that cursed room.”

“A mind like yours is truly wasted there,” Stuart said as he opened the door for her, “Shall I show you to our office?”

Daphne nodded and smiled one last time at Bill as she left with Stuart. As they walked through the bank Stuart chatted away to her, "So what brings a girl like you to a place like this?”

Daphne raised an eyebrow at him, “Because I’m blonde and pretty so there’s no way I could have the brains to be a Curse Breaker, right?”

“Not at all,” Stuart said smoothly, “But blonde, pretty girls have lots of options and not many of them fancy daring adventures and dangerous curses.”

“Well I’m not your average pretty, blonde girl,” Daphne remarked, “And my fiancé is Harry Potter, daring adventures comes with the territory.”

“You’re quite young to be engaged if you don’t mind me saying,” Stuart remarked.

“I do mind you saying actually,” Daphne said shortly, “And not that it’s any of your business, but he’s a very good man.”

“I’m sure he is,” Stuart said, “He did save the wizarding world from a terrible fate. Mind you, they do say that heroes are the most broken people around. They don’t make great Husband material.”

“According to who?” Daphne asked with a raised eyebrow, “Stan Lee?”

“I have no idea who that is,” Stuart admitted.

“He wrote comic books, it’s a Muggle thing,” Daphne said nonchalantly, “One of my best friend is a Muggle-born and Harry grew up with Muggles too.”

“Ah, I’m a pureblood,” Stuart said, “I’m sure you know the name Fawley?”

“I’ve seen a few of you about,” Daphne said, “But I don’t know the name. Has anyone in your family done anything of significance?”

“Oh yes, there’s a Minister for Magic in there,” Stuart said a little pompously, “Of course everyone knows what your family is famous for. Greengrass shipping, I’m sure that’s left you with a lovely trust fund.”

“No, my Father blew all of his money on gambling and alcohol years before he ever ruined all of our lives by joining Voldemort,” Daphne said matter of factly, “And the family business is a joke these days, everyone knows that so quit pretending.”

Stuart nodded, “Right,” he said a little awkwardly, “Here we are. It’s small and humble but I do spend more time in the field than in here so I don’t mind. You can have the other side of the desk there.”

The small, humble office was basically a broom cupboard but Daphne didn’t say anything because she was so pleased to be out of the cursed room. She sat down on one side of the desk and Stuart sat down opposite her, as he did so he brushed his leg against hers then apologised but something told Daphne that it hadn’t been an accident.

“Take half of this pile of papers,” Stuart said as he pushed it into the middle of the desk, “And have a read through it. If anything looks like a serious claim of a cursed object let me know and we’ll start investigating.”

“Okay,” Daphne said as she began to glance over the first file, despite being a little wary of her new mentor she knew that she would enjoy this part of the job far more than she had enjoyed breaking boring everyday curses.

***

** _London, England._ **

“I’m home!”

“Daphne, you don’t actually live here!” Hermione called from the kitchen.

“I’m a temporary tenant, where are you?”

“Kitchen,” Hermione called back.

Daphne followed the smell of food into the kitchen and put her handbag down on the table.

“You’re a terrible tenant by the way, you aren’t even paying rent,” Hermione joked.

Daphne shrugged and smiled, “I’m gracing you with my presence. Isn’t that a gift in itself?”

Hermione snorted, “You’re in a good mood today. How many cursed objects did you get through?”

“None, I got promoted,” Daphne said smugly, “Bill called me into the office first thing this morning to meet my new mentor. I got through three times as many cursed objects as the other trainees last week so Bill said there wasn’t any point in wasting my talents by keeping me there.”

“Well, I can’t say I’m surprised,” Hermione admitted, “I got to spend the day in court today so that was good. I was so sick of the four walls of that bloody office…mind you, sitting taking notes through trial after trial was only marginally better.”

Daphne hummed thoughtfully, “It’s only for another three weeks though then you get to try something new. What are you cooking?”

“Pasta, it’s about all I can cook,” Hermione admitted.

“Well, it smells good,” Daphne said.

“So this promotion of yours, what is it?”

“Proper curse breaking,” Daphne said eagerly, “My mentor and I spent the day looking through letters sent in from Muggles and wizards about objects they claim to be cursed. Some of them are nonsense but some are legit, todays job was sorting through them to work that out. Once we’ve done that, we go out into the field to hunt down and destroy or un-curse the objects. Bill said it’s at Stuart’s discretion whether he takes me into the field or not but Stuart said he couldn’t see any reason why I couldn’t go with him on a find and retrieve mission tomorrow.”

“Well that sounds exciting,” Hermione said a little bitterly, “I’ll be honest, I’m jealous.”

Daphne chuckled, “It isn’t all that great, my mentor is sleazy. I’m pretty sure he’s been flirting with me all day.”

Hermione raised an eyebrow at her, “Is he good looking?”

“Oh totally,” Daphne replied, “Dark hair, blue eyes, well structured face. Conventionally he’s very good looking but he’s in his 30’s and there’s just something about him that makes me squirm.”

“Oh, the creepy sort?” Hermione said.

“Not creepy exactly, just sleazy,” Daphne admitted, “He kept rubbing his leg against mine today. Our office is basically a cupboard and we have to share a desk so there isn’t much room.”

“Didn’t you tell him to lay off?”

Daphne shook her head, “I wasn’t sure if he was doing it on purpose or not and…well if I say something and piss him off, I could end up getting thrown back in the cursed room again.”

“Daph, if this guy is a sleaze then you need to tell him to back off,” Hermione warned her, “Otherwise he’ll take silence as encouragement.”

Daphne scoffed, “Trust me, he knows that I’m not interested. I shot him down with every topic of conversation yesterday and I made it very clear I was engaged.”

“That doesn’t matter to those sorts of guys,” Hermione said, “Some of them get off on sleeping with other people’s wives or girlfriends.”

Daphne shook her head, “I’m a big girl Hermione, I know how to handle sleazy guys don’t worry.”

Hermione smiled slightly, “I know you do Daph. Hey do you fancy taking a break from the library tonight and watching a Disney film?”

“I feel in the mood for a superhero movie actually,” Daphne mused, “Maybe I’m just missing Harry and his hero complex, even if he is a lying arsehole.”

Hermione glanced down guiltily at that comment and changed the subject, “Either way, you can pick the film. Oh look, dinner is ready!”

**TBC!**


	89. Are We Out of the Woods Yet?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter title comes from the song:  
Out of the Woods by Taylor Swift

** _Kinlochleven, Scotland._ **

“Do you think I’m the weak link in the chain?”

Draco frowned, he had assumed that Theo was asleep because they had spent the last hour lying silently in their bunkbeds.

“What do you mean?”

“I mean out of you, me, Harry and Neville,” Theo said quietly, “Am I the Peter Pettigrew?”

Draco scoffed, “I can’t believe you actually just asked me that question. Of course you’re not. Pettigrew betrayed his friends because he wanted power, because he was a weak-minded coward. You would never betray us, you aren’t power hungry, and you definitely aren’t the weak-minded one.”

There was a pause then, “You aren’t weak-minded either Draco. I know your Father told you that you were, but you aren’t.”

“And you aren’t the Pettigrew,” Draco assured him, “You didn’t give anything up in your physical torture test, did you?”

“No, but it was a test,” Theo said, “And I knew it was a test. I knew they could threaten Sadie but that nothing would actually happen to her. In real life, they could use Sadie against me. I mean they did it once before didn’t they? On Valentine’s Day.”

“Theo if you view love as a weakness then it’s going ruin your life,” Draco said, “They used Hermione against me, they used Daphne against Harry. At the end of the day, the women in our life are our weaknesses and unless we want to give up on them then there is nothing that we can do about it.”

“I just don’t know what I would do if someone hurt Sadie and it was my fault,” Theo sighed, “I don’t know how I would be able to live without her. I keep thinking that one day you’re all going to work out that I am the weak link and drift away from me. I keep worrying that Sadie will eventually realise that she can do so much better than me.”

Draco swung his legs out of the bunk and jumped down, “Theo, your worries are completely unfounded. None of us think that you are the weak link, you are probably the smartest out of the four of us and you are definitely the most logical. Harry and Neville act on impulse because they are typical Gryffindors and you’ve said it to me yourself, I don’t have a great deal of common sense at times. We need your logical thinking and your wit, I suppose what I’m trying to say is…you’re our Hermione.”

Theo looked up at Draco, “You actually think I’m that valuable?”

“Yes, I do,” Draco said honestly, “And I can tell how much you’re letting this get to you because you didn’t even make a sarcastic comment about how you can’t be our Hermione because you aren’t sleeping with me.”

Theo smiled slightly, “It did cross my mind,” he admitted.

Draco shook his head in amusement, “I couldn’t have gotten through the war without you Theo, just like Harry and Ron couldn’t have gotten through the war without Hermione. You kept me from running into the dark tower to save people when we didn’t even have a well-thought out plan. You kept me alive with your logical thinking so I will never think that you are the weak link in the chain, okay?”

Theo nodded, “Thanks Draco, that means a lot.”

“And as for Sadie,” Draco continued, “Why are you so caught up on this idea that she’s going to leave you for someone better?”

“I don’t know,” Theo shrugged, “I spent school acting like an idiot and sleeping my way around the sluts of Hogwarts. Why would she want to be with someone with a history like that? How can she have any respect for me?”

“Because she knows who you are underneath that,” Draco said solemnly, “She loves the guy who risked his life to get her out of the dark tower. She loves the guy who would do anything for his friends, the guy who acts like a dick to pretty much everyone but completely adores her. Your past is your past, Sadie clearly isn’t bothered by it so you need to stop letting it bother you.”

Theo sighed, “It does bother me though Draco. I have a lot of regrets because of the way I was in school.”

“Do you want to talk about it?” Draco asked sheepishly, “I know I’ve been advocating not spilling our guts but maybe you’re right, maybe we do need to air our dirty laundry.”

“Maybe,” Theo said slowly, “I suppose it all stems from what happened to my Mother. I mean she was forced into a marriage with a monster. Then she had the nerve to actually fall in love and he killed her for it, in the most brutal way I can imagine.”

“I feel a bit responsible for that, if I’m honest,” Draco admitted, “I mean it was my Father that she fell in love with.”

“Yeah and you were a kid, we both were,” Theo said, “It had nothing to do with us but…I always used to like thinking about the idea that we could have grown up like brothers if my Mother really had left my Father for your Father.”

“I don’t know if it ever would have happened that way if it makes you feel any better,” Draco said honestly, “My Mother always said that I was the only good thing to come from her marriage to my Father. I think she would have fought for custody of me, I wouldn’t have seen much of my Father growing up which…well it would have been a good thing for me but not for you.”

“Your Father wasn’t a good man but he wasn’t a monster, not like mine,” Theo argued.

“My Father let the dark lord consume him,” Draco said darkly, “By the end, he did anything that he asked. The dark lord had warped and twisted his mind until even my Mother didn’t recognise him anymore, I’m not convinced he would have been any better to your Mother than your Father was.”

Theo sighed, “Look at us all, our families are in ruins. My Mother was forced into her marriage, your Mother was coerced into it by her family, Daphne’s Mother hated her Father and where does that leave us? My parents are both dead. Your Father will rot in prison Merlin knows where and the only thing keeping your Mother sane is you. Daphne’s Father is dead and his wife and daughters couldn’t even force themselves to cry at his funeral. I fucking hate pureblood traditions Draco and I will _never _write a marriage contract up for my kids, I don’t care if they chose to marry a man or a woman or a bloody dragon, I just don’t want to put another generation through what we went through.”

Draco smiled slightly, “Beautiful sentiment and all Theo but, a dragon? Really?”

“I was just trying to make my point,” Theo said, “And my point is, because of what happened with my parents, I didn’t want to believe in love because I always thought that love just got you hurt.”

“So you cut things off before they could get serious,” Draco realised.

Theo nodded, “And I got a reputation as a womanising arsehole but the reason I did it doesn’t matter Draco. I did some horrible things like with Susan…I took advantage of her, she was upset because her Aunt had died and I…I never should have done what I did.”

“No, you shouldn’t have,” Draco agreed.

“And I never should have started anything with Pansy,” Theo added, “I nearly lost my best friend all because for the first time ever I let myself wonder if love might be worth it. I shouldn’t have acted on my feelings.”

Draco shook his head, “It’s all ancient history Theo but I appreciate you saying that all the same.”

“I was a terrible person,” Theo said, “Sadie deserves more.”

“No, she deserves the man who loves her and will always love her, above anything else,” Draco said, “And that’s you. Whether you feel worthy or not is irrelevant because at the end of the day, if you love somebody enough you become worthy of their love because they make you a better person.”

Theo looked up at his best friend, “That sounds like you’re speaking from experience.”

“I don’t think I’m worthy of Hermione sometimes,” Draco said, “Sometimes I wonder why she didn’t go off and live the golden life she should have done with Ron. Then I remember that Hermione would never have been as happy with him as she is with me because I challenge her in a way that he never could.”

“So you think I’m being insecure for nothing?” Theo asked.

Draco nodded, “Yeah, I do.”

“I feel a bit like a whinging girl now,” Theo admitted sheepishly.

Draco laughed out loud at that, “Sorry to break it to you Theo but that’s nothing new.”

“Oi!” Theo exclaimed as he hit Draco around the head with a pillow.

“Ouch! What was that for? I just gave you stellar advice!”

“But then you were a dick about it!” Theo exclaimed, and they proceeded to bicker like an old married couple.

***

** _Amiens, France._ **

“Did it hurt?”

“Did what hurt?” Lilly asked as she ran a little faster in a bid to get away from Marcel.

“When you fell out of heaven,” Marcel said as he sped up to match her.

Lilly groaned in frustration, “It is 6.35am! Would you give it a break? What part of, I have a boyfriend, do you not get?”

She pushed herself and darted away from him, Lucille who had been running next to her shot her an amused look, “I think the answer to that question is, all of it.”

Lilly shook her head, “I think I’m going to kill him before the year is up,” she said a little breathlessly.

Lucille laughed and said, “Don’t worry, I’ll be your alibi.”

***

** _Cairo, Egypt._ **

As he had promised, the day after saying he would convince the chef to cook something English for Sadie, Ash brought her a covered stainless steel dish. He grinned and looked quite pleased with himself as sat down across from her and Arielle.

“As promised, an English classic,” Ash said, he pulled the lid off and unveiled, “Steak pie!”

Sadie laughed and smiled at him, “Thanks Ash, even the smell of that curry type thing that everyone else is eating was making me feel sick.”

Ash smiled and said, “I know what it’s like to be in a foreign country when you miss home. We travelled all over before we eventually settled in Egypt.”

“Where did you go before you settled here?” Sadie asked curiously, she took a bite from the steak pie which was one of her favourite English dishes. She was expecting it to taste like heaven but even it made her stomach churn violently.

“Oh all over the place, Romania, Argentina, New York, Russia, then eventually here,” Ash said.

Sadie nodded and forced another mouthful of steak pie down, she didn’t want to seem ungrateful after all.

“Oh, I also put a big pack of water bottles outside your dorm room,” Ash said, “I know it’s not the same as the breeze from a window but maybe it will help.”

Sadie smiled at him, “Thanks Ash, I really appreciate it.”

***

** _London, England._ **

“Good morning Daphne.”

Daphne smiled politely, “Good morning Stuart.”

“How was your evening?” Stuart asked as he rubbed his leg against hers.

Daphne tried not to roll her eyes, “Good, I’m staying with my friend at the moment since our other halves are both away.”

“Oh, your fiancé is away is he?”

That question sent alarm bells ringing in Daphne’s head but all the same she replied, “Yeah, he’s training to be an Auror. The first two weeks of basic training involve a two week isolation period so he’s off doing that with his new Auror partner.”

“That’s interesting, I suppose you’re feeling lonely.”

“Not really, like I said I’m staying with my friend,” Daphne said, “We watched a movie last night, that’s a muggle thing by the way.”

“I do know what a movie is,” Stuart said, “Do you want to hear todays agenda?”

Daphne nodded and looked up, “Yes, I do.”

“I looked through the cases we considered to be cursed last night and the first one I think we should tackle is this one,” Stuart said, he slid a piece of parchment across the desk to her and brushed his leg against hers _again_, “It’s one of the cases you identified, the cursed ring that seems to have made its way through this Muggle family.”

“Oh the Richardson family,” Daphne said with a nod, “Yes well I did some research and Natalie Richardson is telling the truth, every woman who has worn that ring has died the day after her wedding day. The first death was in 1891 and there have been three since then.”

Stuart nodded, “Probably a case of a spurned wizarding lover cursing the family forevermore. Shouldn’t be a difficult object to find or a difficult curse to break, we will need to pretend to be Muggles though, so we need a cover story.”

“And you’re looking at me like that because you don’t know much about Muggles,” Daphne said with a pointed look.

“That is entirely correct,” Stuart said as his lips quirked into a smile.

“Alright then I suggest we say that we’re journalists,” Daphne said, “We can say we’re from “_The Sun” _they’re always writing about shit like that. We’ll say we would like to write a story about the family curse and then while I’m questioning the family, you can say you need to go to the toilet.”

“Ah, I follow you,” Stuart said with a smirk, “I find the ring, break the curse and then we get the hell out of there.”

“Pretty much,” Daphne said with a nod.

“Cunning, clever and flawless,” Stuart said as he got to his feet, “Just like you,” he added smoothly, far too smoothly.

“Okay,” Daphne said awkwardly, “The Richardson family live in Essex. Shall we just apparate there?”

“That sounds like a great plan.”

Daphne was grateful that the next hour was devoid of inappropriate comments. They changed their appearances, devised a cover story then apparated to the home of the Richardson family. It was a very lovely, large manor house which came as no surprise given the nature of the story.

They made their way up the path, knocked on the door and introduced themselves as Miss Daisy Meadowes and Mr Gordon James from “_The Sun” _to the butler then waited to be allowed entry. About 5 minutes later the butler came back and led them to the morning room where the family were taken breakfast.

The family consisted of a fairly young couple and an elderly woman. The young woman stepped forward and smiled, “I’m Natalie Richardson, it was me who wrote to the papers about the family ring. This is my fiancé Jim Daniels and this is my Mother, Rebecca Richardson.”

Jim smiled at them and Rebecca just nodded gravely.

Daphne smiled brightly at Natalie, “Thank you so much for letting us in Miss. Richardson. We are really eager to hear the story.”

“So you believe it then?” Natalie asked hopefully, “That the ring is cursed.”

“Of course we do,” Stuart replied, “We wouldn’t be here if we thought it was a hoax.”

Daphne nodded as she sat down in the chair that the butler had provided, “Why don’t you start by telling us how your family acquired this ring?”

“Well,” Natalie began as Stuart began to look around the room as subtly as he could, “It came into the family in 1890 when my Great Great Grandmother Rosalie became engaged to a man called Sebastian Malfoy. They were due to be married in 1891 but on their wedding day, Rosalie told Sebastian that she could not go through with the marriage, nobody seems to know why.”

Daphne nodded, alarm bells had rung the moment she heard the name “Malfoy”, she wasn’t looking forward to having _this _conversation with Hermione.

“The following day, Rosalie was found dead but there seemed to be nothing wrong with her. The doctor examined her and said that she was perfectly healthy, only without a heartbeat.”

“Very unusual,” Daphne said, although in her mind she was thinking the opposite. It sounded just like a cursed death or death by the killing curse.

“Yes!” Natalie agreed, “Of course everyone assumed Sebastian was her killer but he was never seen again. Rosalie died without any heirs but her younger sister had a daughter called Jemima. In 1910 Jemima married and the next day, she was found dead, exactly the same as Rosalie.”

“That’s very spooky,” Daphne encouraged as she nudged Stuart.

Stuart nodded, “I don’t like the scary parts of these stories, they give me nightmares. Would you mind if I nipped to the bathroom while you tell Daisy the gory parts?”

“Of course not,” Jim chuckled, “I was the same the first time I heard the story. It’s just at the end of the hall.”

Stuart smiled, “Thank you very much,” he said as he slipped out of the room.

“So Jemima was found dead, did they ever find out who did it?” Daphne asked.

“They assumed it was her husband, after all he did inherit a lot of money. After a long investigation the police arrested him and he was hung,” Natalie said, “But it gets stranger as I told you in my letter. Jemima’s twin brother had a young baby at the time of her death and his daughter was called Hyacinth. In 1930-”

“Hyacinth got married and was found dead the day after her wedding day?” Daphne guessed.

“Yes,” Natalie nodded, “The autopsy said there was nothing wrong with her, she had just dropped dead. Hyacinth was my Mothers Aunt, you were born after she died weren’t you Mum?”

Rebecca nodded, “Hyacinth was the second eldest of 8 children, I was born 13 years after she died.”

“So was your Aunt the last to die in these mysterious circumstances?” Daphne asked.

Rebecca shook her head, “No, that was Samara in the 50’s.”

“1950, to be exact,” Natalie said, “Samara’s Father was Hyacinths older brother. She was found after her wedding day, perfectly fine but dead.”

“And have there been any weddings since?” Daphne asked.

Rebecca shook her head, “I warned them all off and they listened. Natalie and I are the only women left in the family and I for one shall never marry. Natalie has this foolish notion of breaking the curse so that she can marry the love of her life, it is so romantic it makes me sick.”

Daphne chuckled, “Do you think it can be broken?”

“I don’t see why not,” Natalie said, “They can exorcise ghosts, can’t they? Why couldn’t they undo curses?”

“I suppose there must be someone out there who can,” Daphne agreed.

Rebecca rolled her eyes, “Don’t encourage her, please dear.”

“Sorry,” Daphne said sheepishly, “But there is something nice about the notion of breaking the curse so that true love can triumph.”

“See Mother!” Natalie said, “It _is _a generational thing. Are you married, Miss Meadowes?”

“I’m engaged,” Daphne said with a smile, “But I will be married soon, the wedding is set for New Years Eve.”

“That’s very romantic,” Natalie said with a smile, “I understand why you believed my letter now.”

Daphne smiled and got to her feet, she heard Stuart walking along the corridor towards the morning room, “And our readers will too. Do you mind if I take some photographs of the house and the chapel on my way out? Just for effect, for the article.”

“Of course not,” Natalie said, “You are welcome to. Thank you for coming and…for believing.”

Daphne shook her head, “No problem, thank you so much for your time.”

She turned around and saw Stuart smiling triumphantly at her. She felt a surge of relief, that obviously meant that he had found the ring and hopefully destroyed any curse that was on it. They made their way outside in silence and they talked as Daphne pretended to take photographs for her ‘newspaper article’.

“Did you find it?”

“Yep, in the old hags jewellery box.”

“She isn’t an old hag,” Daphne remarked, “Did you remove the curse?”

“Yep, like I said, it was easy,” Stuart said, “The Malfoys aren’t exactly renown for creating vicious curses.”

“No just for helping vicious dark lords,” Daphne muttered, “So that’s it now? They can get married and nobody will die?”

“Here’s hoping,” Stuart said, “It might be a generational curse in which case, if anyone of this generation married they would still die. I don’t think Sebastian Malfoy was smart enough to perform that kind of curse though so yeah, I think it’s broken.”

Daphne turned away from the house after pretending to take her final picture, “Great,” She said with a grin, “It’s one hell of an adrenaline buzz isn’t it? Going in there with a fake story, pretending to be someone else, sneaking around an old house. I loved it.”

She turned around to look at Stuart for approval as much as for anything else but she hadn’t expected him to be so close to her. He smiled as he closed the gap between them and kissed her which completely threw Daphne. She didn’t kiss him back but it did take her a second to process what he was doing, before she had a chance to pull away from the kiss his hands had started to wander.

“What the hell was that?” Daphne snapped as she pulled away and took a few steps back.

Stuart laughed, “Come on, you’ve been flirting with me since Bill introduced us.”

“No,” Daphne said slowly, “I really haven’t been. I think you’re a pompous arse actually.”

“Seriously? You’re having a laugh,” Stuart said with another smile, “I know girls find me attractive, especially young, impressionable ones like you.”

“Look, I might be young but I am _not _impressionable,” Daphne said firmly, “And the fact you seem to like younger women is pretty wrong to be honest. I mean you must be in your 30’s.”

“Say what you want about me but I can end your job in 5 minutes,” Stuart said as his smooth façade disappeared, “All I need to do is tell Bill that you fucked up and that’s it, you’re back in the cursed room or you’re out of the programme.”

Daphne glared at him, “You can’t blackmail me to keep me quiet.”

“I can,” Stuart said, “I mean who is Bill going to believe if this goes further? A trusted Senior Curse Breaker who he has known since he trained or you, a silly little girl who thinks Harry Potter is in love with her.”

Daphne swallowed hard but didn’t say anything. She knew he was talking nonsense, she knew Harry _was _in love with her but it stung all the same. Just like the fact this idiot could make her lose the job she loved hurt. She didn’t know what to say, it felt like she would lose either way.

“So I suggest you keep your mouth shut and come back to the office with me,” Stuart said and his tone was just demanding enough to scare her a little, “Let’s get on with work like normal for the rest of the day and tomorrow, we can forget this ever happened.”

“Forget this ever happened?” Daphne hissed, “You are blackmailing me, that’s not something I can forget easily.”

“Well you better because if you don’t, you will be looking for a new job next week,” Stuart said nastily, “So come on, back to the office with you.”

Daphne swallowed again but turned on her heel and stalked down the path to the gates. The moment she reached them she apparated back to the bank and made her way along the corridors in a daze until she reached the office she shared with Stuart.

She sat down at the desk and tried to compose herself. When he arrived 5 minutes later his nice guy façade was back on, he smiled at her, sat down and brushed his leg against hers _again_, it made her feel sick.

“So, let’s have another look at these letters, shall we?” He asked, as if nothing had happened.

***

** _The Forest of Dean, England._ **

After Harry and Neville had been stuck in the Forest of Dean for a week they seemed to be surviving quite well. They had worked out the routes the rabbits used to get home to their burrows and were therefore eating enough rabbit and assorted plants that Neville had identified as safe, to keep themselves going.

“I don’t think I’ll ever be able to eat rabbit again,” Harry said as he forced another mouthful down, “Don’t get me wrong, it tastes okay but not when you’re eating it every night.”

“I think it’s disgusting but it’s food at the end of the day,” Neville said, “If we don’t want to die of starvation then we have to eat it.”

“I feel bad, killing rabbits on their way home,” Harry said with a frown, “I mean I keep thinking, what if that was me? What if I was on my way home to my wife and kids then I got caught in a trap and just like that, I was dead. I keep wondering if his rabbit wife is just sitting there waiting for him wondering why he hasn’t come home…”

Neville looked at Harry cautiously, “Are you feeling okay?”

“Yeah,” Harry said glumly, “The whole thing just reminds me of Peter Rabbit.”

“Who?”

“Muggle character from a book,” Harry sighed.

“I hate to say it but if you have moral issues about killing a rabbit on its way home to its rabbit wife then you might have issues working as an Auror,” Neville pointed out, “There might well be times when you have to kill someone for…and I hate to put it like this, the greater good.”

“I know,” Harry said, “I’m just feeling melancholy because I miss Daphne.”

“So you’re drawing parallels to your life…with rabbits?” Neville asked as he looked at Harry warily, “You really are worrying me.”

Harry shook his head and looked into the depths of the camp fire before them, “She’s my weakness Neville, her and Teddy. I spent the war trying to keep everyone I loved at arm’s length so that they couldn’t be used against me. I failed obviously, look at what they did to Hermione in Malfoy Manor…”

“You couldn’t have stopped that,” Neville said, “You could have told Hermione to leave and never have come back but she would have slapped you and told you to shut up.”

“That’s true,” Harry agreed, “But it doesn’t change the fact that people I love get hurt. I do everything I can to protect them but I can’t always be there for them, you know?”

“Daphne can look after herself Harry and she can look after Teddy when you aren’t there,” Neville said, “I get that you worry about someone hurting them but the war is over.”

“It doesn’t matter Neville,” Harry said as he looked up at his friend, “There are still a lot of bad people in the world. It’s one thing me putting myself in the firing line by deciding to become an Auror but am I putting Daphne and Teddy there too?”

“No, you know that you aren’t,” Neville said, “Daphne is going to be your wife whenever you two set a date, that means something and if you adopt Teddy then legally he is your son. Do you really think that we just become Aurors and are left to fend for ourselves? A reserved bed in St. Mungo’s isn’t the only perk Harry, Daphne and Teddy have a level of protection.”

“Do they?” Harry frowned.

“Of course they do. The last thing the Aurors want is some sicko hurting Daphne and Teddy to get to you,” Neville said, “Your Manor will get extra wards, there will be surveillance charms so that if anything does happen, there are leads. Nothing is going to happen to Daphne or Teddy, alright?”

“Alright,” Harry said with a small nod, “I’m sorry Neville I just…I didn’t want to fall in love because love is weakness, it’s my biggest weakness but…”

“You can’t control when you fall in love or who you fall in love with Harry,” Neville said gently, “And frankly, if love wasn’t your weakness then I wouldn’t be your best friend because it’s my weakness too.”

Harry smiled slightly, “Lilly?”

“Yeah, Lilly,” Neville sighed, “Who I am missing like crazy right now and yeah, I hate that she’s going to be running out into the middle of duels to heal people like us but I love her. I can’t lose her which means coming to terms with the fact that she wants to be a trauma healer. That doesn’t mean that I’m not scared about what I’ll do if I see her get hurt because she’s my weakness.”

Harry nodded, “I get that, I really do. I mean if someone did hurt Daphne or Teddy I don’t know what I would do. I don’t know if I would be able to control my temper…”

“I’ll tell you what you would do in that situation,” Neville said firmly, “You would come to me because I know what you’re like when you’re angry or upset. So you would come to me and you let me be your moral conscience. I’ll stop you from doing something stupid and becoming your Godfather.”

Harry frowned at that, “You think I’m like Sirius?”

“I think you have a temper and I think you’re reckless,” Neville said honestly, “If Draco betrayed us and me and Lilly ended up dead, do I think you would run after him, duel him then end up looking like a murderer? Yeah, I do. Because A.) You have a temper. B.) You are reckless and C.) You have a knack for being in the wrong place at the wrong time when an authority figure shows up.”

Harry actually chuckled at that, “Alright, you may have a point there.”

“So if you ever feel like you might end up killing someone and rotting in Azkaban, you come to me, okay?”

“Deal,” Harry said with a smile, “Thanks Nev.”

Neville just shrugged as he said with a small smile, “What are friends for?”

***

** _London, England._ **

When Daphne went back to Grimmauld Place that night, she went with the intention of telling Hermione that she had been right about her creepy, sleazy colleague. She decided to walk home because her head was spinning. After what had happened, Stuart had acted normally all day, he had continued to make suggestive comments and he had continued to rub his leg against hers.

Daphne had skipped lunch, the whole thing just made her feel ill. She had hoped that the walk home might clear her head but it just made things worse. What if Hermione blamed her for what had happened? After all, she, like Harry, had believed Daphne’s reputation when they had been at Hogwarts together.

What if she told Hermione and Hermione said it was because she had flirted with Stuart? What if Hermione thought that she had cheated on Harry. _Harry_, even thinking his name made her feel sick. What would Harry have to say about this? Would he blame her too? Would he be angry at her?

Daphne sighed as she turned onto Grimmauld Place. Whatever Hermione thought, Harry would think it too because they were pretty in sync that way. If Daphne told Hermione and she blamed her then she would tell Harry and Harry would get angry. He might even break up with her, she paused in front of the door and shook her head. She couldn’t tell Hermione, she would talk to Sadie about it when she got back from Egypt.

There was only one problem with that, Sadie wasn’t back until Saturday morning which meant that Daphne had to work with Stuart for another 4 days.

***

** _Amiens, France._ **

“I hope you know CPR.”

“Of course I know CPR, do you really think I would have gotten into this course without that basic knowledge?” Lilly muttered irritably as they pulled on sterile Healers Robes to go and observe their first operation.

“I was going to say, because you take my breath away.”

“I’ll take your breath away permanently if you don’t leave me alone,” Lilly said sharply, “I have a boyfriend and yes, he’s in England and I’m here but that doesn’t mean I’m going to jump into bed with the first slimy French frog I meet. Can I go and observe this guy getting his ribs re-set now?”

Marcel just smiled charmingly at her, “Of course, after you.”

Lilly rolled her eyes and stalked out of the room, Marcel really couldn’t take no for an answer.

***

** _Killiechonate, Scotland._ **

“Do you ever miss Pansy?”

“Where did that question come from?” Draco asked Theo as they climbed over rocky paths. Elsie and Rod were chattering between themselves as they walked further ahead of the two men.

“Just the conversation that we had about me and my regrets,” Theo said sheepishly, “It got me thinking about her.”

“Of course I miss her, she was a big part of my life,” Draco replied, “Sometimes I wish she was here because I know her and Hermione would have gotten on, with a lot of coercion. I never wish things were different though, I’m happy with my life the way it is.”

“I know,” Theo said with a frown, “And don’t get me wrong, I’m happy with Sadie too but there are times when I write out a guest list and I go to write her name then remember she’s not here anymore.”

“She was a huge part of our lives,” Draco said, “All of our lives, I know she wasn’t best friends with Daph or Sadie but I’m sure they still miss her too.”

“I don’t know,” Theo said, “Sometimes I get the impression that Daph is glad she’s gone. I mean think about it, everyone in our year thought of the Slytherin girls and they thought of Pansy because she was a gossip and well, a bully too.”

“Yeah, she was at times,” Draco agreed, “But she acted that way because of her insecurities.”

“I don’t think that matters to the people who she bullied,” Theo said honestly, “But think about it, how many people knew that you dated Daphne? All the gossip was always about you and Pansy, it was always about Pansy and Daphne was treated like her second in command. The ice queen behind Pansy Parkinson, I always got the impression that she resented her for that.”

“I know that she did,” Draco admitted, “But that doesn’t mean she’s happy that she’s gone. Daphne isn’t like that.”

“She’s your best friend, you _would_ give her the benefit of the doubt,” Theo pointed out.

“She’s my closest female friend,” Draco corrected, “You are my best friend Theo and I’m sorry you know? That I reacted the way that I did when I found out about you and Pansy, she was already gone by that point, there was no reason for us to argue about things we buried a long time ago.”

Theo nodded, “I just wondered if there were times when you thought about her or if you ever talked to Hermione about her.”

“I don’t talk to Hermione about her,” Draco said, “I sometimes think she hated Pansy more than she hated me.”

“She probably did,” Theo mused, “Because even if she wouldn’t admit it to herself, she was probably jealous of Pansy. Like you were jealous of Harry and Ron.”

Draco frowned, “I never thought of it like that before but I suppose it does make sense. Pansy was horrible to her as well though. I suppose that’s why we don’t talk about it, I don’t talk about Pansy and she doesn’t talk about what happened between her and Harry.”

“Don’t you think that’s a bit toxic?” Theo asked, “I mean, me and Sadie talk about everything. There are no secrets.”

“Not talking about it isn’t the same as keeping it a secret,” Draco said, “She knows I dated Pansy, she knows I loved her once. I know she had some warped sort of love for Harry, I know they slept together. I don’t need to know anymore and neither does she.”

“I would respectfully disagree with that,” Theo said, “It is a secret because she doesn’t know the whole story, does she?”

“She doesn’t need to know about that Theo,” Draco said sharply, “What good would telling her do?”

“It would give her more of an insight into you for a start,” Theo argued, “You know each other pretty well but if neither of you are completely truthful then you will never know each other 100%.”

“She knows about all of the worst parts of me and she still loves me,” Draco said, “So why compromise that by spilling my guts about my past girlfriends? People don’t talk about their exes for a reason, I already had to tell her about my relationship with Daphne since those two are friends now. I don’t intend to tell her about Pansy too.”

“And you’re really okay with her not telling you everything about her and Harry?” Theo asked.

“I’m fine with it,” Draco snapped, “The last thing I want to do is talk about her sordid love affair with him, alright? Can you just drop the bloody subject?”

Theo raised his hands in a sign of defeat, “Fine, but I don’t think you’re both fine with that arrangement, I’m just saying.”

“Then just shut up,” Draco said irritably as he walked a little faster in a bid to get away from Theo.

***

** _Amiens, France._ **

“I think I’m going to kill Marcel,” Lilly said one night on her second week at the centre.

Savannah snorted, “I’ll help you. The other day he said to me, _Are you from Tennessee? Because you’re the only ten I see. _Do you know how offensive that is? I am from Texas!”

“I suppose it’s like someone assuming an English person is Welsh,” Lilly mused, “I would get pretty offended.”

“He is disgusting,” Lucille said, she glanced at the door but it was still shut. The three girls were the only ones still sitting in the common room. Lilly had been writing a letter to Neville, she couldn’t send them but she wrote one every two days anyways. Savannah had been studying and Lucille had been knitting.

“He said to me, _Are you Jamaican? Cause jer-makin-me-crazy._” Lucille said, “I said he was being racist and that if he ever tried to flirt with me again I would use voodoo magic on him.”

“Voodoo magic isn’t real, is it?” Savannah asked.

“I always thought it was a myth,” Lilly agreed.

“It is but that sleazy little frog doesn’t need to know that, does he?” Lucille asked with a smirk.

Lilly laughed and grinned, “Sneaky, I knew I was gonna like you Lucille.”

“If he’s seriously bothering you, why don’t you just talk to your Senior Healer about it?” Savannah asked, “She can give him a caution and if he keeps it up she can swap him out with another one of us.”

“I might talk to her if he makes another comment,” Lilly admitted, “Because I’m worried it’s going to distract me and it’s not fair on Neville either. He’s already paranoid enough about me meeting someone else here.”

“Is Neville your boyfriend?” Savannah asked eagerly, “I was really hoping that we could get into some back-home style gossip!”

Lilly laughed and opened the locket that she wore around her neck. Inside was a photograph of her and Neville that had been taken at Sadie and Theo’s wedding, “Yeah, that’s him.”

“Oh lord, he is a fine looking man,” Lucille said approvingly.

“And so tall!” Savannah gushed.

“He is tall,” Lilly laughed, “I know we seem like an odd pair, little and large as my friend Theo calls us.”

“As long as you love each other, I don’t think it matters,” Lucille said with a smile, “What’s he doing back in England?”

“Training to be an Auror,” Lilly said proudly, “I’m so glad we get to work with our local trainee Aurors on a Wednesday because it means I’ll get to see him.”

“Lucky you,” Savannah said, “My boyfriend is just a farmer, I don’t think I’ll be seeing much of him. He’s a Muggle but he was my childhood sweetheart so when I came home from school in the summer he was always there.”

“Do you think he’ll wait for you this year?” Lucille asked.

Savannah shook her head, “No way, I’ll come home and find him in bed with Mary from next door or Sue-Ann from down the street.”

Lilly frowned, “Shouldn’t you just have broken up with him then?”

Savannah shrugged, “Probably. What about you Lucy?”

“I don’t have anyone back home,” Lucille replied, “Apart from my Mother who misses me a lot but I don’t think I’ll go back apart from to visit. There are just so many opportunities here in Europe that I don’t want to miss out on.”

Lilly nodded and smiled, “Live your life while you’re young,” she agreed.

**TBC!**


	90. Breaking Point

** _London, England._ **

Daphne had barely eaten by the time she went into work on Wednesday morning. She felt sick with dread at the thought of spending all day with Stuart, especially because most of the day was spent in a cramped little office. He had flirted with her incessantly on Tuesday and he had moved on from rubbing his leg against hers, he was full on running his hand up her leg now. Daphne always moved her leg away but she didn’t say anything anymore, the first time she had told him to stop it and he had threatened to head upstairs to Bills office.

There was a part of Daphne that wondered if Bill would believe her over Stuart. After all, Harry was a good judge of character and she was his fiancé, but then she kept coming back to the fact Bill had known Stuart since he was a trainee Curse Breaker. She was just his little brothers girlfriend, there was too much history between Bill and Stuart. Talking to Bill would be a huge risk and she really didn’t want to lose her job.

“The beautiful lady is looking rather pale this morning,” Stuart said when Daphne stepped into the office, “Are you sleeping?”

“Not really,” Daphne said dryly, “I’m not really eating either.”

“You must be coming down with something,” Stuart said, “It’s the time of year for it.”

Daphne didn’t say anything as she sat down on her side of the desk and pulled her chair as far out as it would go. Even with the back of the chair against the wall, the creep could reach her.

“I was just about to say, there’s no point sitting down,” Stuart said, he was sitting on the edge of the desk, “We’re off to Surrey to find a cursed hairbrush.”

Daphne got up silently and they left the office together. As they walked to the back entrance of the bank, the one that was strictly employees only, Stuart asked, “Any theories?”

Daphne shrugged, “Cursed hairbrush, probably cast by a witch in revenge after falling out with a friend.”

“I suspected as much,” Stuart said, “This is a recent curse so we have an extra job. If we can find any evidence relating to the person who cast it, we are required by law to pass that on to the DMLE.”

“Do the Auror office deal with that?” Daphne asked.

“Oh that depends on the nature of the curse,” Stuart said, “If its something petty like this which is just making girls hair fall out then it goes to the Magical Law Enforcement Patrol. If it’s something that’s killing people then it’s up to the Aurors to solve it.”

Daphne nodded, “That makes sense,” she said as they stepped out of the bank into the back alley and apparated to Surrey.

The job was fairly easy, they found the hairbrush and had a quick chat with the cursed girl to find out who the culprit was. Stuart recorded the memory and once they left the house, he extracted it from his head and put it into a phial, “Well that’s the evidence for the DMLE. I’ll drop it in later today.”

“Could I do it?” Daphne asked, “One of my best friends works in the DMLE, I could take her lunch.”

Stuart glanced down at her, “That’s very considerate.”

Daphne frowned, “Why do you sound surprised that I can be considerate?”

“Well us Slytherins don’t have a reputation for compassion,” Stuart said with a smirk, “Do we?”

Daphne wanted to say something along the lines of, _I should have known you were a Slytherin_. But she didn’t, she just shrugged, “I’m not your average Slytherin.”

“You are not average in any way, Daphne,” Stuart said as he placed his hand on her back.

Daphne’s instinct was to jerk away from his touch but he anticipated this and snaked his arm around her, “I am very lucky to be working with someone as pleasant as you. Of course you can take the evidence to the DMLE.”

“Thank you,” Daphne said stiffly.

“There is just one condition,” Stuart said quietly as his hand dropped lower onto her bum.

Daphne tried to pull away from him but he gripped her tighter and her wand was holstered on the leg that he was pressing himself against.

“Don’t tell anyone in the DMLE, including your friend, that you’re being blackmailed. It’s all lies anyway, isn’t it? You’re just playing hard to get,” Stuart said, he squeezed her bum then let go.

Daphne felt physically sick as she took the vial from him, “I’m not playing hard to get, I’m engaged,” she reminded him as she spun on her heel and apparated back to the office.

When Stuart got back, he acted as if nothing had happened like he always did. He clearly felt like he could get away with more in the field than he could in the office which meant Daphne had some time when she felt relatively safe. After all the corridor outside the office was busy with Curse Breakers and goblins so she knew Stuart wouldn’t try anything. However, she hated going out into the field with him, she was dreading what he was going to do next.

***

** _London, England._ **

“Hermione, there’s someone at the front desk for you.”

Hermione glanced up from her paperwork, “Is there?”

Penelope nodded, “She says she’s your friend and that she’s brought you lunch. Have you taken a lunch break yet this week?”

Hermione shook her head, “No, I’ve just been eating in here.”

“Then I think you ought to get out of this office for a while,” Penelope said, “Take your lunch hour outside, it’s a lovely day.”

Hermione nodded and got to her feet, “I will, thank you Penelope.”

Penelope just smiled in response as Hermione grabbed her hand bag and headed for the front desk. She smiled when she saw Daphne standing there holding a brown paper bag and two cups of coffee.

“I thought we could have lunch,” She said when Hermione reached her.

“That sounds great,” Hermione said with a smile, “Let’s eat outside, I’d like to get out of here for a bit.”

They left the Ministry via the front entrance which brought them out onto Scotland Place.

“Whitehall Gardens are about 5 minutes this way,” Hermione said as she hooked her arm through Daphne’s, “Thank you so much for getting me out of there for a bit.”

Daphne shook her head, “I needed to get out of that stuffy old bank too.”

They made small talk about the weather and how they both hated being stuck indoors doing paperwork during these last days of lovely summer weather. When they reached the park they sat down on a bench and ate their sandwiches.

Daphne took a deep breath and looked down at her untouched sandwich, “Sometimes fresh air just makes you feel a bit better.”

“I thought things were going good at your work?” Hermione said, “With you getting to go out in the field and all now.”

“Yeah, it is pretty exciting,” Daphne said, “I like getting to go out and talk to people, find the cursed object and everything, you know?”

Hermione nodded, “So what’s got you so down? I mean Daph, you’re hardly eating.”

“I don’t know,” Daphne lied, “I guess I’m just feeling a bit under the weather.”

Hermione hummed thoughtfully, “I suppose the weather is starting to change, it is the time for it. Are you sure that’s all it is?”

Daphne nodded, “Yeah, I’m sure.”

“You’re sure you’re not…well do you have another reason for feeling unwell?” Hermione asked.

Daphne wasn’t following Hermione, she just got defensive because she thought that Hermione knew something about what was happening at work, “What? No, I told you I’m fine.”

Hermione frowned, “You’re not pregnant then, you’re sure?”

Daphne looked up in disbelief, “Pregnant? No, come on, Harry and I are careful. Why would you jump to that?”

“I don’t know, wars and baby booms,” Hermione said sheepishly, “And you look pale, you’re not eating, it was just where my mind went.”

“Well I’m not pregnant,” Daphne said with a shake of her head, “But speaking of pregnancy, when is Ginny due?”

“Soon,” Hermione replied thoughtfully, “October I think, her due date might be Halloween actually.”

“That would be weird for Harry if her baby was born on Halloween,” Daphne mused, she glanced at her watch, “I really don’t want to go back to work, if I have to spend another day stuck in that office with Stuart…”

“Is he still flirting with you?” Hermione asked.

“Yeah,” Daphne said as her stomach churned, “But I can put up with it if it keeps me out of that cursed room.”

“Daph, you shouldn’t have to put up with a sleazy guy just to get to do a more exiciting job,” Hermione said.

Daphne shrugged the comment off, “It’s fine Hermione. You wouldn’t blame me if you had spent a week going mad in that room.”

“I’m pretty close to going mad being stuck in the admin department,” Hermione complained, “And I have another 2 and a half weeks of that to go.”

“It will pass faster once Draco’s back,” Daphne said, “Do you know when their isolation ends?”

“Sunday night,” Hermione replied, “I was going to go to Sunday lunch at the Burrow to pass the time since they doubt they’ll get out until after 6pm at the latest.”

“Molly invited me and Teddy,” Daphne mused, “I wasn’t sure if I would go or not but I think I will if you’re going along.”

“And it will be good for Teddy,” Hermione added, “Will Harry see him when he gets home?”

“No, I have him overnight on Saturday, but I need to take him back to Andromeda’s for his dinner,” Daphne replied, “I’m trying to arrange a weekend to have him over for when Harry’s back.”

“That sounds good,” Hermione said, “He misses him an awful lot.”

“Yeah,” Daphne said, “I know he does.”

***

** _Cairo, Egypt._ **

Sadie, Liang, Arielle and Ash were all lazing around the common room on Wednesday evening. Sadie still felt a little queasy but Ash’s English dinners were doing the trick. They were getting her strength back up and she wasn’t feel sick to her stomach now that she wasn’t starving herself

“I miss England,” Sadie sighed.

“Tell us something we don’t know,” Ash joked.

“I miss Theo…”

“We know that,” Arielle said with an amused smile.

“I miss English food…”

“Hey! I thought I cured that!” Ash exclaimed.

“Don’t get me wrong, I am loving my English dinners,” Sadie said honestly, “And I’m so grateful that you managed to do that for me Ash but I just want a proper cup of coffee or a fizzy drink that doesn’t taste like it’s been left out in the sun for hours.”

“I suppose that’s fair enough,” Ash conceded, “Is there anything else about England that you miss?”

“Yeah…I miss Daphne.”

“Daphne?” Liang said, “Daphne Greengrass?”

“Yes,” Sadie said, she opened her eyes and looked over at Liang, “She’s my best friend.”

“Her family own Greengrass Shipping Limited,” Liang said, “They are our biggest competitor.”

“Her Father owned the company,” Sadie said, “But then he died and it fell to the next male heir which is her Uncle Phineas. It doesn’t have anything to do with Daphne, she’s training to be a Curse Breaker.”

“I just found the connection interesting,” Liang admitted, “Do you have any other internationally recognisable friends?”

“Apart from Harry Potter,” Ash joked.

“Not really,” Sadie replied, “Apart from Neville Longbottom, commonly known as Harry Potter’s snake killing sidekick.”

“I saw that photograph of him beheading the snake in the newspapers in France,” Arielle said, “It was pretty impressive. I don’t suppose he’s single?”

“Nope, sorry,” Sadie chuckled, “He is very happy with another one of my friends…she’s training to be a Trauma Healer in Amiens.”

“You lot really are quite far flung,” Ash said in amusement, “How do you find to catch up?”

“At the moment, we don’t,” Sadie said with a chuckle, “But we’ll all see each other on Sunday night. I bet they’ve all had a much more exciting time than me, I’ve just felt ill from the moment I got here.”

“You’re perking up now you’ve got my good ole English food to eat,” Ash said as he patted her on the back on his way to the door, “See you guys in the morning for study hall.”

“Night Ash,” Sadie said as she shut her eyes and let herself drift off again. She had taken to sleeping on the couch in the common room with the balcony door wide open since her bitchy dorm mates wouldn’t let her open a window. Of course, all of this hassle could have been avoided if they were allowed to use magic, she could have just used cooling charms. However, they had to check their wands into lockers at the end of the day because no magic was permitted in the dorm rooms or in the common room.

***

** _Amiens, France._ **

“I’ve had a really bad day but it always makes me feel better when I see a pretty girl smile,” Marcel whispered as he and Lilly walked along the corridor towards the operating room, “Would you smile for me and make my day?”

Lilly turned to Marcel and glared at him, “We are about to go into that room and watch Healer Selwyn cut into some poor bastards brain. His survival chances are slim to none so you really haven’t had a bad day yet Marcel! Would you just shut up and let me focus? I’m getting sick of your bullshit!”

She was hopeful that Marcel had gotten the message because he did at least look a little guilty. He didn’t make a smart arse comment either, he just nodded and followed Lilly silently into the operating room.

***

** _The Forest of Dean, England._ **

“I’m enjoying this way too much. What did you say it was again?”

“Pheasant,” Neville said, “I don’t know where it came from, they aren’t even in season.”

“I don’t care, I’m just glad it’s not rabbit,” Harry said, “What day is it?”

“Wednesday,” Neville replied, “We’re almost there.”

“Are we? I feel like this week is going slower than last week,” Harry said, “Sunday feels ages away.”

“Tell me about it,” Neville said, “I think it’s harsh that we don’t even get a weekend off at the end of this. I know Sheppard said we would get a few days off during the week but Lil will need to leave for France late on Sunday night. I’m hardly going to see her.”

“This long-distance thing is bothering you already isn’t it?”

Neville nodded then sighed, “It will be worse when I get home. Her stuff is all over the house, everywhere I look I’m reminded of her and…Merlin this will sound cheesy. I just want her back there, I want to have dinner with her every night and be able to go to bed with her. I don’t want her to be on the other side of the bloody channel.”

“I understand,” Harry said honestly, “It know that I couldn’t manage it. I’m finding it hard enough to be away from Daph right now, if she ever does need to up sticks for her job then I guess I’ll just have to go with her.”

“Well I can hardly commute in from France,” Neville said glumly, “This long-distance thing is going to be the end of us, I can just tell.”

“Only if you let it be,” Harry reminded him.

Neville shook his head, “Haven’t you noticed that I’m a disaster when it comes to relationships? It turned out that Hannah was obsessive and a bit psychotic then Susan seemed to be more interested in my fame than me. Now Lilly…”

“Lilly loves you for who you are,” Harry said, “Not Neville the war hero Longbottom, but who you really are. That’s rare so you better not give up on that just because you find a year of long-distance love hard to cope with.”

“It’s easy for you to say that,” Neville said, “You and Daphne have a perfect relationship.”

“Perfect?” Harry scoffed, “How can you think that?”

“Look at the two of you!” Neville exclaimed, “You’re getting married, you’re adopting Teddy together. You are literally the golden couple.”

Harry rolled his eyes, “Okay firstly, don’t ever call us that again or between us we will curse your bollocks off. Secondly, Daphne and I are far from perfect and I can give you plenty of examples of that.”

“On you go then,” Neville challenged him.

Harry snorted, “Where do you want me to start? Oh how about, we’ve had lodgers in our house ever since we left school and she’s got more and more pissy about that as time went on. She kept sniping at me over my hero complex and every time we got into an argument she blamed it on the fact that we were never truly alone.”

Neville looked sheepish, “Sorry, I didn’t know that was bothering you so much.”

“Well nobody asked,” Harry admitted, “I didn’t mind people bunking with us until they found their feet but we ended up having Draco and Hermione all summer. Nobody thought about the fact that maybe, just maybe, we wanted to spend that summer having fun before adulthood hit us in the face.”

“Shit…I’m sorry for imposing myself on you when Lilly-”

“You weren’t the problem,” Harry cut in, “You were in the annex and you weren’t exactly in the most sociable mood but it’s been impossible for Daphne and I to get anytime away from Draco and Hermione this summer.”

Neville opened his mouth to apologise again but Harry kept talking, “So we do argue, trust me we argue a lot. We’re both stubborn and when we get caught on an idea we don’t want to admit that we’re wrong or compromise. We argue about Teddy because we have conflicting ideas about what’s best for him since we were raised so differently. What I’m saying Neville is that we’re far from perfect but I love her despite the fact she drives me up the wall half the time.”

Neville nodded, “I know what you’re saying. I just…I’m worried that Lilly and I will spend this year struggling through for nothing.”

“You know that won’t happen,” Harry said, “If Lilly didn’t have faith in your relationship you wouldn’t still be together.”

“What if she meets someone else in France?”

“She’s probably thinking, what if he meets someone else in Auror training?” Harry pointed out, “You just have to trust each other and make the most of the moments that you do have together.”

“Yeah,” Neville said with a sigh, “I just wish those moments weren’t so few and far between.”

***

** _Amiens, France._ **

“Healer Selwyn, could I talk to you, in private?”

Clara smiled at Lilly and nodded. She said goodbye to the Senior Healer that she was talking to and said, “Let’s check if the break-room is empty. Are you feeling okay?”

“I’m fine,” Lilly assured her, “And I’m definitely not thinking of quitting if that’s what you were thinking.”

“Oh, I wasn’t thinking that,” Clara said as she led Lilly into the break room which was empty, “You have a stronger stomach and reserve than most. What’s bothering you?”

Lilly frowned, “Marcel, he keeps flirting with me and every time I see him he comes out with some cheesy chat-up line. It’s distracting when he does it before we go into the operating room and it’s just sleazy and disgusting. I have a boyfriend and I keep telling him that but he’s taking no notice.”

Clara nodded, “It’s alright, you don’t have to get yourself worked up about it. I had noticed the odd comment but I wasn’t aware that it was happening so regularly. I will give him a caution and if he keeps it up, you had better come back and tell me. We want you to feel comfortable and secure here, do you understand?”

Lilly nodded and breathed a sigh of relief, “Thank you, I was worried about telling you.”

“You had no reason to be,” Clara said, she put the kettle and asked, “Do you want a cup of tea?”

Lilly nodded, “Yes, please.”

“While I have you alone, I wanted to ask, how are you coping with being here while your boyfriend is back in England?”

Lilly opened her mouth to reply then hesitated and shut it.

“Is it serious, with this guy?” Clara asked.

Lilly nodded, “Yeah, we were living together in England before I came over here.”

“And you’re finding it hard to be so far away from him,” Clara said.

“Yes,” Lilly admitted, “But it isn’t effecting my work-”

“I would never suggest that it was,” Clara cut her off by raising a hand. She handed Lilly a cup of tea and sat down in an uncomfortable chair.

Lilly sat down next to her boss, she really had no idea where this conversation was going.

“I was just going to say that I understand how hard it is when the man you love is in another country,” Clara said tentatively, “My fiancé lives in England and I live here.”

“Oh,” Lilly said, “I don’t mean any disrespect but, couldn’t you do what you do here in England?”

“Oh I could train people at St. Mungo’s,” Clara said with a nod, “But I could never do what I do here. All the same, I do suspect that this will be my last year at the centre.”

“That must be hard,” Lilly said, “Didn’t you say you had worked here for 10 years?”

“I have worked and lived in France since I was 18,” Clara said with a nod, “I didn’t really have a choice, I’m surprised you haven’t said anything actually. You fought in the war and you’re from the UK, I assume that means you know who my brother was.”

“I did wonder if you were related to the Death Eater Selwyn,” Lilly admitted, “But it’s not my business and it doesn’t affect how I see you so I didn’t think it was worth mentioning. Is that why you came to France?”

“My Father and my brother were twisted,” Clara said, “My Mother died halfway through my last year of school and I didn’t want to go back home without her calming influence. So, I upped sticks and moved to France to become a Healer.”

“I guess you like it here, since you stayed so long,” Lilly mused, “I kind of hate France to be honest.”

“Oh I completely hate France,” Clara said with a roll of her eyes, “I hate the food and the lack of manners and the guys like Marcel. I do love Paris though and I bet you will too, the art and the history really is amazing. The only reason I stayed was because I was too scared to go home while I knew my brother was there. Now he’s gone, I suppose I’m just scared.”

Lilly nodded thoughtfully, “How did you meet your fiancé? Was it here in France?”

“It was through work,” Clara replied, “During the war I went home briefly to help. Most of the time I didn’t leave the Auror base, I was just an extra Healer for all of the injured Aurors that were being brought in. Sorenson started chatting me up when he was lying in the hospital wing half dead and the rest is history.”

Lilly looked up sharply, “Did you say Sorenson? As in Sorenson Cauldwell?”

Clara frowned, “Yes…you can’t know him, can you? He’s much older than you are.”

Lilly actually laughed, “He is older than me but I do know him. One of my best friends is Sadie Cauldwell, his little sister.”

Realisation shone in Clara’s eyes, “I should have realised that when you were talking about your friend Theo the other day. Theo is the name of Sadie’s Husband…no wonder I recognise you, I must have seen you at Sadie’s wedding!”

Lilly was still chuckling, “Sadie did say that Sorenson had been dating someone and that the wedding was the first time she had met her but I had no idea it was you.”

“It looks like our lives are more intertwined than the fact we are both English,” Clara laughed, “And don’t tell anyone I said this, but I am so glad to finally have a decent Brit to mentor.”

Lilly smiled, “Thanks,” she said gratefully as a bell rang loudly downstairs.

“New casualty, duty calls,” Clara said as she got to her feet and abandoned her cup of tea, “Here’s another little piece of information for you, you will never finish a cuppa here.”

***

** _London, England._ **

Thursday was Daphne’s lucky day. When she got into work in the morning Stuart told her that Bill needed a favour so she had to spend the day back in the cursed room with the other trainees. At first she was worried that she was being demoted but then she realised that they had found a particularly interesting statue from the Lestrange vault which had a curse on it than none of the trainees could break. Daphne had to admit, it was a difficult one so it did take pretty much all day as well as all of her expertise.

The best part of the whole thing was that she hadn’t had to see Stuart all day and soon her best friend would be home and she could come clean. After all, Sadie would know what to do because she always did.

She went into work feeling a bit lighter on Friday because she knew Sadie was coming home the following morning. She would get to see Lilly soon too and then the boys would all come back, there was a lot to look forward to at the weekend. Daphne still didn’t quite have her appetite back, but she was managing to eat small amounts now at least.

“Ah my beautiful assistant has finally decided to grace me with her presence,” Stuart said when Daphne walked into the office, “How did yesterday go?”

“Fine, it was a difficult curse but I managed to break it,” Daphne said stiffly, “What’s on the cards for today?”

“I looked through some letters yesterday and identified a few interesting cases so we’ll be in the field for most of the day,” Stuart said cheerfully.

Daphne’s stomach lurched at that and she found herself wishing that she hadn’t had breakfast, “Right, where?”

“London first then Taunton and…oh our last one is in the sticks, Caithness.”

Daphne nodded, “What’s the first case?” she asked as they left the office together.

“Cursed toilet,” Stuart said, “It’s an easy enough fix, I suppose I’ll have to drop the toilet off at the DMLE afterwards. It will be of some interest to the Misuse of Muggle Artefacts Office.”

Daphne nodded again and they made their way out of the bank to the scene of the ‘crime’ in silence. Luckily, the first job was in the middle of London so there wasn’t much that Stuart could sensibly get away with, it was a fairly quick job and it only took about 2 hours. An hour of that had involved Daphne drinking coffee on a park bench while Stuart took the offending toilet into the DMLE.

“Next,” Stuart said as he clapped his hands together, “Off to Taunton to have a look at a cursed steam engine.”

Daphne frowned, “Did you say a cursed steam engine?”

“Yes, apparently it’s spewing insults instead of smoke,” Stuart said with an amused look as they slipped into an alleyway, “Obliviators are already working overtime with the Muggles there. We need to get in and un-curse it as soon as possible so there won’t be any time for chit-chat, just watch and learn.”

Daphne wanted to roll her eyes, on top of everything else Stuart was a smug arsehole. They spun and apparated away, emerging into a chaotic scene at a train station in Taunton. As Stuart had said, it was busy and there was no time for chit-chat which also meant there was no time for inappropriate comments or groping, thankfully.

Daphne could only observe, it was a difficult curse to break, partly because of the size of the object. It took Stuart a good 4 hours to finish and by the time he had, it was well past lunch-time. They grabbed sandwiches and sat down in the (thankfully, very crowded) park to eat them.

She had to admit, she was feeling relieved. She had been out in the field with him all day and so far, things had been so busy that she had forgotten all about his blackmailing ways. Daphne knew things would be different in Caithness though.

“Alright, now we’re refuelled let’s head up to Scotland,” Stuart said as he clapped his hands together.

“What are we doing up there?”

“Ah, I’m glad you asked,” Stuart said, “It’s an interesting one. An abandoned crofters cottage in Caithness is apparently cursed, it may well just be haunted instead but I wanted to investigate.”

“Why?” Daphne asked with a frown, “If there’s no solid evidence then why are we wasting our time investigating it?”

“Let’s call it curiosity or a hunch, either or,” Stuart said evasively. He told her the co-ordinates and once they were clear of Muggles, they apparated there.

It really was the middle of nowhere. They were on a moor with an abandoned cottage before them that was well on its way to becoming a ruin. It had no roof but the rest of it was still standing, although it looked like it might fall down at any point.

Daphne immediately felt uneasy, she could feel Stuart’s eyes on her as he said, “Are you coming to investigate or not?”

“I just…I have a bad feeling about it,” Daphne admitted.

Stuart laughed, “Maybe it is haunted. I didn’t peg you as the sort who is scared of ghosts.”

“I’m not,” Daphne said defensively, “But I think there is a curse on it, something just feels wrong here.”

“Then let’s have a look and see if we can work out what,” Stuart said, he was standing in the doorway and holding his hand out to her.

Daphne tried to push the bad feeling away as she stepped up onto the front step and slipped past Stuart into the cottage, she sure as hell wasn’t going to hold his hand. As she slipped past him, he grabbed her arm and pushed her inside.

She was going to turn around in anger and asked him what the hell he had done that for but then she felt something strange. It was like a warm wind had just rushed over her and it had erased all of the angry thoughts from her head. Instead she felt light, like she was floating on air and when Stuart kissed her, she didn’t push him away. Instead she deepened the kiss as the light feeling became a sudden onslaught of passion.

As she kissed him, Stuart said, “I knew you were just playing hard to get.”

And through the fog of lightness and passion and confusion, that comment reached her. She tried to pull away but it seemed that no matter how hard she tried, her brain would not communicate with her body. As Stuart slipped his hands underneath her blouse she began to panic and that seemed to cut through the haze. Daphne managed to pull herself away from him and sensing that it was the creepy little cottage that was doing this to her she immediately dove for the door before he could grab her again.

The second she was outside, the hazy feeling drifted away and she felt heavier and more guilt-ridden than ever.

“Did you _know _that was going to happen?” Daphne asked angrily as she kept a good distance from the man, “Is that why you brought me here?”

“All I knew was that a local claimed this cottage was cursed by Morgana,” Stuart replied, “But yes, I did know you were going to give in and kiss me eventually.”

“I didn’t kiss you because I wanted to you idiot!” Daphne exclaimed, “Something happened the moment we stepped inside that cottage, you _knew _that!”

“I swear, all I knew is what I just told you,” Stuart said again.

“Accio letter from Caithness,” Daphne said as she pulled her wand out in record time.

The letter flew from Stuarts pocket and landed in Daphne’s hand. He lurched forward to grab it from her but she threw up a shield charm to stop him. It wouldn’t hold for long, especially if Stuart tried to break it down with any spells or curses but it would hold for long enough for her to skim the letter.

“_The cottage was supposedly cursed by Morgana, the evil sorceress, thousands of years ago. According to legend, all those who enter are drawn to whoever is in close proximity to them. The nature of the curse was to ruin local women’s reputation after the man Morgana was supposed to marry left him for a local Caithness women.”_

“Well I suppose we know that the curse does exist then,” Stuart said.

“You tricked me Fawley!” Daphne hissed, “And I am sick of all this emotional blackmail! Do you know what? Tell Bill I made a mistake, get me fired, right now being fired would be better than working with you, you scumbag!”

Before Stuart could say anything else, Daphne dropped her shield charm, spun on her heel and disapparated. She didn’t want to go back to Grimmauld Place because she knew that Hermione would see how upset she was and she would get the truth out of her, one way or another. The natural choice that was left was therefore Potter Manor but it was Harry’s house and right now thinking about Harry made her feel sick with guilt.

She wanted Sadie but Sadie was in Egypt so there really was only one place left for her to go. Daphne made this decision in a split-second as she spun to apparate and when she rematerialized she was standing in front of a metal gate looking up at the home she had grown up in.

She had some good memories here but there were far more bad ones. Daphne stood at the foot of the large stone steps staring up at the house for a moment. She wasn’t entirely sure that she would enter. Greengrass House was a façade, it was designed to look old like the likes of Malfoy or Potter Manor but it had actually been built when her family rose to prominence in the early 1900’s.

The house was whitewashed and stood three stories high, four if you included the room at the top of the tower. It wasn’t a Manor but it was grand enough with its large bay windows and the gold leaf embellishments that her Grandmother had added. Daphne took a deep breath and walked up the steps, she stood outside the front door on the porch and raised her hand to knock.

She hadn’t set foot in this house since she left to return for her 8th year. Her Father had set this house alight in a bid to murder his entire family, it hadn’t been too badly damaged but the wing at the back was far newer than the rest of the building. Daphne felt sick as images from that night flooded back to her.

She remembered waking up in bed feeling terrified, she remember the smell of the smoke, the heat of the fire. Her Mother running down the stairs with Astoria in her arms screaming at Daphne to run. The back door had been consumed in the fire so they had stood shivering on the porch as they waited for the Ministry to come and help.

Daphne remembered all of it as clear as day even though she had only been 6 years old at the time. She remembered the Aurors wrapping them up in blankets and giving them hot tea to drink. She remembered the nice lady who had asked her questions about the fire and about her family. Daphne hadn’t known anything at the time so their questions hadn’t meant anything to her.

She remembered how after the fire, they had to stay with Uncle Phineas while the house was being fixed. She had found it strange that although Phineas was her Fathers brother, she hadn’t seen her Father for the entire month that they stayed with Phineas. She remembered all the whispered conversations her Mother and Phineas had, they would always stop the second she walked into the room.

Daphne remembered the effect it had on Astoria. She had been 4 and a half at the time and she had stopped talking for a year. When she did start to speak again, she spoke very quietly and she became so timid when she had been bubbly and full of life before. Daphne remembered how terrified she had been on the first night they moved back in, she remembered being too scared to sleep in case the house went on fire again.

She remembered the night her Father came back, not long after they moved back into Greengrass House. The argument had been loud and Astoria had come into her bedroom because she wanted a cuddle. Daphne had covered her sisters ears and listened as her parents shouted at each other. She had been old enough to understand what had happened, her Father had set fire to the house to punish her Mother because her Mother was in love with someone else.

Daphne remembered coming downstairs the next morning to find her Mother performing glamour charms on herself. She remembered how her Mother limped for a week afterwards, how she cradled her arm as if it was hurting. She had known, even at such a young age, that her Father was responsible. From that moment on Daphne had been terrified of two things, fire and her Father.

When she had been a little older Daphne had asked her Mother why her Father had done it. Lareina had sat her down, made her a cup of tea and told her the truth. Daphne had always respected her Mother for that, she could have sugar-coated it but she thought it was important that Daphne knew exactly what sort of man her Father was. That was how she had discovered that her Mother had been forced into an arranged marriage with her Father, she had found out how much her Mother had always hated her Father. She had looked for love elsewhere and she had found it once or twice, Lareina had told Daphne that when he found out, her Father set fire to the house to punish them.

She vividly remembered asking her Mother why he had come back then? Lareina had looked ashamed as she admitted that she had begged him to come back because her younger brother had blown all of the family money by drinking too much and gallivanting across the globe. Daphne remembered her Mother telling her that she couldn’t have provided for her girls without Cygnus so she had begged him to come back and support them. That had been the night he came back to the house, the night of the argument that Daphne remembered so well.

Daphne had said to her Mother, “He hurt you, didn’t he?” And Lareina had said that yes, he had. He had beaten her to within an inch of her life but he had promised to come back. There had been conditions though, Lareina had to pay for what she had done and if she ever strayed again then he would kill her. Daphne knew from the look on her Mothers face and everything she had just heard that this was true.

Once she was older, Daphne began to wonder if it was a coincidence that she hadn’t seen her Uncle Phineas since she was 6 years old.

She pulled herself out of the depressing memories and knocked on the door. After all, if she didn’t do it now, she never would. There was a crack and the door opened almost immediately, a little house elf smiled brightly up at her, “Good days Miss. Daphne!”

Daphne smiled weakly back, “Hello Corky. Is my sister at home?”

“Yes Miss, she bes in her room,” Corky said, “Is Miss staying for tea?”

“I don’t think so Corky, I’m just going to go up and see Astoria,” Daphne said as she stepped into the entrance hallway.

The house didn’t look like it had changed at all. Directly ahead of her was a spiral staircase and there were four doors leading from the central hallway. One went into the lounge, another into the dining room, another into the library and another into what had been her Father’s private study. From the dining room there was access to the conservatory or, as her Mother preferred to call it, the dining room. Behind the spiral staircase was a smaller doorway, if you went through it and followed the stairs down you would find yourself in the kitchen. Unlike at Potter Manor or Grimmauld Place, this wasn’t a place to socialise or cook. Her Mother had never cooked so she rarely entered the kitchen and instead took all of her meals in the breakfast room or the dining room. The kitchen in Greengrass House was most definitely Corky’s domain.

Daphne made her way up the stairs and bypassed the first floor. The master bedroom was located on that floor, as was the drawing room and a second large bedroom which her Mother had always called the nicest guest bedroom.

The second floor was where Daphne’s bedroom had been when she lived here. This floor consisted entirely of bedrooms but hers and Astoria’s were the largest and they had an adjoining shared bathroom. The other three bedrooms were fairly small and rarely got used.

Before she knocked on the door of Astoria’s bedroom, Daphne walked into her old room just to reminisce for a moment. She wasn’t sure if her Mother had kept it or if she had converted it into another spare room. It made her smile to see that it remained unchanged, it was like she had just stepped out of it yesterday.

The walls were pastel green, she had painted them herself in her 3rd year. There were posters on the walls with images of the Weird Sisters and her little library of muggle books remained in the alcove she had turned into a reading corner. Her dressing table still had some old perfume bottles sitting on it and every surface was covered with wizarding photographs of herself with Tracey and Sadie, or of her and Draco. She smiled a little sadly as she began to pluck them from the dresser and put them into her handbag, they all brought back great memories but those memories were tinged with sadness because Tracey wasn’t here anymore.

Once she had placed all of the photographs in her bag, she looked around the room. Her silky bedding was all made up neatly, the curtains had been pulled open to let light in. Despite her rocky relationship with her Mother, it looked like Lareina regularly cleaned the room and made the bed, just in case Daphne ever came back. It made her heart swell with love but she felt guilty too, she didn’t see her Mother often enough and that had to change, especially when Teddy was legally adopted.

Daphne sighed and left the room, shutting the door gently behind her as she did so. She walked to the next door along and knocked three times, it had been their secret knock as kids.

There was a pause and then, “Daph, is that you?”

“Yeah,” Daphne called back.

She heard shuffling inside the room and then Astoria came to the door. She opened it and smiled, “What brings you back home?”

“A really shitty couple of weeks,” Daphne said, for some reason tears had begun to fill her eyes, “And I don’t know who to talk to or what to do so I just wanted to come home.”

Astoria stepped out of the bedroom and hugged her sister, “Come upstairs, it’s the only place Mother can’t eavesdrop.”

Daphne felt stupid as she hastily wiped her eyes and followed Astoria up the stairs. All that was above them was the tower that stood at the centre of the house. Originally it had been a bell tower but the bell had been gone for as long as Daphne remembered. They climbed the wooden steps, this was the only part of the staircase that wasn’t carpeted. There just wasn’t much point because nobody really came up here.

At the top of the stairs they emerged into a small square room. It had four narrow windows and a roof light, Daphne had always loved that as a kid. She and Astoria had laid a blanket out on the floor and looked up at the stars, trying to spot constellations. It, like the rest of the house, was completely unchanged. Two huge beanbags sat against one wall as they always had and a blanket box filled with warm blankets sat against another wall.

Astoria pulled out the fluffiest blanket she could find and sat down with Daphne on one of the large beanbags, “What happened?”

“This guy at my work,” Daphne began and she felt so stupid as her eyes welled up again, “Merlin, I don’t know why I’m crying, it’s pathetic!”

“It’s fine,” Astoria said gently, “I’m your sister, I _know _that you cry. I don’t believe any of your ice queen rubbish.”

Daphne sighed and looked down at her shaking hands, “This guy at my work is blackmailing me and he…well…it’s a long story and I just don’t know where to start.”

“The beginning,” Astoria said as she took Daphne’s hand and squeezed it.

“I uh…He’s my mentor. I got pulled out of the cursed room because Bill, my boss, said I was too good to be stuck breaking easy curses so this guy, Stuart, became my mentor and I was really excited because it meant I got to go out in the field and break proper curses.”

Astoria nodded as Daphne paused for breath.

“But after our first case he kissed me and I told him I wasn’t interested because I’m with Harry,” Daphne continued shakily, “That was when he threatened me. He said if I said anything he would tell Bill that I made a mistake so that I would lose my place as a trainee Curse Breaker. I thought Bill would believe me over him because Bill and Harry are close but Stuart said that he and Bill went way back so there was no way he would believe me over him.”

“It’s alright Daph,” Astoria said as she squeezed her hand again, “Keep going.”

“So I didn’t feel like I could say anything to Bill without losing my job,” Daphne said shakily, “And I thought after that it would stop but all week he’s been touching my leg under the desk or grabbing my bum when we’re out on the field and then today-” her voice caught and she shut her eyes tightly, “He took me to this cottage in Caithness that was apparently cursed and when I went inside I felt this warm wind blow over me then all of a sudden I started kissing him and I couldn’t stop it, my brain was telling me to pull away but I just couldn’t physically do it and he…”

Astoria wrapped her arms around Daphne as her older sister began to cry.

“He put his hands under my blouse and he…he _grabbed _me and I eventually managed to pull away from him and get out of the cottage,” Daphne said through her tears, “He knew that the curse would make me do that and he knowingly took me there, he used me Astoria, he-” she couldn’t say anymore because her voice was choked as a result of her crying.

“He assaulted you Daphne, that’s what he did!” Astoria said angrily, it wasn’t often that Daphne saw her sister like that, she had always been so meek and timid.

“I told him to tell Bill and get me fired so that I wouldn’t have to work with him anymore,” Daphne said tearfully, “And I’ve wanted to be a Curse Breaker for so long but I just can’t keep doing this.”

“No,” Astoria said with a shake of her head, “You don’t get to stop doing something you love because of this man. He needs to suffer for this Daphne, he needs to suffer, not you.”

“But what can I do? Bill won’t believe me and if I tell Bill or try to get Stuart arrested then Harry will find out that I cheated on him,” Daphne said.

“Stop panicking,” Astoria said, she placed her hands on Daphne’s shoulders and looked her in the eye, “You did nothing wrong, you didn’t cheat on Harry. This scumbag assaulted you, that’s not cheating, do you understand?”

“What if Harry doesn’t see it like that?”

“He will,” Astoria promised, “He loves you Daphne, he knows that you would never do something like that. You need to get to the DMLE and report this guy or report him to Bill and see if you have any rights to legal representation. You work for Gringotts so I would hope that you do, even if you are a trainee.”

Daphne frowned at her sister as she wiped her eyes, “How do you know all of this, Tori?”

Astoria shrugged and glanced down, “I think I would like to be a lawyer, but I need to study hard this year and apply next year. I didn’t do as well as you in my N.E.W.T’s.”

“You can do anything that you want if you put your mind to it,” Daphne told her, “You always were naturally smarter than me, you just struggled to find motivation.”

“I’ll always think you’re the smarter one Daph, you’re my big sister, I’ll always look up to you,” Astoria said softly.

Daphne smiled weakly, “I’m hardly a stellar role model at the moment, am I?”

“That’s not your fault, none of this is your fault,” Astoria said, “I need you to understand that. You can’t go to work with this guy on Monday, it needs to be resolved.”

“But all the Curse Breakers are off at the weekend,” Daphne said, “So there isn’t much that I can do, even if I wanted to.”

“Then first thing Monday you go to Bill or you go to the DMLE right now,” Astoria said, “They don’t shut at the weekend, after all crime never sleeps.”

Daphne shook her head, “I can’t do that right now Astoria. Sadie comes back tomorrow morning and Harry gets back on Sunday. I need to talk to them first before I report anyone or go to the DMLE.”

“Just promise me that you will do something, please,” Astoria said and the hint of desperation in her voice was what made Daphne realise that she was in the right here.

“I promise,” Daphne said as she leant into her sisters hug, “I’m sorry that I don’t see you enough Tori. I’m sorry we’re not as close as we were as kids.”

“I guess sisters just grow apart as they get older,” Astoria said, “You always had your friends at Hogwarts and I had mine but we had the summers. This year we didn’t have that because…”

“Because of me and Harry,” Daphne realised, “I’m sorry, I never meant to shut you out but that’s exactly what I’ve done since Harry and I got together. You need to come and visit more, you and Dennis.”

“Dennis and me broke up Daph, at the end of the school year,” Astoria said sheepishly, “We just didn’t see our relationship lasting outside of school.”

“I’m sorry Astoria, I know you really liked him,” Daphne said.

Astoria shook her head, “I was kind of glad when it ended actually, he irritated me. I guess I’m as much to blame for the two of us drifting apart you know, I never even wrote to tell about the break-up.”

“And I never even wrote to tell you that I’m getting married and becoming a Mother, all before the millennium hits,” Daphne said as she pulled back from the hug to look at her sister.

Astoria frowned, “What?”

“Harry and I are getting married on New Years Eve,” Daphne said, “And we’re going to officially adopt Teddy too. Nobody knows though, it was all supposed to be a big secret but I wanted to share it with my little sister.”

Astoria smiled tearfully, “That’s great, it really is. Does this mean I’m going to be an Aunt?”

“Yeah,” Daphne realised, “I suppose it does. Assuming Harry doesn’t break things off when he finds out about everything that’s happened this week.”

“He won’t,” Astoria said confidently, “But how are you going to raise Teddy while both working?”

“Well I work 9am-4pm Monday to Friday and Harry works 9am-5pm Monday to Friday. Then when he starts doing field work he will have to work every second weekend but he’ll get two days off during the week instead so between us, we’ll find babysitters.”

“Mum would love to help,” Astoria said, “You know that she is dying to have grandkids.”

“I know,” Daphne said with a small smile, “And Teddy has his Grandma as well so she would help. If need be, I know Molly would help when she could too.”

“So you would manage, like you always do,” Astoria said, “You and Harry have such a strong bond, I get envious sometimes.”

“Well you will find someone too Tori, I know you will,” Daphne said as she gripped her sisters hand, “Dennis Creevey was punching well above his weight anyway.”

Astoria laughed tearfully at that and hugged her sister, “I’ve missed you Daph, I’m glad you came back.”

**TBC!**


	91. The Truth Will Out

** _Stronaba, Scotland._ **

“We get to go home tomorrow,” Theo said cheerfully as he got dressed on Saturday morning.

“I can’t wait for a shower in my own house,” Draco said, he shoved his feet into his boots, “Or a bath in my own house.”

“Or a shag in your own bed,” Theo joked.

Draco laughed, “I was going to say a night in my own bed but that would be an added bonus.”

Theo glanced down at his watch and said, “The missus should be getting back right about now. I wonder if she’ll go home or straight to Potter Manor to see Daph.”

“Oh she’ll go to Daphne, no doubt about it,” Draco said. He unzipped the flap and stepped out of the tent, Theo followed suit and they began to pack the tent away ready for their last full day of hillwalking.

“Should I be worried that my wife is gonna go straight to her best friend?” Theo joked after scanning the campsite and making sure that Elsie and Rod were inside their tent.

“Wife?” Elsie’s voice said from behind them, “I thought you two boys were gay?”

Draco and Theo both jumped and spun around. Elsie was standing behind them with a basket full of wild berries.

“Uh…”

“Well…”

“We…”

“I…”

“The thing is…”

“That’s your cover blown guys, but nice try.”

Draco and Theo spun around once more to find Auror Mitchell stepping out of Elsie and Rod’s tent.

“With all due respect sir, what the hell is going on?” Draco asked with a frown.

“Elsie and Rod weren’t Muggles,” Theo realised, “They were plants from the Auror office.”

“Yes, we were,” A new voice said from the treeline.

Draco and Theo spun around to the spot where Elsie had been standing, in her place stood Auror Carter.

“Now I’m intrigued that you jumped straight into a gay couple instead of coming up with a story about friends camping for a stag do or something in that ilk,” Mitchell said, Carter walked around them to stand next to him.

“That was an interesting leap,” She agreed.

“I panicked,” Theo said sheepishly.

“And in your panic, pretending to be a gay couple was the first thing you thought of?” Carter asked, “I’ll tell you one thing, it will be an interesting one to write a report about.”

Draco’s cheeks flushed, “Great Theo, now we’re going to be the laughing stock of our class.”

“Don’t worry,” Carter said with a reassuring smile, “None of this will go beyond the Senior Aurors.”

“But you better be ready for Sumner to rip the shit out of you for it,” Mitchell smirked.

“That would be fair,” Theo said with a nod, then his face fell, “Oh no…Sorenson Cauldwell isn’t a Senior Auror, is he?”

“He’s a Junior Training Auror,” Carter said, “So don’t worry, he won’t find out about this unless he breaks the rules by reading your private file.”

“I wouldn’t put that past Sorenson to be fair,” Draco said.

“No, neither would I,” Theo muttered.

“You don’t get to be the grumpy one here,” Draco said irritably, “This was your idea.”

“You played along with it!”

“Only because you coerced me into it!”

“Merlin, no wonder you two made such a passable couple over the last two weeks,” Carter said with a shake of her head. She shot a smile at Mitchell, “Right, shall we have a hike without these two tag-alongs before we get back to base?”

“Sounds like a great idea,” Mitchell said, “See you boys back at base.”

Draco frowned at the retreating Aurors, “Do you think those two are…”

“Oh yeah,” Theo said with a nod, “They are definitely shagging.”

***

** _London, England._ **

When Sadie Nott stepped out of the British International Apparition Centre she did not expect to get pounced on by her best friend.

“Sadie! I’ve missed you so much!” Daphne said as she hugged her friend tightly.

Sadie laughed and pulled back from the hug, but the sight she was met with made her frown. Daphne looked paler and thinner than she had two weeks ago, “Are you crying?”

Daphne swallowed and wiped away her tears, “I’m just really glad to have you back. Wow, look at your tan!”

Sadie knew that Daphne was changing the subject on purpose but she supposed she wouldn’t want to talk about whatever was bothering her out in the open so she said no more about it as Daphne grabbed one of her bags and hooked her arm through hers, “How is Egypt?”

“Awful,” Sadie replied, “I hate it. It’s too hot and sticky, the Centre for Alchemical Studies is a joke. The poverty divide in that country is disgusting, there are beggars literally a street away from the gates of the centre and everything in that bloody building is gold or gold leaf. Then there are the people on my course, every single one of them is an entitled idiot whose rich Daddy is an influential politician or whose rich Mummy is trying to be Australian Minister for Magic. There are flies everywhere too and mosquitoes, ugh I hate it Daphne!”

Daphne smiled at her friend fondly, “Good thing you don’t have to go back for a couple of weeks then.”

“I can’t handle spending two weeks at a time in that place with those people,” Sadie said irritably, “I really hate it and I missed everyone so badly, you and Theo particularly.”

“Yeah, I really missed you too Sadie,” Daphne said honestly as they walked up an alley together.

“Will you come back to the house so we can catch up properly?” Sadie asked.

“Of course I will,” Daphne said.

Without another word the two friends spun on their heels and disappeared. They re-emerged in an alleyway around the corner from Grimmauld Place and walked the short distance to the doorway of number 11.

Sadie placed her hand on the door and it automatically unlocked. The two girls stepped inside then kicked off their shoes and hung up their coats in the hall.

“I can’t decide if I want a cup of tea or a glass of wine,” Sadie said as they made their way down to the kitchen.

“I’m voting for wine,” Daphne said.

“Then I guess I’ll have to join you,” Sadie said as she grabbed a bottle of red from the wine rack.

Sadie silently poured out two glasses then handed one to Daphne, “Now, what’s going on with you?”

“What do you mean?” Daphne asked quietly.

“You’re pale, you’ve lost weight, you seem on edge,” Sadie commented, “What the hell happened while I was away?”

And that was it. Daphne broke down, as she only truly could with her best friend. She cried and she told Sadie everything. Sadie listened patiently and hugged her friend, she didn’t say a word until Daphne was finished.

“Daphne, what he did to you is disgusting,” Sadie said, she didn’t shout, she spoke quietly but in a dangerous tone of voice, “If you don’t report him then I’ll have to kill him and I’m really not joking about that.”

Daphne looked up at Sadie through her tearstained eyes. Sadie really did look furious, “That is sexual assault, more than that he blackmailed you! It’s not only disgusting, it’s illegal, you have got to tell someone about it!”

“If I take legal action then Harry will find out about all of it,” Daphne said quietly, “It would all be out in the open, the papers would probably even get a hold of it. I can’t do that Sadie, I just can’t.”

“If you can’t face telling the Ministry then you have got to report this to Bill. This bastard has to get sacked Daphne, surely you know that,” Sadie fumed.

Daphne nodded numbly, “I was too scared of losing my job but it seems like I don’t really have anything left to lose now. Apart from Harry of course and with that comes losing Teddy…”

“You aren’t going to lose Harry,” Sadie said firmly, “You are my best friend Daph and I love you to bits but you really can be an idiot sometimes. Harry, you and Teddy, you are a family and Harry is fiercely loyal when it comes to family. He’s far more likely to end up in Azkaban for killing this arsehole than he has to willingly leave you.”

“Right because that scenario is so much better Sadie!” Daphne exclaimed.

Sadie raised an eyebrow at her, “Don’t give me cheek just because you don’t like what I’m saying. We both know that Harry has a temper, I think deep down you’re more afraid of what he’ll do when he finds out than you are about him leaving you are.”

“Maybe I am, I don’t really know what I’m feeling anymore,” Daphne sighed, “This whole week has just been one big fucked up mess.”

“Well we’re going to un-fuck it, between the two of us,” Sadie promised her friend, “You’re going to drink that wine then we’re going next door to talk to Hermione. She works in the DMLE, she’ll be able to tell us what you can and can’t do. She’ll know if there’s a way to keep it out of the press.”

“There’s not a way to keep anything out of the press these days,” Daphne said glumly as she looked into the depths of her wine glass, “Haven’t you noticed?”

“Drink your wine,” Sadie ordered as she dumped her trunk on the kitchen table.

“Can’t I just take it round with me?” Daphne asked, “It’s not like we have to go outside to get to Hermione’s.”

Sadie frowned, “What do you mean?”

“The door,” Daphne said as if it were obvious, “In the basement.”

“Daphne, I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Sadie admitted, “What door?”

Daphne looked up at her friend with wide eyes, “Shit, Theo didn’t tell you.”

“What did Theo not tell me?” Sadie asked, “And why would he build a…oh for the love of Merlin! Did he seriously put in a door that takes him from his man cave to Draco’s man cave?”

“Yep, that’s exactly what he did,” Daphne replied sheepishly, “I didn’t know that he hadn’t told you, sorry.”

Sadie shook her head in disbelief, “Seriously? He is going to see Draco every single day, the two of them are Auror partners! And why does he need a door? How hard would it be to step outside and knock on Draco’s door? He’s unreal!”

“Yeah, that’s pretty similar to what Hermione said when Draco told her about the door,” Daphne admitted.

Sadie shook her head again, “I have no idea why he didn’t tell me. I would have worked it out eventually.”

“I know,” Daphne said, “But it does mean that we can take our wine and go straight over to Hermione’s without having to go outside so I suppose in this situation it’s useful, right?”

“Maybe,” Sadie said grudgingly, “But if you tell Theo that I said that, I will kill you.”

“Don’t worry,” Daphne said as she got to her feet and opened the door to the room of requirement, “I don’t want to inflate Theo’s ego any more than you do.”

***

Hermione was sitting in the library reading a book when a voice announced, “_Sadie Nott and Daphne Greengrass.”_

Hermione frowned, she assumed that they were trying to floo into the house but the floo system normally mentioned the persons floo signature. All the same, she said, “Access granted.”

There was no whir of the floo and no click of the front door which made Hermione wary. She got to her feet, grabbed her wand and tiptoed out of the library. As she descended the stairs she kept her wand held out in front of her, she could hear voices coming from the basement and although she was fairly sure that they belonged to Sadie and Daphne, she didn’t let her guard down.

Hermione reached the bottom of the stairs just as Sadie and Daphne walked out of the basement door. Sadie jumped out of her skin, “Merlin’s balls!”

“Why are you pointing your wand at us?” Daphne asked Hermione curiously.

“Because my floo system didn’t declare your floo signature. You could have been anyone,” Hermione said as she tucked her wand away.

“It didn’t declare our floo signatures because we didn’t come by floo,” Daphne said, “We came through the basement door.”

“And honestly Hermione, you are so paranoid!” Sadie said as she rested her hand on her chest as she tried to slow her racing heartbeat.

“I spent 7 years with Voldemort on my arse thanks to my choice of best friend,” Hermione said, “It left its mark. Have you been crying Daphne?”

“Yeah, it’s a long story. We need alcohol for it, where’s the kitchen in the place? Why isn’t it in the basement?” Sadie asked irritably.

Hermione raised an eyebrow at Sadie, “Hello to you too Sadie.”

“Hello Hermione, how are you? How’s the new job? Egypt sucks, I hate it,” Sadie said very quickly.

“I’m okay and the new job is okay, at the moment,” Hermione replied just as quickly, “What has gotten into you?”

“Someone fucked with my best friend and as a result, I’m pretty angry,” Sadie said, “So wine? Kitchen?”

“Uh the kitchen is just through here,” Hermione said, “Our house is narrower than yours but it has an extra floor so we thought it was a better use of space.”

The two former Slytherins followed Hermione into the kitchen, “Red or white?”

“Whatever has the highest alcohol content,” Daphne said as she slumped down into a chair.

Hermione grabbed a dusty bottle from the top shelf and said, “Well in that case let’s break into one of Draco’s nice French ones. Now, what is going on?”

“I can’t go through it again,” Daphne said quietly, “I’ve had to do it twice in the last 24 hours. Sadie, can you fill her in?”

Sadie nodded, she took a large gulp from the glass of red wine that Hermione had just handed her then told the story, the entire story. Daphne made her way through a large glass of wine in the time it took Sadie to recount everything.

When Sadie had finished, Hermione shook her head and said coolly, “Stuart Fawley, what’s his address?”

“I…uh, well I don’t his address,” Daphne said with a frown, “I suppose I could find out from Bill but…why are you asking me this?”

“Get me his address and I will kill this bastard,” Hermione said in a very dangerous tone.

Sadie raised an eyebrow at Hermione, “You’re scaring me a little bit right now.”

“Believe it or not, I wasn’t just the brains of the golden trio,” Hermione said, “I can look after myself and I am more than capable of killing this guy.”

“Physically, yes,” Sadie agreed, “But morally, I doubt it.”

“Oh no, my moral conscience is totally okay with it,” Hermione assured them.

“I actually don’t know if you’re being serious or not,” Daphne said honestly as she watched Hermione cautiously.

“I could get away with it too, I’m smart enough,” Hermione said, “And I’m sure Draco would help me cover it up and dispose of the body so don’t say no just because you’re worried about me going to Azkaban.”

“I am honoured, but I don’t really want anyone to kill for me,” Daphne admitted.

“Yeah we came here for your DMLE related advice,” Sadie said, “Not for an assassin.”

“But it’s good to know you’re willing if I ever need to off somebody,” Daphne joked.

“This isn’t funny Daphne, this guy needs to pay for what he did to you,” Hermione said fiercely, “What did Bill have to say about it?”

“Nothing,” Daphne admitted sheepishly, “Because I sort of…well he doesn’t know.”

“What?” Hermione asked sharply, “Well then my advice is tell Bill. Otherwise the people at the DMLE are just going to say, well why didn’t you tell your boss as soon as it happened?”

“I know what I need to do but it doesn’t feel as easy as everyone makes it out,” Daphne said, “I mean I’ve probably already lost my job anyway but-”

“No stop right there,” Hermione said, “This guy is a prick, Bill will know that you’re telling the truth. He loves Harry like a brother and it’s obvious that hes fond of you too, otherwise he wouldn’t have pulled you out of that cursed room so quickly.”

“But-”

“And if you’re worried about Bill taking this guys side because they trained together then stop worrying,” Hermione continued, “Because don’t forget, this is a fairly new job for Bill too. He only moved back to Britain just before the war started, he’s spent the majority of his career working in Egypt so he doesn’t know Fawley as well as you think he does.”

Daphne sighed and let her head fall into her hands, “But what about Harry?”

“Look Daph, Harry adores you,” Hermione said, “He isn’t going to be angry with you. If anything he’ll probably try and kill this bloody Fawley guy.”

“Maybe that’s what I’m worried about!” Daphne exclaimed, “Have any of you considered that maybe I don’t want someone’s death on my conscience? Of course I’m worried about telling Harry because I don’t want him to do something stupid and end up in Azkaban!”

“To begin with, Harry is the chosen one, he won’t go to Azkaban,” Hermione began to say.

“No Hermione, I know you think the sun shines out of your best friend’s arse but he would go to jail for that,” Sadie cut in, “Murder is murder, regardless of who you are.”

Hermione sighed, “Regardless, Harry isn’t like that.”

“I’m sorry Hermione, I know that Harry is your best friend but I think I know more than you when it comes to this one,” Daphne said hotly, “Harry is far more like his Godfather than you think and his Godfather ended up in jail for doing something stupid!”

Hermione wanted to say more but she didn’t want to start an argument so she sighed again and said, “Fine, but either way, you have to tell him.”

“I don’t think I’m actually capable of keeping it from him,” Daphne admitted.

“But what can we do? I mean can we get him arrested?” Sadie asked Hermione.

“Well like I said, the first thing you have to do is tell Bill everything,” Hermione said, “Once you’ve done that you will know if you are entitled to legal representation. If you are then your work takes it from there and it goes through the DMLE in a sort of tribunal. If you aren’t entitled to legal representation then you need to come in, give your statement to the Aurors, submit your memories to back it up then it goes to court. You can afford a good lawyer though so that would help your case.”

“Surely she will get legal representation though,” Sadie said, “I mean it’s Gringotts.”

“She’s a trainee and she has only been employed for two weeks,” Hermione said, “It’s debatable but Gringotts is a good employer so we will just have to wait and see.”

“And what about the press?” Daphne asked, “I can’t handle those vultures finding out and splashing it all over the front page.”

“Well if goes down the tribunal route then the press won’t be able to find out,” Hermione promised, “But if it goes to trial in the DMLE then it will be a lot harder to keep quiet.”

“Hermione!” Sadie hissed.

“What?” Hermione asked defensively, “If you want my advice then I have to tell the truth!”

Daphne shook her head, “It’s fine, I’m glad you did.”

Sadie sighed and looked at Daphne, “Do you want me to come in with you on Monday when you go to tell Bill?”

“I don’t think it’s the kind of thing where I can take a friend in,” Daphne said glumly, “But I appreciate the offer.”

“You don’t necessarily have to tell him on Monday,” Hermione said with a frown, “He’ll be at the Burrow for Sunday lunch tomorrow.”

“Yeah and I’ll have Teddy with me,” Daphne reminded her.

“There will be plenty of people there to watch Teddy, you know that,” Hermione said, “I could grab Bill and pull him aside then you could talk to him and I could stay for moral support, if you needed it.”

“It might be easier to tell him in an informal setting,” Sadie said gently.

“Without Fawley being there to make you nervous or distract you,” Hermione added.

Daphne sighed but nodded, “Alright, I will tell him tomorrow at the Burrow but right now I need to get over to Andromeda’s. I need to pick Teddy up for his sleepover.”

Hermione nodded, she stepped forward and hugged her friend, “I am so sorry Daphne.”

Daphne just shook her head, “I’ll be fine,” she said stiffly, “I’ll catch up with you on Monday night Sadie?”

Sadie smiled weakly and nodded, “Yeah, I’ll want to hear how it goes with Bill.”

“Alright bye guys,” Daphne said as she threw some floo powder into the fireplace, “And thanks for everything.”

***

** _The Forest of Dean, England._ **

“Well,” Harry said thoughtfully, “The last two weeks have been interesting.”

“I’ve learned a lot about you actually,” Neville said, “Even though I thought I knew you already.”

Harry nodded, “I guess Sumner was right to send us even though we thought we didn’t need it. I suppose I should apologise for being an arse…”

Neville snorted, “Do you think Draco and Theo had such an enlightening week?”

“Merlin knows,” Harry said with a shake of his head as a portal appeared in front of them.

On the other side Sheppard waved at them and gestured for them to come through.

***

** _Stronaba, Scotland._ **

“Do you know something, I’ve kind of enjoyed this week,” Theo mused as they waited to be extracted on Sunday afternoon.

Draco raised an eyebrow at him, “Should I be worried about that?”

“Not the whole fake boyfriend thing,” Theo reiterated, “But all of these heartfelt chats are good for the soul.”

“For you maybe,” Draco muttered, “If you didn’t know all of my business before, you definitely do now.”

“I knew most of it before,” Theo said honestly, “But I think this was a good idea anyway. I know how to get inside your head now, _partner_.”

“Don’t call me that,” Draco said with a glare as a portal appeared in front of them.

“But you are my partner,” Theo objected, on the other side of the portal Sheppard motioned for them to come through.

“I know but if you ever say it like that again, I won’t be,” Draco said. He shot Theo a smirk and stepped through the portal.

Theo shook his head in disbelief, “Honestly, you spill your heart to a guy for two weeks and what do you get? Abuse! Some things never bleeding change.”

***

Harry and Neville reconvened with Draco and Theo almost immediately after entering the lecture hall at the Auror training base.

“Woah, who knew you could grow a beard!” Theo exclaimed upon seeing his friends for the first time in two weeks.

“Which one of us are you talking to?” Neville asked Theo.

“The chosen git, obviously,” Theo said, “You’re like a little boy who has become a man!”

Harry rolled his eyes, “I’ve been able to grow a beard for a while Theo. I just shaved it while I was on the run in the war because it used to irritate me.”

“Why grow it this time then?” Theo asked with a raised eyebrow.

“For the same reason I didn’t grow a beard,” Draco said, “It didn’t irritate him, it irritated Hermione.”

Harry nodded sheepishly, “Yeah, she hated it.”

“What’s your excuse Theo?” Neville asked with a raised eyebrow.

“He just can’t grow anything more than bumfluff,” Draco said with a smirk.

Harry and Neville sniggered at that as they settled down in the front row and waited for the others to return to the hall.

“So where did you spend your holiday?” Neville joked.

“The bloody Cairngorms,” Draco said with a roll of his eyes, “With a couple of Muggles who were actually plants from the Auror office.”

“And I sort of panicked when they started talking about how magical the place was,” Theo said sheepishly, “And said I was there with my boyfriend so Draco and I had to pretend to be a couple for the whole two weeks.”

Harry and Neville guffawed shamelessly upon hearing this, all the while Draco shook his head and glared at his sheepish best friend.

“Where did you spend your week anyway?” Draco asked once the pair had finished laughing at them.

“Oh the most nostalgic place you could imagine,” Neville said sarcastically, “For Harry anyway.”

Draco frowned, “Surrey?”

“No,” Harry said a little tentatively, “The Forest of Dean.”

“Right,” Draco said awkwardly.

Theo looked between the two of them, “Am I missing something here?”

“You usually are Theo,” Neville said, he patted his friend on the back and added, “I’ll fill you in later.”

“You don’t have to, Harry and I are big boys, we can talk about the fact he screwed over Hermione without arguing about it.”

Theo and Neville both stared at Draco in disbelief after that comment.

“Excuse me?”

“It’s true, isn’t it?” Draco said, “You took advantage of her, you used her. All of which took place in the Forest of Dean by the way Theo.”

“Oh,” Theo realised slowly, “Oh! Shit.”

“Look Draco,” Harry said irritably, “I did a lot of thinking over the past two weeks about Hermione and I are everything that happened. So you can say what you want but I didn’t take advantage of her or use her, she was perfectly willing and I’m sure if you ask her she will agree with me when I say that it wasn’t a fling. I loved her and at the time, she loved me too. I’m not afraid to admit that to you anymore.”

Theo and Neville were getting ready to break up a potential fight.

“I don’t even want to argue about it with you,” Draco said sharply, “The only person I need to discuss it with is Hermione and that’s what I intend to do as soon as I get home.”

Harry frowned, he had been expecting more of a fight from Draco, “Fine but don’t get pissy with me about it.”

“Fine,” Draco said in a rather immature way.

“Silence in the hall!” Sumner barked as he walked into the lecture hall.

They all fell silent instantly. Following orders here came much more naturally to Harry than it had while he was at Hogwarts.

“I hope you all enjoyed your isolation. Nobody tried to kill their new partner so that’s always a sign that we paired you together well,” Sumner began, “We observed some of you closely by planting disguised Aurors in there with you and we observed some of you from a distance. We were happy with how everyone did and I hope that you now feel at ease with your new partner. I will say one thing now however, we noted some tension of a sexual variety between a pairing and we do _not _tolerate relationships between co-workers here. If you are found to be sleeping with your partner then we will have to take action, I hope that’s clear.”

“I hope he’s not talking about us,” Theo whispered to Draco.

“There’s only one male-female pairing here, you idiot,” Draco murmured as he jerked his head in the direction of Maxwell and Emily.

“Hey, it’s a modern world,” Neville said under his breath, “Could be Blanche and Ophelia.”

“Or it could be you two loverboys,” Harry joked.

“So! Down to business then. You are going to get a couple of days off to wind down before the real training starts. However, I expect to see all of you in here sharp at 8am on Wednesday morning,” Sumner said, Sheppard then stepped into the lecture hall with an armful of parchment.

“Auror Sheppard is going to hand you a list of things you will require for this year,” Sumner said, “As well as your timetable.”

“It’s like being at school again,” Theo whispered, a little too loudly.

“Trust me Nott, it’s much harder than school,” Sumner said harshly, “Now, I am sure that you are all eager to hear the course breakdown so here it is. Year 1 will probably be the most boring for a lot of the thrill seekers here because there will be no field training. You will attend classes on the base here, some practical and some where you will need to tap into your academic side. I’m sure that will be easier for some of you than others,” he said as he looked directly at Harry’s group of friends, “Although at least you three dunderheads have Nott to help you through.”

Theo grinned proudly at this while Harry and Neville nodded, they knew they weren’t the most academically inclined. Draco on the other hand, looked thoroughly insulted.

Sumner continued, “You will also continue with your physical training and we will be giving you additional flying lessons so that you are all skilled fliers rather than competent fliers.”

Neville looked a little sheepish upon hearing that news.

“As you will see on your timetable Wednesday afternoons will be reserved for practicing your healing magic. This will be a shared class with the trauma healers in your year because they will be the healers you will be working with on an everyday basis when you graduate.”

Neville looked up as soon as Sumner began to talk about shared classes and his face lit up.

“Yes Longbottom, that means you will get to see your girlfriend on a Wednesday afternoon,” He said in a high-pitched voice, as if mimicking a teenage girl.

Theo and Draco sniggered but Harry just smiled, he had a feeling that one mid-week afternoon might make all the difference for them when it came to making the long-distance relationship work.

“As you can also see on your timetable, Friday afternoons will be reserved for use of the simulation room,” Sumner continued, “That is what we used to conduct your tests. It can become anything and as you know, the scenarios depicted are very realistic. We will be giving you mock missions every Friday and sometimes you will be competing with the other pairs, but sometimes you will be working together as part of a large team.”

Sumner paused and looked around, “Are there any other questions about the first year?”

Harry raised his hand, “Can we stay off base now that isolation is over, sir?”

“Yes Potter, you may,” Sumner said, “There are dorms here for those who require them but you may commute in as you would with any other job. Any other questions?”

Nobody raised their hand, so Sumner said, “Right, Year Two then. At the moment we call you Recruits in second year you become Trainees. You will be permitted to observe Aurors in the DMLE and also Hit Wizards if any of them take a liking to you and want to drag you along on a case. You can provide assistance, but you will never be working on your own and you certainly won’t be going out into the field without at least two Aurors present. There are limits to the sorts of cases that you can work as well, the big serial killer murder cases will be completely off-limits. Understood?”

Everyone nodded.

“In year three, you are still a Trainee Auror but you are effectively on probation,” Sumner continued, “You will be free to work unsupervised on any cases that you are assigned but you will be tested and observed at varying points by myself or another Senior Auror. If at any point you fail to meet the standards we require, we can kick you out. Do you all understand?”

Everyone nodded once more.

“After you finish your third year, you will be given your badge and you will officially become a fully qualified Auror. At that point, and that point only, you will have job security. Is that clear?”

“Yes sir,” Everyone in the room echoed.

Harry supposed that to some people that was scary, to some people it meant a lot of pressure. Luckily for Harry, because of his family money and the family money owed to Daphne upon her marriage, he could afford to lose his job without devastating his family. He did know that his family money wouldn’t last forever though, and Daphne’s inheritance relied on whether her Uncle Phineas would grant the request. Given the fact that she hadn’t seen him for over 10 years, she was doubtful.

“Alright then,” Sumner said, “Get yourselves home and showered, Potter shave that ridiculous thing off, and enjoy your free time. I will see you all on Wednesday morning.”

There was a lot of noise as everyone got up to leave the room, amongst it the four boys chatted amongst themselves.

“Have you seen this timetable? It is literally just like school, look at all of these lectures!” Theo complained, “Disguise, Tracking, Interrogation Training, Stealth, Law & Ethics!”

“Oh look Theo, your favourite subject is on here!” Neville exclaimed, “Muggle Relations!”

Harry and Draco sniggered at this while Theo glared at Neville, “Very funny.”

“I actually like the look of this timetable,” Neville admitted, “There’s even Herbology lab.”

“I don’t see what plants have to do with being an Auror,” Theo muttered huffily.

“Well knowing your plants is kind of crucial when it comes to potion brewing,” Draco pointed, “And I also noticed that Potions lab was on the timetable. I assume they want us to be able to select potion ingredients and make potions ourselves in case we’re ever stranded somewhere and need to do it.”

“That would make sense,” Harry said as he scanned the timetable, “Some of the stuff on here looks really interesting like Code Deciphering, that could be fun.”

“I bet you’re gonna love Monday afternoons,” Draco said sarcastically.

Harry rolled his eyes, “Because it’s mind magic? Very funny. As long as nobody pokes around my head and looks at my dreams just to taunt me like Snape did then I think I’ll be just fine.”

“He makes a good point,” Neville said.

“Of course you’re going to side with him!” Draco argued as the group left the building, “You’re his Auror partner!”

And the bickering that had commenced, lasted all the way to the gate.

***

“Come on Teddy, we’re going to be late,” Daphne said as she grabbed the little boy and threw some floo powder into the fireplace. She held him tightly to her as she said, “The Burrow.”

They whizzed through chimney after chimney before they reached their destination. Daphne stepped out into the kitchen and smiled at Molly, “Can I help with anything Molly?”

“No, no dear,” Molly said cheerfully, “The others are all outside setting up. These lunches won’t be outside for much longer though.”

Daphne nodded and steered Teddy through the kitchen, “That’s true, the weather will turn soon,” she said as they stepped outside.

She scanned the garden a little nervously and chuckled when she saw Bill, Charlie and George fighting with the three picnic tables that they were supposed to be setting up for their Mother. Daphne could also see Percy sitting with his new girlfriend at the far end of the garden but there was no sign of Hermione yet.

“Welcome to the family, Daphne.”

Daphne jumped and turned around, she hadn’t seen Ron standing so close to the backdoor, “Oh, hey Ron.”

Ron smiled slightly, “How are you guys getting on?”

“Good,” Daphne replied, “Or at least we will be when Harry is finally freed from his isolation. How are things with you and Katie?”

“As good as they can be,” Ron said honestly, “We aren’t together, we gave it a good try but it was a one night stand. We only tried to make it work because of the baby and that’s not healthy.”

“No,” Daphne agreed, “You can be good parents without being together as long as you can work as a team.”

“That was what we agreed,” Ron said with a nod, “Speaking of parenting, you seem to be doing a good job.”

Daphne smiled down at Teddy, “We do what we can but things are hectic right now with our new jobs. Everything is up in the air, once things are a bit more stabile everything will become a little more official.”

Ron’s eyes sparkled with realisation, “Oh, so that is happening?”

“It’s definitely happening,” Daphne said, “Just not yet. Why are you standing here looking so broody by the way?”

“Ginny has been glaring at me since I got here,” Ron said.

Daphne turned around and followed his line of sight. On the other side of the table fight, Ginny stood next to Blaise and she did indeed look incredibly pissed off with her brother.

“Is she still pissed that your Mother was so angry when she got pregnant but so okay with you becoming a Father?” Daphne asked, she grabbed Teddy’s hand as the little boy tried to run towards the table fight.

“No, she’s over that,” Ron said, “At the moment she’s pissed off because she thinks I’m stealing her thunder. Katie is due on the 11th of October and Ginny is due on the 1st of November. If Katie goes late and Ginny goes early, the babies could be born really close together.”

“Well to be honest, I don’t really blame her for being pissed off about that,” Daphne said with a slight smile, “When you think about it, do you?”

“No, I get it,” Ron said honestly, “But I’ve apologised to her so many times and she just won’t forgive me.”

“She’s pregnant and therefore very hormonal,” Daphne said as the table fight came to an end. It looked like Bill had won, “Give her time,” she said.

Ron nodded and walked away to talk to one of his brothers. Shortly after he had done so, Hermione stepped through the backdoor.

“Good afternoon Daph. Are you ready?”

Daphne nodded, “As ready as I’ll ever be,” she admitted.

“Why don’t you take Teddy over to Fleur and settle him?” Hermione asked gently, “I’ll go and grab Bill. I’ll ask if we can go somewhere alone and then you can come and meet us in the orchard where everyone plays Quidditch, okay?”

“Okay,” Daphne said a little shakily, “Come on Ted, let’s go and see Auntie Fleur.”

Hermione strode across the garden to the spot where Bill was holding an open bottle of beer and laughing about something with Charlie, “Bill, I need to talk to you.”

Bill held out a bottle of beer, “Talk to me, I’m right here.”

“I mean in private,” Hermione said, “Somewhere secluded like the orchard.”

Bill whistled, “I know you had a crush on me when you were little Hermione, but I’m a happily married man now.”

“I’m serious Bill,” Hermione said sternly, “And for the record, it was Charlie I had a crush on.”

Charlie grinned, “Yes, give me five Mione!”

Hermione chuckled and hi-fived him. When she turned back to Bill, he was no longer smiling, “You’re serious, aren’t you?”

“Yes, I am,” Hermione said.

“Alright, let’s go,” Bill said as he handed Charlie his beer, “I would tell you to look after that until I came back but I know you’ll just drink it so be my guest.”

“It will be gone before you hit the gate!” Charlie called after them.

Bill shook his head in amusement and asked, “Is it Harry? Is something wrong?”

“Harry is fine,” Hermione said, “Or at least, I think he is. He, Draco, Neville and Theo have been in isolation for the last two weeks but I would have thought they would have informed me if they weren’t okay.”

“What is going on then?” Bill asked, “Because you don’t get all serious for nothing, Hermione. Not these days anyway.”

“Something is going on,” Hermione said, “But I’ll explain when we get to the orchard.”

Bill nodded and said no more. They reached the gate and slipped through it, then they made their way to the orchard where the leaves had just started to fall from the trees.

“Come on, what’s going on?”

“It’s not my story to tell,” Hermione said as she glanced behind, “We’re waiting for someone else.”

“You’re really acting all cloak and dagger here,” Bill said, he frowned and for the first time he looked suspicious. It was one of the few times when Hermione could tell that he was a serious Curse Breaker with a very important job and a sense of paranoia that came from the war.

When he heard shuffling in the woods, he reached for his wand but sighed with relief when Daphne walked into the clearing.

“Daphne? What on earth is going on?” Bill asked as he looked between her and Hermione.

Hermione looked pointedly at Daphne, after all she had to be the one to tell Bill.

“Look I don’t think there’s an easy way to say this Bill so I’m just going to say it,” Daphne took a deep breath, “But Stuart Fawley has been sexually abusing me and blackmailing me ever since you made him my mentor.”

“What?” Bill asked sharply.

“I know it’s probably hard for you to believe,” Daphne said quickly, “You trained together and you’ve worked together for years but I swear Bill, I’m an honest person, I wouldn’t lie about this-”

“No, stop right there,” Bill said, “I don’t know what the hell Fawley told you but he and I don’t share some special bond just because we trained together. He was a prick when I first met him and he’s still a prick now so please Daphne, don’t worry about me not believing you. Just tell me what he did.”

Daphne breathed a little shakily, “To begin with he just made inappropriate comments and rubbed my leg against his. Then he started stroking my leg with his hand, and he took me out on a field mission then kissed me.”

“He kissed you?” Bill hissed, “Without your permission?”

“I told him that I was with Harry but he just didn’t seem to care,” Daphne said quickly, “I just tried to ignore it because he told me that if I said anything, he would talk to you and get me fired and I love this job Bill, I didn’t want to lose it.”

“And you won’t,” Bill said firmly, “You aren’t in the wrong here Daphne, he is. Trust me, your job is completely secure. Did anything else happen after he kissed you?”

Daphne nodded, “He only did it when we were out in the field. He grabbed my bum and then…he…he took me up to Caithness to see this cursed cottage. He said he didn’t know what it was supposedly cursed with so we went inside to look and there was this wave, it felt like a warm wind. The next thing I knew I was kissing him and I couldn’t stop, it was like being under the imperius curse. I started feeling awful thinking about Harry which made me snap out of it enough to get out of the cottage and once I was out, I felt normal again. I fought with him and I figured out that he had known that would happen if we stepped into the cottage together.”

“Which is why you went home early on Friday,” Bill realised, “Not because you were unwell like Fawley told me.”

Daphne nodded and wiped the few stray tears that she had allowed to fall, from her eyes.

“Merlin…I am so sorry Daphne,” Bill said with a shake of his head, “I should have realised, I should never have let him be your mentor.”

“It wasn’t your fault Bill.”

“And it wasn’t yours either,” Bill told her, “It was entirely his fault and he will pay for this!”

“What will happen Bill?” Hermione asked, “Daphne hasn’t been in the job long and she’s still in training. Does she have a right to legal representation?”

“Of she does!” Bill exclaimed, “It doesn’t matter how long you have worked for us or in what capacity. Everybody who works for Gringotts is entitled to legal representation.”

“Surely that means that Fawley is entitled to it too?” Hermione pointed out.

“Yes, he is,” Bill said, “But I’m the one who sits at the head of the review board so trust me, that doesn’t mean shit. He is going to go down for this, he will never work in a respected institute or be allowed to be in a position of power again.”

“Does that mean it has to go to the courts?” Daphne asked anxiously.

“There are two ways that we can do it,” Bill said, “It can go through the courts and he might well receive jailtime. The other option is to do it through an independent review within the bank.”

“If it was an independent review would there be any press coverage?” Daphne asked.

“No, it would be completely private and the record would be sealed,” Bill replied, “But the worst that could happen is that he could be dismissed without referral. Is that enough for you?”

Daphne nodded, “That’s fine, I don’t want the press to find out. The longer I can keep it from Harry, the better.”

“I understand why you don’t want to tell him,” Bill said, “I know what his temper is like but let me give you a word of advice. Harry is going to find out sooner than later and it would be much better if it came from you.”

“I know,” Daphne said quietly.

“And when you do tell Harry,” Bill added, “Which will be tonight, let him know that Fawley likes to spend his Sunday evenings gambling in Knockturn alley.”

Daphne looked up in surprise.

Bill smirked rather wickedly and tapped his nose, “But you didn’t hear it from me.”

Daphne smiled slightly, “I heard nothing.”

“Good,” Bill said, “Now, first thing tomorrow morning we will have the review then you can go home for the rest of the day. I can give you the whole week off if you need it.”

Daphne shook her head, “No, I’ll be back first thing on Tuesday. But…does this mean I need to go back to the cursed room?”

Bill shook his head, “Your talents were wasted there, don’t worry. You’ll be doing the same job, I’ll just find you a competent mentor.”

“Thank you Bill,” Daphne said gratefully.

Bill shook his head, “Don’t thank me, I’m just doing the right thing. You should have come to me sooner, I feel terrible that you let it get this bad.”

“I’m sorry, I just…I didn’t know how to and I was so afraid I would lose my job,” Daphne said.

Bill nodded, “I understand why you didn’t and I promise, I will sort all of this out. Just come to my office at 9am on Tuesday and we’ll make sure Fawley never sets foot in Gringotts again.

**TBC.**


	92. Crime and Punishment

The moment Theo stepped into the dimly lit kitchen of the home that he shared with Sadie, he was almost knocked off his feet.

“Oomph – Sadie!”

“Sorry,” Sadie said sheepishly as she grabbed his arm to steady him, “It’s just been the most awful two weeks and I’ve missed you so much.”

Theo pulled her closer and kissed her on the top of the head, “I’ve missed you two, but I want to know why you’ve had an awful two weeks. Are you okay? Did something happen in Egypt?”

“It’s fine Theo, you don’t want all my doom and gloom,” Sadie said offhandedly as she pulled back from the hug, “Why don’t you just tell me all about isolation instead?”

“I don’t want to talk about the two weeks of hell I had to endure with Draco,” Theo began to joke as he pulled away from her, “So – lumos – why don’t you tell me about, holy shit Sadie!”

Sadie jumped in alarm, “What?”

“You look really ill,” Theo said, he stepped closer to her and cupped her face with his hands, “You’re lying, about something happening in Egypt.”

“Nothing happened in Egypt,” Sadie promised, “It just disagreed with me.”

“Forget about my two weeks,” Theo said as he shoved her into a kitchen chair, “Tell me why you look like you need to be admitted to St. Mungo’s.”

Sadie sighed, “Well I probably look a little grey because I’m struggling to keep anything down. It’s just the Egyptian food, it really made me ill. You know that I can’t handle spicy food or exotic food in general really, I’ve been feeling better since I got home but my stomach still hasn’t settled yet.”

Theo didn’t look entirely convinced by that, “And there’s nothing more to it than a funny belly? Because there’s a sparkle in your eyes that’s missing.”

Sadie sighed again and glanced down to avoid his gaze, “Honestly Theo, it’s Egypt. I hate it, I hate everything about it. The class division is disgusting, there are beggars all over the streets and then you have the wizarding buildings which are literally paved with gold. Then there are the people on the course, they are horrible! Every single one of them has a famous Daddy who invented some shitty invention or a famous Mummy who is going to be Australian Minister for Magic one day. I don’t fit in with them at all.”

Theo smiled slightly, “Love, I hate to be the one to tell you this but your Daddy invented the sneakoscope and he’s pretty famous for that. And your Mummy is a pretty famous criminal law attorney.”

“Yeah but I don’t go around rubbing that in everyone’s face Theo!” Sadie snapped, “Ugh, you just don’t get it! I’m not a priviledged bitch, I’m not!”

“Sadie, calm down,” Theo said quickly, “I didn’t say that.”

“You were thinking it!”

“No, I wasn’t,” Theo said gently, “You know me pretty well but you don’t always know what I’m thinking. Are you sure you’re feeling alright?”

“I’m fine!” Sadie said irritably, “I just hate Egypt! The course isn’t even what I expected and I hate it!”

She got to her feet in the middle of her rant and began to take her frustration out on Theo. With every point she hit him in the chest, “I hate the thought of going back there!” *Punch* “I hate being surrounded by those people” *Punch* “I hate being away from you for two weeks at a time!” *Punch* “I hate it!”

“Alright, alright,” Theo said, he grabbed her hands and pulled her into a hug so that she couldn’t hit him anymore. Her voice had begun to shake towards the end of her rant and Theo could tell that she was crying against his chest. He could feel her body shaking, he shut his eyes and whispered, “It’s alright, you don’t have to go anywhere for the next two weeks and I’ll be here to look after you after this Egyptian business, okay?”

Sadie nodded against his chest, “Okay,” she whispered.

“And at the end of those two weeks, if you don’t want to go back then we’ll look at your options,” Theo promised her, “If you hate it then there’s no point making yourself miserable for the next year.”

Sadie pulled back and looked at him with bloodstained eyes, she shook her head, “I can’t back out on it now that I’ve started.”

“We’ll just have to find a way to make you love it then,” Theo said as he drew her closer again and kissed her lips softly, “I’m sure we’ll find a way.”

Sadie smiled tearfully, “I love you and I’ve missed you so much.”

“I’ve missed you too,” Theo said, and it came from the heart, “I’ve just spent two weeks in Draco’s pocket and all I wanted to do all the whole time was talk to you about everything that was going on but you weren’t there. I hated it too baby, I hated it too.”

Sadie nodded, she buried her face into his shirt and sighed, “What are we going to do?”

“I don’t know,” Theo said honestly, “But we’ll work it out. We always do, don’t we?”

She nodded again and held him tightly, “Yeah, we always do.”

***

When Neville stepped into the kitchen of Longbottom House, he felt completely exhausted. He wanted a hot bath then he wanted to collapse in his lovely, comfortable king size bed. Sleeping on a bunk bed with Harry’s loud snoring keeping him awake wasn’t his idea of fun.

He yawned as he trudged through the dark, empty kitchen. He dumped his bag by the door, he knew that their lovely house elf would do his laundry even though he never asked her to do it. Lilly had picked a good one there, he felt a pang that was becoming very familiar when he thought about Lilly. He knew that all of his friends were going home to their other halves tonight but Neville wasn’t expecting to see Lilly until the following weekend. After all, she was only allowed to leave the training centre between 9pm on a Friday and 7am on a Monday. Then there was her travel time to consider between those times as well so Neville knew that it wasn’t worth her time to come over for one night.

There had been a tiny glimmer of hope that had died when he stepped into the empty kitchen. It didn’t mean anything anyway, he kept telling himself that as he made his way upstairs in the house which had become very familiar to him.

By the time he reached the door to his bedroom, he couldn’t really be bothered with the bath that he had previously been looking forward to. Instead he decided just to collapse into his bed, he opened the door and lazily murmured, “Lumos.”

The light flew from his wand into a lamp on the bedside table.

“Hey.”

Neville jumped out of his skin and fell back against the door. He should have been able to feel that something was different but he was just too tired to notice so he really hadn’t expected to turn on the light and find somebody in his bed.

That somebody was of course Lilly and she was currently cackling.

Neville picked himself up and tried to slow his racing heart, “Coming home to find you naked in our bed would have been hot if you hadn’t just about killed me and the cackling is a definite turn off.”

Lilly grinned and threw a pillow at him, “I came all the way from France just to shag you tonight so watch your mouth Longbottom! I can quite easily just go back to France and leave you frustrated for another two weeks.”

“Oh no, no,” Neville said as he walked towards the bed, “No way Lillian Moon. You don’t get to come in here trying to give a man a heart attack then run off without apologising.”

Lilly chuckled, as soon as he was close enough, she grabbed him and pulled him onto the bed, “How was isolation?”

“Isolating, and totally not what I want to talk about right now,” Neville said as he pulled his t-shirt off.

“What if I want to hear about it?”

“I’ll tell you about it later,” Neville said, he slipped his jeans off and threw them across the room, “Right now I want to enjoy the only night I’m going to get with you for two weeks.”

“I think I can live with that.”

Neville kept his promise, as he lay in bed with Lilly wrapped up in his arms, he told her about isolation, “I spent two weeks straight with Harry in the Forest of Dean. We had a lot of heart to hearts and a couple of fights and we ate way too much bloody rabbit. I never want to eat it again if I’m honest.”

Lilly smiled slightly, “I think you secretly enjoyed it.”

“It’s no secret,” Neville said with a smile, “I did enjoy it. Harry said I was best friend.”

Lilly frowned, “Uh…yeah? Everyone knows that.”

“I didn’t know that,” Neville said as he looked down at her, “I thought Ron and Hermione were his best friends. As it turns out it’s a whole other thing between him and Hermione but he said that I’m his best friend and…it’s the first time I’ve ever been somebody’s best friend.”

“That’s not true,” Lilly said, “You were my best friend. Back when I dragged you to Spice Girls concerts and you took me to Quidditch World Cup games. I’m sorry if I never said it but you were my best friend. In fact, you still are but our friendship is even better now because I get to have sex with you too.”

Neville laughed heartily at that and kissed the top of her head. He shut his eyes and smiled at the smell of her hair, it was stupid but he wanted to remember all of these little details for the times when they were apart, “I love you so much Lil and I can’t tell you how happy I am about this whole Wednesday afternoon joint class.”

Lilly’s eyes lit up, “Oh, I know! We will have to work but still, getting to see you will be amazing. It also means that we’ll get to work together in simulated situations before we graduate which means you’ll be able to see that I’m not going to get myself killed on my first day on the job.”

Neville doubted that anything would ease his worries but he didn’t want to tell Lilly that. Instead he smiled and said, “I hadn’t thought about it like that but that’s true. Anyway, how is your new life in Amiens?”

“It’s pretty amazing,” Lilly admitted, “I just wish I could move it all to England so that I could see you every day but I love it. My mentor is called Clara Selwyn and she’s from Britain too. She ran away to France because her brother was a Death Eater and she’s been there for years but she’s getting kind of sick of it because her fiancé works over here-”

“Yeah I know, her fiancé is Sorenson,” Neville cut in, “Sadie’s brother.”

“How did you know that?” Lilly asked in surprise.

“Because I spoke to her for ages at Sadie and Theo’s wedding while you were getting drunk with Daphne and Hermione,” Neville said as he shot a grin her way.

Lilly rolled her eyes, “Great, that’s really embarrassing. I felt bad that I didn’t know that, being so close with Sadie and all but Clara didn’t seem bothered by it. She’s really nice, I get to shadow her so I see all of the operations she does and I also help with her rounds in the wards. Once she’s satisfied with my scores in the written tests and my answers during observation, she’s going to let me assist on operations.”

“It sounds like you love it,” Neville said with a small smile.

“I do,” Lilly said eagerly, “After the first 6 months are over I’ll get to go out and observe or assist in the field too. To be honest, the only thing I don’t like about the course is Marcel.”

“That sounds like a sleazy name.”

“It belongs to a sleazy guy,” Lilly said distastefully, “He’s French and he flirts with me all of the time. When I say all of the time by the way, I literally mean all of the time. The other day we were getting ready to go and observe a guy getting life or death surgery. We were getting prepped to go in and I was trying to get ready to potentially see someone die in front of me then Marcel started flirting with me.”

“Just threaten him and tell him to leave you alone,” Neville said as he ran his hand along her spine, “You’re short but scary, I’m sure it would work.”

“No, he just doesn’t seem to get the message,” Lilly said with a roll of her eyes, “I tried to tell him to stop every single time but he kept doing it. I spoke to Clara and she said if he kept making comments she would have a formal word with him about it.”

“I’ll have a ‘formal’ word with him about it too,” Neville said with a mischievous glint in his eyes, “I’ll see him when I come to visit you next weekend.”

“You’re going to threaten him, aren’t you?”

“Yep,” Neville said cheerfully, “Do you have a problem with that?”

“Nope, I think it’s pretty hot,” Lilly grinned.

“Good, because I’m going to tell him if he doesn’t leave my girlfriend alone, that I happen to know where to find the sword of Gryffindor _and _how to use it.”

Lilly’s grin widened, “Oh you definitely know how to use that sword,” she whispered as she caught his lips in a kiss.

***

** **

Daphne had been sitting in an uncomfortable chair in the kitchen for the last half an hour. Her eyes kept flickering over towards the fireplace as she waited for Harry to get home. She had it all planned out, she would offer him a cup of tea, ask about his week and then calmly explain everything to him.

All the same, she hadn’t felt this nervous in a long time. She was strong, she was calm, she was cool, she was the ice queen. This shouldn’t have upset her as much as it had, she kept telling herself that she was being silly but that didn’t make her feel any less sick to her stomach about the events of the past week.

When the floo did eventually whir to life, Daphne jumped out of her skin because the room had been completely silent up to that point. She watched the flames warp anxiously and after what felt like forever, Harry stepped out.

He looked around the room, probably expecting it to be empty but then his eyes fell on Daphne. He started to smile but then a frown began to form on his face, “Daph, what’s wrong?”

The look on her face told him that something was seriously wrong and his first thought was to panic.

“What’s happened?” Harry asked as he pulled her to her feet and enveloped her in a hug. The moment he wrapped his arms around her, she began to cry quietly. As a whole Daphne didn’t sob. The only exception had been when she finally let herself break down over Tracey’s death.

“Daph,” Harry whispered as he held her tightly, “Please tell me you’re okay. Did someone hurt you? Tell me what’s going on, please.”

Her body shook in his arms and he closed his eyes tightly. His worst fear had been realised, he had been gone for two weeks and someone had hurt her. He hadn’t been there to protect her, it was just like he had told Neville that he feared.

“I’ve been so scared,” Daphne said breathlessly, “I don’t know how to tell you and…I…I…please don’t leave me Harry, I’m so sorry.”

“Daphne, calm down,” Harry said in the most soothing voice that he could muster, “What are you talking about? I would never leave you, why would you say that?”

“Because of what he did,” Daphne said through a sob.

Harry’s entire body went tense, “What? What _who _did? What happened and who did it?”

Daphne pulled back from the hug, her eyes were red and bloodshot and she couldn’t look him in the eye, “I…about a week ago I got paired up with a mentor at work and…and…”

“And what, Daphne?”

Daphne shut her eyes tightly. Harry sighed, he could tell that it was very difficult for her to say what she needed to say so he picked her up and sat down in one of the kitchen chairs with her on his lap.

Daphne instantly hid her head in his chest and said very quickly, “He sexually assaulted me and blackmailed me all week. It started off with just comments and he would rub his leg against mine underneath the desk…”

She told him the entire story and throughout it all, Harry did not say a single word. He listened with a face that gave nothing away and Daphne spilled it all out. She cried and she stumbled over her words and she didn’t look him in the eye once because she just couldn’t face the shame and disappointment that she knew she would see there.

When she had finally told him how the story ended, how she had eventually told Bill earlier that day and that Fawley would be punished, she looked up at Harry with wide, terrified eyes.

“Why are you looking at me like that?” Harry asked in an emotionless tone, “None of this is your fault.”

“But it still happened.”

“It happened to you Daphne,” Harry said as he got up and set her down on the chair, “You didn’t make it happen.”

Daphne frowned at him, “I just…Harry…I don’t understand. You’re so calm but…cold.”

“I’m calm because I want you to know that it wasn’t your fault and I don’t blame you at all,” Harry said, “And I plan to spend the next couple of days helping you feel as calm as possible and as safe as possible.”

He took a breath and said, “And I’m cold because…I need you to go and stay with Hermione tonight.”

“Harry,” Daphne said quickly, “I don’t want you to do something you’ll regret, I don’t want someone to die for me!”

“No one is going to die for you,” Harry said a little sharply, “Trust me, I know how it feels to have people die for me and I would _never _put you through that. That’s why I’m going to get the person who makes sure that I keep my temper in check and don’t kill fucking bastards like this!”

“Neville.”

“Yes,” Harry said as he let out a long breath, “Now I promise you, I won’t do something that I’ll regret and he won’t be permanently damaged but I can’t just let this slide Daphne.”

“I know,” Daphne said, “And your family know that too. Otherwise Bill wouldn’t have told me that Fawley likes to gamble in Knockturn on a Sunday night. I guess he knew you’d had a long two weeks and wanted to cut out a little of the detective work for you.”

“Thank you,” Harry said, he drew her into a hug, “I love you Daphne and I’m so sorry that it’s been like this for you for the last week and I just want you to know that I still adore you. I always will and I still can’t wait to marry you, I realised while I was in isolation that my biggest weakness is and always will be you so I have to hurt this bastard, okay?”

“Okay,” Daphne said a little tearfully.

“I’m gonna send you through the fireplace to Grimmuald Place now,” Harry said, he threw floo powder into the flames, “And Hermione will know why. She’ll look after you until I’m done.”

“Okay,” Daphne said, she threw her arms around him and hugged him tightly, “I love you too and I’m so glad that you’re home. But you better come back soon, I’ll worry about you all night otherwise.”

“I will,” Harry promised. He leant into the flames and said, “Number 12 Grimmauld Place.”

He had to look at a blank wall for a moment before the kitchen appeared. Luckily Hermione and Draco were both milling around.

“Can I send Daphne through Hermione?” Harry asked, “I need you to look after her while I deal with something.”

“Of course,” Hermione said, “I’ll look after her.”

“And Draco,” Harry said, “Get Theo and come to Potter Manor. I need your help dealing with that same something.”

Hermione must have told Draco about what had happened because he asked no questions. He just nodded and said, “We’ll be with you as soon as we can be.”

“Thank you,” Harry said, he pulled his head out of the fire and looked up at Daphne. She looked weaker and more vulnerable than he could ever remember seeing her.

Harry pulled her towards him, kissed her gently on the lips and prodded her in the direction of the fireplace. She got the hint and disappeared into the green flames, they roared into life and when they had died down, Daphne was gone.

As soon as the flames had disappeared, Harry conjured a patronus and said, “Neville, you remember that chat we had in the Forest of Dean about how I should come to you if I felt like I was going to do something stupid that would put me in Azkaban? Well I’m testing your loyalty, I really need you right now.”

He sent the patronus to Neville and sunk down into one of the hard-wooden chairs. How could he have let this happen? This was all his fault, if he had just _been _here, if he had been able to help her, if-

“_Floo signature, Neville Longbottom_.”

“Access granted,” Harry said, he hadn’t expected Neville to arrive so quickly.

The floo roared to life and Neville folded himself out of the fireplace.

“Good, you’re wearing a cardigan. I need the cardigan wearing Neville right now.”

“What’s going on, Harry?”

“Do you want to stop me killing someone?”

“Woah, rewind,” Neville said quickly, “Who are you killing and why are you killing them?”

_“Floo signatures, Draco Black and Theodore Nott.”_

“Access Granted.”

The floo roared to life for the second time and Draco stepped through with Theo hot on his heels.

“What’s going on? Draco just said I was urgently needed here,” Theo said as he frowned around at all the serious faces.

“I don’t want to get into it in detail,” Harry said, “But Daphne got paired up with a mentor at work and the fucking bastard tried it on with her, got told no and then blackmailed her and sexually assaulted her.”

“What?” Theo hissed, “By sexual assault do you mean-”

“Not that far but pretty fucking unacceptable all the same,” Harry said, “So we are going to go and deal with him.”

“And by deal do you mean kill?” Theo asked, “Because if so I would suggest we take him to Muggle ground, somewhere isolated where they wouldn’t think to send cadaver dogs.”

“Or we cut him up and portkey his body parts into different oceans,” Draco said, “The muggle authorities are useless when it comes to working together so they would never be able to solve it.”

“Right Bonnie and Clyde, we’re here to _stop _Harry murdering this guy, not to help him,” Neville told them.

“Why? He hurt Daphne, he deserves to fucking die,” Theo said.

Draco and Neville looked at him in disbelief.

“Don’t tell her I said that, please don’t tell her I said that. We hate each other, we really do, I swear.”

“Okay Theo, whatever helps you sleep at night,” Draco said.

“Guys, I know I’m normally on board with bantering but right now, we need to do something. I’m going to flip, you have no idea how close I am to losing it right now,” Harry said in a dangerous tone of voice.

“Okay Harry, I’m sorry. How do we find him?” Draco asked.

“He gambles in Knockturn on a Sunday night,” Harry said.

“So we want to catch him on his own and whizz him away to somewhere isolated,” Theo said, “How about I lure him into the bathroom and Draco knocks him out then we side apparate him to St. Kilda?”

“Where?”

“Scottish island, it’s in the middle of nowhere with no inhabitants,” Theo said, “Once we get him there, we bind him and then we wake him up and hex him within an inch of his life.”

Harry nodded, “Yeah, I like that plan. Let’s go.”

“You aren’t going to Knockturn Alley right now,” Neville said, he grabbed his friends arm, “If someone dodgy so much as looks the wrong way at you, you would knock them out.”

“You’re right,” Harry admitted grudgingly, “Draco, Theo; would you two mind playing fetch?”

Draco and Theo smirked at each other, “It would be our pleasure,” Draco said maliciously.

“We’ll meet you on St. Kilda,” Neville said, “Bring him to us in one piece. Harry deserves to destroy this guy, not us.”

“Yes boss,” Theo joked as he and Draco headed for the front door so that they could apparate down to Knockturn Alley.

***

When Stuart Fawley woke up, the first thing he was aware of was that he was very cold. The second thing was that he couldn’t move his hands or legs. He jolted awake sharply and looked around, he was tied to a chair in what appeared to be the middle of nowhere. There were no street lights, only the dim light of the moon. His sense of dread kicked in when he heard the ocean and smelled seaweed.

“Don’t try and work out where you are,” A voice said from the shadows, “You never will and knowing won’t help you anyway.”

“Who are you?” Fawley asked, he sounded far less afraid than he really was.

“I’m glad you asked that,” The voice said as it got closer, “My name is Theo Nott which probably means nothing to you, but it should because – lumos – Daphne annoys the hell out of me but my wife loves her and deep down, she’s like my sister.”

Fawley swallowed as he looked into Theo’s enraged face, “Look man, this has obviously been a misunderstanding.”

“Oh, there is no misunderstanding here,” Another voice said, a smoother one, “We know exactly what you did to Daphne.”

“We? Who is _we?_” Fawley asked, the panic was beginning to show in his voice now.

“I’m Draco Black, formerly Malfoy. I suspect you have heard of me. My Father is rotting in a commonwealth prison for torturing scumbags like you and – lumos – I’m one of Daphne’s best friends, not to mention her first love.”

Fawley already looked terrified which pleased Draco and Theo immensely because they were only the warm up act.

“It’s not what you think, really,” Fawley said quickly, “I just kissed her, how was I to know that she wasn’t into it?”

“Of course you knew that she wasn’t into it,” A third voice said from the darkness, “But you forced yourself on her anyway, not to mention the fact that you then blackmailed her for an entire week.”

“Oh for the love of Merlin,” Fawley muttered, “Who are you people?”

“I’m Neville Longbottom, if the name rings a bell it’s because I got famous when I beheaded Voldemort’s snake last year and – lumos – I’m here because I have one very important job to do tonight.”

“What was that job again, Neville?” Theo asked.

“To stop me from doing something that will land me in Azkaban,” A fourth voice said, “You see Fawley, I have a bit of a temper.”

“And who are you, my would be assassin?”

“My name is Harry Potter and – lumos – nobody fucks with my fiancé.”

***

“Harry!”

“I told you I wouldn’t do anything stupid,” Harry said as he wrapped his arms around Daphne.

Hermione glanced from Harry’s face to his bruised and scratched knuckles. Harry gave her a look that said, _I’ll tell you later_.

“I just want to go home,” Daphne said, she wasn’t crying anymore but she definitely wasn’t herself at the moment.

“Let’s go home then,” Harry said, “But let’s have a walk through London first. I think the fresh air might do you some good.”

Daphne nodded. She turned around and hugged Hermione, “Thank you for everything, Hermione.”

Hermione shook her head, “That’s what friends are for. You have nothing to thank me for.”

Harry put his arm around her shoulder and guided her out into the hall. It felt odd to be a guest in a house that he had once owned and that he knew so well. Hermione watched from a distance with a small smile on her face as Harry put Daphne’s cloak around her shoulders, fastened it and kissed her on the forehead. There was no doubt in her mind that those two were completely made for each other and it just reaffirmed everything she had discussed with Daphne while the boys had been away.

They left the house and the door clicked shut quietly behind them.

“Was that a longing look?”

Hermione spun around, “For Harry? No…quite the opposite actually.”

“I think we need to talk about that,” Draco said, “You and Harry, I don’t think I know the whole story.”

“No, you don’t,” Hermione admitted, “And we will talk about it, I promise. Just…not tonight.”

“I think I can agree to that,” Draco said as he drew her into a hug.

“Did Harry kill him?”

“No,” Draco said, “That was why Neville was there, he’s the one that reminds us that if we kill bad people, we’re still murderers and therefore not any different from the people we kill.”

Hermione hummed thoughtfully, “How is it then that you look flawless and Harry got away with nothing more than slightly bruised knuckles?”

“You don’t need to know the specifics,” Draco said, he kissed her lightly on the forehead, “But it’s dealt with.”

“Good,” Hermione said with a sigh, “I hated seeing Daphne so vulnerable.”

“Things won’t go back to normal magically, this will leave a scar on her,” Draco murmured into Hermione’s hair.

“I know, but we’ll help her get through it,” Hermione said, “Just like all of you helped heal my scars.”

***

“You won’t have to worry about seeing Fawley when you go into work to give your official statement,” Harry said. He hooked his arm through Daphne’s and opened the gate so that they could cut through the park.

“What did you do to him?” Daphne asked, a little cautiously.

“Let’s just say he’ll be spending quite a bit of time getting acquainted with four white walls in St. Mungo’s,” Harry said cryptically.

Daphne raised an eyebrow, “You’re not going to tell me anymore than that, are you?”

“I don’t think you need to know the ins and outs of it,” Harry said, “It isn’t going to undo what he did after all, is it?”

“No,” Daphne said, “But it would make me feel better.”

“I think we both know that isn’t true,” Harry said, he tightened his grip on her shoulder as a man in a hoodie walked towards them in the dark park.

Daphne rolled her eyes, “How long are you going to be this over-protective for?”

“As long as it takes,” Harry said, he looked at her with a fire burning in his eyes, “I failed you so I will do whatever I can for as long as it takes to make that up to you.”

Daphne frowned at him, “You didn’t fail me, what are you talking about?”

“I promised myself that I would always protect you and Teddy,” Harry said, “When Neville and me were out there in the Forest of Dean I promised myself that. I failed because if I had been here, you would have told me and it wouldn’t have gotten as bad as it did.”

“The Forest of Dean? I thought you were in isolation on the base,” Daphne said.

“No, we had to spend two weeks doing survival training. They ditched all the Auror pairs in the middle of nowhere,” Harry said quickly, “But that wasn’t the point you were supposed to take away from what I just said.”

“I know, but frankly, I think you’re being stupid,” Daphne admitted, “I get that you have your whole hero complex and you think you’re Atlas, walking around carrying the woes of the whole wizarding world on your bloody shoulders but you are being stupid if you think this was your fault. You were working and I…I let it get that bad, I should have told someone sooner.”

“No, don’t you dare go down that road,” Harry said, “It wasn’t your fault, none of it was your fault. He blackmailed you, he twisted your thoughts so that you would be too scared to talk to anyone about it. That’s what sick bastards like him do, you acted exactly the way he planned for you to act.”

Daphne sighed, “And why? I’m supposed to be strong, they called me the ice queen. Why did I let this happen to me?”

“You didn’t let it happen to you,” Harry said firmly, “It was a shitty thing that happened to you, it wasn’t something that you could control. You’ve wanted to be a Curse Breaker since you started Hogwarts, I bet that’s in your employee file. Fawley used that to prey on you because that’s exactly what he is, a predator.”

Daphne nodded slowly, “You’re right, it wasn’t my fault. He’s just a sick bastard.”

Harry smiled slightly, “There’s my baby back.”

Daphne returned his smile and grabbed his hand, he managed not to wince so that she wouldn’t notice the state that they were in. They opened the gate and headed towards an alleyway next to the opposite block of flats, “Did you say you were in the Forest of Dean?”

“Yeah, I did.”

“For two weeks?” Daphne asked.

“Yep,” Harry said.

“And you didn’t shag Neville?”

Harry shot her an amused look, “Very funny.”

“You’re pretending to be angry but deep down, you’re pleased that I’m not crying anymore,” Daphne said with a pointed look.

Harry smiled warmly at her, “Yeah, that’s exactly how I feel. Now come on, let’s go home. There’s a warm bed with my name on it and man, I could murder a pizza or some chips right now.”

***

“I really think we should have that chat.”

“It’s 4am,” Hermione said.

“And you’re sitting on the roof terrace because you can’t sleep while I lie in bed because I can’t sleep,” Draco pointed out, he drew his cardigan closer to his body and sat down next to her, “What’s keeping you up?”

“Worries and…guilt,” Hermione admitted, “You?”

“The same,” Draco said, “There are some things I haven’t told you about myself and after spending two weeks baring my soul to Theo…I think you should know.”

“I feel the same,” Hermione said, “I have some things I need to tell you. Do you want me to go first?”

Draco nodded, “Harry and you, it was more than a fling wasn’t it? You didn’t just sleep together a couple of times and then forget about it.”

Hermione looked down into her hands, “No…we didn’t. It was…I loved him Draco, he was my first love.”

“Wow,” Draco said a little bitterly, “That hurt a lot more than I thought it would.”

“That doesn’t make this any easier Draco,” Hermione said tentatively.

“I’m sorry but I think it’s important to be honest with each other,” Draco said, “And I really didn’t expect that to hurt as much as it did but…I hated him back then and you…well you just told me that you loved him.”

“I loved him then,” Hermione admitted, “But I love you now and it’s a completely different kind of love. Back then things were desperate, it was emotionally messy and we just didn’t really know how to deal with it. With you it’s an all-consuming love, I can’t imagine life without you and I don’t want to. When I’m with you everything just feels right and when I can’t be with you all I want is you. As soon as something happens, good or bad, I just want to share it with you. It was never like that with Harry because I didn’t love him the way that I love you.”

Draco stared at her for a moment then sighed heavily, “That’s a tough act to follow.”

“Whatever you have to tell me can’t be worse than anything I already know,” Hermione assured him, “I know about what you had to do to become a Death Eater.”

“It’s not in the same vein as that but I think you might find it worse,” Draco said, “I never told you how in love with Pansy I was. I never told you that behind that cold exterior she had a wicked sense of humour and a way of cheering me up when everything felt hopeless. I was too scared to tell you about the good things because of how much you hated her in school.”

Hermione smiled ruefully, “I never told you the good parts about Harry for the same reason. I know you’re friends now but you don’t like to talk about how he was back then because of the way things were between you.”

“I’m sorry that you felt that way,” Draco said, he caught her eye, “I’m sorry that I made you feel that way. The thing with Pansy is…talking about her still hurts so I just don’t talk about her but Theo was right, by keeping things from you I’m not being entirely honest. It was…it was more serious than people knew, Pansy and I were best friends all the way through school and I knew she liked me but I never wanted to cross that bridge. I was afraid that it would ruin our friendship forever, I know that’s something that you can relate to.”

Hermione nodded, “I think our lives were more similar than we realised,” she admitted.

Draco nodded, “I think you might be right. When I dated Daphne, Pansy got jealous and when things broke down between Daphne and I, Pansy was there. Daphne was too good for me, she couldn’t cope with the fact that I was a Death Eater. She didn’t care if I was forced into it, she just hated the thought of it. But Pansy…she knew that it didn’t change who I was as a person at my core. She understood and she helped me deal with the things that my Father and Voldemort forced me to do. The line between friendship and more got crossed and it was…it was intense, really intense.”

“Trust me, I understand,” Hermione said, “You don’t have to say anything more about it.”

Draco shook his head, “No, that’s the thing, I do have to say more about it and…this is the hard part. Obviously, you know when you’re in the middle of a war and things get intense like that, you don’t really take the precautions that you should and…a couple of months before the final battle, Pansy told me that she was pregnant.”

Hermione’s eyes widened, “Oh…Merlin…”

“Yeah,” Draco said, he tore his eyes away from hers, “I told her it would be okay, that we would get through the war and get married. I knew there was a marriage contract connecting me to a Greengrass but I knew I would find a way to get around it so I didn’t mention it to her. We didn’t want anyone knowing about it with things they way they were back then and…I debated sending her away when it became obvious that there was going to be a battle but she wouldn’t let me.”

Draco paused to take a breath, “When she died…obviously she lost the baby and…that hurt me more than I thought possible Hermione.”

Hermione pulled him into a hug when she saw tears forming in his eyes, “Of course it would, you don’t have to be ashamed to admit that.”

Draco took a deep, shaky breath and said, “I felt stupid for feeling like that. I didn’t want to tell anyone because I didn’t think anyone would understand how much it hurt to lose something that you never had but… I had started to envision the way things would be. I had this golden vision of the war being a distant memory and…Pansy and I were playing Quidditch with this little blond-haired kid and we were all happy. It was everything I had never experienced as a child and I just…I lost it for a while after I lost Pansy and that baby. It was a hard summer and the only person I told for a long time was Daphne. We didn’t have any romantic feelings for each other anymore but I wouldn’t have gotten through that summer without her.”

Hermione nodded, “I understand the bond between you so much more now. I can see why she’s so protective over you and I completely understand why you were so hurt. Two people that you loved were taken from you, it doesn’t matter that you had only met one of them.”

Draco kept his eyes down and grabbed Hermione’s hand, “Thank you Hermione but…there’s still more. Do you remember in school when that list of people that Theo had slept with was published during the prank war?”

Hermione nodded again.

“Well,” Draco began, “The reason it upset me so much was because I realised that it meant that the baby that I had spent the last year lamenting the loss of might not even have been mine.”

Hermione gripped his hand tighter.

“And I’ll never know if it was,” Draco said, he shut his eyes tightly.

“You already do know,” Hermione said softly, “What happened between Theo and Pansy, it was during the Christmas holidays. It came up in conversation between the two of us once and Theo told me that he regretted it more than anything else in his life, he told me that it had only happened a couple of times during those holidays. If Pansy told you that she was pregnant a couple of months before the battle, it had to be yours Draco.”

Draco’s body began to move and Hermione suspected that he was crying. She held him tighter and closed her eyes, “Is that what you needed? Closure?”

Draco couldn’t talk so he just nodded.

Hermione held onto him and whispered, “I understand why you didn’t tell me but I’m here now Draco, I’m here for you.”

**TBC.**


	93. Friends Like You

Daphne felt sick on Monday morning. She knew she would only have to face a few hours at work, if that, because Bill had said that she could go home after the review. All the same, the thought of having to go through it all with Bill wasn’t a pleasant one.

Harry tried his best to make her forget about it. He made her pancakes which she couldn’t eat because her stomach felt so settled and he made her a cup of coffee which went cold before she could try to will herself to drink it.

“It’s going to be okay Daph,” He told her, “Fawley won’t be there if that’s what you’re worried about it.”

Daphne shook her head and got to her feet, “I just don’t want to have to go through it all again. I know that I have to for Fawley to be punished but that doesn’t mean that I have to look forward to it.”

Harry sighed and hugged her, “I understand that. If it helps, think about what we’re going to do afterwards. As soon as you’ve gone through everything with Bill, you get to home by which point Teddy will be here. Then we’ll have a great afternoon at the Puddlemere match and then we’ll all go out for a family dinner.”

“Then we go to Sadie and Theo’s and get hammered,” Daphne said with a small smile, “A perfect family day followed by a piss-up. You’re right, that’s exactly what I need.”

Harry smiled back at her, “Good luck.”

“Thanks,” Daphne said.

“Can I kiss you?” Harry asked tentatively, because of everything that had happened while he was gone he was being rather cautious when it came to physical contact.

“Please do,” Daphne said quietly.

Harry stepped forward and kissed her gently. Daphne shut her eyes and sighed with relief, she had been terrified that kissing Harry would remind her of what Fawley had done but instead all it did was make her feel like the world was beginning to be put to right again.

“I love you,” Harry murmured as he pulled back from the kiss.

“I love you too,” Daphne said with a small smile, “I’ll see you later. You better have Teddy in that little Puddlemere shirt I bought him, it should fit him now!”

Harry smiled at her retreating back as she walked towards the front door.

***

When Daphne stepped into Bill’s office and saw a rather surly looking official sort of wizard sitting next to Bill at the desk, her pulse began to race.

“Good morning Daphne,” Bill said with a warm smile, “There’s no need to be alarmed, this is my colleague from the legal department of the bank. His name is Mr. Gibbs and he will be taking down notes today.”

Daphne nodded and sat down in the seat opposite of Bill and Gibbs.

“Now, normally Mr. Fawley would be here as well but unfortunately, he is in St. Mungo’s after having an accident over the weekend. As such, we will have to conduct his part of this review separately. So I will just outline what I need from you today Daphne. I understand how difficult it is for you to talk about this but I need you to go through everything with me again,” Bill said calmly, “You can do it in your own time and you can take as many breaks as you need. I just need you to start at the beginning and tell me everything with as much detail as you can remember.”

Daphne nodded once more. She took a deep breath and she began to recount the whole hideous affair. She felt a little bit more like the ice queen once more as she coolly and calmly went through it all again. Mr Gibbs scribbled away furiously and Bill kept his gaze downwards so that he Gibbs couldn’t see the anger in his eyes. After all, he didn’t want to be accused of being anything less than impartial.

When Daphne had finished, Mr. Gibbs nodded and thanked her. There was silence in the office as he gathered his papers and put them in his briefcase. When he left the office, Daphne let out a sigh of relief and relaxed a little.

Bill smiled at her, “You did great Daphne. Do you want a coffee?”

Daphne nodded, having everything out in the open officially made her feel like a weight had been lifted from her chest. She felt the greatest sense of relief and now, she could see a light at the end of what had been a very long, dark tunnel.

She was pulled out of her daze when Bill placed a cup of coffee down in front of her, “You said Fawley was in hospital.”

Bill nodded and glanced down at a sticky note on his desk, “Yep, he has three broken ribs, a broken nose, a fractured ankle and a cracked knee cap. He says he had too much to drink and fell down the stairs last night.”

Daphne nodded and glanced down, “Does he?”

“He does,” Bill said, “But I know what happened and you know what happened. I think it’s fair to say that he had a little bit of help falling down those stairs, isn’t it?”

Daphne held onto the coffee cup and looked up at Bill, “I think that would be a fair judgement, yes.”

Bill smiled slightly, “Are you sure you want to come back to work tomorrow? I wouldn’t begrudge you needing an extra day to gather your wits.”

“My wits are gathered,” Daphne promised him, “And now that I know he won’t be here, I have no problem with coming to work. I’ll be here first thing tomorrow, I promise.”

“Well then I suppose I should tell you where to report to,” Bill said, “Since you have a new mentor now.”

Daphne looked up, “You assigned me one then?”

“Yep,” Bill said, “And I think you’ll be a little bit more satisfied with this one than the last. I did think about assigning you a woman to avoid any difficulties in the future but then I realised that you would get pissed off with me if I did that so your new mentor is another man.”

“That’s fine as long as he’s not a sleazy bastard,” Daphne said.

“He has definitely never been accused of that,” Bill promised her.

“And he’s competent? He’ll let me go out in the field?”

“He’ll definitely let you go out in the field but I’m not sure how competent he is to be completely honest,” Bill said, “He can be a bit of an immature twat at times.”

Daphne smiled broadly at that, “It’s you, isn’t it?”

“Which part gave it away?” Bill asked with an amused smile.

“The immature twat part, with all due respect boss,” Daphne added the last part as an afterthought.

“First rule of this partnership, I’m your mentor not your boss,” Bill said, “And second rule, if you want to go out in the field, bring me snacks because my wife has me on a permanent diet and she literally locks me in the dog house if she catches me snacking in the house. Can you handle those conditions?”

Daphne smiled, “Yeah, I think those conditions are fair.”

“Perfect,” Bill said cheerfully, “Now get your arse home. Enjoy a little bit of downtime and be here ready to work tomorrow.”

“I will,” Daphne promised as she got to her feet, “I’m taking Teddy out to the Puddlemere game with Harry this afternoon then I’m getting hammered with my friends tonight so permission to be a little hungover tomorrow please?”

“Bring me a coffee and a breakfast pastry and it’s a deal.”

Daphne grinned, “Thanks Bill, see you tomorrow.”

“See you tomorrow,” Bill said with a fond smile.

***

Daphne found herself breathing a little bit easier all the way through Diagon Alley. She literally felt lighter and she knew now, having done it, that telling Bill was the right thing to do. It made her feel stupid for being so scared to do it in the first place, but it had been dealt with now and that was what mattered. She left the alley and apparated back to Potter Manor, she felt a smile slip onto her face the moment she stepped over the threshold into the garden because she could hear Teddy laughing.

She followed the laughter around the house and found the two boys in the back garden. Harry was dangling from his broom upside down making silly faces at Teddy while the little boy clapped and laughed in amusement.

Daphne shook her head and didn’t bother hiding the amused smile that was plastered on her face. The moment Harry saw her he righted himself and smiled slightly nervous at her, “Was it okay?”

“It was fine, just like you said it would be,” Daphne said honestly, “I told them everything, a scribe wrote it down then Bill told me that I had been assigned a new mentor.”

“Hopefully not a sleazy you know what,” Harry said, for the benefit of Teddy’s little ears.

“Nope,” Daphne said with a smile, “My new mentor is Bill, he wants to get out in the field again.”

Harry laughed and dismounted his broom, “Why do I get the feeling you’re going to love your job just a little bit more now?”

Daphne laughed too, “Yeah, I think you might be right. But now is not the time to talk about work, now is the time to talk about Quidditch! Is my little munchkin in his Puddlemere strip?”

“Yes, he is,” Harry said, he picked the little boy up, “As requested by Daphne and we always do what Daphne wants don’t we, Ted?”

Teddy beamed at Daphne and held his arms out to her, “Daffee!”

Daphne’s smile widened as she took Teddy from Harry, “Hey Teddy, I have missed you _so _much!”

Harry smiled at the two of them with a mixture of fondness and sadness. He loved these moments, he loved that they felt like a real family but he knew he would see less of both of them now that Auror training had started.

Daphne caught his look and smiled, “You’ll see plenty of him once everything is official. He’ll be there every night when you come in from work.”

“I know,” Harry said, “But that still feels like a long way away and I miss him.”

“I know,” Daphne said as she grabbed his hand, “I do too, but let’s not let ourselves mope today. Let’s just enjoy this day, okay?”

“Okay,” Harry agreed with a small smile, “Let’s go watch Puddlemere destroy the Appleby Arrows Teddy!”

***

The Puddlemere game ran late which meant that Harry, Daphne and Teddy ended up having dinner late. As a result, by the time they dropped Teddy off back at Andromeda’s, they were late for the post-dinner gathering at No. 11 Grimmauld Place.

By the time they got there, everyone was already gathered in the drawing room. The couple made their way upstairs arm in arm then entered the drawing room. All eyes turned towards them and the room fell silent.

Daphne rolled her eyes, “You don’t need to act awkward just because I had an emotional breakdown last week. For those of you who weren’t entirely in the picture, yes I worked with a sleazy bastard and yes, he sexually assaulted me. But he’s being punished and I’m fine so don’t you dare walk on eggshells around me tonight or I will curse you all into oblivion.”

Susan grinned, “Man, I’ve missed you Daph.”

Daphne laughed at that, “Yeah, where have you been for the last two weeks by the way?”

“Undercover training,” Susan said with a smirk, “It’s top secret.”

“But you’re going to tell her anyway,” Percy said with a discreet roll of his eyes.

Susan shrugged, “Yeah, but Daphne can keep secrets so it’s fine. It was kind of like basic training for bounty hunters. They chuck you in the middle of nowhere with your trainer for a couple of weeks to see what you’re made of.”

“And you aced it, I imagine,” Daphne said.

“Yep,” Susan said proudly, “Best since Percy Weasley apparently.”

“I did tell her that probably wasn’t a compliment.”

Daphne snorted, “Hey Ron, how’s Katie?”

Ron shrugged, “The same as always, she’s healthy which is the main thing.”

“Good,” Daphne said somewhat awkwardly, she often found it hard to keep a conversation going with Ron. Harry could obviously feel the tension so he stepped forward, “I reckon we could do with a good catch up mate. Where’s Theo keeping the good stuff?”

The two of them started to chat as they walked over to Theo’s drinks cabinet. Susan immediately linked her arm through Daphne’s and swept her out onto the balcony.

“You are such a bad liar.”

“What is that supposed to mean?”

“You aren’t fine,” Susan said with a pointed look, “Girls like us act like we don’t care when men treat us like shit but we do care. I cared about the fact that guys didn’t want anything more than sex from me but I pretended that I didn’t. You cared that guys saw you as this sexy ice queen who was cold and emotionless, but you pretended you didn’t. Do you see where I’m going with this?”

“I know what you’re trying to say Suse but I really am fine,” Daphne said, “I know that what he did was wrong and I know that I don’t deserve to be treated like that. But at the end of the day, my fiancé, his Auror partner and two boys that I grew up with found the guy who did it and put him in hospital and to be honest, that’s enough for me.”

Susan smiled slightly, “Fair enough.”

Daphne leant over the balcony and said, “How was undercover training? Because I don’t believe you aced it without any consequences. They use psychological tactics with these sorts of things and you don’t exactly have a pain free past.”

“Yeah, you’re right,” Susan agreed, “It was pretty horrific. I had to relieve some shitty things and it did change me. But maybe I needed that, I suppose I have always been a bit immature and now that I’ve had a reality check…I feel a few years older.”

Daphne nodded thoughtfully and looked down at London as it began to come to life, “I feel a little older after the events of the last couple of weeks too.”

Susan chuckled as she opened the door into the drawing room, “Who would have thought that we would all grow up so quickly? I feel like we barely left school.”

“Tell me about it,” Daphne said as they re-joined the party. She couldn’t stop thinking about how much she and Harry missed Teddy when they were apart from him at the moment. She felt older, she felt responsible for that little boy and now that they weren’t in school, it felt wrong to keep him at Andromeda’s.

“Oh, there you are!” Hermione called when she saw Daphne and Susan, “The boys have just gone downstairs to the man cave so it’s just the girls now.”

“Which means you’re gossiping?” Daphne guessed.

“We were just catching up on the last couple of weeks actually,” Sadie said, “But we can always gossip if you want to.”

Daphne laughed, “Not without Lilly, she would never forgive us.”

“Talking about Lilly, I assume you heard about her new nickname?” Sadie asked.

Hermione raised an eyebrow, “Do we want to know?”

“I want to know,” Susan smirked, “Go on Sadie.”

“Well,” Sadie said with a smile, “Obviously her and Neville had that whole stupid “We’re on a break” thing going on over his birthday. Then Neville realised that they were both being stupid, so he ran away to France to tell her how much he loved her. I guess once he got there he _really _told her how much he loved her because Lilly’s fellow course-mates now know her as the girl who had loud sex with her hero boyfriend on her first night.”

The others all laughed at this, Susan in particular cackled but then again, she had known Lilly longer than the others.

“Well, there are worse things to be known as,” Hermione said, “Behind my back they call me Harry Potter’s encyclopedia because they think that I think I’m above them. I’m just trying to keep my head down and learn everything that I can so I can do my job well…”

“And they are jealous of that,” Daphne said, “So ignore them. You know that you’re far more than Harry’s encyclopedia and you know that he wouldn’t have survived the war without you. It doesn’t matter what anyone else thinks.”

Hermione smiled slightly, “I know, but nobody likes being the new girl with all of the office bitches breathing down your neck.”

“Tell me about it,” Sadie said with a roll of her eyes, “I don’t think many people on my course like me and I don’t like them much either. I kind of got off on the wrong foot with most of them because they had a go at me for being married since I’m so young. I defended Theo fiercely and most of them took it the wrong way.”

“At least you have some friends though,” Daphne said, “Apart from Bill, I’ve not met anyone at the bank that I like.”

“I don’t really see other people apart from Perce and the other bounty hunters,” Susan shrugged, “They’re all pretty antisocial so I get to do my own thing which suits me just fine.”

“I’ve met a couple of people I like,” Hermione admitted, “Most of them are junior Aurors and surprisingly, the hit wizards are nice guys but my boss is a bit of a cow to be honest. It really surprised me, I mean I remember her when she dated Percy and she seemed so nice…”

“Merlin, you’re not talking about Penny Clearwater are you?” Susan asked.

Hermione frowned, “Uh…yes. Do you know her?”

“No but Percy has told me about her,” Susan replied, “She’s a complete psycho! She’s your boss? Oh man, that sucks Hermione.”

“Susan!” Sadie exclaimed.

Susan bit her lip, “Sorry, but I feel like you should have fair warning.”

“Fair warning is great, but you have to explain why you are giving that warning,” Daphne pointed out as she tried to hide her amusement.

“Right,” Susan said somewhat sheepishly, “Well when Percy broke up with Penelope, she went _mental_. She thought they were going to get married one day and then the war happened and Percy changed, he felt responsible for his brothers death and he wanted a change. So he cut off all ties with his old life, ditched it all to become a bounty hunter and broke up with Penelope.”

Susan paused, mostly for dramatic effect. She liked to make sure that she had her audience enraptured before she got to the climax of her story, “But Penelope didn’t take it normally. She stalked Percy for weeks and tried everything to get him to take her back, I mean I don’t blame her. He _does _look good in those dragon hide trousers that he wears these days…”

“You’re going off topic Suse,” Daphne said with a chuckle.

“Sorry,” Susan said with a smirk, “But I have just spent two weeks away from him so you know…”

“Yeah, we all just spent two weeks away from our other halves,” Sadie said quickly, “We get it. Now get on with your story, what else did she do after he broke up with her?”

“She tried to learn voodoo magic, I’ve heard it’s just a myth but apparently she went to this dodgy place in Knockturn Alley and bought a doll that was a replica of Percy,” Susan said slowly to build the tension, “She tried to drown it and stab it, but it didn’t work because voodoo magic is superstitious bullshit. Either way, Percy had to get a restraining order to keep her away from him.”

“Jeez,” Daphne said with a grim look, “If I were you I wouldn’t piss her off Hermione.”

Hermione groaned, “Just what I needed, a psychotic boss!”

“You’ll be fine,” Sadie said, “Just keep your head down like you are at the moment.”

Hermione sighed and nodded.

“It could be worse,” Sadie said, in an effort to cheer Hermione up, “You could have spent the last two weeks pretending that your best friend was your boyfriend.”

“What?” The others echoed.

Sadie grinned, “Theo and Draco spent isolation hill-walking in the Scottish highlands. They met a couple of muggles and Theo somehow managed to accidentally imply that Draco was his boyfriend. The hillwalkers spent the next two weeks with them so they had to keep the story up for the whole isolation period.”

Hermione burst out laughing at that, “Did Theo tell you that? Voluntarily?”

“I had to coax it out of him a little,” Sadie said with a wicked grin, “But he told me in the end.”

“No wonder Draco was so cryptic when I asked him about isolation,” Hermione said through her laughter.

“Aren’t you two mildly concerned about how devoted your other halves are to each other?” Susan asked with a raised eyebrow, “Don’t you remember when they used to apologise to each other in school? Sometimes it looked more like a proposal.”

“That’s just because Theo is a prat,” Hermione said with a chuckle.

“I’ve got to admit, I’m with Susan on this one,” Daphne put in, “I mean they built a door in the basement to connect their houses, they spent two weeks pretending to be together and their bromance always has bordered on a romance.”

“Not to mention that they are both Slytherins,” Susan pointed out, “And we all know that Slytherins are flexible when it comes to sexuality.”

Sadie rolled her eyes, “That is a myth. I was a Slytherin and I have never so much as kissed another girl. It’s a myth, isn’t it Daphne?”

“Uh…” Daphne floundered.

Susan smirked, “Trust me, it’s not a myth.”

“Seriously Daph?” Sadie asked in a deadpan tone, “I thought we agreed when we were in 1st year that we would prove that it was a myth!”

“It was one kiss at a party in 8th year so don’t get your knickers in a twist,” Daphne said quickly, “Technically we should have finished school by then so it doesn’t count, okay?”

“8th year?” Hermione asked, “When you were dating Harry?”

“Harry was there,” Daphne and Susan said in unison.

“Seriously?” Hermione asked in disbelief.

“Seriously,” Daphne said.

“Seriously?” Sadie asked irritably.

“Seriously!” Daphne and Susan echoed.

Daphne shook her head, “And for the record, this whole conversation seems a lot like gossiping for a conversation that isn’t supposed to contain any gossiping.”

Hermione snorted, “She has a point. I wonder what the guys are talking about downstairs. Guys don’t gossip, do they?”

“Draco and Theo do,” Sadie said, “Sometimes those two were worse than the girls in the common room.”

“They can be bitches,” Daphne agreed.

“Well Harry doesn’t gossip,” Sadie said, “So-”

Hermione cut her off by sniggering, “Harry doesn’t gossip? You must be joking me, he’s like an old witch half the time. 9 times out of 10 when it was just the two of us in the common room late at night, he would start the gossiping, _not _me.”

Susan shook her head in amusement, “So in conclusion, they are gossiping.”

“Yep”

“Definitely.”

***

“So what did you make of what Sumner and Sheppard said at the end of isolation?” Harry said as he helped himself to some of Theo’s rum, “About Harper and Emily?”

“Oh, those two were totally shagging,” Draco said with a nod, “Imagine shagging during isolation training! It was obvious that we were being observed.”

“That’s rich coming from you,” Neville said, “If you had known that you were being observed you wouldn’t have spent the whole time pretending to shag Theo.”

“What?” Ron asked with an amused look.

“Oh, haven’t you heard mate?” Harry asked Ron with a grin, “Theo is shit under pressure and accidentally told a couple of muggles that Draco was his boyfriend. Those muggles stayed with them all the way through isolation so they had to pretend to be all loved up.”

Ron barked out a loud laugh, “And they didn’t cotton on that you were lying?”

“Have you seen those two?” Percy remarked, “I believed that they were a couple when I first met them.”

Theo scoffed, “Hardly! We’re friends, we know each other well that’s the only reason they believed us.”

“Until we blew our cover at the end,” Draco added.

“How exactly did you _blow _your cover?” Neville asked.

“Ugh!” Draco exclaimed, “That is disgusting!”

Harry sniggered, “The same thought ran through my mind to be honest.”

“Filthy Gryffindors,” Theo muttered.

“I quite agree.”

“Well you would agree with your boyfriend,” Ron said.

“And you do realise that you are massively outnumbered, don’t you?” Percy asked, “Four Gryffindors to two Slytherins.”

“And one of those Gryffindors is a bounty hunter,” Harry added.

“And another is the man who killed Voldemort,” Percy said.

“Not to mention the man who beheaded Voldemort’s snake with the sword of Gryffindor,” Harry said.

“Then there’s Ron,” Theo said.

Harry half expected Ron to go mental but the redheaded man just sniggered, “I’m quite happy running my little joke store while you idiots try to kill yourselves to be honest. I’ll be the one that becomes Headmaster one day because I’ll be the only one that’s still alive.”

“He has a point,” Harry said with a chuckle, “But anyway, how did everyone else’s last few weeks go?”

“Mine was pretty boring,” Ron shrugged, “Worked, checked in on Katie, the usual.”

“I can’t really tell you about my week because of the nature of my work,” Percy said with a shrug, “But I spent most of it in deepest Peru undercover.”

“Undercover as what, a bear?” Harry asked.

“What?” Percy asked with a frown.

Harry shook his head in amusement and smiled at Neville who was sniggering, “Never mind, it’s a muggle thing. I felt shit for being away for the last couple of weeks while Daphne was going through hell…”

“Stop thinking like that,” Percy said, “It wasn’t your fault. Just like it wasn’t your fault that people died during the war.”

“I feel like we’ve had this conversation before,” Harry said with a rueful smile.

“That’s because we have,” Percy remembered, “Last summer, before you went back to Hogwarts…a lot has changed since then, hasn’t it?”

“Yeah,” Harry smiled, “It has…”

“I agree with Perce, it wasn’t your fault,” Theo said, “But I do kind of know how you feel. Sadie keeps saying it’s just a stomach bug she picked up from the food in Egypt but it’s obvious that she’s not been well and I feel crap for not being around to help her. She hates that place you know, Egypt, the course, the people on the course and…I think she’s making herself ill because of it. Is that possible?”

Harry nodded, “People handle stress differently. Daphne stops eating and withdraws into her self and Hermione-”

“Screams at people and starts acting like a psycho,” Draco finished.

“I was going to be kinder than that but yeah, that’s accurate,” Harry admitted.

“Sadie is more like Daphne than Hermione when it comes to stress,” Theo said, “But I don’t want her to make herself seriously ill because of this. I told her that if she hates it so much to drop out and find something else that she wants to do but she’s determined to stick it out.”

“Of course she is,” Draco said, “This is Sadie we’re talking about. When has she ever backed out of something after setting her mind to it?”

Theo sighed, “I know but this is different…this is hurting her.”

“She’ll be fine Theo,” Draco said, he rose to his feet, “She’ll either get used to it and adapt or she won’t.”

“And if she doesn’t, then what?”

“Then she will realise that you were right and she will drop out,” Draco said, “So try to stop worrying about her, I know it’s hard but try.”

Theo sighed heavily but nodded.

“I’m going to the bar, do you want something?”

“Double firewhiskey,” Theo replied.

“Make it two,” Ron said.

“Three,” Percy said as he raised.

Harry got to his feet, “I’m making my own. The last time I asked you for a double, I’m sure you gave me a triple.”

“Wimp.”

Harry rolled his eyes and made his way up to the bar with Draco. They didn’t say much until they reached it. They were out of hearing range of the others now, so long as they spoke quietly.

“Do you reckon Sadie’s pregnant?” Draco asked Harry in an undertone.

Harry scoffed, “What? No.”

“Why is it such an incredulous idea?” Draco asked as he began to pour the firewhiskey out.

“Because Sadie is – Jesus, you are light-handed when it comes to measures – smart, she’s the kind of girl who uses all the spells and takes the right precautions,” Harry whispered, “She wouldn’t let something like that happen. Not like…”

“Not like Ginny did?” Draco finished with a raised eyebrow, “Are you suggesting that your ex is a looser woman?”

“No,” Harry said awkwardly, “Well I mean…she was a little more promiscuous but-”

“But she has a brain and look at her,” Draco said quietly, “She fell pregnant before she had even finished school. It can happen to anyone Harry.”

“But it hasn’t happened to Sadie,” Harry said, “I just can’t see it Draco. Theo’s right, she’s gotten herself ill because of everything going on with her course. It’s not unusual, Daph gets ill when she’s stressed too. She’s been ill for the last couple of weeks and I’m not automatically assuming she’s pregnant.”

“Fine,” Draco said, “But I just think there’s something more going on than her hating her course.”

Before Harry could say anymore, Draco had begun to head over to the table with the drinks.

Draco was a little irritated that Harry had shot down his idea, mostly because Harry was usually more than happy to gossip. But Draco had a funny feeling that something was off with Sadie and although Harry didn’t know it, he did have experience of the changes that women went through during early pregnancy. He had seen it with Pansy and he saw something of that in the way Sadie had been since she had gotten home from Egypt.

***

Hermione left the party earlier than Draco because she had work in the morning and he didn’t. She used the door in the basement and found it odd but also extremely useful to be able to step back into her own home so easily.

She was tired but she couldn’t go to bed yet because she had promised Lilly that she would floo her and catch her up on all the gossip that she had missed during the evening.

Hermione stepped into the kitchen, made herself a cup of tea and then got comfortable in front of the fireplace before throwing some floo powder into the flames and saying, “Centre for Trauma Healing, Amiens.”

The flames flickered and then turned amber, “Who would you like to be put through to?”

“Trainee Lillian Moon please.”

“One moment,” The voice at the other end said.

It took a couple of minutes for the call to connect, but when it did the flames turned green and Lilly’s face appeared in the fireplace.

She smiled broadly at Hermione, “Hey Hermione!”

Hermione smiled back, “Hey! How are things in France?”

“Busy, how are things at home?” Lilly asked.

“Interesting,” Hermione admitted, “I’ve just got back from Sadie and Theo’s, the first thing I did after making myself a cuppa was floo you.”

Lilly laughed, “Is that because you miss me or because you still feel bad for taking Nev’s side during our break?”

“Both,” Hermione admitted honestly, “I do still feel bad but I also miss you. It felt wrong tonight, all of us chatting and you being on the other side of the channel.”

“Yeah,” Lilly sighed, “It sucks but at least it’s only for a year. Why was your night interesting, by the way?”

“Well Sadie told us all about your new nickname,” Hermione joked.

Lilly rolled her eyes, “Yeah, I regret telling Neville about that. He told Theo who told Sadie who tells everyone.”

“It is quite amusing though, you have to admit that,” Hermione said.

“To you guys maybe,” Lilly said with a raised eyebrow, “Please tell me you didn’t spend the whole night talking about me?”

“No, of course not,” Hermione replied, “We spent more time talking about Draco and Theo. During their isolation week they had to spend two weeks in the Scottish Highlands together and Theo messed up under pressure.”

“No surprises there,” Lilly joked.

Hermione laughed, “Well he said that Draco was his boyfriend so they had to spend the next two weeks keeping the cover story up. Draco hadn’t told me about it so I can’t wait to grill him tonight.”

Lilly snorted, “I wouldn’t believe it if it was anyone else but with those two, I can believe that. How’s Nev?”

“Lost without you, as expected,” Hermione said with a small smile, “We were all there in couples apart from Ron so Neville ended up talking to him about boy stuff until the boys disappeared downstairs to the mancave.”

Lilly smiled, “I really hope we can make it work but I hate being so far away from him.”

“And he hates it too,” Hermione said, “That’s what will make it work. If neither of you cared then it would never last.”

Lilly sighed, “That doesn’t mean I enjoy it. Do you have anymore gossip to take my mind off things?”

“Not gossip as such,” Hermione said slowly, “But a theory. Have you heard about Sadie being unwell?”

“I haven’t heard anything,” Lilly said, “I was back for a few hours and I spent all of them in bed with Nev.”

Hermione chuckled, “And nobody can blame you for that. I’ll fill you in though, Sadie hasn’t been feeling well since she got to Egypt. She thinks she ate something that gave her a stomach bug and she’s only just getting her appetite back now but when she got back she looked awful. She was so pale and thin, we were all quite worried. Theo was worried sick, you know what he’s like.”

Lilly nodded.

“But I couldn’t help thinking tonight when she was talking about it,” Hermione continued, “Do you think she might be pregnant?”

“Pregnant?” Lilly asked in disbelief, “No way, this is Sadie we’re talking about.”

“I know but nobody expected Ginny to get pregnant, did they?”

Lilly bit her lip, “Uh honestly, I kind of did. She had quite a few sexual partners before she started seeing Blaise and she always did seem a little…uh promiscuous?”

Hermione rolled her eyes, “I suppose I can see why you would think that but I never saw Ginny that way.”

“Either way, Sadie is nothing like Ginny,” Lilly pointed out, “She’s totally logical, just like you. There’s no way you would get pregnant just as you were starting an important course that could set up your future career.”

“I know,” Hermione agreed, “I’m very careful and I’m sure that Sadie is too but she did just come back from her honeymoon. If there’s ever a time when you might forget about the charm or get lost in the moment, it would be on your honeymoon.”

“I suppose,” Lilly said, “But still, Sadie’s not pregnant. It’s just the food, she’s always been funny with spicy food and Merlin knows how they prepare it over there. You’ve heard all the stories about street food, you’re reading too much into it.”

Hermione hummed thoughtfully, “Yeah, you’re right. I guess it’s this baby boom after the war, I’m seeing pregnant women everywhere I look.”

“War equals babies,” Lilly said with an amused smile, “And I had better go. Lights out is in 5 minutes.”

“Okay,” Hermione said with a smile, “I’ll see you next weekend? You’re all coming to the house for dinner on Saturday aren’t you?”

“Yep,” Lilly said with a smile, “Can’t wait. See you next week.”

“See you later Lil.”

***

By the time Draco eventually crawled into bed, Hermione had been asleep for a few hours. She knew he was back before he reached the bedroom because she heard the basement door slam loudly. Then she heard Draco stumbling through the hall, he managed to knock over every single ornament in the process.

Hermione rolled her eyes in amusement as she looked towards the bedroom door. When it opened, she expected to see a drunk mess in place of her fiancé but in fact, he was just pleasantly tipsy.

“Do you have any idea what time it is?” Hermione mumbled from beneath the duvet.

“3.58am,” Draco said as he kicked off his trousers and discarded his t-shirt on the floor, “You told me to be home before 4am.”

“You took that very literally,” Hermione said with a fond smile.

Draco climbed into bed next to her in his boxers, “I know what happens when I don’t do what you say and I don’t like it.”

Hermione chuckled and rolled over so that he could wrap his arms around her, “How bad were the others when you left?”

“Percy and Ron were fine,” Draco said as he kissed her forehead, “Harry was totally pissed, he passed out on one of the sofas in the mancave.”

“What about Theo?”

“He didn’t drink that much,” Draco said, “He was worried about Sadie, he went to bed pretty early to make sure she was okay. Harry and I ended up playing beer pong with Ron and Percy, that’s why I’m so late.”

“Beer pong, dear god, Harry is going to regret that in the morning,” Hermione said with a shake of her head. She looked up at Draco, “I’m worried about Sadie you know.”

Draco hummed, “Me too.”

“I spoke to Lilly about this earlier, I floo-ed her as soon as I came home,” Hermione mused, “I thought she might be pregnant, but Lilly thought the idea was ridiculous.”

“I thought that too!” Draco exclaimed, “I said the same thing to Harry but he was sure that I was wrong.”

Hermione looked up at him in surprise, “I think we might be right, you know? A stomach bug wouldn’t have lasted this long, she would have gotten better since she got home, wouldn’t she?”

Draco nodded, “That made me wonder as well but I noticed a couple of stupid little things. To someone who hadn’t seen it before, the changes are too small to notice but there were these things with Pansy that seemed weird. Then she told me that she pregnant and they all made sense…”

“Like suddenly being overly sensitive about silly things?” Hermione guessed, “Because Sadie got really irritated when Susan started talking about that belief that Slytherins are flexible in their sexuality. Normally she would roll her eyes and joke about something like that.”

Draco nodded again, “There were other things I noticed too. She only seems to be ill in the mornings and she gets better as the day goes in. I know that morning sickness doesn’t always happen in the morning, Pansy used to get it in the middle of the night, but still…”

“It all seems too strange to be a coincidence,” Hermione admitted.

“If she is pregnant, Theo has no idea,” Draco said.

“If she is pregnant, I don’t think _she _has any idea,” Hermione added.

“Do you think I should say something to Theo?”

Hermione shook her head, “No, after I interfered when Neville and Lilly were arguing, I learned a very important lesson. Don’t get involved with other people’s relationships, let them work things out for themselves.”

Draco hummed thoughtfully and leant down to kiss her, “So wise.”

Hermione wrinkled her nose up, “Draco, I love you but you stink of firewhiskey and beer.”

“Sorry love,” Draco mumbled as he buried his head in her hair, “Love you.”

She smiled because she could tell from his tone of voice that he was nearly asleep, “Love you too,” she murmured as he began to snore.

**TBC.**


	94. Animal Instincts

“Do you know what date it is?”

“It’s the 17th of August, what’s special about it?”

“Well,” Harry said with a raised eyebrow, “Why have you lot been walking about with mandrake leaves in your mouth for the last month?”

Theo’s eyes widened, “Animagus!”

“The potion!” Neville added excitedly.

“I assume it’s ready then?” Draco asked. He of course wanted to remain cool and calm, even though the others had seen through that façade months ago.

Harry resisted the urge to roll his eyes, Draco could be so predictable, “It’s ready and it’s in the basement. The question is, are you ready? Do you remember all-”

“All the psychological parts? Yes, yes, you went through it all with us,” Theo said with a wave of his hand, “Now can we take it? Please?”

Harry sniggered, “I think your animagus form might be a dog Theo, you do get excited easily.”

Neville snorted in amusement and got to his feet, “We are going to take it today though, aren’t we?”

Harry nodded and got to his feet too. He began to lead the way down to the basement as he said, “It would make sense to take it today. That way you can write to the Ministry to register yourselves and add it into your file with the Aurors. It looks good, being an animagus. It’s an extra skill, an edge we’ll have over other people.”

“Depending on the form,” Draco pointed out, “Some have more uses than others. What use was that rat Pettigrew after all?”

“Every animagus form can be useful if you know how to use it,” Harry said, “Pettigrew was a scummy bastard but being able to transform into something small like a rat is useful. You could eavesdrop on important conversations from beneath the floorboards.”

“What about a massive patronus form then?” Neville asked, “Like a dragon or a griffin. How would that be any use? It’s hardly inconspicuous.”

“Brute force,” Harry said, “My form is particularly useful because it enables me to fly.”

“Not to mention the fact it enables you to heal people by crying,” Neville muttered, a little irritably.

“Don’t get pissy yet Nev,” Theo said, “You haven’t seen your form yet, it might be even better.”

“Better than a bloody phoenix?” Neville said, “That would be difficult since it is literally the coolest animal on earth.”

“It is pretty cool,” Harry agreed with a smirk, Neville just rolled his eyes.

They entered Harry’s room of requirement where a cauldron was bubbling away quite happily, “Okay so we’re going to do this one at a time. Remember to close your eyes and completely clear your mind as if you were about to try and use occlumency.”

The other three had stopped joking around to listen now. At the end of the day, if they didn’t pay attention this could go wrong and Harry was the only one who had successfully done it.

“After you have taken the potion, keep your mind focused on becoming your animal form. When it starts to work you will feel this weird tingling sensation and when that stops, you can open your eyes and try to talk,” Harry said, “Obviously it came out a squawk for me but it will be different depending on your form. Neville, you’re up first.”

“Of course your sidekick gets to go first,” Theo said, somewhat huffily.

“There’s more than enough to go around,” Harry said with a pointed look, “So wait your turn.”

Draco sniggered as Theo crossed his arms like a child would do upon being told off.

Neville laughed but truthfully, he felt a little nervous as he stepped up to the cauldron. Harry ladled some of the mixture into a goblet and handed it to him, “You’ll be fine Nev, just keep your mind focused.”

Neville nodded, he took a deep breath and shut his eyes. He cleared his mind, just as Harry had told him to then he drank deeply from the goblet. He felt Harry pull the empty goblet from his hand but he tried not to think about Harry or the others, he focused on becoming his animal form. He felt a great sense of relief when the tingling sensation started because he knew what it meant, it was working.

The tingling started in his head and worked its way up his entire body from his toes to his head. When it stopped, he opened his eyes a little cautiously and tried to say hello. He scared the life out of himself when it came out as a roar.

The others were staring at him in awe and when Harry transfigured a mirror, Neville realised why. His animagus form was a lion, a huge, fearsome looking lion.

“From the boy who never thought he was a true Gryffindor,” Harry said with a proud grin.

Neville would have grinned too, but lions didn’t grin so it just looked like he was baring his teeth. It gave him immense pleasure to see that Theo looked a little bit terrified of him at the moment.

“To become human again, close your eyes and shut out the noise,” Harry instructed and Neville did so, “Now concentrate on becoming human again. The tingling will start to let you know that it’s working.”

After a few seconds, the tingling did start. This time in his head, once it had worked its way all the way down to his toes, Neville opened his eyes and was relieved to see that he managed to become completely human again with no consequences, “That was awesome.”

“Yeah, it was!” Harry agreed, “A phoenix and a lion, we are going to smash it as Aurors mate!”

Draco rolled his eyes, “You haven’t seen our forms yet. Don’t get too ahead of yourself.”

“I doubt anything can beat a phoenix or a lion but you’re up next so I suppose we’ll find out,” Harry said.

Draco stepped up to the cauldron and accepted the goblet filled with potion, “You Gryffindors always have had problems containing your ego’s.”

Harry snorted, “Just remember-”

“Clear my head, concentrate, wait for the tingling,” Draco recited, “I know.”

Before Harry could say anything more, he shut his eyes and cleared his mind. Then he drained the potion and handed the goblet back to Harry. Draco didn’t need to concentrate for long before the tingling sensation began. Snape had taught him Occlumency so clearing his mind and focusing weren’t particularly difficult skills for him.

Once the tingling had worked its way through his body, Draco opened his eyes and was amazed by what he saw in the mirror before him. He had been worried that his animagus form wouldn’t be up to scratch compared to Harry or Neville’s but there had been no need for him to worry because he was a dragon. Not a full-sized dragon, but a 6 foot, emerald green, fire breathing, flying dragon.

He could tell that the others were impressed too because they were all gaping at him. Draco had to admit, he felt rather smug as he shut his eyes and concentrated on becoming human again. The tingling worked its way through his body for a second time and when he opened his eyes, he was human again.

“You were saying?”

“Alright, a dragon is pretty cool,” Harry conceded.

Neville nodded, “Yeah, it was pretty impressive.”

Theo nodded eagerly, “A phoenix, a lion and a dragon? I can’t wait to see what I become!”

Harry chuckled as Theo bounded up to the cauldron, “What if you’re a tiny cute little bunny?”

Theo scoffed, “As if Potter, give me the potion.”

Harry handed the goblet over, “Just remember to clear your mind and concentrate or it won’t work.”

“I know,” Theo said as he shut his eyes, “I’ve studied Legilimency, I’ll be fine.”

Like Draco, clearing his mind and focusing came naturally to Theo. He began to feel the tell-tale tingling sensation almost straight away and he felt his excitement building. Once the tingling had moved from his toes to his head, Theo tried to ask, “What am I?”

It came out as a squeak which wasn’t an encouraging sign.

When Theo opened his eyes, he was looking for something huge and impressive in the mirror. Instead what he saw was a tiny little Red Panda.

“Aw Theo!” Neville said with a grin, “You’re so cute, I just want to stroke you!”

Theo glared at Neville, only it didn’t really work because apparently Red Panda’s couldn’t glare.

Theo shut his eyes to focus on becoming human again and heard the others snigger. He blocked out the noise, concentrated and silently fumed while the tingling sensation worked its way through his body.

When he was human again, he said, “A Red Panda!? You all become huge, mythical or powerful beasts and I become a fucking Red Panda?!”

“At least you’re cute though,” Neville said.

“You could definitely use that to your advantage if you ever needed to beg for food,” Harry pointed out.

“And you’re the smallest so you can slip through gaps that we can’t,” Draco said, “You can eavesdrop on conversations by hiding on the roof too.”

“Red Panda’s are very good climbers,” Harry added with a nod.

“And very cute ones.”

“I don’t want to be cute, I want to be a powerful, mythical beast!” Theo said irritably as he stomped towards the door.

“Where are you going?” Draco called after him.

“Home,” Theo said huffily, “Enjoy your fantastic forms together while I go eat some fucking nuts.”

Before anyone could say anymore, he had left the room and slammed the door behind him.

“You were a bit harsh there Nev,” Harry said as he bit his lip, “With the whole cute thing.”

“Oh come on Harry!” Neville exclaimed, “What do you think he would have done if I’d been the small cute one?”

“Neville does have a point,” Draco admitted grudgingly, “Theo would have slagged him rotten for it.”

“Still,” Harry said, “He’s obviously having a hard time at the moment. He’s worried about Sadie being ill and he already feels inferior compared to us.”

“I think Harry’s saying that you need to apologise for being a dick, Neville,” Draco said, he smirked in Neville’s direction.

Harry nodded, “Yeah, you were a bit of a dick.”

Neville rolled his eyes and sighed, “Fine, I’ll apologise! But only because I feel bad for him with Sadie being the way she is at the moment and definitely not because I think he deserves an apology.”

“You tell yourself whatever you need to tell yourself Nev,” Harry said, he shot Draco an amused look as he patted his friend on the back.

“Whatever helps you sleep at night,” Draco agreed as he tried not to burst out laughing himself.

***

Daphne wasn’t sure what to expect on her first day at work with Bill as her mentor. She didn’t feel nervous about the change, but all the same, she had no idea what Bill would be like as a mentor.

When she stepped into his office on Tuesday morning with two lattes in cardboard cups and a brown bag, Bill was whistling while he created a neat second desk.

“Ah, just in time!” Bill said when he saw her, “It’s not as big as my desk but that’s because you’re not as important as me, but I hope it will do.”

Daphne smiled, “It’s my own desk and there’s no sleazy bastard on the other side of it so it’s perfect. I brought you a pastry and I didn’t know how you liked your coffee so I got it black.”

“I’ll drink any coffee but for future reference, white with two sugars,” Bill said as he took the cup and bag from her gratefully, “What do you drink?”

“Most of the time a latte,” Daphne replied, she put her handbag down on her desk, “But there are some mornings when a strong, black coffee is required and this is one of them.”

“Ah, the gathering last night,” Bill said with an amused smile, “Well, you don’t look hungover and as long as you do your job properly, I won’t bug you about it because I’m that kind of mentor.”

“How are you going to mentor me, exactly?” Daphne asked curiously, “I thought you weren’t a field cursebreaker anymore.”

“Technically I’m head of HR,” Bill agreed with a nod, “But I’ll be honest with you, I hate it. I only took the job because Fleur pushed me into it, she thought we needed more money when we found out we were going to be having a baby. She was right, but sitting at a desk all day is not my forte so I have hired a HR Assistant. She’s going to be doing a large chunk of the paperwork so that I can focus on training my new protégé.”

Daphne raised an eyebrow at him, “Your new protégé? Bill, everyone says you’re the best Curse Breaker this place has seen in two decades.”

Bill smirked, “Exactly, you have far more potential than you know Daphne. Don’t doubt it, confidence is everything. Now, I am going to take you out in the field today but there’s a few rules that I want to go over first.”

Daphne nodded, she was still reeling from Bill’s comment about her being his protégé.

“I like to think that Curse Breakers who work together should treat each other the same way as Aurors,” Bill explained, “Auror partners know everything about each other, they share their worries and fears about life with each other because it’s important for them to always know how the other is feeling. Now as Curse Breakers we may not save whole towns from dragons or catch dark wizards but we do save people’s lives on a daily basis and there is quite a large element of danger in our job.”

“I know that,” Daphne said, “Some of the curses we will be dealing with are going to be nasty.”

“That’s part of it,” Bill agreed, “But there are other dangers. Cursed objects are often owned by dark wizards who are reluctant to part with their dark, dangerous cursed object. There are times when the Aurors get involved and we all work as a team but most of the time, we just get on with it ourselves. So that is why I believe it’s important to know how our partner is feeling, if you and Harry have had a fight and you’re feeling down then I need to know. If I’ve been up all night with a screaming baby, you need to know because we need to know that the other isn’t at their best. Do you agree?”

Daphne nodded, “Yeah, completely.”

“Good,” Bill said, he paused to sip his coffee, “So let’s spend a little while getting to know each other before we go anywhere.”

Daphne frowned, “You do know me though Bill…”

“I know you’re engaged to Harry,” Bill said, “I know you love Teddy like he’s your own son. I know you were in Slytherin, I know your family own the largest wizarding shipping company in the world. I know you’re a proud woman and I know you are an incredibly skilled Witch who will be a fantastic Curse Breaker one day but that’s all I know about you. What do you know about me?”

Daphne’s frown deepened, “I know you’re from a big family. I know you’re married to Fleur who you met working at Gringotts. I know you’re a Father to a baby girl called Victoire. I know you were a Gryffindor and that your brother Charlie is your best friend. Um…I…I know you like Quidditch and…”

Bill raised an eyebrow at her, “See?”

“Alright,” Daphne conceded, “We don’t know each other very well.”

“So tell me something about yourself,” Bill said, “Tell me about your childhood.”

Daphne snorted and sat down heavily at her new desk, “Are you sure you want to hear that sob story?”

“I need to know what makes you, you,” Bill said, “And our childhood defines us.”

“Well,” Daphne sighed, “I grew up in this horrible place called Greengrass House with my Mother, Father and my little sister. Our family only really rose to prominence in the last hundred years but they wanted to seem like they had been around for longer so they built this horrible modern house and tried to make it look like it had been around since Tudor times. I have no good memories of that place…apart from this one room, at the top of the tower. I think it was once a bell tower but my sister and I used to use it as a hideaway. It was pretty cold and all we really had up there were beanbags and blankets but we still loved it.”

Bill smiled, “Charlie and I built a treehouse near the orchard where everyone plays Quidditch. When the house was too loud because of all of our younger siblings screaming or fighting, we used to escape out there. It was on the grounds of the house so we could use magic with an old wand of my Grandfathers and the Ministry couldn’t tell. We used to create fires and cook on them, sometimes the two of us would spend whole weekends out there.”

Daphne chuckled, “Astoria and I used to fall asleep up in the tower a lot. We would wake up shivering and cuddling together for warmth then we would sneak back downstairs to our bedrooms. We had to sneak because my Father had a temper and he wouldn’t have approved of us staying up late.”

“Your Father was Cygnus Greengrass, wasn’t he?”

Daphne nodded, “He was 28 when he married my Mother. She was only 18, she had just finished Hogwarts and she had all of these dreams and aspirations for her life. She wanted to become a Healer and work with kids in St. Mungo’s but the marriage was arranged so she had to marry Cygnus when he demanded it and he demanded it as soon as he could,” she paused to take a breath, “My Mother hated my Father. He was a very cold man and he could be a very cruel man too. My Mother…she had a foolish heart, she would fall in love so easily and I don’t know how many affairs she had over the years. I remember the men I would see around the house, she would tell me they were lawyers here to survey the house or relations that I had never heard of but the older I got, the more I realised what was really going on.”

Bill didn’t say anything as she told her story, he couldn’t help but think that her childhood had been very different from his own.

“When I was 6, my Father worked out that my Mother had been betraying him for years,” Daphne said, “He got angry and set fire to the house with all of us in it. My Mother got us all out with nothing more than minor burns and while we were in St. Mungo’s, I begged her not to go back to my Father but she said that she had no choice. She begged my Father to take her back and he did, after beating her within an inch of her life.”

Bill flinched slightly at those words, although he was trying his best to remain neutral.

“My Father made her swear to stay faithful to him, he said that if she did then he would provide for her and for me and Astoria even though…” Daphne sighed and looked up, “Harry doesn’t even know this part Bill.”

Bill nodded, “I’ll keep it in confidence.”

“He said he promised to provide for her and her daughters even if one of them wasn’t his,” Daphne said as she cast her eyes down once more, “He was always kinder to me than Astoria and there was a part of me that wondered about the difference in appearance between us. I have blonde hair and blue eyes like both of my parents, Astoria has the same eyes as me but dark hair so it wasn’t difficult to work it out. Astoria doesn’t know, and as far as I’m concerned she doesn’t need to know…” she trailed off for a moment, “But anyway, my Father died in a somewhat noble way, ironically enough. He wasn’t a nice Father or a good man but he wasn’t a Death Eater, they killed him when he refused to join. He died a traitors death and I think all of felt a great sense of relief when he did.”

When Daphne looked up at Bill, he said nothing and his face gave nothing away. She laughed humourlessly, “I did say that you didn’t want to hear my sob story. I bet you have no idea what to say now, right?”

Bill shook his head slowly, “I’m glad that you told me because I feel like I understand you on a different level now. I was quiet because I was debating whether I should tell you something that nobody apart from my brother knows about me, not even my wife.”

Daphne raised an eyebrow at him, “I thought you Weasley’s were all about honesty.”

“We are,” Bill said, “But there are some things that even us Weasley’s don’t like to talk about. After everything that you just told me though, I think you deserve to know something about me that nobody knows.”

Daphne sipped her coffee and watched him with interest, “I’m listening.”

Bill, who had been sitting on the edge of his desk, got to his feet and walked over to the window. Since Bill had a nice office, there was a lovely view out over Diagon Alley so this place was a real step-up from the cupboard she had been stuck in with Fawley.

“When I was a kid, it was just me and Charlie against the world,” Bill began, “Don’t get me wrong, our parents loved us but they just had so many kids in quick succession that it was hard to give a lot of attention to any of them. I was 6 when Percy was born and after that, Charlie and I were left to our own devices most of the time. I’m two years older than him so Mum always trusted me to look after him, she wasn’t worried about letting us out of the house as long as we didn’t leave the grounds because Voldemort was around, gathering support and the Order of the Phoenix were terrified that he would strike. I remember growing up in fear though…I was 11 when Voldemort disappeared, the night he tried to kill Harry, I had just started Hogwarts.”

“Merlin,” Daphne breathed, “I can’t imagine that, growing up with that around you only to have to relieve it as an adult when he came back.”

Bill nodded solemnly but said no more on the subject, “Charlie’s birthday is in December and he always loved when it would snow on his birthday but it didn’t happen very often. The first year that it did happen was his 5th birthday, I had just turned 7 and I promised to take him out in the snow. Mum said it was fine as long as we didn’t go any further than the orchard but we knew that there was a lake just beyond there…Dad had taken us fishing there once.”

Daphne listened to Bill’s tale with as much attention as he had listened to hers.

“Charlie kept bugging me, he said he wanted me to use Grandads old wand to make his shoes into ice skates,” Bill said quietly, “He wanted to skate on the pond because it was frozen over and he just kept nagging until I said that it was okay. I transfigured our shoes then we left the orchard and as we were no longer on the grounds of the house, we were no longer protected by all of the enchantments that the order had put on the place.”

Daphne had a horrible feeling that she knew where this was going but she stayed silent and nodded as Bill continued, “At first, it was worth it because the minute Charlie got on the ice it was obvious that he was loving it. I didn’t skate much, I just watched him and warned him to stay away from the thin patches of ice, he was a clever kid so he knew where to skate,” he paused for a breath and glanced over at Daphne, “And this is the bit where you wait for me to tell you that the ice broke and he fell in, isn’t it?”

Daphne nodded, “Is that what happened?”

“No,” Bill said, a dark look flitted across his face briefly, “Something worse than that happened. We heard noises coming from the woods by the orchard, we knew it wasn’t Mum or Dad because the orchard is the only part of those woods in our property and the entrance was right in front of the lake. I called Charlie off of the ice and told him to pull his skates off in case we had to run, I told him to be very quiet as we crawled back to the orchard so that nobody would see us. We nearly made it, but when we got close, somebody came out of the woods.”

Daphne felt tense just listening to the story so she didn’t blame Bill for having tensed up entirely. He shut his eyes tightly and said, “I now know that the people I saw were Bellatrix Lestrange and the two Lestrange brothers but back then, I didn’t. Charlie and I hid behind the trees while they dragged a bloody body out of the woods, Bellatrix was cackling and the two brothers were looking around to make sure that nobody was watching them. I still don’t know who that man was but I remember them stringing him up in the forest naked, I told Charlie to look away but I know he saw more than a 5 year old should have seen. I’ve never been able to get the image of that man hanging from the tree, naked and with his head on a spike above him, out of my head. I still have nightmares about it, I still hate going out in wooded areas alone at night time because every silhouette looks like the shadow of that man. Charlie and I ran home afterwards and I made him promise not to tell anyone what he had seen and he never did but…”

Bill opened his eyes and sighed, “It left a mark on him. He couldn’t connect with people for such a long time, animals were his solace because he found them easier than people. His love for dragons was stronger than his love for people and it cost him so much happiness. I never really forgave myself for that. Not when it lost him Dora…not when it made him move across the world to work with dragons. This last year, having him back and seeing him falling in love with Aurora all over again…well it’s the first time I’ve allowed myself to stop feeling guilty for what happened all of those years ago.”

Daphne smiled slightly, “I can understand that, all of it. Astoria saw horrible things, she was terrified after the fire. Then again, so was I. It took Harry to cure me of my fear of fire and fireworks but even though it wasn’t my fault, I never stopped blaming myself for not being able to shield Astoria from everything that my Father did.”

Bill sighed, “If I tell you something Daphne, you have to promise to keep it to yourself.”

Daphne nodded, “Don’t worry, I’m very good at keeping secrets. I have to be, Harry has a lot of them.”

“I can imagine,” Bill said thoughtfully, “What you said about me having a good childhood…well that’s not entirely true. I never really had a childhood if I’m honest, I had so many siblings and my Dad worked so much that I became like a surrogate Father to the younger ones. I remember spending my summer holidays looking after Ron and Ginny so Mum could sleep because she was so exhausted. I don’t want to resent them for that but I do and because of the fact that I had to basically raise them, I find it hard to connect with them. Charlie is the only one who really feels like my younger brother. Does that make any sense?”

“Kind of,” Daphne admitted, “But I only have one sister so I am finding it a bit hard to follow.”

“I just never had much in common with my siblings,” Bill admitted, “We all love Quidditch but beyond that there isn’t much. Percy was always too academic for me to connect with and Fred and George always did their own thing together. Ron irritated me and I found him to be quite childish because at the end of the day, he is 10 years younger than me. Then Ginny…she’s always been my baby sister but I’ve never connected with her on a deeper level than that. This is a horrible thing to say because I know families shouldn’t have favourites but I do, I feel like my favourite siblings are Charlie and Harry.”

“Harry?” Daphne asked with interest.

Bill nodded, “I know it’s not by blood but I relate to Harry more than my actual siblings. He’s everything I wanted my younger siblings to be. Nobody else really had the same thirst for adrenaline and danger as me. It’s a horrible thing to prefer an adopted sibling to most of your blood ones and it’s even more horrible to resent your siblings for stealing your childhood away.”

Daphne shook her head, “It’s not horrible to resent the people who stole your childhood. I never got to have a normal childhood, I spent most of it protecting Astoria from my Fathers rage after he drank too much. I never got to do normal things until I went to Hogwarts, Tracey took me to my first Quidditch game in my 3rd year.

Bill smiled, “I remember taking Harry to his first Quidditch game. We all went to see Bulgaria play Ireland and I never realised how big a deal it was for him. I had grown up seeing Quidditch with my Dad so I took it for granted, but it was a pretty awesome thing to see his reaction to his first professional game.”

“It’s all about making sure that you don’t make the same mistakes as your parents when you’re raising your own kids,” Daphne said thoughtfully, “We take Teddy to every match we can and he’s not really old enough to take it in yet. He just likes the atmosphere and the fact he gets ice cream after, but it’s important to Harry.”

“What’s important to you?” Bill asked curiously.

“Making sure that he gets fun holidays and an ordinary life,” Daphne replied, “We have this cottage in Devon and I love taking him there. I love taking him to the beach or letting him play in a park because I never got to do any of that. I want him to be able to enjoy being a kid while he can because it’s all over so quickly and the real-world sucks.”

“Ah, it’s not so bad all of the time,” Bill said with a smile, “When you love what you do, that helps.”

“Love helps in general,” Daphne said in a contemplative way as she sipped her coffee.

“For those of us who are lucky enough to find true, pure love then yes, it does,” Bill agreed.

“I’m lucky,” Daphne admitted, “I never believed in love if I’m being completely honest. I thought it was a trick, a rush of pheromones that trick the body into reproducing, natures way of ensuring the human race survives another day. I was sceptic because of what I had grown up seeing and I never wanted to fall in love, I never wanted to experience pain like my Mother had but then I met Harry and all of my preconceptions went out of the window. The kind of love he has for me and I have for him…it’s nothing that I’ve ever experienced or that I could ever have imagined and I suppose if we’re going to be doing the whole complete honesty partnership thing, I should tell you that I’m marrying him, soon.”

Bill smiled slightly, “How soon?”

“This New Year,” Daphne replied, “It’s a surprise. We’re having a New Years party but it’s actually a wedding. You’re the only person who knows, apart from Harry.”

“In that case I’m honoured,” Bill said with a broad smile, “And I’m happy that you managed to end that conversation on a happy note because it was getting very doom and gloom for a moment there.”

Daphne laughed weakly, “Yes, it was,” she agreed.

Bill cleared his throat and got to his feet, “I don’t know about you, but I feel like we are rather well acquainted now.”

Daphne chuckled, “I feel the same. Does that mean we get to go out on a job?”

“It does indeed,” Bill said, “Now I spoke to a couple of colleagues yesterday about the guidelines concerning trainee Curse Breakers and they said that foreign jobs are off-limits until you have been here for 6 months. So we are stuck in the UK but I made sure I got the top-priority list of jobs in the UK so we should have the interesting cases, not the cursed toilets that were biting Muggles arses.”

Daphne grinned, “What kind of interesting cases?”

“Well,” Bill said as he pulled a brown file out of a drawer in his desk, “Our first case is rather interesting indeed. It concerns a Miss Penelope Van Houston from Cambridge. She claims that a 1,206 year-old family heirloom is cursed. Every time it gets a new owner, that new owner has suffered.”

“Interesting,” Daphne said as they left the office together, “What is the item?”

“It’s a wine cabinet,” Bill replied, “Apparently everyone who comes into possession of it starts having horrible nightmares then bad things happen to them. The last few owners have been known to get mysterious diseases or have died sudden deaths.”

“You’re right, much more interesting than a cursed toilet seat,” Daphne said with a smile, “Thanks Bill, for being my mentor and for opening up to me.”

Bill smiled at her, “Thank you for playing along with my rules. Now, I don’t know about you but I’m ready to do some real work now.”

Daphne grinned, “Me too.”

**TBC.**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Based on the story of the “Dybbuk Box” which is a cursed wine cabinet.


	95. So it Begins

“How was Daphne’s first day with the new mentor?”

Harry glanced up at Draco, “Oh it was great apparently. Bill is the best Curse Breaker in 20 years and he called her his protégé and they got to go out on this case with a 1,000 year old cursed wine cabinet. She wouldn’t stop talking about it for two hours last night.”

Draco snorted, “Are you worried yet?”

Harry shook his head and smiled, “Nah, I trust her completely and even if I didn’t, Bill’s not that kind of guy. I do think its funny that she’s acting like a fangirl though, I’ve popped that in my blackmail bank in case I need it later.”

Draco grinned, “I’ve taught you well.”

Harry sniggered at that, “Where on earth are the other two? It’s 5 to 8, Sumner won’t be happy if they show up late for their first real day on the job.”

“They won’t be late,” Draco said, his eyes flicked towards the clock, “Theo is never late for anything important.”

As if on cue, the lecture hall door opened and Theo walked in with Neville in tow. When the two of them sat down in the seats Harry and Draco had saved for them, they were immediately questioned.

“Is it a coincidence that you two arrived at the same time?”

“No, I was apologising to Theo for being a dick yesterday,” Neville said with a pointed look at them, “Since _you two _ganged up on me and basically forced me to.”

“And you just accepted his apology?” Draco asked Theo in disbelief, “Just like okay, thanks for apologising? Because I have to buy you broomsticks or literally beg for your forgiveness on my knees when I piss you off.”

Theo smirked, “That’s just because I like to see the lengths you will go to for my forgiveness Draco.”

Neville sniggered and said, “Typical Slytherin,” while Draco shook his head in disgust at his Auror partner.

“I didn’t just accept his apology anyway,” Theo added, “I made him buy me breakfast.”

“So that’s why you were nearly late,” Harry said with an amused smile, “How did you apologise exactly Nev?”

“I just told Theo about the merits of Red Panda’s,” Neville answered, “I spent hours researching them last night. Did you know that Lilly literally has a book for everything?”

“No, but that doesn’t surprise me,” Draco said in amusement, “Being engaged to Hermione Granger and all. If there’s an answer she can’t find in a book, she has a nervous breakdown about it.”

Neville snorted, “Yeah, no wonder her and Lil are friends.”

“So what are the merits of Red Panda’s then?” Harry asked with a raised eyebrow.

Neville launched into a rather long explanation, “They don’t eat nuts, contrary to Theo’s belief. They actually eat bamboo, eggs, birds and insects. They are solitary animals, active at night time and mostly sedentary during the day-”

“No wonder I’m a Red Panda,” Theo cut in with a suggestive look, “_Active _at night time.”

Draco rolled his eyes and Harry sniggered while Neville continued, “They are very territorial animals and they are generally quiet.”

Draco snorted, “Quiet? That’s definitely not like Theo.”

Neville ignored his comment and added, “They are also very sensitive to heat. They can’t tolerate temperatures over 25°C.”

“Like Theo when there was a heatwave in Paris during his honeymoon,” Harry said with a grin.

“That sunburn still hurts!” Theo objected.

“So what have we learned? You don’t like heat, you’re territorial and you’re active at night time?” Draco asked with an amused look, “I mean I could have just asked Sadie a few pointed questions to work that out.”

“Shut up Draco.”

Neville hid his amused smile, “Did you also know that Red Pandas have a fight or flee mechanism when threatened like humans do? They either climb a rock column or a tree to escape or they stand on their hind legs to make themselves appear larger. Then they use their sharp claws to defend themselves.”

“So I am useful, I have sharp claws and I can defend myself,” Theo said with a pointed look, “If I lose my wand then that could be useful.”

“So long as there aren’t wards stopping you from transforming,” Harry added.

Theo rolled his eyes, “Well obviously.”

Before they could talk, or bicker, on the issue any further, the door to the hall opened and Sumner stepped in.

“Alright recruits! Today the real hard work begins!”

***

The real hard work, really was hard. They spent the first part of the morning flying around the obstacle course in the grounds of the base then they were thrown right into the deep end with interrogation training. They had to work in their Auror pairs taking turns being the interrogator and the victim. Theo gave the whole room, including Auror Lorne, a laugh when the interrogation topic that he chose was, “Why did you steal the last sandwich at my party? You know cheese and cucumber is my favourite!” 

As Harry had expected, he was better at being the interrogator than Neville but then again, Neville also hated roleplay situations like this because they made him feel insecure and nervous.

After interrogation training, they had a lecture and by that point, everyone was pretty tired so they were quite pleased to be able to sit down for a while. Auror Carter spent the next hour lecturing them about stealth, and questioning them on all of the ways you could stealthily sneak into enemy territory. Once all of the obvious ones had been shouted out (disillusionment charm, change of appearance with glamour charms, use polyjuice potion) Harry and his friends began to call out the more obscure ways.

“Use an invisibility cloak,” Harry said.

Auror Carter smiled in the way someone smiled politely when they thought somebody had said something stupid, “Well yes but they are very rare and expensive Mr. Potter. Not many people have access to them.”

Harry just shot his friends an amused look. Auror Carter then asked if they had any other ideas and Theo shot his hand up in the air, “Use your animagus form and sneak in.”

“Again Mr. Nott,” Auror Carter said politely, “Becoming an Animagus is a very difficult thing. One must be a very skilled witch or wizard so not many people have that option available to them.”

“And even if they did,” Ophelia cut in, “Surely some animagus forms would be no use for stealth purposes?”

“A deer would be useful if you were in the forest,” Harry pointed out.

“Or a lion would be useful if you were in a jungle,” Neville added.

“Or the zoo,” Draco said.

“A dragon is pretty useless though,” Theo said, shooting Draco a smirk, “Not at all stealthy.”

“Unless you wanted to sneak into a dragon reserve,” Draco pointed out.

“A Red Panda is very stealthy,” Theo said, “And small and cat-like.”

“Alright boys,” Auror Carter said in a slightly raised voice, “Yes, some animagus forms can be stealthy when used in the right environment. _However, _it is too rare an option for us to consider in great detail. Now, let’s talk about polyjuice potion. We don’t teach how to make it at schools in the UK so I don’t expect you to know any of this yet, don’t worry. Does anyone know what any of the key ingredients are in a polyjuice potion?”

Harry grinned, he was in his element, his hand shot right up into the air.

Carter looked surprised, she probably knew from his application that Potions wasn’t his best subject, “Yes Mr. Potter?”

“Shredded boomslang skin, lacewing flies that have to be stewed for 21 days, leeches, powdered bicorn horn, knotgrass and fluxweed, oh and that has to be picked at full moon,” Harry rattled off, “Then of course there’s the piece of the person you want to turn into. They used to be brutal and rip off people’s toenails or fingernails but now generally people just use hair.”

Harry revelled in Carter’s surprised look, “Uh…yes. That is spot on. Would anyone happen to know anything about the complex way in which it is made?”

Harry raised his hand again.

“Yes Potter?”

“It is brewed in two parts. Each part has two steps,” Harry said, “First you have to add fluxweed and knotgrass then let the potion brew for an hour and a half. Then you add leeches and lacewing flies and heat briefly. After that you add boomslang skin and bicorn horn and heat briefly, you have to let it brew for 24 hours after that part. Then during the last part you add some more lacewings, stir and add the piece of the person you want to become.”

Carter frowned at him, “Mr. Potter, have you brewed this potion before?”

“No,” Harry said honestly. It was the truth, he had watched other people make it but he had never brewed it himself.

“Then how exactly do you know how it is made?” Carter asked, “This is a highly advanced potion. It is never taught at N.E.W.T level and the only books about it in Hogwarts are in the restricted section.”

“I was always rather adept at getting into the restricted section without a teachers note, Ma’am,” Harry said with a slight smile.

Carter raised an eyebrow at him, “And you did so just to read up on potions?”

“I needed all the help I could get,” Harry said.

It was clear that Carter didn’t believe him but she merely smiled slightly and said, “I see. Now, I assume everyone here knows that the Ministry has restrictions concerning the brewing of polyjuice potion. The justice department can use it at their discretion for undercover jobs and the like. However, it is not to be abused by the public. Can anyone tell me why that might be?”

People started to spout out answers such as, you could turn into someone and sleep with their girlfriend which is technically sexual assault or, you could turn into someone then go into their home and steal all of their money. While these answers were spouted out Draco whispered, “How did you remember all of that?”

“I am not as shit a friend as you seem to think,” Harry murmured, “Ron wasn’t bothered about keeping Hermione company while she slaved over that potion for weeks but I was.”

Draco raised an eyebrow at him, “Congratulations, you’ve just earned another grain of respect.”

Harry snorted at this and focused his attention on Auror Carter once more.

***

By the time the lecture was over, Harry was starving and he couldn’t wait to get some lunch.

However, before he got to the hall he was pulled aside by Auror Sheppard, “Potter! Do you have a minute?”

Harry nodded, “Yes sir.”

“Great, we need a word with you in the office,” Sheppard said, “It’s just along the corridor.”

Harry’s heart began to thump harder and faster than it had when he had been flying that morning. They wanted a word with him in the office? On his first day? He started trying to work out what he had done wrong.

Thankfully, the office was a short walk away so he didn’t have to contemplate for too long. He stepped in and his mouth went dry when he saw Auror Sumner sitting behind the desk looking rather solemn. Sheppard shut the door behind them and leant against the desk.

“I assume you know why you’re here son,” Sumner said.

Harry shook his head, “No…I’m sorry, but I don’t.”

Sumner sighed and glanced down, “I understand that you’re a powerful wizard and you killed the darkest wizard there has ever been. But that doesn’t give you the right to put Curse Breakers in hospital.”

Harry’s heart sank, “No sir, you don’t understand-”

“What I understand is that your magical signature showed up on the tiny little island of St. Kilda along with a few others on Sunday night. The next thing we know, Curse Breaker Fawley is in St. Mungo’s with serious injuries claiming that he had a bad fall. Do you care to explain that?”

Harry bit back his fear of being thrown out of the program and nodded, “Yes sir, I can explain it. Stuart Fawley assaulted my fiancé, he was made her mentor because she’s a Trainee Curse Breaker at Gringotts. He abused that position by touching her, kissing her without her consent and blackmailing her. Frankly sir, I would have killed him if it wasn’t for the fact that I had Neville there to make sure I didn’t. He deserved to pay for what he did because he wouldn’t have been prosecuted for it and if somebody didn’t teach him a lesson then he would have done it again to somebody less able to protect themselves than my fiancé.”

Sumner and Sheppard caught each other’s eyes for a moment then Sumner nodded, “I completely understand. The justice system has gaps and men like that, they tend to fall through those gaps more often than not.”

“It’s wrong sir, with all due respect,” Harry said.

Sheppard nodded, “It is wrong but at the moment we have bigger problems to deal with in the department. We’re still rooting out the corrupt Aurors who helped Voldemort or the Death Eaters during the war. Once we know the department is clean again, we can work on other issues.”

Harry gave a short nod but said nothing more.

“This should be investigated by a higher power,” Sumner admitted, “But it won’t go any further than this office.”

“Thank you sir,” Harry said, his relief could clearly be heard in his voice.

“But Potter,” Sumner added, “You aren’t above the law because of who you are. This time I will let it slide but there are procedures that we have to follow. As an Auror, you can’t cut corners or deal with things yourself.”

“I know sir,” Harry said with a solemn nod, “It won’t happen again.”

“I believe you,” Sumner said honestly, “Now go on, get yourself some lunch before we start our afternoon activities.”

“I will do,” Harry said as he reached for the door handle, “And thank you again Sir.”

***

Neville was nearly bouncing off the walls as the group of friends walked to the hospital wing after lunch.

“Jeez Neville, I know you’re excited about seeing Lilly but you aren’t going to jump her the second we walk in, are you?”

Neville whacked Theo around the head, “Shut up Theo. You have your other half back now, mine is still stuck on the other side of the channel.”

“When mine is gone she’s further away though,” Theo pointed out.

“It’s not a competition,” Draco drawled.

“Everything is a competition,” Theo said, “And I need to win something. I certainly didn’t win the Animagus form competition.”

“Oh Harry definitely wins that,” Neville agreed.

“Hey! I can fly too, and I have super strength just like he does,” Draco objected.

“Yes but can you heal people with your tears?” Neville asked.

“No, but I can breathe fire,” Draco said.

“So Harry heals and you destroy,” Neville said thoughtfully.

“Quite accurate really,” Theo remarked when they reached the hospital wing.

“You’re supposed to be on my side you idiot,” Draco muttered, he whacked Theo around the head for good measure and the two of them bickered all the way into the hospital wing.

Harry shook his head in amusement and looked over at Neville. He was scanning the room for Lilly and when he saw her, his eyes lit up. She grinned and waved him over.

“Hey stranger.”

“Hey,” Neville said with a stupid smile, “I hate the fact I can’t hug you or kiss you right now.”

“Self-control is a very good trait to train yourself up on,” Lilly said with a grin, “How’s your first day going?”

“It’s busy,” Neville said honestly, “How’s France?”

“Busy, stinking of onions, the usual,” Lilly joked.

“And Marcel?”

“He’s backed off since Clara spoke to him,” Lilly promised, “So you don’t need to march over to France and kick his arse this weekend, don’t worry.”

“Damn, I was kind of looking forward to it,” Neville admitted with a grin.

“Longbottom! Quit acting like a lovestruck puppy and get back to your partner!”

Lilly chuckled and Neville shot her an amused look before walking back to Harry. The person who had barked the instructions didn’t look intimidating but Harry had a feeling that would turn out to be a false first impression.

“My name is Auror Frasier,” She began. Frasier had short mousy brown hair and kind looking brown eyes. She was barely 5 foot but Harry imagined she could pack a punch when she needed too, just like Lilly, “And I am the Senior Healing Auror in charge of this hospital wing. It will be me you will have to answer to if I see you in this place more than twice a year. Does anyone envision that being a problem?”

Harry raised his hand.

“Oh you do, Potter, do you?” Frasier asked, “Why would that be?”

“Uh…in school I averaged out at about 4 trips to the hospital wing a year,” Harry admitted sheepishly.

“Then you need to get better at dealing with your own injuries,” Frasier said curtly which of course made his friends snigger, “And this is what Trainee Trauma Healer Lillian Moon will be teaching you. She will graduate at the same time as you lot, she will be patching you up in the middle of duels so you’re going to owe a lot to her. The sooner you learn to respect the people that keep you alive in this job, the better.”

Harry nodded, that sounded more than fair.

“That is the purpose of these afternoon sessions,” Frasier continued, “You will be set tasks and if anyone has any questions, you are to go to Miss. Moon and she will help you. If she can’t help you, which I doubt because she seems like a very competent young woman, then she will come to me or one of my colleagues for help. Do you all understand?”

Everyone nodded.

“Good,” Frasier said, “I’m going to introduce you to the other hospital wing staff and then I’m going to leave you to it. This is Auror Carson, he does most of the field work around here.”

Auror Carson had a kind, shy face and bright blue eyes. He smiled and said, “Hello,” in a broad Scottish accent.

“And this is Auror Keller, she mostly stays on base and she does the bulk of the training,” Frasier said, “So acquaint yourselves with her because you will see a lot of her over the next few months.”

Keller smiled, she was a very pretty woman with long, dark blonde hair and kind eyes. Everyone here had kind eyes, Harry had a feeling that Frasier was a bit like Pomfrey, a softie at heart.

“Hi everyone,” Keller said, “Todays first task is simple. I want you all to practice basic healing charms so we’re talking about things like sealing a minor cut and soothing a slight burn. We don’t want to throw you in at the deep end, that’s never a good idea with people who have no experience of healing magic. Can I just start by asking if anyone does have any experience?”

Harry raised his hand, “I learned the basics during the war, but I was never any good. Herm – my friend – told me that my hand shook too much.”

Keller chuckled, “That’s common for beginners but it will go away when you feel less nervous about performing healing magic. Anyone else?”

Draco raised his hand, “I’m rather good with healing magic,” he didn’t go into any further detail and nobody asked. Theo nodded and said, “Yep, so am I.”

Harry and Neville shared a look, they both knew why their friends were good with healing magic. They had learned it while looking after themselves or in Draco’s case, his Mother. It was the consequence of growing up in an abusive situation, Daphne was also very adept with healing magic.

Nobody else raised their hand to say that they were at all skilled with healing magic so Keller said, “In that case, work in your Auror pairs. Inflict slight injuries on yourselves and then try to heal your Auror partners injuries. Myself and Miss. Moon will be floating about observing you all and correcting your technique so just ask if you need any help at any point. Is that all clear?”

There was a chorus of, “Yes Ma’am,” and then they all got to work.

“I saw that look.”

“What look?” Harry asked as Neville sealed up a cut on his arm.

“The look on your face when you saw Keller,” Neville said, smirking at his friend.

Harry rolled his eyes, “There was no look.”

“Yeah right,” Neville scoffed, “Tall, blonde bombshell. She’s totally your type.”

“I am happily engaged,” Harry reminded Neville.

“That doesn’t stop you from finding other people attractive,” Neville pointed out, “You think she’s hot.”

“I do not,” Harry objected, “Ouch!”

“Stay still then,” Neville said.

“Shut up about Keller then,” Harry bit back.

“Admit that you think she’s hot and I will,” Neville said.

“Fine,” Harry muttered, “She’s pretty fit. You happy now?”

“Oh yeah,” Neville smirked as he looked over Harry’s shoulder, “Hi Auror Keller.”

Harry’s cheeks went scarlet, “Neville, can I inflict your next injury please?”

Keller walked around to the front of their work station and smiled, although her cheeks were slightly pink, “I would advise against that Mr. Potter. Great work there Mr. Longbottom, the wound just needs to be sealed a little more tightly. Do you mind if I demonstrate?”

“Not at all,” Neville said, he shot Harry a rather wicked smirk and took a step back. Keller sat down in front of Harry and took his arm with one hand, with the other she held her wand steadily and began to tighten the wound while it sealed.

“Is that at all painful?” She asked Harry.

Harry shook his head, “No Ma’am,” he said while keeping his head down.

“There we go,” Keller said kindly, “Do you see how much tighter that is Mr. Longbottom? That will reduce the risk of infection greatly.”

Neville nodded, “Thank you ma’am,” he said as Keller walked away to see how Ophelia and Blanche were getting on.

“You are a fucking dick,” Harry muttered the moment Keller was out of earshot.

“I haven’t seen your cheeks that scarlet since the days of Cho Chang,” Neville joked.

“If I were you, I would shut up before Lilly gets over here,” Harry said, “Because you forget that I shared a dorm with you for 7 years and spent two weeks in the wilderness with you.”

“I really don’t see the significance of that,” Neville said calmly, he inflicted a small cut upon himself and held his arm out.

“Don’t you?” Harry asked casually. He took Neville’s arm and held his wand, a little shakily, in the direction of the cut, “Because the thing is Nev, you talk in your sleep, you always have done and you’ve said some pretty interesting things over the years.”

Neville snorted, “You’re bluffing, I’d know if I talked in my sleep.”

“If I was bluffing would I know about a certain reoccurring dream you spent two years having about Professor Sinistra?” Harry asked as he began to seal the cut up, “Or about that one time in 6th year with-”

“Alright alright,” Neville said sharply as he spotted Lilly heading their way, “I’ll shut up about Keller.”

Harry shot him a grin, “Why, thank you so much!” he said sarcastically.

Neville rolled his eyes, “You spend too much time with Draco these days,” he grumbled.

Before Harry could say anymore, Lilly had reached them, “Harry, you are massacring my boyfriend’s arm.”

“I know,” Harry said irritably, “But I just can’t keep my wand steady when I’m doing healing magic. I don’t know why, I can hold it steady fine for other sorts of magic.”

“It’s because you’re nervous,” Lilly said, “You have this preconception that you’re bad at healing magic because Hermione told you so during the war. It’s that preconception that is making your hand shake. Close your eyes and tell yourself that you can do this then open them again.”

Harry did as she said. When he opened his eyes, his hand wasn’t shaking anymore, “Woah Lil! How did you do that?”

“I didn’t do anything,” Lilly said with a smile, “You did. Now seal up this cut and let me see how tight it is.”

Harry finished sealing up the cut, in a straight line this time. Lilly smiled and nodded, “Great job, you just need to have more faith in yourself.”

Neville smiled at her, “You’re good at this whole being an authority figure thing.”

Lilly shot him a suggestive look, “Does it excite you?”

“Oh Merlin, I do not want to be in the middle of this conversation,” Harry said with a vaguely amused look.

Neville snorted in amusement, “Fat chance of any flirting going on with you here.”

“Sorry to kill the mood but we are supposed to be working,” Harry pointed out.

Lilly laughed, “Harry has a point, I’m going to check how Draco and Theo are getting on. See you two in a bit.”

“See you later,” Neville said as Lilly walked away. The moment she was out of earshot Neville muttered, “How did you know about that thing with Megan Jones in 6th year?”

Harry grinned, “I didn’t until you just told me. You also don’t talk in your sleep, I just happen to know you had a crush on Sinistra.”

“You fucking git,” Neville muttered as he kicked Harry under the table, “No wonder you were a hat stall, that’s sneaky.”

Harry grinned proudly, “I have learnt from the best Nev. By which I mean my fiancé not Draco or Theo by the way.”

Neville snorted in amusement, “Yeah, I guess that makes sense. It’s your turn to cut yourself by the way.”

“Oh right, sorry,” Harry said, he had been daydreaming and it had nothing to do with the fact that Keller had just walked past.

Neville shot him a pointed look but said nothing more on the subject. After all, he had promised that he wouldn’t, and Gryffindors were true to their word.

***

“Very impressive, I can barely see where the cut was.”

Theo looked up and smiled, “That would be because I used a glamour laced healing charm to avoid scarring.”

Lilly looked impressed, “Very good. Who taught you that?”

Theo’s smile wavered, “I taught myself everything I know Lil, including healing magic.”

Lilly knew enough about his past not to question that so she just nodded, “How is Sadie, by the way?”

“Better,” Theo said honestly, “She’s eating now, not quite three square meals a day yet but we’ll get there.”

“Now she’s home, her stomach will finally be able to settle,” Sadie said with a nod, “What’s she going to do when she goes back out there? She can’t let herself feel that ill for two weeks at a time.”

“I don’t know,” Theo said honestly, “We’ll work that out when it comes around I suppose. At the moment I’m just glad she’s got her colour back.”

“And her attitude,” Draco said with an amused look Theo’s way, “I heard that she had to roar at you to get you out of bed this morning.”

Theo rolled his eyes, “When you say _you heard_, you mean Neville told you.”

“Why was Neville in your house this morning?” Lilly asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Because he was a dick to me yesterday after we found out what our animagus forms were and he came to apologise,” Theo replied.

“Hold up a second, you found out what your animagus forms were yesterday? And Neville didn’t think to floo me to tell me about that?” Lilly asked in disbelief.

“In Neville’s defence, he did tell us _not _to mention it to you,” Draco said, with a pointed glare at Theo, “Because he knew you would be pissed off if we did and he really wants to tell you in person.”

“Well I’m here, in person and he still hasn’t mentioned it,” Lilly pointed out.

“Give him time, he will,” Draco promised, “And we said nothing.”

Theo nodded sheepishly, “Sorry.”

“Idiot,” Draco muttered, it almost sounded affectionate.

Lilly would normally have laughed at the two of them but she found herself feeling too irritated to do so. She circled the room again and ended up back with Harry and Neville about half an hour later.

“Good job with the burn healing,” Lilly said to Harry, “Much better than your first attempt with the cut.”

“I got a lot of burns when I broke into Gringotts,” Harry said casually.

Lilly snorted, “Only Harry Potter could say that casually and have it make sense.”

Neville sniggered, “That’s accurate. Hey Lil, since Keller isn’t lurking nearby this time, I have something to tell you.”

Lilly felt her irritation at Neville ease with those words. At least he had a reason for not mentioning it straight away, “What’s that?”

“We found out what our animagus forms were yesterday,” Neville said in an undertone, “And mine is awesome, can you guess what it is?”

“A bear?” Lilly guessed.

Neville shook his head, “Bigger, better and stronger.”

“Go on then,” Lilly said with a slight smile.

“A lion,” Neville said proudly, “A huge lion.”

“That is pretty awesome,” Lilly agreed, “I mean, I guess you definitely are a true Gryffindor too.”

“That’s what Harry said,” Neville said with a grin, “Draco is a dragon which I suppose makes sense.”

Lilly nodded, “Yep, his name does mean dragon. What’s Theo?”

Neville tried not to snigger as he said, “A Red Panda.”

“Aww,” Lilly said, “Red Pandas are the cutest animal ever!”

“Don’t say that to Theo,” Harry advised, “He wasn’t happy that everyone else was a powerful or magical creature while he was a cute little Red Panda.”

“Well it makes sense, Theo doesn’t have much luck with magical creatures,” Lilly said, “We wouldn’t want him setting fire to himself or something, would we?”

“You make a good point,” Neville chuckled.

“Red Pandas are solitary animals, they sleep all day and avoid predators,” Lilly added, “They look all cute and fluffy but they are super territorial. When someone threatens their young or their mate, they get fierce so if you think about it…Theo is kinda like a Red Panda.”

“That’s true,” Harry said, “I never had thought about it like that.”

“I knew everything you just said because after I was a dick to Theo about his animagus form, I had to apologise to him,” Neville said, “The other two ganged up on me and called me a douche. Anyway, I researched Red Pandas so I could tell Theo how awesome they were. Do you have a book for everything by the way?”

“Not quite everything,” Lilly said, “But I do love Red Pandas.”

“Should I be concerned about this newfound love for Theo?” Neville joked.

“Maybe,” Lilly countered with a rather wicked smirk, “If you’re going to keep being a dick to people then maybe you do need to be concerned.”

Neville narrowed his eyes at her to try and work out if she was being serious or not.

“Speaking of lovely, cute, fluffy Theo,” Lilly said mischievously, “I had better go and see how he’s getting on.”

As Lilly walked away, Neville said, “She’s joking right? About the Theo thing and the me being a dick thing?”

“She’s joking about the Theo thing,” Harry replied, “But not the you being a dick thing.”

Neville groaned, “When did you become the smart one who gives advice about girls? You used to be clueless.”

“Daphne opened up my eyes,” Harry joked with a grin, “And you’re supposed to be burning yourself so stop looking at your girlfriend’s arse.”

***

“So I hear that you have the best animagus form,” Lilly said as she reached Draco and Theo’s workstation.

Theo rolled his eyes, “Very funny. I expected that from Nev but I didn’t expect it from you Lilly.”

“Watch the attitude!” Lilly exclaimed, “I was being serious! I’d much rather be a Red Panda than a lion or a dragon. A phoenix is different, I mean who wouldn’t want to be a phoenix?”

“I wouldn’t want to be a phoenix,” Draco muttered, “Poncy fancy birds.”

“Coming from the guy who keeps peacocks?” Lilly quipped.

“I have one peacock, one!” Draco defended himself, “And I only kept that one because I raised it from a baby.”

“Just saying, peacocks are fancy poncy animals,” Lilly said in a sing-song voice, “Lions are cool and yeah, they can rip someone to pieces in seconds, not that Neville would use it for that. But they are also kind of douchebags.”

“How exactly is a lion a douchebag?” Theo asked with an amused smile.

“Yeah, I’m dying to hear this one,” Draco said, leaning forward slightly.

“Well,” Lilly explained, “Lions live in prides. There are normally one or two lions to a few lionesses and their offspring with those lionesses. The thing is, the male lion doesn’t do much. The lionesses hunt to feed themselves, their young and the male while the male sits and does nothing for like 20 hours a day.”

“I think I can sense where this is going,” Theo said with a grin, “And I don’t think it paints Nev in the best light.”

Lilly shrugged, “I’m not saying he’s lazy, he’s worked hard to get where he is. What I am saying is that the lion doesn’t do much until his pride is threatened then he fights off the opposition. Lions are very territorial, jealous creatures and they are very arrogant, proud creatures.”

“No wonder he’s a bloody lion,” Theo joked.

“Exactly,” Lilly said with a smirk, “As for dragons…”

“Oh come on, what did I do to piss you off?” Draco asked.

“Nothing, I just thought you would like to understand how you relate to a dragon,” Lilly said honestly, “But if you’d rather not then I’ll just go over to Blanche and-”

“No, no,” Draco said quickly, “I would like to know, please.”

Theo sniggered because of how difficult it had been for Draco to say please just then. Lilly smirked again and said, “Well dragons are proud, not unlike yourself. They are also associated with wisdom because although they aren’t able to talk, studies have shown that they are vastly more intelligent than us. You have a thirst for knowledge, it’s why you and Hermione are so good together and that in itself makes you very similar to a dragon. There’s also the fact they breathe fire when they get pissy, that sounds familiar.”

Draco rolled his eyes, “That was sounding so good until you finished it with an insult.”

Lilly smirked and glanced at the clock, there wasn’t long left until their afternoon of practicing healing magic was over, “Somebody has to keep you all humble. See you guys at the weekend.”

“I don’t know how Neville puts up with that,” Draco muttered as she walked away.

“I heard that!”

Theo sniggered and was swiftly whacked around the back of the head for doing so.

***

When Theo got home on Wednesday night, he was exhausted. It hadn’t even been a particularly physical day but his brain had been active from 8am to 5pm and that in itself was tiring.

He smiled when he stepped into the kitchen. The smell of something wonderful hit him straight away and Sadie was singing along to the radio as she cooked it.

“Hey!” She said cheerfully, “I feel a lot better today, I even managed to make spaghetti bolognaise, do you know how much I missed simple, tasty food that isn’t loaded with spices while I was in that place?”

Theo laughed, “Hey, it smells amazing but you didn’t have to cook. I told you to rest.”

“I did rest,” Sadie promised, “I slept until 10am then I did some coursework and since I actually felt hungry for the first time in days, I cooked.”

He kissed her on the cheek, “Thank you, I’m starving.”

“Sit down then, it’s ready,” Sadie said.

Theo took a seat and watched her plate up their dinner. He found himself feeling more grateful than ever for her after the time they had spent apart.

“So, how was your first day?” Sadie asked eagerly.

“Tiring, but good,” Theo replied, “Except Lilly is one harsh teacher.”

Sadie laughed, “Does that really surprise you? She managed to keep Ron Weasley in line.”

Theo laughed too, “True. I always forget that she dated Ron before Nev…it seems like they’ve been together forever.”

“They just sort of slotted into the whole relationship thing really fast,” Sadie agreed, “But then again, so did we.”

“Let’s face it Sade, that’s because we’d basically been a couple for years, just without the sex,” Theo said, he shot her a grin.

“That’s true, we did spend about 90% of our time together all the time,” Sadie chuckled.

Theo smiled and said, “This is amazing by the way. How did you have time to do this on top of your coursework?”

“The coursework was ridiculously easy,” Sadie admitted, “I had finished it and sent it over to Egypt via an open floo channel in about 3 hours. After that I was just looking for things to do to be honest.”

“No wonder you’re finding it boring if it’s that easy for you,” Theo said, “I’m finding bits of Auror training easy but some parts are really tough.”

“What bits are you finding hard?” Sadie asked curiously.

“Well flying this morning was tiring but not difficult. We had to do interrogation training though and I was rubbish at that, I just made a joke out of it to cover up the fact that I don’t really enjoy shouting at people and threatening them to get information,” Theo said, “My Father used to do that to me as a kid and I hate having to treat someone else like that. I mean we had to roleplay so it was hard to be like that with Draco. I hope it will be different if I know the person across from me is a bad person.”

Sadie nodded and reached across the table, “I’m sure it will be, and there’s no shame in not enjoying being horrible to people you know.”

“I know,” Theo said with a small smile, “We had a lecture about Stealth as well. It was all stuff I knew though, how to make polyjuice potion and the best way to cast a disillusionment charm, you know?”

Sadie nodded, “What was healing magic like?”

“Good,” Theo said honestly, “It was pretty easy actually. Draco and I thought it was a bit of a skive, we mostly spent the afternoon chatting while the Healing Aurors weren’t looking. You seem so much better today though, I’m relieved.”

“So am I,” Sadie admitted, “I felt like death those last two weeks, it was awful. I’m so glad to be back to normal and I’m so happy to be home. I’m dreading having to go back to Egypt…”

Theo squeezed her hand tightly, “Well it’s ages away yet so don’t let it bother you now.”

“I’ll try,” Sadie promised.

**TBC.**


	96. Aurors and Curse Breakers

“I have one piece of advice for you about marriage.”

Daphne glanced over at Bill, “Okay…what is it?”

“Make sure you talk to your other half about kids before you marry them,” Bill said as he picked up a rug and looked underneath it, “Anything under the floorboards over there?”

Daphne shook her head, “Nothing. You sound like you’re speaking from experience by the way.”

“That would be because I am,” Bill said, he moved a tapestry aside, “How difficult is it to hide a wine cabinet? Surely it’s pretty big.”

“I told you, I think it will be in the basement but you seem convinced that it’s in the drawing room,” Daphne said, “Are you going to explain that comment by the way?”

“Yeah,” Bill said slowly, “But I think you’re right. Come on, let’s try the basement.”

They were still searching for the supposedly cursed wine cabinet. It was a family heirloom that had gone missing 5 years ago when the homeowners Mother had died, she was convinced that it was hidden somewhere in the house and she wanted it gone.

As Daphne and Bill walked out into the hall, Bill said, “Fleur and I didn’t discuss kids before the wedding. We kind of rushed into the wedding to be honest because there was a war on and we were both scared about what that meant.”

“That’s understandable,” Daphne admitted.

Bill hummed thoughtfully, “Rushing into the wedding isn’t a regret for either of us but not talking about kids is. The thing is, you know how I feel about my siblings and-”

“You don’t want to have too many kids and have them grow up feeling the way you did,” Daphne guessed

“Exactly, I think two would be okay but Fleur wants at least four,” Bill said, “I hoped after she’d gone through labour once she would rethink that but she hasn’t. The problem is, I can’t tell her why I’m so against having more kids without telling her about my resentment of my family and she won’t understand that.”

“You don’t know she won’t understand if you don’t give her a chance to,” Daphne pointed out as they reached the basement door, “Do you think we’re safe to just go in or should we cast any charms?”

“Always assume the worst,” Bill said, he cast a few revealment charms and nothing happened, “It looks safe, and you sounded like such a woman just then by the way.”

“Well shockingly Bill, I am a woman,” Daphne said sarcastically, “And I also know what its like to not tell someone something because you’re scared of how they will react. It took me a long time to open up to Harry about my past and in the end, he took it a lot better than I was expecting.”

“Well we all know our other halves and I’m fairly sure I know how mine would react,” Bill said, “Do you want to be on light duty or searching duty?”

“This basement is creepy and full of old shit so I’m going to go with light duty,” Daphne said.

Bill snorted, “If you think this is old and creepy, wait until you first go into an Egyptian tomb.”

“Hey, that reminds me – lumos – do you know the truth about King Tuts tomb?” Daphne asked as they descended the basement stairs.

“Do you mean, do I know if the curse was real or not?” Bill asked.

“Yeah, did the Muggles imagine it or was there a curse?” Daphne asked as they looked around the basement.

“The Muggles – Merlin’s balls, that is horrific – did not imagine it,” Bill said, he got distracted halfway through his sentence by a rather terrifying Victorian doll that was staring at him with the one eye that it had left.

Daphne looked at the doll with disdain, “Yeah, it is creepy. So there was a curse? A proper, ancient curse?”

“Yep, a proper ancient Egyptian curse,” Bill said, “Shout if you see anything that looks remotely like a wine cabinet.”

“How did they break it?” Daphne asked, “And is that a wine cabinet?”

“No, it’s a chest of drawers,” Bill replied, “It took 6 Curse Breakers to break it back in 1925. All of the deaths that they said were caused by the curse after that were just incidental.”

“So Lord Carnarvon really was cursed then?” Daphne asked eagerly, “Is that why his dog died at exactly the same time as him?”

“His dog didn’t die at the same time as him, it died 4 hours after him. Nobody bothered taking the time difference into account,” Bill said as his eyes searched the basement, “And it’s common for animals to die when their owners do so I doubt the dog was a victim of the curse. What’s that?”

“Uh…a box with some grapes on it,” Daphne said.

“Don’t touch it, that’s our cabinet!” Bill said sharply as Daphne edged closer.

She raised her hands, “What are we going to do with it then?”

“Levitate it into the hall upstairs and break the curse there, we need decent light,” Bill said, “You go on up, I don’t want to risk it touching you.”

Daphne followed his orders and waited for him in the hall. He put the cabinet down on the floor very gently and said, “Since I know you want to know and therefore won’t concentrate properly until I tell you…George Jay Gould who died of fever and Prince Ali Kamel Fahmey Bey who was shot by his wife, both in 1923, were victims of the curse. Aubrey Herbert, Carnarvon’s half-brother, who died from blood poisoning in 1923 was also a victim of the curse. As was Archibald Douglas-Reid, a radiologist who x-rayed the mummy and died of a mysterious illness in 1924; and Sir Lee Stack, the Governor of Sudan who was assassinated in 1924. After that the curse was broken.”

“That is amazing.” Daphne said in awe, “This isn’t going to take 6 Curse Breakers, is it?”

“No,” Bill scoffed, “It’s nowhere near as old. It’s going to take all of me with a bit of help from you, can you manage that?”

“Definitely, just tell me what to do,” Daphne replied.

“First things first?”

“Diagnostic charm,” Daphne replied.

Bill nodded and cast the charm. It encased the box in a bright yellow light and then a heap of numbers spewed out into the air, “Okay so every Curse Breaker has a different method so I’ll show you how I like to do this. I don’t like working directly with the curse because I’m used to ancient Egyptian curses. Curse Breakers who don’t work with anything older than 1,000 years or so will almost always mess about with the curse directly while it sits in front of them like this. However, ancient Egyptian curses are normally booby-trapped so that if you do the wrong thing, you suffer for it.”

Daphne nodded and took in everything that he was saying.

“So I like to be sure of myself before I even touch the curse,” Bill said. He waved his wand and conjured up a blackboard and a heap of chalk, “I use a blackboard because I like being able to rub out one or two numbers when I make a mistake. I knew a guy who used a quill and parchment, he used to get so confused with crossed out numbers everywhere that he was pretty much useless.”

“I like that idea,” Daphne said as she looked at the chalkboard, “I would never have thought of it to be honest. I probably would have worked directly with the curse too.”

“Like I said, only Curse Breakers who have broken a lot of Ancient Egyptian curses tend to do things this way,” Bill said as he grabbed a piece of chalk and began to copy the numbers of the curse onto the blackboard, “And most of us learn the hard way.”

“Did you learn the hard way?” Daphne asked curiously.

Bill nodded and lifted his shirt enough to show a dark pink scar on his back, “Yep, a bastard of an Egyptian curse gave me kidney failure. I’m only alive today because Char gave me one of his.”

“Holy shit,” Daphne muttered, “No wonder the two of you are so close.”

“That’s my sob story for the day over,” Bill joked, “Let’s get back to work. This is where all of those charts you memorised in arithmancy come in handy. Did Fawley let you do anything like this?”

Daphne shook her head, “He only let me observe.”

“Out of curiosity, did he work directly with the curse?” Bill asked.

Daphne nodded, “Yep.”

“Idiot,” Bill muttered, “I warned him against that all those years ago in Egypt. It’s a miracle that the bastard is still alive. I’m going to let you do a little bit more than observe but this is complex for a British curse so I’ll do this part. Just so you know, I’m going to let you know how I work. Obviously, our job here is to unravel the curse, undo it if you will.”

Daphne nodded, “In a simple curse the numbers spell out the curse that was used. In a more complex curse the numbers are jumbled so it’s harder to find the words and therefore understand the curse.”

“Exactly, and this curse is very jumbled,” Bill said, “So I envision it taking a while. Once I have worked it out, I will need to share your magic to undo it. That’s why I said it will take all of me and a little bit of you, I need to borrow some power.”

“That’s fine,” Daphne said with a nod, “But I’ve never done magic sharing before. Well – not on purpose anyway – so you’ll have to show me how.”

Bill shot her an amused look, “I can guess the way you accidentally shared magic. We’ve all been there as teenagers.”

Daphne didn’t even blush, “Yeah it was…interesting, to say the least.”

“I really didn’t need that imagine of the guy I think of as a little brother but hey, there it is,” Bill said sarcastically.

“Sorry,” Daphne said sheepishly, “The first two words of the curse are a name by the way. 1 (1, 9, 10) is VAN and 4 (15, 16, 31) is HOUSTON.”

Bill smiled, “I worked that out 5 minutes ago but I’m impressed that you got there so quickly. Talk me through your process?”

“The first number is the final number,” Daphne said, “Then there are the numbers in the brackets. 1 is the heart number aka the value of the vowels in the name added up. The only vowel in “VAN” is the “A” which has a value of 1. The number 9 is the social number aka the value of the consonants in the name added up. V has a value of 4 and N has a value of 5 which makes 9. The 10 is the character number which is the heart number and social number added together. When the value of the final number is greater than 9 you add the numbers together until you get a single digit so 1 + 0 = 1. Therefore 1 = VAN.”

“Just so you know, I’ll only say this if I mean it,” Bill began, “I am impressed.”

Daphne smiled slightly, “Knowing that the first two words are “VAN” and “HOUSTON” doesn’t really help us though.”

“No, it doesn’t,” Bill agreed, “But I’m still impressed by your raw talent. Now if you don’t mind, I’m going to need silence to work out the rest.”

Daphne shook her head to say that she didn’t mind and said no more. It took Bill somewhere between an hour and two hours to work it out. The first three words were “VAN HOUSTON CURSE” and the last three words were the incantation used to curse the object, _“Familarum Pati Punire.”_

Once Bill knew the curse, he could work out the counter-curse, “Okay, time for a quick masterclass in magic sharing. First of all, do you know occlumency?”

Daphne nodded, “Yes, I know the basics.”

“Thank Merlin,” Bill said, “This would be much more difficult otherwise.”

“Okay, what does Occlumency have to do with it?” Daphne asked curiously.

“I need you to shut your eyes, clear your mind and focus on your magical core,” Bill instructed, “Let me know when you’re ready and I will draw on your magical power. It will feel really weird, like I’m tugging inside your head but it won’t be painful.”

Daphne nodded a little nervously, “Alright.”

“And yes, it can have consequences if the person borrowing your magic does it wrong,” Bill said, “But I’m pretty good at this.”

Daphne glanced up at him, “Draco has a theory about his Aunt Bellatrix. He thinks she went mad because she used to let Voldemort share her magic.”

“I know,” Bill said honestly, “And I think Draco is probably right but Voldemort wasn’t a gentle or considerate man. He used Bellatrix and abused her trust, I bet he took more power than he should have and that he borrowed her magic far too often. I won’t do that to you, trust me Daphne.”

Daphne let out a breath and nodded, “Okay,” she said as she shut her eyes.

She cleared her mind and focused on her magical core like Bill had told her to. She could see the dim golden glow in her mind and she could feel the rhythmic humming.

“Nod if you are ready,” Bill’s voice said, it sounded far away and echoed around her head.

Daphne managed the most miniscule nod. Almost immediately she felt what Bill had meant, it was like he was trying to pull something out of her head and although it wasn’t painful, it was uncomfortable.

There was a flash of light inside of her head that made her gasp sharply and open her eyes. When she did it was to see the yellow glow around the wine cabinet explode and rain down as sparks.

Bill grinned at her, “That was fantastic. Was that really your first time letting someone do that?”

“Intentionally, yes,” Daphne said with a smile, “Was it because of me that you were able to do that?”

Bill nodded, “If I had tried that on my own it would have drained my magical power completely but that little bit of magic that I borrowed from you made that happen. It was so small that you won’t even feel the effects of it.”

“Wow.”

“And that,” Bill said, “Is why we work in pairs. Shall we go and tell Miss. Van Houston the good news?”

Daphne nodded and grinned, “Thanks for becoming my mentor Bill, this is amazing. I mean learning from you is like a dream come true, you really are the best Curse Breaker this country has seen in the last 20 years.”

“Don’t say that to your fiancé,” Bill joked as they began to walk towards the stairs together, “He’ll get concerned.”

“Nah, he’s secure enough,” Daphne said cheerfully, “I can’t wait to tell him about today.”

***

Daphne got home later than Harry that night so when she stepped into the kitchen, he was adding the finishing touches to dinner.

“I had the best day ever!” Daphne said, she dumped her bag on the floor and grinned at him, “We finally managed to find the wine cabinet and Bill showed me how he breaks curses. He is such a genius Harry! I’m literally learning from the best, I could watch him all day, the way he works is just so fascinating. I even helped decipher the curse, Fawley never let me near that part of the job. Then he borrowed some of my magic to break the curse and it was amazing, the curse around the cabinet exploded because of our combined magical power-”

“Woah,” Harry said sharply, “You did magic sharing, with Bill?”

“No, no Harry not like that,” Daphne said quickly, “It was very professional. Did you know that both parties have to know occlumency to do it?”

“How the hell did we manage it then?” Harry asked with a raised eyebrow.

“I suppose some of what Snape taught you must have stuck,” Daphne said with a shrug, “But anyway, I had to clear my mind and focus on my magical core. I actually saw my magical core, did you know that was possible?”

“I’m sure I read that somewhere,” Harry replied.

“Well it was pretty cool,” Daphne said, she was so excited and Harry found it quite cute, “Then Bill borrowed my magic and it was like a flash migraine, I could feel him tugging inside my head which was weird but not painful. I’m just loving it so much Harry, I love my job!”

Harry grinned, “I love seeing you so happy and to be honest, I love my job too.”

“Oh shit,” Daphne muttered, “I was so eager to tell you about my day that I forgot to ask how yours was.”

Harry shook his head, “Don’t worry about it. My first day was pretty great though.”

“Tell me all about it then,” Daphne said, perhaps a little sheepishly.

Harry smiled, “We flew in the morning then we had interrogation training which was fun. There was a lecture about stealth, the lecturer shot me down when I suggested using an invisibility cloak because apparently, they are too rare to be considered for use.”

Daphne snorted, “I bet you wished you could tell her that you own the original invisibility cloak from the Tale of the Three Brothers.”

“So badly,” Harry admitted with a grin.

Daphne laughed, “Did you see Lil in the afternoon?”

“Yep, much to Neville’s delight,” Harry joked.

“How is she?”

“She came in, bossed us all around and was a sassy bitch.”

“So she’s fine then,” Daphne said in amusement, “I’m looking forward to seeing her at the weekend. What’s happening with Teddy by the way?”

“We have him on Sunday, we’re taking him to the Burrow,” Harry replied as he put a plate of food down in front of her, “Saturday we have dinner at the Notts.”

“I can’t wait to see Ted,” Daphne admitted, “Do you think we should maybe-”

“Talk to Andy about the adoption?” Harry asked.

Daphne nodded and Harry sighed in relief, “I’m really glad that you said that because I’ve been thinking about it all week.”

“I was just thinking…” Daphne said thoughtfully, “It would be nice to have it all happen at the same time. What do you think about explaining to Teddy just before the wedding that he’s going to live with us all of the time like he wants?”

“Assuming everything goes through in time for that, I would be okay with that plan,” Harry replied, he smiled at her, “And I can’t wait you know, to come home to both of you.”

Daphne smiled, “I can’t wait to see him every night rather than just at the weekends.”

“It’s going to be perfect,” Harry said as he leant across the table and kissed her.

***

Thursday morning brought another lecture taught by Auror Carter. This time it was about Tracking which Harry thought was actually rather similar to Stealth. After all, you had to be stealthy to track someone…

After a basic description of what the class would entail, Carter began to question them about the different methods one could deploy to track someone. Between them Ophelia and Blanche shouted out the more obvious options like a four-point spell and simple old-fashioned concealing yourself and following them.

“Does anyone have any other ideas?”

Harry raised his hand and Carter looked at him cautiously, “Yes Mr. Potter?”

“What if you had a magical map that showed every room of the building and everyone who was in that building?” Harry said.

Carter sighed, “Mr. Potter, your ideas are rather far-fetched. Does anyone have any sensible ideas?”

Harry scoffed under his breath, “Far-fetched, I’d like to show her.”

Neville hid an amused smile at this but said nothing. Nobody had come up with any further ideas so Harry raised his hand again.

Carter sighed in a long-suffering way, “Yes Potter?”

“What if,” Harry began slowly, “You had a time-turner so you knew what the person was going to go. Then you could go back in time and track them to stop them from doing it.”

“Time-turners are not widely available Mr. Potter,” Carter said sharply, “In fact they are rather rare. If no one has any further suggestions, then let’s move on. Can anyone tell me some things that you should do while tracking someone?”

Draco raised his hand.

“Yes Mr. Black?”

“Remember to use a charm to cover up your scent,” Draco said, “Otherwise the person you’re tracking might smell you even if he doesn’t see you.”

“Very good,” Carter agreed. A few more ideas were thrown out and then she asked, “Does anyone have any tracking experience? It doesn’t matter if it was a human, even tracking an animal could be useful.”

Draco and Theo both said that they had hunted animals on their estate. Harry raised his hand and Carter narrowed her eyes at him, “I presume you have tracking experience from the war Mr. Potter?”

“No, I didn’t track anyone during the war,” Harry said, “But I did track someone while I was in school. I thought they were a Death Eater so I wanted to see what they were up to.”

“Stalked,” Draco corrected, “That is stalking.”

Carter looked between them and smiled, “Was it perchance Mr. Black that you stalked, Mr. Potter?”

“Tracked,” Harry corrected while Ophelia and Blanche sniggered.

“How exactly did you do this? With a magical map and a timeturner?”

The sniggering got louder, Harry wanted to say, “Well yes I did use a magic map actually along with the invisibility cloak that you think doesn’t exist,” but he didn’t. He just sighed and said, “No ma’am.”

“Then please stop telling ridiculous stories,” Carter said sharply, “Now, let’s move on to the practicalities when tracking someone…”

“I hate these classes,” Harry grumbled irritably as he snapped the tip off of his quill.

***

“Mr. Potter.”

Harry looked up, he was putting his things back in his bag after the tracking lecture when Carter called his name.

“Yes ma’am?”

“Stay behind please,” Carter said.

Theo whistled, “You’re in the shit mate,” he muttered as he and the others vacated the classroom.

Carter walked over to Harry and said, “I am beginning to have concerns. Is there a reason you are telling lies and coming out with far-fetched theories?”

“I’m not lying!” Harry snapped, “And I don’t like it when people accuse me of that. Don’t you know that a woman who was supposed to be my teacher made me use a blood quill to carve “I must not tell lies” into my own hand? Do you know what she accused me of lying about?”

Carter shook her head.

“Voldemort being back,” Harry said, “It was my 5th year, right after I had watched him rise from the dead and she made everyone think I was a liar! I do have an invisibility cloak, in fact it’s the original one. I’m descended from the Peverells and that cloak has been in my family since at least my Grandfather and it is still in perfect condition. I also have a magic map of Hogwarts, my Father and his friends made it and it shows every single person in that castle. It shows how they move, it shows every room and it even sees through disguises like polyjuice potion.”

Carter’s eyes widened slightly as Harry continued, “And as for time-turners not being widely available. Well, they gave my best friend one in 3rd year so she could take extra classes. Then I used it to go back in time and save my Godfather from getting the Dementors kiss when he was an innocent man so I would appreciate it if you stopped calling my ideas far-fetched!”

“I don’t appreciate the tone that you just took with me Mr. Potter.”

“Sorry ma’am,” Harry said quickly.

“However,” Carter continued, “I apologise for being condescending. In my experience all of the things you mentioned were too rare or far-fetched to be considered but I can see now that they are not rare for you.”

Harry nodded, “I apologise for being rude ma’am.”

“Apology accepted,” Carter said with a nod, “Now run along, you don’t want to be late for swimming.”

Harry was glad to get off without too much trouble so he nodded and left the room as swiftly as possible.

***

“How many kids do you want?”

“What?” Harry asked sharply.

“It’s just a question,” Daphne said.

It was Thursday night and they were sitting in the drawing room together. Daphne was reading a book about the Curse of King Tut and Harry was looking over some of the books he had bought for Auror training.

“It was a loaded question,” Harry said, “You’re not pregnant, are you?”

“No,” Daphne scoffed, “It was just something Bill said the other day…”

Harry raised an eyebrow at her, “You do realise that you’re going to have to elaborate, right?”

Daphne sighed, “Fine but Bill told me in confidence. He said not to tell anyone but since I tell you everything, you don’t count. It just means you need to-”

“Keep it quiet,” Harry said with a nod, “You know I’m good at keeping secrets when I need to Daph.”

Daphne nodded, “Did you know that Bill doesn’t like being part of such a huge family? He told me that he felt like he had to be a surrogate Father to everyone younger than Charlie and that he resents them for it because he feels like they robbed him of his childhood.”

“Shit,” Harry muttered, “That’s a horrible way to feel.”

“I know,” Daphne said, “He feels awful for feeling like that but he can’t help it. He said that families shouldn’t have favourites, but he does and his favourite brothers are Charlie and you.”

“Me?” Harry asked in surprise, “But I’m not his brother, not by blood.”

“Yeah, he said it was horrible to say he preferred an adopted brother over most of his blood family but that he did,” Daphne continued, “He relates to you because none of his siblings have a dangerous job or a thirst for adrenaline like he does.”

“Wow,” Harry said, “Well…I’m honoured.”

Daphne hummed thoughtfully, “But the whole thing about kids…Bill and Fleur didn’t talk about how many kids they wanted before they got married. Then they got married and now Fleur wants at least four kids and Bill doesn’t want a big family because of the way he feels about his.”

“Ah,” Harry realised, “So you want to make sure our family goals are compatible before we get married?”

“Exactly.”

“Well,” Harry said slowly, “I’d like two or three.”

“Is that including Teddy?” Daphne asked.

Harry thought for a moment, “Four, including Teddy?”

“Four?” Daphne asked in disbelief.

“Okay so you don’t want four then,” Harry said, “How many do you want?”

“I was thinking two would be nice,” Daphne said, “Teddy and one of our own.”

“What about Teddy and two of our own? Since there will an age gap between Teddy and our blood kids,” Harry suggested.

“But that’s three,” Daphne said, “Nobody wants three, it’s an odd number which means someone always feels left out.”

“So it’s two or four then?” Harry joked.

“Harry,” Daphne said seriously, “This isn’t a joke. If we don’t want the same things then we can’t get married.”

“Yes, we can,” Harry said with a smile, “Ideally I’d like a big family but Daph, after the way I grew up, any family will make me happy. We’ve got Ted and you definitely want at least one of our own so either way, they will have what I didn’t, a brother or sister.”

“And two loving parents,” Daphne added.

“So let’s not plan out our whole lives,” Harry said, he reached across and took her hand, “Let’s just see where life takes us.”

Daphne smiled, “You’re such a Gryffindor, living all spontaneously in the moment.”

Harry grinned, “Admit it, you love it about me.”

Daphne’s smile widened, “Yeah, I do,” she admitted.

***

On Friday, the boys had a lecture about Curse Breaking. Draco and Theo didn’t seem particularly concerned about this because they claimed it was essentially just Advanced Arithmancy and they had both taken that at school.

Harry and Neville on the other hand, had never studied Arithmancy and had no idea what to expect.

“Good morning Recruits!” Auror Mitchell said cheerfully as he sat down on the desk at the front of the small classroom, “I’m going to start off by asking one simple question. Who has studied Arithmancy?”

All hands rose into the air with the exception of Harry and Neville’s.

“Great,” Harry muttered.

“Why is it always me?” Neville moaned under his breath.

Mitchell chuckled, “Alright, in that case. Everyone else draw in your books or daydream or sleep for the next half an hour while I teach these two the basics. After that I’ll tell you what we aim to teach you over the next year in this class.”

Harry and Neville were forced to sit at the front of the class while the others did their own thing in the back. Mitchell smiled, “There’s no need to look terrified, Arithmancy is fairly easy. How are you with maths?”

“Okay,” Neville admitted.

“Terrible,” Harry said sheepishly, “I failed it all the way through primary school.”

“Ah,” Mitchell said, “Well in that case, this might be a bit challenging. But once you get the hang of it, you should be okay. Let me start with the basics, Arithmancy is when we assign numbers to words or phrases and it’s how spells are created. If you were to see the pure form of a spell, you would see numbers.”

“So you have to know Arithmancy to make spells?” Harry asked.

Mitchell nodded, “Spells, curses, hexes, etc. You have to know Arithmancy to make anything new and you also have to know it for Curse Breaking. You ought to know that Mr. Potter, your fiancé is a Curse Breaker isn’t she?”

“Trainee Curse Breaker,” Harry said with a nod, “But to be honest, I have no idea what she does, technically speaking.”

Mitchell laughed, “Well Curse Breakers undo curses. To do that, they have to unravel the curse using Arithmancy to work out the counter-curse. Let me start off with an easy example.”

On the blackboard behind him he wrote, “_Stupefy_.”

“Now, if we were to see the pure numerical form of this spell it would look like this…” Mitchell said. On the board he wrote, “_4 (8, 23, 31).”_

“Does that mean anything to either of you?” Mitchell asked, it looked like he knew the answer.

“Nope,” The boys echoed.

“Alright so let me show you this chart,” Mitchell said, “This is how we assign numbers to a letter.”

The chart looked like this,

**1**

| 

**2**

| 

**3**

| 

**4**

| 

**5**

| 

**6**

| 

**7**

| 

**8**

| 

**9**  
  
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---  
  
A

| 

B

| 

C

| 

D

| 

E

| 

F

| 

G

| 

H

| 

I  
  
J

| 

K

| 

L

| 

M

| 

N

| 

O

| 

P

| 

Q

| 

R  
  
S

| 

T

| 

U

| 

V

| 

W

| 

X

| 

Y

| 

Z  
  
| 

| 

| 

| 

| 

| 

| 

|   
  
“So the word STUPEFY. We begin by finding out the heart number which is the value of the vowels added up. You can see from this chart that the value of U is 3 and the value of E is 5. So the heart number is?” Mitchell asked.

“8,” Neville replied.

“Exactly,” Mitchell said, he jotted this down on the board, “Now we work out what the social number is. That is the value of the consonants in the word added up. In this case the value of S is 1, T is 2, P is 7, F is 6 and Y is 7. So the social number is?”

“23,” Neville said quickly.

“Correct,” Mitchell nodded, “Now to find the character number we add the heart and social number together to get?”

“31,” Neville said.

“So the three numbers in brackets are these numbers, 8, 23 and 31,” Mitchell explained, pointing to the blackboard as he did so, “Do you know what the 4 means yet?”

Neville shook his head, Harry stared at the board with a blank expression on his face.

“If the character number is higher than 9 then we need to add the two values together until we get a single digit number,” Mitchell explained, “So the final number here is 4 because?”

“31…3+1 = 4,” Neville said.

“Exactly,” Mitchell said, “So as you see, once you know what to do it is fairly easy. Everybody else, listen up!”

The class focused on Mitchell once more and he continued, “So our main goal for this class will be to teach you how to break basic curses. There will be times when the Curse Breakers can’t get there fast enough and you will need to act as our front-line defence. As those of you who studied Arithmancy will know, to break a curse we need to unravel it. Can anyone tell me how we would work out the counter curse to Stupefy if we saw it in numerical form like this?”

Harry looked at the board and just saw a swathe of numbers. He couldn’t work out how “_4 (8, 23, 31)” _made a spell.

Theo raised his hand, “Yes Mr. Nott?”

“Once you work out that the equation spells “STUPEFY” then you can work out that the counter curse is Reenervate. Once you know that, you know how to undo it,” Theo replied.

Mitchell nodded, “Precisely. However, this is just a simple spell. Real curses can be jumbled so you can make out the words but not the order. Sometimes the whole equation is jumbled and it’s like one giant maths puzzle. Let’s have a look at a simple real curse to begin with and see how we get on…”

As Mitchell continued, his voice became a drone and Harry didn’t manage to take in anything else that he said.

***

“You still looked dazed after that Curse Breaking masterclass,” Draco said to Harry with an amused smile. They were walking to their next class which was on Law & Ethics.

“I have no idea what it was all about,” Harry admitted, “And I feel bad for underestimating Daphne. I mean I know she’s smart but I didn’t realise how smart she was, how can she understand that and do that?”

“Because she’s brilliant with numbers,” Draco replied, “So is Hermione actually. She loved Arithmancy, I used to love watching her in that class. She would screw up her nose and concentrate then she would just beam this delighted smile when she worked it out…”

“Holy shit, you sound sappy,” Theo snorted.

“I have a whole new level of respect for anyone who finds that easy,” Harry said with a shake of his head, “I just thought Curse Breakers were like Indiana Jones, I didn’t realise they were mathematical geniuses. I mean Bill is practically Bill Gates!”

“Do you have any idea what he just said?” Theo asked Draco and Neville.

“Not a clue,” Draco replied.

“I got the Indiana Jones bit,” Neville said, “But not the rest.”

Harry rolled his eyes, “I really need to educate you lot on Muggle stuff,” he said as they reached the classroom and slipped inside.

They were the last ones there so they sat down at a large table at the back of the small room. The lecturer teaching this one was Auror Weir who most of them thought was the nicest Auror around. She was always smiling and chatting away to them in corridors, the others could be pretty harsh most of the time.

“Good morning recruits,” Weir said with a smile, “This class is called Law & Ethics so I presume you can all work out what it’s about. By the end of this class you should all have a basic grounding in wizarding and muggle law, but we will also be discussing some ethical and theological issues. Does anyone have any questions about that?”

Draco raised his hands, “Why do we need to learn about Muggle law ma’am?”

“Good question Mr. Black,” Weir said, “Somebody always asks that question and usually, it is a pureblood like yourself. As Aurors, we need to be aware of the differences between our legal system and the muggles system because there will be times when our work crosses over into their work. Could anyone suggest a situation when Aurors may have to work with muggle law enforcement?”

Harry raised his hand.

“Yes Mr. Potter?”

“I can think of a few,” Harry said, “Protection duty when an Auror is assigned as a security escort for an important muggle like the prime minister or, if a muggle is killed by a wizard then I suppose the two authorities would have to work together.”

Weir nodded, “Correct. Now in the case of a murdered muggle, we are required to work undercover. We send Aurors into the muggle police force as investigators and they work alongside the muggles to solve the case, without letting the muggles know that there are magical forces at work. What other situations might involve cooperating with the muggles?”

There were quite a few different options thrown around the room. Weir discussed some of them in more detail than others but she gave every opinion her consideration. About halfway through the class she changed the topic, “That was a great first session learning about the basics of cooperating with the muggle police force but at this point in the lesson I want to change tact slightly. As I mentioned at the start of this class, I would like to discuss Ethics with you. Technically speaking Ethics is a branch of philosophy which involves defending and recommending concepts of right and wrong. Can anyone tell me what that means?”

Theo raised his hand, “Basically we’re going to be discussing situations and stating what we would do in that situation while everyone else either agrees with us or attacks our idea, and we have to either defend our choice or concede that we made the wrong one.”

Weir smiled, “Precisely Mr. Nott. You have a fine grasp on this, have you studied philosophy at all?”

Theo shook his head, “No, I just read a lot.”

“Mr. Nott is quite right. What we aim to do here is resolve questions of human morality by defining concepts such as good and evil, right and wrong, virtue and vice, justice and crime. Do you see?”

Everyone nodded although Harry was fairly sure that some people had no idea what she was talking about.

“Ethics is a huge area to study so we are only going to be concerning ourselves with applied ethics during this class. Would you be able to explain what that means to the class, Mr. Nott?” Weir asked.

Theo nodded, “I suppose the easiest way to describe it is that it is ethics concerned with moral issues that we face every day. An example would be the debate about euthanasia, half of the wizarding population back people who are terminally sick having the right to die but the other half think that all killing is wrong even if the person wants to die.”

“Exactly,” Weir said with a proud smile, “We will be discussing the kind of moral issues that you could face every day as an Auror. Before we get onto any real life situations however, we need to talk about the theories that we use in Ethics to help us make an informed, morally correct decision. Does anyone know what any of those theories are?”

Ophelia raised her hand.

“Yes Miss. Wood?”

“Utilitarianism,” Ophelia replied.

“That’s correct,” Weir said, “Would you like to tell us what that is?”

“It’s also known as the needs of the many before the needs of the few,” Ophelia said, “Or for the greater good which people don’t tend to use anymore after Grindelwald used that slogan for evil.”

Weir nodded, “Indeed. The needs of the many before the needs of the few. What this means is that the consequences of a decision are evaluated on the assumption that the right thing to do is the thing which results in the greatest happiness. It was developed by a muggle called John Stuart Mill and a wizard called Jeremy Bentham. Now if we were using this theory what we would do in this situation…a dark lord and his followers are using the home of a perfectly good wizarding family to hide out. They have either threatened the family or used the imperius curse on them but as Aurors, we know where they are and we know that we can strike. What do we do?”

Neville raised his hand, “Strike. Innocent people may die but if the dark lord and his followers die, it could save hundreds of lives in the future because it could prevent a war.”

“Under this theory, that is exactly right,” Weir said, “However there is more to it than just doing what makes the most people happy. The idea of intent and preference also come into play here and some people may feel uncomfortable with this notion that sacrifices must be made for the greater good. I do believe that a large part of that uncomfortableness comes from the fact thagt Grindelwald twisted the theory to justify what he did to muggles.”

There was a general nod around the room as everyone seemed to agree with that.

“Can anyone tell me about another theory that we use in Ethics?” Weir asked.

This time Theo’s hand went up again.

“Mr. Nott?”

“Deontological ethics, otherwise known as the Categorical Imperative or Kantianism,” Theo said, “It’s all based on rules and duty, basically you have an obligation to perform the ‘right’ action regardless of any actual consequences.”

“Correct,” Weir said, “So given the same situation with the dark lord and his followers hiding out in the home of an innocent family, what would we do based on this theory?”

Harry raised his hand.

“Yes, Mr. Potter?”

“Kill the dark lord and his followers. If this theory says that your duty is to do the right thing then the right thing would be to make sure they can’t cause any more harm,” Harry replied, “But doing so and not thinking about the consequences doesn’t make any sense. There would be legal repercussions and then there would be the guilt. It doesn’t matter if you kill a bad person, you still feel guilty and you still feel conflicted by the fact you were capable of murder.”

“Spot on Mr. Potter,” Weir said brightly, “That is an excellent answer and that is one of the many reasons why this theory isn’t widely used anymore. Acting without thinking about consequences is indeed very reckless and dangerous.”

Harry felt quite proud of himself, he had thought he would hate this class. He thought it would be like History of Magic, boring and dry, but Weir made it fun and he actually found himself really enjoying it.

“There are two more theories left. Does anyone know what they are?” Weir asked.

There was silence and much shaking of heads so Weir continued, “The last mainstream theory is that the right action will be that chosen by a suitably virtuous agent. This is the theory that muggles use when they say that god will decide someone’s fate. It is not widely used in the wizarding world. On top of these three methods however, there is a new modern approach called case-based reasoning. This does not begin with theory, but with the immediate facts of a real, concrete case. This is what we will be using because 9 times out of 10 when you come across an ethical issue you will need to think about it there and then and consider it on a case by case basis. Does anyone have any further questions?”

Nobody raised their hands so Weir bashed on and began to give them examples and ask them all individually what they would do in that situation. Harry couldn’t believe how quickly the class flew by and he found himself looking forward to the next one.

***

Friday afternoon brought the activity that all of the recruits had been looking forward to the most. It was the afternoon they were allowed to spend in the simulation room which they had heard so much about.

They gathered in the same waiting room where they had been forced to wait before their selection tests. The 5 doors remained, but rather than saying, “Testing Room 1” through to 5, they now said, “Junior Trainee Simulation Room”, “Intermediate Trainee Simulation Room”, “Advanced Trainee Simulation Room”, “Exam Testing Room 1” and “Exam Testing Room 2.”

“Good afternoon recruits,” Sheppard said once everyone was gathered in the room, “As you can see, this has changed a little since you saw it last but this is how our simulation area normally looks. We just have to shake things up a little during the selection process. We have three simulation rooms that you will be using over the course of the next year, you will all start in the junior room. We work things on a point based system so once you reach the required level of points, you will move up to the next room. You will move at different levels depending on how competent you are so for the moment you will all work on the same situation together until pairs start to move up to the intermediate room. Do you have any questions?”

Draco raised his hand and asked, “How does the point system work?”

“Good question,” Sheppard said, “Every time you use the simulation room you will encounter a situation designed to test your magical skills, practical skills and decision-making skills. Certain things you do will gain you points and certain things you do will lose you points. Any further questions?”

“Do we work together or in our pairs?” Blanche asked.

“You should all work together,” Sheppard replied, “But you are in pairs for a reason. Your points are based on your Auror partnership so you need to work together to advance yourself and get into the next room.”

When Sheppard saw that there were no further questions he said, “Okay then. Situation 1: A dragon has just terrorised a northern English town. The Ministry have sent people to restrain the dragon but you are being sent in to deal with the aftermath. You have 3 and a half hours, if you finish earlier then we’ll let you know and open the door up for you. Are you ready?”

There was a chorus of “Yes sir,” then Sheppard opened the door and they filtered in. Nobody had been sure what to expect, apart from perhaps Harry and Neville, but the scene was one of complete carnage.

Almost every cottage in the village was in flames, they were engulfing the bordering forest too. People were screaming everywhere. Dead and injured people were lying in heaps on the streets and in the town square.

Harry swallowed hard, it took him right back to the war. Hogwarts was burning all over again and the dead were lined up in the great hall.

“Focus on today, not the past,” Neville murmured as his own eyes took in the horror around them.

Harry nodded, nobody else had moved or spoken yet but they needed to formulate a battle plan. He cleared his throat, “First priority has to be to attend to the injured. We need to line the dead up in the town square and cover them for modesty. We also need to set up a first aid station over there by the part of the forest that isn’t burning.”

“We’re the best healers,” Ophelia said, “Blanche and I should attend to the injured.”

“And my Father was a firefighter, I know the best way to put out a forest fire,” Emily said.

Harry nodded, “Emily, Max, you two focus on stopping the forest fire spreading any further. Draco, Theo, you two try your best to get people out of the houses and then see if you can put the fires out. Blanche, Ophelia, set up a temporary hospital wing then attend to the injured. Neville and I will bring the injured from the streets to you and line up the dead in the town square.”

Nobody questioned the fact that Harry had taken the lead. They all just nodded and then left to get on with the tasks that they had been assigned. It didn’t take Blanche and Ophelia long to transfigure a tent out of logs that hadn’t been set alight and some sheets from one of the few houses that wasn’t burning. With their temporary workstation in place, they set about transfiguring camp beds.

Harry and Neville quickly lost hope that there would be any survivors. By the time they had cleared the streets leading up to the town square, they had found no survivors. All of the dead were male and as it currently stood, there were 14 of them lined up in the town square.

Draco and Theo were having more luck in the houses. They were running in under strong shield charms and running back out holding kids or sheltering women. It seemed that all those trapped in the houses were women and children, and all those on the street were male.

“Do you think they were defending their families from the dragon?” Neville asked in an undertone.

Harry nodded grimly, “I think that’s exactly what they were doing.”

Neville sighed and they moved on to the other side of the town square. They had more luck here because they found their first survivors. Some of them had very bad burns and were moaning in pain, but they were alive. By the time they had gotten all of the dead into the square and all of the survivors to Blanche and Ophelia, an hour and a half had passed.

“That’s all of them,” Harry said when they reconvened with Draco and Theo outside of the temporary hospital wing.

Draco and Theo were both covered in soot. Theo wiped his brow and nodded, “We managed to get most of them out safely.”

“Three women dead and two children,” Draco said darkly, “The house was virtually gone by the time we got there.”

“That brings the death toll up to 21,” Harry said, he looked over the cottages, some of which were still smoking even now that the flames were gone, “It looks like Max and Emily did a good job with the forest fire.”

“We should all pitch in to help Blanche and Ophelia,” Draco said, “They are good but they can’t manage on their own.”

Harry nodded, “I’ve done my part. Those two are in charge now, let’s see where we can help them.”

The foursome walked over to Blanche who was tending to a badly burned man, “How can we-”

“Don’t try anything beyond your capability level,” Blanche said sharply, “You’ll only screw it up and give us more work. Draco, Theo; you two are competent enough to deal with pretty much everyone here. Harry, Neville, go over to minor injuries and smoke inhalation.”

“That’s probably fair,” Harry muttered to Neville as they did as they were told.

“It’s definitely fair,” Neville muttered back.

It took the remaining two hours that they had left in the room to tend to the injured and they lost another 4 due to their injuries. All in all, it wasn’t the fun afternoon they had all been looking forward to. In fact, they came away from it feeling incredibly deflated.

***

“You look world weary.”

Harry nodded and rubbed his eyes, “Today was our first time in the simulation room. They give you a scenario and test how you deal with it. Today we had to deal with the aftermath of a dragon attack. The final death toll was 25.”

Daphne sighed, “I’m sorry, that doesn’t sound like a fun way to spend a Friday afternoon.”

“It wasn’t,” Harry said, he sank into a chair at the table, “Did you cook?”

“No, I got the house elves to,” Daphne said sheepishly, “I’m a rubbish cook, you know that.”

“I keep telling you, the only way to learn is by actually doing it,” Harry said with an amused smile, “What are you going to do when we’re in the cottage in Devon?”

“Bring a house elf with us?”

“No, definitely not,” Harry said, “Learn to cook.”

Daphne rolled her eyes, “I’m far too busy to learn to cook now. I mean today Bill-”

“I love you babe, but I don’t want to hear about Bill every night I come in,” Harry said honestly, “I’m sorry if that’s harsh but I’ve had a shit day so I know that Bill is a wonderful mentor who you admire but I don’t want to hear it right now.”

“That’s really harsh Harry,” Daphne said stiffly, “I mean it’s a bit of a dick move. Just because you had a bad day, that shouldn’t mean I can’t enjoy my job.”

“No, enjoy your job by all means,” Harry said, “But I just don’t want to know how awesome Bill is all of the time. I know he’s awesome, I’ve met him and…frankly, I have no idea how you two do what you do.”

Daphne frowned, “What do you mean?”

“Curse breaking,” Harry said, “We had a class about it today. Apparently we need to know the basics in case we need to break a curse before the Curse Breakers can get there. I just don’t know how you do it Daph.”

Daphne smiled slightly, “It’s not that hard, it’s just numbers.”

“Just numbers?” Harry asked in disbelief, “I don’t get it at all. How do letters become numbers? It makes no sense, I just don’t understand. Why is a spell numerical in it’s pure form? I don’t get it.”

Daphne bit her lip, “Yeah, I can see that.”

“Please help me understand,” Harry half-joked, half-begged.

“You’re asking me to explain my entire job in the space of a few hours,” Daphne pointed out.

“I know, sorry,” Harry said sheepishly.

Daphne shook her head and smiled at him fondly, “What can I say? I do like a challenge. I think I might have a way to teach you…you work best under pressure, don’t you?”

Harry frowned but nodded, “Uh yes, why?”

Before Harry realised what she was doing, Daphne pulled her wand out and said, “Soperius!”

Harry jumped back in shock, “What did you do?”

“I just cursed you,” Daphne said, “You have one hour to work it out and un-curse yourself. Did you retain any information from todays class?”

“What? No! What do you mean you just cursed me?” Harry asked in a rather high-pitched panicked voice.

“You work best under pressure, you needed motivation,” Daphne said with a wave of her hand, “Don’t be a pussy about it.”

“What did you curse me with?” Harry asked.

“You have to work that out for yourself,” Daphne told him, “So get working. Surely you remember something from today?”

Harry shut his eyes and thought hard, “Uh…heart number is vowels, social number is consonants and the character number is both of them added together.”

Daphne nodded, “To see the curse you need to use a diagnostic charm like…this.”

Golden writing appeared in thin air, “So the first word in the curse in it’s numerical form is “_2 (14, 6, 20).”_

“How on earth do I get a word out of that?” Harry asked blankly.

“It’s all about working backwards,” Daphne said, “Look at this chart,” she scrawled out a quick numerical chart like the one Mitchell had shown them, “You focus on what _must _be true first. For example there must be more than one vowel in the name otherwise the heart number wouldn’t be higher than 9. Now that you know that there is more than one vowel, you need to work out what vowels would create the number 14. Start by assuming there are two vowels and if you can’t get the number you need then try again with the assumption that there are 3 vowels.”

Harry frowned at the chart, “Uh…okay.”

It took him about 10 minutes to add up all of the possibilities, “5 and 9!”

Daphne smiled at him, “Yeah so the two vowels are?”

“E and I,” Harry said.

“Exactly. Now do the same with the consonants. The social number is 6 so?”

“There’s only one consonant?” Harry said.

“Not necessarily,” Daphne replied, “There could be two consonants with a low value.”

Harry groaned and let his head hit the table with a loud thump, “Daphne! I thought I was actually getting the hang of this shit!”

***

When Draco got home, he felt completely deflated. Pulling women and kids out of burning buildings wasn’t his idea of fun, but at least there had been minimal deaths. If he was honest though, he wanted to come home, have a drink then crawl into bed.

The moment he walked into the kitchen and saw Hermione covered in dirt and sobbing her heart out, he knew that wasn’t going to happen.

“Hermione!”

Hermione looked up tearfully, “Draco, I’m so glad you’re home!”

She launched herself at him and his nose wrinkled up. Not only was she covered in dirt, she also stunk of sweat and muck.

“What’s going on? Are you okay?”

Hermione nodded but tears were still falling from her eyes, “I had to bury him and his body was all stiff and heavy and it was awful!”

Draco’s eyes widened, “What? You buried someone in our back garden?”

Hermione sniffled, “Where else was I supposed to put him?”

“Hermione,” Draco said nervously, “Who have you buried? What’s going on? Did you just find a dead guy or did someone try to hurt you or-”

“Draco!” Hermione said through her tears, “It’s not a person, it’s Crookshanks. I came him from work and he was just lying there all stiff and cold and…”

She broke down into tears again before she could say anymore. Draco breathed a sigh of relief, partly because he had been worried that his fiancé was a murderer for a moment there and mostly because he fucking hated that cat.

“Oh love, I’m sorry,” Draco said while he held her and patted her back gently, “I know you loved him but he lived a good, long life didn’t he? He lived through a war, he was a brave old cat.”

“He was,” Hermione sobbed, “He was _the _bravest cat.”

“The bravest cat I ever knew,” Draco said solemnly.

“Draco,” Hermione sobbed, “Are you making fun of me?”

“No, he was a very brave cat, as far as cats go,” Draco said, “But he was old, he’s probably in a better place now.”

Hermione buried her head in his chest, “What am I going to do without him? Hes been tripping me up forever.”

“Well, we could always get a dog when you feel ready for another pet,” Draco said, “Or you could get an owl?”

“I hate owls, they’re arrogant and proud,” Hermione said, she wiped her eyes, “And dogs are so yappy and annoying. It would be like having Harry around all of the time.”

Draco snorted at that but didn’t mention anything about her getting another cat. She knew why, he didn’t like cats, he had made her aware of that when Crookshanks had hung around him during their last year at school.

“Come on, let’s find something funny to watch on TV and open a bottle of wine,” Draco said, “It’s Friday night, I’m not going to let you spend all night moping and crying”

**TBC.**


	97. Dinner Dates and Play Dates

“Are you really okay?”

Daphne sighed and looked up at Harry, “I am fine and the more you ask me that, the more annoying it gets.”

“I know,” Harry said sheepishly while he leant against the door. He was wearing a nice shirt and his smart shoes because they were getting ready for dinner at Grimmauld Place.

Daphne turned back to the mirror and continued to put her make-up on.

“It’s just…” Harry said slowly, “Even though you say that you’re fine, what happened was a bad thing and it was a big deal and-”

“And what? You don’t think I’m okay?” Daphne asked, “Do I seem like I’m not okay?”

“Yes,” Harry said, he looked her right in the eye, “You’re a bit snappier than usual and a bit more jumpy too. I don’t blame you for that, but I want to help you and I can’t do that if you keep telling me that you’re fine when you’re not.”

“I am fine,” Daphne assured him, “I hate Fawley but I know that he was punished for what he did. Yes, I feel stupid for acting like a vulnerable little girl because that’s not who I am. They called me the ice queen for a reason, I should have cursed that bastard and told Bill as soon as he started his shit.”

“Hindsight is a wonderful thing,” Harry said, “Everyone says they would do things differently with hindsight. Daph, what happened to you…I think most people would have been scared and that’s why Fawley did it. I can guarantee that you aren’t the first person that creep has blackmailed but you are the first person to call him out on it and _that _is why they call you the ice queen.”

Daphne turned around and smiled at him, “I think that’s the sweetest thing someone has ever said to me.”

Harry gave her a boyish lopsided smile, it was the smile that had made her fall in love with him.

“Don’t look at me like that,” Daphne said, “We’re already late.”

“And?” Harry said, “We’re always late.”

Daphne smirked, “Yeah…that’s true. Why ruin our bad reputation by showing up on time?”

Harry just grinned.

***

“You guys are so late! You missed the starter!”

“Sorry Hermione, it was my fault,” Daphne said with a wave of her hand, “It took me forever to decide what to wear.”

“Never mind, you made it in time for the main course,” Sadie said before Hermione could stress or fly off the handle any further.

Draco shot Harry an amused look as the Gryffindor took his seat next to him.

“What’s the look for?” Harry asked innocently.

“You are so lying about why you were late,” Draco whispered.

“Yeah,” Lilly cut in, “You two are always late and we aren’t stupid.”

“Most of the time it genuinely is because Daphne can’t decide what to wear, to be fair,” Harry whispered back.

“And I’m also not the one who got a special nickname after frolicking with my boyfriend in the dorm room,” Daphne whispered as she slipped into her seat between Harry and Lilly.

Lilly’s cheeks flushed, “Oh shut up.”

Neville looked a little too pleased with himself as he looked down to hide his smirk.

Harry shot Daphne an amused look, “Nice comeback.”

“They don’t call me the ice queen for nothing,” Daphne said with a smirk that Harry hadn’t seen for a while.

He grinned, “The bitch is back.”

Daphne raised an eyebrow at him, “You aren’t supposed to be happy about that.”

“Don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing wrong with the soft, warm inner you,” Harry promised her in a whisper, “But I fell in love with the ice queen.”

“I think I’m going to vomit.”

Harry rolled his eyes, “Shut up Hermione.”

Hermione smiled innocently from where she had been standing behind them, “I was just waiting for you to finish your conversation so I could ask what you wanted to drink?”

“Wine,” Daphne said, “I’ll have red, he’ll have white.”

Harry raised an eyebrow at her, “Since when do you order for me?”

“Since you got predictable,” Daphne remarked, “It was what you were going to have, wasn’t it?”

“Maybe,” Harry said.

Daphne smirked, “See?”

Hermione shook her head in amusement, “You two are on good form at the moment.”

Harry smiled slightly and put his arm around Daphne. While Hermione got their wine, Harry surveyed the room. He never knew who was going to be invited to these gatherings, Susan always was but she only showed up sometimes. Ron and Ginny were sometimes invited depending on whose house they were at.

Sadie and Theo were sitting across from Harry and Daphne, Neville and Lilly were sitting beside them. Draco and Hermione were on their other side. Further up the table sat Susan and Percy, and Ginny and Blaise.

“Where’s Ron?” Harry asked curiously, he assumed that he had been invited since this was Hermione’s house.

“Working,” Draco replied, “It’s a busy weekend apparently.”

“Fair enough,” Harry said, he made a mental note to catch up with Ginny later. He hadn’t spoken to her for a while and he wanted to find out how she was getting on.

The small talk came to an end when Hermione brought Harry and Daphne their wine then served the main course. Once they had finished their meal they all headed upstairs into the drawing room to drink Draco’s expensive whiskey and catch up.

“Hey Gin.”

Ginny smiled weakly at Harry, “Hey Harry.”

“You look tired,” Harry noted.

Ginny shrugged, “It’s getting more and more difficult to sleep.”

“But you’re okay though, aren’t you?” Harry asked.

Ginny nodded, “I’m getting pretty bored of sitting around the house all day while Blaise is at work but yeah, I’m okay.”

“And you don’t have long to go,” Harry added, “Do you?”

“My due date is the 1st of November so just over 2 months,” Ginny replied, “Hence why I look like a beached whale.”

Harry chuckled, “You don’t look like a beached whale but I’m also not going to tell you that you’re glowing because I’m pretty sure that would piss you off.”

Ginny rolled her eyes, “I swear, if I hear that one more time I’m going to kill the person who says it. Blaise’s Mother is the worst…”

Harry followed her gaze as she looked at Blaise. He was currently nodding and listening intently to something that Draco was saying.

“How are things between you two?” Harry said, he gave her a knowing look, “Because I know that it’s not the same but Teddy is basically a son to me so I know how big a commitment a kid is.”

Ginny sighed and glanced down, “He’s fine, he’s being very sweet and helpful. His Mother is an overbearing pain in the arse and he has about a hundred siblings.”

“I know, one of them is in Auror training with me,” Harry admitted, “She’s called Blanche, she seems pretty nice.”

“I like Blanche,” Ginny agreed, “But it’s just daunting…”

“It’s daunting to go to his house and see his overbearing mother and his ton of siblings,” Harry mused, “I can’t think who that reminds me of…”

Ginny rolled her eyes, “Oh very good. My Mother is not…actually yes, my Mother is very overbearing…”

“And you have a lot of brothers, think about how daunting that is for the bloke who wants to marry you,” Harry said.

“He wants to marry me?” Ginny asked in surprise, “Like for real? Not just because I’m pregnant?”

Harry bit his lip, “I…uh…I said nothing…”

“Harry,” Ginny said in a dangerous tone of voice, “Who did he say that to?”

“Well if I knew anything about it, which I don’t,” Harry said quickly, “I would guess that he told Draco and that Draco is a gossip who can’t keep his mouth shut.”

Ginny smiled, “Coming from you.”

“Hey!”

“What are you so offended about?” Daphne asked as she appeared behind them.

“Harry being a gossip,” Ginny said, “Apparently he didn’t know that.”

Daphne raised an eyebrow at him, “Honey, you know that she’s right. You are literally the biggest gossip here, apart from Draco obviously.”

Harry huffed slightly, “I am not.”

Daphne and Ginny looked at each other knowingly.

“This sucks, you two being friends, it sucks,” Harry said.

“You sound a little bit immature right now,” Ginny said.

“Just a little,” Daphne agreed.

Harry rolled his eyes and stalked towards Neville.

Daphne grinned at Ginny, “I could tell that he was annoying you.”

Ginny smiled gratefully, “Thanks, he had good intentions, but I just don’t really feel like talking to anyone. All anyone ever asks is how I’m feeling or how the baby is.”

“Well in that case, how did you feel about the semi-final? Because I think that the Harpies sucked when it should have been an easy win.”

“Ugh, tell me about it! How the hell did Walters not see the snitch? It was right in front of her eyes!”

***

“You’re thinking hard.”

Daphne shook her head, “No…I’m not.”

“Yes, you are,” Draco said, “Why are you staring at your fiancé and my fiancé with that look in your eyes?”

“I’m just thinking about them, about what happened between them in the war,” Daphne said with a frown while Hermione laughed at something that Harry said, “Harry told me that they kissed and things escalated. He said that there feelings involved but he didn’t tell me much more than that. While you guys were away Hermione told me the truth.”

“And you haven’t spoken to him about it yet?” Draco asked in surprise, “Hermione and I had this conversation as soon as I got back.”

“We had other things going on,” Daphne admitted, “With my review and then starting from scratch with a new mentor, it hasn’t been at the front of my mind until now.”

“I understand that but you do need to talk to him about it,” Draco said, “The longer these thing fester for, the worse they get.”

“I know,” Daphne said, “I’ll talk to him tonight when we go home.”

“Try not to worry about it so much,” Draco said gently, “I was terrified to have this conversation with Hermione and it went a lot better than I was expecting.”

“I’m not worried about having the conversation,” Daphne admitted, “I’m worried that there’s a reason that he never told me the truth.”

“There probably is,” Draco said, “But I doubt it’s the reason you think.”

***

“Are you going to tell me why you’ve been so quiet since we got home?” Harry said as he took his shirt off, “I’ve done something wrong, haven’t I?”

“Not tonight,” Daphne said honestly, she was sitting in bed with a book open in front of her but she hadn’t been able to read much of it.

Harry frowned, “Not tonight? How much more cryptic can you get?”

Daphne sighed, “I should have mentioned this sooner but with everything else going on it just didn’t take precedence. I know that you lied when you told me what happened between you and Hermione during the war-”

“Daphne-”

“I know you were in love with her, Harry.”

“Yeah,” Harry said quietly, “I was but the thing is, I didn’t realise that I was in love with Hermione until I fell in love with you. I knew there had been something there but until you, I didn’t understand what it was.”

“That doesn’t change the fact that you lied to me,” Daphne said, “And the only reason I can think of for you doing that was the fact that you still had feelings for her.”

“To begin with, I didn’t want to tell you because I figured if I didn’t talk about it then it would just go away,” Harry said honestly, “I didn’t even talk to Hermione about it until just after you and I got together. It took me almost a year to have that conversation with her.”

“And it took you over a year to have it with me,” Daphne said, “I had to hear it from Hermione.”

“I am sorry for that,” Harry admitted, “I never meant for you to have to hear it from Hermione but…I’m just not good at starting conversations like this. I don’t like talking about my feelings and I don’t like talking about the war so this whole thing is a double whammy.”

“I understand that,” Daphne said honestly, “But you also neglected to tell me that a girl who is now one of my best friends, was your first love.”

“Why does it matter?” Harry asked, “One of my best friends was your first love.”

“Yeah but I told you about that,” Daphne said, “The fact you loved her doesn’t bother me, the fact you had a relationship doesn’t bother. What does bother me is the fact that you kept it from me.”

“I know,” Harry said, “But Hermione and I have always had a complicated relationship and I didn’t want it to scare you off. When I finally managed to get you to date me, I was terrified of losing you and then you and Hermione became friends so I didn’t know how to tell you. I guess I just kept avoiding the conversation in the hope that it would never have to happen.”

“Well that was stupid and quite immature of you,” Daphne said, “Because it’s the sort of conversation that will always have to happen for a relationship to succeed. I know you hate the war, but you can’t avoid talking about it forever.”

“Okay,” Harry said with a nod, “I appreciate where you’re coming from and the truth is, I need to see a mental health Healer as part of Auror training because of the impact the war had on me. I know I don’t like talking about it and I hope one day that will change so I can explain everything that happened back then but right now…I’m glad that Hermione explained for me.”

Daphne nodded, “Okay.”

Harry frowned, “Okay?”

“Okay,” Daphne said as she got to her feet, “I’m not a teenage girl Harry, I’m not going to fly off the handle or hold a stupid grudge. You explained yourself and you said that you were sorry. That was all I needed.”

“Right,” Harry said slowly.

“Anyway,” Daphne yawned, “I’m going to head to bed.”

“Yeah, me too,” Harry said, he took a step forward.

“Uh-uh,” Daphne said with a shake of her head, “You are sleeping on the sofa.”

“But you said you forgave me,” Harry said with a frown.

“I do, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to let you get away without any punishment,” Daphne said calmly.

“Can’t I sleep in one of the spare rooms?”

“Nope, that would defeat the purpose,” Daphne said, “Sofa.”

Harry knew better than to argue with her, “Right, sofa it is then. But Daph?”

She stopped in the doorway and turned around, “Yeah?”

“I love you.”

She didn’t smile but she also didn’t hesitate, “I love you too. Goodnight Harry.”

***

When Daphne stepped into the kitchen it was to find Harry nursing a cup of coffee. He looked up the moment he saw her and said, “Cuppa?”

“Tea please,” Daphne said with a smile, “You look like you’ve been up all night.”

“I got some sleep,” Harry shrugged, “But I was thinking about stuff.”

“You don’t have to beat yourself up, I said that I forgave you,” Daphne said, “Did you remember that we’re picking Teddy up today?”

Harry glanced at the clock, “You should still have time for a cup of tea though. Do you think we should start discussing adoption with Andromeda? It’s been thrown about as an idea but I think we need to have a real chat now.”

“I would agree,” Daphne said as she accepted the hot cup of tea from Harry, “But there is a part of me that’s scared to have that conversation because…”

“It makes it real,” Harry nodded, “I know, I’ve been feeling the same. I definitely want to do it though.”

“So do I,” Daphne promised.

“Then we’ll do it,” Harry said, “As long as you’re sure you have forgiven me for being an idiot.”

“I’ve forgiven you,” Daphne said honestly, “Just don’t keep anything else from me, okay?”

“Deal,” Harry smiled.

***

“Good morning!” Andromeda said cheerfully, “You two are early this morning. Teddy isn’t even up yet.”

“That’s what we were hoping,” Harry said cryptically, “We thought it would be nice to have a talk before he wakes up.”

Andromeda raised an eyebrow at him, “You Gryffindors are terrible at being subtle,” she said. With a wave of her hand a tray with three teacups and a pot of tea had appeared on the table in the morning room.

Daphne chuckled, “I have tried to tell him that he needs to get better at that before he’s a qualified Auror.”

“Subtlety has never been my strong point if I’m being honest,” Harry said.

“It wasn’t Dora’s either,” Andromeda said with a chuckle while she poured out the tea, “I can guess what it is you want to discuss while little ears is not here. Have you considered what I said about adoption?”

Daphne nodded, “We have considered it a lot.”

“We’ve done a lot of thinking,” Harry agreed, “And we wanted to discuss how it would work if we were going to go ahead with it.”

“Well, as I suggested when we last spoke,” Andromeda began, “Narcissa and myself would happily look after Teddy between us while you two are at work.”

“I never work weekends so it would be Monday to Friday,” Daphne said, “And I work a couple of hours less than Harry a day. so I could easily drop Teddy off and pick him up through the week.”

“We would find a way of making it work,” Andromeda assured them, “As long as we are all sure that it is what is best for Teddy.”

“Are you sure it is what’s best?” Harry asked, “You’re his Grandmother, are you okay with letting him live with us?”

Andromeda sighed, “I love that little boy so much Harry but I can’t give him what he needs. I’m exhausted by lunchtime after running around after him in the morning. I can’t play Quidditch with him or throw him around in the air to get him giggling like you can. The older Teddy gets, the harder it is for me to give him the attention that he needs.”

Harry nodded, “So this way we all get what we want. You get to have Teddy during the day through the week but you get your evenings and weekends to recuperate.”

“I feel awful for agreeing but you are entirely right,” Andromeda said, “I am not as young as I once was. There is a reason that women have babies in their 20’s you know.”

Daphne smiled, “It’s easier to balance everything when you’re young and you’re already used to not getting any sleep.”

“Precisely,” Andromeda said, “This way we all get to see Teddy plenty but he will have a better quality of life. On a warm summers day, you can get back from a day of running around the country chasing bad guys and still have the energy to take him out to the park. I just don’t have that ability anymore.”

“We understand Andromeda,” Harry said gently, “And I don’t want you to feel bad about it. Grandparents aren’t supposed to raise their Grandkids, they are supposed to babysit them and spoil them. You aren’t the one who isn’t doing your duty, I’m his Godfather.”

“And you are only 19 years old,” Andromeda reminded him, “I doubt that Dora would have expected you to step up and offer to raise her son. She would be honoured that you are doing so however.”

Harry shrugged, “I’m doing what I wish somebody would have done for me as a kid. Teddy has the chance to grow up in a loving family. He can grow up with two parents who love him and a Grandmother who adores him, one day he will be a big brother. He will always have a safe place to come home to during the school holidays and he will always have our love. If we do this right, the three of us can give him everything I always wanted as a kid.”

Daphne gripped Harry’s hand because she could see that he was getting emotional. Andromeda smiled tearfully and nodded, “I don’t think Dora or Remus would have argued with that sentiment.”

“Neither do I,” Daphne said gently.

Andromeda wiped her eyes so subtly that Harry almost didn’t notice it, “If we all agree then I will start to get the papers drawn up. It can take some time for the contract to be finalised and what not. I will do it through the family solicitors to ensure that everything is kept as private as possible. You will get a copy via owl post to review, please make sure you read the contract very carefully when it arrives.”

“I will,” Daphne said with a pointed look at Harry.

Harry nodded, “Yeah, I’ll leave that part up to Daphne,” he agreed.

Andromeda chuckled at this but before she could say anymore Teddy came barrelling into the morning room, “Daffee!”

Daphne laughed and picked the boy up as he threw himself at her, “Good morning little monster. Harry is here too you know?”

Teddy cuddled into Daphne and smiled at Harry, “Dada.”

“No Ted, I’m Harry,” Harry said gently, “We’ve been through this.”

“It’s pointless,” Andromeda said, “When I tell him that you two are taking him away for the weekend he runs around shouting ‘Dada’ and ‘Daffee’.”

“Just accept it and let him call you Dada,” Daphne agreed.

Harry smiled and tickled the boy who was still in his pyjamas, “I guess I should start listening to the women in my life, don’t you think Teddy?”

Teddy just laughed in response.

***

“So I know you hate being away from me,” Neville said while he fried up a full English breakfast, “But that doesn’t mean you have to keep quiet about what you’re doing over there. I want to hear all about how much you love the course and about how great France is.”

“Well I can tell you all about how great the course is,” Lilly said from the kitchen table, “But I hate France.”

“What’s so bad about it?” Neville asked curiously.

“The French?”

Neville snorted, “You sound like Theo. He was so annoyed when Sadie told him that she wanted to go to Paris on their honeymoon. I think he would have rather gone anywhere else.”

“He ended up enjoying it though, even if he pretends he didn’t,” Lilly said with an amused shake of her head, “But in all seriousness, I don’t like what I’ve seen of France. The French Healers in the centre are arrogant idiots, then there’s Marcel who is just a slimy little slime ball.”

“Has he-”

“He’s totally left me alone since Clara spoke to him, don’t worry about it,” Lilly said offhandedly, “But then there’s French food which I thought I would enjoy but I really don’t. I tried frogs legs and the texture was just awful. Then I ordered a steak the other night and it was basically rare! I think they just cut if off the cow and put it on the fucking plate.”

Neville raised an eyebrow at her, “You really don’t like France much, do you?”

She shook her head, “Nope. When we go on our honeymoon we will definitely not going anywhere in France.”

“When?” Neville said as he put a plate of food in front of her, “Not so long ago you were terrified of commitment.”

“Well…” Lilly said as she looked down at her breakfast, “Distance really does make the heart grow fonder.”

“I know,” Neville said, he placed his hand on top of hers, “You don’t appreciate what you have until it’s gone for a week at a time.”

“You should come and visit me in France,” Lilly said, she looked up at him, “Maybe I’ll like it more if you’re there.”

“Why Lillian Moon,” Neville said sarcastically, “I didn’t think you said cheesy things like that.”

Lilly smiled at him, “I’m serious Nev.”

“Then I will seriously come to visit you in France,” Neville promised her, “Next weekend I’ll come to you. The only reason that I haven’t yet is because I thought you were enjoying catching up with everyone else while you were at home.”

“I am,” Lilly said honestly, “I love catching up with the girls and nipping over for a coffee with my Mum but I don’t need to do it every weekend.”

“I think it’s about time I came to visit you anyway,” Neville said, “Your course-mates must be desperate to meet me since I was the one who bestowed your new nickname on you.”

Lilly whacked him around the head, “Oh shut up. They are desperate to meet you but that’s only because they think you’re tall, dark and handsome.”

“I am rather tall and I do have kind of mousy brown dark-ish hair,” Neville said with a grin.

“And you’re handsome,” Lilly added, “But don’t you dare flirt with any of them or I will kill you.”

“Why would my eyes ever wander when I have you?” Neville asked.

“At least what I said wasn’t that cheesy,” Lilly murmured as she stabbed a bit of bacon with her fork.

“Can I mess with Marcel next weekend?” Neville asked eagerly.

“I told you, he hasn’t been bothering me lately.”

“I know but I still want to mess with him.”

“Neville!”

“Please? Just a tiny bit?”

Lilly grinned at him and gave in, “Oh I suppose so…just a little bit.”

Neville grinned back, “I can’t wait.”

***

“Daph, can I ask you a question?”

“Uh-huh,” Daphne replied, she was a little pre-occupied because they had just set Teddy loose on the new kids playset they had bought for the back garden of the Manor.

“Does it bother you that Teddy calls me Dada but only calls you Daffee?”

Daphne frowned and looked over at him, “No, of course not. You’re his Godfather, he’s known you since he was a tiny baby. I’m a more recent addition to his life.”

“You’ve been around since before his 1st birthday,” Harry reminded her, “I know you only really started getting to know him at Easter but he clearly loves you.”

“And that’s enough for me,” Daphne said honestly, “Children have a more profound bond with their Mother. To Teddy you are the only man he sees on a regular basis therefore you are Daddy as far as he’s concerned. It’s more confusing where women are concerned because there’s Andy and Narcissa, then me.”

Harry hummed thoughtfully, “I was just worried it offended you.”

Daphne shook her head, “When we started talking about adopting Teddy I realised that I need to accept something. I may become his Mum but I will never be his Mother and that’s okay. He’s mine in a way that he will never be hers because I’m going to be the one who heals his cuts, cuddles him after a nightmare and soothes him when he’s unwell. But he is hers in a way that he will never be mine because I didn’t carry him for 9 months and I didn’t give birth to him, I never held him in my arms as a baby. I’ll be his Mum and she will always be his Mother, and I’ll make sure he knows that as soon as he’s old enough.”

Harry smiled at her, a little tearfully, “That was beautiful. Did you come up with that on your own? Because that could go on a wall you know, it’s inspirational.”

Daphne chuckled and looked down to hide the emotions swimming in her eyes, “I came up with it while talking to Sadie late one night about the whole thing.”

“I love you so much,” Harry said, it was a little bit out of the blue but Daphne understood, “I can’t believe that you and I are only 19 sometimes, but I don’t mind.”

“We both went through some awful things,” Daphne said while she watched Teddy playing, “Both in our childhood and during the war. When you grow up like that, you grow up fast because you don’t have a choice. I want Teddy to be able to grow up right, you know?”

Harry nodded and slipped his hand into hers, “I want him to grow up good and slow, like we should have done but not many people in our generation got that chance. Some of us didn’t even get the chance to grow up…”

Daphne squeezed his hand and Harry sighed, “Every kid has the potential to be something great, they just need the right people behind them. If Voldemort had been adopted by someone who showed him love then maybe he wouldn’t have grown into the monster that he did. Without the Weasley’s or Hagrid or Sirius…I don’t know what I would have grown up to be.”

“With us behind him, Teddy can be whatever he wants to be,” Daphne assured Harry, “I know that you feel like you have to fix the mistakes that were made during your childhood through Teddy but all you really need to do is love him. If you do that, everything else will fall into place.”

“I already do,” Harry assured her as he let his eyes fall on the little boy.

** _A/N: The quote about Mum and Mother is from Desha Wood and the quote about every kid having the potential to be great is from Josh Shipp. Pinterest is a wonderful resource when you need inspiration!_ **

***

“I have to go out for a bit, are you going to be okay on your own?”

Daphne raised an eyebrow at her fiancé, “I spent a whole weekend with him while you were in isolation, I’ll be fine. Where are you going?”

“Just out to help someone,” Harry said quickly, “Won’t be long.”

“Oh no,” Daphne said sharply, “You don’t get to just disappear with a rubbish excuse. Who needs help?”

“Just a friend of mine, nobody you know,” Harry said, “It’s just a quick errand.”

Daphne took another step to block his access to the door, “Let’s try that again, shall we?”

Harry grimaced, “Theo told me not to tell you because he knew you would bring it up for the rest of his life.”

Daphne sniggered, “In that case I’m not even going to ask now, but you can tell me all about it when you get back. I was just going to bake a cake with Teddy anyway so you wouldn’t have been much help here.”

Harry laughed, “Alright, I’ll see you in a bit. I promise I won’t be long.”

Before Daphne could say anything else, he had dashed out of the house. She shook her head, wondering what stupid situation Theo had gotten himself into this time, and shouted, “Teddy! Do you want to bake a cake for pudding tonight?”

The hyperactive little boy dashed into the entrance hall from the study with a grin on his face. Daphne laughed as she ushered him into the kitchen, “I’ll take that as a yes.”

***

“What the hell did you do to end up like that?”

“I pissed Sadie off,” Theo mumbled, “Can you just get me down, please?”

“I wish I had a camera right now,” Harry said with a grin. Theo was currently suspended from a tree in the back garden of his home. His feet had been tied together and he had been hung upside down from one of the tallest branches.

“Just get me down you self-righteous prick.”

“Theo, hasn’t anyone told you to be nice to the person on the ground when you’re the one hanging from a tree?”

“Surprisingly enough, that has never come up in conversation,” Theo said sarcastically.

Harry snorted and levitated Theo towards the ground. Once he was close enough, Harry cut the rope and Theo fell into a crumpled heap on the grass below.

“Why didn’t you just ask Draco to help?” Harry asked with a bemused look, “I mean he literally lives right next door.”

“I didn’t want Draco to see me like that!” Theo said in an undignified manner.

“Oh for the love of Merlin,” Harry muttered under his breath, “I forgot about your epic love story. How did you manage to piss Sadie off so much anyway?”

“Ask me another,” Theo said as he picked himself up and dusted himself down, “Shall we just say that she’s a little touchy whenever Egypt is mentioned at the moment?”

Harry snorted, “What did you say?”

“She was complaining about having to go back,” Theo said, “So I just said something along the lines of well, if you want to keep going with the course then you’re just going to have to suck it up for the next little while. The next thing I know, I wake up hanging from a fucking tree.”

Harry tried to hide his amused look, “Yeah, that is pretty touchy.”

“Exactly!” Theo said with a wave of his hand, “I need a bloody drink after that, are you in?”

Harry shook his head, “Nah, we’ve got Teddy for the weekend so I really need to get back. I just nipped away when I got your patronus asking for help.”

“You didn’t tell Daphne did you?” Theo asked quickly, “She would never let me live it down.”

“I didn’t tell Daphne,” Harry promised, although he knew that his fiancé would find out what happened eventually. She had her ways and means of getting the truth out of Harry.

“But I will warn you,” Harry added, “Sadie will tell Daphne, you do realise that right?”

“I’m hoping if I apologise profusely then she won’t,” Theo said with a shrug, “I think she should just pack it in if it’s making her this miserable but that’s not how Sade thinks.”

“She needs to decide for herself,” Harry said, he patted Theo on the back, “Just walk on eggshells at the moment mate, yeah?”

“Yeah, thanks for pulling my arse out of the fire.”

“Or your arse down from the tree, as it so happened,” Harry grinned.

Theo rolled his eyes, “You’re going to tell Draco and Neville about this on Monday aren’t you?”

“Oh yeah,” Harry said with a mischievous grin, “Have a good weekend mate.”

***

When Harry stepped back into Potter Manor, the first thing he heard was laughter. It brought an instant smile to his face to hear Teddy laughing and Daphne chuckling with him. He followed the sound into the kitchen where it looked like a cake had been massacred rather than baked. There was flour on everything, including Daphne and Teddy.

“Merlin’s balls!” Harry said with a grin, “Did you bake a cake or did the cake bake you?”

“Cake Dada!” Teddy said excitedly. He jumped down from the little footstool he had been using and ran over to Harry.

“No Teddy, don’t hug Daddy,” Daphne tried to say quickly, “You’re covered in…”

Teddy launched himself at Harry, “Flour.”

Harry laughed, “And now we’re both covered in flour, but that’s okay. These are my weekend clothes anyway.”

Daphne shook her head in amusement, “The cake did find it’s way to the oven eventually.”

“Did you have fun?” Harry asked Teddy.

Teddy nodded eagerly, “Chocolate cake!”

“Oh, that’s my favourite,” Harry said eagerly, “But I think while the chocolate cake is in the oven you should have a bath.”

“I think that’s an excellent idea,” Daphne agreed.

Harry shot her a bright smile and she smiled back at him. The conversation that had taken place between them and Andromeda that morning was still running through their heads. Harry suspected that Daphne felt the same as he did about the prospect, he was excited and over the moon but that feeling was also tinged with a lot of nerves.

***

“Teddy, don’t fight me on this one. You need to wear a cardigan, it’s getting cold now,” Daphne was trying to tell the child.

Teddy kept shaking his head and pulling his arms out of the cardigan while she tried to put it on him.

“Teddy,” Harry said in a firmer tone of voice, “If that cardigan doesn’t go on then you’re staying here while we go to the Burrow.”

Whether it was the threat or the tone of voice, Daphne didn’t know, but it did work. Teddy stopped going rigid and let Daphne put his cardigan on.

“I don’t think I’m even going to try and force a hat on him,” Daphne said as she shoved her feet into her boots.

“It’s not really cold enough yet,” Harry said, “And if I know Molly, now that the wind is starting to pick up a bit she will have moved things inside for the winter anyway.”

Daphne nodded and took Teddy’s hand, “I was hoping she would do that. I know it’s not that cold by our standards, but Teddy feels the cold so much more than us.”

“Fleur won’t want Victoire out in it either,” Harry said when they reached the fireplace, “And these days Molly listens to Fleur, for an easy life as much as anything else.”

“I think that’s why Bill listens to her too,” Daphne joked.

They both laughed as the floo powder was thrown into the fire. Harry went through first and Daphne followed with Teddy. When they reached the Burrow, the large dining room table had been crammed into the kitchen once more.

“Sorry about the mess dear,” Molly said when she heard the floo roar, “It’s time for us to move things indoors again now that the weather is turning.”

Harry smiled in amusement and helped Daphne out of the fireplace with Teddy.

“Everyone else is in the living room,” Molly said, “And no Daphne dear, I don’t need any help before you ask.”

Daphne chuckled, “Alright Molly,” she said. Between them they managed to drag Teddy into the living room which was full of people. He hid behind Daphne’s legs as he tended to when faced with a big crowd.

“It’s alright Teddy, it’s just busier than you’ve been used to over the summer,” Daphne said gently. She reached into her bag and pulled out a fairly well-worn dragon plush toy, “I brought Elli.”

Teddy grabbed the toy and covered his face with it.

“Elli the dragon?” Charlie asked.

“It’s short for Elliot,” Daphne said, “Harry named it after a dragon in a Muggle book or something.”

“It was a film I used to like,” Harry said, “It was called Pete’s dragon.”

“So Elli is a boy?”

“Hey, it’s nearly 2000. Boys can be called Elli,” Bill joked.

“Well it’s a rubbish name for a dragon,” Charlie said.

“Coming from you Charlie?” Bill retorted, “The guy who called his teddy bear, Teddy and his dragon, Drago.”

Aurora laughed from Charlie’s side, “Remind me to never let you name our kid if we ever get around to having an actual human kid rather than a brood of baby dragons.”

“Hey, I’m not that bad at naming things!” Charlie defended himself.

“What would you name our kid if we had one then?” Aurora asked.

“Uh…Charlie or Bill…or Arthur.”

“Good to know you love the rest of us Char,” George joked as he clapped Charlie on the shoulder.

“And none of those are girls names,” Aurora added.

“Charlie is unisex!”

Bill barked out a laugh and said, “Shut up Charlie. Just face it, you are never naming anything.”

Aurora nodded her agreement and Daphne laughed. She looked down at Teddy and said, “Come on sweetheart, you don’t normally act all shy when we come here.”

“I bet I can get him out of his shell,” Charlie said. He knelt down in front of Teddy and said, “So you like dragons huh?”

Teddy nodded.

“Well I have loads of cool stories about dragons,” Charlie said, “I can tell you about the time I flew a Welsh green or about the time I rode into battle on a Norwegian ridgeback. Would you like that?”

Teddy perked up a little and nodded eagerly. He stepped away from Daphne and let Charlie pick him up. Daphne smiled and said, “Thanks Charlie,” as he sat Teddy on his knee and began to tell him stories.

Bill shook his head and caught Daphne’s eye, “He did not ride into battle on the back of a Norwegian ridgeback by the way. It was a small skirmish and he was leading the dragon in, not riding it.”

Daphne laughed, “Well it sounds more dramatic in the ears of a 1-and-a-half-year-old if he says he rode it.”

“That boy and his tall tales,” Bill said with a grin, “How’s your weekend going?”

“Good,” Daphne replied, “Did you get your fence put up yesterday?”

“Yep, and I did not use magic like the wife asked so she’s happy,” Bill said, he shot Fleur a grin.

“This is weird,” Hermione said as she looked between Bill and Daphne.

“How familiar those two are all of a sudden?” Harry asked, “Tell me about it.”

“Well we do spend all day together 5 days a week,” Daphne said.

“Like Neville and I, so I understand the bond,” Harry said as he glanced over at Teddy, “If he’s quite happy with Charlie I’ll take this chocolate cake into the kitchen for Molly.”

“I’ll go through and see if Mum wants a hand with anything,” Bill said.

Daphne wasn’t stupid, she knew the fact that they were both disappearing at the same time meant that they were going to talk about something. She could work out that the something was her, or her situation with Fawley more to the point.

She didn’t say anything though as she sat down in the chair Bill had just vacated and said, “So Draco, did you hear that Theo pissed Sadie off yesterday and ended up hanging upside down from a tree?”

Draco’s response was to positively cackle with laughter.

***

Harry dropped the cake off with Molly in the kitchen and as he was about to head back into the living room, Bill stepped out.

“Oh Bill, I’m glad I caught you,” Harry said in an undertone, “I wanted to talk to you.”

“I was just coming out to say the same thing to you,” Bill admitted, “Let’s nip out into the garden.”

They stepped into the garden and shut the backdoor behind them.

“You go first Harry.”

“I just wanted to thank you,” Harry said honestly, “For everything that you did for Daphne. You could have put her back in that cursed room or given her any old Curse Breaker as a mentor but you didn’t and she’s so grateful for that.”

Bill smiled, “You don’t have to thank me for doing my brotherly duty Harry. You’re my little brother, the least I can do is keep your fiancé safe after everything she’s been through. I don’t mind mentoring her either though, she’s amazing already and she’s only a trainee. That girl is going to be a fantastic Curse Breaker one day.”

Harry smiled proudly, “I know. She thinks you’re the best thing since sliced bread, she won’t shut up about you. Every night it’s Bill said this and Bill did that or Bill showed me this new way of working.”

Bill laughed, “That’s kind of what I wanted to talk to you about. I know when a man and a woman work together there can be all sorts of tension there and I just wanted to assure you that it’s completely platonic and always will be.”

“Oh, I know,” Harry said, “I trust you and Daphne completely, I know that nothing like that would ever happen. Anyway, look at your wife.”

Bill laughed, “I won’t tell your fiancé that you said that.”

Harry snorted, “Yeah don’t, I value my life and obviously I prefer Daphne anyway. Fleur is too nice and she’s also too French.”

“The too French I get,” Bill admitted, “But can a woman be too nice?”

“Yeah,” Harry said, “I’m stubborn and I’m hotheaded. I need someone who can be a bitch and tell me when I’m being an arsehole, and Daphne does that. I’m also not going to lie, it’s really hot.”

Bill laughed, “See, I like the easy life. I try to avoid riling Fleur up at all costs.”

“Then I definitely don’t need to worry about you and Daphne having an affair,” Harry joked, “She goes looking for an argument half the time.”

Bill chuckled, “I just felt we ought to discuss it so there was no unsaid tension between us about the situation. I wouldn’t want to do anything that would lose me your trust.”

Harry smiled, “And I appreciate that. I know how it can be when you work with someone day in and day out. You get to know them better than you know anyone else, even your own wife or fiancé or whatever.”

Bill nodded, “I told her that, you know? I told her that my philosophy was that we were the same as Auror partners. I know we don’t do what you do but we’re on the frontline just like you.”

“I think you guys are just as valuable, if not more so than us,” Harry said honestly, “You guys are the geniuses who can look at a curse, turn it into code and decipher it. We’re the muscle, we’re the dispensable idiots that run into battle.”

“Every good army has indispensable geniuses and indispensable diots Harry,” Bill said as he clapped his hand on Harry’s shoulder.

***

“Is Ron coming today?” Hermione asked Ginny conversationally.

“No, he’s working again,” Ginny replied, “He’s saving up everything he can to give Katie, for when she has the baby.”

“Well at least he’s treating her with respect,” Hermione said, “It’s too easy for the man to run off and have nothing to do with his kid these days.”

Daphne nodded, “If you aren’t married then there’s basically no protection and it’s a free for-all if it comes down to a custody battle.”

“More and more people are choosing not to get married these days though Daphne,” Hermione said, “It’s been the same in the muggle world for a little while. The days of shotgun weddings are over.”

“Shotgun?” Ginny asked with a frown.

“Oh it’s a muggle weapon,” Hermione said, “For some reason it’s associated with getting married before a baby is born to save embarrassment or shame. I think it comes from the south of America where everyone is religious so it’s a sin to have a baby out of wedlock.”

“Right,” Ginny said a little awkwardly, “Good thing I don’t live in muggle America then.”

“You’re not religious anyway,” Daphne said with a wave of her hand, “So it’s not really an issue. It’s not the same as the reason why purebloods still get married when there’s a surprise pregnancy.”

“What is that reason?” Ginny asked.

“Oh well it’s to do with inheritance,” Daphne replied, “If Harry and I had a baby before we were married the baby would be a bastard as far as the Potters were concerned. It would only have a right to the Greengrass fortune, land, titles etc.”

Ginny narrowed her eyes at Blaise, “Did you not think that might be of interest to me Blaise?”

“It was why I offered to marry you,” Blaise said calmly, “But you did not want to get married for convenience rather than love.”

“Well if you had told me that our baby is going to have nothing then I might have reconsidered that!” Ginny exclaimed.

“The baby will not have a great deal of inheritance anyway,” Blaise reminded her, “Everything will be split between me and my many siblings. There will not be a lot left.”

“And Blaise isn’t even the oldest,” Draco added, “So he won’t get any titles either.”

“So what you are in fact saying is that we’re both poor,” Ginny said with a raised eyebrow.

“Perhaps,” Blaise said.

Ginny snorted, “Merlin Blaise, that almost sounded sheepish.”

The others sniggered at this comment and Hermione decided a change of subject might be a good idea, “Oh I meant to ask Gin, have you heard anything from Luna recently?”

“I spoke to her last week before she disappeared off to America,” Ginny said, “I asked when she would be back and she said when the work was done.”

“I didn’t know that she was going to America,” Hermione said.

“Neither did I. What is she doing out there?” Daphne asked.

“Well it’s kind of an interesting story,” Ginny said, and the other two girls sensed that gossip was going to follow, “She left with her new boyfriend because he lives out there. Do you remember the guy she took to the memorial ball that none of us knew?”

Hermione and Daphne nodded.

“He’s her boyfriend, he’s 5 years older than her and his name is Rolf Scamander,” Ginny said.

“Scamander…as in Newt Scamander?”

“Yep,” Ginny said, “Luna is dating his Grandson.”

Hermione laughed, “Well it’s Luna so I can believe that. What does he do in America?”

“He runs a sanctuary for magical creatures that are going extinct,” Ginny replied, “And he managed to convince Luna to go back there and work with him.”

“So she’s shacked up with the boss?” Daphne asked with a grin, “Saucy!”

Ginny snorted, “I doubt it’s like that, I don’t even know if she’ll get paid or if it’s a voluntary thing. Either way this sanctuary is on an island near New York so she said that if any of us had ever wanted to see the states we could go and visit her.”

“I have always wanted to go to New York,” Hermione admitted, “But I’ll wait until Luna invites me herself. I wonder how Rolf Scamander ended up living over there though? Doesn’t Newt live in the UK?”

“He’s lived all over the place from what I’ve heard,” Daphne said, “He went wherever there were magical creatures that needed discovering.”

Ginny shrugged, “I know nothing on the magical creatures front but I do know that Rolf has family in New York, because Luna told me.”

“Fair enough,” Hermione said with a smile, “It sounds exciting, I’ll look forward to talking to her about it when she next comes back.”

“If she ever comes back,” Daphne joked, “She’s found a sanctuary for rare magical creatures, we might never see her again!”

**TBC!**


	98. Workin' 9 to 5!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter title comes from the song:  
9 to 5 by Dolly Parton

“Oh my god.”

“What?” Daphne asked sharply.

“I…in…January…me…oh…fuck me.”

“What?” Daphne asked quickly, “Is something wrong? Is everyone okay?”

“I…uh, yeah,” Harry said, he was staring wide-eyed at a letter.

“What does that say?” Daphne asked, she snatched the letter from him in a panic. Her eyes skimmed it and then she dropped it on the table, “Holy shit, Harry!”

“Yeah,” Harry said in disbelief.

“An order of Merlin!” Daphne said eagerly, “1st class!”

“For me,” Harry said with a shake of his head.

“Uh yeah,” Daphne said, she gave him a pointed look, “Killing an evil dark lord at the age of 17 is the kind of thing that will earn you that.”

Harry was still staring at the letter, “I’m going to get an order of Merlin.”

“1st class,” Daphne added.

The surprise began to wear off, “I’m going to get a bloody Order of Merlin. A 1st class Order of fucking Merlin. Daphne, I’m getting a bloody Order of Merlin!”

Daphne grinned and launched herself at him, “Yes, you are.”

Harry grinned into the hug, “I’m getting a bloody Order of Merlin!”

***

“Good morning boys,” Harry said as he strutted onto the field with his broom.

“Someone got laid last night,” Theo joked.

“Oh, no,” Harry said with a shake of his head, “I’m just in a good mood because I got a nice little letter this morning.”

“A letter put you in a good mood?” Draco asked with a raised eyebrow, “What did it have it in it, money?”

“Nope,” Harry smirked, “Just the news that in January yours truly will be getting awarded an Order of Merlin…”

“What?”

“Holy fuck!”

“First class,” Harry said smugly.

Neville smiled slightly, “I would say that’s well deserved, congratulations.”

“Thank you,” Harry said importantly, “Thank you very much.”

Draco rolled his eyes, “You are so not going to shut up about this today.”

“Draco, can you just hex me so that I’m deaf for the rest of the day?” Theo remarked.

Harry grinned, but couldn’t brag any further because an order to get on their broomsticks and get in the bloody air, was barked at them.

***

“Why does the weekend always fly by so quickly?” Harry asked, “I hate that point on Sunday night when I have to take Teddy back to Andromeda’s then get my work bag ready…”

Neville patted him on the shoulder, “It will be better when you adopt him, at least he’ll be there in the evenings when you go home.”

“I know,” Harry said with a sigh.

“Do you want cheering up?” Draco asked, he slung his bag over his shoulder and they began to walk towards their first class. Monday morning began with flying then a quick shower before the intellectual work began.

“I can cheer myself up by thinking about my Order of Merlin, 1st class. But cheer me up anyway,” Harry said.

Draco shook his head irritably, “We all get to spend the next week laughing at Theo for being strung up by his wife.”

“And not in the enjoyable way,” Neville added.

Theo glared at them both, “Oh fuck off!”

“What? Harry needed cheering up!” Neville said.

“Through slagging me off?” Theo huffed.

“You’re an easy target,” Draco said, “And look at his face. He looks like he’s being kicked in the face by a Hippogriff.”

Harry snorted, “Wrong choice of phrase, coming from the guy who was stupid enough to insult a Hippogriff.”

“And then fake a broken arm to make Pansy feel sorry for him,” Theo added.

“I knew you were faking it!” Harry exclaimed.

“What did you tell them that for, you prat?”

“You used my suffering to cheer Harry up!”

Harry shot Neville an amused look while the pair of them bickered, “Some things never change,” he said in an undertone as they slipped into the classroom.

Auror Carter was already waiting for them so they all fell silent as they took their seats. She began to talk about disguises and how each situation had a perfect disguise. Half an hour in when it came to the discussion part of the class, Harry, Draco, Neville and Theo didn’t end up discussing disguises much.

“So Hermione didn’t want to say anything at the weekend but the reason she was a bit down was because Crookshanks died on Friday,” Draco said while the others discussed what they were actually supposed to.

“I want to say that I’m sad about that but I’ll be honest, I agreed with Ron,” Harry whispered, “It freaked me out.”

“And it was an ugly bastard,” Theo added.

“I know, I hated it too,” Draco said, “But Hermione was gutted and she kept going on about how the house wouldn’t be the same without Crookshanks. I think I would prefer a house that doesn’t have a cat bringing dead shit into it, or puking on my expensive carpets but you know Hermione.”

“She does love cats,” Harry agreed, “Do you know what else she would love?”

“If you say anything about an Order of Merlin 1st class, I will fucking kill you,” Draco muttered under his breath.

“I was going to say kittens actually,” Harry said.

Draco narrowed his eyes at the Gryffindor, “I was just about to say that I’m thinking about buying her a kitten for her birthday.”

“But you hate cats,” Theo said, “You just said that yourself.”

“I know, but Hermione loves them and I want to make her happy,” Draco said, he shrugged it off to try and look cool but it didn’t work.

“Aww, that’s true love!” Neville joked, “You hate cats but you’ll buy her one anyway.”

“I obviously don’t love Sadie because she keeps asking me for a cat and I keep telling her to piss off,” Theo said.

Harry snorted in amusement, “I’ve been thinking of buying a dog, Daph really wants one. I was going to buy her one for Christmas but I don’t want to do that whole cliché, a dog is for life not for Christmas thing.”

“What are you talking about?”

“The advert,” Harry said, “You know, the charity advert? A dog is for life not just for Christmas.”

They all looked at him blankly.

“Never mind,” Harry said with a shake of his head.

“Well Lilly wants a pony and I keep telling her that if her Dad never bought her one as a kid then I’m not buying her one either,” Neville said.

“Wow, harsh Nev,” Theo said.

Draco nodded, “Really harsh.”

“But Theo telling Sadie to piss off isn’t harsh?” Harry countered.

“That’s a cat though,” Theo said, “Cats are bastards. Everyone knows that if a girl asks for a pony, you damn well buy her one”

“That is a pureblood culture thing though,” Draco reminded Theo.

“I am a pureblood,” Neville said slowly.

“But not a proper one, you’re like a kinda pureblood,” Harry said, “Like me.”

“Does anyone hear an annoying buzzing noise? Oh wait, it’s just the half-blood talking,” Theo joked.

“The half-blood killed Lord Voldemort, Recruit Nott,” Carter said, she seemed to have appeared out of nowhere, “You did not, nor did you Recruit Black. Now, how is your discussion about disguises going?”

“Great,” Harry said eagerly, “We were talking about different animal disguises like a pony or a cat.”

“But Theo said you should never disguise yourself as a cat because cats are bastards,” Neville added.

Carter raised an eyebrow at Theo, “Is that your opinion Recruit Nott? That’s interesting…”

Before Theo could ask Carter why that was interesting, she had transformed into a cat before his very eyes.

“Her Animagus form is a cat, I checked our Auror trainers when we registered ourselves last week,” Neville said with a smirk.

“Oh…fuck,” Theo said, he let his head fall onto the desk with a loud thump.

***

“Why does Neville look like he’s just won an order of Merlin?”

“I don’t know but do you know an interesting fact about the order of Merlin?” Harry asked matter of factly.

“Shut up Potter.”

“I’m going to be getting one in January,” Harry continued, “Did I mention that?”

“Did you mention that you’re getting an order of Merlin 1st class?” Theo asked sarcastically, “Do you know what? I don’t think you have mentioned that at all this morning.”

“Really?” Harry asked in faux-surprise, “Because it’s for valour Theo. Valour like a knight, valour.”

Theo and Draco both glared at him as they all walked into their Herbology lab. They were all standing in a big group while they waited for the Senior Auror who would be teaching this class to arrive so Harry started talking to Blanche and Ophelia.

“Did you hear my great news this morning girls?”

“What news is that?” Ophelia asked politely.

“I’ll be getting awarded an Order of Merlin in January,” Harry said humbly, “1st class.”

“Oh for Merlin’s sake, shut up!” Theo said.

“He won’t bloody shut up about it,” Draco said to Blanche through gritted teeth.

“Do you realise that he’s just doing it because of your reaction?” Blanche said quietly, “If you didn’t react then he would shut up about it.”

“Shit, we’re so stupid Draco.”

“Speak for yourself Theo,” Draco muttered as he elbowed Theo in the ribs.

Before they could argue any further, a pretty redheaded woman in Auror robes stepped into the room. She had blue eyes and a kind smile, “Good morning recruits. I’m Senior Auror Brown and I will be observing you in Herbology lab. My main goal over the next year is to teach you all the dangerous plants from the safe plants. I also want to educate you a little on harvesting your own potions ingredients.”

She did a brief outline of the course then she gave all of the pairs a chart and asked them to identify the safe plants from the dangerous ones as a little test to see how much they needed to learn.

“Do you know any of these?” Neville asked Harry, “Because I know them all but I want to see how incompetent you are.”

“Pretty incompetent,” Harry admitted, “Wolfsbane is poisonous if you eat it as it is, isn’t it?”

“Yeah Harry, it’s really poisonous,” Neville said with a shake of his head, “Thank Merlin you have me to keep you alive.”

Harry smiled sheepishly, “Yeah, I’m really grateful for that. I saw the look on your face when Auror Brown walked in by the way.”

“What look would that be?” Neville asked.

“The, I think she’s hot, look,” Harry said pointedly, “The look I apparently gave Keller.”

Neville snorted, “The look you definitely gave Keller.”

“Well you totally gave Brown the same look,” Harry said, “And you like redheads.”

“Lilly is a brunette,” Neville reminded him.

“But Susan is a redhead,” Harry whispered, “Susan who you had a wild, sexy fling with.”

Neville’s cheeks coloured, “Look, I don’t want to think about that, alright? Just tell me if Moly is safe to eat or not.”

“Uh…not?”

Neville sighed, “Wrong, it actually counteracts certain enchantments when ingested. You need to brush up on this stuff.”

“I promise to read _“One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi” _extensively if you admit that you think Auror Brown is hot and that you secretly have a thing for redheads,” Harry bargained.

Neville rolled his eyes but didn’t look up from the sheet that he was filling in, “Lilly is a natural redhead, alright? She dyes her hair because people bullied her for it when she was in 1st year.”

“So yes then,” Harry said.

“Yeah, she’s pretty hot and yes, I like redheads,” Neville admitted irritably.

“My apologies Recruit Longbottom, but you are far too young for me and I don’t think my Husband would be much pleased.”

“Oh for the love of Merlin,” Neville said, he buried his head in his heads.

Harry sniggered.

“How are you two getting on?” Auror Brown asked with an amused smile.

“Well according to Neville, it’s a good thing I have him because otherwise I would die,” Harry said matter of factly.

“I’m sure you’re not that clueless Recruit Potter,” Brown said kindly, “Could you tell me whether Devil’s snare is safe?”

“If you know how to get it to release you then I suppose it’s safe enough,” Harry replied, “It hates light.”

Brown smiled, “See? I have no idea what Recruit Longbottom was talking about.”

As Brown walked away, Neville glared at him, “You do realise that if she had asked you about any other plant on this list you would have had no bloody clue, right?”

Harry grinned and patted Neville on the back, “I’m a lucky guy.”

***

If Harry was honest, he wasn’t sure what to expect when he stepped into his last class of the day. He wasn’t sure what Mind Magic was going to be about, but he didn’t expect to see a room that reminded him of Professor Trelawney’s Divination classroom.

There were no seats or desks, just beanbags, cushions and scented candles.

“Good afternoon recruits.”

Harry jumped and looked around for the source of the voice. It had come from a woman who was sitting cross-legged in the centre of the room. She had tanned skin, dark hair and deep brown eyes.

“My name is Senior Auror Emmagen and I will be teaching you how to open your mind to new possibilities,” She said.

“Sadie does that all the time,” Theo whispered to Draco.

The blonde man sniggered and tried to cover it up with a cough.

“I would ask you all to get comfortable on the floor,” Emmagen said.

Harry was already wary, but he did so. He had to try not to laugh at Neville as the taller man tried to get comfortable on a tiny cushion, he could barely even cross his legs comfortably.

Emmagen sighed deeply, “Now, close your eyes and clear your mind. I want you to focus on your Auror partner and nothing else, I want you to try and communicate with them.”

Harry would have raised an eyebrow if he could have done. He shut his eyes and tried his best to clear his mind, then he focused on trying to communicate with Neville but nothing happened.

“Recruits Black and Nott,” Emmagen said calmly, “I am delighted that you find mental communication so straightforward. However, I do not want to hear about your weekend plans and I do not tolerate that sort of language in this class.”

Harry snorted in amusement and he could feel Neville shaking with silent laughter next to him.

“Everyone else must clear their mind,” Emmagen continued.

This went on in a similar vein for the remainder of the class, Harry was glad that it was only half an hour long. Draco and Theo were told off several times for what Emmagen called their inappropriate mental communication.

Towards the very end of the class, Harry and Neville finally managed to communicate but not in the way that either of them wanted to.

“Ugh, Neville!” Harry exclaimed as his eyes flew open, “You’re supposed to be clearing your mind not thinking about your girlfriend! How am I supposed to look Lilly in the eye after that? Merlin’s sake!”

Neville’s cheeks went bright red, “I’m sorry, I just thought about her for a second, I couldn’t help it!”

Draco and Theo looked like they were going to wet themselves as they roared with laughter on the other side of the room.

***

“So, Neville told me something interesting when I nipped over to drop off Lilly’s birthday present,” Daphne said matter of factly as she stepped into the drawing room where Harry was reading “_One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi.”_

Harry frowned up at her, “Did he?”

“Yes,” Daphne said, “He said that you have a hot Healing Auror called Keller. He told me that she’s blonde and very attractive and that you fancy her.”

Harry rolled his eyes, “He only told you that because I pissed him off yesterday.”

“Is it true though?” Daphne asked.

“I have a Senior Auror called Keller who works in the hospital wing,” Harry agreed, “And she’s attractive yes, but that’s all there is to it.”

“Really?”

“Really,” Harry said, “You aren’t seriously getting jealous about this are you?”

“You’re the chosen one, you’re getting an Order of Merlin,” Daphne reminded him, “You can have anyone that you want so yes, I feel a little threatened.”

“You feel threatened?” Harry asked in disbelief, “I’m not the one who works with Bill, the best Curse Breaker in 20 years, Weasley! Nobody I work with has long hair, tattoos and piercings. Nobody at my work is a bad arse in dragon hide trousers Daphne! You should not be the one who feels threatened.”

“I told you Harry, there is nothing like that between Bill and I,” Daphne said irritably.

“Yeah and I told you, I love you and only you,” Harry said shortly, “I’m not going to run off with anyone else just because I’m the chosen one. You’re the hot one in this relationship, not me.”

“Don’t try to flatter me.”

“I’m not!” Harry exclaimed, “It’s the truth! I’m not going to leave you to shag one of my Senior Aurors, am I?”

“I don’t know, are you?”

“Fucking Neville,” Harry muttered, “Just because he can’t take a joke when it’s aimed in his bloody direction. No, I’m not going to shag anyone apart from you ever, okay? Even if you die, I will never sleep with anyone else. I’ll abstain for the rest of my miserable, sexless life.”

“That’s taking it a bit far,” Daphne said with a raised eyebrow.

“Is it? Or would you haunt me if I moved on?”

“Well,” Daphne said slowly, “That would depend who you moved on with…”

“See? It’s just easier to never have sex again,” Harry said as he gave her a pointed look.

Daphne sighed, “Okay, I might have been a little touchy about that.”

“A little?” Harry retorted.

“Or a lot,” Daphne mumbled sheepishly, “But as hard as it is for you to believe, I’m still not convinced I’m good enough for you.”

“You talk so much rubbish sometimes,” Harry said, he cocked his head at her, “Do you know that?”

“I mean it Harry,” Daphne said, “You were supposed to marry Ginny. You were supposed to be the perfect golden couple.”

“Fuck that,” Harry said, “I don’t care what I was supposed to do. I don’t care what the world wanted me to do. I care about what I want to do and that is be with you, until the day I die.”

Daphne smiled slightly, “That’s cheesy.”

“I don’t care,” Harry said.

Daphne smiled, “Sorry for riling you up.”

Harry fixed her with an amused look, “No, you aren’t.”

“You’re right,” Daphne admitted as she bit her lip, “I’m not.”

Harry smiled knowingly at her, “Bed?”

“Bed,” She agreed.

***

“Coffee and a bagel?”

“Don’t mind if I do,” Bill said cheerfully, “How are you this morning? You seem awfully chipper.”

“Harry and I had an argument last night,” Daphne said.

“From what Harry tells me about your relationship, that translates into, you had kinky sex last night.”

Daphne snorted, “Maybe. Do we have any work to do this morning?”

“Nice change of the subject there Daph,” Bill grinned.

“It’s a valid question since this is my place of work,” Daphne pointed out.

“We do have a case but I’m not going to tell you about it until you tell me why you and Harry argued last night,” Bill said.

“It was kind of my fault,” Daphne admitted, “I got jealous about this hot Senior Auror that he works with. Then he said that I wasn’t the one who should feel threatened because he wasn’t the one who worked with, and I quote, Bill, the best Cursebreaker in 20 years, Weasley with his long hair, tattoos, piercings and dragon hide trousers.”

Bill raised an eyebrow at her, “Wow, I never knew Harry felt that way about me. I better tell him that I’m not that way inclined, and I’ve not worn those trousers in years!”

Daphne laughed, “We all know that the idea of him feeling threatened by you is ridiculous. I think he just brought it up in an effort to win the argument so please slag him off for it on Sunday.”

“Oh you don’t even have to ask,” Bill grinned, “Now this case is a horrific one. You are welcome to take the lead because I might run away halfway through.”

Daphne looked at him in disbelief, “I find it hard to believe that you’re scared of anything.”

“Well this case involves a cursed doll,” Bill said, “Apparently it talks, moves on its own and tries to kill people. I just can’t deal with that to be honest with you Daphne.”

She raised an eyebrow at him, “You are the guy who has broken ancient, terrifying Egyptian curses Bill and you’re scared of a doll?”

“Wait until you see this bloody thing,” Bill muttered as he slid the case file over to her, “You won’t sleep for weeks.”

Daphne flipped the file open and shrugged, “It’s a doll. What’s the big deal?”

Bill shuddered and said, “You’re a stronger person than me Daphne. You have just earned your first lead on a case, I’ll do whatever you say.”

Daphne shot him a knowing look as they headed out into the corridor, “I didn’t earn anything. You’re only giving me the lead because you’re shitting yourself about this doll.”

“You might say that, but I couldn’t possibly comment,” Bill said cryptically as the office door shut behind them.

***

When Wednesday afternoon rolled around, Neville was excited to see Lilly again. Harry didn’t joke about it this time, in fact things had been a little bit frosty between himself and Neville all day. They didn’t discuss the reason because they both knew that Harry was pissed off about the fact Neville had told Daphne about Keller. Even Draco and Theo could tell that something was up but neither of them had asked what it was yet.

So when they were told to practice their suturing skills in their Healing class, Harry decided to get revenge.

“Hey boys, how are you?”

Neville smiled, “Good, how is France?”

Lilly shrugged, “I still don’t like it much. What have you been up to this week?”

“Apart from admiring hot Aurors?” Harry joked.

Neville had been waiting for Harry to drop that one in and when he did, he glared at him.

Lilly frowned, “Which one of you?”

“Neville has a thing for the Auror who teaches Herbology lab, eh Neville?”

“She’s pretty, that’s all I said,” Neville said quickly, “Don’t worry about it Lil.”

“Don’t worry about it?” Lilly asked angrily, “You had a fling with Susan during the war then you left her when you realised that Hannah liked you. Then you cheated on Hannah with Susan but I don’t need to worry about it? You’re right, it’s not like you have a thing about cutting your losses and moving on when something better comes along!”

She stalked away before Neville could defend himself any further. Neville glared at Harry, “If you had ever thought to ask, Lilly is self-conscious about my dating history.”

Harry had to admit, he felt a little bit bad about that, “Well you had it coming. You had no reason to tell Daphne about Keller and I got questioned like I had done something wrong when she came in last night!”

“That was so bloody petty of you,” Neville said angrily.

“And you telling Daphne wasn’t?”

“Is there a problem here boys?” Keller asked as she appeared behind them.

“No,” Harry and Neville said in unison, both of them rather passive aggressively.

Keller raised an eyebrow, “Are you sure?”

“Yes ma’am,” Harry said, “We’re just having a minor disagreement.”

Keller didn’t look convinced, but she walked away anyway.

“How was I supposed to know that Lilly got touchy about you and other people anyway?” Harry asked irritably.

“How was I supposed to know that Daphne would be bothered about you finding Keller hot?” Neville countered.

“Because she’s Daphne Greengrass,” Harry said slowly, “Who once said in public that if I kept looking at a girl in a certain way she would castrate me and feed my genitals to the giant squid.”

Neville grimaced, “Yeah…”

“I know you remember it because you told her that the giant squid only eats sea creatures so her efforts would be pointless,” Harry said before Neville could say anymore.

Neville sighed, “I know…I shouldn’t have said anything, I’m sorry.”

“I shouldn’t have said something to Lilly just because I was annoyed with you,” Harry admitted sheepishly, “That was bitchy and…I’m sorry.”

“She doesn’t think she’s good enough for me,” Neville admitted, he looked over at Lilly, “She thinks I’m going to run off and leave her as soon as someone better comes along. I tried to explain that’s not what I did with Susan and Hannah but she didn’t seem to believe me.”

“Would you let me talk to her for you?” Harry asked, “It’s my fault she’s angry with you in the first place.”

“Try if you want,” Neville said, “But you know Lilly, she’s stubborn.”

“I’ve managed to get through to her before,” Harry pointed out.

“Is Daphne still pissed off with you?”

“No, I managed to earn her forgiveness with an impassioned speech,” Harry said, “I suppose I’ll need one of them in January, you know for when I get my Order of Merlin?”

“That’s the first time you haven’t added in that it’s a 1st Class one,” Neville said with a pointed look, “You’re getting humbler.”

Harry laughed and said, “I’m going to pretend to need help so that I can speak to Lilly alone.”

***

“I need help with my suturing.”

Lilly raised an eyebrow at him, “I know you do, but you could have waited for me to come over to tell me that.”

“Nah,” Harry said, “I couldn’t. I shouldn’t have said that about Neville finding that Auror attractive. I only did it because Neville told Daphne that I found Keller hot.”

“Wow, that’s petty of you.”

“I know,” Harry sighed, “And I had no idea you felt the way you did about what happened between Susan and Hannah.”

“Oh don’t even start me on that,” Lilly muttered.

“It wasn’t like that Lil, you know Neville isn’t that kind of guy,” Harry said quietly, “He had that thing with Susan and there were feelings there, they liked each other you know?”

“If they liked each other so much why did he run off with Hannah?” Lilly countered.

“Because you can like someone but know in your heart that it wouldn’t work out,” Harry said, “I liked Hermione, in fact I loved Hermione but I knew we would never work as a couple in the real world. The things you feel in a war…they aren’t always true feelings and things that work when you’re cooped up in a tent or a school, they don’t always work in the real world.”

Lilly sighed and glanced down.

“That was why he broke things off with Susan and it was a good couple of months before he asked Hannah out after that,” Harry said, “As for the other thing. I would debate whether he cheated on Hannah because she basically broke up with him then changed her mind. By the time she came running back Neville had already, recklessly I admit, found solace in the arms of another.”

“He went back to Susan once though Harry,” Lilly said, “Who’s to say he won’t do it again?”

“He went back to her because she was there and she was familiar,” Harry said, “But things are different now. Susan is happy with Percy, they have both moved on. He loves you Lilly, a lot more than he loved Susan or Hannah. I think he might have always loved you, he just couldn’t see it because it was right in front of him for years.”

“Jeez, are you this cheesy with Daphne?”

“Yeah, she frequently tells me that she’s going to vomit while I’m in the middle of an impassioned speech about my love for her,” Harry admitted with a grin.

Lilly snorted and glanced over at Neville, “He looks like a slapped puppy.”

“He hates arguing with you.”

She reluctantly sighed, “I’ll go over and talk to him. You just stay here and practice on that dummy for a few minutes okay? Look busy.”

“Yes boss,” Harry joked.

***

“So your best friend presented your case rather well.”

Neville looked up in surprise, “Did he?”

Lilly nodded, “Yeah, everything that happened with Susan and Hannah makes a lot more sense now,” she admitted.

“Are you doing that thing where you apologise for flying off the handle without actually saying the words, I’m sorry?”

“Maybe,” Lilly said sheepishly.

“I’m sorry I didn’t explain it well enough,” Neville said, “But you know I’m not great at talking about my feelings.”

“That’s why you have Harry, to talk about your feelings for you,” Lilly joked.

Neville chuckled, “You joke, but that’s pretty accurate.”

“I know,” Lilly said with a smile, “Anyway, practice your suturing a bit more, that’s awful. I’d get complains if you sowed someone up like that in the field.”

Neville laughed and did a mock salute, “Yes ma’am, Trauma Healer Moon, ma’am!”

***

“Ooh, who knew miss au naturel dyes her hair!”

Lilly jumped, “What? How did you know that?”

“Because your roots were just starting to come in yesterday and now they are gone,” Savannah said in her thick American accent.

Lilly rolled her eyes, “Yes, I dye my hair but that doesn’t mean I want a makeover Anna.”

“What’s your natural colour?” Lucille asked curiously.

Lilly sighed, “Red,” she admitted.

Savannah, who had dark red hair, raised an eyebrow at her, “And what is wrong with that, missy?”

“I got bullied for it in school,” Lilly admitted, “I was a muggle-born and a geek so I was already unpopular. They all referred to me as the nerdy ginger one so when I went home for summer, I dyed my hair and I just never stopped.”

“You know Lilly, you are beautiful but I think you would look great with your natural colour,” Lucille said.

Savannah nodded, “Can we just do a quick charm to see how it would look?”

Lilly grimaced, “Do we have to? I haven’t seen my natural hair colour in years.”

“Please Lilly,” Lucille said, “I’m curious.”

She groaned, “Fine, but you had better put it back to normal afterwards!”

Savannah grinned, she knew lots of glamour charms, “Close your eyes.”

“I don’t like this,” Lilly complained, but she still shut her eyes.

Savannah murmured a charm that Lilly didn’t know then conjured up a mirror.

“Wow Lilly, you look great!” Lucille said eagerly.

“You look hot,” Savannah agreed, “Open your eyes and look for yourself.”

Lilly opened her eyes nervously but was taken aback when she saw her reflection in the mirror. Her natural hair colour was a dark, auburn red and it complemented her blue eyes far better than it had down pre-puberty.

“See!” Savannah said, “I told you that you would look good! You should leave it like that.”

“Oh…I don’t know,” Lilly said, she bit her lip and stared at her reflection, “Neville might not like it.”

“Oh who cares? It’s your hair,” Lucille said offhandedly, “And you’re angry at Neville anyway so why should you care?”

“I’m not angry at him,” Lilly said, “We made up, he just pissed me off a little bit.”

“Well you show him then!” Savannah said, “Leave it until the weekend and see what he says.”

“If he’s like any guy that I’ve ever dated, he won’t even notice,” Lucille joked.

Savannah laughed, “And if he hates it then you can always dye it back.”

“Or break up with him,” Lucille joked.

Lilly laughed nervously, “Wow…well, this is going to take a bit of adjustment…”

“It will be covered up by a cap in surgery all day every day,” Savannah joked, “You’ll forget that you even have hair.”

Lilly laughed, “That’s true. Has Marcel stopped bothering you by the way Lucy?”

Lucille nodded, “I spoke to Joan about him and she put a stop to it. I think he’s finally getting the message.”

“He’s been fine with me all week,” Lilly said, “But Neville still wants to try and scare him when he comes to visit at the weekend.”

“Oh, let him Lil,” Savannah begged, “Please.”

Lucille nodded, “Please let him. Marcel is such a douche.”

Lilly laughed and said, “Don’t worry, I told him that he could mess with Marcel if he wanted to. He is, like you say Lucy, a total douche.”

***

“You don’t want me to go up there with you, do you?”

Daphne shot Bill an exasperated look, “Yes Bill, I do because if the cursed doll is up there and it really does try to kill every person that it sees then I would like a bit of back-up.”

“It won’t be in the attic though, that’s too cliché,” Bill said.

“Well we’ve searched every other corner of this godforsaken ruin,” Daphne said irritably, “So if it is here then it’s going to be in the attic like I said it was at 10am yesterday morning and now here we are nearly 30 hours later and we still haven’t searched the attic.”

“Right,” Bill said, he swallowed and nodded, “I’ll be the light guy, you do the searching.”

Daphne shook her head in disbelief, for a guy who was dubbed as the best Curse Breaker Gringotts had seen for two decades, Bill could be a real pussy sometimes. They stepped into the attic which was cold, draughty and dingy.

The light from Bill’s wand illuminated the space but there was a lot of junk to sort through. Daphne began to levitate things while Bill stayed as close to the attic hatch as he could.

After a few minutes, they found the doll. Daphne had moved a large rotting piece of tarpaulin and underneath it, was the rather creepy doll. It only had one eye left and it just looked old and not very well looked after.

When the doll was freed from the tarpaulin it focused on them with it’s one eye and smiled, “I’m Bella. What’s your name?”

“I’m Daphne and this is my partner Bill,” Daphne replied.

The doll’s smile widened, “I’m going to kill you Bill.”

Bill screamed, like a girl, and fell through the attic hatch. Daphne rolled her eyes and pointed her wand at the doll, “Priori Incantatem.”

The doll froze, “Lumos.”

Bill groaned on the stairs below.

“Can you get your pathetic arse up here please? I could do with some light so that I can break this curse,” Daphne called downwards.

“Sorry,” Bill said as he re-entered the room.

“You know my fiancé, Harry Potter, the guy who killed Lord Voldemort?” Daphne asked Bill with a raised eyebrow.

“You’re going to tell me that he’s cooler than me because he’s not scared of dolls, aren’t you?”

“I was going to say, he’s far more bad-ass than you because he’s not scared of anything, but close enough,” Daphne shrugged.

“Fair play, I’m definitely not as cool as Harry, I can accept that,” Bill said modestly, “Thank Merlin, you made it stop talking.”

Daphne cast a diagnostic charm on the doll and shot Bill an amused look.

Bill grimaced, “I feel a little embarrassed right now.”

Daphne snorted, “That’s a schoolboy curse Bill, I mean seriously. I could have broken that in 4th year.”

“It’s a prank curse, isn’t it?”

“Yep,” Daphne grinned, she waved her wand and the doll burst into flames. Within a few seconds it was a pile of ashes.

“Okay I’ll be honest, I’m really embarrassed right now,” Bill admitted while Daphne laughed heartily at him.

***

When Harry got home from work on Thursday night and saw Daphne hunched over the kitchen table, his first thought was to panic. When he saw her sitting like that, he began to worry that something had happened with Fawley.

“Are you okay babe?”

Daphne looked up with bleary eyes, “I’m fine, I’ve just spent the last half hour going over this contract. The owl must have dropped it on the porch while we were at work.”

“The adoption contract?” Harry asked in surprise, “This soon?”

Daphne nodded, “I know, it’s sooner than I was expecting too. The paperwork will take a long time to go through though, even after we all agree to the adoption.”

Harry sat down next to her, “What does it say?”

“It’s all very legal and cryptic, but it’s basically the terms and conditions of us adopting Teddy,” Daphne said honestly, “It’s an open adoption which means Andromeda can see him as much as she wants and can also demand to have him back at any point.”

“Not that she would,” Harry said.

“I know,” Daphne said, she rubbed her eyes, “It also says that there are conditions which mean Teddy can be forcibly taken from us and given back to Andromeda. Things like abuse, neglect, etc.”

“So nothing we need to worry about,” Harry said with a nod, “Does it say anything else important?”

“Just that when Teddy is officially adopted he is our financial responsibility and that we shouldn’t expect any allowance from Andromeda,” Daphne said, “It also says that if our circumstances change and we are unable to raise Teddy due to lack of funds then he can be taken from us.”

“Lovely.”

“Andromeda didn’t write it, Harry,” Daphne said, “I expect she has a very good family solicitor who will want to make sure that every box is crossed and that there are no loopholes.”

“I know,” Harry said, “But the thought of anyone thinking we would hurt Teddy is awful.”

“It’s a standard adoption contract, don’t take it personally,” Daphne said, she placed her hand on his, “I can’t find any hidden conditions but I’m not an expert when it comes to legal documents. If you want to be really certain then we should give it to Hermione to look over.”

Harry nodded, “When does this need to be signed and sent back?”

“Within 30 days of us receiving it,” Daphne replied.

“That’s fine, I’ll ask Hermione to look at it over the weekend,” Harry said, “I don’t know Andromeda’s family solicitor so-”

“You don’t trust him,” Daphne finished, “I know, you don’t trust someone until you know them, I know what you’re like.”

Harry nodded, “I’m sorry.”

“In this case, it doesn’t bother me,” Daphne admitted, she squeezed his hand, “I want to be sure that it’s watertight too.”

“It makes it feel real though,” Harry said as he looked at the front cover of the contract, “Looking at that.”

Daphne looked down and nodded. The front cover said;

**Preliminary Contract for the Adoption of Edward Lupin to Harry James Potter (Godfather) and Daphne Lareina Greengrass.**

“It makes it feel very real,” She agreed.

**TBC.**


	99. The Letters from Hogwarts

“I’m not looking forward to this as much as I was last week,” Harry mumbled to Neville while they walked towards the simulation room on Friday afternoon.

“Neither am I,” Neville admitted, “I didn’t realise it was going to be as tough as that so early on. I thought we’d get to have a bit of fun with it at first.”

Harry nodded, “I know, and that’s just the first room. The situations are going to get tougher every time we move up.”

“It makes you wonder what’s going to be in the next room,” Neville said quietly.

They reached the waiting room and fell silent. Sheppard was already waiting for them and all of the other pairs were gathered there.

“Good afternoon recruits,” Sheppard said, “Last week we threw you in at the deep end with a pretty brutal dragon attack. We like to do that here, we don’t believe in giving you an easy start or easing you into something because that’s not what being an Auror is about. You don’t get to ease yourself into a tough case, you get chucked in at the deep end with at least one dead body to contend with.”

Harry could completely understand Sheppard’s point of view. Next to him Neville nodded thoughtfully.

“So today we’re going to give you a slightly more mediocre situation to deal with,” Sheppard continued, “Yes dragon attacks happen and when they do, they are horrible. However, we are aware that they are a once in a decade occurrence. Today’s situation is more of a run-of-the-mill every-day occurrence. Can anyone guess what it is?”

Blanche raised her hand, “Murder?”

Sheppard nodded, “Murder. I can guarantee that when you are working as an Auror you will have a murder every couple of days at the least. Witches and wizards think they can get away with anything because of magic, including murder, but it’s our job to show them that they can’t. When you guys go into the simulation room, you’re going to be thrown into a little corner of London where a serial killer has been on the loose. I want all of you to work together to catch the murderer, as always we will be monitoring you. Are you ready?”

Everyone nodded or said, “Yes,” so Sheppard opened the door to the simulation room. They all filtered in and took in their surroundings. They were in some sort of office, it looked like it had been converted so that they could use it as a bullpen to work from.

Neville looked out of the window, “Oh we’re in Hackney, this is where Lilly is from.”

“That means at least one of us knows the lay of the land,” Draco said, “That’s good.”

“I know London pretty well too,” Maxwell piped up, “I grew up in Enfield but I used to roam the streets a lot.”

“Good,” Harry agreed, “The fact you two know the lay of the land will save us time. Is everyone okay if I write the case facts up on this board?”

Nobody argued so Harry got to work writing out the facts of the case and sticking up the photographs that were in the case file. When he was finished he said, “Okay guys, let me do a quick brief. There have been three murders in the last two weeks, they all happened in this little corner of London. Jessica Parsons was the first victim, she was found outside the pub just below our makeshift office. Georgia Reynolds was the second victim, she was found in the pub toilets. Kelsea Hawes was the third victim and she was found in the alley behind the pub.”

“So the pub is our instant connection,” Draco realised, “And the victims are also all blonde.”

“With blue eyes,” Theo added.

“So our serial killer has a type,” Ophelia said.

“Were any of them sexually assaulted before they were killed?” Blanche asked.

“All of them were sexually assaulted,” Harry said as he glanced down at the case file, “After they were killed.”

“Ugh,” Emily said, “This guy is a creep.”

“That’s disgusting,” Maxwell agreed, “What age were the victims?”

“Jessica and Kelsea were both 17 and Georgia was a few days away from her 17th birthday,” Harry replied, “All three girls lived here in Hackney and all three were Muggles.”

“How were they killed?” Draco asked.

“The Muggle medical examiner said the cause of death was a heart attack in all cases,” Harry said, “She concluded that all three victims had died of fear, in other words had become so terrified that they had a heart attack.”

“So it was the killing curse then,” Ophelia said.

Harry nodded, “The wizarding medical examiner found traces of the magic emitted when the killing curse is cast. He also found signs that magic had been used to bind the hands and feet, but that healing charms had been used to cover it up.”

“Were they kept captive before he killed them then?” Blanche asked.

“In all cases, the victim was found around 24 hours after they had last been seen,” Harry said with a nod, “And if the timeline in this file is right, he’s got a new victim at the moment. I would say she probably has about an hour to live.”

“So arses in gear then,” Maxwell said with a nod, “What are we doing, boss?”

Harry looked up in surprise, “I’m not automatically the boss Max. Someone else can take the lead on this one if they want?”

Theo tentatively raised his hand, “I think this case requires a lot of logistics. I’m quite good at putting people in the place where they will perform best so I think I would be a good leader on this one.”

Harry smiled and stepped away from the board, “Take it away then.”

Theo looked a little nervous, but he stepped up anyway, “We have limited time to find this guy so I think our best option is to split up and make the most of the amount of people we have here. In my experience, these kind of guys don’t tend to live or work far from the place they dump their bodies. They tend to hide in plain sight, so I think one line of enquiry that we have to follow is the employees at the pub. The other line is the buildings near the pub, particularly any apartment blocks that might have a basement or any empty buildings in general.”

“It’s Hackney Theo, there are a lot of empty buildings,” Neville said.

“In that case let’s focus on those in the immediate vicinity of the pub. He isn’t going to try and carry a body any further than he needs to,” Theo said, “Blanche and Ophelia, I would say you two are the most resourceful when it comes to paperwork and probably the fastest too. Would you stay here and try to work out if any of the employees at the pub live nearby or have a connection to any of the buildings surrounding the pub?”

Blanche and Ophelia both nodded.

“Harry and Nev, you guys are probably going to be at your best searching the empty buildings,” Theo said, “You’ll make quick work of it and you are probably also best equipped to deal with this guy if you come across him.”

“Alright,” Harry said while Neville nodded.

“Max and Emily, I think you guys should do a thorough search of the pub and the area above it,” Theo said, “This room can’t be the only office above the pub and you never know if something might have been missed.”

Maxwell and Emily both nodded and accepted their orders.

“What are we doing then Theo?” Draco asked.

“We’ll help Harry and Nev search the empty buildings,” Theo said, “With four of us, we have a better chance of finding him before he can kill anyone else.”

“Alright, are we moving out then?” Harry asked.

“Not quite yet,” Theo said, “There’s no point spreading out unless we can communicate with each other. Is everyone familiar with the patroni spell that’s used for communicating?”

Everyone nodded apart from Harry, he didn’t want to look like an idiot so he stayed silent. Theo explained it quickly anyway, “Great. Just cast a patronus charm, catch your patronus, shrink it and put it in your ear. Every time you say, “Patroni”, everyone in the group will hear you.”

Harry shot Neville an impressed look while they all cast their patronus charms, “Theo is pretty good at this.”

“Just watch out, at this rate he’s going to make you look bad,” Neville joked.

***

“Honey, I’m home!”

Daphne laughed, “Very funny, I’m in the kitchen.”

“You’re in the kitchen and I smell food,” Harry said as he walked towards the door into the kitchen, “Are you cheating? Is there a house elf with you?”

“There is a house elf with me but I’m doing the cooking,” Daphne said indignantly.

Harry laughed and stepped into the kitchen, she was indeed cooking.

“Kreacher is just teaching me, right Kreacher?”

Kreacher nodded, “Yes Master Harry.”

Harry smiled at her, “You’re learning to cook for me. I guess it must be true love.”

Daphne shot him an irritated look, “I’m learning to cook for Teddy. I figured it would be a useful skill to have when raising a child.”

“What are you cooking?” Harry asked.

“Just ravioli,” Daphne admitted, “But I think it tastes good.”

“It looks good,” Harry said as she began to plate it up.

They sat down at the table and Daphne poured out two glasses of wine, “So how was your day?”

“Strange,” Harry admitted, “Theo took the lead in the simulation room today.”

“Oh Merlin, how badly did you all fail?”

“We didn’t actually,” Harry said, “He was great. He put everyone in the right place so that we all worked to our best ability. It was a serial killer we were trying to catch and we wanted to get him before he killed anyone else.”

“Did you manage?” Daphne asked.

Harry nodded, “We caught him and we saved the girl who would have been his fourth victim. Nev and I did the catching but Theo was a really good leader.”

“That doesn’t really surprise me,” Daphne admitted, “I wind Theo up and I joke about him being an idiot but he’s actually very intelligent.”

“I know, he’s probably the smartest of the four of us,” Harry said thoughtfully, “But he doesn’t always show the mature side that he did today. He earned a lot of respect from me after what he did in the simulation room.”

“Merlin,” Daphne groaned, “Don’t tell him that, if his head gets any bigger it won’t fit through his front door anymore!”

Harry laughed heartily at that, “This is great by the way.”

Daphne smiled cheerfully, “Is it? Thank Merlin, I was worried it would be awful!”

***

It took Neville a very long time to get to France on Friday night because he did it properly. As he waited in line at the English International Apparition Centre, to get his wand checked and be cleared to apparate, he wished that he had just done it on the fly like he had the last time.

Eventually a surly security wizard checked his wand and his rucksack then cleared him to apparate. He didn’t have to wait in line at the other side, but he did need to have everything checked again by a French security wizard.

Luckily he didn’t have to try to get past the security at the centre straight away. Lilly had owled him earlier in the week and told him to meet her and her friends in a bar in Amiens. By the time he had apparated to Amiens and found his way to the bar, it was nearly 10pm and he was already knackered.

He walked into the busy bar and scanned the room for Lilly. He frowned as he looked around because he couldn’t see her anywhere, and he began to wonder if he had gone to the wrong place.

“Nev!” A familiar voice called.

Neville glanced over and saw her waving from the other side of the room. He frowned as he walked towards her because even from a distance, something looked different. When he reached the table that she was sharing with a few other people, he realised what it was, “You put your hair back to its original colour!”

Lilly stood up and hugged him, “Yeah, I didn’t think you would notice. Do you remember it being this colour?”

“Of course I do,” Neville said as he took a step back and looked at her properly, “It looks great Lil, it really suits you.”

Lilly smiled, “Do you think so? I was worried that you would hate it.”

“No,” Neville said, he smiled at her, “I love it.”

Lilly grinned, “These are my friends from the course by the way. This is Lucille, she’s from Jamaica and this is Savannah, she’s from America. Oh and this is Charlotte, she’s from New Zealand. And this is Michael, he’s Canadian. Guys, this is Neville, my boyfriend.”

“Lovely to meet you all,” Neville said politely as he slipped into a seat at the end of the table.

Savannah sighed, “Do you have any single friends Neville? I _love _that whole posh English accent thing.”

Lilly snorted, “Posh? Please, Neville doesn’t have a posh English accent.”

“Coming from you?” Neville teased, “I mean you’re from Hackney, your accent couldn’t be more common if you tried.”

“Oh, watch it!” Lilly said, she whacked him around the head while her friends sniggered, “And as I was about to say Savannah, you should meet our friends Draco and Theo. They have posh English accents.”

“Are they single?” Savannah asked.

“One of them is married,” Neville replied with an amused smile, “And the other one is engaged to Hermione Granger so you don’t really want to go anywhere near him.”

“You didn’t tell us that you were friends with Hermione Granger!” Savannah said, “She’s like a hero to us girls! Everyone says she’s one of the people who fought right next to Harry Potter in the war.”

“Harry Potter isn’t that big of a deal to be fair,” Neville said.

Lilly smiled slightly, “Harry is Neville’s Auror partner,” she explained.

“He’s a bit of dick to be honest,” Neville added.

“Neville!” Lilly chastised.

“Is he really?” Michael asked.

“No, he’s lovely,” Lilly assured him.

“What other famous friends do you have, Lil?” Charlotte asked.

“That’s about it,” Lilly said, “And they aren’t these big famous icons for me because I went through school with them. I remember Harry’s awkward phase when he turned into a tomato every time a girl talked to him.”

“I’m not convinced he’s grown out of that yet,” Neville joked while the others laughed.

Lilly laughed too, “And I remember Hermione’s massive lapse of judgement when she dated Viktor Krum in 4th year.”

“What?” Lucille asked in surprise.

“But she’s so intelligent! Why would she date a dumb Quidditch player?” Savannah asked.

“I guess us intelligent girls like dating dumb guys,” Lilly joked as she shot Neville an amused look.

“Excuse you Lillian Moon,” Neville said with a raised eyebrow, “You have to be very intelligent to get into Auror training. Can **you** name every plant in 1001 Magical Herbs and Fungi off the top of your head?”

Lilly raised an eyebrow at him, “I am in an elite course training to be a Trauma Healer, Nev.”

“Right,” Neville laughed, “Yeah, of course you are. I’m just so used to being the only competent Herbologist at the moment, you know sharing a class with Harry, Draco and Theo?”

Lilly laughed and started to explain to her new friends who her old friends were. Neville smiled at her and took her hand under the table, he appreciated her so much more now that their time together was limited.

***

“Daph, are you nearly ready?” Harry called up the stairs, “We’re going to be late!”

“I’m coming,” Daphne called from upstairs.

Harry smiled in amusement and glanced at the clock. They had been invited to Greengrove House for a meal along with Draco and Hermione. Andromeda had asked them to be there for 7pm and it was currently 6.55pm.

Harry didn’t hear any movement and was about to shout up the stairs again when Daphne appeared at the top of the staircase.

“You look great, but I really don’t know how it took an hour to make you look that great,” Harry said when she reached the bottom of the stairs.

Daphne rolled her eyes, “I know you think that I just wake up perfect, but this takes work.”

Harry shot her an incredulous look, “You do wake up perfect.”

She shook her head, “I really don’t. Now come on, weren’t you the one complaining that we were going to be late?”

Harry wasn’t sure how she always managed to make everything his fault, but she had a real knack for it. When they got to Greengrove House, a few minutes late, Daphne announced that it was Harry’s fault.

Harry caught Draco’s eye and shook his head in disbelief. The Slytherin smirked and looked away before Daphne or Hermione caught him.

“Come on through, Teddy is in bed,” Andromeda said to them, “He wanted to wait up for you but he was exhausted.”

“Oh there’s no point keeping him up past his bed time for us,” Daphne said with a smile, “We’ll see him tomorrow anyway. Hey guys, hello Narcissa.”

They all made small talk as they sat down in the dining room. Luckily Daphne could keep a conversation going with most people, it was a skill that Harry wished that he had. They talked about their new jobs, Auror training and how Teddy was getting on. Then the subject of wedding bells came up.

“Speaking of new beginnings,” Narcissa said slyly, “When will you two be journeying into marriage?”

“Mother,” Draco said quietly, “Do we have to talk about that right now?”

“Draco,” Narcissa said in a reprimanding tone of voice, “You have been engaged for a few months now and you have told me nothing about your wedding plans. Have you set a date yet?”

Hermione looked a little sheepish, “Uh…”

“We haven’t even set a year,” Draco said.

Narcissa tutted, “Then what on earth is the point of an engagement, Draco?”

“I proposed because I love Hermione and I wanted to show her how commited I was to making our relationship work out of school,” Draco said honestly, “But that doesn’t mean that we want to rush into marriage, we were thinking of having a long engagement.”

“Rushing into marriage after a war just seems a little reckless,” Hermione admitted.

“It worked for your friend Theo and his wife,” Narcissa reminded them.

“Yes, but Theo and Sadie have known each other since they were kids,” Draco said, “They have been friends since they were 11 years old. They didn’t spend 7 years insulting each other and then fight on opposing sides of a war, did they Mother?”

“Draco Abraxas Black,” Narcissa said in a low, dangerous tone of voice, “You may make a fair point but if you ever take that tone with me again then you will find that you are never too old to be sent to your room.”

Harry couldn’t hide the fact that he was laughing, but Daphne covered it up rather well behind her hand. Hermione sniggered while Draco went red and complained, “Mother!”

“I do not appreciate being spoken to like that,” Narcissa said shortly, “And long engagement or not, you must have some plans.”

“Well,” Hermione said, “I think we want to get married in St. Albans because that’s where I’m from.”

“Do we?” Draco asked, “I thought we wanted to get married in Somerset.”

Harry bit his lip in amusement, he sensed an argument coming on.

“Traditionally Draco, you get married in the bride’s hometown,” Hermione pointed out.

“Does that mean it’s going to be a muggle wedding? With loads of muggles?”

“Yes Draco, there will be a lot of muggles there since my family are all _muggles_!” Hermione said shortly.

“Draco, you sound like a prejudiced prat,” Daphne said before the argument could get much worse, “Hermione is right, you will have to have two weddings.”

“Two weddings?” Hermione asked.

Daphne nodded, “Normally the bride and groom have the wizarding ceremony first, just before the big white wedding. The bridal party attend, you get married and then you have the muggle wedding. It’s just for show of course because you will already be married.”

“How do you know so much about this?” Harry asked in surprise.

“I looked into it in case you wanted to have two weddings,” Daphne said honestly, “I didn’t know if you had any muggle friends that you wanted to be there.”

Harry smiled, “That was very sweet of you. But I’ll be quite happy just having a wizarding wedding, the only muggles I’ll invite are Aunt Petunia and Dudley who know about magic anyway.”

“See that,” Hermione said as she glared at Draco, “That is what you should have done!”

Draco opened his mouth to apologise but Hermione had already gotten to her feet, “But no! You just insulted my upbringing and my blood status, like you always have done because your view on muggles hasn’t changed a bit!”

Before Draco could try to defend himself, Hermione had stalked out of the room. Draco threw his fork onto the table loudly and got to his feet, “Happy now, Mother?” he asked angrily as he rushed after Hermione.

Narcissa shook her head, “I have no idea what I did wrong,” she mumbled, “But I don’t feel overly hungry anymore, forgive me Andromeda.”

Andromeda shook her head in disbelief as she looked around the half empty table. Then a cry sounded from above.

“I was wondering if the noise had woken him up,” Daphne said when she heard it, “I’ll go up.”

She left the room and Harry said, “Well, that escalated quickly.”

“Things have always been a little tense between Draco and his Mother,” Andromeda admitted, “But I thought they had improved recently.”

“I think things will always be a bit tense because of everything that’s happened,” Harry said honestly, “We got your contract, by the way.”

“It certainly wasn’t light reading, was it?” Andromeda asked.

“I didn’t read it but Daphne did,” Harry said, “She told me the basics, she just wants Hermione to read over it tomorrow since she deals with legal documents a lot at work.”

“It does no harm to be entirely certain of what you are entering into,” Andromeda said sensibly, “My solicitor was very thorough when drawing it up, he claims that too often adoption paperwork is not done correctly.”

“Is that why there are all of those conditions?” Harry asked quietly.

Andromeda frowned and looked up when she heard his accusing tone, “Heavens Harry, you don’t think I asked him to put all of that in, do you?”

“No, no,” Harry said with a shake of his head, “Daphne said it would just be a standard thing but…I didn’t like to think that you felt that way.”

“Harry, I have absolutely no concerns about Teddy’s welfare with you and Daphne,” Andromeda promised him, “I know he will be loved, fed and cared for. My solicitor just wanted to make sure that everything was done correctly, Clive is very thorough like that.”

Harry nodded, “I’m sorry that I thought otherwise Andy. I’ve just been so suspicious since the war…I feel like everyone has an ulterior motive.”

“You ought to talk to someone about that,” Andromeda said.

“I will,” Harry promised, “Senior Auror Sumner thinks I have post-traumatic stress. He wants me to talk to someone about it, but I need to wait until she arrives. Apparently, the Mental Health Healer does rotational work with the Aurors and St. Mungo’s.”

“When you do get the chance to talk to her, don’t be afraid,” Andromeda said, “Talk to her about everything.”

“I will.”

“Make that a promise Harry,” Andromeda said, a little more firmly.

“I promise.”

***

“We have a letter from Hogwarts…”

Harry frowned over at his fiancé from where he was supervising Teddy. The little boy was currently massacring scrambled egg and throwing more on the floor than he was eating, “What?”

Daphne stepped away from the coffee pot and showed him the letter which was addressed,

_“Mr. Harry James Potter and Miss. Daphne Lareina Greengrass_

_Potter Manor_

_Surrey_

_England.”_

“I’m curious now,” Harry said, “Go on – Teddy, eat your toast please! – read it to me.”

Daphne opened the letter and read aloud,

_“Dear Mr. Potter and Miss. Greengrass,_

_I would like to formally invite you both to the inaugural Founders Ball as guests of honour. It will take place in the Great Hall at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry on the 4th of September. Please RSVP as soon as possible to confirm your attendance. The ball begins at 7pm._

_Mr. Potter, I would also like to invite you to play the part of Godric Gryffindor at the ball. If you consent, please let me know and I shall invite you to a meeting with those playing the other founders of Hogwarts._

_I look forward to your prompt reply._

_Professor Minerva McGonagall_

_Headmistress at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.”_

“She wants me to play Godric Gryffindor?” Harry asked in disbelief.

“You should say yes,” Daphne mused, “It would be quite an honour, wouldn’t it? To play your house founder, you are such a proud Gryffindor after all.”

“How did you manage to make that into an insult?” Harry asked, he shot her an amused look.

Daphne smiled mischievously, “It’s a special talent. I really do think that you should do it though, I doubt McGonagall will ask you to do much more than walk into the hall in costume then dance.”

“With who though?” Harry asked, “Because if it’s you then I don’t mind but what if it’s a random person?”

“It won’t be a random person,” Daphne said, “Gryffindor was married to Hufflepuff so I expect you’ll have to dance with the person playing Hufflepuff. They will want to pick someone fairly well known or influential…”

“Like Gwenog Jones?”

“I think she might be a bit old,” Daphne mused, “You never know, it might be Susan.”

Harry snorted, “That would be awkward. Do you really think I should say yes?”

Daphne nodded, “Yeah, I mean they have never had a Founders Ball before and if this doesn’t work out then they might never have one again. This could be a once in a lifetime chance and I’m of the opinion that you should never turn one of those down.”

Harry nodded thoughtfully. He was about to open his mouth to say that he would tell McGonagall that he would do it. However, before he got the chance a large lump of cold, slimy scrambled egg collided with his face and Teddy started laughing hysterically.

Daphne snorted in amusement, “Makes you wonder if Godric Gryffindor faced the same struggles as the great Harry Potter, doesn’t it?” she joked with a wicked grin.

***

“Babe, we have a letter!”

“Addressed to both of us?” Susan called from the bedroom.

Percy swallowed his mouthful, “Yeah, it’s from Hogwarts. Can I open it?”

“Yeah, I’ll be there in a minute!”

By the time Percy had opened the letter and scanned its contents, Susan had stepped into the kitchen.

“Are you planning on putting on more clothes?” Percy asked with an amused smile.

Susan raised an eyebrow at him, “I’m not planning on catching bad guys in my underwear, although I’m pretty sure it would work.”

Percy laughed, “Yes, I think it probably would. Do you fancy going to a Founders Ball by the way?”

“What’s a Founders Ball?”

“A new thing that McGonagall is doing up at the school,” Percy replied, “It’s next weekend, she wants you to play Helga Hufflepuff.”

Susan looked up in surprise, “Seriously?”

Percy nodded, “I think it might be fun. If we’re invited then everyone else will be too.”

Susan hummed thoughtfully, “I definitely can’t turn down a chance to play Helga Hufflepuff. I idolised her when I was at school. Do we need to RSVP?”

“Yep,” Percy said, he put the letter down on the table and added, “I’ll let you reply since you’re going to be the real guest of honour.”

Susan grinned and picked up the letter, “It’s a good thing I look good in yellow, isn’t it?”

***

“That must be an interesting letter,” Hermione said when she stepped into the kitchen, “You’re never up so early on a Sunday.”

“The owl woke me up with its tapping,” Draco explained, “It’s from McGonagall.”

Hermione frowned, “Is she alright?”

“She’s fine,” Draco replied, “She’s invited us to a Founders Ball…”

“What on earth is a Founders Ball?” Hermione asked, she put the kettle on to boil and pulled out two mugs.

“It’s the first time it’s been done so I don’t entirely know,” Draco admitted, “I suppose it’s some sort of celebration for the founders of Hogwarts. She’s asking people to play the founders. Someone from an influential family is being picked from each house.”

“That’s interesting,” Hermione mused, “I wonder if a Weasley or a Potter was asked to play Gryffindor.”

“I suspect she asked Harry,” Draco said, “The Potters are an older family and they have direct links to Gryffindor and to the Peverell’s.”

“That’s true,” Hermione agreed, “Aren’t your family connected to Slytherin?”

Draco nodded, “The Malfoys are…I suppose that’s why she asked me to play Slytherin.”

Hermione’s head snapped up, “Did she?”

Draco nodded.

“Why do you look so unhappy about that?”

Draco sighed, “Salazar Slytherin wasn’t a nice man, Hermione. I’m not entirely sure that I’m proud that my family is connected to him, I used to be but…times change.”

“He wasn’t a nice man, that much is true,” Hermione agreed, “But he did a pretty great thing, co-founding a school that became a safe haven for so many people over the years.”

Draco still didn’t look convinced, so Hermione added, “If it helps, don’t think about it as if you’re doing it because you look up to Slytherin. Do it for all of the students in Slytherin who need a good role model to look up to. I mean when you were in that house, could you have named anyone in the public eye who was good and who came from Slytherin?”

“I knew good people, like my Mother and my Godfather,” Draco admitted, “But not anyone in the public eye.”

“Well you _are _in the public eye and you are good,” Hermione said gently, “Be that person that they can look up to. Show these young Slytherins that they don’t have to grow up to be slimy bastards, show them that they can be Aurors. Show them that they can be heroes.”

Draco looked up at her, “I’m not a hero, Hermione. That’s Harry’s job.”

“Harry might be the wizarding worlds hero, but that doesn’t mean that you aren’t a hero to someone Draco,” Hermione said softly, “You grew up with a horrible man for a Father. You were manipulated and used as a teenager, but you got to where you are now and you did that by yourself. You changed your ways, you changed the way that you look at the world and that’s harder than people think, to those Slytherins you would be a hero.”

Draco looked down at the letter for a long moment. Eventually, he nodded and said, “You’re right, I should do it. Would you be my date?”

“If we’re being historically accurate then your date should be Rowena Ravenclaw, but yes, I will be your date,” Hermione joked.

Draco chuckled, “I wonder who they will ask to play Ravenclaw.”

“I’m not sure,” Hermione admitted, “I can’t think of any influential families connected with Ravenclaw off the top of my head.”

“I expect Susan might be asked to play Hufflepuff,” Draco said, “The Bones are rumoured to be descended from Helga but I’m not sure about Ravenclaw.”

“We’ll find out when we go to the ball,” Hermione said cheerfully, “When is it by the way?”

“Next Saturday,” Draco replied.

“Ooh, soon then! I’m looking forward to it,” Hermione said happily, “Anyway, since you’re up now. What do you fancy for breakfast?”

***

“Nev.”

Neville groaned, “I’m sleeping Lil.”

“I know but I just got this letter,” Lilly said, she nudged him again, “It’s interesting, come on Nev.”

Neville opened one eye, “Who sends interesting letters at this time on Sunday morning?”

“It’s 10am Nev,” Lilly said pointedly, “You’re just hungover because you drank far too much wine last night.”

“You were the one who told me to embrace the French culture,” Neville mumbled, “That food was amazing by the way, and so was the wine.”

“I know!” Lilly said, “And who knew there was so much to do in Amiens, right? Amiens Cathedral was so pretty and I think I’m going to love you forever since you took me to the home of Jules Verne.”

Neville smiled sleepily at her, “So I made you love France?”

“I wouldn’t go as far as to say love,” Lilly admitted, “But exploring is definitely more fun with you. I have an idea of what we could do today that I think you would find fun.”

Neville opened another eye, “What is it?”

“The Botanical Gardens in Amiens,” Lilly said, “Clara told me that there’s a secret wizarding section. You just need to go through the false door at the back of one of the greenhouses.”

Neville’s eyes widened, “That sounds amazing.”

Lilly smiled, “I thought you would enjoy it. Do you want to hear about this letter now?”

Neville yawned then nodded, “What about it?”

“Well it’s from McGonagall,” Lilly said, “She’s doing a new thing, a Founders Ball. She wants people to play the Founders and she has asked people from influential families to play the founder of that house. I suppose she asked Harry to be Gryffindor, Draco to be Slytherin and Suse to be Hufflepuff.”

Neville nodded, he was just about following her despite the fact that he had just woken up, “The whole thing is a celebration of the Founders and what they did for all of us, and you will never guess who McGonagall asked to be Ravenclaw.”

“Who?” Neville asked stupidly.

Lilly grinned, “Me! She asked me Nev! I’m not even from an influential family, I mean I’m just a muggle-born but she said she would be honoured if I would play Ravenclaw. She said that I was a model pupil and would be an excellent role model for young Ravenclaws!”

Neville smiled broadly at her, “That’s great Lil.”

“I know!” Lilly said excitedly, “I don’t know what I did to deserve this but I’ve already written back saying that I would be honoured.”

Neville’s smile didn’t wafer, “You might not be from an influential family but I can completely see where McGonagall is coming from. You spent the war helping heal the injured, you basically ran a hospital wing in the room of requirement and now you’re in an elite course. You had to get top grades into everything to be accepted Lil, of course you’re an inspiration.”

Lilly smiled at him, but not as brightly as she had before, “We’ve never talked about that time you know?”

“What time?” Neville asked.

“The war,” Lilly replied, “We were both there for the whole year. You got those kids out of the dungeons and I healed them, but we’ve never talked about it.”

“I didn’t realise that there was anything to talk about,” Neville admitted as he caught her eye, “I’m sorry if that was wrong of me.”

Lilly shook her head, “We didn’t really get close again until 8th year so it’s okay. I mean, it hurt me a little bit if I’m honest. I had always liked you and to see you acting so recklessly…I don’t know, it seemed out of character and it hurt me a bit.”

Neville frowned, “What are you talking about?”

“The girls,” Lilly said, “I know we were under a lot of pressure and we all had different ways of dealing with that. I bottled it up but you seemed to find comfort in the people around you, people like Ginny and Susan.”

Realisation dawned on Neville’s face, “It wasn’t like that Lil. Susan and I…there had been feelings there for a little while but it just wouldn’t have worked in principal. We were too different, we wanted different things from life and we both knew that.”

“I know,” Lilly said. It was the truth, Harry had said something very similar earlier in the week.

“And Ginny…” Neville continued, “We were leading that whole rebellion together. It was Ginny who was by my side when we had to drag those kids out of the dungeons, we had each other’s backs and we duelled together. We had always been friends and it had never been anything more than that but I think when you’re in such a tense situation, you feel this sense of closeness to the person that you’re in it with. It wasn’t right, and if we hadn’t been in that situation, it never would have happened but those conditions were just…they weren’t normal.”

“Like Harry and Hermione,” Lilly said with a nod, “I know, I get it. I just didn’t enjoy watching it all unfold. Like you said, Ginny was by your side through that whole year and I was just the girl you brought the injured kids to. It was Ginny you confided in all year, I was just the girl you used to be friends with and if we’re being totally honest with each other, that really hurt.”

Neville sighed and pulled her into a hug, “I’m sorry,” he mumbled into her hair, “I didn’t realise that you felt that way. I was a clueless, heartless idiot.”

“You’ve never been heartless Nev,” Lilly said, “If anything, you have too much heart. Guys just don’t see things from girl’s perspectives.”

“Still,” Neville said, he pulled back and looked at her, “You were my friend and I let us drift apart when I started to get closer with the likes of Harry and Hermione. You were there for me when everyone was bullying me and nobody else liked me but when I got more popular friends I let you fall by the wayside and that was a dick move.”

Lilly smiled slightly, “Yeah, it was,” she agreed.

“I’m sorry about that,” Neville said honestly, “I was a stupid kid who didn’t realise what he had when it was right in front of him. I’m just really grateful that you gave me a second chance.”

“That was sappy,” Lilly said, she kissed him lightly on the lips.

“I do sappy rather well,” Neville murmured as he returned her kiss.

***

“Love! Are you up?”

Sadie emerged from the bedroom in Theo’s dressing gown, “Yeah, I was just thinking about having a shower.”

“We got an interesting letter this morning,” Theo said as he waved the letter in the air, “McGonagall is doing a Founders Ball next Saturday at Hogwarts. We’re invited and it sounds like fun, don’t you think?”

“I suppose so.”

“Are you going to be this short with me all day?” Theo asked, “Because I really don’t know what I’ve done.”

“You haven’t done anything,” Sadie said irritably, “I’m just not particularly looking forward to going back to Egypt tomorrow.”

“Well don’t take that out on me,” Theo said, “I told you to drop out if you hate it so much but you’re determined to see it through.”

“I don’t give up on things Theo,” Sadie said shortly, “You’re supposed to be my Husband, you should know that about me!”

“I don’t know everything about you Sadie, despite being married to you!” Theo snapped, “And I don’t want you to spend our last day together acting like a bitch just because you don’t want to go back to Egypt.”

Sadie glared at him, “You’re supposed to be sympathetic Theo, that’s what _good _Husbands do!”

“I won’t do what I’m supposed to do just because I’m your Husband,” Theo said angrily, “I’ll do what I’ve always done in our relationship and that is say things like they are even when you don’t like it! You are acting ridiculously, you can’t just whine and complain like a little girl. You don’t like Egypt but if you want to finish your course then you need to suck it up and deal with it, get over it Sadie!”

If looks could kill then Theo would have been lying on the floor, cold as stone. Sadie turned on her heel and as she slammed the bedroom door she said, “Well if that’s how you feel then I’ll just leave now!”

Theo groaned in frustration and kicked the wall hard. He loved Sadie more than he had ever loved a woman in his life, but the way she was acting at the moment was infuriating.

**TBC.**


	100. Welcome to the Jungle

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter title comes from the song:  
Welcome to the Jungle by Guns N Roses

By the time Harry, Daphne and Teddy got to the Burrow, Sunday lunch was just about to be served. They all squeezed in around the table and made small talk while they ate, Hermione and Draco were at the other end of the table so Harry didn’t get a chance to bring up the Founders Ball until they all migrated into the living room after a hearty roast chicken dinner.

“So we got an interesting letter this morning,” Harry said, he had collapsed into a comfortable armchair and Teddy had fallen asleep in his arms.

“Oh, about the Founders Ball?” Hermione asked.

“Yeah, did you get one too?” Harry asked.

Hermione nodded, “We will definitely go. I think it sounds like great fun!”

“We’re going to go too,” Daphne said, “We don’t really have a choice since Harry is going to be Godric Gryffindor.”

Hermione laughed loudly, “Really? Oh that’s brilliant!”

Harry frowned, “What’s so funny about it?”

Hermione shook her head, “The fact you’re going to be Gryffindor isn’t funny. In fact, it makes a lot of sense. What’s funny is that your old schoolboy enemy will be playing Gryffindor’s arch enemy.”

Draco smiled slightly, “I’m starting to wonder if we were fated to be enemies Harry.”

“What, like star crossed lovers but with a bit more violence?” Daphne joked.

Harry laughed, “I can’t imagine you as Slytherin. It’s hard to see a guy as a slimy git when you’ve seen him being soppy with his fiancé and making stupid faces at your kid.”

Draco chuckled, “I’m kind of glad about that to be honest because I was a bit offended at first. I don’t look up to Slytherin and I wasn’t sure if I wanted to do it, but Hermione convinced me that I would be a good role model for young Slytherins.”

“I would agree,” Harry said, “And funnily enough, Daphne had to convince me to go to it as well.”

“Why?” Draco asked in surprise, “Surely you look up to Godric Gryffindor and would be honoured to play him?”

“I suspect it has something to do with the fact Harry hates speaking in public or dancing in public,” Hermione said, she shot her friend a knowing look.

“Spot on,” Daphne said, “But I told him that there was no way he could miss out on the chance. If this doesn’t go down well for whatever reason, there might not be another Founders Ball.”

“And even if there was, I would suspect that McGonagall would pick different people each year to make it fair,” Hermione added.

Harry nodded, “Daph’s right. It’s a once in a lifetime chance so I would be stupid to turn it down.”

“It could be a fun night,” Daphne added, “I wonder if any of the others have been invited.”

“I suspect a select few influential students from the last few years have been invited,” Hermione said.

“The last few years?” Bill asked from behind them, “I was a student quite a few years ago and I was asked.”

“You are a pretty famous Curse Breaker to be fair Bill,” Daphne said with an amused smile.

“Why did they ask Char then? He fondles dragons for a living,” Bill joked.

Hermione rolled her eyes, “Charlie has worked in some incredible places. He took part in a revolutionary breeding programme that saved two species of dragons. I would say that makes him pretty influential.”

Charlie grinned and raised his hand, “You tell him Mione! Give me a hi-five.”

Hermione chuckled and hi-fived him. Draco raised an eyebrow at her, “Do I need to be concerned? Because I thought you were over Weasley’s.”

“You say that like I’ve dated more than one,” Hermione pointed out.

“Well there was that weird flirty thing between you and Freddie when we were all at school,” George said, he waggled his eyebrows at her.

Hermione blushed, “There was not.”

“And you had a crush on Charlie when you were younger,” Harry teased.

Hermione’s cheeks became a darker shade of scarlet, “No I didn’t,” she lied.

Draco looked at her pointedly, “Are you really over Weasley’s?”

“Yes, I really am,” Hermione said as she regained her composure, “I just feel strongly about the rights of dragons, okay?”

“Now I think we can all believe that,” Bill said with a grin while the others chuckled.

***

When Teddy woke up and Harry could finally move, he asked Hermione if he could have a quiet word with her. She nodded and the two of them slipped outside, it was early evening and the air was rather cold.

They held their cardigans close to their bodies and sheltered by the chicken coup.

“What’s wrong?”

“I just need to talk to you about the adoption,” Harry said honestly, “It’s getting really official now Hermione.”

Hermione caught his eye, “You’re panicking, aren’t you?”

“A little bit,” Harry admitted, he pulled the contract out of his robes, “We got this earlier in the week. Daph and I wanted to give it to you since you read legal documents a lot for your work. If you could just make sure that it’s ironclad, we would appreciate it.”

Hermione nodded and slipped it into her bag, “I’ll look over it tonight and give it back to Daphne over lunch tomorrow. When is this happening?”

“Soon,” Harry said, “Once we sign the contract, the paperwork starts to get drawn up. It could all be official in a couple of months.”

“Wow,” Hermione said, she surveyed her friend, “Are you sure that you’re ready for this?”

“We’ve talked about it so much,” Harry said quietly, “I don’t think we’re ever going to be any more ready than we are right now. It’s just…having him at the weekends is one thing but once this goes through everything is going to change and…”

“Change has always scared you,” Hermione finished.

Harry nodded, “Yeah.”

“Honestly Harry,” Hermione said, “This is going to be the biggest change of your life. I mean yes, marriage is a big change but it doesn’t change your relationship a great deal. But having a child, that really does. You and Daphne will never have any free time anymore, everywhere you go you will have to take Teddy with you or you’ll have to find a sitter. Every night when you come home, he will be there. It isn’t going to be easy.”

“I know, but I think we owe it to Teddy,” Harry said honestly, “We can give him a good life, the life he deserves. We’re in a position, financially and emotionally, to offer him that and I don’t think I could forgive myself if I chose not to for selfish reasons.”

“And Daphne feels the same?”

“I told you Hermione,” Harry said, “We’ve talked about it a lot. Both of us want to do this and yes, we are both scared but I think that’s normal.”

“Does Daphne know everything?” Hermione asked, “About Teddy?”

Harry frowned, “What do you mean?”

“I mean does she know about his werewolf genes, about what that could mean in the future?”

Harry’s frown deepened, “Well she knows there’s a chance. I’ve told her all about Remus but we haven’t had that exact conversation.”

“I think you need to,” Hermione said, “And I think you need to be totally honest with each other about this before you sign the contract. Talk to her about your fears and make sure that she tells you what’s making her nervous. This is a huge change Harry, for anyone, not least for two people who are so young.”

Harry sighed but nodded, “I’ll make sure we talk before we sign anything, I promise.”

Hermione smiled and grabbed his hand, “If it helps, I think what you’re doing is a beautiful thing. I just want to be certain that both of you are sure before you commit to it.”

Harry nodded again, “Thanks Hermione,” he said, he squeezed her hand, “You’re a good friend.”

***

“Morning Theo,” Draco said brightly as he stepped out onto the Quidditch pitch with his friend.

“Morning,” Theo said quietly.

Draco frowned, “Are you alright?”

“I’m fine,” Theo said shortly, “I just don’t like Mondays.”

Before Draco could say anything else, Theo got on his broom and shot into the air. They never got a chance to talk while they were flying then Theo showered in a private cubicle to avoid Draco. He was starting to think he had done something to piss his best friend off because by the time Draco was showered and changed, Theo had already left.

“Where’s your extra limb?” Neville asked as he and Harry fell into line with Draco.

“I don’t know,” Draco said, “He’s been short with me since I first saw him and I think he’s avoiding me too. I don’t know what I’ve done, I haven’t even seen him this weekend.”

“Maybe it has nothing to do with you,” Harry said, “It might just be because Sadie’s had to go back to Egypt.”

“I suppose,” Draco mused, “I had actually forgotten that was today…that makes me a pretty shit friend.”

“Nah, you have a lot going on right now,” Neville said, “We all do.”

They reached their first class of the day which was Disguise. It was always a good class to talk in because there was a discussion section and as they all found this class easy, they didn’t usually need to discuss anything about disguise in that period.

“Right, what’s going on with you?” Harry asked Theo after Carter told them to have a discussion about the pros and cons of disguising yourself as an animal.

“Nothing,” Theo muttered.

“Theo, we know something’s up,” Neville said, “Don’t pretend you’re fine.”

“Is it because Sadie left for Egypt again?” Draco asked.

Theo pressed so hard with his quill that it snapped, “She’s just acting insane right now! She was whining like a little girl yesterday about going back so I told her to get a grip and she just left, hours earlier than she was supposed to.”

“So you had a fight?” Harry asked with a slight smile, “Because these things do happen after the honeymoon period you know.”

Theo glared at him, “Shut up Harry. Sadie and I don’t fight, not like you and Hermione do Draco.”

“We bicker and have heated discussions,” Draco corrected, “I mean sometimes we fight but not all the time.”

Harry shook his head in amusement, “All couples fight Theo, especially when relations are strained, and they will be right now. Neither of you like this set up when you’re in different countries so you’re taking it out on each other.”

Neville raised an eyebrow at him, “When did you become the agony aunt?”

Harry smirked, “Not so clueless now, eh Nev?”

Theo ignored them and sighed, “It’s not so much that I hate being away from her. I do hate that but I don’t like the way she’s acting right now. I get that she doesn’t like Egypt but she’s so cranky and miserable about it. If that was me I would just change career, I don’t get why she’s making herself so unhappy.”

“Because Sadie isn’t you,” Draco said, “She doesn’t give up. Once she starts something, she wants to see it through. I think you’re right, about this course not suiting her, but it isn’t so easy for her to see that.”

“I wish it was,” Theo said miserably.

Before the other boys could give him any further advice, Carter appeared by their table, “So boys, any pros and cons to offer about disguising yourself as an animal?”

“You could get hit by a car and die,” Harry said.

Carter raised an eyebrow at him, “Really?”

“It happened to Nev’s Uncle Raymond,” Harry said sincerely.

Neville nodded, “He transformed himself into a cat to spy on his ex-wife and she hit him with her car.”

Carter looked between them both for a moment, it was clear that she was trying to work out if they were lying or not.

“It was tragic,” Draco added.

Harry and Neville nodded.

“I am very sorry to hear that,” Carter said eventually, “Come up with some pros for me before we share our ideas with the others.”

They all nodded and watched Carter walk over to the other group which consisted of Maxwell, Emily, Blanche and Ophelia.

“You don’t have an Uncle Raymond, do you Nev?” Theo asked with a slight smile.

“Nope,” Harry chuckled, “But good work playing along there Nev.”

“Flawless,” Draco laughed, “I almost believed you then I saw Harry trying not to smirk.”

Theo chuckled too and for a moment, he forgot about how terrible he felt.

***

After lunch on Monday, the boys were supposed to have a potions lab. However, they were told at the start of the class by Auror McKay that their next task would be an interactive one.

“We are going to dump you in the rainforest,” McKay told them, “And you have to find your way out. You might not understand what this has to do with Potions but let’s call it a joint venture that Auror Brown and I have come up with. You will need to work out what is safe to eat and you will need to make potions because I can guarantee that at least one of you will get bitten by something poisonous.”

Harry, Draco and Neville all looked at Theo.

“This task doesn’t have a time limit. If you’re stuck in there for over a week then we will extract you and Sumner will probably kick you out too,” McKay said bluntly, “Your other halves and parents have been informed that you are partaking in a task for the next few days so don’t worry about that. Are there any questions?”

Blanche raised her hand, “Isn’t this just like isolation all over again?”

“There weren’t monsoons, poisonous snakes, killer spiders or paranoid Amazonian tribespeople in isolation, were there?” McKay countered.

“Is this real?” Ophelia asked, “Or is it a simulation?”

“Nope, it’s real,” McKay said, “You’re going to the real Amazon rainforest. You will all have to wear a tag which tells us your vital signs, if someone is genuinely about to die then we won’t let that happen. You will also be discreetly observed and tested by myself, Auror Brown and Auror Sumner. Any more questions?”

They all shook their heads so McKay clapped his hands together, “Alright then. We’re sending you in two groups. The first group is Potter, Longbottom, Black and Nott.”

The four boys shared anxious looks, Theo, in particular, looked very pale. Animals and plants weren’t his strong point, magical or otherwise.

***

“Holy shit, it’s hot.”

“It’s the rainforest, you idiot.”

“I didn’t know that it would be this hot though!” Draco exclaimed.

“Haven’t you seen any films set in the rainforest? Everyone walks around in shorts, not bloody robes,” Harry said with a shake of his head, “So the first thing I think we should do is this…”

He transfigured his black trousers into khaki shorts and his polo shirt into a vest top. Then he did away with his robes completely and transfigured his shoes into hiking boots. None of the others verbalised the fact that they thought this was a good idea but they did all copy him.

“So…” Draco said while he looked at Harry, “What do you think we should do?”

“Why does it always fall to me?” Harry asked.

“In this instance I think it’s because you just mentioned you’ve watched movies about this stuff,” Neville said matter of factly.

Draco and Theo nodded.

Harry shook his head in amusement, “Well, we need to navigate our way out of the rainforest so we can get back to our other halves. While doing that we need to not die from exposure or the bite of any poisonous creatures out here.”

“Alright so four-point spell then?” Draco asked.

Something chirped behind them and Theo jumped, “What was that?”

“Just a bug Theo, calm down,” Draco said.

Harry was frowning into the distance, “I don’t think a four-point spell will work.”

“Why not?” Draco asked.

“Because all it does is tell us where North is,” Harry said, he looked up into the dense foliage above.

“I know I’m not an expert when it comes to geography Harry, but isn’t North where we want to go to get us out of the rainforest?” Neville asked, “East or West will take us to the ocean.”

“We don’t know where we are in the rainforest though,” Harry said, “It covers a huge area. If we’re in the South it would take days to get out if we travel North. Anyway East and West would take us to a country before we got to the ocean.”

“Well what do you suggest then?” Draco asked, “It’s not like we’re going to be able to get hold of a map out here, are we?”

“Even if we could, I doubt it would help us much,” Harry said honestly, “Apart from the Amazon river, there aren’t many landmarks. Everything looks the same.”

“That’s it!” Theo said, “The Amazon river runs from East to West.”

Draco’s eyes widened then he nodded, “If we can find the river then we can follow it East or West to get out of the rainforest.”

“East would bring us out near French Guiana and West would bring us out in Ecuador,” Harry said, he shot Neville a pointed look, “I studied Geography in muggle school.”

Neville snorted, “Don’t take it personally, it was just a comment.”

“Now, now ladies,” Draco said calmly, “Less fighting, more planning. How do we acquire a map of the Amazon rainforest in the middle of the Amazon rainforest?”

“We find a happy tribesman who will help us, and not eat us,” Harry replied.

“Eat us?” Theo asked nervously.

“Yeah Theo, they love to eat human flesh out here,” Neville said.

Harry rolled his eyes, “Don’t wind him up Neville. He’s not going to be any use to us if he’s a nervous wreck.”

Branches rustled behind them and Theo jumped again, “What was that?”

“Maybe it was a venomous tentacula,” Neville whispered.

“Neville!” Harry and Draco chastised in unison.

***

“Hey! Nice choice, I didn’t know that you liked sushi!” Daphne said as she sat down opposite Hermione in the restaurant.

Hermione smiled, “I just thought it would be a nice change from that boring café we normally use.”

“Plus you don’t want to discuss our other halves secret mission in the wizarding world, just in case,” Daphne whispered.

Hermione nodded sheepishly, “Yeah, that is pretty much it. Don’t you think it’s odd? That they are sending them on secret missions so early?”

Daphne shook her head and perused the menu, “No, it won’t be anything serious. It’s just a training mission.”

“Draco didn’t mention anything about training missions,” Hermione said.

“Probably because he didn’t want to worry you,” Daphne said, she looked up at her friend, “I assume he knows about them because Harry only found out when he read the book that Draco lent him.”

Hermione frowned, “I don’t like the fact he’s keeping things from me.”

“He’s keeping things from you to stop you worrying about him,” Daphne said gently, “He knows that you hate what he does. There’s a part of you that wishes he could be like Ron and have a safe, cushy job, isn’t there?”

Hermione scoffed, “There isn’t a single part of me that wishes he was like Ron.”

Daphne shot her friend a knowing look.

Hermione sighed, “I do hate his job sometimes, that much is true. I spent 7 years at school worrying about Harry, wondering when Voldemort was going to catch up to him and take my best friend away. Nobody paid me attention before I met Harry and Ron, and Harry in particular became my closest friend and I knew there was someone trying to take that from me. Now all I do is worry about Draco…every day when he goes out that door, I wonder what they’re going to put him through today and when he qualifies it will be even worse.”

“You’ll get used to that feeling,” Daphne promised Hermione, “The worry will always be there but you’ll learn to live with it. I feel the same, even though Harry is the bravest guy around and the most competent wizard I know, I still worry about him.”

“So you’re worried too, about this training mission?”

Daphne shook her head, “They won’t let anything bad happen to them on a training mission. It’s a test which means they are constantly being observed, if anything goes wrong they will pull them out straight away or send medical aid in.”

“Did they tell you where they had sent Harry?” Hermione asked, she didn’t look quite so tense now.

“A rainforest apparently,” Daphne said, “So assuming that they are all in the same place, Theo is screwed.”

Hermione laughed weakly, “I wonder what will bite him first,” she joked.

***

“Ugh! What’s that?”

“That is a Boa Constrictor, don’t touch it,” Harry said slowly, “And remain calm.”

Theo backed off but the snake continued to advance on him. Harry sighed and said, “I didn’t want to have to resort to this but…”

His friends watched him in confusion as he looked at the snake, screwed up his eyes and said, “Excuse me, that’s my friend and I would rather you didn’t eat him.”

To everyone else this perfectly ordinary sentence came out as a series of hisses. The snake turned its attention from Theo to Harry.

“You speak my language?”

Harry nodded.

“I am hungry and this one is fearsome. I enjoy to eat the fearsome.”

“I understand that, but we are on a very important mission and we really must make it out alive,” Harry explained, “Trust me, you have it better than some of your companions. I once met a Boa Constrictor in a zoo, thousands of miles from here. It was bred in captivity.”

“Better?” The snake hissed, “My entire family have been killed by poachers who want our skin. How is that better?”

“I’m sorry,” Harry said, he was now kneeling in front of the snake and he was oblivious to the looks his friends were giving him, “I lost my family too. A dark lord took them all from me as a baby.”

“You are lonely too,” The snake said.

Harry shook his head, “Not anymore. I used to be but then I met these people, they are my friends and I would not like it if you were to kill them.”

“I would like to not be lonely,” The snake said.

“Well I will make you a deal,” Harry said, “If you stay with us and help us get out of the rainforest, I will take you home with me. I have a huge garden that you can live in and there are plenty of animals in the woods behind the house so you will not be hungry.”

The snake cocked its head as if it was considering this proposal. Then it bowed its head in a nod, “Yes. If you would like to leave the rainforest you are travelling in the wrong direction. We must go this way then we shall be able to follow the river.”

“Okay,” Harry said, “We will follow you.”

The snake bowed its head again, “Please tell the fearsome one to be quiet. His loud sounds make my head ache.”

Harry tried very hard not to laugh, “I will. What is your name?”

“I have no name,” The snake replied.

“Can I give you a name?”

The snake bowed its head, “You may.”

“I think you look like a Dave.”

“Dave,” The snake hissed, “I like it.”

Harry smiled and got to his feet. When he turned around, it was to find Draco staring at him with an open mouth. Theo looking absolutely terrified and Neville looking vaguely amused.

“I thought you couldn’t do that anymore,” Neville remarked.

“So did I,” Harry admitted, “But then I was at the zoo with Teddy and this snake started talking to me so I tried to talk back and it worked. I guess it’s like riding a bike…once you know how to do it, you never forget.”

“And what exactly were you and the snake talking about?” Neville asked.

“Oh his name is Dave,” Harry said conversationally, “And he was just telling me that we were going in the wrong direction if we were trying to find the river. He said he was lonely so I said if he got us out of the rainforest I would take him home with me.”

Neville snorted, “Right, cause Daphne is going to love that…”

“Oh she’ll come around,” Harry said with a wave of his hand. He looked at Draco and Theo, “Are you two ready? Cause Dave is waiting for us.”

“You just had a conversation with a snake,” Draco said in awe.

“Called Dave,” Harry said with a nod, “Yeah, catch up. Are you coming?”

Draco nodded, he grabbed Theo’s arm and began to drag his partner along. They had barely moved from the clearing they had found Dave in when Theo yelped after seeing a butterfly.

“Theo, Dave asked me to tell you to be quiet,” Harry said, “You’re giving him a headache.”

Neville smirked, “Yeah Theo, shut up. You’re giving the snake a headache.”

Theo swallowed hard and whispered to Draco, “The snake talks.”

Draco nodded, “And Harry replies.”

“Thank Merlin you heard that too,” Theo whispered, “I thought I was going insane.”

***

“I wonder where Neville is right now…”

“Who knows,” Lucille said, “He could be on a secret mission anywhere. Maybe he’s saving the world right now and we don’t even know it.”

“I doubt he’s saving the world since he’s only just started his training,” Savannah pointed out, “No offence Lil.”

Lilly laughed and shook her head, “None taken. He has just started his training but he sort of already has saved the world…or Britain at least.”

“Maybe he did save the world,” Lucille mused, “Who knows what would have happened next if Voldemort had taken over Britain.”

“Europe would probably have been his next target,” Michael said, they were all in the common room but nobody really felt like studying.

“Like Grindelwald,” Charlotte added.

“Grindelwald had Europe but he could never really get Britain,” Michael said, he looked up from his book, “From the outside, Britain is hard to crack because of how tight your security is. Voldemort had it worked out, the way to bring Britain down is through it’s own corrupt institutions.”

“I didn’t know you were into politics, Michael,” Lilly said.

Michael shrugged, “I like to follow current affairs.”

“You are right though, about the institutions being corrupt,” Lilly said, “That hasn’t changed since Voldemort was killed. There are still dirty Aurors in the Ministry and some officials whose loyalties were questionable during the war. My friends and I are planning to change that, they just need to turn 21 first so that they can take their seats on the Wizengamot.”

“How many friends do you have who are heirs to seats on the Wizengamot?” Michael asked, he sounded impressed.

“A lot,” Lilly admitted with a slight smile, “Neville has a seat and so do Harry, Draco, Theo and Susan. The problem with our system is that a law needs the majority to be passed and with the seats allocated as they are at the moment, the people trying to push the good things through don’t have enough support to do that. Once my friends have taken their seats, things will change.”

Michael smiled at her, “So what you are saying, is that you are part of a political revolution. That’s the coolest thing I’ve ever heard Lilly!”

***

By Wednesday night, the boys had made significant progress. They had found the Amazon River and they had been following it for hours. Dave assured them that it wouldn’t be long until they were out, maybe another day at most.

Things had been going fine until they reached an area of very thick foliage. As they traversed through the rainforest, they had trees and bushes brushing by their legs and arms.

“Ouch!”

Everyone turned to look at Theo who had jumped out of his skin, “What now?” Neville asked irritably.

“Something bit me! Something bit me!” Theo said as the colour drained from his face.

“What?” Draco asked sharply.

“Where?” Neville asked at the same time.

“I don’t know! There!” Theo exclaimed.

Neville inspected the spot on Theo’s leg and sighed, “Theo, you idiot!”

“What is it?” Theo asked, “Am I going to die? Oh Merlin, I’m going to die.”

“Theo, you aren’t going to die,” Neville said in exasperation, “It was-”

“I’m going to die and the last thing I did was argue with Sadie,” Theo warbled on, “I’m going to die without getting to say a proper goodbye. Her last memory of me is going to be an argument.”

“No it isn’t,” Neville said firmly, “Because you just got a little nip from a giant beetle.”

“Oh,” Theo said sheepishly.

The others sniggered. Harry opened his mouth to insult his friend but before he could he felt a sharp pain in _his _leg, “Ow! What was that?”

Theo rolled his eyes, “Very funny Harry.”

“I’m not joking Theo,” Harry began to say. Dave interrupted him by hissing at something in the bushes that they couldn’t see.

There was another hiss then Dave re-emerged and hissed something at Harry.

“Rattlesnake? Is that bad Dave?”

“You don’t need to ask Dave, yes that’s bad!” Neville exclaimed, “They are the most poisonous snake in this place you bloody idiot!”

“I didn’t ask it to bite me!” Harry pointed out.

“Shut up,” Neville said shortly, “We need to get you somewhere safe so I can brew up a remedy. Otherwise you have a few short, painful hours to live.”

“Neville!” Draco exclaimed, “You’re supposed to be the supportive one here. You know the one who tells Harry that it will all be fine, we’ll find a remedy and everyone will live happily ever after.”

“Since when is that my job?” Neville asked, he lifted Harry from one side, “Get him on the other side, I don’t want him putting pressure on his leg.”

“As my Auror partner, it probably should be your job,” Harry said through gritted teeth, “And this hurts like hell already.”

“Pain is the least of your problems,” Neville said as they reached a clearing, “Soon your going to start feeling numb. It will start in your fingertips and your toes and if we can’t get a remedy together before the paralysis reaches your neck then you will probably go blind and lose the ability to talk. If we can’t find a remedy in a couple of hours, you will have respiratory paralysis which means-”

“I’ll suffocate, yeah I’m not an idiot Nev,” Harry said, “So just tell me how we’re going to find this cure, please.”

“We need to make an antivenom and inject you with it,” Neville said quickly, “You should know that, this isn’t your first snake bite.”

“That’s true, you do have a habit of being bitten by snakes,” Draco agreed, “First the Basilisk then Nagini, now this.”

“I get bitten by a snake lots Draco,” Harry joked weakly, it was difficult to joke with pain coursing through his body, “She’s called Daphne.”

“Try not to talk, it might make you feel worse,” Neville said. He had his eyes shut tightly, “And I’m trying to remember how to make antivenom, so silence would help.”

Harry obliged and stopped talking, but when he wasn’t distracted all he could think about was how bad the pain was.

“We need antibodies,” Draco said, “From an animal immune to snake venom.”

“What animals that live in the rainforest are immune to snake venom?” Neville asked the Slytherin.

“A Mongoose,” Theo piped up, out of nowhere.

“And how the hell do we find a tiny Mongoose in this place?”

Dave hissed in response.

“Dave says he can find one, but can he eat it when you’re done please?” Harry said, his eyes were shut tightly and his teeth were gritted.

“Dave can do whatever he wants to it, as long as we can use it to save your life first,” Neville said. He looked at the snake, “Go find us a mongoose Dave.”

The snake bowed its head in a nod and then slithered away.

“While Dave is finding our mongoose, let’s work out our next step,” Draco said calmly, “Does anyone know what we do with the mongoose when we get it?”

“Yeah, how exactly do we extract antibodies?”

“They will be in the blood,” Theo said, “So we need to take blood from the mongoose, a lot of blood.”

“We need to kill it, basically?” Draco asked.

“Yeah,” Theo admitted, “I think we’ll have to kill it. Once we have the blood, I think we’ll need to use a basic extraction spell and modify it. I think I can do it, but I’ll need to write it down in case I mess up.”

“This is when being good at Arithmancy comes in,” Neville realised. He watched Theo transfigure a couple of bits of wood and grass into a notepad and pencil.

“Who knew spells were made with maths,” Harry agreed quietly.

Neville looked over at him, “Where is the pain?”

“Every single muscle in my body,” Harry replied.

“And can you feel your fingertips?”

“I can’t feel my right hand,” Harry admitted, he tried to clench both of his fists but only his left one moved.

“And your feet?” Neville asked, he had already pulled Harry’s socks and shoes off in case his feet became swollen.

Harry tried to wiggle his toes but none of them moved, “Try twisting your ankles.”

This time, both of his ankles moved and Neville breathed a sigh of relief, “Let me know as soon as you lose feeling anywhere. It’s the only indication I have of how much time we have to do this.”

“I will,” Harry said.

“Okay,” Theo said slowly. He stared at the numbers in front of him, “I think this will extract the antibodies from the blood now. I just need to add in something about purification because if they are damaged upon extraction then I don’t know how they will affect you… Draco will you look over this for me?”

“Spell modification really isn’t my strong point Theo,” Draco said, “I’m far better at using Arithmancy for curse breaking.”

“No pressure then,” Theo said, he blew out a long breath and looked down at his notepad.

“Can we talk about something to distract me from the fact that I’m slowly being paralysed please?” Harry asked.

Neville glanced over at his best friend, “We could talk about my Order of Merlin.”

“You’re getting an Order of Merlin?” Draco asked in surprise.

“Yeah,” Neville said, “Didn’t I mention that last week?”

“No Nev, you didn’t mention it,” Harry said.

“Unlike you, who rubbed it in everyone’s face,” Theo said without looking up.

“Don’t be mean to him,” Draco muttered.

“Why? Because I’m slowly losing feeling in every limb?” Harry asked sarcastically, “Don’t let that stop you.”

“You can’t insult a man on his death bed,” Theo said, “Even I am not that ruthless.”

“And Harry isn’t dying.” Neville said, he shot Theo a glare, “So the whole thing is irrelevant.”

“Nev is right,” Draco said, “Harry is a bloody cockroach. He would survive another big bang and he’d still be a clueless prick.”

“Cheers mate,” Harry mumbled, “And we were talking about you Nev, not me. You’re getting an Order of Merlin and that’s so great. Me and my sidekick getting our awards together…if I’m still alive then.”

“Okay Harry,” Neville said firmly, “A. You will still be alive then because you don’t survive Voldemort, a Basilisk, Voldemort again, Dementors, a Hungarian Horntail, Voldemort again, Death Eaters, Voldemort again, Nagini and Voldemort again just to get killed by a fucking rattlesnake.”

Harry would have laughed if he hadn’t felt like death warmed up.

“And B. I am not your bloody sidekick,” Neville added, “Do sidekicks get awarded 1st Class Order of Merlin’s?”

Harry smiled, “I’m really proud of you Nev.”

“He’s acting a bit funny, don’t you think?” Draco asked slowly.

Neville nodded, “Slurred speech and slow thought, a bit like he’s drunk. The venom is spreading through his body a lot faster than I thought it would. We need that bloody mongoose.”

“Where’s Dave when you need him,” Theo muttered irritably.

“Are you nearly done with the spell modification?” Neville asked.

Theo nodded, “I’m done. I just need the blood then I can extract the antibodies. After that’s done, we will need to mix them with a simple serum and then we can inject it into Harry’s blood.”

“Right,” Neville said, “I know what serum you need so I’ll quickly canvas the ingredients and throw that together. Draco, keep him talking and if anything changes or he starts having hallucinations come and get me straight away.”

Draco nodded and sat down by Harry’s side, “So you and Neville are both getting an Order of Merlin, 1st Class. Outstanding bravery…I guess that makes sense. Hermione is getting a 2nd Class you know?”

Harry didn’t open his eyes, “Is she? Why didn’t she tell me that?”

“She hasn’t told anyone, apart from me,” Draco said, “I thought it meant she wasn’t as worthy as you at first. But then I did some research and I found out that each class is awarded for a different reason. Did you know that?”

“No,” Harry replied.

“1st class is for outstanding bravery or distinction in magic,” Draco told him, “Second class is for achievement or endeavour beyond the ordinary and third class is for people who have contributed towards our store of knowledge or entertainment. I guess that’s why Hermione got a 2nd class rather than a 1st but I think she did show outstanding bravery…”

“Me too,” Harry said quietly.

“Do you know if Ron is going to get one?” Draco asked.

Harry didn’t say anything or do anything.

Draco frowned, “Harry?”

Harry opened an eye, “I shook my head.”

“No, you didn’t,” Draco said, he was beginning to feel that same sense of panic as Neville now, “Can you still move your ankles?”

Harry tried but nothing happened.

“What about your knees? Can you pull your legs up with them at all?” Draco asked.

This time Harry did manage to move both knees, “And your wrists, can you move them?”

Nothing moved.

“Your elbows?”

Harry tried but only one moved. Draco swallowed, “Okay, open both of your eyes and shut them again.”

Harry did so.

“Try to nod or shake your head again,” Draco instructed.

This time, nothing happened.

“Try to move your neck,” Draco said.

Again, nothing happened.

Draco swallowed again and yelled, “Neville! You better get back here!”

It took Neville a few minutes to appear back in the clearing but when he did he had a basket full of various plants or flowers.

“He can’t nod or shake his head,” Draco said, “And he can only move one elbow.”

“What about his knees?” Neville asked quickly, “Did you check?”

“They are still okay,” Draco said.

“We have about half an hour, for some reason the venom is spreading twice as fast as normal,” Neville said, “Probably because of how many bloody snakes have bitten him in the past. Where the fuck is Dave with this fucking mongoose?”

An indignant hiss came from the bushes and Dave appeared.

“Dave says that your foul language is offending him,” Harry mumbled, “And he says he brought you the biggest mongoose he could find so you should be grateful.”

Neville rolled his eyes, “Dave has too much fucking sass for a snake,” he said as he took the dead mongoose from the snake.

The snake hissed again and Harry hissed back feebly.

“Dave says if you don’t remember your promise to him, he will crush you to death,” Harry mumbled.

“Don’t worry Dave, you can eat the mongoose once I’ve drained its blood,” Neville said, “Draco, help me please?”

Between them they made quick work of getting enough blood from the mongoose (and then tossing it to Dave) to make an antivenom. Theo’s modified extraction spell worked and 15 minutes later, they had an antivenom.

“I’ll inject it,” Neville said, he took the needle and injected it into Harry’s vein.

“When will we know if it is working?” Draco asked.

“It will take a few minutes but the paralysis should gradually reverse,” Neville said, “Harry, can you hear me?”

Harry nodded.

“He couldn’t do that before,” Draco said sharply.

Neville blew out a sigh of relief, “Thank Merlin for that.”

Harry groaned, “I feel like I’m gonna-”

Theo made a face as Harry threw up into the bushes. “I’m guessing he was going to say vomit.”

Draco wrinkled his nose up, “Yep, I think so.”

“That’s good, it’s his body flushing out the venom,” Neville said.

“It’s not good, I feel like fucking death,” Harry complained, “I’m freezing, can someone transfigure me a blanket?”

“No, but I can give you a hug?” Theo suggested.

“I don’t want a fucking hug,” Harry complained.

“Oi, be grateful!” Theo objected, “My modified spell just saved your arse!”

“Yeah, you need to stop getting bitten by bloody snakes!” Draco agreed, “Hermione and Neville have both had to nurse you back to health after lethal bloody snake bites.”

“I’m not sleeping with you though,” Neville joked.

Harry glared at him, “Why do snakes hate me so much?”

Dave hissed and Harry smiled, “Aw Dave, that was cute.”

Neville shook his head, “Cute? You think a snake is cute after one just tried to paralyse you and make you die a slow and painful bloody death?”

“Dave said that he doesn’t hate me,” Harry said. Dave hissed again and Harry said, “He said the rattlesnake tried to kill me because it was jealous that I was taking Dave home with me.”

“Right, that’s snakes for you,” Theo muttered, “Fucking bastards.”

Dave hissed indignantly.

“Dave said that was rude and that he would quite like to crush you to death,” Harry said.

“I don’t like Dave,” Theo mumbled.

“He doesn’t like you either.”

“I liked it better when you were dying,” Theo said irritably as he stomped into the trees, “At least you were bloody quiet then.”

**TBC.**


	101. High Hopes

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter title comes from the song:  
High Hopes by Panic! at the Disco

On Thursday morning, while they were looking through case files, there was a knock on the door of Bill and Daphne’s shared office. This happened fairly regularly, but it was normally just a goblin who needed to talk to Bill about something.

This time, the goblin was accompanied by someone, and that someone was in floods of tears.

“Sadie!” Daphne exclaimed in surprise, “I thought you were in Egypt?”

“I’m supposed to be but I need to talk to you Daphne,” Sadie said tearfully. She looked dreadful, her eyes were bloodshot and her face was red and blotchy.

Bill cleared his throat and threw his folder of files onto the desk, “Well that concludes this morning’s search. There is absolutely nothing of interest today Daphne so you might as well take the morning off. Be back for my masterclass in ancient curse breaking at 2pm though.”

Daphne nodded and shot Bill a grateful smile, “I will be, thanks Bill.”

Bill just nodded back. Daphne grabbed her handbag from the table and hooked her arm through Sadie’s.

“What the hell is going on Sadie?” Daphne asked as she swiftly led her friend through the bank towards the staff entrance so they could apparate straight home without having to go through Diagon Alley.

Sadie shook her head, “I can’t tell you here.”

Daphne opened the door and nudged Sadie out into the alleyway behind the bank, “I’ll take you home then,” she said gently. Regardless of what Sadie’s problem was, Daphne could tell that it was bad.

Sadie said nothing, she just nodded then apparated away. Daphne followed her and the girls were silent as they walked along Grimmauld Place and entered Number 11.

“Let me make you a cup of tea,” Daphne said.

Sadie nodded and followed Daphne down into the kitchen. Neither of them said anything while the kettle boiled and Daphne pottered around with cups and sugar. Once the tea was on the table, Daphne looked Sadie in the eye and asked, “What’s going on Sade?”

Sadie looked down into the depths of her tea and said very quietly, “I think I’m pregnant.”

It took a minute for Daphne to process what her best friend had just said, “What?”

“I…I don’t know for sure,” Sadie said shakily.

Daphne tried to get her best supportive best friend head on, “Well it’s pretty simple isn’t it? Have you had a period?”

Tears began to fall from Sadie’s eyes as she said, “Things have been all over the place but I just thought it was because of the travelling! I mean I’ve been in Egypt then here then in Egypt again and I figured my body clock was just a bit wonky.”

“Oh for the love of Merlin,” Daphne said, “It’s just a simple charm, why haven’t you checked?”

“Because I only just started to wonder why I hadn’t gotten better yet,” Sadie said quickly, “And I was too scared to do it on my own Daph.”

Daphne sighed and nodded, “Do you want me to do it?”

Sadie nodded and brushed a few tears away, “When you do the charm Daph…it becomes real and then it’s even scarier than it is now.”

“You can’t avoid it forever though,” Daphne said, “So the sooner you get this over and done with, the better.”

Sadie nodded and swallowed hard, “Okay, then do it.”

Daphne pulled her wand out of its holster and cast the charm. It was a fairly simple spell that most girls were taught by their Mothers in their late teens. Sadie had her eyes shut because the spell changed colour depending on whether the person was pregnant or not.

“You can open your eyes Sadie, I’m done,” Daphne said.

Sadie opened her eyes and looked at Daphne.

“Well,” Daphne began, “I don’t think that this is what you want to hear but, you are about 8 weeks pregnant so I can’t believe you didn’t realise until now.”

She wasn’t entirely sure how Sadie was going to react to that news, but Daphne did know that it would go one of two ways. She would either take it on the chin and remain calm or…

“Oh sweet Merlin,” Sadie said breathily, “What am I going to do? What about my course and Egypt? What about Theo? He’s only in training, he doesn’t even have job stability and Theo, what is Theo going to say? Oh Merlin, I can’t even tell him because he’s on a training mission!”

“Sadie, calm down,” Daphne said firmly, she grabbed her best friends arm, “Panicking isn’t going to help anyone. You have the health of a baby to consider now and stress is very bad for babies.”

“I just don’t know what to do Daphne!” Sadie exclaimed hysterically.

Daphne gave Sadie a hard shake to calm her down, “Here is what we are going to do. When Theo gets home, you are going to tell him everything then you two are going to have a talk about where you want to go next with this. You don’t like your course and you don’t like Egypt so try not to worry too much about the impact this will have on your career, okay? There are two options, you either keep the baby or you don’t but that’s something that you and Theo need to discuss.”

Sadie nodded weakly.

“Right now what we’re going to do is get you checked out at St. Mungo’s,” Daphne added, “Because you are pregnant and you have done a lot of travelling. Not to mention the fact you got so sick with morning sickness. It won’t do any harm to get you checked out.”

Sadie nodded again, “Okay.”

“It’s going to be alright Sadie,” Daphne promised, “We’ll work it all out, I promise.”

***

“Is that light?”

“The trees are definitely thinning out up ahead,” Neville said, “Dave, is that the end of the rainforest?”

Dave hissed and Harry nodded, “He said yes, we’re nearly out.”

“Thank Merlin for that,” Theo said, “We’ve been in here for days. I really need to get home and floo Sadie to apologise.”

“I’m sure she feels as guilty as you do about your last conversation,” Draco assured Theo.

“I hope so,” Theo said, “But she’s been miserable lately. I’ve been wracking my brain in here to come up with alternative job options for her.”

“Did you come up with any?” Harry asked.

Theo shrugged, “Nothing I know she would definitely want to do. She loves reading and writing though so I thought maybe an author or a researcher?”

“Hermione thought about being a researcher,” Draco mused, “But she said she loves reading books, and researching all of the facts that go into them would ruin that for her.”

“I didn’t think of it like that,” Theo admitted, “The thing is, Sadie is smart enough to do pretty much anything she wants but she’s pretty picky about what she does want to do.”

“You know how to pick them Theo,” Neville joked.

Theo smiled slightly, “She’s a pain in the arse, but she’s my pain in the arse.”

Harry snorted, “Is that as romantic as you get?”

“Guys, look,” Neville said eagerly.

They were in full sunlight now. They walked a little faster and then with a joint sigh of relief, they realised that they had managed to escape the rainforest.

“We’re out!” Theo cheered.

“What now?” Draco asked, he looked around, “Do we just wait for them to pick us up?”

In answer to his question a portal appeared in front of him. On the other side Sheppard stood to wave them through.

“I guess that answers your question,” Harry joked as he stepped through the portal. The others all followed his lead and once they were all through, the portal vanished.

“Welcome home boys,” Sumner said. They were standing in the office that he shared with Sheppard.

“Please tell us we weren’t the last ones out,” Draco said.

“You were, the other group came back a few hours ago,” Sheppard said.

“But you would have finished first if someone hadn’t been bitten by a rattlesnake,” Sumner said, he looked pointedly at Harry.

“Sorry Sir,” Harry said sheepishly.

“As it is, you still pass this test,” Sumner continued, “Aurors McKay and Brown were both very happy with how you did in there. You were particularly well commended by Auror Brown for coming up with that antivenom as quickly as you did.”

“And Auror Carter highly commended you on your spell modification Recruit Nott,” Sheppard added.

Theo smiled proudly.

“So overall boys, it was a good job. The rest of you can head home, but I need to question Potter about why he brought a Boa Constrictor into my office.”

Dave looked up lazily from where he was sleeping on Harry’s shoulders. The other boys tried their best not to snigger as they left the office.

Harry glanced up at the clock, partly to avoid meeting Sumner’s eye and partly because they had genuinely lost track of time in the rainforest. It was just before 5pm and he couldn’t wait to get home to Daphne.

When the door shut behind the other three boys, Sumner turned his attention on Harry, “An explanation please Potter?”

Harry cleared his throat, “Well this Boa Constrictor is actually called Dave. His entire family were killed by poachers who wanted their skin to use as a fashion accessory. So Dave was lonely and I was talking to him about how I was lonely too-”

“You speak parseltongue,” Sheppard said.

“Uh, yes sir,” Harry said, “It’s a long story but when Voldemort tried to kill me he transferred a bit of his soul into me and it lived in me for 17 years. When I walked to my death to sacrifice myself for the people I loved, Voldemort tried to kill me but he actually killed the piece of himself in me. It’s soul magic and love magic so the whole thing is pretty complicated.”

“How does that translate into you being able to talk to snakes?” Sumner asked bluntly.

“Well,” Harry said, “I sort of developed some of the abilities that Voldemort had. One of which was being a Parselmouth. After the bit of his soul in me died, it didn’t come as easily to me but I guess it’s like riding a bike. Once you know how to do it, you never forget.”

“Right,” Sumner said slowly, “So the snake-”

“Dave,” Harry corrected.

“Dave,” Summer said with a frown, “Told you he was lonely?”

“Yes sir, so I asked him if he could lead us out of the rainforest if I promised to take him home with me,” Harry said, “And he did, get us out of the rainforest that is.”

Dave hissed.

“He says he also saved my life because he found the mongoose that they got the antibodies from,” Harry added.

Sheppard raised an eyebrow in Sumner’s direction. Sumner looked Harry dead in the eye and said, “Son, are you taking the piss?”

“No sir, Dave is genuinely a lonely snake who I feel a lot of empathy with,” Harry said, “And I really can talk to snakes which I hope won’t make you view me in a negative light. I know that people view it as a bad thing because of Salazar Slytherin.”

Sumner shook his head, “I wasn’t worried about that Potter. I was more concerned with the giant snake you brought home with you. Are Boa Constrictors even legal as pets in this country?”

“Uh…shouldn’t I be asking you that sir?” Harry asked.

He was sure he heard Sheppard snigger before he replied, “Yes, it is legal to keep them as pets but there are rules. You need a permit so that we can find you if your snake kills someone and you need to put certain security measures in place to ensure the snake can’t escape from your property.”

“Thank you Sheppard,” Sumner said with a nod, “I am afraid that reptile care is not my speciality.”

“My brother keeps snakes and lizards,” Sheppard informed Harry, “I can put you in touch with Garry at Reptile Control, it’s in the back room of Eeylops. He will need to come out and do some inspections then help you put all of the security in place.”

Harry smiled at Sheppard, “Thanks Sir, that would be really helpful.”

“Right then Potter,” Sumner said finally, “Get yourself home. We will see you tomorrow morning.”

Harry nodded and thanked the two men then left the office. He got quick a few funny looks as he traversed through the training centre with a very large snake sleeping on his shoulders.

***

“Harry, is that you?”

“What other men have been casually walking into my house this week?” Harry joked as he followed Daphne’s voice into the kitchen.

“Very funny. I haven’t cooked for two because I didn’t know when you would be-” Daphne turned around from the pasta pot and dropped the ladle in her hand, “Why the fuck do you have a huge ass snake around your neck?”

Dave lifted his head slightly and hissed feebly.

“His name is Dave and he’s not too happy about the fact you woke him up,” Harry said, “Hang on, let me just explain to him who you are.”

Daphne stared at her fiancé in disbelief as Harry looked the snake in the eye and began to hiss at it. The snake hissed back and a full-blown conversation was had, of which Daphne understood nothing.

“He apologises, he didn’t realise that you were his masters fiancé,” Harry said once he and Dave had finished talking.

“His master?” Daphne asked, “Harry, that better not mean what I think it means.”

“He was lonely!” Harry exclaimed, “I couldn’t just leave him out there in the rainforest all alone. His entire family were killed by poachers who wanted their skin, just like my entire family are gone. He helped us out of the rainforest you know?”

“I don’t care if he helped you out of the bloody rainforest,” Daphne said hotly, “We can’t have a giant snake living in our house. We have a toddler!”

“We don’t have to worry about that, he won’t hurt Teddy,” Harry promised. He looked at the snake and asked it in parseltongue, “You won’t hurt Teddy, will you Dave? He’s my son, or at least he will be soon when we adopt him.”

Dave shook his head slowly and hissed, “No master. I will not hurt anyone that you love. I will only hurt those who seek to hurt you.”

“I wish I had met you years ago when I knew lots of people like that Dave,” Harry hissed solemnly. He looked up at Daphne once more, “See?”

“No I don’t see, because I don’t speak fucking parseltongue!” Daphne said a little hysterically.

“He said he won’t hurt anyone that I love, only those who seek to hurt me,” Harry translated, “So you and Teddy don’t need to worry.”

“Great so he’s going to crush anyone who hurts you to death?” Daphne said with a shake of her head, “Unbelievable!”

“Daphne, I didn’t think you would be so against the idea,” Harry admitted, “Do you have something against snakes?”

“I don’t think having a huge snake in the house is a great idea when we have a toddler,” Daphne said hotly, “And I have had a very stressful day so you picked a really bad time to come home with a giant fucking snake!”

“His name is Dave!” Harry exclaimed, “Why do people keep calling him a giant fucking snake? He has a name you know? He has feelings.”

“Oh for the love of Merlin!” Daphne said, she put the pasta pot down on the table a little violently, “I am so fucking sorry that I didn’t know Dave had fucking feelings Harry!”

“Daph, calm down,” Harry said gently. He set Dave down on the floor and walked over to her, “He won’t be in the house. I’ll get Nev’s help and I’ll create a little haven for him in the garden. I’ll get Hermione to use one of those climate charms to recreate the rainforest. I’ll go out and visit him but you and Teddy don’t have to worry. What’s going on with you today? Please tell me it has nothing to do with Fawley.”

Daphne sighed, “It isn’t him. I haven’t seen him since you dealt with him, don’t worry.”

“What’s wrong then?” Harry asked.

“Nothing is wrong with me,” Daphne promised him, “But if you breathe a word of what I’m about to tell you to anyone, then something will be wrong with you.”

“My lips are sealed,” Harry promised.

Daphne sighed and sank down into a seat at the table, “Sadie is pregnant.”

Harry’s eyes widened, “What?”

“I know, I never saw it coming either,” Daphne admitted, “But she showed up today in a right state so I did the charm for her and she is definitely pregnant. The charm estimated about 8 weeks which would tie in with their honeymoon in Paris.”

“Holy shit,” Harry breathed, “I mean Draco actually wondered about it a few weeks ago but I said there was no way Sadie would be that reckless.”

“I didn’t think she would be either,” Daphne said, “But if you do things right, you only have one honeymoon I suppose.”

“Is she okay about the whole thing?” Harry asked.

“She has no idea what she’s going to do,” Daphne replied, “She’s an emotional mess frankly. I took her to St. Mungo’s to get a check up and everything is fine, except her blood pressure which is a bit high. They think it’s just because of the stress but they want to do a home visit every couple of days until it comes down. As far as her bosses in Egypt are concerned she’s ill with a stomach bug but the truth is going to have to come out soon.”

Harry nodded, “I don’t know how Theo will react. I know he can’t wait to have kids but if the timing isn’t right for Sadie then it’s going to be a conflict of interests.”

“The whole thing is a mess,” Daphne said, “And I’ve been trying to deal with it all day. My head is killing me.”

“You need a hot bath and a glass of wine,” Harry said, “And you need to switch off for a night. Whatever happens, it’s Sadie and Theo’s decision. You can’t let it get to you.”

“That’s easier said than done,” Daphne said, “She’s my best friend.”

“I know,” Harry said, he took Daphne’s hand, “But sometimes as much as you want to, you can’t help your friends. You need to let them make difficult decisions by themselves because there are some decisions only they can make.”

“I just hope they make the right one,” Daphne said quietly.

***

When Theo got home on Thursday evening, he was planning on having a bath then making a floo call to Sadie. He really felt that he should apologise since they had parted on such bad terms.

He got in, traipsed through the darkened kitchen and made his way upstairs. He didn’t notice anything unusual about the house until he reached the corridor where the bathroom and master bedroom were situated. Sadie was in Egypt, so why was there a light on in the bedroom?

Being the paranoid former Slytherin that he was, Theo snuck towards the door as quietly as he could. He was going to burst in with his wand at the ready but as he stood at the door he heard a quiet, familiar noise. It was Sadie and she was crying.

“Sade?”

The crying got louder so Theo stepped into the bedroom. She was curled up in bed in her pyjamas with a box of tissues on her bedside table.

“Sadie? Are you alright?” Theo asked sharply, “I mean you shouldn’t even be here, should you?”

“I have sick leave,” Sadie said through her tears.

“Why?” Theo asked, his heart pounded in his chest, “What’s wrong with you?”

Sadie looked him in the eye and sobbed, “I’m pregnant, Theo.”

Theo didn’t know what to say to that. He wasn’t even sure that he knew what to think of that. He knew he was being incredibly unhelpful but he felt completely frozen as he stared at her with an open mouth.

This of course, only made Sadie worse. Her crying became sobbing, “I knew you…would be angry.”

This pulled him out of his daze.

“Angry? Sadie, I’m not angry,” Theo promised her, “I just…I never saw this coming.”

“Neither did I,” Sadie said tearfully, “And now I don’t know what I’m going to do Theo! I’m only 19, my whole career is ahead of me and if I have a baby right now it might never get off the ground! How could we let this happen?”

“I don’t know,” Theo said as he climbed into bed next to her and wrapped his arms around her, “We’re normally so careful…apart from Paris.”

“Daphne thinks I’m about 8 weeks pregnant,” Sadie said quietly.

“Paris then,” Theo said.

Sadie nodded but said no more.

“You don’t know if you want to keep the baby, do you?” Theo asked in what he hoped was an emotionless tone of voice.

Sadie shook her head, “It’s my career or this baby.”

“Whose to say that you can’t have it all?” Theo asked, “If anyone could find a way, it’s you.”

“What do you want to do?” Sadie asked without looking at him.

“I want you to do what you want,” Theo said honestly, “I don’t want to influence your decision because if I do you might resent me for it later. Look at me Sadie.”

Sadie rolled over and looked at him through bloodshot, puffy eyes.

“Whatever way this goes, I love you,” Theo promised her, “And I understand why you feel conflicted. Whatever you chose to do, I’ll be here.”

Sadie nodded and buried her head in his chest, “Thank you Theo.”

***

Draco knew that something was up with Theo from the moment he saw him on Friday morning. His eyes were bloodshot as if he had been crying and there were dark bags under his eyes which suggested that he hadn’t had much sleep.

“Morning,” Draco said.

“Morning,” Theo said dully.

"You okay?” Draco asked tentatively, he knew that Theo could be very stubborn when he wanted to be.

“I’m fine,” Theo said stiffly, “I’ll see you after flying.”

Because of the nature of flying, they didn’t have a chance to talk for a while. Like the last time Theo had been grumpy, he showered alone and left before Draco had a chance to catch him on his way to their next class.

The day continued very much in this vein. In their curse breaking class Theo ignored Draco every time he subtly tried to ask his best friend what was wrong. Then in Law and Ethics Theo barely said anything to anyone.

A prime time to catch him for a conversation was during lunch but Theo never showed up.

“Where’s Theo?”

“I don’t know,” Neville replied, “I thought he was with you.”

Draco shook his head, “He’s hardly spoken to me all day.”

“He’s been the same with us, don’t take it personally,” Harry said.

“I’m starting to get worried,” Draco admitted, “He’s not normally this closed off unless something is seriously wrong. If something stupid is bothering him I can normally get it out of him within a couple of hours.”

Neville nodded thoughtfully, “I know. I’m a bit worried as well to be honest, he’s pretty off today.”

“He actually took notes in Law & Ethics for a start,” Harry added.

“I doubt I’ll get a chance to talk to him until the day is through now,” Draco sighed, “We’re being observed in the simulation room so I can hardly talk to him about whatever is on his mind then.”

“Just make sure you grab him and don’t let him leave until you get it out of him,” Harry said.

“Whatever it is,” Neville added.

“Yeah,” Draco sighed, “I’m not hungry. I’m going to see if I can find Theo, I’ll see you in the simulation room.”

The blonde boy left the mess hall and Neville narrowed his eyes at Harry, “You were acting a bit shifty just then.”

“No I wasn’t.”

“You’re a terrible liar,” Neville said, “Do you know what’s up with Theo?”

“Maybe,” Harry admitted, “But I can’t tell you. Daphne shouldn’t even have told me.”

“Just tell me, is it bad?”

“It’s pretty serious,” Harry said, “But nobody is dying or anything like that. It’s just a difficult situation.”

“Alright,” Neville said, “I won’t ask any more questions.”

***

By the end of the day on Friday, Theo just wanted to go home. But at the same time, he was dreading going home because he had no idea what mood Sadie would be in. He had slipped away after they left the simulation room and he had no idea that he was being followed until someone grabbed him and pulled him into a cleaning closet.

“What the-”

“Lumos.”

“What the fuck Draco?”

“Don’t you what the fuck me,” Draco said irritably, “You have been acting weird all day, and you’ve been avoiding me.”

“Stop acting like a bloody girl about it and let me go home.”

“Not until you tell me what the hell is going on with you.”

“Nothing is going on with me!”

“That’s a lie,” Draco said, “And we both know it. I’ve known you forever Theo and I know when something serious is going on.”

“Nothing is going on,” Theo said as he tried to push Draco out of the way, “So leave me alone.”

“Stop lying to me.”

“I’m fine Draco!” Theo said in a totally not-fine way, “I’m bloody fine!”

“No, you aren’t!” Draco said hotly, “I’m your best friend and I’m your Auror partner for Merlin’s sake! Why won’t you talk to me?”

This caught Theo’s attention. He caught Draco’s eye and sighed, “Sadie is pregnant.”

Draco’s eyes widened slightly, “I…I actually thought she might be a little while ago but I thought it would be best to let you guys work it out for yourself if it was the case.”

“You knew?” Theo frowned.

“I suspected.”

“And you didn’t tell me?”

“Would you rather find out you might be having your first child because your nosy friend had a suspicion?” Draco combatted, “Or would you rather find out from your wife?”

“My wife wasn’t exactly thrilled to tell me about it,” Theo said bitterly, “And I don’t know what to do Draco…Sadie doesn’t know what she wants to do.”

“Well, it was unexpected,” Draco said calmly, “It will take some time to work for you both to work out how you feel about it.”

“I do know what I want to do,” Theo said quietly, “But that doesn’t mean anything because I don’t get to make the decision.”

“Maybe you’re right, it is mainly Sadie’s choice,” Draco said honestly, “But don’t fool yourself into thinking that you have no say in this. You two are a team, you agreed to deal with situations together when you got married and that baby is as much yours as it is hers.”

Theo frowned, “I’m sorry I didn’t talk to you about it this morning.”

“You should have,” Draco said irritably, “I’m good at the whole, unsure how you feel about becoming a Father thing, I’ve been there before remember?”

“Shit, I’m sorry,” Theo groaned, “I’m sorry that I forgot about that, but I’m just so wrapped up in all of this-”

Draco shook his head, “Don’t worry about it. I’m just saying, I know how you feel. At first I was terrified then I was nervous, but after a month or so I started to get excited. You can’t make a big decision like this quickly, that’s all I’m saying.”

Theo stepped forward and hugged his best friend, “Thanks man, I’m sorry for being such a fucking mess.”

***

When Draco dragged himself into the kitchen of Number 12 Grimmauld Place, he obviously looked as shattered as he felt.

Hermione turned around, halfway through serving up dinner, and frowned at him, “What happened to you today?”

“Nothing,” Draco said, he dropped down into his seat at the end of the table and yawned, “It was just a long day.”

Hermione put a bowl of pasta down in front of him, the same pasta she had cooked three nights in a row since learning that she _could _cook it. She raised an eyebrow at him and sat down, “Draco, just tell me.”

He knew there was no point in lying to Hermione because she always managed to get the truth out of him anyway. Draco sighed and said, “Do you remember a couple of weeks ago when we had that conversation about Sadie being pregnant?”

Hermione’s eyes widened, “I had completely forgotten about that.”

“Me too,” Draco admitted, “Everything went back to normal so I assumed that we were wrong but…we weren’t.”

Hermione shook her head slowly, “Holy shit.”

Draco looked up with a start, “What?”

“Sorry,” Hermione said sheepishly, “But it’s just…it’s Sadie, you know? I’ve known her since 1st year and she never seemed like the type to get herself into a situation like this.”

“That’s a bit harsh,” Draco cut in, “She’s married, it’s perfectly normal to have a baby when you are married.”

“And when you’re 19?” Hermione countered.

“I hate to say it, but yes,” Draco said, “Theo’s Mother was about the same age as Sadie when she fell pregnant with him and Molly Weasley was young when she fell pregnant with her first child.”

“Yes Theo’s Mother was young but his Father was an old, manipulative man,” Hermione reminded Draco, “What will become of Sadie now? Is she just supposed to become a Mother and housewife like every other pureblood woman does after she has a baby?”

Draco opened his mouth to object to this but Hermione was too quick, “Your Mother did nothing after you were born and neither did Andromeda. Molly never worked either, do you see a pattern here?”

“Some people work after having a baby,” Draco said irritably, “My Mother wanted too but my Father wouldn’t let her. Andromeda didn’t want to go back to work so she didn’t until Dora was older. Theo’s Mother worked though, she worked in the DMLE and she was well loved there so don’t tar all of us with the same brush.”

Hermione sighed, “Fine, but I can’t see this being good for Sadie’s career.”

“Egypt will kick her out, but that doesn’t mean that it’s the end of her career,” Draco said firmly, “Sadie is smart and stubborn, if she decides to have this baby she will be able to juggle a career.”

Hermione frowned, “What do you mean, if?”

“The way Theo was talking…Sadie doesn’t know what she wants to do yet.”

“Jesus Christ,” Hermione muttered, “I need a bottle of wine and at least 10 episodes of _Monkey Business_.”

“Is that all we’re going to say on the subject then?” Draco asked while she disappeared into the pantry.

“What more can we say on it?” Hermione called.

“Well I thought we would have a more in-depth conversation to be honest,” Draco admitted.

“It isn’t our place,” Hermione said as she emerged from the pantry with a bottle of red wine, “It’s a horrible decision but it’s Sadie and Theo’s to make. I don’t think we have a right to talk about it.”

Draco nodded, “You’re right. You won’t mention it at the Founders Ball tomorrow, will you?”

“Of course not.”

**TBC.**


	102. The Founders Ball

“Did you find out who your wife will be tonight?” Daphne asked when she heard the front door downstairs open.

“You could have just asked who was playing Helga Hufflepuff,” Harry called from the entrance hall, “Where are you?”

“In the kitchen!”

Daphne heard Harry’s footsteps on the marble floor and seconds later he stepped into the kitchen, “Are you baking?”

“Hermione gave me a recipe,” Daphne said, “It can’t be that hard to follow. It’s just like edible potions, isn’t it?”

“Apart from the baking part, yeah,” Harry said with an amused smile, “And for your information, my wife for one night only is Susan Bones.”

Daphne snorted in amusement, “That could be interesting. What do you have to do?”

“Dance together when we go in and act as each other’s date for the night,” Harry said a little tentatively, “Assuming you’re okay with that?”

“I’m fine with that, it’s just for show,” Daphne said with a wave of her hand, “It does mean that I’ll be a loner all night though”

“Nah you won’t,” Harry said while he set the kettle on to boil, “Lil is Rowena Ravenclaw so you and Neville are going to go together.”

“Lucky me,” Daphne joked, “By the end of the night I’ll have gone on dates with the chosen one _and _his sidekick.”

“Don’t say that to him,” Harry chuckled, “I need to go outside and feed Dave, are you sure you can finish that on your own?”

“I’ll be fine,” Daphne scoffed, “By the way, who is Hermione going to go with since Draco is Salazar Slytherin?”

Harry turned around and shot her a grin, “Ron offered to escort her.”

“Does Draco know that?”

“I may have inadvertently told him this morning,” Harry admitted sheepishly, “And his response may have been, _oh for fuck sakes, can’t he let go_?”

“I bet Theo and Sadie will hear the argument through the walls this morning,” Daphne joked as Harry disappeared from view.

“I bet! Can you add rats to the shopping list babe? I’m getting pretty low.”

“Tell Dave to eat less then! He’s already decimated the rat, mouse and shrew population of the bloody estate!”

“He’s a growing snake Daphne! He needs his nutrition!”

“For the love of Merlin,” Daphne muttered under her breath as she added, “_Rats for Dave” _to the shopping list.

***

“Hey! How did it go?”

“Fine,” Draco said calmly, “Lilly and I discussed how awkward it was going to be to dance together tonight then her and Harry agreed that Neville and Daphne might as well go together so that they weren’t dateless.”

“That makes sense,” Hermione said.

“Out of curiosity,” Draco said in that same calm tone, “When were you planning on telling me that you were going with Ron?”

Hermione rolled her eyes, “Let me guess, Harry?”

“Harry told me, yes,” Draco said, “But I feel like it really should have come from you.”

Hermione sighed, “Harry only told you half of the story because Harry is great at hearing something and thinking he knows everything. Yes, Ron offered to escort me to the ball tonight and I very politely told him no thank you.”

“Right,” Draco said, a little sheepishly, “Who are you going to go with then? Because I have to treat Lilly as my date all night.”

“I know,” Hermione said, “I had suspected that would be the case so I had a back-up plan.”

“Which is?” Draco asked.

“Percy,” Hermione replied, “I had a feeling that Susan would be Helga so I figured that if that was the case, Percy and I could go together. At the very least, there will be sensible conversation all night.”

Draco grinned at her.

“What?” Hermione asked self-consciously.

“Only you would pick a dance partner for their ability to sensibly converse,” Draco said with a fond smile.

Hermione rolled her eyes, “Sensible conversation is a very important factor in choosing a partner, thank you very much.”

“Christ, why did you date Ronald Weasley then?” Draco joked, “I mean I can understand why you chose me. Beyond my dashing good looks and sex appeal, I’m very adept at sensible conversation and I’m deeply sensitive.”

Hermione smiled at him, “You’re an idiot.”

“I know,” Draco said, he kissed her on the cheek.

“But I love you,” Hermione finished, “For much more than your ability to sensibly converse.”

Draco laughed, “Come on, I need to make sure this costume fits. I don’t suppose you have a thing for roleplay?”

“Not with Salazar Slytherin.”

Draco raised an eyebrow, “That implies that you do in other situations…interesting.”

“That is not what I said Draco!”

***

When the ‘Founders’ met up in the annex at the back of the great hall, Harry had to admit that they all looked pretty damn good. He thought he was rocking the whole, long brown hair thing even if Daphne had laughed at him. The Godric Gryffindor costume with its gold and scarlet lining and real fur cloak was also pretty neat.

His ‘date’ for the night also looked brilliant as Helga Hufflepuff. She was wearing a yellow and black ballgown and had her hair up in a styled bun. Susan managed to look the part almost as much as Harry did, if he did say so himself.

Lilly could have been Rowena Ravenclaw for all anyone knew. Her hair was back to the dark brown that he had always known it as, although she had promised Neville that it would be red again the next morning. The blue in her eyes matched the deep blue shade of her ballgown and she looked the part more than any of the others.

Then there was Draco.

“You look every bit as slimy as the day I first met you.”

“Are we roleplaying here or are you just insulting me?” Draco asked with a raised eyebrow.

“It’s scary how much you look like Slytherin,” Harry said in answer to the question.

“Hermione said I look foul with dark hair and that if I ever dye it, she’s going to leave me,” Draco said matter of factly.

The silver and green robes that Draco was wearing weren’t a million miles away from the kind of robes that Draco actually wore but his hair was now a dark brown, so dark that it was almost black. It was also slicked back which was what made him look so much like his old self.

“I don’t blame her,” Lilly said, “It does look awful.”

“At least my date for the night is as nice to me as my fiancé,” Draco joked.

Harry snorted in amusement, “You girls look great by the way. I mean Lil, you could be Rowena Ravenclaw for all anyone knew.”

Lilly smiled, “Thanks Harry, I can’t believe McGonagall actually asked me to play her.”

“It’s pretty exciting,” Susan agreed, “Although Percy weirded me out a little this afternoon when I was getting ready. He seems to really have a thing for me when I’m dressed up as Helga Hufflepuff.”

Harry and Draco guffawed and snorted with laughter respectively.

“Thanks Suse,” Harry grinned, “That’s going in the blackmail folder.”

“Harry!” Susan exclaimed.

“What do you expect when you give us a gem of information like that?” Draco asked while he chuckled.

“You I expected it of, but I thought Harry was better than that.”

“You forget that two of my best friends are Slytherins and that my fiancé is a Slytherin,” Harry reminded Susan, “At some point all of that sliminess had to rub off on me.”

Draco patted Harry on the back, “To quote that movie we saw this afternoon, I have trained you well young Padawan.”

Lilly shook her head in disbelief, “I can’t believe you managed to get him and Theo into Star Wars. I mean Neville, yeah I can believe that, but those two?”

Harry just shot her a grin. He didn’t have a chance to say anything further on the subject because the door opened, and McGonagall came in to tell them that they were required in the entrance hall.

All of the guests were already in the great hall so all they had to do was walk in together and dance. Harry had done it so many times now that he didn’t feel nervous about it, not like he had that first time at the Yule Ball.

“Shall we get into character then, m’lady?” Harry joked as he held his hand out to Susan.

She laughed and took it, “Very well my dear Godric.”

Draco shot Lilly an exasperated look, “We’re not doing that.”

“That’s fine by me,” Lilly said, she slipped her arm into his, “Because unlike my fellow bookworm, I never had an underlying longing for you. I genuinely thought that you were an annoying, smarmy prat.”

Draco snorted, “Fair enough. I was pretty annoying and smarmy I suppose.”

“And a prat,” Lilly added, “Don’t forget that part.”

Before Draco could agree with her, not that he wanted to anyway, the doors to the great hall were flung open and the show began. Harry and Susan walked in first with Draco and Lilly at their heels.

The students were at the back of the hall and the guests of honour were at the front. Amongst them were Hermione, Percy, Daphne, Neville, Ron, Ginny, Bill and Charlie. There were other familiar faces too, but Luna was one that was notably missing. Harry supposed that she hadn’t been able to get over from South America with the short notice McGonagall had given them.

When the group of four reached the dancefloor, music began to play. Harry didn’t mind dancing these days, but he preferred doing it with Daphne. Dancing with Susan felt a little like a betrayal although he knew that Daphne didn’t view it that way.

“Who knew Godric Gryffindor was such a good dancer?” Susan joked.

Harry laughed, “Who knew Helga Hufflepuff was such a bad one? I thought purebloods were supposed to be good at this stuff.”

“We are, but my Aunt taught me and she had two left feet,” Susan said, “My Mother was the elegant one.”

“Oh,” Harry said, “I’m sorry Susan, I was just having a joke with you.”

“I know you were,” Susan said, she smiled slightly, “But I was just giving you an honest answer. When did you get so good?”

“Daphne likes dancing,” Harry admitted with a smile, “So when I started going to balls and weddings with her, I had to learn to dance. Neville taught me…well Neville and Draco really. Theo and Dean just laughed and took pictures.”

Susan saw the look in his eyes when he said Dean’s name, “You still miss him, don’t you?”

“I still miss everyone I lost in the war,” Harry said quietly, “But yeah, I miss some more than others and Dean is one of them.”

Susan nodded and nearly tripped when Harry whirled her around, “What was that for?”

“It’s how the dance goes,” Harry said while he bit back his laughter. He didn’t think it would be in character for Godric Gryffindor to laugh at his wives terrible dancing.

***

“He’s having too much fun,” Daphne said as she watched her fiancé with narrowed eyes, “Don’t you think Neville?”

“He’s probably just being friendly,” Neville said, “That’s what Harry does.”

“Friendly and flirty aren’t too dissimilar,” Daphne said.

“And Harry is totally clueless,” Neville pointed out, he handed her a glass of wine, “So friendly accidental flirting wouldn’t be out of the ordinary for him.”

“I don’t like it.”

“You agreed to it.”

“Dammit Neville, you sound just like him!”

Neville smirked, “Well I am his Auror partner.”

Before Daphne could comment any further on the fact she didn’t like the fact that Harry appeared to be having too much fun, Hermione and Percy joined them.

“God, he looks awful.”

“Who does?” Daphne asked, without taking her eyes off of Harry and Susan.

“Draco,” Hermione said distastefully, “Dark hair just washes him out, he looks horrid.”

Neville sniggered, “Did you tell him that?”

“She told him that she’s going to leave him if he ever dyes his hair,” Daphne said with a slight smile.

“Some people just suit their look and shouldn’t change it,” Percy agreed, “I can’t imagine Suse as anything apart from a redhead.”

“She looks pretty good as a blonde,” Daphne commented.

“Oh yeah,” Neville remembered, “I forgot about that phase she went through in 6th year with the blonde hair.”

Percy looked at his girlfriend thoughtfully, “Hmm, I can’t see it personally.”

“Lil looked great with her dark hair when she dyed it,” Neville commented, “But I think she looks amazing with her natural colour.”

“You would do Neville, you like redheads,” Hermione said in amusement.

“How did you know that?” Neville asked.

“Everyone knows that Nev,” Daphne snorted, “You dated or had flings with about three within two years.”

“Okay Hermione, I get,” Neville said, “But how do you know about any of that Daph?”

“She’s engaged to Harry Potter,” Hermione said with a raised eyebrow, “And everyone apart from you knows that he’s the biggest gossip in this friend group.”

Daphne shot Neville a smirk, “She’s right, I know because of Harry.”

Neville shook his head, “Honestly, this is totally against the Auror code of conduct.”

Percy snorted in amusement, “Code of conduct? Bounty hunters don’t have that, our code is attack first, ask questions later.”

“Go figure,” Daphne muttered under her breath.

Hermione shot her Slytherin friend an amused look but said nothing.

“Oh the dance is over,” Daphne noted, “I wonder if the great Godric Gryffindor will grace us with his presence now.”

“I’m not pretending that Draco is Salazar Slytherin all night,” Hermione said as her fiancé walked towards them, “He asked me to and I started to wonder if he was into some weird roleplay about it.”

“If Harry thinks I’m going to pretend that him and Susan are married all night, he can jog on,” Daphne muttered under her breath so that only Hermione and Neville could hear.

“Hey Daph,” Harry said with a smile when he reached them, “How’s it going?”

“Fine,” Daphne said stiffly.

“How atrocious did my dancing look?” Susan asked them as she grabbed a glass of wine from the drinks table.

“From a distance it didn’t look bad,” Percy promised her, “Even if my feet know how dreadful you really are.”

“She wasn’t that bad really Perce,” Harry said.

“Wasn’t she?” Daphne muttered, again only Hermione and Neville could hear her.

Neville raised an eyebrow at Hermione behind Daphne’s back and Hermione shook her head as if to say that she wasn’t getting involved.

“You hid how bad I was Harry,” Susan laughed, “I had no idea that you were such a good dancer.”

“Well you have me and Draco to thank for that,” Neville cut him, “We trained him up so that he could impress Daphne at the Yule Ball.”

“And it obviously worked,” Harry said, he shot Daphne a grin, “Since she’s marrying me.”

“Uh-huh,” Daphne said non-commitally.

Harry frowned at her and was about to ask her what was wrong. However, before he got a chance Draco and Lilly reached them.

“Well,” Daphne said, “Hermione isn’t lying. You look awful with dark hair.”

“Seriously?” Draco asked, “Does anyone have anything nice to say about me?”

Almost everyone shook their heads, then Neville piped up, “Your robes look pretty cool.”

“Thank you Nev,” Draco said in amusement, “Where are Theo and Sadie?”

“Not here yet,” Hermione replied, “I don’t know if they’re running late or just not planning on coming to be honest.”

“Maybe they’re just not coming because of the thing, you know?”

“What thing?” Susan asked.

“Uh…” Neville floundered, “This thing that’s going on with them.”

“You aren’t supposed to know about that thing,” Draco said, he narrowed his eyes at Neville.

“Yes,” Daphne agreed, “You aren’t.”

“Sorry,” Neville said quickly, “Does everyone else know about it?”

“Well I know,” Harry said.

“So do I,” Hermione admitted.

“Well of course you two know,” Neville said, “Because Daphne would have told you and Draco would have told you.”

“Well how do you know? And I’m assuming that if you know then Lilly knows?”

“Of course Lilly knows, I tell her everything.”

“What are you all talking about?” Susan asked as she scanned the group, “Do you know Perce?”

“I have no idea,” Percy admitted.

Neville frowned, “I don’t think it’s really my place to say.”

“Say what?” A new voice asked.

They all swivelled around to see that Sadie and Theo had arrived.

“Nothing,” They chorused.

Theo narrowed his eyes at his friends, “That was weird.”

“We were just talking about uh…how bad a dancer Susan is,” Harry lied.

“What? You said I was good earlier!”

“I lied, sorry Susan,” Harry said.

Sadie narrowed her eyes at them, “Is that really what you were talking about?”

“Yep,” Draco said.

Neville nodded, “Yeah, she’s dreadful.”

“Wow, thanks guys,” Susan muttered irritably.

Sadie sighed, “You all know don’t you?”

“Know what?” Susan asked again.

Sadie ignored her and scanned her friends, “You all bloody know! How the hell do you all know? I told Daphne, bloody Daphne! How did all of you idiots find out?”

“Find out about what?” Susan asked, she was getting more and more frustrated.

“Daphne told me,” Harry admitted.

“And I forced it out of Harry,” Neville said, “It wasn’t his fault, I made him tell me.”

“And then Neville told me,” Lilly added.

“Theo told me because he needed someone to talk to,” Draco said quietly.

“And then Draco told me because _he _needed someone to talk to,” Hermione said.

“And no one told me so please enlighten me, what the hell is going on?” Susan asked for the umpteenth time.

“Well since everybody else knows Susan, I might as well tell you too,” Sadie said irritably, “I’m pregnant okay? I’m 19 and I’m pregnant and everyone is walking on eggshells around me because they think I’m going to have a mental breakdown about it but do you know what? I’m a married woman and I am not ashamed so gossip about me all you want, but at least have the curtsey to do it behind my back!”

Before anyone could respond to that, Sadie stalked out of the hall.

Daphne shot Harry a glare, “Why did you tell Neville, you idiot?” she asked angrily before rushing out of the hall after Sadie.

“I didn’t even tell Neville,” Harry muttered, “He had a hunch and he knew he was right when he saw the look on my face.”

“Get better at disguising your facial expressions then or you’ll be a terrible Auror,” Hermione retorted.

“Whose side are you on here?”

“At this point in time, not yours,” Hermione responded.

“Hang on a minute,” Susan said with a frown, “Sadie is pregnant?”

“Yeah, catch up Susan,” Lilly joked.

“Well if I wasn’t the last to find out then I wouldn’t have to,” Susan pointed out, “How long have you lot known about this for?”

“I only found out yesterday,” Draco said.

“Me too,” Hermione said.

Neville and Lilly nodded, “Us too.”

“I’ve known since Thursday,” Harry admitted.

“You knew all day on Friday when Theo was acting crazy and you didn’t tell me?” Draco asked irritably.

“He’s your best friend, I figured you would want to hear it from him not me!” Harry argued.

“Well…yeah well…”

“Don’t try to argue Draco, you know Harry’s right,” Hermione said quietly.

Draco rolled his eyes, “Can’t we just have a duel about it anyway? To stay in character, you know?”

Harry grinned, “Fun and defensive spells only?”

Draco smirked, “Bring it on.”

***

When Daphne caught up to Sadie, she was sitting on a tree stump by the lake.

“I’m sorry Sadie,” Daphne said when she reached her best friend, “I thought I could trust my fiancé to keep it quiet. I didn’t realise that he literally told his Auror partner everything.”

Sadie sighed, “I knew you would tell Harry and I can’t get angry about the fact he tells Neville everything. If the roles were reversed, I know Theo would tell Draco.”

“I’m still angry at him, if that makes you feel any better,” Daphne said, she perched next to her friend on the tree stump.

“Your dress will get dirty.”

“I don’t care,” Daphne said honestly, “It’s a lame party anyway. I don’t want to spend a night watching Harry flirt with Susan and I bet you would rather be in bed than here.”

“Yeah,” Sadie admitted, “I would.”

“How are things with you right now?” Daphne asked, “You know with everything going on?”

“You mean, have I made a decision yet,” Sadie said, “And I’d much rather you just asked the question rather than beating around the bush.”

“If you don’t want me to beat around the bush then that’s fine with me,” Daphne said, “But that means there will be some pretty harsh truths that I’m not sure you want to hear.”

“I think I need to hear them Daph,” Sadie said, she stared out at the lake, “What do you think Tracey would say if she was here?”

“I think she would tell you to count your blessings and stop acting like a spoiled brat,” Daphne said honestly, “Then I think she would tell you that everything is going to be okay and that what is meant for you, won’t pass you by.”

Sadie sighed and glanced down at her hands, she had been wringing them together subconsciously, “Yeah…that sounds like something she would say.”

“Are you ready for what I would say, given no restrictions?” Daphne asked.

Sadie didn’t meet Daphne’s eyes, but she did nod.

“I know you Sadie, sometimes I think I know you better than you know yourself. I know that you would never be able to live with yourself if you decided to give this baby up, whether that was for adoption or…you know a whole other thing,” Daphne began, “The truth is, you are turning yourself inside out over this difficult choice but you made your choice the second you found out that you were pregnant.”

Sadie stared down at her hands for a moment then looked out at the lake once more. Minutes passed before she nodded and said, “I know.”

“And yes, Egypt are going to kick you out,” Daphne said, “But that doesn’t mean this is the end for you. There are other routes and other careers, frankly I think a lot of them are better suited to you than working in an apothecary.”

“Do you really think I’ll have options, afterwards?” Sadie asked.

“I know that you will,” Daphne promised, “And this is going to be hard. Having a baby, juggling that with building a career, it isn’t going to be easy. But we are all going to be here to help you in whatever way that we can. I’ll go to appointments with you, I’ll be with you when you’re in labour if that’s what you want, I’ll babysit whenever you need me to. I’ll get you through this Sadie, we all will.”

Sadie smiled tearfully at her best friend and hugged her, “Do you really think it’s all going to work out Daphne?”

“Of course it is,” Daphne murmured, “Like Tracey always said…”

“What’s meant for you won’t pass you by,” They chorused.

***

When Daphne and Sadie re-entered the great hall arm in arm, they were watched cautiously by their other halves.

“So,” Susan said, “I guess congratulations are in order then.”

Before Sadie could say anything, Theo cut in, “I suppose so, but can we please keep this within the friend group? It’s still early days.”

“How far along are you Sadie?” Susan asked.

“Just over 2 months,” Sadie replied, “So we don’t want it to become public knowledge yet. We haven’t even told my Mother.”

“Shit,” Theo muttered, “I didn’t think about that. Your brother, Sadie! He’s going to kill me!”

“I’ll have a word with Clara,” Lilly said with a smile, “As annoying as you are Theo, I think Sadie’s going to need you over the next few months so it’s in my best interest to make sure that Sorenson _doesn’t _kill you.”

Harry smiled, “You already sound like the healer that’s going to keep us Aurors alive Lil,” he said somewhat proudly.

Lilly laughed, “Thanks.”

Daphne grabbed Harry’s arm, “Now come on, stop flirting with your fake wife and dance with me.”

Harry shot Susan a frown, “Was I flirting with you?”

“A little,” Susan admitted, “But I didn’t think it was intentional.”

“It wasn’t!” Harry said as Daphne pulled him towards the dancefloor. He looked at his fiancé, “It wasn’t, I swear.”

“I’ll believe you, even if thousands wouldn’t,” Daphne said, she raised an eyebrow at him.

“I was just being friendly,” Harry said, he pulled Daphne closer to him.

“Your idea of friendly looks an awful lot like my idea of flirting,” Daphne pointed out, “But I’ll let it slide if you promise to stop it.”

“Alright,” Harry said, “I’ll be horrible to Susan all night. I shouldn’t even be dancing with you anyway, so I’m already breaking the rules.”

“Ugh screw the rules,” Daphne said. Harry spun her out and then brought her back again, “Godric Gryffindor was a good looking, powerful man in the medieval period. I’m about 99% sure he had a mistress.”

Harry grinned at her, “Are you saying that for one night only, you are my mistress?”

“If it means you will dance with me all night, then yes,” Daphne said as Harry pulled her in closer as the song began to slow down.

“I can definitely get on board with that,” Harry said quietly, “As long as you keep up the act when we get home.”

Daphne raised an eyebrow at him, “Well well well, sometimes you _do _surprise me.”

***

Sadie and Theo didn’t stay until the end of the night. It had been a dramatic few days for Sadie and naturally, she was exhausted. They said their goodbyes to Godric Gryffindor who had his ‘wife’ on one arm and his ‘mistress’ on the other. Then they said their goodbyes to Draco and Lilly who had maintained their, ‘we are so not roleplaying’ act all evening.

When they got home, Sadie just wanted to crawl into bed, but she knew there was a conversation that needed to be had first.

“I made a decision today,” Sadie said while they stood in the darkened kitchen.

“Lumos,” Theo murmured to dimly light the room, “Did you?”

Sadie nodded, she sat down in one of the dining room chairs and said, “I want to keep the baby.”

Theo didn’t say or do anything at first. He watched her for a long moment, as if waiting to see if she would change her mind or say anything more on the subject. When Sadie remained silent, Theo blew out a sigh of relief and sat down across from her.

“I wanted you to,” Theo said honestly, “I really wanted you to but I didn’t want you to resent me so I stayed quiet. I knew if I had said I wanted you to keep the baby and you had decided not to, you would come to resent me for it later and I never wanted that.”

Sadie looked up at him, “I think it was very honourable of you to do that, but I knew anyway Theo. I know you, I know how much family means to you.”

“And I know you,” Theo reminded her, “I knew how much the decision would destroy you if you went the other way. Who do I have to thank for helping you decide, anyway?”

“Daphne,” Sadie replied, “She said the same thing that you just did. She said that my decision was made when I found out I was pregnant and she was right. I could never hurt this baby or give it away, it’s a part of me and it’s something that you and I created. Who are we to throw a gift like that away?”

Theo smiled and grabbed her hand across the table, “What are you going to do now?”

“Tell Egypt,” Sadie said honestly, “And I know exactly how they will react but there is no point hiding it from them any longer. After that…I don’t know, I mean you don’t even have job stability until you’re a fully-fledged Auror in three years’ time.”

“Okay Sade,” Theo said with a smile, “A. I’m best friends with Draco Black, Harry Potter and Neville Longbottom who are all pretty influential people so the chances of me getting kicked out of Auror training are fairly slim. And B. Even if I do get kicked out, we both have pretty sizeable inheritances to live off.”

“I know but I don’t want to be a privileged pureblood living off my inheritance!” Sadie snapped, “I want to do more than that.”

“And you will,” Theo promised, “But all I’m saying is don’t panic about money because it isn’t something we need to worry about. Okay?”

“Okay,” Sadie said quietly, “It’s just…there’s so much to think about isn’t there? We’ll need to get a nursery ready, we’ll have to start thinking about names-”

“Yeah baby, we’ll need to do all of that,” Theo agreed, “But right now, you need to try and relax. Tell Egypt about the baby, go to your appointments and try to calm down so that your blood pressure comes down. Once we get the all clear then we can start thinking about names and a nursery.”

“Alright,” Sadie said, she blew out a breath, “Thanks Theo, I needed you to be the cool, calm one this time. I know it’s normally the other way around.”

Theo smiled and gripped her hand tighter, “It’s a good thing that I can do both the immature, silly prat Husband and the cool, calm, collected Husband quite well then. Isn’t it?”

Sadie smiled back at him, “Yes, it is,” she agreed.

**TBC.**


	103. I Would Like to Thank You

“Please don’t make me do it!”

Sadie raised an eyebrow at her husband, “I’m not making you do anything. You’re the one who offered to go over there and thank Daphne.”

Theo opened his eyes and looked up at her from where he was kneeling on the floor, “Oh, I wasn’t talking to you.”

“Who were you talking to then?” Sadie asked incredulously.

“God,” Theo replied.

“You don’t believe in God,” Sadie reminded him.

“I know this,” Theo said with a nod, “But the thing is, I’m not looking forward to getting on my knees and thanking Daphne Greengrass. May I remind you that Daphne Greengrass is the only girl who has ever turned me down and may I also remind you that she literally lives for my humiliation?”

Sadie smiled slightly, “You can remind me all you want but you were the one who said that you wanted to thank her so-”

“I need to thank her, I know,” Theo muttered. He pushed himself to his feet, “It’s just going to be her and Harry there isn’t it?”

“We’re going over at 10am on a Sunday morning, who else is going to be there?”

“Well you never know what kind of questionable relationship Harry has with Neville,” Theo joked, “Daphne might turn a blind eye, she’s a pureblood after all.”

Sadie snorted and threw her coat on, “So am I and I wouldn’t turn a blind eye if you started screwing Draco.”

“I know,” Theo said, he put an arm around her shoulder, “That’s why I do it behind your back.”

“Shut up Theo.”

“Do you want me to side-apparate you there?”

“I’m pregnant, not terminally ill,” Sadie muttered as they stepped outside together.

“For the next few months aren’t they basically the same thing?”

“Shut up Theo!”

***

When Sadie and Theo stepped into the kitchen of Potter Manor, they both had to stifle laughs as they walked in on the occupants eating their breakfast.

“Morning guys,” Daphne said with a smile, “There are some bagels left and there’s coffee in the pot. Oh wait, can you have coffee Sadie?”

“As long as I don’t have too much, yes,” Sadie replied, “Morning Harry.”

“Morning Sadie,” Harry yawned, he had a bagel halfway to his mouth and was holding a spoon near Teddy’s mouth. The little boy kept trying to grab it and Harry was unsuccessfully trying to make sure that it was out of his reach.

“Morning Neville,” Sadie said, she shot Theo an amused look, “What are you doing here?”

“I force him to come over for breakfast when Lilly’s not around,” Daphne said as she poured out two cups of coffee, “Otherwise he doesn’t eat properly. Why did you think he was here?”

“We were just having a conversation about pureblood inter-relationship dynamics on the way over here,” Theo said with a smirk.

Neville snorted, “Coming from the guy who lives next door to his best friend and Auror partner? The guy who has a door in his basement going to said best friends house?”

“I don’t eat breakfast with Draco,” Theo pointed out.

“That’s because you drink till 4am with Draco and then sleep through breakfast,” Sadie whispered.

“Oh yeah…good point,” Theo mused, “Still, drinking till 4am is more manly than eating breakfast together. Are you reading Witch Weekly by the way?”

“Yes, I am,” Neville said irritably, “They happen to have a very good feature on magical herb gardens okay?”

“Merlin, you are so gay,” Theo said with a shake of his head.

Daphne raised an eyebrow at him, “Leave Neville alone, Theo. Why did you want to come over for breakfast anyway?”

“You don’t even eat breakfast,” Neville pointed out.

Before Theo could explain or begin to thank Daphne, a loud clatter distracted them all. Harry had fallen asleep while holding Teddy’s bowl of cereal and Teddy had grabbed the bowl and thrown it halfway across the kitchen.

Harry woke up with a start and fell off his chair.

Neville laughed loudly and hi-fived Teddy, “You two have got one hell of a chaser in the making!”

Theo sniggered and Daphne glared at him, “That will be you soon so I wouldn’t laugh if I were you. We were up half the night with this one because one of his canines is coming in and it’s bloody sharp too.”

“Werewolf baby,” Harry whispered jokingly as he picked himself up from the floor and dusted bits of muesli off of his dressing gown.

Theo shook his head in amusement, “I came over to talk to you Daphne, in private if you don’t mind?”

Daphne raised an eyebrow at him, “I don’t think I’ve heard you sound that serious for a long time.”

Theo smiled, “It does happen.”

“I know it does,” Daphne said, “Come up to the potions lab with me. I could use a second set of eyes on a new potion I’m trying to develop.”

“Alright,” Theo said, he stepped into the entrance hall with her, “What kind of potion?”

“The next step in the search for a cure for lycanthropy,” Daphne answered, “I’m using a couple of potions as a basis.”

“I’m guessing that one of them is wolfsbane?”

“Yeah,” Daphne nodded, “It represses the violent nature of the wolf and makes the transformation a little bit less painful but it isn’t a complete cure. I’ve been studying the potion that we created to make Melody human again.”

Theo’s eyes widened, “I never even thought about that as a possible cure for lycanthropy.”

Daphne shrugged, “There are a few other elements to consider because of what becoming a werewolf does to someone’s genetics but I think it’s possible. After all, that potion made it possible for Melody to become human again after a long time.”

Theo nodded, “It’s brilliant. Are you doing it for Teddy?”

“A little,” Daphne admitted, “There’s a little part of me that’s doing it for Teddy and for Bill. But mostly I’m doing it because it might make the Ministry rethink the fact that werewolves are classified as beasts rather than humans.”

Theo wasn’t sure what to say to that.

“Anyway,” Daphne said, she opened the door to the potions lab and stepped inside, “What did you want to talk to me about? I’m guessing it has something to do with Sadie.”

Theo nodded, “Yeah, Sadie and the baby. When we got home from the Founders Ball last night Sadie told me that she had made a choice and honestly…that minute while I waited for her to tell me what she had chosen was the scariest minute of my life.”

Daphne looked up at Theo in surprise.

“I didn’t want to influence her opinion so I kept quiet about what I wanted,” Theo continued, “But I really wanted her to keep the baby. I was desperate to convince her that keeping it was the right thing to do but I was scared that she would resent me if that wasn’t what she wanted. So when she told me that she wanted to keep the baby… I had to find out who had helped her make that decision and she said that it was you.”

“I didn’t have to help much,” Daphne admitted, “She already knew, I just had to make her see that.”

“You helped more than you think you did Daphne,” Theo said sincerely, “And when I say that this is from the heart, I really mean it, thank you.”

Daphne smiled, “That’s rare. A heartfelt thank you from Theo Nott.”

“It happens when it’s deserved,” Theo said, “I know we bicker and argue, but I genuinely think of you like a sister.”

“Apart from that time when you asked me out?” Daphne joked.

“Yeah apart from that,” Theo chuckled, “But I’m serious, I owe you a lot for whatever you said to her.”

“In all seriousness Theo, you deserve it,” Daphne said honestly, “Most of the time you’re a good man and you’re going to be a great Dad but you can still be a right prat sometimes.”

“Well it’s better than being the ice queen.”

“Theo, nobody calls me that anymore.”

“You’ll always be the ice queen to mean Daffee,” Theo said as he put his arm around her.

“Theo,” Daphne said dangerously.

“Yeah, Daffee?”

“First of all, get your arm off of me,” Daphne said quietly.

Theo, being mischievous but not suicidal, removed his arm.

“And you would do well to remember that when you first started calling me Daffee I was just an 11 year old girl with some homemade spells that I bet still make you squirm,” Daphne said calmly, “But now, I’m training to be a curse breaker under Bill Weasley and I know curses that would make you scream like a little girl.”

“Well I didn’t know that you were _under _Bill Weasley, I wonder what Harry would have to say about – ahhhhhh!”

***

“Did you hear that?”

“Yeah, that was Theo screaming like a pussy.”

“Language Nev!” Harry exclaimed, he covered Teddy’s ears and the little boy giggled.

“Sorry Teddy,” Neville said sheepishly.

Sadie shook her head in amusement and grabbed a bagel from the table, “I guess that means that his thank you was a success then. If those two are bickering again then order is restored to the world.”

***

“You know, we’ve focused so much on the adoption lately that we haven’t talked much about the wedding.”

Daphne glanced up at Harry, “It’s still a few months away and there isn’t that much to plan since we’re going to have it here.”

“Can we do that? You know, have the whole thing here?” Harry asked cluelessly, “We don’t have to get married in a church or something?”

Daphne frowned, “Do you want to get married in a church?”

“No,” Harry replied, “Do you?”

“Nope,” Daphne said, “So let’s just do it all here with all of our friends and family around.”

“Alright,” Harry said with a smile, “But there are still things to plan aren’t there? Like food-”

“I’ve already worked out a menu with the elves. I’ll bring a few in from Hogwarts to help out,” Daphne cut in.

“And dresses and robes-”

“I’ll get my dress sorted out soon, I’ll have to tell Sadie because she’ll want to be there,” Daphne cut in, “I’ve already got Sadie’s dress sorted, I’ll have to expand it a little but that’s easy enough done. As for you, I’ve made an appointment for you and Neville to go down in December and sort your robes out.”

“What about decorations?”

“Arranged, they just need to be paid for in December.”

“Wedding rings?”

“I’ve picked out ones that I like, we just need to try them on and buy them.”

“Entertainment?”

“Bill’s calling in a favour to get us the Weird Sisters for a good price.”

“The Weird Sisters?” Harry asked in disbelief, “Seriously?”

“Yep,” Daphne smirked, “Bill went to school with the lead singer.”

Harry shook his head slowly, “You amaze me.”

“I told you that I could throw a wedding together easily. The only thing we do need to work out is the honeymoon,” Daphne said, “You have to go back to work on the 2nd of January so we don’t really have time for one.”

“I’ll ask Sumner if I can have a few days leave so that we can go somewhere,” Harry said, “Do you know where you want to go?”

“Not really,” Daphne admitted, “It will just be nice to go away for a few days.”

Harry nodded in agreement, “So you really have everything under control?”

“Mostly,” Daphne said, she sighed, “I need to talk to my Uncle Phineas about my inheritance. My Mother said that he was in charge of the estate now but I haven’t seen him for years. I don’t know if there is any money in that fund anymore and if there is, I don’t know if he will release it to me upon my marriage like he’s supposed to.”

“We can go and see him together, if you want?”

Daphne shook her head, “No Harry. I love you, which is exactly why I don’t want to drag you into my family drama. I’ll do it on my own a bit closer to the wedding.”

Harry opened his mouth to insist that he didn’t mind being dragged into her family drama, but before he could do so, Daphne added, “You’re late by the way, look at the time.”

“Bugger!” Harry cursed, he kissed her lightly, “Love you Daph, see you tonight.”

***

Theo felt incredibly nervous as he stood in Sumner and Sheppard’s shared office on Monday morning. After flying practice, he had asked Sheppard if he would be able to have a quiet word with him and Sumner at some point, but he hadn’t expected Sheppard to say that right now would be a convenient time.

As he stood in the office, waiting for Sumner to arrive, Theo realised that he was nervous because he didn’t know what to expect. There was a part of him that was expecting to be judged or told off when he told his bosses his news but he wasn’t a teenager who had knocked his girlfriend up. He was just here to inform them that his wife was pregnant.

Theo jumped when the door opened loudly. Sumner stepped in and frowned when he saw Sheppard sitting on one of the desks and Theo standing awkwardly in the middle of the room.

“What’s going on here Sheppard?”

“Recruit Nott asked to have a quiet word with us,” Sheppard explained.

Sumner sat down behind his desk and looked at Theo, “Dropping out then are you son? I didn’t expect you to be the first and not so soon either.”

“I’m not dropping out sir,” Theo promised, “I’m just here because my personal situation has changed and I feel like you have a right to know in case it changes my mindset here at work.”

Sumner bowed his head, “That’s very mature of you Nott. Continue.”

“I found out a few days ago that my wife is pregnant sir,” Theo said nervously, “With our first child.”

Theo really didn’t know what to expect, but he certainly didn’t expect Sumner to smile and stand up, “Congratulations Nott,” he said as he extended his hand.

Theo took Sumner’s hand and shook it, “Uh…thank you sir.”

\

Sheppard chuckled and clapped him on the back, “Enjoy the next few months while you can, life changes completely when that first one comes along.”

Sumner nodded, “It certainly does. I suppose you will be needing this, it outlines all the benefits you are entitled to when you become a parent.”

“Benefits?” Theo asked in surprise.

“You don’t think we just leave you to your own devices, do you?” Sumner asked, “This job is demanding and we recognise that it’s hard to be a parent when you do what we do. You will get free childcare at the creche on the east side of the base. Not to mention two weeks paid leave when your wife gives birth and two further weeks of optional unpaid leave.”

Theo looked down at the little information pack that he had just been handed, “Woah…thank you sir. I never expected anything like this, I was actually pretty nervous about telling you.”

Sheppard smiled, “We aren’t as tough as we look Nott. I thought you might have worked that out by now. What is your wife going to do, she was working in Egypt wasn’t she?”

Theo nodded, “Yes sir, but she’s going to have to drop out of her course. I’m not sure what she’s going to do now but she will have to find something or she’ll drive herself crazy until the baby is born.”

“Well I’ll get the HR department to get in touch with her,” Sheppard said, “They are always looking for temporary clerical assistants and research assistants up at the DMLE and it would keep her busy for a few months without any heavy lifting.”

“That would be great sir, thank you.”

Sheppard shrugged and said, “Lizzie was an Auror so you can imagine how much she was climbing the walls with boredom when she was pregnant with our two boys. I had to find something for her to do.”

Theo hadn’t realised that Sheppard had been married to an Auror, but he supposed that made sense, “Sadie’s a bit like that too,” he admitted, “So I appreciate your help.”

“If we can do anything else to help out, let us know,” Sumner said, “And once your wife has seen a Healer for her 3-month review, make sure you get a note confirming the pregnancy. We’ll need a copy for our books.”

“Anyway, get yourself back to class before Auror Carter storms in here looking for you,” Sheppard added.

“None of us want that to happen,” Sumner agreed.

Theo smiled and nodded, “I will, thanks again sirs.”

***

“Why are you so late?” Draco whispered when Theo sat down next to him in Disguise class.

“I had to inform Sumner and Sheppard of Sadie’s pregnancy,” Theo whispered back as he grabbed his notebook and a pencil from his bag.

“How did that go?”

“Better than I expected to be honest,” Theo murmured under his breath, “Did you know that Sheppard is married to an Auror by the way?”

Draco shook his head, “No, do you think it’s Carter?”

Theo looked up at the Auror who was glaring at him from the front of the class, “Nah…I think it’s someone a bit nicer.”

Draco snorted in amusement as Carter barked out, “Nott! You do not show up to my class late and then get to sit and have a conversation with your partner. Get up here and demonstrate the three most obvious forms of disguise for me now!”

Theo rolled his eyes and muttered, “Definitely not her.”

***

“Did you guys know that Sheppard is married to another Auror?” Theo asked conversationally over lunch later that day.

Neville shook his head, “One who works here?”

“Probably,” Theo said, “They have two kids so I doubt she’s an active Auror.”

“She might be,” Draco said, “Sheppard isn’t an active Auror anymore and only one parent needs to have a stable job.”

“I suppose,” Theo reasoned, “But I just got the impression it was someone here.”

“Did you say that he has two kids?” Harry asked curiously.

“Two boys,” Theo nodded.

“Auror Weir has two boys,” Harry said thoughtfully.

“What’s her first name?” Theo asked, “Because Sheppard referred to his wife as Lizzie.”

Harry shot Theo an amused look, “So there’s every chance his wife is Auror Elizabeth Weir then, isn’t there?”

Theo rolled his eyes, “Shut up, I don’t know their first names!”

“If you ever looked at the staff board in the entrance hallway, you would,” Draco said after snorting in amusement.

“I wonder what other Aurors are together,” Draco mused as he looked over at the staff table. Sumner and Sheppard weren’t there, they very rarely were. The boys always assumed that the bosses just ate in their offices.

“Carter and Mitchell are definitely together,” Theo said, “Draco and I worked that out during our isolation week.”

“What are you boys gossiping about?” Ophelia asked as she and Blanche sat down at their table.

“Our Senior Aurors,” Harry said matter of factly, “We think some of them are together.”

“Well I reckon McKay and Brown have got something going on,” Blanche said, “They are together all of the time.”

“Probably just because Potions and Herbology are interconnecting disciplines,” Neville reasoned.

“I’m with Neville here,” Ophelia cut in, “I think there’s something going on between McKay and Carson, I see him up at the hospital wing a lot.”

“Again, Potions and Healing, interconnecting disciplines,” Neville said.

Harry shook his head, “No, I see that actually Ophelia. I think Carson is definitely gay and I’m not convinced about McKay.”

“I thought McKay was up at the hospital wing because he had a thing for Keller actually,” Draco cut in, “Him and Carson come across as friends to me.”

“No way, Keller is way too good looking for him!” Harry objected.

“Well, you would say that!”

“Shut up Neville.”

***

When Theo came home on Monday night, it was to find Sadie curled up under a blanket with her favourite book.

“That bad, huh?”

Sadie looked up and nodded, “Yeah, it was about as bad as I expected.”

“Did they throw you out with immediate effect?” Theo asked, his eyes fell on the trunk at the foot of the bed.

“Yes, they did,” Sadie said, she shut her book and pulled Theo under the blanket with her, “They were very rude to me about the whole thing to be honest. They told me that I was throwing away a promising career and that I was being very foolish. When I told them that this was definitely what I wanted, they said if that was the case then I should pack my things, leave immediately and never apply for the course again.”

Theo shook his head angrily, “I will march over there tonight and tell them what I think of that.”

“I know you would,” Sadie said quietly, “But please don’t Theo.”

“After what they said to you?” Theo asked hotly, “You expect me to just leave it be?”

“Yes, because it’s over now,” Sadie said, “You going over there won’t make anything better. It won’t make them take me back and it won’t make them apologise. All it might do is harm your career so please, just let it go.”

“Can you let it go?” Theo asked, he looked her directly in the eye.

“I already have,” Sadie said honestly, “I didn’t like it in the first place and the way they reacted just made me hate them and that place even more. I’m glad to be shot of them to be honest.”

“Alright,” Theo said calmly, “In that case, I will let it go.”

“Thank you.”

“But I have to ask, if you’re glad to be shot of them, why are you so sad?” Theo asked his wife.

“Because I don’t know where I’m going to go now,” Sadie replied, “This baby is due in March and it’s September. What am I going to do for the next 7 months?”

“I might have an answer to that question,” Theo said with a smile, “Because I had a chat with my bosses today and they gave me lots of good news. Let me tell you all about it over a cup of tea?”

“Can I bring the blanket with me?”

Theo laughed, “Yeah, you can.”

Sadie smiled and wrapped the blanket around herself before getting to her feet, “In that case, okay.”

***

“So what’s on the cards this morning?”

“I’ll tell you when you tell me what’s in the bag.”

“A breakfast muffin for you and a coffee for me,” Daphne replied, she put the bag down on his desk, “Because I need to lose weight for my wedding.”

“You don’t need to lose weight,” Bill scoffed, “Honestly, you sound like my wife.”

Daphne raised an eyebrow at him, “So, do we have a case?”

“Oh yeah,” Bill said, he had become distracted by the breakfast muffin that he was stuffing in his mouth. He swallowed his mouthful and said, “Interesting case so we’re heading out as soon as I finish this.”

“Which won’t be long at the rate you eat,” Daphne said distastefully.

Bill swallowed another mouthful, “That sounded disdainful.”

“You reminded me of Ron for a moment there,” Daphne said, “And that isn’t a good thing.”

Bill shuddered, “No, it isn’t,” he agreed.

“When you say interesting case by the way, do you mean an old curse or just an interesting one?” Daphne asked while she sipped her coffee.

Bill finished his muffin and said, “Both. We are going to investigate a chair in a muggle museum. Apparently, a convicted murderer ate his last meal at his favourite pub then stood up and said that death would come to anyone who dared to sit in his chair.”

“And death has come to them?” Daphne guessed as they left the office together.

Bill nodded, “Yep, the murderer was hanged for his crimes and since then 63 people have died after sitting on the chair.”

“63?” Daphne asked in disbelief, “And nobody has thought to investigate it yet?”

“We don’t know how many of them actually died from natural causes though,” Bill pointed out, “We will need to work that out so we can have a look at our final number. Either way, the museum called in ‘specialists’, aka us, after a prank went wrong and the 63rd person died, last night.”

“So someone sat in the chair then?”

Bill nodded again, “A couple of the apprentices were playing around in the museum at night and one dared the other to sit on the chair. Apparently, it’s suspended 5 foot in the air to stop anyone else from dying. Early this morning, that apprentice dropped dead.”

“And in come the specialists,” Daphne said, she shot Bill a grin, “You’re right, it’s definitely interesting.”

***

“Are you going to tell me why you’ve been so distracted since your best friend barged into our office last week?”

“I haven’t been distracted.”

“Daphne, you nearly sat on the death chair.”

“Is that what we’re calling it now?” Daphne asked with a raised eyebrow.

“It’s a chair that causes death, what else would we call it?”

“I don’t know, something more original than the death chair,” Daphne muttered, “And I didn’t nearly sit on it, I was just having a closer look.”

“Until you fell,” Bill pointed out, “And you would have landed on it if it weren’t for my amazing reflexes.”

“I wouldn’t have landed on it,” Daphne muttered under her breath. They were currently holed up in a makeshift office, which was essentially a storeroom, in the depths of the museum.

“Seriously Daphne, what’s distracting you?”

Daphne knew Bill’s policy, they told each other everything like Auror partners would. She knew that meant that she had to come clean.

“My best friend barged in last Thursday and told me she was pregnant,” Daphne admitted, “That’s what’s been going on with me for the last few days.”

“Wow,” Bill said, “I didn’t expect that from Sadie…”

“Neither did I,” Daphne admitted, “She’s smart, career minded, logical…it was completely out of character but I suppose, you only get one honeymoon.”

“Oh yeah, I can sympathise with that,” Bill said with a nod, “I’m guessing she’s conflicted about it and that’s why you’re stressed out?”

“She was,” Daphne said, “But she made her decision at the weekend and she’s keeping the baby. Theo is thrilled about it, he actually thanked me and I don’t think in all the years I have known that boy that he has ever thanked me for anything until now.”

Bill laughed, “Well I’m glad that it seems to be working out for the best but she’s still young, isn’t she?”

“Everyone is having a kid young these days,” Daphne muttered, “Look at your family, war breeds babies, that’s what they say isn’t it?”

“Something like that,” Bill said, “But you can’t really be judgemental about people having kids young, can you?”

Daphne frowned at him, “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“You’re adopting Teddy,” Bill pointed out.

Daphne scoffed, “That’s not the same.”

“How is that not the same?” Bill asked, “You will legally be a parent just like my sister and my brother and your best friend. Tell me how that’s different?”

“It just is,” Daphne said irritably, “I won’t have to give up 9 months of my life to carry a baby for a start. I won’t have to watch what jobs I do or what cases I take because I’m pregnant. Then there’s the fact I don’t have the sleepless nights that come with a newborn baby or any of that stress. I get to come in at the good part, the part where we can do things together, where Teddy can talk to me and tell me what’s wrong with him when he’s crying.”

Bill nodded slowly, “Yeah you’re right, it’s totally different.”

Daphne smiled a little smugly.

“But not necessarily any easier,” Bill added.

Daphne groaned, “Ugh, come on Bill!”

“I’m serious Daphne,” Bill said sincerely, “Yes, you don’t have the sleepless nights, the screaming, the endless cycle of feed, change, sleep repeat but what you do have is a child who isn’t yours by blood. A child that you love but that you know will never be truly yours because one day when he’s old enough, he’ll find out about his birth parents. When he does, he will have to divide his love for you and Harry between you two and the birth parents that he never got a chance to know. That’s not easy Daphne, it’s not the easy way out that you seem to think it is.”

“I know that Bill,” Daphne snapped, “I know he will never truly be ours but we can love him as if he is and I think that’s enough. Nothing about coming into Teddy’s life late and raising him has been easy. We were still in school when he started calling Harry Daddy for crying out loud, I never for a moment meant to imply that it was easier than having a child young. I know how hard it’s going to be for Sadie because I’ve been living it since Harry and I got together!”

“Do I need to tell you that-”

“I know it sounded bitter,” Daphne said quickly, “But I didn’t mean for it to sound that way. I’m just stressed because of the adoption and the wedding and…well Teddy isn’t an average child to adopt.”

Bill frowned, “Because he’s Harry’s Godson?”

“No, because his Father was a werewolf,” Daphne sighed, she could feel one hell of a headache coming on, “And we have no idea how that’s going to affect him. I know that once he’s 2 years old, we need to start getting him tested at St. Mungo’s every year like some kind of lab rat so that they can work out if he’s going to be dangerous. I know that I got terrified when he got his first canine at the weekend because of how bloody sharp it was. I don’t know if my son is going to have to get registered if he starts showing too many werewolf traits and I don’t know if he’s going to be enough of a werewolf to be classified as a beast rather than a human but the thought of that scares the shit out of me Bill.”

Bill got to his feet and gave her a hug, “Hey, if anyone knows how scary that is, it’s me,” he said quietly, “I had no idea what was going to happen to me while I waited for that first full moon and I think that was probably the scariest month of my life.”

“But you turned out fine,” Daphne said, she rubbed her eyes, “Geez, it’s bloody dusty down here.”

Bill knew she was covering up the fact that she had been crying but he didn’t want to call her out on that, “I wouldn’t say that I turned out fine. Luckily enough I had a partner who was willing to stick with me, even when she didn’t know the outcome. I might have become a full wolf for all we knew, but Fleur was adamant that she wasn’t going to leave me.”

“Harry always says that Tonks loved Remus even though he was a werewolf,” Daphne mused.

“Dora was a very kind person with a beautiful heart,” Bill smiled, “I was gutted when Charlie broke up with her to go chasing dragons in Romania because I thought she was brilliant, but Remus needed her and I’m glad she made him happy in that last year… Anyway, the point I’m making is that I’m not fine. Once a month when the full moon is out, I change and I don’t just mean that I get a bit cranky. We have that outhouse for a reason Daph, I get angry, scarily angry.”

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen you angry,” Daphne said.

“Exactly, it’s not in my nature,” Bill said, “But when the full moon is out, I get angry and violent, so I lock myself away from the people that I love. Fleur and my family all joke about it, they say that I prefer my meat a bit rarer now but that I’m fine. The only people who know that I’m not fine are Fleur and Charlie.”

“Is this supposed to make me feel better about Teddy?” Daphne asked, “Because it’s making me feel worse.”

“It’s supposed to make you feel better,” Bill said sheepishly, “I’m trying to make you see that if the werewolf genetics in Teddy were going to affect him, you would have noticed it already.”

“But Harry says that the specialist at the hospital thinks that puberty might trigger it,” Daphne told him.

“I suppose it might, but I think it’s unlikely,” Bill said honestly, “Does he change at all at the full moon?”

“He gets cranky,” Daphne admitted, “And he wants to stay up and play all night instead of sleep.”

Bill laughed, “I think you’re going to be fine, but I know that won’t ease your worries about the future.”

Daphne shrugged, “I just wish it wasn’t so uncertain,” she admitted. She looked back down at her notes, “Anyway, don’t you think we should be getting on with this? Before someone accidentally falls onto the death chair?”

“I thought you said that was a terrible name.”

“It is, but I can’t think of anything better.”

**TBC.**


	104. An English Pureblood in Paris

“Uh…where do you think you’re going?”

“Out,” Draco said matter of factly, “I didn’t think that was illegal. We _are _allowed to leave the premises during our lunch break.”

“Yes, but you never have,” Theo pointed out.

“We’ve only been here a few weeks,” Neville sniggered.

Draco rolled his eyes, “Either way, I’ll see you lot in an hour.”

“Seriously though, where are you going?” Harry asked, he was just as curious as Theo.

Draco slipped out of the hallway before anyone could ask him any further questions.

“What do you think he’s up to?” Harry asked the others as they entered the canteen.

“Well I’m pretty sure he’s not a Death Eater,” Neville smirked, “So don’t worry Harry, you don’t need to whip out the invisibility cloak and watch him piss.”

“Oh for the love of Merlin, once!” Harry exclaimed irritably, “I followed him into a bathroom once and nobody has ever let me hear the end of it!”

Neville and Theo grinned at each other and sniggered while Harry stomped off to eat lunch with Emily and Maxwell.

“What do you reckon he’s up to anyway?” Neville asked Theo.

“I have no idea, but we’ll get it out of him when he comes back.”

***

“So where have you been?”

Draco rolled his eyes, “You three are the nosiest people I have ever met.”

“Harry wanted to whip out the invisibility cloak and stalk you, but he managed to control his urges this time,” Neville joked.

Harry glared at his best friend, “One day you will stop slagging me off for that and realise that I actually discovered some very important things while stalk – I mean following – Draco that year!”

Draco snorted in amusement, “Like what bathrooms I preferred or how big my-”

“Black, Potter!” Frasier snapped, “Less talking, more reading!”

“I’m really glad I didn’t have to hear the end of that sentence,” Neville said under his breath as he shot a glance Lilly’s way. She had been busy having a very in-depth chat with Keller and Carson which meant that she hadn’t even spoken to Neville in the half an hour she had been here. He was looking pretty miffed about the whole thing.

“Anyway, where did you sneak off to?” Theo asked.

“It’s none of your business!”

“The last time you did a lot of sneaking you were getting branded with a dark mark and doing bad shit for Voldemort so I make it my business to know what you’re doing when you sneak off,” Theo whispered irritably.

“As nice as that is of you Theo-”

“Nice?” Harry scoffed, “What he just said is basically the reason I followed you in 6th year but when I do it it’s creepy stalking?”

“You did do it in a creepy way,” Neville admitted.

“Come on Nev!”

“Sorry, but it’s the truth.”

Draco shook his head in amusement and looked down at the notes they were supposed to be studying before practicing first aid on a dummy, “If you really want to know, I was in Diagon Alley, but I wasn’t getting branded with a dark mark or doing bad shit for a dark lord.”

“What were you doing then?” Neville asked curiously.

“I was looking at kittens because Hermione’s birthday is next week,” Draco told them.

“Aww,” Theo cooed, “How cute and romantic!”

Draco smacked him around the back of the head.

“Did you see one that you think she’ll like?” Harry asked.

“I don’t know,” Draco admitted, “There were three kittens in the store and I have no idea which one she would like best. There was a male ginger one, a female tabby and a female black kitten.”

“I think she would prefer a female cat,” Theo mused, “I don’t know why I think that, but it’s just a feeling that I get.”

“You’re probably right,” Harry said, “I would go for the black one. Hermione went into Eeylops saying that she wanted a black kitten because in all the muggle books that she had read as a kid, a witch had a black cat as its familiar. She ended up with Crookshanks because he was so ugly that nobody wanted him and she felt sorry for him.”

“Typical do-gooder Gryffindors,” Theo said with a shake of his head, “Buying ugly cats and bringing lonely snakes home from the Amazon rainforest.”

“Would you leave Dave out of this?”

***

“Do you think I’m ready to adopt Teddy?”

“I think if you’re asking me that then you aren’t 100% sure that you are,” Bill replied slowly, “These numbers are all just blurring together, we’ve been looking at them for so long…”

“6 hours,” Daphne said, she stifled a yawn, “Not that I’ve been counting.”

“Whoever this Busby guy was, he was a pretty powerful wizard,” Bill agreed, he rubbed his eyes and sighed, “I’m starting to think we should take a half hour break to go and get some food and a coffee before we make a serious attempt at breaking this thing.”

“I think I have it.”

“I think I do too but I’ve been looking at it for so long that I’m starting to doubt myself,” Bill said, he scribbled a lot of numbers and letters down in a notepad, “Come on, let’s grab something to eat and drink at the museum café.”

“Alright,” Daphne conceded. She and Bill stepped out of the dingy storeroom/office together and began to make their way up a narrow staircase towards the main museum.

“So what are your doubts, about adopting Teddy?” Bill asked conversationally.

“I didn’t think that I had any to be honest,” Daphne admitted, “But I suppose I do. I’m worried about how Harry and I will find time for each other once Teddy is living with us. I’m worried about the effect it will have on our relationship.”

“Well having a baby, whether it’s a newborn one or not, does put a strain on your relationship,” Bill reasoned, “Fleur and I aren’t the same people that we were before Victoire came along. Neither of us get to go out and have fun like we used to, we don’t get as much sleep as we used to either which makes us crankier and therefore prone to arguments. And yes, it is hard to find time for each other and ourselves.”

“Is there a but in there?”

Bill shot her an amused look, “Yes smart arse. But, it’s worth it when we see Victoire learn to do something new. It’s worth it 99% of the time but then there’s that 1% when I want to scream, storm out and go back to my old life. I suppose what I’m saying is that it’s fine as long as your relationship is strong enough to withstand it.”

“Do you think Harry and I have a strong enough relationship?” Daphne asked him, “And I need you to give me an honest answer Bill, even if it isn’t what I want to hear.”

“I think that if you can stand by each other in your worst moments, then you can stand by each other through parenthood,” Bill said honestly, “Has he been there for you at your worst?”

Daphne thought back to those long weeks after Tracey’s death, she could still feel the deep depression that she had sunk into. She remembered Harry trying to cheer her up and bring her out of it gently, rather than forcing her to live her life the way that she had before. She was also transported back to the dark days after the ordeal with Fawley, Harry could not have been more supportive if he tried.

Daphne nodded, “Yes.”

“And have you been there for him at his worst?” Bill asked.

Daphne found herself thinking about the horrors in Harry’s past and how he couldn’t seem to escape them, no matter how fast or how far he ran. She remembered the Halloween Ball, how he had disappeared early and cried himself to sleep because he missed his parents. She thought back to Memorial Day when she had truly seen how deep his scars were. She thought about the nights that Harry would wake up screaming and soaked in sweat, terrified of the demons from his past. She was the one who told him that it was all going to be okay and soothed him back to sleep.

She nodded slowly, “Yes.”

“Then I think you two will do just fine,” Bill said, he smiled at her and clapped her on the back, “There’s never a right or wrong time to give that little boy the love and family that he deserves. I think you’re ready whenever you want to be.”

Daphne smiled over at him, “Yeah…you’re right. Thanks Bill.”

Bill grinned at her, “Hey, if curse breaking ever lets me down, I’ll make one hell of a psychiatrist!”

***

“So what are you planning for the weekend?” Daphne asked as she held up two dresses, “And which one is more Moulin Rouge?”

“I have no idea what that means,” Harry admitted.

“Which one says sexy French burlesque dancer?” Daphne asked.

Harry looked at the two dresses, “Uh…the gold one?”

“No, the red one,” Daphne scoffed, “Honestly Harry, I love you but I would never let you dress me.”

“I prefer undressing you anyway,” Harry said, he shot her a grin.

Daphne smiled slightly, “What are you going to do while I’m away? Have a boys weekend in the basement?”

“Nope,” Harry said, “Well I mean yes, I will be having a boys weekend of sorts but not with those boys.”

“You’ve lost me.”

“With my little boy,” Harry smiled, “Nev and me are going to take Teddy out for the day. We have a Quidditch match planned for tomorrow afternoon then we’re eating at some pizza buffet place that Neville has being going on about for weeks. On Sunday, I’ll just take Teddy along to the Burrow with me.”

“So no drinking at all?” Daphne asked with a raised eyebrow.

“None at all, and I am slightly offended that you find that so hard to believe.”

His tone implied that he was joking but Daphne suspected that there was a touch of truth there, “I’m just impressed by how mature you are. Most guys would invite all of their friends over and get pissed while their fiancé was away for the weekend.”

“Well I am not most guys,” Harry reminded her, “Most guys didn’t just go through a war and most guys my age don’t have a toddler to keep them occupied.”

“True,” Daphne said quietly. She hadn’t discussed her doubts about the adoption with him yet, but she knew that it was a conversation that they needed to have sooner rather than later.

“What are you going to do in Paris?” Harry asked.

Daphne looked up, “Oh, well I’m introducing Lil to a side of Paris I bet she hasn’t seen yet. I’m taking her to the Moulin Rouge tomorrow night and then we’re going to visit the wizarding shopping quarter on Sunday. The shops there are just amazing but _so _expensive.”

Harry shot her an amused look, “Do I need to give you an allowance for the weekend?”

“I’ll have you know, I am a strong independent woman with a successful job,” Daphne said smugly, “I do not need an allowance.”

“Your mother gave you money, didn’t she?” Harry asked knowingly.

“Ugh! How did you know that?”

“Because Daphne,” Harry said, he took a step towards her, “Once the ice queen thawed, she really did become quite predictable.”

“If you’re trying to goad me into having sex with you before I go, it’s not going to work,” Daphne said matter of factly, “I have lots of packing to do and – would you stop looking at me like that?”

“Like what?” Harry asked innocently.

“Like…you know what!”

“I’m just saying, you aren’t as cool and collected as you used to be,” Harry said sneakily.

Daphne narrowed her eyes at him, “Oh, you are so going to get it.”

“That was my intention.”

“Harry!” Daphne growled irritably.

“What?”

“You know what!”

***

“Good morning.”

“You’re in an awfully good mood,” Neville noticed.

“You aren’t,” Harry combatted.

“Well I don’t get to see my girlfriend this weekend because your fiancé has decided to gallivant around Paris with her,” Neville pointed out, it almost sounded huffy.

“I don’t mind having a weekend with you and Ted, but then again I see Daphne a lot more than you see Lil,” Harry said with a shrug, “What game are we watching anyway?”

“Harpies vs the Cannons, it’s the last game of the season,” Neville said, they were waiting in line outside the pitch, “This game decides who will come second in the league, Puddlemere have already won it.”

“I should have known that,” Harry said sheepishly, “I used to follow Quidditch a lot more religiously, but I haven’t had time lately between work and Teddy.”

“That’s parenthood for you,” Neville joked, “I wonder how Theo is going to handle it…”

“Never mind Theo, I wonder how Sadie is going to cope,” Harry said, “She’s so career minded and she essentially has to give that up for the moment to have a baby. Surely that’s going to make her feel bitter?”

“Maybe,” Neville shrugged, “But you know what they all say, you hold that baby in your arms and forget about everything else. Your whole world is turned upside down and your perspective completely changes.”

Harry hummed thoughtfully, “I always thought they would be the first to have kids but I didn’t think they would start their family so young. Then again…I didn’t think that Daphne and I would either.”

“It’s not quite the same though,” Neville said, “Although it’s still a huge commitment.”

“Aside from the pregnancy, it is the same,” Harry argued as they reached the front of the line, showed their tickets and began to climb up to the top box, “In fact, in some ways it’s harder. We don’t get to start afresh, we have to come in halfway through and try to work out what we’re doing. We muddle through okay though so if we can keep doing that, I think it will all work out for the best.”

“I think it probably will,” Neville said, he patted Harry on the back, “You and Daphne have been through a hell of a lot together. If anyone can do this at our age, it’s you two.”

Harry smiled at his best friend, “That means a lot Nev, thanks.”

***

“So,” Lilly said slowly, “As lovely as this is, you know you treating me to a weekend in Paris, I have to wonder why you’re doing it.”

Daphne glanced at her friend, they were sitting in the Moulin Rouge waiting for the show to begin. She had enjoyed doing Lilly’s hair and make-up earlier in the evening, “What do you mean?”

“Well,” Lilly frowned, “You and I have never really been that close. I was always friends with Hermione and Sadie at school but I didn’t really get to know you until I started dating Neville.”

“That was why I wanted to have this weekend to be honest,” Daphne said, “I got to know Hermione throughout our 8th year but you and I didn’t speak much until you and Neville started dating so I don’t really know you that well. But our other halves are Auror partners which means they are basically joint at the hip from now on, so I wanted to get to know you better.”

Lilly raised an eyebrow at her, “Do you take all of your friends on expensive weekends away to get to know them better?”

“Only the ones I really want to impress,” Daphne said with a grin, “And you Lillian Moon, I could not believe it when you told me that you had _never _been shopping in Paris! I had to fix that, and no girl can stay in France and not go to the Moulin Rouge. It is an experience that you will never forget.”

The lights began to go down and the background music got louder.

Lilly looked a little sceptical, but Daphne fixed her with a knowing look, “Never.”

***

“Thanks for inviting me along today Harry, I really enjoyed myself.”

Harry handed his best friend a glass of whiskey and smiled, “I thought you might enjoy it and it will do Teddy good to get to know his Uncle Nev.”

Neville looked up in surprise, “Uncle?”

“In a few weeks, I’m legally going to be his Dad,” Harry said, he sat down heavily in an armchair, “Which means I’m no longer his Godfather.”

Neville frowned, “Is that how it works?”

Harry nodded, “It’s in the fine print of the adoption contract. Andromeda said that we can leave things as they are or we can appoint new godparents for him. Daphne and I decided that you and Hermione should be his Godparents.”

Neville’s eyes widened, “Really? That…that is an honour Harry, more so than an Order of Merlin to be honest.”

Harry laughed, “Don’t be daft Nev.”

“No, I mean it,” Neville said honestly, “The Order of Merlin, it’s nice you know? But it doesn’t really mean anything, it’s superficial. But for you and Daphne to trust me to look after Teddy if anything happened to you…that means something.”

Harry smiled at him, “The fact you’re taking it so seriously just proves that you’re going to be an awesome Godfather. Lilly won’t mind that she’s not his Godmother, will she?”

Neville shook his head and the smile vanished from his lips, “No…Lilly doesn’t like kids.”

“She must like kids, everyone likes kids.”

“She doesn’t,” Neville assured him, “She thinks that they are whiny, annoying, snot faced brats. When we went to Notre-dame there was this bratty little kid having a temper tantrum and his poor Mum looked so stressed out. Lilly muttered under her breath, _why would someone want one of those_? And then walked away for peace and quiet.”

Harry bit his lip, “Well…her opinion might change as she gets older, you know?”

Neville looked at Harry sceptically.

“It might,” Harry promised, “I never thought Daphne would be the parental type. I mean I fell in love with this cool, calm, collected ice queen. Don’t get me wrong, the ice queen Daphne is sexy as hell, but the Daphne who runs to catch Teddy and cries with him when he hurts himself…she’s just perfect.”

Neville sighed, “I envy you so much Harry. The life you have is everything I want and I don’t know if I will ever have that. I know Lilly wants to marry me now, she makes little comments every so often and it’s great that she’s over her commitment fears but I don’t want to commit to anything until I know if she wants kids or not because…it’s kind of a deal breaker for me.”

“I understand because I feel the same,” Harry said, “I want more kids than Daphne does but I’ll settle for one. In fact, I’d settle for just Teddy to be honest. If Daphne hadn’t been open to having kids at all, it would have been a big deal breaker for me too.”

Neville rubbed his eyes and sipped from his glass, “I just don’t know how the hell to have that conversation.”

Harry didn’t say anything for a moment as he thought hard about a subtle way that Neville could bring it up. It took a while because he was terrible at being subtle, but Harry did come up with an idea, “Babysit Teddy one night.”

“I’d have to get Lilly to agree to that first,” Neville pointed out.

“That’s fine, I’ll guilt-trip her into saying yes,” Harry said, he smirked mischievously, “I completely trust you with Teddy and if I tell Daphne that then she won’t have a problem with it either. We’ll just go out for a meal or something so that we’re only gone for a couple of hours. See if that changes her opinion and see if you can subtly talk about kids by using Teddy as an example.”

Neville nodded slowly, “Alright…that is actually a very sensible idea.”

Harry grinned and tapped his forehead, “They are all up here Nev. Some of them just have a few problems getting out.”

Neville laughed at that and the two men fell into a comfortable silence.

***

“You were right, it was an experience,” Lilly said as she and Daphne walked down a busy street arm in arm late on Sunday morning.

“I told you,” Daphne said in a sing-song voice, “I need to take Harry to the Moulin Rouge, he would love it. First, I would need to convince him to come to France though,” she rolled her eyes.

“Does he not like France?” Lilly asked.

“Oh he likes the idea of France well enough, he just doesn’t like the French,” Daphne joked, “Just like Theo. But Sadie found a way to get Theo to France so I’m sure I’ll get Harry here at some point. Maybe I’ll use Teddy as an angle, Harry would probably love to take him to Little Wizard Land.”

“What’s that?” Lilly asked curiously.

“It’s a theme park with fun rides and things,” Daphne answered.

“Oh, like Disneyland?”

“What?”

“Never mind,” Lilly said with an amused smile.

“Ah, here we are,” Daphne said. They stopped in front of a large old-fashioned bookshop and Lilly looked up in awe.

If Daphne noticed she didn’t say anything, she just opened the door and led Lilly inside. There were books stacked from the floor to the ceiling and in the centre of the room there was a circular desk.

“Ah Mademoiselle Greengrass! Ca fait tellement longtemps! Êtes-vous ici pour recueillir votre robe de mariée?”

Daphne’s eyes widened, “Non monsieur Vergne. C'est une surprise, mon ami ne le sait pas.”

“Mes excuses mademoiselle, est-ce que votre ami parle français?”

Daphne looked over at Lilly who looked very confused, “Lil, don’t you speak French?”

Lilly shook her head, “I tried to learn a little but you speak so fast, it’s hard to understand anything. I had no idea that you were fluent in French.”

“I spent a large chunk of my childhood in France,” Daphne admitted, she didn’t want to tell Lilly why. Not many people did know that she, her sister and her Mother had spent some time in France because they had been so afraid of their home after her Father had set it alight.

“This is Monsieur Vergne, he guards the entrance to the wizarding quarter here. Sort of like Tom the Innkeeper is supposed to guard Diagon Alley. Only Monsieur Vergne isn’t a drunkard, he’s a very well-educated man. He just doesn’t speak any English.”

“Right.”

Daphne turned back to the guardian, “Une évasion chanceuse. Mon ami ne parle pas français. Je l'ai amenée ici parce qu'elle n'a jamais vu le quartier des sorciers même si elle vit à Amiens.”

“Ah! Alors bonne journée. C'était agréable de vous revoir.”

Daphne smiled broadly, “Vous aussi, Monsieur Vergne.”

He took a step back and one of the bookcases behind him slid aside to reveal a stone spiral staircase. Daphne waved to Monsieur Vergne and pulled Lilly onto the staircase, it only led downwards.

“What were you two saying?”

“I was just asking after his wife and telling him that you have never been here,” Daphne said with a wave of her hand, “The usual stuff.”

Lilly wasn’t completely convinced that Daphne was telling the truth but she dropped the subject because she was in awe from the moment that she stepped out into the wizarding quarter of France.

She was reminded of the first time she had set foot in Diagon Alley. It had been like going back in time and seeing a little piece of history, and entering the Parisian wizarding quarter was no different. The narrow street was full of life and it looked like it hadn’t changed since the renaissance. The white brick buildings stood high and proud, with their feature window frames and traditional slate roofs. Every shop front had a covered stone porch with impressive archways opening it up to the street. The shop signs were all bright and colourful, each one with the shop title in pretty italicised writing.

“Wow,” Lilly whispered.

Daphne smiled at her friend, “That was what I said when I first saw it too. I think this is probably my favourite place in Europe Lil. Let me show you some of the best bits.”

She pulled Lilly along the cobbled street and pointed out certain buildings like the very grand looking post office and the bank which was more impressive than even Gringotts. Lilly found herself standing in front of the huge black and gold structure, staring up in awe.

“I always wanted to work there you know,” Daphne said conversationally, “When I decided that I was going to be a Curse Breaker I had my heart set on that bank, it’s called Banque Parisienne.”

“What made you change your mind?” Lilly asked.

“Harry,” Daphne answered honestly, “I met Harry and I wasn’t so sure that I wanted to spend my training years in France when he would be in England. Then Teddy came into our lives and I knew I couldn’t go that far afield.”

Lilly frowned, “Don’t you regret that? Or do you worry you’re going to resent Harry and Teddy for it later?”

Daphne shook her head, “For a start, I could never resent Teddy for anything. As for regretting it? Harry and Teddy are my family, I could never regret choosing them over some swanky French bank. Then there’s Bill, he’s becoming one of my best friends and he’s an incredible mentor so no, I don’t regret anything.”

Lilly’s frown deepened as Daphne dragged her into some sort of café.

“Lilly, I know you don’t want to get married or have kids because you think you will regret it,” Daphne said, “But not everybody feels that way. I’m happy with what I have, I love my job and I love my family. It isn’t all about ambition or career for me, I know other people don’t feel that way. Look at Hermione, she wants to get further in her career before she even marries Draco, let alone has kids.”

“So what you are saying is, it’s okay to not want any of that yet?”

Daphne nodded, “It’s totally okay not to want that yet. But before you do marry Neville, if that’s what you want to do, you need to work out if you are ever going to want kids. A good friend once told me that every couple should have that chat before getting married because you can love someone but what you want out of life might not be the same as what they want.”

“Right,” Lilly said with a nod.

“So do you know what you want yet?” Daphne asked curiously.

Lilly sighed and shook her head, “No.”

Daphne smiled encouragingly at her friend, “I think you want an ice cream and they happen to make the best ice cream in France in this little café. Then I think you need retail therapy so I’m going to take you to my _favourite _robe and dress maker in the entire world, let alone France. Then we’ll go to an even more impressive bookshop than the one you saw on the way in, it’s the oldest wizarding bookshop this side of Europe.”

Lilly’s eyes lit up and her worries seemed to be forgotten, “That sounds amazing, thanks Daphne!”

***

“Good evening Harry.”

Harry smiled but said nothing on account of the sleeping child in his arms. He nudged his head in the direction of the stairs and Andromeda nodded. He snuck upstairs and lay Teddy down in his cot gently then slipped out of the room.

“I don’t know what you do with that boy but whatever it is, tires him out,” Andromeda said with a fond smile, “Every Sunday night he sleeps more sound than ever.”

Harry chuckled, “I think we have the Weasleys to thank for that, they keep him busy. Today it was playing dragons with Charlie.”

Andromeda laughed, “Are you staying for a spot of tea and supper?”

“I would love to,” Harry admitted, “It’s better than going home to an empty house.”

“When is Daphne coming home?” Andromeda asked conversationally as they slipped into the parlour.

“Good evening Narcissa.”

Narcissa smiled at the young man, “Good evening Harry.”

Having acknowledged Narcissa, Harry turned back to Andromeda, “She’s getting back later tonight but I expect I’ll be asleep by the time she gets home.”

“All the same, I am sure she has had a lovely weekend in Paris,” Andromeda said.

“Oh she will have done,” Narcissa agreed, “Paris is like a home away from home for Daphne.”

Harry frowned, “Daphne lived in Paris?”

“Of course,” Narcissa said, “For a good while too, how many years was it Dromeda?”

“3 or 4,” Andromeda replied, “I would have thought Daphne might have mentioned it to you Harry. Her Mother bought a chalet just outside Paris after that dreadful house fire, they spent the best part of the year there and only came back here for holidays.”

“Did her Father live out there too?” Harry asked curiously.

“No, no. They went there to escape him, he visited of course and the girls no doubt dreaded those visits,” Narcissa said with a sad sigh, “But they lived in Paris until Daphne got her Hogwarts letter. Lareina really considered sending her to Beauxbatons but after a tour of the school, Daphne decided that she would rather go to Hogwarts.”

Harry felt a sting of betrayal, a sharp sting. This was a huge part of Daphne’s life but she hadn’t told him about it. He knew the fire had happened when she was 7 and if she had lived in Paris until her Hogwarts letter came, that meant she must have spent between 3 and 4 years there.

“She still loves it,” Narcissa said, “The wizarding quarter in particular. The last time I checked, she knew all of the guardians by name.”

“How do you know so much about her time there?” Harry asked, he tried to keep his tone neutral.

“Oh Draco and I used to visit,” Narcissa said, “When we needed a break from Lucius, we would go and spend a few weeks at the chalet. Daphne and Draco used to love exploring together, poor Astoria always wanted to tag along but they never really wanted her there.”

“I guess Draco really was her childhood sweetheart,” Harry said emotionlessly.

“Oh yes,” Narcissa mused, “They were so close back then…”

Harry swallowed as he remembered something Hermione had said to him. They had been standing at the lake on one of those last mornings at Hogwarts before graduation. They had gone there to eat toast and throw it to the giant squid, just for old times sake and they had got to talking about their earlier years at school. Hermione had sighed nostalgically and said almost the exact same words, _“We were so close back then…”_

“Harry?”

Harry pulled himself out of his daze to look at Andromeda. She pushed a cup of tea into his hands and said, “Did you hear what I just said?”

“No sorry, I was dreaming,” Harry said stiffly.

“I just said that my solicitor floo-ed this morning to tell me that the paperwork for the adoption has all been finalised. You can go ahead with it whenever you want to,” Andromeda explained.

Harry couldn’t really think about adoption now, not after discovering that Daphne had kept such a huge part of her life from him. He nodded and tried to keep calm, “Do you mind if we give ourselves a little longer to talk it over? I want to be sure that it’s the right decision.”

Andromeda shook her head and smiled, “Of course not, I completely understand.”

**TBC.**


	105. Family is Family

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter title comes from the song:  
Family is Family by Kacey Musgraves

“Hey! How was your weekend with Teddy?”

Harry shot Daphne a dirty look, “Brilliant. How was your weekend back in your second home?”

Daphne frowned, “Who told you?”

“Narcissa and Andromeda,” Harry said, he had yet to make eye contact with her.

“Harry, let me explain-”

“Explain what?” Harry snapped, “Explain why you neglected to tell me about 4 years of your life? 4 bloody years Daphne!”

He gripped the counter so tightly that his knuckles went white. He had been working on controlling his temper ever since he became an Auror but it didn’t come easily to him.

“Harry-”

“You spent 4 years in France, gallivanting around with Draco. Your Mothers probably drank wine and talked about how you were going to get married one day, like that fucking contract said you would,” Harry said in a quiet, angry voice, “And you didn’t tell me about a single part of it. You didn’t even mention that you had lived in another country, that you had nearly gone to Beauxbatons!”

Daphne sighed quietly behind him but Harry didn’t turn around to look at her.

“So it begs the question, what the hell happened in France that needs to be kept such a big secret?”

“There is a big secret,” Daphne admitted, “But it isn’t mine to tell which is why I haven’t mentioned it. I was going to have to tell you before the wedding but I was putting it off because my Mother doesn’t want you to know.”

Harry still didn’t turn around, “And you couldn’t have mentioned in conversation that you had lived in France? You couldn’t have told me the basics without telling me the secret?”

“I could have,” Daphne whispered, “But I…there was just a part of me that wanted to keep those memories to myself because those years were the only happy years of my childhood.”

Harry spun around to look at her, “The happiest days of my childhood were my days at the Burrow and I couldn’t wait to bring you into that. I couldn’t wait to take you round there for Sunday dinners and introduce you to all of the Weasley’s.”

“I know,” Daphne said, she kept her gaze down, “But I’m not like you Harry. My few good memories are precious and there was a part of me that wanted to keep them that way. I was worried if I told you about them that you would want to go there and see the places I talked about. I was worried that might ruin the perfect image of those places that I’ve had in my head for the past 10 years.”

Harry shook his head irritably, “What’s the secret?”

“You’re late for work.”

“I don’t care,” Harry said shortly, “What’s the secret? Is it about you and Draco?”

“No, but if I am being completely honest with you at the moment, it was during that time that the marriage contract was written up,” Daphne said, “While we were in France, our Mothers saw a connection and asked our Fathers to write the contract.”

“So he was your first love then,” Harry said bitterly.

“You know that he was,” Daphne said shortly, “Maybe we haven’t talked about it in as much detail as your whole thing with Hermione but-”

“- Well then maybe we should,” Harry interrupted.

Daphne glared at him, “What do you want me to say? That I knew Draco my whole life and that I knew I was supposed to marry him one day from the age of 8?”

“So why didn’t you?” Harry asked angrily.

“Because when he took the dark mark, I had to put a stop to things,” Daphne said firmly, “I loved Draco and yes, I thought I was going to marry him one day. I was okay with that until he became a Death Eater and I’m sorry Harry, but it doesn’t matter how much you love someone there are some things that you just can’t see past and seeing the boy that I loved murder a muggle to become a dark lords bitch is one of them!”

Harry glanced down awkwardly, “I’m sorry.”

“And I’m sorry that I didn’t tell you about France, I really am,” Daphne continued, “But trust me, the reason that I didn’t tell you has nothing to do with Draco.”

“Then why?” Harry asked, he looked up and caught her eye, “What was such a terrible secret that you kept this from me?”

“When we were in France, my Uncle Phineas basically lived with us,” Daphne said without looking at him, “He was my Mothers lover, despite what my Father had done to us because of her betrayal, she still couldn’t let him go. My Mother…she made me swear not to tell anyone and she drummed it in so much that even now, it isn’t something I’m comfortable talking about.”

Harry frowned, “I thought your Mother vowed to stay loyal to your Father after the fire?”

“She did,” Daphne said quietly, “But she lied. She was in love with my Uncle, she just couldn’t let him go. When we lived in the chalet in France, my Uncle Phineas worked in Luxembourg and he was there every weekend, sometimes through the week too. That was how I found out the truth about…”

“What?” Harry asked, his tone was far less harsh now, “What is so bad Daphne?”

“My sister,” Daphne said, she cleared her throat, “That was how I found out that Astoria is only my half-sister.”

Harry’s eyes widened, “You mean…”

Daphne nodded, “My Uncle Phineas is actually her Father. Astoria doesn’t know and I don’t want her to find out, ever. That was why I kept the whole thing a secret, it was all a big complicated mess. I knew I couldn’t start telling you about it without telling you the whole story.”

Harry nodded slowly, “I understand that now but…”

“It’s a big shock, I know,” Daphne said, “I had years to come to terms with it and it took me a long time. The thing is…it’s all going to resurface soon because I need to get my Uncle Phineas to okay my inheritance before the wedding. When I find him, he’s probably going to want an invite to the wedding then my Mother will let herself fall for him all over again and now Astoria is older-”

“- She might work it out,” Harry finished with a nod, “I get it, that’s obviously been praying on your mind but you should have just spoken to me about it.”

“Coming from the master of bottling things up and then exploding?” Daphne asked with a raised eyebrow.

Harry grimaced, “That’s a fair comment.”

“You’re really late for work,” Daphne pointed out.

“I know,” Harry slung his bag over his shoulder, “But we are going to continue this conversation tonight. I want to hear about those missing 4 years.”

“Okay,” Daphne promised.

***

“RECRUIT POTTER! WHAT TIME DO YOU CALL THIS?”

Harry grimaced, he had been trying to sneak into the showers in the hope that Sheppard hadn’t noticed that he wasn’t there.

“Uh, I’m sorry Sir. It was just…I…well…”

“Spit it out Potter,” Sheppard barked.

“I got in an argument with my fiancé,” Harry muttered under his breath.

Sheppard laughed and hit Harry on the back, “Did you hear that Recruits? Potter is 40 minutes late because he got into an argument with his fiancé. Poor little Potter! How do you think we should punish him for that?”

“Laps!”

“Laps!” Sheppard agreed loudly, “Potter, run around that pitch 40 times, once for every minute that you were late! You have 20 minutes, move your arse!”

Harry made a mental note never to fight with Daphne in the morning again.

***

“I’m home!” Harry called when he stepped into the entrance hall.

“I’m in the kitchen!”

Harry kicked off his shoes and stepped into the kitchen where Daphne looked like she had been slaving away. She had her hair pulled back into a bun and her perfectly put on face wasn’t quite as perfect as normal.

“What have you been cooking?”

“Bouillabaisse.”

“Bless you.”

Daphne shot Harry an exasperated look and waved her wand. The food instantly began to pour itself into bowls, “It was the first meal that I learned how to cook. My Mother taught me when we lived in Paris, we used to have this every Friday night.”

“Ah, I see what you’re doing,” Harry said with a slight smile, “Opening up, sharing your experiences. You feel bad for not telling me, don’t you?”

“Of course I do, you idiot,” Daphne said shortly, “Now would you sit down and eat please?”

Harry sat down and looked at the food in front of him, “And what am I eating exactly?”

“I told you-”

“Yeah, that French word you said,” Harry said with a wave of his hand, “I still have no idea what this is though.”

“It’s a stew with lots of different fish in it,” Daphne explained, “This one has red rascasse, European hake and turbot. There’s also shellfish, mussels and octopus. It’s an old French recipe, fishermen used to make it from the scraps they couldn’t sell on.”

Harry wasn’t overly keen on seafood but he didn’t want to disappoint his fiancé, especially after all the effort she had gone to. So he nervously tasted the dish and was pleasantly surprised.

“Wow, this is amazing!”

Daphne smiled, “Really? I haven’t made it in years. In fact, I don’t think I’ve ever made it without my Mother hovering behind me.”

“Well trust me, this is delicious,” Harry said, he smiled up at her, “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome,” Daphne said as she tested the stew herself, “Mm, it is good but not as good as my Mothers.”

“You shouldn’t expect it to be,” Harry pointed out, “She’s been making it for years and this was your first time doing it on your own.”

“True,” Daphne said, she looked into the depths of the bowl, “We used to eat a lot of French food when we lived in Paris. I enjoyed most of it but the frogs legs were pretty horrific, I don’t think people should eat something that is also a potions ingredient.”

Harry laughed, “Did you like it though?”

“What, France?”

He nodded.

Daphne thought about it for a moment, “I loved it in some ways but not in others. The chalet was beautiful…I’m sure my Mother would love to take you on holiday there sometime. It’s not a traditional chalet like the ones you would find in the Alps. It’s just this beautiful three-story building with this huge balcony on the second floor where all of the bedrooms are. It’s right on the banks of the Seine and it is just the most beautiful place…”

Harry watched as a smile slipped onto her face while she remembered.

“The family business has completely gone to shit,” Daphne continued, “But my Uncle Phineas still hasn’t sold that house. He hasn’t hassled my Mother once about it which goes to show how he feels about our time there.”

“Was it weird? Him being your Uncle and your Mother’s lover?”

“Sometimes,” Daphne admitted, “But most of the time it was just nice. He did the things a Father should have done but that my Father didn’t. He worked away a lot because he was the business developer for the shipping company and every time he came home, he would bring Astoria and I a present. Astoria always got a better present obviously because she was his daughter and I was just his niece but it was still more than my Father did for me. He and my Mother would take us out on the weekends when he was free, my Uncle Phineas came up the Eiffel Tower with me while my Mother waited with Astoria because she was scared of heights.”

“So in a lot of ways, he was the Father you always wanted,” Harry realised.

“Like you will be to Teddy, I hope,” Daphne said with a nod, “I think you would like him, you know? My Uncle Phineas…he’s a nice man, just a little…misguided I guess.”

“Why don’t you see him anymore?”

“When I went to Hogwarts, we had to move home,” Daphne said, she glanced down at her food, “And when we moved home, the affair had to stop because my Mother knew that my Father would kill her if he found out.”

“That doesn’t make it your fault,” Harry said, he could see the direction she was going with that one.

“My Mother thought it was for a long time,” Daphne admitted, “That was why I didn’t have a great relationship with her when you and I met. She wanted me to go to Beauxbatons so badly, she even took me up for a tour of the school. When I told her I wanted to go to Hogwarts, she was devastated.”

“Why did you decide to go to Hogwarts?” Harry asked curiously, “Don’t get me wrong, I’m so glad you did because otherwise I would never have met you. But it sounds like you loved France so why didn’t you want to go to Beauxbatons?”

“Honestly, I was scared,” Daphne said, she looked up and caught his eye, “I had been in France since I was 7. I had missed birthday parties and I missed my friends, I didn’t want to be the one English kid in a French school. I wanted to go to school with Sadie and Draco and Susan, the kids that I had grown up with. You know?”

Harry nodded and smiled at her, “I do get it, but I actually did the complete opposite. I got on a train and I knew no one. I left everything that I did know for Hogwarts and I came out with everything that I could ever have wanted.”

Daphne smiled, “And I came out of Hogwarts with everything that I had ever wanted too so we both made the right choice.”

“Yeah, it’s funny to think how different things would have been if we had made that one decision differently,” Harry mused, “Oh, and I almost forgot. While you were in Paris, the adoption papers were finalised. We can adopt Teddy whenever we like.”

Daphne’s eyes widened, “Wow.”

“Yeah,” Harry grimaced, “That kind of terrified surprise was my first reaction too. It got me thinking, are we really ready for how much this is going to change our lives?”

“Harry-”

“I know we love Teddy more than anything, but this is scary Daphne,” Harry cut in, “It’s going to change everything, especially the way our relationship works.”

“Stop,” Daphne said sharply, “I know that it’s scary but I’m not going to let you pull out of this just because you’re scared. I understand where you’re coming from so why don’t we try a dry run?”

“A what?”

“A trial,” Daphne answered, “We can talk to Andromeda about it. Teddy can come and stay here for a week. He can stay here while we work and go about our lives and we’ll see how it works out.”

Harry nodded slowly, “I love you.”

“I know.”

“You’re a genius.”

“I know.”

Harry beamed and kissed her, “We’ll suggest it to Andy at the weekend.”

***

“Morning Bill.”

“Don’t bother sitting down, we’re heading straight out,” Bill said the moment Daphne walked into the office, “One latte to go, I need your brain in gear.”

Daphne frowned as she accepted the coffee, “What’s happened?”

“We have a case,” Bill said, he locked the office door with a wave of his hand, “Welcome to your first blood magic curse case.”

Daphne’s eyes widened, “Blood magic? That’s dark.”

“I’ve seen darker,” Bill promised, “But generally speaking yes, when blood magic is used to create a curse, it is normally pretty bad.”

“Has anyone died?” Daphne asked.

“No, it doesn’t seem to be that kind of curse,” Bill replied, “We were contacted by a man who claimed his home had been experiencing paranormal activity after he acquired a painting. I did a little bit of research into that painting and discovered that the artist committed suicide, but before he took his life he mixed his own blood with the oil paint that he used for the painting.”

“Right,” Daphne said slowly, “Hence where the blood magic comes in, but what’s going on in this house then?”

“The usual stuff muggles associate with ghosts,” Bill said offhandedly, “Doors opening in the middle of the night, blood curdling screams etc. The weird thing is that every member of the family has had nightmares every night since the painting was acquired.”

Daphne hummed thoughtfully, “And a poltergeist has been ruled out?”

“Yep, the Spirit Division sent a couple of people over last week,” Bill replied, “Their report came back clear.”

“Which leaves the painting as the only recurring factor in all of this,” Daphne realised, “Hence, it must be cursed.”

“Exactly,” Bill agreed. He told Daphne the co-ordinates and they apparated to Cumbria to see what all of the fuss was about.

When they stopped spinning, they found themselves at the end of a long gravel path leading up to a rather nice house.

“So,” Bill said conversationally, “Now that I’ve briefed you, are you going to tell me what’s up?”

“It’s nothing really,” Daphne promised, “I just kept some things from Harry that I really shouldn’t have and we argued about it. I had to tell him all about the time I spent in France in the end and about Astoria’s true parentage, I don’t know why I didn’t tell him in the first place to be honest.”

“If I know Harry, which I think I do, I’m guessing he was fine about it in the end.”

Daphne nodded, “He normally is once he’s cooled down and we’ve talked it over. We talked about Teddy again too because the adoption papers are finalised now.”

Bill glanced over at her, “Which one of you backed out?”

“Neither of us, although Harry was freaking out a lot,” Daphne admitted, “If Andromeda agrees, we’re going to do a trial run. I just thought you should know in case I show up knackered at some point next week.”

Bill laughed, “Noted. Hey, talking about France and stuff, Fleur wants to get to know you better so she asked me to invite you over to Shell Cottage. You guys can stay for the weekend, you can sleep in the doghouse.”

Daphne snorted, “No thanks Bill, I don’t fancy sleeping in your kennel.”

Bill shot her an amused look, “It isn’t a kennel. It’s a summerhouse with a sign on it saying “The Doghouse”. Fleur thought it was an appropriate name for it since I go there when I get angry during the full moon.”

“Right,” Daphne chuckled, “Well assuming Harry is okay with it, sure.”

“You can bring Teddy too, if you happen to have him that weekend,” Bill added.

She nodded, “I don’t envision Harry having a massive problem with it,” Daphne admitted as she raised her hand and knocked on the door.

***

“Teddy! Honey, you need to come in for your bath!”

Daphne was standing by the patio doors watching Teddy on the playset in the back garden. They weren’t supposed to have him tonight but Andromeda had been taken ill and Narcissa was with her at the hospital. Harry had no idea that Teddy was here because he was staying late to revise for his first Disguise test.

Teddy shook his head at her from the top of the slide.

“I know you want to play honey, but it’s bath time,” Daphne said again.

Teddy slid down the slide and ran over to Daphne, he wrapped his arms around her legs and looked up at her with puppy dog eyes, “One more slide Mumma.”

Daphne’s eyes widened and simultaneously welled up. She had heard him call Harry “Dada” several times but Teddy had never referred to her as anything other than Daphne.

“Alright, one more slide,” Daphne said softly.

The little boy ran back to the playset and a familiar voice said, “You are a natural, my love.”

Daphne jumped and spun around, “Mother! How did you get in here?”

“The house elf let me in,” Lareina Greengrass said, “I am your Mother after all, even if you only visit me twice a year.”

Daphne sighed and turned away from her Mother so that she could keep an eye on Teddy, “You know why that is Mother.”

“I know we have a troubled relationship Daphne, but you could have told me that you were planning to get married in December,” Lareina said, “I had to hear it from your sister and even she did not mean to tell me.”

Daphne resisted the urge to roll her eyes, “You will be invited but barely anyone knows so don’t take it personally.”

“Daphne, please do not get tetchy with me,” Lareina said, she sounded tired, “I did not come here for an argument.”

“Then why did you come here?” Daphne asked, “Because yes, I don’t visit you but you don’t visit me either.”

Lareina sighed, “I would visit every Sunday if I felt that you wanted me here Daphne but you have your own life and your own family.”

Daphne swallowed hard and asked, “Why are you here, Mother?”

“I only came to inform you that the house is to be sold.”

“What?”

“The house,” Lareina repeated, “I doubted that you would be sad about that, I know how much you hate that place.”

Daphne frowned and turned to look at her Mother, “Why are you selling it?”

Lareina swallowed visibly and looked away from Daphne, “Your Uncle Phineas and I recently got back in contact and-”

Daphne scoffed and shook her head, “Of course. It had nothing to do with you making a decision of your own volition.”

“Daphne, please,” Lareina said desperately, “Let me finish. Phineas thinks he can save the business but he needs more funding and I do not need that house. I hate it as much as you do, if not more. I will use some money from the sale to buy Astoria a flat and I may well move to the chalet in France, but I have no qualms about selling the house.”

“I don’t care that you’re selling the house,” Daphne said quietly, “I care that you’re back in contact with him.”

“Daphne, Phineas was always good to you-”

“Mother, if you have said what you came here to say then please leave,” Daphne said stiffly, “I need to get Teddy in the bath and ready for bed.”

Lareina sighed again, in that same tired way. She wanted to stay but she respected her daughters wishes so she left without another word.

***

“Be quiet when you go upstairs, Teddy’s asleep.”

Harry frowned as he shut the door behind himself, “Teddy’s here?”

“Andromeda isn’t well,” Daphne said without looking up from her book, “Narcissa took her into St. Mungo’s and they suspect that it’s a case of dragonpox. She never had it as a child so she doesn’t have the immunity.”

“Is she going to be okay?” Harry asked anxiously.

Daphne nodded, “Narcissa floo-ed and said she’s responding well to the potions so yes, she should be okay after a few days in hospital.”

Harry sat down next to her on the sofa, “If Andromeda is going to be okay, what has you so worried?”

Daphne sighed and replied, “I had to change the wards on the house today.”

“Why?” Harry asked sharply, his first thought was to panic that Fawley had come for his revenge.

“Because my Mother showed up and the elves just let her in,” Daphne replied.

Harry frowned, “I didn’t put her on the list of people that the wards and elves shouldn’t let in so that’s my fault, not the elves. I thought you would want her to be able to visit.”

Daphne swallowed, “I may act civil with my Mother for appearances but that is all that it is, Harry. There is nothing more to that relationship, especially now that my Uncle Phineas has her back in his grasp.”

Harry was in his usual clueless way, completely confused, “I thought you said you liked your Uncle, that he was like a Father to you?”

“When I was young, he was,” Daphne agreed, “But then I went to Hogwarts and ruined their whole epic love story and he never let me forget that. Now that he has my Mother back, it’s only a matter of time until my sister finds out the truth.”

Harry sighed and wrapped his arm around her, “Don’t panic Daphne, we’ll make sure that never happens. I promise you.”

Daphne didn’t look convinced, but she leaned into his embrace all the same.

GGG,

“I hate this stupid painting.”

“So do I, but you hate it because you aren’t properly engaged today.”

Daphne glared at Bill, “I told you, I’m fine.”

Bill raised an eyebrow at her, “You did tell me you were fine, but I still don’t believe you. Don’t get me wrong, this is the toughest curse we’ve faced together and the added element of blood magic really isn’t helping. But you definitely aren’t at your best today, Daphne.”

“I just hate this painting and I can’t stand my Mother and her stupid lover and that goddamn house,” Daphne said through gritted teeth, at the end of her sentence the piece of chalk that she was holding snapped in half, “Ugh!”

“Daphne, I’m calling a coffee break. You need to tell me what the hell is going on before you get too angry at that curse and get us both killed,” Bill said. He had lost his usual jesting tone and looked more solemn than Daphne had ever seen him.

Daphne knew that she couldn’t argue this time. She just nodded and looked down at her hands, “My Mother is selling our house because her lover, who is my Uncle, needs the money to try and save the family business. I don’t know why I’m upset about the house, I hated that house, I mean my Father tried to kill me in that bloody house! But for some reason that I can’t explain, I’m upset that she’s selling it. And I’m annoyed that she’s talking to my Uncle again because she’s just going to fall in love with him all over again and if that happens, Astoria is going to find out the truth and she can’t handle that Bill, she just can’t.”

Bill nodded calmly, “Daphne, I understand why you are upset about the house. The Burrow is by all accounts and purposes a shithole but I’d be sad if my parents moved away because of all the little things in that house like the markings on the kitchen door with all of our names, showing how much we grew every year. Like the posters that Char and me attached with permanent sticking charms to our bedroom walls, those little things make a home and even if you hated that house, there must have been little things that you loved.”

“The room at the top of the tower,” Daphne said quietly, “Astoria and I’s escape from our screwed up family.”

Bill nodded again, “It’s okay to feel upset about it and as for your sister, maybe she’s stronger than you know. We view our younger siblings as children who need protecting but at some point they grow up and they don’t need us to protect them anymore. You can’t protect Astoria from the truth forever.”

“I know,” Daphne said, she had her eyes shut tight as she felt a headache begin to come on.

“Do you want to take a half day?”

Daphne shook her head, “I’ll have a walk outside and get my head back in gear.”

“Alright,” Bill conceded, “When you come back, be ready because I think I’m pretty close to cracking this thing.”

***

“Miss Greengrass?”

“Yes, Kreacher?”

“Your Mother be at the door. Master says she not come in if you not say so.”

Daphne sighed, at least this time Teddy was in bed, “What does she want Kreacher?”

“She says she has box of things for you,” Kreacher replied.

Daphne had a feeling that she might regret it, but she said, “Let her in.”

Kreacher disappeared with a crack and Daphne heard the door open. Kreacher led her Mother into the kitchen then disappeared once more.

“You had your fiancé change the wards,” Lareina stated.

“No, I changed the wards,” Daphne corrected her, “Even if we are not married yet, I have as much power over this house as Harry does. This is a modern world that we live in Mother, I assume that is why I will not be receiving any of the money from the house.”

Lareina sighed, “You are set up for life Daphne. When you marry you will get your inheritance and you will become the wife to Lord Potter. You will not want for money or status, it is the life that I always wanted for you.”

Daphne scoffed, “I’m not marrying Harry because I want to be set up for life. I don’t care that he’s going to become Lord Potter and I very much doubt that he does either. Yes, he wants the power to be able to push reforms through the Wizengamot but he doesn’t care about status, neither of us do. I am marrying Harry because I love him Mother, I know that concept might be difficult for you to understand-”

“No!” Lareina snapped.

Daphne actually jumped because she could count on one hand the amount of times she had heard her Mother raise her voice and none of those times, had it been against her.

“I understand that concept perfectly Daphne! I would have married for love if I had been able, I would have married Phineas but instead I was married off to his older brother. The brother who had access to the family vault and who was Lord Greengrass. When I said that you had the life that I wished for you, I meant that I was happy that you were free to marry for love. The fact that man happens to have money and status is an added bonus for you, that was all that I was trying to say.”

Daphne wasn’t quite sure how to respond to that, she certainly couldn’t look her Mother in the eye though. With a loud thump, she deposited the box in her arms on the table, “I only came to bring you this. I found it in your Fathers study while I was clearing out the house and it was labelled, “For Daphne”. You are welcome to come and clear out your own bedroom but I shall not be coming to this house again without your explicit invitation.”

“Mother-” Daphne began to say, but it was too late. Her Mother had already spun around on heel. Daphne sighed and listened to her stalk out of the house and slam the front door behind her. She had argued with her Mother many times but this time she had hit a nerve and she wasn’t sure if that damage was going to be reparable.

**TBC.**


	106. Birthdays and Boxes

“Happy Birthday Hermione.”

Hermione smiled and opened her eyes, “You don’t have to wake me up with a foot massage just because it’s my birthday.”

Draco smirked at her, “That isn’t me. That’s your birthday present.”

Hermione jumped up in surprise and an undignified meow answered her. Her eyes widened as she looked to the foot of the bed where an adorable black kitten was watching her.

“Oh my gosh! A kitten! You got me a kitten!”

Draco smiled, “She doesn’t have a name yet but she’s not an ordinary muggle cat. She’s a witch’s familiar so she will be able to understand what you say and she’s far more intelligent than your average cat.”

“Like Crookshanks,” Hermione said softly.

“But less ugly.”

“Draco!”

Draco was still smiling, despite being told off, “Do you like her?”

“I love her!” Hermione said. She picked the kitten up and it meowed contently, “I just need to come up with an appropriate name for her before I introduce her to everyone at my party tonight…”

***

“Try and cheer up, it’s a birthday party,” Harry whispered to Daphne as they walked through the park towards Grimmauld Place.

“I know,” Daphne said, “I just don’t know how to feel at the moment with everything going on.”

“You should open the box,” Harry said, “It might give you some closure.”

“Or it might not,” Daphne combatted.

“You should also apologise to your Mother, that would definitely give you some closure,” Harry added.

Daphne glared at him, “What are you, my therapist?”

“I’m just telling you the harsh truths that you don’t want to hear,” Harry said honestly as they reached the door of 12 Grimmauld Place.

“Well if you want me to put on a smiley face for Hermione’s birthday, then don’t,” Daphne muttered under her breath as she knocked on the door.

“Alright,” Harry promised when the door swung open of its own accord. The couple made their way inside and headed up to the drawing room.

“Guys! Look what Draco got me for my birthday?”

Daphne smiled when she saw Hermione holding her little black kitten, “I’m more of a dog person myself but she is adorable. Has she got a name yet?”

Hermione nodded eagerly, “Octavia.”

Harry snorted.

Hermione glared at him, “What was _that _for?”

“I just think it’s amusing that you named your cat Octavia after spending your whole life complaining about_ your_ Shakespearean name,” Harry pointed out.

“Theo said the same thing,” Draco informed him.

Harry glanced around the room, he saw Sadie but not Theo, “And where is Theo?”

“Exactly,” Draco said.

Harry swallowed and looked at Hermione, “I mean it’s a nice name though and the cat is cute.”

“Harry,” Hermione said irritably.

“And I helped Draco by telling him that you liked black cats so please don’t do to me whatever you did to Theo,” Harry added.

“Harry James Potter,” Daphne tutted, “Here was me thinking that you were scared of nothing. I mean I even told Bill Weasley that he was a pussy compared to you. Yet here you are, scared of your best friend.”

“With good reason,” Draco pointed out, “She’s scary when you get on the wrong side of her.”

Hermione smirked, “I know I am, but I’m not going to curse you Harry.”

Sadie chuckled, “Theo is downstairs getting drinks.”

“You just got punk’d,” Lilly grinned.

Harry looked at her blankly, “What?”

“Yeah, I don’t get it either,” Neville shrugged, “Anyway, since you guys are the last to the party _again_, what’s your excuse this time?”

“We were arguing about a box,” Harry said, he clapped Neville on the shoulder, “Very long and complicated story which nobody wants to hear. What everyone does want to do is sing Happy Birthday to Hermione and embarrass the hell out of her!”

“Harry!” Hermione groaned.

Harry just grinned at his best friend and began, “Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you…”

***

Harry had to work on Saturday morning, it didn’t happen often but sometimes the Auror trainees were asked to come in to do extra training. Normally, it irritated Daphne because it messed with their weekend plans with Teddy. However, this weekend Teddy was staying with Andromeda who had been released from hospital on Friday morning.

As it was, Daphne found herself alone on Saturday morning and as she sat in the living room, the box that her Mother had brought to the house preyed on her mind. She had hidden it away in her study after deciding that she wasn’t going to open it but ever since, she couldn’t stop thinking about what might be inside.

“Fine Father,” Daphne eventually muttered to herself as she got to her feet, “You win.”

She slipped into her study, shut the door behind her and opened the box. She didn’t know what she was expecting to find inside, but she flinched when she opened it. Maybe it was because of her job or maybe it was because of the way she had perceived her Father, but she had assumed that whatever was in the box wasn’t anything good.

So when Daphne realised that the box contained letters, photographs and documents, she was very confused. For some inexplicable reason, her hands shook as she reached into the box and pulled out a bundle of photographs.

Every single one was of her. There were baby pictures and photographs of her Father with her as a toddler. He looked happy in all of them, she almost didn’t recognise him as the man she had grown up calling Father. Daphne felt a lump rise in her throat as she looked at photographs of a happier time that she couldn’t recall. She realised that the photographs came to a stop a year or so after Astoria was born, the moment when her Father had learned of her Mothers betrayal.

For a moment she allowed herself to believe that it was that betrayal that had turned her Father into the cold, bitter man that she had known. But before the thought began to take hold, she shrugged it away. Her Mother wouldn’t have lied to her about that.

Daphne swallowed and pulled out the next item that came to hand. It was the first draft of her marriage contract to Draco, and pinned to the front of it was a piece of parchment. There were a few notes written on it in her Fathers neat writing.

_“Daphne, a beautiful girl with a beautiful name. What does the name Daphne mean? Well, everyone knows that it has Greek origins, but it actually means laurel tree, or bay tree. In Greek mythology, Daphne was a nymph who was saved from an over-amorous Apollo by her Father, the river God. As the Father of this Daphne, I am certainly no river God but I am protective. Daphne is my only daughter and she is strong, intelligent and has the sharpest wit. The man who marries her is going to be a very lucky man, but he had better keep his eyes open because I will warn him, I have taught her some wicked home-made curses over the years._

_I hope when I give this speech, my daughter will be a Malfoy, because I trust Draco to look after my Daphne. But I cannot will Daphne to love someone if she does not feel it in her heart. In that way, she is entirely her Mother’s daughter. I just hope that whoever she marries is a man worthy of her, when I finally get around to giving this speech I will be able to judge that.”_

Daphne wiped away the tears that had stung at her eyes. The Father that she had felt did not care a jot about her, had started to write his Father of the Bride speech when he had written up her marriage contract. More than that, he had basically stated that he didn’t care who she married as long as that person was worthy of her. None of that sounded like the man she had known.

She searched more frantically in the box, for more clues as to who this man had been and how he had become the embittered Father that she had known. In the bottom of the box there was a bundle of letters, dated from the oldest to the newest. Daphne opened them and realised that they were letters that her Father had sent to his cousin, Alfred Nott.

_May, 1997._

_My dear Alfie,_

_I regret many of the decisions that I have made in my life. I often wish I had allowed Lareina to marry for love rather than forced her into the contract our parents had arranged. Then again, if Lareina and I had never married, my darling Daphne would not have come to exist. She and I have had a complicated relationship these past few years but she has grown into a beautiful and strong young woman. He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named grows stronger by the day and I do not doubt that he will soon come for me. When he does, I must protect Daphne above all else, my own life seems insignificant in comparison to hers. I pray you are safe._

_Yours,_

_Cygnus.”_

June, 1997.

_“Alfie, _

_I write again to tell you that my strength grows weaker with every day. They found me and they continue to ask me to join them but I do not want that life, it is the life your brother leads and I cannot have that for myself and especially not for Daphne. I must protect her from what will come, it is the only way I can find redemption after the fire. I pray you remain safe._

_Yours,_

_Cygnus.”_

July, 1997.

_“Alfie, _

_They come calling every day. I do not know how much longer I can last, they will either force me to join them or they will kill me for resisting. I know which way I would rather it went, he grows stronger with every follower that he manages to amass. I hear that he has coerced Sebastian Cauldwell into joining him and I am almost certain that he used his family against him to do this. He has not yet tried this trick with me but I suppose that he doubts my family mean much to me, he is aware of what I did all of those years ago. He need not know that it was an accident, it will only give him something to use against me._

_Yours,_

_Cygnus.”_

Daphne’s breath caught in her throat, an accident? The fire had been an accident? This couldn’t be real. She swallowed hard and forced herself to read the next letter.

September, 1997

Alfie,

Daphne has gone back to Hogwarts. Lareina did not want her there but I suspect that she will be safer if she is away from me. When they come for me, I do not want them to take her. I have gone into hiding so my letters may become less frequent, I am a coward Alfie and I do not want to die. I pray you survive this war for I surely shall not.

Yours,

Cygnus.”

_December, 1997._

_Alfie,_

_I hear very little news from outside my safe house but I hear that the Potter boy is still alive and fighting to destroy him. I hope that he has success, they have not found me yet but I can feel that they are getting close. Lareina keeps slipping out and I fear that she is informing on our location, she wants me dead so that she can run back to my brother. I only keep her safe here as a curtesy to my daughter. I do not think Daphne would ever forgive me if I let her Mother die. Stay safe dear cousin, surely one of us must come out of this alive._

_Yours,_

_Cygnus.”_

Daphne swallowed again, partially because of what had been implied in that last letter. But also because the next letter was the last, it was dated February 1998 and her Father had died on the 25th of February. She had been called into Snape’s office, Snape had expected her to cry but she had held her head up high, thanked him for informing her then excused herself. She had not shed a single tear for her Father, not when she had told Astoria and not when she chose not to attend his funeral.

_“Alfie, _

_I fear that this will be my last letter. Lareina had one too many glasses of wine last night and she told me the truth, she has been meeting up with my brother in secret as I feared. My brother has informed the Death Eaters of our location. They are coming to kill me, they will spare Lareina so that she and Phineas can continue their sordid affair, only it will no longer have to be behind my back. If I cannot escape them, please tell Daphne the truth. Tell her that I did not intend for her or her sister to be hurt in the fire. They were supposed to be at Malfoy Manor, but Draco got dragonpox and the plans were changed at the last minute. Lareina did not inform me and I did not know that they would be there. When I set the fire, I thought that the house would be empty. My intention was to claim on the insurance, buy a smaller house and save the business by injecting the insurance money into it. I never meant to hurt my daughter, if Lareina or my brother had been caught up in it I doubt I would have minded much. It is after all, her fault that my death is so imminent. I tried Alfie, I tried so hard to please her but nothing that I did was ever enough. She wanted my brother and nothing would convince her that I could give her just as much love as he could._

_Please Alfie, make sure that Daphne learns the truth. I could not bear it if she hated me for the rest of her life. This is my last wish. Stay safe and survive this bloodshed._

_Your dear cousin,_

_Cygnus.”_

Daphne let her tears fall freely as she read the last letter over and over again. She felt so many things, she felt a great sense of regret that she had never known the truth while her Father was alive. She felt immense anger and hatred towards her Mother for selling her Father out and therefore killing him. Being a Slytherin and being sneaky was one thing, but what her Mother had done was downright evil. She felt guilty, she felt sorry for her Father for having to bear the burden of her Mother’s betrayal. She felt angry that her Mother couldn’t just accept that he was good enough, even if he wasn’t perfect.

For the first time in her life, Daphne was on her Father’s side and as the words in his letters sunk in, she began to realise that everything her Mother had told her had been part of a formulated plan to turn her against her Father. The worst part was that it had worked.

She put everything back in the box apart from that last letter. He had known that his death was imminent and his last wish had been for her to learn the truth. She understood why Alfred Nott could never have granted that wish, he had died in late January at the hands of Bellatrix Lestrange. He hadn’t been alive to receive that letter, let alone to deliver the message within it. She wished that her Father had just written to her but he had been a stubborn man so to break that after so many years would have been incredibly difficult.

As she sat on the floor in her study, with tears streaming down her face, Daphne tried to come to terms with the fact that her Father was not the man she had always been led to believe that he was. She couldn’t rewrite years of memories or manipulation with the click of her fingers but somehow she had to work out just who her Father really had been.

***

When Harry got home on Saturday afternoon, he was surprised to find the house empty and quiet. At first, he thought that Daphne had gone out but then a quick spell told him that her magical signature was still present in the house.

He knew something was wrong from the feeling that settled in the pit of his stomach so he rushed upstairs and checked all of the usual places. When he eventually found Daphne, she was sitting on the floor of her study with tear tracks on her cheeks and bloodshot eyes.

Harry didn’t need to ask her what had happened. He could work it out from the fact that the box was open.

Surely enough, when Daphne looked up at him she whispered, “I opened the box.”

“And?” Harry asked cautiously, “Do you wish you hadn’t?”

Daphne shook her head, “I’m happy that I know the truth but I want to kill my Mother for hiding it and for lying to me.”

Harry frowned, “Daphne…what do you mean?”

Daphne shoved the bundle of letters into his hands, “Read those and you’ll see.”

Harry flicked through the letters, scanning the important parts and omitting the rest. When he looked up at Daphne, his eyes were wide, “Do you think he’s telling the truth?”

“Why would he lie?” Daphne asked coolly, “He has no reason to do that. My Mother on the other hand, her and my Uncle Phineas, they have a lot of reasons to lie.”

“Daphne,” Harry said quietly, “If what your Father wrote in these letters is true…your Mother and Uncle Phineas could go to jail.”

“For manslaughter, if not pre-meditated murder, I know,” Daphne said, “I thought about that. The first thing I wanted to do was march down to the ministry and hand this evidence over to the Aurors but if I do that, there will be a trial and-”

“Astoria might find out the truth,” Harry said with a nod, “I really do understand why that would hold you back, but I can fix that. I have contacts and I can make sure that this is kept entirely on the down low. It all comes down to what you want, do you want your Mother and your Uncle to go to jail?”

“Harry, they killed my Father,” Daphne hissed, “All so they could keep fucking each other!”

Harry cringed at her vulgar language. Daphne rarely lost her temper like this, she was the cool, calm one in an argument and _he _was the hothead.

“I know Daphne, but we’re talking about serious sentences here. How would Astoria take it?”

Daphne swallowed, “Don’t use my sister against me. They deserve to rot for this.”

“Maybe they do,” Harry agreed, “And I am not trying to use your sister against you. I just want you to consider everything before you act rashly. You need to think on this for a little while before you march straight into the ministry with these letters.”

“I need to go over to that house and give my Mother a piece of my mind,” Daphne muttered under her breath.

“And give her a head start? Come on Daphne, you are far smarter than me. You know that’s not the logical thing to do, if you confront her then she’s going to run off with your Uncle so that when this does go to trial, they can’t pull her up for it,” Harry pointed out, “I know you’re angry and I don’t blame you for being angry at all, but think about this logically.”

Daphne sighed, “I want her to be punished.”

“I know you do,” Harry said softly, “But you have to ask yourself this one question. Is the collateral damage just going to be too much?”

“I don’t know,” Daphne admitted.

“And you need to know,” Harry said firmly, “You need to be 100% sure before you act on this so give it a little bit of time and thought Daph, trust me on this one.”

“Okay,” Daphne conceded, “But until I decide what to do, we keep this completely between ourselves okay? That means that you don’t tell Neville and I don’t tell Bill.”

“I understand,” Harry nodded, “And I promise, it will stay between you and I.”

***

“Do you really want to do this today?” Harry asked under his breath as he and Daphne walked up the path towards Greengrove House.

“Life can’t stop just because of my ground-breaking discovery that my Mother is a homicidal slut,” Daphne muttered bitterly.

“Okay,” Harry said calmly, “I just want to make sure your head is in the right place, this is a serious thing we’re thinking about doing.”

“I am aware of that,” Daphne said sincerely, “And I really am fine. As long as you don’t bring up my Mother all week, we won’t have a problem.”

Harry sighed, “Daphne, we have to talk about it at some point. You can’t just decide to run to the ministry one day and get your Mum a life sentence in Azkaban.”

“Actually, I can,” Daphne reminded him, “And I will, once I’ve had a week to think it over like you want.”

Harry had a feeling that he wasn’t going to win the argument with her because of the mood she was in, so he decided to drop it. But it was still very much an unfinished conversation.

By the time, they stepped into the drawing room, the awkward air surrounding the conversation had dissipated. Andromeda smiled over at them, “Harry, Daphne, how lovely to see you again.”

Harry smiled at the older woman, “How are you feeling, Andi?”

Andromeda looked a little frailer than she had before she had been struck down with dragonpox, but she smiled all the same, “Very tired if I am honest Harry, but I am grateful to be home.”

“Well,” Daphne began cryptically, “You might be grateful of the proposition that we have for you then.”

Andromeda raised an eyebrow at them, “A proposition?”

Harry nodded, “We wondered how you felt about us trialling looking after Teddy full-time. Not like when we took him on holiday, but to see how he would fit into our everyday lives.”

Andromeda watched with interest as Daphne added, “He could live with us for the week and we could trial our plan for you to look after him during the day while we’re at work.”

After a contemplative moment, Andromeda nodded slowly, “I think that is a very sensible idea. I just worry that it might confuse him, but then again, so will the adoption when the time comes.”

Harry nodded, “So you think it’s a good idea?”

“I do,” Andromeda said, “When would you like to start it?”

“Well,” Harry said sheepishly, “We thought since we have him this weekend, we could just continue that into the week.”

Andromeda didn’t seem overly surprised by the suggestion. She thought about it for a moment then said, “Yes, I suppose that would make sense. He is in his bedroom if you want to help him pack for the week and explain what is happening?”

“Wouldn’t you rather do that?” Harry asked.

Andromeda shook her head, “I think it will be better if it comes from you.”

“Okay,” Harry said, he turned to Daphne, “Are you coming up?”

“Of course,” She replied.

They ascended the stairs silently, but the awkward air was gone at least. When they stepped into Teddy’s room, the little boy was playing away happily with his toy dragons.

He greeted them with a shout of, “Dad!” and a hug. Harry’s face lit up with the smile that he reserved for Teddy and he knelt down in front of the little boy, “Hey buddy, we have something to tell you.”

Teddy looked up with interest.

“You’re going to come and stay with me and Daphne this week,” Harry said kindly, “Do you think that will be fun?”

Teddy’s eyes lit up, “Yeah!”

Daphne laughed, “Good, because we think you’re going to have a great week,” she ruffled the little boy’s hair and he grinned at her.

“We’re going to go to the seaside,” Harry added as he grabbed Teddy’s little suitcase out of the wardrobe, “You love the beach, don’t you?”

Teddy grinned and nodded at them. Daphne smiled warmly at him, “Then you are going to have so much fun! Come on, what clothes shall we put in here for you?”

“This!” Teddy said, he pulled his Puddlemere strip out of the wardrobe, “An’ this!” he said as he found his favourite jumper, it was dark grey and decorated with multi-coloured dragons.

Daphne shot Harry a smile and he returned it warmly. Somehow, in that moment, they knew that regardless of the trials the week would bring, it would all be okay in the end.

***

“This is going well so far,” Daphne commented.

Harry shot her an amused look, “Daph, it’s only Sunday. We both know that the hard part starts tomorrow when we have to come home from a hard days work to look after a toddler.”

Daphne rolled her eyes, “Yes, I know that. I just meant that Teddy didn’t seem to be showing any signs of separation anxiety from Andromeda which is good. The confusing part of course will be throughout the week because he will see her during the day but then come home to us at night.”

“Let’s face it, we always knew that having him through the week would be the biggest struggle, that’s the whole point of this test of yours,” Harry reminded her.

“We had him through the week when Andromeda was in hospital,” Daphne pointed out.

“For a couple of days, not for the whole week,” Harry said as he watched her carefully.

“Why are you so sure that it’s going to be hard?” Daphne asked under her breath, she didn’t want to raise her voice because Teddy was playing on the floor just a few metres away, “Why are you so convinced that we can’t do this?”

Harry’s eyes softened and he sighed, “That’s not what this is at all,” he promised her, “I just don’t want you to assume that this week is going to be easy because I worry that if you do, you’ll get a real shock when you realise quite how tiring it is to have two full-time jobs.”

Daphne glanced over at Teddy, “It’s hard to think of him like that,” she admitted.

“Right now it is, let’s see what you’re saying at the end of the week,” Harry said gently, he smiled at her in that boyish, amused way that never failed to make her smile back.

“We’ll see,” She challenged.

**TBC.**


	107. Rumours

“Hey, Hermione! Have you heard the rumour?”

Hermione raised an eyebrow at Sarah, one of the girls who worked at the DMLE reception, “I generally tend to steer clear of all rumours, so no.”

“Well,” Sarah said eagerly, “Rebecca from HR just told me that Viktor Krum has landed a _big _job here at the ministry.”

That actually did catch Hermione’s attention, “Really?”

“Uh-huh,” Sarah replied, “Wouldn’t it be great to have such a heartthrob working in the same building as us?”

That made Hermione laugh, “Sarah, it’s a big building and I highly doubt he’ll be working in the DMLE.”

Sarah’s face fell, “Why? We have vacancies, don’t we?”

“Yes, we have vacancies but none that a former Quidditch player would qualify for,” Hermione pointed out.

“You don’t know him, he might have really good grades too!” Sarah argued.

Hermione couldn’t help the Draco-like smirk that came to her lips then, “Actually, it’s because I know him that I know he did get good grades at school, but he will never work for the DMLE.”

“How do you know him?” Sarah asked in disbelief.

“He’s my ex,” Hermione said calmly.

Before Sarah could say anything else, or pick her jaw up off the floor, Hermione had scanned her wand and walked through the security gate towards her makeshift office. For some reason, that had felt very good and she was intrigued to hear that Viktor was considering a job at the British Ministry. She knew that he had given up his Quidditch career but she couldn’t see the appeal of moving to Britain to retire.

“Morning, Hermione.”

“Morning Bob,” Hermione said cheerfully as she stepped into the Auror office where she was serving her latest stint. She said good morning to at least ten more Aurors on her way to the desk she shared with Rachel in the back corner of the bullpen.

“Good morning Rachel,” Hermione said cheerfully as she sat down on her side of the desk.

Rachel, a mousy haired woman in her early-30’s, looked up at Hermione sheepishly, “You’re in an awfully good mood this morning.”

“I had a good birthday over the weekend,” Hermione said by way of explanation, “Draco bought me a kitten.”

“God, that is so horribly romantic,” Rachel said bitterly, “It makes me want to vomit.”

Hermione bit back an amused smile, Rachel had a dry sense of humour and was incredibly sarcastic, but Hermione thought she was brilliant.

“I called her Octavia,” Hermione added as she slid a cardboard cup of coffee across the desk.

Rachel caught it without looking up and said, “Jesus Christ, I hope you don’t get to name any children in the future.”

“You should hear the baby names Draco likes,” Hermione muttered under her breath, “Bloody Malfoy’s and their star sign obsession.”

Rachel ignored this comment and sipped her coffee loudly, “Well, since you are so cheerful this morning, you can do the rota,” she said with a sarcastic grin, “Have fun!”

Hermione groaned as a heap of parchment was dumped in front of her. The rota consisted of scheduling four pairs of Aurors for night-shift every night of the week. It was almost impossible to organise because virtually every Auror had some night that they couldn’t work for one reason or another so scheduling everyone in could quite easily take her up to 2pm.

However, there was one positive, Rachel was now in a great mood.

***

“I need to tell you guys something.”

“That sounds way too serious for first thing on a Monday morning,” Theo joked weakly.

“Coming from the guy who looks like he’s had no sleep,” Neville said, he shot Theo a sideways glance.

Theo rubbed his eyes, “I’ve been worried about Sadie so I haven’t been sleeping much. She’s still really ill and the midwife is thinking about admitting her to St. Mungo’s if the sickness doesn’t get any better.”

“Try not to worry too much,” Draco said supportively, “It’s probably just hyperemesis gravidarum.”

Harry raised an eyebrow at Draco, “Fancy saying that in English mate?”

“Extreme morning sickness,” Draco said, he glared in Harry’s direction, “To put it in layman’s terms.”

Theo ignored the banter between them, “Is it bad?”

“No, it just means she might need to stay in hospital for a bit to rehydrate herself. It shouldn’t last much longer than morning sickness so it will taper off in a couple of weeks with any luck.”

“How do you know so much about pregnancy, exactly?” Neville asked Draco, “I mean you’re an Auror, not a bloody Healer.”

Draco stiffened up slightly, “I just knew someone who had it, and unlike you two idiots, I read books.”

“Woah, is it just me or did he sound exactly like Hermione there?” Harry asked Neville.

Neville snorted in amusement, “Nah, he’s far snottier than Hermione to be honest.”

Draco ignored their comments.

“Anyway Harry, you were going to say something,” Neville reminded him.

“Oh yeah,” Harry recalled as they came to a stop outside the lecture hall, “Daphne and I are doing a trial run this week to see if we can cope with looking after Teddy full-time. He’s staying with us all week and if it goes well, we’re going ahead with the adoption. I just figured you guys should know in case I’m tired or I seem distracted.”

“Wow,” Theo said, “That’s big news. I mean I knew you were planning on adopting Teddy but I didn’t realise you were thinking about doing it now.”

Harry shrugged, “You don’t really think about when you’re going to become a parent, it just sort of happens.”

“You’ll find out all about that soon mate,” Neville joked as he patted Theo on the back, “All the sleepless nights.”

“And screaming sessions,” Harry added in amusement.

“Before he gets there, he has to get through Sadie’s cravings first,” Draco joked, he smirked in Theo’s direction.

“Don’t even get me started on that,” Theo muttered as they walked into the lecture hall together, “On Saturday night she sent me to something called a Tesco Extra at 3am to get her a jar of pickled onions, seriously guys, it was _3am_!”

***

“So what do you have for me today?”

“A cursed mirror, we’re heading up north today. Do you like the north?” Bill asked conversationally as he swept Daphne out of the door she had just come in.

Daphne raised an eyebrow at him, “Well that depends on how far north. I guess the lake district is okay if you like white water rafting and that sort of thing.”

“Oh no, much further north than that,” Bill said cheerfully, “So far north it will take a ferry to get us there, it might even be an overnight trip.”

“Well that might be an issue because we’re looking after Teddy this week. I’ll need to check that Harry’s okay to watch him on his own if this needs to be an overnight trip,” Daphne said, “And if it’s that far, are we even staying in Britain?”

“Yep, we are going to the lovely Shetland isles,” Bill said happily, “Clear air, beautiful scenery, ah…what a wonderful place Lerwick is.”

“Right,” Daphne said slowly, “I can tell you’re really in love with the whole quaint Scottish charm thing but can I send Harry a message before we go please?”

Bill was pulled from his reverie, “Oh yes, of course. I’ll meet you out back by the apparition point.”

As he started to walk away, Daphne conjured up a patronus and sent a message to Harry with it, “Hey Harry. Bill and I have a case in Lerwick up in Shetland and I might have to stay overnight to break it. Just let me know if you’re going to be okay on your own with Teddy because I can come back and leave Bill to deal with it if you aren’t. Speak to you later, bye.”

Once the message was recorded, her patronus shot away in a burst of light and Daphne rushed to catch up with Bill outside.

“So, a cursed mirror?”

“Uh-huh,” Bill mused, “It is a very old, very interesting case, I can’t wait!”

“Do you want to give me the cliff notes?” Daphne asked.

Bill shot her a grin, “Oh don’t worry Daphne, we have a 6 hour ferry trip to discuss the nitty, gritty details!”

Daphne rolled her eyes and muttered sarcastically, “Fantastic.”

***

“So it looks like I’m going solo for my first night of Operation Can Teddy Live With Us,” Harry whispered to Neville while they pretended to take notes in the back of disguise class.

“Has Daphne given up already?” He joked.

“No, she just sent me a message, that’s why I had to run out,” Harry replied, “She might need to stay overnight on her latest job if her and Bill can’t solve it today.”

Neville raised an eyebrow at him, “Are they doing foreign jobs already?”

Harry shook his head, “No, the jobs in Shetland. I thought the same as you but I guess Shetland is further North than we think it is.”

“So you’re cool with Daphne bunking with Bill overnight?” Neville asked quietly.

“Bill is like a brother to me and he’s married to a bloody Veela, I don’t think I have to worry about him straying,” Harry whispered, “And Daphne has high class tastes, she isn’t going to leave me for a Weasley.”

Neville sniggered under his breath, “Harsh, but you’re right.”

Harry shot him a smirk, “Don’t suppose you fancy coming over tonight and helping me babysit?”

Neville snorted, “Nope, that would be cheating. The whole point of this week is to see if you and Daphne can manage this alone, so you’re on your own mate.”

Harry groaned and muttered, “I had a feeling that you were going to say that.”

***

“Is there a reason why you’re forcing me to endure a 6 hour ferry trip when I’m a witch who is perfectly capable of apparating?” Daphne asked Bill dryly as she looked out over the choppy North Sea.

“Daphne Greengrass, if I didn’t know better I would say you look seasick,” Bill said far too cheerfully and with a smirk that he was failing to hide.

Daphne shot him an unimpressed look, “Bill, for reasons that you do not need to know about, I am in a foul mood today and yes, I do get seasick so could you just cut the bullshit and tell me A. What’s going on? And B. Why you’re so happy about it?”

Bill dropped the overly cheery attitude and nodded, “Fair enough, do you want to talk about your issues?”

“No,” Daphne replied shortly.

“Alright, the reason I’m so happy is because I have wanted to go back to Shetland for years. I had my first ever solo curse breaking case there, I stayed on the island for two weeks and I fell in love with it. I tried to persuade Fleur to go there for our honeymoon but she couldn’t understand why I wanted to go somewhere cold and wet in autumn.”

Daphne smiled slightly, “I can see her point of view.”

“So I’m excited to be going back,” Bill concluded, “And as for why we’re on the ferry, this ferry is run by the wizarding family who own the cursed mirror that we’re going to investigate. The family is split over the issue, some want the mirror investigated and others want to leave things as they are so I thought we might be able to wheedle some information during the trip across. If I had known that you got seasick, I would have let you apparate ahead.”

“It’s fine, but I’m apparating back,” Daphne said firmly, “So what’s the story behind this mirror then?”

“According to the woman who contacted us, it tries to kill anyone who looks into it after sunset,” Bill explained in an undertone, “The mirror has been in the family for years and everyone knows to cover it with a heavy sheet every evening but last night, her son heard knocking come from inside the mirror so he took the sheet off and his own reflection tried to pull him into the mirror. He got away but the event has traumatised him, his Mother wants answers and she wants the mirror out of the family house but her sister isn’t in agreement.”

“Uh why the hell not? The mirror could have killed her nephew,” Daphne pointed out.

“I know,” Bill agreed, “But apparently the mirror is around 300 years old and has always been in the house, they think removing it might bring some sort of curse crashing down on them.”

“It sounds like the mirror already is cursed though,” Daphne said.

“Yes, but it is possible that the curse on the mirror has a built in fail-safe meaning that-”

“If we break the curse, another curse will be triggered,” Daphne finished with a nod, “Like a booby trap.”

“Exactly,” Bill said, “That’s why we need to tread carefully and talk to every member of the family before we proceed on this one.”

“Hence the ferry trip,” Daphne sighed, “Who could cast such a dark, powerful curse like that anyway?”

“The magic behind it isn’t actually that complicated,” Bill admitted, “It’s probably some sort of modified mirror image spell. But the history behind the mirror and its age imply that it won’t be that simple when it comes to breaking the curse.”

“Right,” Daphne said as she got to her feet a little shakily, “Who are we questioning first then?”

“The captain of our little boat,” Bill said, he got up and clapped his hand on her back, “The seasickness will wear off after half an hour or so.”

“Will it?” Daphne asked hopefully.

Bill shrugged, “If it doesn’t, you’ll be throwing up over the side of the boat for the next 6 hours.”

“Great,” Daphne muttered under her breath, “Just bloody great.”

***

“So the captains nephew – woah, are you still being sick?”

Daphne groaned from her spot leaning over the railing of the boat, “Do you want to ask me any other stupid questions?”

Bill grimaced, “Sorry Daphne-”

“Cut the crap Bill, how long till we’re there?’ Daphne asked groggily.

Bill glanced up ahead, “Well I can see land so less than half an hour I’d wager.”

“Good,” Daphne groaned as she leaned over the boat to throw up once more.

“Seriously, how do you have anything left to throw up?”

“I don’t fucking know Bill,” Daphne snapped, “Maybe next time you could tell me there was a choice before shoving me onto a goddamn ferry!”

Bill did have the curtesy to look sheepish, “Yeah I am sorry about that Daphne. Will I just brief you when we’re on dry land?”

“That’s the best idea you’ve had all day,” Daphne replied dryly and sarcastically.

***

“Hey Hermione, have you heard-”

“Viktor Krum is coming to work for us?” Hermione guessed when Wayne Hopkins, who she had gone to school with, walked into her office, “Yes I have, why is everybody so excited about that?”

Wayne shrugged, “Because he’s a heartthrob I guess?”

“God, not you too,” Hermione chuckled, “Everyone is going crazy over the news. The poor guy doesn’t stand a chance when he gets here.”

“You went to the Yule Ball with him,” Wayne remembered.

“Uh-huh,” Hermione agreed, she sipped her coffee, “Are you going somewhere with that thought?”

“No, just remembering,” Wayne said, “Anyway, I just popped in with the floo reports that Auror Finch asked for.”

“I’ll see he gets them, see you later Wayne,” Hermione said.

As Wayne left the office, Rachel whistled, “You dated Viktor Krum? Oh Hermione, I didn’t think you had it in you…I mean did you have _it _in you?”

Hermione rolled her eyes, “Rachel, I was 14.”

“So?”

“So no,” Hermione said bluntly, “I went to the Yule Ball with him, I taught him some English and I kissed him a few times. That was it, he’s a sweet guy though, I wrote to him for a few years and I had a dance with him at Bill and Fleurs wedding.”

“So you pined after him for years and years,” Rachel smirked, “And now he’s joining us.”

“He’s joining the Ministry Rachel,” Hermione said irritably, “It’s a big building, and I did not pine after him! I do not do pining.”

A snort sounded from behind her.

Hermione spun around to see Harry standing there.

“What is that supposed to mean? And what are you doing here?”

“You don’t pine? You pined after Draco for years, and I am a trainee Auror, that does allow me access to the DMLE,” Harry smirked.

Hermione scoffed, “I never pined after Draco, is that what he thinks? He’s delusional.”

“No, that’s what I think,” Harry said with an amused look, “Anyway, I’m here to see Auror Finch. Is he about?”

Hermione frowned, “He’s on his lunch…does this have anything to do with the floo records he requested this morning?”

“Maybe,” Harry replied cryptically.

“Harry…”

“It’s above your clearance level, sorry Mione,” Harry said, he shot her a boyish grin, “I’ll go find him in the food court.”

Before Hermione could question him any further, he had gone. Hermione groaned and sat down heavily, it wasn’t often that she couldn’t get information out of Harry.

***

As it was, Harry found the Auror he was looking for on his way out of the DMLE.

“Ah Auror Finch, I was just looking for you.”

Auror Finch was a thin, greying man with a bald patch. He smiled warmly at Harry, “Ah Trainee Auror Potter, we spoke via floo yesterday didn’t we?”

“We did,” Harry agreed, “Did you get those reports I asked about?”

“They were due in late this morning so they probably arrived while I was on lunch,” Finch replied, “Take a seat in my cubicle and I will be with you as soon as possible.”

He led Harry along the corridor and through the maze of cubicles. Harry sat down at Finch’s, his partners seat was vacant so he didn’t have to attempt to make small talk. It felt odd to think that in a few short years, this would be where he and Neville spent their days.

After a few minutes Finch returned with a report in hand, “The report is missing some information because we lost a lot when Voldemort took over the Ministry but there are bits and pieces in here. I can’t just hand it over to you, you being a Trainee and all but we can go through it together.”

Harry nodded, “I just need you to understand that this is of a personal nature, what is in this report cannot become public knowledge.”

“From the moment you asked for a favour, I knew it was going to be personal,” Finch admitted, “Harry Potter does not tend to ask for favours.”

Harry smiled slightly, “That is true.”

“And it didn’t take a genius to figure out who its for, you asking for the floo calls going in and out of Greengrass house and all,” Finch added.

Harry smiled sheepishly, “So how many calls were made that month?”

“Six,” Finch replied, he flipped open the report, “It seems the master of the house at that time was Phineas Greengrass.”

Harry nodded, “His brother Cygnus and his wife were in hiding.”

“So of those 6 calls, 4 were to Lareina Greengrass,” Finch said, “His brothers wife.”

“Do you have transcripts?” Harry asked tentatively.

“Two were too corrupted to pull transcripts from,” Finch admitted, “But the guys in the DMT managed to pull two. Here they are…”

Harry took a shaky breath and looked at the two transcripts in front of him.

_“Phineas: Just run away, leave him in the safe house and come with me._

_Lareina: I cannot just run away with you Phineas! What about my daughters? I have to think of them._

_Phineas: Bring them with you then._

_Lareina: You know that Daphne will never do that. Despite everything I have told her, she still holds out hope that her Father can be saved. If I run away with you, what happens after the war when Cygnus can come after us again?_

_Phineas: He will not come after us Lareina! He will never kill you because he loves you too, just not as much as I do. You know that he did not set that fire with the intention of killing you._

_Lareina: I just cannot run off and leave him. I hate loose ends, Phineas._

_Phineas: So what do you suggest we do, kill him?_

_Lareina: It might be best for all of us._

_Phineas: For Heavens sake Lareina, I was being sarcastic!_

_Lareina: You said you loved me more than life itself. You said that you would do anything for me._

_Phineas: When I said that, I never thought you would ask me to kill your Husband._

_Lareina: Then we do it together._

_Phineas: We will discuss this in person at a later date, Lareina. Think on what you have just said, those are some very serious requests.”_

“Shit,” Harry muttered as he flipped the page, “She was right.”

Finch remained silent as Harry read the second transcript.

_“Lareina: It will happen tonight. Cygnus thinks that we have informed on his location to the Death Eaters. Come to the house in a black cloak with a mask and do it._

_Phineas: Lareina, are you sure you want to go through with this?_

_Lareina: If you truly want us to be happy, we have to take him out of the equation Phineas. He will never know that it was you, he will simply think that the Dark Lord has grown tired of trying to recruit him. _

_Phineas: Lareina, I beg you to reconsider._

_Lareina: I shall not! And if you back out then it will be clear to me that you do not love me as you say you do._

_Phineas: [sigh] I shall do it.”_

“Oh shit,” Harry muttered, he pushed the transcripts over, “You’ve read them?”

Finch nodded, “I need to arrest your girlfriends Mother, I’m sorry but these records show that she has committed a serious crime.”

“I know,” Harry said quickly, “But please don’t do it just yet. Let my fiancé explain to her sister first, let her bring in the letters she has so that you have all the evidence you need for a clean arrest and trial.”

Finch sighed, “You know I shouldn’t.”

“I just need a week, please Finch,” Harry begged.

Finch nodded stiffly, “One week, but if she escapes or if you fail to bring that evidence in then I have to arrest you for obstruction of justice.”

Harry nodded fiercely, “I completely understand that, and thank you so much.”

***

“Do you feel better now?”

Daphne nodded and took a slow sip of water. She still looked very pale and was a little shaky on her feet but now that she was back on dry land, she had stopped throwing up.

“So I found out lots while you were throwing up,” Bill said, for which he was glared at, “The captain of the boat is very superstitious as most sailors are. His Mother is the sister who does not want to get rid of the mirror.”

“And what does he think then?”

“Well he told me all about the story behind the mirror. Apparently its been in the family for 300 years and has a spooky history. Way back, the master reportedly had an affair with a maid. That maid then fell completely in love with the master and wanted him to leave his wife for her. Of course the master had only wanted something on the side so he was having none of that. Out of spite, the maid then poisoned the masters wife and their two children. They all died and apparently their spirits were trapped in the mirror.”

“Is that even possible?” Daphne asked.

Bill shrugged, “Well it’s debatable. There is an old superstition that you ought to cover up all the mirrors in the house when someone dies so that their spirit doesn’t get trapped but it doesn’t hold much truth or every time someone died in a house, we’d have a haunted mirror.”

“Right, I sense a but?” Daphne prompted.

Bill smiled, “But…the maid could have been a witch. If that was the case, then it could have affected the tale in two ways. Either she did poison them and then trapped their spirits in a mirror with some seriously dark magic or, and I hope it’s this option, she did not actually kill them. She just trapped them in the mirror with an entrapment spell.”

Daphne frowned, “So if it was an entrapment spell, wouldn’t they have just died in the mirror?”

Bill shook his head, “They would have been frozen as they were at the time.”

Realisation shone in Daphne’s eyes, “Which is why they appear to pull other people into the mirror…they are actually trying to pull themselves out.”

“Correct,” Bill said, “Now for your next question.”

“Why do you hope its that option?” Daphne asked.

“Because if it’s the first option, this case is going to be a lot harder than I thought,” Bill replied, “The magic required to trap dead souls is very dark, to do so the maid would have had to kill them violently to rip the spirit from the body then she would have to trap that soul in an object, in this case a mirror.”

Daphne frowned, “So the mirror would be a horcrux.”

Bill frowned down at her, “How do you know what a horcrux is?”

“Found out about them in an old book in the family library,” Daphne lied.

Bill didn’t believe her, but he didn’t push the issue, “Yes well, it is rather like a horcrux I suppose. When a soul, or part of a soul in the case of a horcrux, is trapped within an object, the object can take on a life of its own.”

“Why does that make the case more difficult?” Daphne asked, “If the mirror is a horcrux, can’t we just kill it with basilisk venom or fiendfyre?”

Bill stopped in his tracks and stood in front of her, “Right that’s enough, how the hell do you know so much about horcruxes?”

“I told you, I read it in a book,” Daphne lied.

“No,” Bill said sternly, “That information is not in any book. You are lying to me Daphne and I will not have you lying to me about something this serious.”

“Bill, it is not my place to tell you,” Daphne said shortly.

“Daphne, you know how to kill a horcrux and exactly what it is,” Bill said coolly, “The only people I have ever met who know that are people who have ever made one or killed one.”

“I have done neither, I promise,” Daphne said just as coolly, “But I know someone who has and that someone told me about them.”

Bill narrowed his eyes at her, “Who?”

“I told you, that isn’t my place-”

“It’s Harry isn’t it?”

“I-” Daphne cut herself off.

Bill nodded, “So it is Harry, he’s destroyed a horcrux?”

Daphne sighed and glanced around, they were walking along a road in rural Shetland so it wasn’t like there many people around to hear them.

“Yes, that was how he killed Voldemort. He had made split his soul into seven and made horcruxes. Harry, Ron and Hermione had to find and destroy them to make him mortal again so when it came to the final battle-”

“-He would die for good,” Bill finished, “Blimey, that boys been through more than any man could take.”

Daphne nodded, “It’s not common knowledge so please, keep it to yourself.”

“I will,” Bill promised her, he stepped away and began to walk along the road once more, “And no by the way, it isn’t as simple as just destroying the mirror to kill a horcrux. This is not a corrupted soul, it is a whole soul. If we destroy the mirror or possibly even just break the curse on the mirror then the souls escape and after years of entrapment they would become very dangerous poltergeists.”

Daphne sighed, “So what if it’s the second option? What happens if we break the curse on the mirror?”

“The people who were trapped there, come out,” Bill replied, “Although they will be whole physically, they will be warped mentally. I would expect them all to live out their days in the mental health ward of St. Mungo’s.”

“So either way, it doesn’t have a happy ending,” Daphne concluded.

Bill shook his head, “No, it really doesn’t I’m afraid.”

***

As they stood in front of a large, grand country house, Bill said, “So I will lead the negotiation-”

“-Why don’t I take this one?”

Bill frowned, “Daphne, I am sure you are more than capable but this is a sensitive case. Not everyone involved wants us to investigate this curse.”

“I am aware of that, but I am very good at negotiating,” Daphne replied, “My Mother always wanted me to join the Department of Magical Co-operation and I helped negotiate a few big deals for the family business.”

Bill opened his mouth to say something, but then thought better of it and shut it again, “Alright, you can lead this one but if I feel like I need to then I will jump in and take over.”

“Deal,” Daphne said smoothly. They continued their walk up the path and knocked on the front door.

There was a small wait, then a rustling sound from behind the door. When it swung open, a middle-aged woman in a sweatshirt looked at them disapprovingly.

“Good afternoon ma’am. I am Daphne Greengrass and this is my colleague, William Weasley. We’re the curse breakers from Gringotts that you sent for.”

“My sister sent for you,” The woman spat, “And it was a wasted trip, you are not going anywhere near that mirror!”

Before she could slam the door shut on them, Daphne stopped her, “Ma’am, we may not touch that mirror. We need your permission to do so for a start, but we do want to come in and have a discussion with you about it. We cannot do anything to it if you do not want us too, but we need to log that there may be a dangerous cursed object in your house. It’s the law.”

The woman sighed, but opened the door fully again, “Fine, come in.”

Daphne and Bill stepped into the house. The woman, who spoke with a broad Scottish accent, shouted, “Julie, get your arse down here! The curse breakers you sent for want to talk to us.”

There was a loud clatter upstairs, then a younger woman with dark brown hair appeared at the bottom of the steps, “You came! Oh thank Merlin, you came!”

Bill smiled, “We came as soon as we could. I’m Bill, we spoke via floo yesterday and this is my colleague Daphne Greengrass.”

“Pleasure to meet you,” Daphne said politely.

“And you,” Julie said, “Come into the breakfast room and we can talk over a pot of tea.”

There was a rather awkward silence while they waited for the tea. It was clear that the two sisters were very divided over the issue of what should happen to the mirror.

“Shall we begin?” Daphne asked when everyone had a cup of tea in their hands.

The older sister, whose name they did not know, just grunted.

“I would like to start by saying that we are not here to force either of you to do anything with the mirror,” Daphne said calmly, “Before we could even think about touching it, we would need to quickly look at it and run a diagnostic charm or two. That would tell us exactly what was going on with it. After we had done that, it would be up to the two of you to decide what we did next.”

“How do we know we can even trust you?” The older sister asked.

“Marianne, they are from Gringotts,” Julie hissed, “They are hardly charlatans!”

Daphne raised her hands, “I understand your concern ma’am. It is clearly an old, invaluable family heirloom. I promise that nothing we will do to identify the curse, if there is one, will harm the mirror.”

Marianne frowned at them, “And you won’t do anything to it? Even if you do find a curse.”

“Not without permission from both of you, written permission if you so wish,” Daphne promised, “We were brought here by your sister but we are impartial on this matter. We are not privately contracted, we provide a free and informative service. All that we can do is advise you, if you choose to go against our advice that is entirely up to yourself.”

Marianne huffed in a thoughtful sort of way then nodded, “Fine, you can run your diagnostic charms.”

“But not until the morning,” Julie cut in, she glanced out of the window, “The sun will set in less than an hour, it always sets early here in the winter.”

Daphne looked at the darkening sky and sighed.

“I am sorry,” Julie said apologetically, “We can offer you a meal and a bed for the night while you wait. Did you have somewhere you needed to be on the mainland?”

“No,” Daphne said with a sad smile, “My fiancé and I are adopting our Godson and tonight was his first night staying with us, but I am sure he will manage just fine on his own. We appreciate your offer of a meal and a bed for the night, and we will get straight to work in the morning.”

***

_Knock. Knock._

Daphne grabbed her silk dressing gown and called, “Come in!”

She had expected one of the sisters to be outside the door ready to interrogate her, but she had not expected to see Bill.

“Oh Bill, hey,” Daphne said as she quickly drew the dressing gown in tighter.

“Oh sorry,” Bill said awkwardly, “I didn’t realise that you were…”

“I was just getting ready for bed,” Daphne explained.

“I’m sorry, I can go,” Bill said, he averted his eyes, “I was just coming in to have a quick chat about the case before tomorrow.”

“It’s fine, I do have pyjamas on underneath this,” Daphne laughed, “Do you reckon there’s something off about the case?”

Bill shook his head and perched on the end of her bed, “Not as such. I was impressed with your negotiation earlier though, I mean it wasn’t how I would have done it but-”

“I know it wasn’t,” Daphne cut in, “But the moment I saw the snake emblem on the front door, I knew that your nicey-nice way wasn’t going to cut it.”

Bill looked up in surprise, “There was a snake emblem on the front door?”

“Uh-huh,” Daphne smirked, “The only people of wizarding heritage with snakes carved into their doors tend to be of Slytherin descendancy and I have a way of talking to them that works better than your way.”

Bill raised an eyebrow at her, “Your way involved bullshitting them.”

“I may have told a few alternative truths,” Daphne admitted as she grabbed a hipflask off the bedside table, “Is that really so wrong if it removes a dangerous object from a house and saves future lives?”

“Well,” Bill sighed, “It just wasn’t how I would have done it. You know fine well Julie is paying us damn well for our service, free service my arse.”

“Hey, it worked,” Daphne pointed out, she took a swig from the hipflask and handed it to him, “Sometimes I think you forget what house I’m from, it must be all that noble shit of Harry’s rubbing off on me.”

Bill laughed and took a swig from the hipflask, “You know, I’m kind of glad you mentioned Harry because I wanted to talk to you about him. About you and him, actually.”

Daphne frowned, “Okay…?”

“I just…I know it’s not my place to say this so feel free to hit me, but I just feel like it might be a mistake for the two of you to adopt Teddy at the moment,” Bill admitted, “I mean by all means have him over every weekend and take him on holidays but adopting him full-time…”

“Why would it be a mistake?” Daphne asked defensively.

“From my experience, having a baby…it doesn’t tend to do good things for your relationship,” Bill admitted, “Fleur and I were stupidly in love, we didn’t have fights, we just laughed together and travelled together and had sex all of the time, too much information I know.”

Daphne raised an eyebrow at him.

Bill ignored her and continued, “Then we had Victoire and everything changed. We were tired all the time, angry all of the time. We stopped having fun together and we started to resent each other, Merlin Daphne, sometimes I think we hate each other and quite regularly I think we’re only roughing it out for Vic.”

“I’m sorry to hear that Bill, I really am,” Daphne said sincerely, “But Harry and I aren’t you and Fleur.”

“I know you aren’t. You two are younger, you have even more promise and I don’t think you should throw that away for a kid who already has a Grandmother to raise him,” Bill said boldly.

Daphne crossed her arms over her chest, “You’re right, it isn’t your place to say that. Harry loves Teddy with all of his heart, I mean how can he not? I do too. It’s going to be hard but I have faith that we’re strong enough to get through it.”

“I had faith too,” Bill admitted, “I thought what I felt for Fleur was stronger than anything I had ever experienced. I thought that it was a bond that couldn’t be broken but when you’re young and stupidly in love, it’s easy to think that lust is love. When you’re stuck in the monotony of go to work, come home, change nappies, go to bed, wake up exhausted…you start to realise that the love isn’t there anymore.”

Daphne sighed and placed her hand on Bills. She wasn’t sure if he had noticed, but he had tears in his eyes, “Bill, I don’t think this is about me and Harry at all. I think this is you projecting what’s going on with you and Fleur onto us.”

Bill sighed too, “Maybe it is,” he agreed.

“You need to get yourselves out of this funk,” Daphne said gently, “You do still love each other, even if it doesn’t feel like it right now. The thing is…when two people are drawn together in such impossible circumstances, sparks do fly and at first it is lust. But once you get past that, once you start to see the warmness in that other persons heart and learn who they are beneath the exterior, it develops into love. When you go through impossible things together and come out the other side, it only makes that bond even stronger. Sometimes it feels impossible, like there are so many obstacles in your way but you have to just push on through past them because at the end of the day, love like that will never go away.”

Bill actually sniffled then hastily wiped his eyes, “That was a beautiful speech.”

Daphne smiled, “I did tell you that my Mother wanted me to go into the Department of Magical Co-operation. She thought I would make a good public speaker.”

Bill laughed, albeit a little tearfully, “That obviously came from the heart Daphne and you’re right, I am projecting. Just because having a baby nearly destroyed my relationship, it doesn’t mean that it will destroy yours.”

“You and Fleur, by your own volition, had a lust filled romance to begin with,” Daphne admitted, “You even told me once that you think you might have rushed into marrying her because of the war.”

Bill nodded.

“But Harry and I…well we were more of a slow burning candle I guess,” Daphne said, “We’ve already been through spells like the one you and Fleur are going through now. I guess…without being too vulgar Bill…sex or lack of it, maybe just isn’t such a big deal to us.”

Bill laughed heartily at that, “I guess that’s what I get for marrying a French woman,” he joked.

Daphne laughed too and handed him the hipflask again, “Here, I think you need it more than I do.”

***

“Come on Ted, why won’t you stop crying?” Harry asked as he paced the floor with Teddy.

The little boy had his hand stuffed in his mouth and he was screaming hysterically. Harry was starting to lose the plot, he had tried a mild pain potion, he had tried cuddles, he had tried giving him a drink, letting him sleep in his bed but nothing was working.

He didn’t want to get to the point where he had to call Daphne because he knew it would make him look pathetic. This was his first night alone with Teddy on their trial week, if he caved this quickly she would surely laugh at him. But by the time the clock struck midnight, Harry had no choice.

He tried to send Daphne a patronus first, but she could not be reached, he assumed because she was so far north and so much ocean separated them. So Harry decided to floo the address of her client. She had given him it in case he really needed to contact her while she was away.

When he floo-ed, he got through to the house elf in the kitchen who patched him through to the fireplace in her bedroom. Because it was a reconnection within the same house, the fireplace did not roar as it would have done otherwise.

Harry had opened his mouth to shout her name, but when he saw her with Bill he closed it straight away. She was sitting on the bed with her back to him, holding Bills hand. Harry knew that it was wrong, but he couldn’t help but listen in…

_“The thing is…when two people are drawn together in such impossible circumstances, sparks do fly and at first it is lust. But once you get past that, once you start to see the warmness in that other persons heart and learn who they are beneath the exterior, it develops into love. When you go through impossible things together and come out the other side, it only makes that bond even stronger. Sometimes it feels impossible, like there are so many obstacles in your way but you have to just push on through past them because at the end of the day, love like that will never go away.”_

Harry felt sick so he promptly ended the call and looked at the, now silent, child in his arms. He shook his head in disbelief and silently stewed as he took Teddy back upstairs. Now that he was calm, he went down like a lamb.

Harry fumed as he walked down the stairs back to the fireplace. He wanted to floo Neville and shout and roar about how Daphne was so wicked to be able to do this to him, but he knew that Neville would just disapprove about the fact he had listened in on her conversation with Bill.

So instead, he reluctantly floo-ed Grimmauld Place and hoped that he would get Hermione. As it was, Draco answered the call.

“What’s wrong with your face?”

“Daphne is having an affair,” Harry hissed.

“What?” Two voices echoed.

“With Bill Weasley,” Harry added.

Theo’s face appeared next to Draco’s in the fire, “Shut the front door!”

“Do you actually live in your own fucking house, Theo?” Harry snapped.

“No need to be mean to Theo just because you’re being delusional,” Draco remarked sarcastically, “Daphne isn’t having an affair with Weasley, what put that ridiculous idea into your head?”

“Oh just the fact I went to floo her and saw her sitting on her bed with him, wearing next to nothing, holding his hand and talking about love in impossible circumstances with obstacles in the way,” Harry said quickly.

“That does sound very affair-like,” Theo admitted.

Draco scoffed, “No it doesn’t, it’s just Harry jumping to conclusions. Sorry to break it to you Harry, but you do kind of have a track record.”

“Jumping to conclusions? What else could what I just heard possibly mean exactly?” Harry snapped.

“Why is Harry jumping to conclusions this time?” A new voice asked.

“He thinks Daphne’s having an affair with Bill,” Draco said.

There was a snort, a loud crash, a shout of “ouch” and then Hermione’s face replaced Theo’s in the fire, “Have you been drinking?”

“No,” Harry said irritably, “I know what I saw Hermione!”

“You thought you saw Severus Snape trying to kill you on a broomstick in 1st year when it was actually Quirrell, and Snape was trying to save you,” Hermione pointed out, “You aren’t exactly the most observant person in the world Harry.”

Draco sniggered, “She has a point.”

“Well I don’t see how I can take what I saw any other way!” Harry snapped, “How would you take it if you saw your fiancé sitting on their bed wearing next to nothing, talking to their boss, holding their bosses hand and talking about love in impossible circumstances?”

Hermione frowned, “Harry, I am sure you are just misunderstanding whatever was going on.”

“What do you class as next to nothing, anyway?” Draco asked curiously.

“How is that relevant?”

Draco shrugged, “I’m just curious.”

“She was wearing a silk dressing gown for Merlin’s sake, a short silk dressing gown,” Harry said.

“Holy shit, she’s definitely fucking him.”

“Shut up Theo!” Hermione and Draco echoed.

“She wears that over her camisole all of the time, she just gets too hot in bed,” Hermione said matter of factly, “All that suggests is that she was ready for bed when Bill came in.”

Draco turned to his wife with a frown, “How do you know that?”

“Because I shared a bed with her while you two were in isolation, honestly get your mind out of the gutter,” Hermione tutted.

Harry would have laughed under different circumstances.

“I really doubt she’s sleeping with him to be honest with you Harry,” Draco said, “She has standards and he’s a Weasley, no offence Hermione.”

“Not much taken,” Hermione said, she shot him a glare.

Harry scoffed, “Honestly, you two are useless. I’m calling Neville.”

“Alright you do that. Let us know when you work out that we’re right,” Hermione said, then she ended the call.

Harry shook his head angrily and floo-ed Longbottom House. He had to try a few times before Neville’s head appeared in the flames.

“What the hell do you want at this time of night?”

“You sound like Draco.”

“I was asleep until you floo-ed me about twenty times!”

“Well I have a crisis and Draco, Hermione and Theo were dicks about it,” Harry said irritably.

“Theo is at their house? At this time of night? What kind of threesome is going on there?”

“Merlin knows,” Harry muttered, “And I don’t really care to be honest because I’ve just found out that Daphne is having an affair.”

Neville rubbed his eyes then looked at Harry sceptically, “Is this you being paranoid again?”

“Merlin, no! Why does everyone think I’m being paranoid? She’s overnight with Bill like I told you earlier and I tried to floo her because I couldn’t settle Teddy and what I saw…seriously Neville I want to kill him for what I saw!”

“What? Did you actually see them having sex?” Neville asked in disbelief.

“No, but I saw her sitting on her bed wearing next to nothing, holding his hand and talking to him about impossible love!” Harry snapped.

Neville frowned, “And she didn’t see you?”

“She hadn’t realised that the floo channel had engaged but that is beside the point Neville-”

“Woah woah woah, so you eavesdropped and only heard and saw part of a conversation?”

“Neville-”

“No, no, no,” Neville shook his head, “I am so not doing this with you and not after bloody midnight either. You are misinterpreting things _again _because you think Daphne’s too hot for you and I’m not indulging it. Get a grip if you’re going to marry her, Harry.”

Before Harry could defend himself, the floo channel cut off so he stomped up to bed full of angst.

**TBC.**


	108. You Could Be the Moon and You Would Still Be Jealous of the Stars

“So this is the infamous mirror.”

Bill nodded, “I ran all of the diagnostic charms while you were getting coffee and its good news.”

“Is it?” Daphne quipped, “I thought there was no good news in this case.”

“Well, there was one scenario that neither of us considered,” Bill admitted.

Realisation dawned on Daphne’s face, “Oh…seriously? prank curse?”

Bill nodded, “No dark magic, no entrapment charm, no souls caught inside the mirror. Just a simple schoolboy curse to scare a bunch of people at a Halloween party 100 years ago.”

Daphne shook her head in disbelief, “So what does it do? Make you think your own reflection is killing you then let you go?”

Bill nodded again, “Hence why there were actually no reported deaths. The whole thing is just a trick, I can take it off in less than 5 minutes assuming Marianne lets me.”

“She is very territorial about that mirror,” Daphne said with a slight smile, “I think I’ll let you do the explaining on that one while I apparate home. Enjoy your ferry back.”

“Oh screw you Daphne, screw you,” Bill cursed.

Daphne shot him a smirk over her shoulder and slipped out of the room. She managed to escape the building without a run in with one of the sisters and the moment she was off the grounds, she apparated back to the mainland. To be safe, she apparated to Wick first then made the jump from there back to London. Apparating over water, always was a tricky one but technically you could do it without going through apparition centres if it was within the UK.

It was still early in the morning and Daphne knew that Bill wouldn’t be back until lunchtime because he probably wouldn’t get the ferry back if he didn’t need to. She could have headed straight home but Harry would be at work anyway and Teddy would be at Andromedas so she decided to go and check in on Sadie.

When Daphne stepped out of the alleyway, she met Hermione walking towards it. The dark haired girl grinned and jokingly said, “How was your sexy rendezvous with Bill?”

“What?” Daphne asked sharply.

“Oh Harry was up in arms last night, saying you were having an affair because he’d seen you virtually naked holding his hand talking about your impossible love. Draco and I told him that he was being delusional of course, but you know how Harry is when he gets on a rant. I’m assuming that’s what you’re going to Sadie’s to bitch about?”

“That’s actually the first I’ve heard of it,” Daphne said coolly, “But I would love to know how Harry overheard that conversation since I was in Shetland at the time.”

“I think he floo-ed you but you hadn’t realised the channel was engaged, I thought you would have heard from him already this morning, I’m sorry,” Hermione said quickly, and sheepishly.

“No Hermione, it’s not your fault that Harry is a jealous idiot,” Daphne snapped as she turned on her heel and stomped back down the alley. She didn’t actually know until she spun on her heel to apparate, where she was going. She could have gone back to Potter Manor, but she was fuming at Harry and she wanted to make a stand.

***

It was because of her fury, that she found herself outside the Auror training base. She used her position as a curse breaker to get in, and had no issue getting her wand scanned or her ID checked.

Once she was inside the building, she glanced at the time. She knew Harry’s training schedule well enough to know that he would be outside at the moment so she followed signs for the track and pitch until she reached it.

By the time she had stalked through the base, she felt angrier than she had when she had left Grimmauld Place. She stalked, in her 5-inch heels, straight into the middle of the pitch and shouted up, “Harry Potter, get your arse down here now if you want to live long enough to become a fully qualified Auror!”

Sheppard raised an eyebrow at her, “Hi, I’m Senior Auror Sheppard, and you are?”

“Daphne Greengrass, that idiot’s fiancé,” Daphne said coolly.

Harry flew down and dismounted his broom, “You have some nerve showing up here-”

“Alright, that’s enough!” Daphne snapped, “I came here with an ultimatum for you. Either you grow the hell up and realise that I’m in love with you or I will leave! I am not fucking every guy I smile at or hold hands with, sometimes I’m just being a supportive friend. I am done with you thinking I’m going to jump onto the next hot guy I see because of your insecurities. I love you, and I’m not better than you, despite what you seem to think. So grow a pair of balls and realise that or you really will lose me!”

Before Harry could pick up his jaw, Daphne had stalked off the pitch and into the base.

Sheppard smacked him on the shoulder, “I’d listen to your hot fiancé if I were you, Potter.”

“I told you she wasn’t having an affair, you halfwit,” Draco called from above.

“So did I!” Neville joined in.

“I thought she was having an affair to be fair,” Theo said.

Blanche snorted, “And everyone knows not to take relationship advice from you Theo.”

“Your gonna get your arse whooped by her tonight when you go home tonight, Potter.”

Harry tried to control the redness in his cheeks as he muttered, “Tell me about it.”

***

“So I got the goss on your ex!”

Hermione rolled her eyes, “Did I ask you to do any such thing, Susan?”

Susan grinned at her and dropped a brown bag on her desk, “No, but I figured you might want the inside scoop.”

Hermione peered inside the bag, “I’m more interested in these muffins than the inside scoop but do tell me how you even found out in the first place.”

“Oh you know, Percy was in the hot seat for Assistant Minister for Magic before he had an existential crisis and became a bounty hunter,” Susan shrugged as she bit into a chocolate chip muffin, “So he hears things.”

“Why is everyone so excited about Viktor coming to work here anyway?” Hermione mused.

“Because he’s a hot, former Quidditch player,” Susan said, as if this were obvious, “Why are you the only person I’ve spoke to who isn’t bothered about it?”

“Because I’ve dated that hot, former Quidditch player and I can tell you that yes, he has a lovely accent and hes a pretty switched on guy but he’s hardly Draco Malfoy,” Hermione reeled off.

“Well as someone who does not find Draco Malfoy attractive in the slightest, no offence Hermione, that did not put me off. Him leaving me high and dry after that ball in 8th year though, that did put me off,” Susan joked, “Although, don’t tell Percy I said that.”

“I won’t,” Hermione chuckled, “So what department is he going to be working in anyway? The Department of Magical Sports and Games I assume?”

Susan swallowed her mouthful and nodded, “Uh-huh, he’s the new Assistant Head as of tomorrow.”

Hermione smiled, “Well good for him, it’s a shame he had to retire so early due to that injury.”

“I didn’t quite get that myself to be honest, most people just see healers and get on with it,” Susan mused.

“It was a bad injury, he practically turned his kneecap inside out because of the way he twisted when he fell off the broom then he landed on it and shattered it. Even after all of the follow-up appointments, he still has a lot of pain and he was told that he might never walk again if he continues to push it by playing Quidditch professionally,” Hermione informed her.

Susan looked at her in disbelief.

“What?”

“Hermione Granger, you are still in contact with him!” Susan realised.

Hermione rolled her eyes, “I write to him occasionally, and no Draco does not know about it because you know how he is.”

“You still write to your ex?”

“He was hardly my ex,” Hermione said, she gave Susan a pointed look, “Do you call every guy who tried something on with you behind the greenhouse your ex?”

“Implying he tried something on with you behind the greenhouse,” Susan grinned.

“In the restricted section actually, and I made myself very clear that whatever he wanted wasn’t going to happen. He was okay about it so we agreed to just stay friends and we have been that ever since, _just _friends,” Hermione said clearly.

“I get the hint, but I’m still reeling from that information,” Susan joked, she shot Hermione a smirk, “See you around.”

“See you Susan,” Hermione said with a shake of her head, she could never quite tell whether Susan amused or exasperated her.

***

“I am going to _kill _Harry.”

Bill looked up in amusement, “What did he do to Teddy on your one night away?”

“Oh nothing,” Daphne fumed, “He just floo-ed me but didn’t announce his presence then went and told all of his, and my, friends that I was having an affair, with you!”

Bill frowned and then realisation dawned in his eyes, “Oh…oh right. Yeah, I can sort of see how he might have misinterpreted what he saw last night as…that.”

“No, Bill, don’t take his side!” Daphne exclaimed, she sat down heavily behind her desk, “The whole point of a relationship is trust and that goes both ways, I don’t think he’s screwing every hot girl that he works with but every time I so much as smile at a good looking guy, he thinks I’m going to run off and leave him. When is he going to get it into his thick head that it’s him I want?”

Bill smiled slightly, “Look Daph, I can see this from his point of view. I have been Harry in this situation. I’ve been the less than whole, scarred and not that attractive guy in a relationship with this beautiful, radiant, part-Veela. I thought she could do better and I figured she did too so I was paranoid that she was going to leave me for the next decent looking guy she met. But she was in love with me, despite the ginger hair, the scars, all the other flaws and it took me a while to work through that one.”

Daphne scoffed, “I’m not Fleur, Bill. I’m hardly a beautiful, radiant, part-Veela.”

“Your not far off it, and you had better not tell Harry I said that. You’re of French descent, blonde hair, blue eyes, slim build, you probably do have some Veela blood somewhere in your family. Harry on the other hand views himself as shorter than average, scruffy, specky…can’t you see why he worries?”

Daphne sighed, “Merlin, I hate insecure guys and his paranoia is literally driving me crazy.”

“Tell him that then, in a gentler way than you just ranted to me,” Bill said, amusement sparkled in his eyes.

“It’s too late for that advice,” Daphne sighed.

“What did you do?”

“I just sort of acted on impulse,” Daphne admitted sheepishly, “I stormed into the Auror base and gave him an ultimatum then told him to grow some balls…in front of all of his colleagues.”

She let her head fall into her hands as Bill barked out laughter, “You’re right you know, Harry is starting to rub off on you. That’s a very brash, Gryffindor thing to do.”

“I know,” Daphne groaned, “And the thing is, normally we would get past an argument like this by roaring at each other then having very hot sex in whatever room of the house we happen to be in, but we can’t exactly do that with Teddy in the house.”

Bill sniggered in amusement, “See, I told you a kid was a big adjustment. It means that you two are going to have to settle this as adults, then have quiet make-up sex without waking up Teddy.”

Daphne raised an eyebrow at him, “You sound like you have experience with this.”

Bill’s eyes just sparkled with amusement as he threw her a brown folder, “Next case, read up because we leave in half an hour.”

***

Daphne got home first that night. She picked Teddy up from Andromeda’s and took him home, then she let him help her make macaroni cheese for dinner. She was wondering why Harry was so late and getting ready to serve it when the front door opened.

“Where’s my favourite little man?”

Teddy grinned and ran into the entrance hall to hug Harry. Daphne kept her back to him as she plated up food and put it on the table, she knew she would have to face him when they sat down but nothing could really be said in front of Teddy.

Harry popped Teddy in his high chair then sat down in his usual seat. He looked over at Daphne but she refused to make eye contact and stabbed her pasta rather aggressively.

“How was Teddy’s day?” Harry asked awkwardly.

“Good, he hasn’t had a nap today so I think it will be dinner, bath, story then bed tonight,” Daphne said without looking up, “He painted and had a woodland walk with Narcissa today, so I hear.”

“That sounds nice,” Harry said, “What did you see in the woods, Ted?”

“Bears!”

Harry laughed, “Bears! We don’t have bears in the UK little man. Did you see any foxes?”

“No, bears!”

“What about squirrels?”

“No, bears!”

“Alright,” Harry chuckled, “Bears it is.”

He glanced over at Daphne, but she hadn’t even cracked a smile. His heart sank, he really was in deep shit this time. They ate in relative silence, the only topic of conversation was Teddy.

After dinner Harry offered to wash up so Daphne took Teddy upstairs, bathed him, read him his favourite story and put him to bed. When she emerged at the foot of the stairs, Harry was waiting for her.

“How was your day?” He asked tentatively.

“Great,” Daphne replied in an overly cheerful manner, “I fucked Bill in three store cupboards.”

“Daphne, don’t be like that-”

“Like what? Like the person who always gets accused of cheating? I don’t accuse you of sleeping with every fangirl that comes up to you,” Daphne hissed, venom dripped from her voice as she spun and walked towards the kitchen.

“Where are you going?”

“Where Teddy can’t hear us arguing,” Daphne snapped.

Harry followed her into the kitchen and shut the door behind him, “I’m sorry that I misinterpreted what I saw but it looked like-”

“- I don’t care what it looked like Harry! What it was, was me comforting Bill because his marriage is falling apart. When I was talking about people coming together in impossible circumstances with obstacles in the way, I was talking about _us_.”

Harry opened his mouth to say something, but all that came out was, “Shit.”

Daphne turned around and gripped the counter, “I can’t spend the rest of our lives treading on eggshells because you think I’m going to run off with the next guy I see.”

“Do you really blame me?” Harry asked quietly, “Have you seen yourself next to me?”

Daphne spun around, “So what? So what if I’m a little better looking than you? I like the messy hair, I like the glasses, I love your eyes. Merlin Harry, I just love _you_, more than I ever thought I could.”

“But-”

“Goddamn it, no buts!” Daphne snapped, she grabbed him and pulled him towards her.

Harry knew how they tended to sort out arguments so he just rolled with it and kissed her back. He took a step, pressing her back against the breakfast bar.

“I’m sorry,” He murmured in-between frantic kisses.

“So you should be,” Daphne said breathily when she drew back from the kiss, “I don’t care if people look at us and wonder why I’m with you, I know why I’m with you. I know that I’m with you because you’re the most generous person I’ve ever met, because you are the most selfless, the most loving.”

Harry wasn’t really sure how to respond to that, so he just kissed her again. This time she went for the buttons on his shirt and started to unbutton them. Harry’s breath caught, “Daph, Teddy’s upstairs.”

Daphne smirked, “Then I guess we’ll just have to be quieter than normal.”

***

Hermione had all but forgotten about the fact Viktor Krum was joining the ministry that morning, until she almost barrelled into him head on.

“Hermione!”

Hermione had been rushing for the lift because, unusually for her, she was running a little late. She looked up and saw him smiling at her, he held the door and motioned for her to enter.

Hermione stepped into the lift and smiled, “Viktor! Congratulations on the new job.”

Viktor smiled back, “Thank you. I am very excited, I have been practicing my English lots.”

“I can tell,” Hermione said, “You said my name right.”

Viktor laughed, “I am sorry about that, you were the first person to attempt to teach me English.”

“It’s alright,” Hermione chuckled, “What brings you over here for the new job?”

“Oh you know,” Viktor said with a wave of his hand, “I fell in love with lots of things about this place when I visited for the tournament and when I came back during the war. This Ministry is beautiful, we have nothing like this at home and the job is all I can imagine myself doing apart from playing Quidditch.”

“That’s understandable,” Hermione mused, “Its such a shame that an injury like that forced you to retire so young.”

Viktor shrugged, “Ah these things, they happen. They come to test us, yes?”

“Yes,” Hermione agreed, she reached past the only other people in the lift, a couple of greying gentlemen, and pressed the button.

The lift came to a stop and the doors opened. Hermione smiled at him, “This is your floor. Your new office is just along the corridor.”

Viktor beamed at her, “Thank you Hermione, I am glad to be having you around.”

Hermione chuckled as he exited the lift. So his English was vastly improved, but he wasn’t quite there yet. She rode the rest of the way to her department silently then dashed along the corridor to the office she was sharing with Rachel.

“Late.”

“By one minute!” Hermione exclaimed.

“You really think I’m gonna log it?” Rachel asked, she raised an eyebrow, “I’m messing with you. But seriously, you’re never late.”

“Well Octavia threw up a hairball on my shoes, literally as I was going out the front door,” Hermione said with a roll of her eyes, “Then I bumped into Viktor in the lift.”

“Old flame Viktor?”

“Yes Rachel,” Hermione said irritably, “Very old, definitely extinguished flame.”

“Whatever you say!”

***

“Hey Sade, you here?”

“Of course I’m here, I’m bedbound. Where else would I be?”

Daphne bit back a chuckle as she darted up the stairs of number 11 Grimmauld place. The door to Sadie and Theo’s bedroom was ajar so she stepped in, “Hey, I thought you might need a friend right now and I won’t lie, I need a rant.”

Sadie smiled weakly, “Shouldn’t you be at work?”

“I’m on my lunch break and it’s a slow day so there’s no real hurry for me to get back,” Daphne admitted, “I brought food, I didn’t know if you would be hungry or not but it’s just a cheese sandwich. I figured the blander the better?”

Sadie’s smile reached her eyes this time, “Bland sounds great, I’m starving.”

Daphne handed her the sandwich and surveyed her, “You look like shit, Sadie.”

“Gee thanks Daph.”

“Sorry,” Daphne said, but Sadie saw the smirk she was trying to hide, “But it had to be said.”

“Yeah well, I imagine I look as shit as I feel. You did things the right way, adopting a baby so you don’t have to deal with all of this pregnancy crap,” Sadie grumbled.

Daphne chuckled, “Well we didn’t exactly plan it that way, but I guess I see your point. Are you still being sick all the time?”

“No, it’s getting better every day now. I’m down to 4 times a day,” Sadie said with a roll of her eyes.

“Yeah, being pregnant sounds awful. I came here to bitch about Harry but I’d feel kind of bad doing for that now that I see how crap you feel,” Daphne admitted.

Sadie shook her head, “No, I’ve been stuck in this bed for far too long getting bored out of my damn mind so please talk to me about anything. I want you to bitch about Harry, what did you two fight about?”

“Oh you know, just the fact he thinks I’m screwing my boss because he eavesdropped on a conversation I was having with him,” Daphne said irritably.

Sadie frowned, “What did he hear you saying that gave him that impression?”

“Well Bill and I were working this case up on Shetland. We had to stay overnight, I was ready for bed then Bill knocked on the door because he wanted to talk to me about Harry. So I let him in, he gave me advice about kids and told me not to adopt Teddy, we argued then he kind of had a breakdown and said his marriage had gone to shit since him and Fleur had their baby. Anyway, Harry heard me talking about love conquering all and even though I was talking about me and Harry, _he _thought I was talking about me and Bill.”

“Wow, that’s a lot to process.”

“Yeah, I’ll give your brain a minute to catch up,” Daphne said, then she took a large, loud bite out of her chicken salad sandwich.

“Right, I’m caught up. So nothing else gave him the idea you were sleeping with Bill, just that tiny excerpt?”

Daphne swallowed her mouthful, “Well…I was holding his hand and I was sort of, ready for bed.”

Sadie gave her a look.

“What?” Daphne asked defensively.

“Can you not see how that would have looked to Harry?” Sadie asked disapprovingly.

Daphne groaned, “Seriously Sade, if I had wanted disapproving looks and for someone to take Harry’s side, I’d have talked to Hermione!”

“I’m just saying,” Sadie said calmly, “Your bedtime clothes are a little…boudoir esque?”

“Did you just call me a hooker?”

“What? No!”

“It really sounded like you did.”

“You are being so defensive,” Sadie said, she crossed her arms over her chest, “It’s because you are attracted to Bill.”

“What? Where are you getting this from?” Daphne asked in disbelief, “Jeez Sadie, pregnancy hormones are driving you mad.”

“Oh no way, you do not get to blame hormones for this one,” Sadie said, she pushed herself up in bed, “You are being defensive because a part of you is attracted to Bill. The question is, is that part of you physical or mental?”

“Sadie! He’s my boss and he’s a bloody Weasley, I do not want to sleep with him!”

“Mental then,” Sadie deduced, “I guess I can see that. You admire him, you want to be like him…I wouldn’t worry about it too much, it’s normal. A lot of people have these strange sort of crushes on their bosses and it’s actually just an admiration thing.”

“Since when were you a psychologist anyway?” Daphne muttered under her breath.

“I can just read you well Daph, you are one of my oldest friends,” Sadie pointed out with a smile, “Are you and Harry still on the rocks?”

“Not really,” Daphne admitted, “We had make-up sex, very loud make-up sex. All I can say is thank Merlin for silencing charms now that we have a toddler living with us.”

Sadie snorted, “Thanks for that image.”

“I should be over it now, normally the anger dissipates after angry make up sex,” Daphne admitted, “But I still feel like he doesn’t trust me.”

“He does,” Sadie assured her, “But he doesn’t have the most self-esteem. He thinks you’re too good for him and he worries that someday when you realise that, you’ll run off and leave him. It will take time for him to realise that what he worries about, won’t happen. Until then, give him a little bit of leeway.”

Daphne sighed, “Yeah, you’re right Sadie. Sorry to bother you with all my drama.”

“Feel free to spend every lunch break unloading onto me, I’m so bored,” Sadie complained, “Theo works all day then talks about work all night and I can only get out of this damn bed to shower or pee, otherwise I start throwing up.”

“When do the Healers think it will end?” Daphne asked.

“Its gotten a lot better over the last couple of weeks so they think in another couple of weeks, I’ll be over it,” Sadie said, “I just hope they’re right.”

“I’m sure they are,” Daphne assured her, “They’re all really good at what they do.”

Sadie nodded, but the jovial air that she had had around her when she was teasing Daphne had gone. She seemed down, pale and ill-looking again. Daphne just prayed that the Healers were right because she didn’t know what damage a whole pregnancy of bedrest would do to Sadie’s mental health.

***

“Why are you glaring at Lilly? You’re not still pissed because she blew you off at the weekend, are you?”

Neville glanced over at Harry, “I have every right to be pissed off. I only see her every other weekend and she decided she’d rather party in France, _without me_.”

“It was her co-workers birthday Nev, I wouldn’t take it personally,” Harry muttered, “She’s coming over here by the way.”

Neville looked up at Lilly as she reached their table. This week in the hospital wing they were learning how to dress burn wounds.

“Good job guys. Hey Nev.”

“Oh hey Lilly,” Neville said in an overly cheerful manner, “Do you want to talk to me now then? Don’t have any coworkers you would rather talk to?”

Harry rolled his eyes and kept his eyes on the burn on Neville’s arm that he was treating.

“Really Neville? I had a night out for Clara’s birthday, are you honestly going to begrudge me for that?”

“You never even invited me,” Neville said irritably, “Who knows what you’re doing over there with all of those French bastards.”

Lilly glared at him, “First of all, fuck you. Secondly, French guys are scummy as hell and, thirdly, you could have come! I never said that you couldn’t, I just didn’t think that it would be your scene. We went to the Moulin rouge, me, Clara and a few _girl_friends so maybe you should stop acting like a teenage boy and apologise!”

Neville scoffed and turned away from him, “See you next weekend.”

“See you then,” Lilly said coolly. She stalked off to talk to another pair and Harry looked up at Neville, “Yeah, that was totally letting it go, nice job Nev.”

“Shut up Harry,” Neville snapped as he yanked his arm away and finished treating his own wound.

***

In duel class later that day, Harry decided to bring up the topic of Lilly again. He and Neville were duelling each other to practice different sorts of shield charms.

“You know Nev, I think you’re being overly paranoid with the whole Lilly thing,” Harry said conversationally, “She really does hate French guys and she told you straight up that she was going out with Clara for her birthday.”

Neville scoffed and threw a slightly more aggressive curse Harry’s way, “Really? You are giving me advice about being overly paranoid? It was your fiancé who stormed in here when you falsely accused her of shagging her boss.”

“I know, but that was different,” Harry argued, he tossed a home-made curse at Neville, “I heard a very misleading part of a conversation she was having with Bill. You’re just paranoid because she’s in a different country and you don’t see her that often so you think she’s going to find someone else.”

Neville then threw a nasty entrail expelling curse at Harry, “Shut up Harry, you know nothing about our relationship!”

“I know you’re finding it hard to keep up with the long distance thing,” Harry said, he sent a cutting curse Neville’s way, “And you’re being quite pathetic about it all to be honest.”

“You try it then!” Neville snapped, he tried to burn Harry with a spray of boiling water, “It sucks when you only get to see the girl you love for a couple of days every other weekend! And there’s nothing-”

Harry had to dodge a blasting curse.

“- That I can do about it! Because I can’t stop her doing what she’s doing because she loves it!” Neville was on a roll now so Harry had stopped sending curses back at him. He was just dodging and defending to let his friend get his frustration.

“And I love what I’m doing! I won’t move to France and she won’t come back so how the hell is this ever going to work?”

As Harry dodged a knee-reversing jinx, Draco slipped Theo a few galleons and said, “My moneys on Harry.”

“Nah, Neville’s got this,” Theo whispered.

“I’ll put 10 on Harry,” Blanche cut in.

“5 on Neville,” Olivia whispered.

“I get that it’s shit Neville, but you can’t give up on her just because you’re having a tough time right now,” Harry yelled over the sound of the last blasting curse he’d had to avoid, “It’s only a year, less than that now actually.”

At that point, Neville told Harry to shut up and they launched into a full-blown duel. Even Sumner had stopped to watch them, in fact he had conjured up a chair and was sitting down with his arms crossed watching the duel play out.

It lasted for well over 20 minutes and by the time it ended, several very nasty, home-made curses had flown around the room and both men were very sweaty. In the end, Neville did win by reliving the events of their 2nd year at Hogwarts.

He conjured up a snake when Harry was in the middle of sending a curse his way. Before he could defend himself, the snake had bitten him and taken him down. It gave Neville the chance to disarm him and grin smugly.

A round of applause echoed throughout the room.

“Alright girls, have we settled our little love feud?” Sumner asked as he pushed himself to his feet.

“Yes sir, I apologise for letting my personal feelings interfere with my work,” Neville admitted.

Sumner shrugged, “I had a nice little coffee break and nice work Longbottom, not many people can say they have taken the chosen one down in a duel. Might deflate your head a little bit, eh Potter?”

Harry rolled his eyes, “Yes sir.”

Sumner slapped Neville on the back, “Real good duel Longbottom. You might become the Senior Auror in this partnership yet.”

“What!”

“What?”

Draco and Theo shared an amused look and shook their heads in exasperation.

***

“I don’t know how much longer I can do this for.”

Clara looked up in alarm, “You had better not be thinking of dropping out Lillian Moon. You are the best trauma healer I’ve seen come into this place in years.”

Lilly sighed and put down her quill, “From the minute I was accepted into this place, I felt like I had to choose between what I wanted to do with my life and Neville, and we’re trying to make it work but I still feel like that Clara.”

“Doesn’t he understand that what you are doing here is important?”

“Of course he does, but he…he has trust issues I guess, which I can’t blame him for either. His last girlfriend was a bit of a loose cannon, she screwed him over and I suppose now he thinks that I will too. Then there was the big spat we had before I came here when we were on a break for a while…”

Clara put her own quill down, “Lilly, if you guys love each other enough, you’ll make it work and if not…”

“I know,” Lilly rubbed her eyes, “He had a go at me today for blowing him off to stay in Paris for your birthday and I know we only get to see each other every other weekend but I do have other friends beyond our circle and he needs to realise that.”

“You’re right, he does,” Clara agreed, “But I can also understand what’s going on. He acted angry because he was hurt, he misses you and hes angry that he didn’t get to see you on your weekend together. Why don’t you head back to England this weekend?”

“But we have class this Saturday morning,” Lilly frowned.

Clara smiled at her, “And you happen to be friends with someone higher up than you, it does have its advantages you know. I’ll say that a family thing came up, head home on Friday night and be back here for 7am on Monday morning. Have a good weekend with your boyfriend and when you come back here, do not let me hear that quitting talk okay?”

Lilly smiled up at the senior Healer and nodded, “Okay.”

**TBC.**


	109. This is the Long Goodbye

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter title comes from the song:  
The Long Goodbye by Ronan Keating

“Teddy, bedtime!”

“No! Wanna play.”

Daphne shot Harry a smile, “I know you want to play sweetheart, but you need to sleep or you won’t have any energy to play tomorrow. Who do you want to take you to bed tonight?”

Teddy looked up from his toy train set, “Umm…Dad…no! Mum…no…DadMum.”

Harry laughed and picked the little boy up, “Alright, we’ll both take you up to bed. It’s Muggle story time tonight which means we can have Jack and the Beanstalk or The Three Billy Goats Gruff.”

“Gruff, gruff, gruff!”

Daphne chuckled as they walked into the little boys bedroom. She grabbed the book from the shelf and watched Harry put Teddy into his bed. He took the book from her and started reading, it was one of Teddy’s favourites.

Daphne stood in the doorway and watched. She smiled when Teddy read along with his favourite bits and she looked around the bedroom that they had built for him here. He had toys, he had clothes, he had Quidditch memorabilia…he practically already lived here and Merlin knew, he was already in their hearts. Frankly, she couldn’t see any reason why they wouldn’t adopt him at the end of the trial week.

“Alright little man. The story is finished which means…”

“Night, night!”

“Night, night,” Harry agreed, he leant down and kissed Teddy on the cheek.

Daphne stepped into the room and leant into the cot to kiss him, “Night night baby.”

“Night Mumma,” Teddy said sleepily.

Daphne smiled softly and turned his night light on. Once they had slipped out of the room and shut the door gently behind themselves, they caught each other’s eye.

“Is it just me or are we really good at this?” Daphne asked warmly.

Harry laughed and wrapped his arms around her, “We’re great at it.”

***

“Hermione!”

Hermione looked up and smiled, “Oh hi Viktor. What brings you down here?”

“Coffee, just like you,” Viktor said, he motioned to the cup in her hand.

Hermione laughed, “Yeah…I guess that makes sense since we are standing next to the coffee cart. How are you finding the ministry then?”

“Ah, I love it,” Viktor said cheerfully, he paid for his coffee and smiled at her, “Very welcoming.”

“So you think you’ll stay?” Hermione asked conversationally as they walked back to the lifts together.

Viktor nodded, “Oh yes, I cannot see any reason to leave. I am looking at apartments next week but I do not know London very well. Do you think you could maybe help me out?”

“Oh I don’t know London very well either,” Hermione admitted, “I’m from Oxford, but my fiancé knows London well. I’ll ask him for a few pointers and let you know what he says.”

“Fiancé?” Viktor asked with a raised eyebrow, “You and Ron are marrying, huh?”

“Ron? Oh Merlin, no!” Hermione said with a shake of her head, “Ron and I are…well that didn’t really end well to be honest. No, I’m engaged to Draco, Draco Malfoy. Did you talk to him much when you were over for the tournament?”

Viktor nodded, “Yes, yes, I remember him. He was not pleasant to you as I remember, he made you cry, no?”

“He did,” Hermione agreed, “But a lot changed after the war. It’s complicated, I guess.”

“You can catch me up over lunch next week?” Viktor suggested when the elevator came to a stop.

The elevator pinged and Hermione pointed to the door, “This is your floor.”

“Ah yes, I will get used to that,” Viktor said, he shot her a smile and jumped out of the elevator.

***

Lilly had decided to surprise Neville which she knew would go one of two ways. He would either be delighted to see her, or she would walk in on something and it would end in a fight.

She snuck in the back door and used a locator charm to work out where he was. She wasn’t surprised to find out that he was downstairs in the basement, probably with Harry. When Lilly neared the basement, she heard voices but she was surprised to hear who one of them belonged to.

“Friday night and I’m stuck with you.”

“Hey, if my company is that bad, you can spend your Friday night alone.”

“Why are you happily hanging out here with me anyway?”

“You are my friend Neville, just because I tend to spend a bit more time with Theo-”

Neville scoffed, “A bit? You two are practically joined at the hip.”

“Well…you know what I mean,” Draco said flippantly, “Anyway, Hermione is out with Susan tonight so-”

“So you don’t have anywhere better to be,” Neville finished.

“I didn’t say that!”

“Hermione is out, Theo is looking after Sadie and Harry and Daphne have a kid now,” Neville rattled off, “Which leaves, me. Wow Draco, I feel used.”

“Neville, tell me something. What would you be doing if I wasn’t here to talk shit and drink with you? Wanking into a pool of your own tears over how much you miss Lilly?”

Lilly couldn’t help herself, she burst out laughing at that comment which gave her away.

Neville spun around and stared at her, “Lilly! What are you doing here?”

“Clara gave me a long weekend to gather myself, she was getting fed up of me being a downer because I was missing you,” Lilly said with a smile, “But now that I know how you spend your Friday nights…”

“That is not how I spend my Friday nights,” Neville said, he shot Draco a glare.

Draco smirked.

“Right Draco, you can fuck off now. I have another way I’d like to spend my Friday night.”

Draco scoffed and got to his feet, “Gryffindors, you would throw your best friend under the bus for a shag.”

“Firstly, need I remind you that I was literally the last person you wanted to hang out with tonight? Secondly, you are not my best friend and thirdly, I wish Hermione hadn’t taught you that phrase.”

Draco waved a hand at him, “Whatever. I’ll go bug Harry, the little werewolf should be asleep now anyway. See you tomorrow for the cheering up Sadie party.”

Before anyone could say anything else, Draco exited the basement.

Lilly looked over at Neville, “The cheering up Sadie party?”

“She’s basically bedbound and pretty depressed with the whole extreme morning sickness thing,” Neville explained, “So Daphne is getting everyone to go over to the house so she feels included.”

“And nobody invited me?” Lilly frowned.

“Well they did,” Neville said, “But I told them that you had class on the Saturday so I didn’t think you would make it, sorry.”

Lilly shook her head, “No, you’re right. I wouldn’t have made it, that seems to be a recurring theme right now.”

Neville sighed, “It is what it is. It’s only for a year.”

“And we’re barely 2 months into that year,” Lilly reminded him, “Look how much we’re struggling.”

“Then we just need to try harder,” Neville said, he pulled her into his arms, “I’m so glad that you’re home Lil.”

Lilly sighed but leant into his embrace, “I’m glad too,” she said honestly.

***

When Neville and Lilly stepped into the drawing room of Number 11 Grimmauld Place, Sadie’s face lit up, “Lilly! I didn’t think you could make it back this weekend.”

Lilly smiled at her friend, “I got out of my Saturday morning classes. How are you doing?” She asked as she hugged Sadie.

“I’m doing much better,” Sadie admitted, “Down to one bout of sickness a day, I really hope it will go completely soon so I can get back on my feet.”

“I’m sure it will,” Lilly assured her, “You look so much better than you did when I last saw you.”

“Thank you,” Sadie said warmly, “I just need to find something to kill the boredom now. I think that was why Daphne threw me this party, to catch me up on everything and cheer me up.”

“Hey, you aren’t the only one who could use catching up,” Lilly joked, “I didn’t even know until this morning that Harry and Daphne had practically adopted Teddy.”

“Well they haven’t yet, but they had him all week as a trial and it went really well so I don’t think it will be long now,” Sadie said.

Lilly shook her head, “I don’t know how you guys do it. I can barely keep on top of my work and my relationship, I definitely couldn’t have a baby right now.”

“We aren’t all cast from the same mould Lil,” Sadie said with a smile, “Hermione isn’t ready for kids yet either and you know that this wasn’t exactly planned.”

“I know,” Lilly said, she grabbed Sadie’s hand, “But you’re going to be a great Mum Sadie.”

“I hope so,” Sadie said with a weak smile.

GGG

“Hey Daphne, what should you do if an ex-boyfriend comes back into your life and you’re fairly sure that they are flirting with you?”

Daphne handed Hermione a shot glass, “Down tequila.”

Hermione raised an eyebrow at her, “If I do, will you give me some real advice?”

“Maybe.”

Hermione rolled her eyes and downed the tequila. She hit the glass down on the table and looked at Daphne pointedly.

“Okay so you’re fairly sure this guy is flirting with you?”

“Yeah, I mean…I’m not very good at noticing that sort of thing,” Hermione admitted.

Daphne shook her head, “Seriously?”

“Seriously, what should I do?”

“Who are we even talking about? I didn’t think you had any ex-boyfriends apart from Ron.”

“Well, I do,” Hermione said shortly, “The one that I’m talking about at this particular moment in time is Viktor.”

“Viktor?”

“Krum.”

“You dated Viktor Krum?”

“Seriously? What were you doing in 4th year? I walked into the bloody Yule Ball with him!”

“I was kind of distracted by a gorgeous French boy called Marcel that year…” Daphne said, she went off into a slight daydream, “I seriously did not notice that you went to the Yule Ball with Krum. How could I not notice that? Draco must have been up in arms about it, he was still in his ‘I’m in complete denial about my crush on Granger’ phase then.”

Hermione smiled slightly, “Well it’s not that important, it’s just that he’s got this new job at the Ministry and we’ve bumped into each other a few times.”

“And he’s flirting with you? Does he know you’re engaged?”

Hermione nodded, “I mentioned it the last time but it didn’t seem to phase him.”

“Hmm,” Daphne hummed suspiciously, “Susan had a brief thing with him you know, she said he was a dick.”

“He always seemed sweet to me,” Hermione admitted.

“Hermione, I don’t want to call you naïve but you do always see the best in people, which is admirable but also pretty naïve,” Daphne admitted.

“See, this is why I wanted to talk to you about it,” Hermione said, “You always tell me the truth, even if it’s not the nicest thing to hear.”

Daphne shrugged, “Slytherin trait I guess. Also, I think sugar-coating things is a waste of time. More tequila?”

Hermione raised an eyebrow at her, “Do you think all of us drinking is really going to cheer Sadie up?”

“I think it will when she sees how ill we all are tomorrow, then it will be like we all have extreme morning sickness!” Daphne joked as she slid the shot glass in Hermione’s direction.

***

“So…”

“So?”

“We’re doing this, aren’t we?”

Daphne looked down at the final adoption papers on the table, “I’m ready to sign if you are.”

“I am so ready to sign,” Harry said eagerly, “This week with Teddy…it has been one of the best weeks of my life.”

“Mine too,” Daphne agreed.

“Shall we do this then?” Harry asked excitedly.

Daphne smiled, “You first.”

Harry dipped the quill into the inkpot and signed on the dotted line. He cast a wandless drying charm on the ink then stepped aside.

Daphne took the quill, dipped it into the inkpot and signed on the dotted line below. She cast a drying charm too and took a step back to look at both of their signatures on the pivotal piece of paper.

“I’ll take it into the Ministry on my lunch break tomorrow,” Daphne said after a moment of silence.

Harry nodded, “We’ll let Andi know what we’re planning on doing when we take Teddy back tonight.”

“Did you hear him when he was packing earlier?”

Harry nodded, “He didn’t want to go.”

“I know, it broke my heart,” Daphne admitted.

“But, with this getting handed in tomorrow it’s only temporary,” Harry said, he grabbed her hand and squeezed it.

“I just hope it all gets finalised quickly,” Daphne said.

“I’m sure it will,” Harry said optimistically.

***

“I love it when you come back for a weekend but I hate this part.”

Lilly snuggled in closer, “Me too.”

“I just want you to stay here all night, I don’t want you to have to get up and get dressed. I want to keep you by my side then wake up with you tomorrow and make you breakfast. I want to be able to meet up for lunch, I want to be able to take you out on a date on a week night.”

“I know,” Lilly said sadly, “I want all of that too but I also want to be a Trauma Healer so badly. I didn’t know how badly until I started this course, it wasn’t what I wanted to do with my life but I’m good at it Nev and I can make a difference.”

“I know you can,” Neville said, he pressed a kiss onto her forehead, “And I can’t begrudge you for that because that’s exactly how I feel about becoming an Auror. I just wish you didn’t have to do it in France.”

“Me too,” Lilly said, she shut her eyes and breathed in the scent that she associated with Neville. She always did before she left, just like she always stole a T-shirt that he had worn that weekend so that she didn’t forget that smell, Clara thought it was disgustingly romantic but it was all that kept Lilly going some weeks.

“I love you Lil.”

“I love you too Neville.”

***

** **

“Theo, do you think it’s too early to talk about baby names?”

“Nah, it’s never too early to start that argument,” Theo joked.

Sadie shot him a mock glare, “How do you know it will be an argument?”

“Because as much as I love you Sade, I also know you very well and I know that our tastes are very different,” Theo said, he handed her a glass of water.

“Our tastes aren’t that different and I’m not drinking this.”

“The Healers said that you had to keep up your fluid intake.”

“I don’t care, if I drink this I’ll have to get up and pee at least three times tonight,” Sadie said, she put the glass down on the table, “We’ll go for family names won’t we?”

“Will we? I do not want another Theodore Nott in the family, I’m the 7th one!”

“I meant that a little more broadly,” Sadie said with a roll of her eyes, “Like Atticus?”

“For my crazy Uncle who thought his plants were his children? Nah, I don’t think so.”

Sadie rolled her eyes, “Okay then smart arse, what names do you like?”

“Nice normal pureblood names, like Phineas.”

“Oh for Daphne’s Uncle/Mothers lover?” Sadie quipped.

“Now who is getting into the name association game?”

Sadie glared at him, “Augustus.”

“Too Roman. Tobias?”

“Ugh, that was Snape’s middle name. How about Clyde?”

Sadie raised an eyebrow at him, “Like the river in Glasgow?”

“Wow, you are being bitchy about this. Why don’t we try some girls names? Maybe we’ll agree on those ones,” Theo suggested.

Sadie looked doubtful but all the same she said, “How about Tabitha?”

“Too cat-like,” Theo said, “I like Penelope.”

“It reminds me of a pig,” Sadie said.

“What? Why?”

“I don’t know, alliteration maybe. I like Harriet.”

Theo snorted, “What we shorten it to, Harry? He’d bloody love that.”

“We don’t have to shorten it,” Sadie said.

“Yes we do. A kid needs a name that can be shortened, for example I’m Theo to the people I like and Theodore to the people I want to intimidate.”

“You can’t shorten my name, but everyone still tries,” Sadie said irritably, “I mean Sade, that makes no sense.”

“See, it annoys you that your name can’t be shortened so we should name our kid something that can be shortened,” Theo said.

Sadie hummed thoughtfully, “I guess. We’re never going to agree on names though, are we?”

“Let’s have this conversation again in a few months’ time,” Theo suggested evasively.

***

Daphne was in a great mood on Monday and she told Bill why. Despite the chat they had had in Shetland, he told her that he was happy for her and he truly meant it. She warned Bill that she might be late back from her lunch break, depending how long it took to hand the forms in at the Ministry.

As it was, she just had to go in and literally drop them off with a receptionist. However, it was what she saw and heard on her way out of the Ministry that made her late back to work. She was about to head over to an apparition point when she saw Hermione sitting on a bench in a little covered garden outside of the ministry, eating lunch with Viktor Krum.

She knew it was wrong to eavesdrop, but she did it with good intentions. She wanted to make sure that Hermione wasn’t accidentally flirting with Viktor and leading him on, it was the kind of thing that Hermione would do after all.

“Thanks for bringing me lunch Viktor, but you really didn’t need to do it,” Hermione was saying.

“Oh but I need to know how you became engaged to the boy who made you cry,” Viktor said, “You said long story, I have time.”

Hermione laughed awkwardly, “Well during the war he helped our friends out so when we all went back to school…well he and I became friends. I was the Head Girl and he was the Head Boy and I realised that he was actually a good person, despite all that he had done.”

“So you forgived him?”

“I forgave him, yes,” Hermione said, “Some people called me stupid and naïve for that, but I don’t blame him for anything that happened during the war. I wouldn’t be marrying him if I felt any sort of resentment.”

Viktor hummed thoughtfully, “I feel he is beneath you.”

“He really isn’t,” Hermione assured him, “He’s very good to me, and I love him.”

“But he was a bad person to you, and he said horrible things. Nobody should say such horrible things to such a beautiful woman,” Viktor said.

Hermione blushed, “Uh…well like I said…I forgave him for that. He had his reasons, I told you that it was complicated.”

“Maybe you need less complicated.”

Hermione shook her head, “I like my complicated life with Draco. I’m sorry if that isn’t what you want to hear.”

Viktor shook his head, “Is okay, if that is how you feel then I am your friend and nothing more.”

“I appreciate that,” Hermione said, she smiled at the older man, “And thank you, for lunch.”

“You are very welcome. I had better get back, I see you around Hermione.”

“See you around Viktor,” Hermione replied.

Less than 5 minutes after he had left, Daphne had vacated his seat.

“Oh yeah, he was flirting with you.”

Hermione jumped out of her skin, “Daphne! What are you doing here?”

“Dropping off adoption papers, to your department actually,” Daphne said matter of factly, “I wondered where you were then I spotted you on my way out. That was blatant flirting, he still has feelings for you.”

“I noticed that, did you eavesdrop on our whole conversation?”

“Just the latter part,” Daphne admitted sheepishly, “I wanted to make sure you weren’t accidentally flirting with him.”

“Was I?”

“No, you were just being nice which is what you do,” Daphne said with a shrug, “Some guys think that’s flirting but I think he got the point.”

“Good,” Hermione sighed, “The last thing I need is an ex pining over me. Could you imagine if Draco found out? He would go on the rampage.”

“He is a little…protective, shall we say?” Daphne said with a slight smile, “As annoying as it is, and trust me I know how annoying it is because Harry’s the same, it comes from a good place. He’s worried one day you’re going to realise that he’s a scummy ex-Death Eater and run off with a hero do-gooder.”

Hermione chuckled, “Well he can rest easy, I am not planning on running off with anyone and especially not with Viktor. He’s a nice guy and I would like to stay friends with him but he’s no Draco.”

“He’s one in a million Mione, just don’t tell him that or his head will get bigger than Harrys!”

***

** **

“Daphne, I need to talk to you.”

Daphne looked up in alarm, “I don’t like that tone. What have you done?”

“I requested the floo records from around the time of your Fathers death,” Harry said quietly, “And in doing so I stirred up some suspicion.”

“Harry-”

“The Auror is a guy called Finch, I know him from training so he was lenient. He gave me a week before we need to hand in the letters, but if we don’t do it, he’ll arrest us both for obstruction of justice,” Harry finished quickly.

“That wasn’t your place!”

“I know,” Harry said, he raised his hands up, “I didn’t want to talk to you about it until Teddy went back to Andi’s but as it stands, we only have two days until that evidence needs handed in. The thing is Daphne, I just wanted to confirm my suspicions and I did…these are the transcriptions from the floo calls.”

Daphne’s eyes darkened as she read over the transcripts between her Mother and her lover.

“It was all her idea,” She said coldly.

Harry nodded, “She needs to be punished Daphne.”

Daphne swallowed hard and nodded, “Let me talk to Astoria tonight?”

Harry nodded again, “Do you want me to come with you?”

Daphne shook her head, “No, I need to do this alone.”

Harry reached out and took her hand, “Hey…I’m sorry.”

“It isn’t your fault, you were just trying to get the truth for me and I appreciate that,” Daphne caught his eye, “I really do, but it still means that I have to tell my sister that we don’t have the same Father and that our Mother is a homicidal maniac so if I seem a bit put out, that’s why.”

Harry sighed and squeezed her hand, “Are you sure you don’t want me to come with you?”

Daphne shook her head, “It’s messy, family drama. You don’t need to be a part of that, I’ll send you a patronus if I need you.”

“Alright,” Harry conceded, he let go of her hand and watched her walk out of the room.

***

Daphne felt sick as she stood on the doorstep of Astoria’s apartment. She knew that the conversation they would have tonight was not going to be an easy one, she had been dreading it for years.

The door swung open and Astoria smiled warmly, “Daph! What are you doing here at this time?”

“I need to talk to you Tori, can I come in?”

Astoria nodded and took a step back. Daphne stepped into her sisters home and shut the door behind her with a heavy sigh.

“What’s wrong? Is it Teddy? Or is something up with you and Harry?” Astoria asked anxiously.

Daphne shook her head and looked up at her little sister, “Astoria…I have kept something from you for a long time, something…big. I did it to protect you, I didn’t want the truth to hurt you but now its all going to come out and I…I need you to hear it from me first.”

Astoria frowned, “Daphne, you’re scaring me.”

Daphne took a shaky breath, “I’m sorry Tori but everything you thought about your life, everything we thought about our parents…it’s all a lie.”

Astoria’s frown deepened, “Daphne…what do you…what do you mean?”

“Our Mother is a cold-blooded killer Astoria,” Daphne said quietly.

“What?”

“She killed Father, then she turned us against him and made it seem like she was the victim,” Daphne said, she couldn’t bring herself to meet her sisters eye, “She had Uncle Phineas help her because he was her lover.”

“I knew that, it was always obvious,” Astoria said offhandedly, “But what idiot convinced you that they were murder-buddies?”

“I’ve seen floo call transcripts,” Daphne whispered, “Between her and Uncle Phineas. They were planning Fathers death for weeks, they wanted him out of the equation so that they could be together.”

Astoria swallowed, “Daphne, that makes no sense. Mother and Uncle Phineas fell out of contact after Father died.”

“Because Phineas couldn’t live with what he had done I think,” Daphne said, “I don’t think he could look at her every day without thinking about what he had done for her.”

Astoria shook her head tearfully, “Daphne, this is madness.”

“No,” Daphne said coolly, “It’s the truth Astoria and I am taking the evidence to the Ministry first thing tomorrow morning. There is going to be a trial and I think…I think the truth about you might come out during that trial.”

“The truth about me?” Astoria asked incredulously, “What exactly do you think of me exactly? You did just accuse our Mother of being a murderer!”

“And a cheater,” Daphne said, she looked up and caught Astoria’s eye, “She was screwing Uncle Phineas for the majority of our childhood Astoria. Did you never think that she might have been sleeping with him before we were born too? Did you never wonder why you have dark hair when Mother and Father were both blonde. Did you never make the connection between you and your raven-haired Uncle? Because Father did, he knew and that was why he always favoured me over you. Uncle Phineas knew, that was why he brought you such nice gifts when he travelled the world. Mother sure as hell knew and I…I found out one night when I was eavesdropping on a conversation between them in France.”

Astoria took a step back and stared at her with silent betrayal.

“I’m sorry Astoria, this wasn’t how I wanted to tell you,” Daphne said remorsefully, “In fact, I never wanted to tell you but with everything that’s going to happen-”

“Get out.”

“Astoria-”

“I set, _get out_,” Astoria said coolly.

Daphne opened her mouth to object.

“Now!” Astoria roared, and everything in the apartment shook.

Daphne set her jaw and nodded, “Fine.”

She wanted to feel angry at Astoria, but as she walked out of the apartment with tears streaming down her face, all she could feel was sad.

***

** **

When Daphne swept into Potter Manor with tear-streaked cheeks, Harry instantly pulled her into a hug.

“That bad?”

“She nearly lost control of her magic when she screamed at me to get out,” Daphne said quietly.

“You knew that she was going to be angry at first baby,” Harry said gently, “You just told her that her entire life was a lie, and on top of that you have known for years and haven’t told her. I can sympathise with that part, Dumbledore raised me like a pig for slaughter for years and never told me that I basically existed to kill Voldemort then die.”

Daphne sniffled slightly into his shoulder.

“I know that probably doesn’t help now,” Harry added sheepishly, “But I’m just saying, it sucks being lied to by someone that you love. It will take her time to cool down and come to terms with everything.”

“It might take a lifetime.”

“Regardless of who her Father is, she is your sister,” Harry reminded her, “You two will find your way back to each other when the dust settles, I’m sure of it.”

Daphne wasn’t quite so sure as she sighed heavily into his embrace, “Early start tomorrow then? We’ll take this in before work and get it over and done with before your Auror friend arrests us?”

Harry nodded and gripped her tightly, “I can do it you know, you don’t have to come with me.”

“She’s my Mother,” Daphne said coldly, “And she killed my Father, so I do have to come with you.”

“Okay,” Harry said softly, “Then yes, it’s going to be an early start tomorrow.”

**TBC.**


	110. A Family Affair

Daphne didn’t say anything to Harry the following morning. She got up, dressed and readied herself for the day silently then let him lead her through the Ministry to the Auror department.

When they reached a small room at the back, Harry asked Rachel, “Is Finch in yet?”

“Yep, over by the coffee,” Rachel said offhandedly.

Harry led Daphne over to the older, greying man. He smiled sympathetically at them, “I was starting to think that you wouldn’t come in, I really didn’t want to be the guy that had to arrest Harry Potter and his girl.”

Harry shook his head, “Like I said, there were some things to sort out first but we have all of the evidence here.”

“Come in here,” Finch said, he opened a door and led them into an empty office.

“Letters,” Daphne said as she threw a pile on the desk, “From my Father to his cousin talking about my Mothers affair and how he feared for his life.”

“And you have the floo transcripts,” Harry added.

Finch nodded, “It will be enough to arrest them and do a Legilimency test. From there…well, if we find anything it will go to a court case. You will have to testify Miss. Greengrass.”

“I understand that,” Daphne said calmly.

“Even if she did do what you think she did, she is still your Mother,” Finch said gently.

“As far as I’m concerned, I have no Mother,” Daphne said coolly, “I will testify against her, I can supply any memories you might require as well. Whatever you need, Auror.”

Finch nodded, “I appreciate that, thank you Miss. Greengrass. Would you mind if I had a word with Harry alone?”

Daphne left the room wordlessly, and once she had, Finch put up a silencing charm, “Is she really that cold?”

Harry shook his head, “She’s shutting herself off, it’s what she does in a painful situation. She is telling the truth about testifying though, her Mother made her hate her Father and now she’s found out that her Father loved her and her Mother was a twisted bitch so she’s bitter.”

Finch sighed, “It’s a messed up case but if we can prove that they killed Cygnus Greengrass…it’s life in Azkaban for whoever did it and 25 years for the abettor.”

“As far as Daphne’s concerned, they deserve it,” Harry admitted, “She has a pretty black and white view of justice to be honest with you.”

Finch shrugged, “She’s a Slytherin, we’re all a bit like that. You need to learn to shake it when you become an Auror though, there are a lot of grey areas whether we like it or not.”

Harry hummed thoughtfully, “So what happens now?”

“Well, I’ll get my partner in on this. Once we’ve reviewed the evidence we’ll arrest Lareina and Phineas,” Finch said, “Then we will get permission to do a Legilimency test. Once that’s done, we will know whether there’s going to be a trial or not so either way, things will be well and truly moving by the end of the week.”

“Thanks Finch,” Harry said, he shook the mans hand, “Keep me in the loop.”

“You got it, Harry.”

GGG.

When they left the office that day Daphne said she was fine then she kissed Harry and went to work. When Bill asked about her stony face, she said that she was fine. When she nearly burst into tears over a death in their curse case that afternoon, she said she was fine. When she popped over to Sadie’s with bagels to try and force her best friend to eat, she assured Sadie that she was fine.

But the truth of it was that she was far from fine. Despite her complicated relationships with her Mother and Father she had always had a constant confidant in Astoria and now she feared she would lose that. She had lied to her sister and she had betrayed both her Mother and her Uncle, Daphne knew that would not go down well with her sister.

Despite everything else going on, it was that thought of losing Astoria forever that kept tugging at her heart strings.

All the same, when Harry came home from work that night and asked how she was, she told him that she was fine. He knew that she wasn’t but he also knew that she would shut down if he pushed the issue so he accepted her answer.

They made small talk over dinner and spent the evening in the living room perusing their own books; Harry read one of his Auror training textbooks and Daphne read up on ancient Egyptian curses. Around 10pm, Daphne asked Harry if he wanted a cuppa and, just like every night, Harry replied that a coffee would be lovely.

When Daphne had not returned from the kitchen 15 minutes later, Harry got up to go and check on her. He stepped into the kitchen and saw her sobbing over the kitchen counter.

“What’s wrong?” He asked in alarm.

“I made tea instead of coffee,” Daphne replied tearfully.

Harry, being Harry, was completely baffled by why this had upset her because Hermione had hit the nail on the head a long time ago. He, like Ron, had the emotional range of a teaspoon compared to her.

“Baby, it’s fine. Just pour it down the sink and start again.”

“Just pour it down the sink and start again?” Daphne asked, enraged, “How can I just start again? I’ll never get back what I lost, it will never be the same again.”

Harry’s frown deepened, “Well it won’t be, because it will be coffee instead of tea.”

“For Merlin’s sake Harry, I’m not talking about the fucking coffee!”

Harry scratched his head, “Daphne, I’m really not following. What are you talking about?”

“My sister,” Daphne said as she flung herself into a chair, “She hates me and she has every right to, I’m the reason our Mother will rot in jail and probably her Father too. But I can’t just ignore the fact that they killed _my _Father.”

Harry nodded dumbly.

“But we’ve always been close and this sets us apart now because she’s not really my sister-”

“She’s your half-sister but she’s still your sister,” Harry cut in, “You’ve known that for a while.”

“But _she _hasn’t,” Daphne exclaimed, “And now that she does, she’s going to see things differently.”

“Look Daphne, she’s upset right now and shocked,” Harry assured her, “You know she’s going to calm down.”

“I don’t know that actually Harry!” Daphne exclaimed, “I really don’t! I don’t know what any of this is going to do to her and that terrifies me! I have no remorse for my Mother, she deserves everything that she gets and Phineas deserves it too for doing her bidding like a lovesick fool but Astoria is innocent, she doesn’t deserve any of this!”

Whatever she said after that was incoherent through her crying, but Harry held her until she calmed down and stopped shaking, then he took her upstairs and put her to bed.

GGG.

_Knock. Knock._

“Harry! What are you doing here? Is Daphne okay?”

Harry sighed, “Can I come in?”

Astoria nodded and took a step back. Once Harry had shut the door behind himself, he replied, “Not really.”

“Is this about her visit here the other day?” Astoria asked quietly.

Harry nodded, “I know you are upset Astoria, and I don’t blame you. I don’t blame you for being angry either but you know that Daphne loves you. She loves you regardless of the fact you don’t share the same Father and not knowing if you are ever going to speak to her again…it’s killing her.”

Astoria sighed, “Of course I’m going to speak to her again Harry. I just needed some time to come to terms with everything. The truth is, the more I think about it the more it makes sense of everything that has happened in my life. I am angry at her for keeping it from me but I know why she did it.”

“She was just trying to protect you,” Harry said.

“It’s all she has ever done, my whole life,” Astoria admitted, she sat down on the edge of an armchair, “When the house went on fire that night, my Mother panicked. It was Daphne who got me out, it was Daphne who picked me up and fixed me up every time I fell off a broom. It was Daphne who let me cry on her shoulder when my heart got broken. I could never sacrifice that relationship just because I’m angry right now.”

“She didn’t want to hurt you Astoria, but she couldn’t have lived with herself if she hadn’t handed the evidence in to the ministry. I’ve seen it too, she isn’t delusional, your Mother really did conspire with Phineas to murder Cygnus.”

“I noticed that you used names instead of titles,” Astoria said quietly, “Because you don’t know how to refer to them now that I know the truth-”

“I-” Harry began sheepishly.

Astoria shook her head, “It’s okay, because I don’t know either. All I do know is that despite everything else, Daphne is still my sister and she always will be. I’m sorry that she had to make you come over here for me to admit that.”

Harry shook his head, “She didn’t make me come round, I did it of my own accord when I saw how upset she was. You know, as much as I love your sister, I don’t think I will ever understand her.”

Astoria frowned and looked up, “How do you mean?”

“She told me all day that she was fine, then she had a full-blown mental breakdown over the fact she had made tea when I asked for coffee,” Harry explained.

Astoria laughed, “Daphne bottles things up until the point that she can’t anymore. Then everything just comes spilling out and its always the silliest things that trigger it. You will just have to get used to it I guess, imagine how much worse she will be when she’s pregnant.”

Harry grimaced, “Don’t even go there, we’re just adopting Teddy so I think we’ll wait a few years before we get to that point.”

Astoria smiled, “You’re good for her you know? I hope things never change between you two.”

“I hope so too,” Harry said with a smile, “Thanks Astoria, see you around.”

“See you around Harry.”

GGG.

When Daphne came downstairs the following morning, she wasn’t feeling particularly talkative.

“Look Daphne, I need to tell you something and-”

“Did you just put a shield charm up?”

“What? No!” Harry lied, badly.

Daphne raised an eyebrow at him, “If you want to be a good Auror you’re going to have to learn to do that more discreetly and to lie better. What the hell do you need to tell me that requires a bloody shield charm?”

“I went to your sisters place last night.”

Daphne’s eyes darkened, “You meddling bastard!”

A stunning charm was shot his way, and it bounced off his shield charm.

“Hence the shield charm,” Harry muttered under his breath, “She is angry at you, but she won’t be forever. She just needs a little time, like I said she would.”

“It wasn’t your place to go over there, Harry,” Daphne fumed.

“I know, but I was worried about you-”

“You’re always worried about me, you and your damn hero complex!” Daphne exclaimed, “I should have listened to Hermione when she warned me about that! You need to save me all the time, don’t you? Is that what drew you to me? How broken and fucked up I was? Well I’ve had enough of it, I’m not a damsel in distress like Ginny bloody Weasley or Cho fucking Chang! I can deal with my problems by myself without you swooping in to save the day because you’re Harry fucking chosen arsehole Potter!”

Before Harry could defend himself, or fight back, she had stalked out of the room and slammed the front door shut behind her.

GGG.

“I’m going to kill your bloody fiancé,” Harry fumed when he walked into the locker room that morning.

“My fiancé? As in your best friend?” Draco asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Best friend?” Harry scoffed, “Well my supposed best friend has Daphne thinking that I only fell in love with her because she was an ideal damsel in distress or some shit like that. She was banging on about some hero complex that I apparently have.”

Draco snorted, “Apparently?”

“Hate to break it to you mate, but there’s no apparently about that,” Neville said, he slapped on the back.

“You definitely have a hero complex,” Theo agreed.

“And you are partial to a damsel in distress,” Neville added, “Saving Ginny from the basilisk then falling in love with her-”

“Years later!” Harry objected.

“Then comforting Cho over the death of her boyfriend and falling in love with her,” Neville pointed out.

“Okay so first of all, I liked Cho _before _that. She chose Cedric over me then he died which was just complicated and messy because despite what Hermione thinks, I do not have the emotional range of a teaspoon.”

Draco sniggered loudly at that.

“And secondly, I never fell in love with Cho,” Harry finished, “So that point was…pointless.”

“Well said,” Theo teased.

Harry rolled his eyes, “So I tried to help Daphne and all I got was a heap of bloody abuse anyway, I don’t know why I bother.”

“What’s going on with her anyway?” Draco asked, “I noticed that she’s been a bit off.”

“Since she’s already pissed off at me, and it’s all going to come out soon anyway, I guess I can tell you,” Harry reasoned, “Her Mother is a murderer.”

“What?”

“Her Mother and her Uncle Phineas plotted to kill her Father during the war, they made it look like a Death Eater attack but really they wanted him dead so that they could be together,” Harry explained, “Daphne’s Mother gave her a box of stuff from her Dads study and she found these letters he wrote to his cousin about how he was paranoid that they were going to kill him. So I decided to dig a little deeper and I spoke to an Auror about getting access to the floo records for Greengrass house around that time. Anyway, the floo records were pretty solid proof so its going to court very soon.”

“Fucking hell,” Draco said, he sat down heavily, “I spent loads of time with them as a kid. I actually always liked Daphne’s Dad, he didn’t treat me like some stupid kid like my Dad did. Her Mother was snooty, but so was mine so I figured that was just normal but for her to be a murderer…”

Theo nodded, “But I guess some people are just really good at hiding their true nature. Look at Voldemort, he had everyone fooled when he was young.”

Harry sighed and nodded his agreement, “So the whole thing has messed her up and she’s fighting with Astoria about it too which has her upset. I want to be the bigger person and ignore what she said because of everything she has going on but-”

“Uh-uh,” Theo said with a shake of his head, “Even in the heat of the moment, everything said in an argument is said because it has a semblance of truth to it. You need to talk about what she said before it becomes a big issue.”

“I agree with Theo on this one,” Neville said.

“Personally I wouldn’t mention it until she did, but that’s just me,” Draco shrugged, “Then again if Hermione called me a Death Eater in an argument, I wouldn’t be able to just drop something like that.”

Harry sighed heavily, “I really hope I get an excuse to work late tonight,” he admitted.

“Just piss Sumner off and you’ll be here all night!” Theo joked.

GGG.

“No way! You caught the snitch in under a minute?”

“Yes, European record for time taken to catch the snitch in a professional game.”

Hermione shook her head, “But 38 seconds, that’s just crazy.”

“Or lucky,” Viktor shrugged, “Luck tends to go in my favour.”

“I wish luck went in my favour,” Hermione joked, “I seem to be a pretty unlucky person.”

“You survived lots of dangerous things, that’s pretty lucky,” Viktor pointed out.

Hermione nodded and took a bite of her apple, “Hmm, I suppose that is lucky.”

“And you have me as a friend, that’s lucky,” Viktor added.

Hermione raised an eyebrow at him, “You think rather a lot of yourself these days Viktor.”

Viktor shrugged and smiled at her, “Or perhaps I try to impress you.”

Hermione opened her mouth to say that he didn’t need to impress her, when they were interrupted.

“Hermione, you’re on your lunch,” Daphne said in relief, “I really need to talk to you.”

“What’s wrong?” Hermione asked anxiously.

“I think I might have said something really stupid and hurtful to Harry,” Daphne admitted.

Hermione sighed but got to her feet, “Let’s go for a walk Daph. See you later Viktor.”

Viktor gave her a disappointed wave. Hermione fell in step with Daphne as they walked out of the ministry courtyard into muggle London.

“What did you say?”

“I said that I should have listened to you when you warned me about his hero complex,” Daphne admitted sheepishly, “Then I implied he only fell in love with me because I needed fixing and I’m pretty sure I called him Harry fucking chosen arsehole Potter.”

Hermione raised an eyebrow at her, “What did he do to deserve that?”

“Well it’s a long, complicated story but I guess it’s all going to come out now anyway,” Daphne sighed, “I recently acquired some letters of my Fathers that implied my Mother was informing on his location so Harry did a bit of digging and found some transcripts of floo calls between my Mother and her lover, my Uncle Phineas, from around that time. The transcripts implicated them in the murder of my Father.”

Hermione’s eyes widened, “Oh my gosh Daphne.”

“It gets more complicated,” Daphne admitted, “I took the evidence to the ministry which I knew meant my Mother and Phineas would get a trial and lots of things would come out at that trial. So I had to tell my sister that we don’t actually share a Father because my Uncle is her Father which was something I had known for a long time, but it came as a shock to Astoria obviously.”

Hermione nodded, wide-eyed.

“And I was upset about things being how they were with Astoria so Harry went over there last night while I was asleep to try and fix it and it made me irrationally angry,” Daphne finished.

“Hence Harry fucking chosen arsehole Potter,” Hermione summarised.

“Yeah…”

“Points for creativity on that one at the very least,” Hermione joked.

“Do you think I was overly harsh?” Daphne asked.

“I think you may have overexaggerated and taken your frustration about the situation with your Mother, out on him,” Hermione admitted.

Daphne sighed, “I’m a terrible person.”

“You’re a stressed person, Harry will understand why you’re lashing out,” Hermione assured her, “He might still be angry but he will understand.”

Daphne nodded.

“When is this all going to kick off?”

“Soon,” Daphne said, “We handed the evidence in yesterday so as soon as they make arrest, we’ll hear about it.”

“I’m really sorry Daphne, this is probably the last thing you need right now,” Hermione said, she grabbed the girls hand, “When your in the process of adopting Teddy and all.”

Daphne cracked a true smile, “No, Teddy’s the bright spark in all of this actually. I’m really glad he’s in our life right now.”

Hermione smiled back, “I hope it all turns out alright in the end Daph.”

GGG.

When Harry walked in that evening, Daphne actually felt nervous.

“Hey,” She said with a weak smile when he stepped into the kitchen.

“Hey,” Harry replied coolly.

“I wanted to apologise, for what I said this morning,” Daphne began tentatively.

“You only need to apologise if it was a lie,” Harry said sharply, “Was it? Or was it the truth?”

Daphne opened her mouth to reply, but before she had a chance, Harry continued, “Because honestly Daphne, it hurt like hell to hear you say that. Is that really all that you think of me? Do you think so lowly of me? I didn’t fall in love with you because you were a damsel in distress that needed fixing and if you really think I did then maybe we shouldn’t be getting married or adopting Teddy or any of it!”

“No,” Daphne cut in sharply, “I didn’t mean it Harry. I was angry and it just…it came out. Maybe there’s a part of me that wonders what drew you to me but-”

“Really?” Harry asked in disbelief, “I can’t believe I’m actually having to tell you this Daphne, because I thought you already knew. I can’t tell you why I fell in love with you, but I can tell you when I did.”

Daphne looked up at him, “When did you fall in love with me?”

“The minute I spoke to you when we came back to school,” Harry said, he caught her eye, “It’s an old cliché but it’s true, I just knew that you were going to either make me or break me and I wanted you enough to risk it being the latter.”

Daphne didn’t know what to say to that, Harry didn’t often let his feelings come spilling out and to be honest, they didn’t often fight.

“I knew I wanted to spend the rest of my life with you when I first saw you with Teddy,” Harry continued, “So there has never been a shadow of doubt for me about whether this was what I wanted, or about whether _you _were what I wanted. I’m with you because I _chose _to be with you and you were the first thing in my life that I _got _to choose. All my life, people decided what I would do, where I could stay, where I would go, what I would lose for the sake of the bloody war! But then it was all over and everyone wanted me to be with Ginny but _I _wanted to be with you then and I’ve wanted to be with you every day since. My whole life, I’ve done what other people wanted but being with you was the first thing that I did for myself.”

Daphne stared at him for a moment then threw herself into his arms, “I’m sorry, I’m sorry for what I said and I’m sorry that I didn’t realise how much I meant to you.”

“I’m sorry I don’t say it often enough,” Harry murmured as he held her close, “When I say that you’re the love of my life, I mean it.”

Daphne smiled into his chest, “Yeah?”

“Yeah,” Harry said softly, “Why? Am I not yours?”

Daphne smirked mischievously at him, “Oh I don’t know…it’s pretty close between you and Draco.”

“You had better be joking,” Harry said, he narrowed his eyes at her.

Daphne grinned, “Of course I’m joking. As much as I hate to admit it, you Harry Potter, oh golden, chosen lord of greatness, are the love of my life.”

Harry grinned back and pulled her into a kiss.

GGG.

The morning after his conversation with Daphne, Harry received an early morning floo call. He slipped out of bed and left Daphne sleeping as he took the call in the kitchen.

“Morning Potter.”

“Finch,” Harry said with a sleepy nod.

“I have an update for you. Can we meet in St. James Park in 10 minutes?” Finch asked.

“Yeah sure, where in the park?”

“On a bench by the lake,” Finch replied before ending the floo call.

As Harry transfigured himself into some clothes, he couldn’t help but think that the meeting place was a little cliché. There was after all, a bridge in St. James Park nicknamed “The Bridge of Spies” because it had been alleged that spies met there. Then again, maybe it was just a meeting place for wizards that had been misinterpreted by Muggles.

He left the house quietly and apparated to the park. He walked along the lake and saw Finch sitting on a bench feeding the ducks, he shook his head in amusement and sat down next to him.

“On a bench in St. James Park feeding the ducks,” Harry joked, “Could you get anymore cliched for a private meeting?”

“What do you mean?” Finch asked with a frown, “St. James Park has been the meeting place of Aurors for years.”

Harry chuckled to himself, well that confirmed a suspicion, “You said you had an update?”

Finch nodded, “We arrested Lareina and Phineas last night. We asked them a few questions while they were under the influence of a mild truth serum and that interview threw up enough question marks that we were able to push through a Legilimency test.”

“Doesn’t that usually take 24 hours to process?” Harry questioned.

“Usually, but we took a shortcut,” Finch said, “The Legilimency test proved beyond a doubt that it was them. So there are two ways that we can do this; we either do it the usual way or we can do it through the backchannels and prosecute them without a trial.”

“No,” Harry said instantly, “I know that this is a different situation since we’re sure that they are guilty, but my Godfather Sirius Black was prosecuted without a fair trial and he spent 12 years in Azkaban for a crime he didn’t commit. If we’re doing this Finch, we’re doing it right. It goes to trial and justice comes to them the way it should, not through corrupt backchannels.”

Finch nodded and smiled slightly, “You’ll make a good Auror one day, Potter.”

Harry turned to thank Finch, but he did a double take when he saw Sumner sitting next to him, “What the hell! I mean, what the hell sir?”

Sumner chuckled, “Sorry to alarm you Potter, but it had to be done. When we saw that you had been sneaking around, handing in evidence and talking to dirty Aurors we had to step in. It didn’t look good, we had to make sure that you were doing it for the right reason.”

Harry frowned, “Finch is a dirty Auror?”

“About as dirty as they get, they hide it well these dirty Aurors,” Sumner said darkly, “He did use backchannels to push through the Legilimency test. You know, you should never have taken it into the Ministry in the first place, you should have just come to us, that’s what we’re here for.”

“Sorry,” Harry said sheepishly, “But how did you even know?”

“We make it our business to know everything about our trainees, especially when it looks like they are up to no good,” Sumner said with a reproving look, “I understand why you did it and I understand why you felt you couldn’t come to us. It was personal and you were protecting your family, we can understand that.”

Harry nodded numbly.

“You did the right thing Potter, but you didn’t quite do it in the right way,” Sumner said, “Hence this little test.”

“Did you make it St. James Park for a laugh?” Harry asked curiously, “Because of the whole Muggle suspicion that spies meet here?”

“No, it genuinely is the spot that Aurors have been meeting in since the first war with Voldemort,” Sumner replied, “Maybe that’s why Muggles associate it with spies, we do dress a little like them when we’re in Muggle clothing.”

Harry glanced over at Sumner in his black suit and nodded in agreement, “True. Sir, I understand if you aren’t allowed to answer but if you’ve seen the memories…which one of them killed Daphne’s Father?”

Sumner sighed, “Phineas did, but he was egged on by Lareina. The way it looks right now, and I really should not be telling you this Potter, is that Lareina will get life in Azkaban for planning the whole thing and forcing her lover into it, and Phineas will get 25 years for helping her.”

Harry nodded and let out a sigh, “Thank you for letting me know sir, and I’m sorry for not coming straight to you.”

“You need to understand that we all want the same thing,” Sumner told him, “We didn’t all become trainers because we wanted to. For some people, like Weir, it was a quieter life once they had families but for others, like myself and Sheppard, it was hard to step down from active duty.”

“Why did you do it then?” Harry asked curiously.

“We were chosen,” Sumner replied, “All of us at the base were chosen to train you because we were good Aurors, with good principles. Kingsley wanted us to make you the best you could be and to instil good morals and good values into you. We all want the same thing, to end corruption within the justice department and that has to start with you guys. If we keep putting good Aurors in, we will gradually weed out the bad ones. Now I’m not saying that this is going to happen instantly, you will probably be on the job for 5 years before you weed every single one out, but in time, things will change.”

Harry nodded thoughtfully.

“Truthfully Potter, and don’t share this with your classmates, there hasn’t been a class this large and with this much promise since I graduated with the class of 1981.”

Harrys head shot up at that, “That was the year my parents died.”

Sumner nodded sincerely, “I had the honour of spending three years as your Fathers Auror partner while we trained together. We graduated in May and your Father died in October of the same year.”

Harry’s eyes widened, “You were his Auror partner? And you trained with him and Sirius?”

“And Longbottoms parents,” Sumner said with another nod, “They were damn good Aurors, all of them. James had the potential to be Head Auror one day, Sirius was a bit too headstrong, he flew off the handle too easily which would have gotten him in trouble eventually. As for Frank and Alice, the first time I saw a trainee with the potential to be as powerful as them was when I first saw their son in my class. That was the terrifying thing about the first war, the fact that Voldemort had been able to get them when they were as good as they were. It really took an extraordinary wizard like Dumbledore to challenge his power back then.”

Harry didn’t know what to say to that. On the one hand, he had so many questions, and on the other he was stunned into silence.

“What was he like as an Auror, my Dad?” Harry asked.

“He was just like you,” Sumner said quietly, “Calm when the situation required it and hot-headed when it came to defending his family. He was powerful but he never let it get to his head, he was smart but never smug about it. Just like you, he balanced his family and his work-life in a way that I was never able to. Going through Auror training with a pregnant wife and in his last year, the most intense one, with a newborn baby….truthfully Potter, I admired him a hell of a lot.”

Harry was stunned, if he was honest, “I don’t really know what to say…apart from thank you sir. Every time someone talks about my parents, I feel like I get to know them a little bit more. Did you know my Mother too?”

“Not that well,” Sumner admitted, “Lily loved James with all of her heart, and because of that she found his chosen profession hard to deal with. She didn’t exactly shun us, but socialising with us reminded her of what James did every day and that was hard for her.”

“That’s why you weren’t in the wedding photographs,” Harry realised.

“I was there, but I was in the background,” Sumner said, “And truth be told Potter, seeing you walk into my class was very surreal. The last time I saw you was when you were christened.”

“I was christened?” Harry asked in surprise.

Sumner nodded, “When you were 3 months old, at the little church your parents attended in Godric’s Hollow. James was so proud that Lily had decided to give you his name as a middle name, he banged on about it for weeks at the training centre.”

Harry smiled at that, every story he heard helped him to feel closer to the parents that he had never known.

“So now you know,” Sumner said with a note of finality, “And if you ever wonder why I seem to push you and Longbottom harder than I push the others, that’s why. I know what you have the potential to be.”

Harry nodded, he was stunned by this entire revelation, “Thank you sir.”

Sumner just bowed his head in a nod and walked briskly along the lake, out of sight.

GGG.

Before he left the locker room that morning, Harry sent Daphne a patronus to let her know that her Mother and Phineas had been arrested and that the trial would begin on Monday. He could fill her in on the rest of it in person that night, but he didn’t want her to find out from someone else. He also let her know that he would be late home because he had an assignment he needed to complete, but that was a lie. In truth, he wanted to talk to Neville that night but he couldn’t explain that over an open floo channel.

Once he had sent the message, he grabbed Neville and asked if he could come over to Longbottom House after they finished training for the day.

“What’s wrong?” Neville asked in an undertone in response.

“Nothing really,” Harry replied, “There’s just something I want to talk to you about.”

Before he could elaborate, they were called outside for training to begin.

GGG.

When training finished that night, Harry apparated with Neville back to Longbottom House. They migrated to the kitchen, as they often did when they spent time together in each other’s homes.

“So is this a coffee or whiskey kind of chat?” Neville asked conversationally.

“I’ll leave that up to you,” Harry said, “The thrust of it is that Sumner was in the same graduating class of Aurors as my Dad, Sirius and your parents.”

“Whiskey it is then,” Neville decided. With a flick of his wrist two glasses appeared on the table, he reached into a cabinet and pulled out a bottle of Jack Daniels.

“You know, it’s one of Draco and I’s pet hates that you refer to bourbon as whiskey,” Harry mused.

“Well I am not a whiskey snob like you and Draco,” Neville retorted as he handed Harry a glass, “If you don’t want it that’s fine, one more for me.”

Harry rolled his eyes and took the glass silently.

“So you know how everything has been going on with Daphne and her Mother, right?”

Neville nodded, “She’s a murdering psychopath who was sleeping with her Husband’s brother, yep.”

“Exactly,” Harry agreed, “I went into the ministry and spoke to an Auror about getting floo records then he asked for evidence so I had Daphne bring in these letters of her Dads. Anyway, he said he would keep me in the loop so I got a floo call from him this morning asking to meet in St. James Park.”

“Right,” Neville said.

“So I went and he told me that they had been arrested and that there were two ways things could go down, either the usual way or through backchannels,” Harry said.

“A dirty Auror,” Neville realised.

“Yep,” Harry said, “Only he wasn’t, because it was actually Sumner in disguise testing me. He had found out that I had gone behind his back and because Finch was a dirty Auror, he had to be sure that I was clean.”

“Okay, so how did you find out that he graduated at the same time as your Dad and my parents?” Neville asked.

“He told me, while he was explaining why the trainers had been selected,” Harry explained, “He talked about how they all wanted a less corrupt ministry and how no class had been as large or had as much promise as ours since his graduating class of 1981.”

“Holy shit.”

Harry nodded, “You think that’s big, wait for the next bombshell. I always figured with my Dad and Sirius being best friends, like me and you, that they must have been Auror partners but they weren’t…Sumner was my Dads Auror partner.”

“Well, I knew that Sirius wasn’t your Dads Auror partner, because he was _my _Dads Auror partner,” Neville admitted.

Harry frowned, “This is all getting a tad confusing now. Why have you never told me that?”

“You never asked.”

“But that’s huge! I mean how do you even know about it?” Harry asked.

“My Grandmother told me in 3rd year when Sirius was on the run,” Neville replied, “She said he always had been a hothead and that was why he had been made Auror partners with my Dad, she said my Dad was the stabilising influence on him.”

“I feel like my whole life was a lie.”

Neville raised an eyebrow at him, “Don’t you think your being a tad melodramatic? It’s not like you just found out that Snape was actually your Dad.”

Harry grimaced, “That is disgusting Neville.”

“But yeah, Sumner as your Dads Auror partner…that is a bombshell. Maybe that’s why he’s so hard on you,” Neville mused.

“He did pretty much say that if he was harder on you and I it was because he knew what our potential was,” Harry said, “He also told me not to tell anyone about any of this but he knows the rules of Auror partners so I figure that means don’t tell anyone apart from Neville.”

“True,” Neville mused, “So he thinks I have potential?”

“Do you want to know what he said about you?” Harry asked.

“Yes,” Neville replied instantly.

“As long as you promise not to let it show when we go in tomorrow,” Harry added.

“Harry, I’m the one who isn’t useless at lying in this partnership,” Neville reminded him.

“True,” Harry admitted sheepishly, “He said that he hadn’t seen anyone with the potential to be as powerful as your parents until you walked into his class.”

Neville’s eyes widened, “Seriously?”

“Seriously.”

“What did he say about you?” Neville asked curiously.

“That I’m smart but not smug about it, powerful but that I don’t let it go to my head and that he admires how I can balance my work and family life,” Harry reeled off.

“So let me get this straight…” Neville said, “Harry Potter is the nice, stable family man and I’m the badass, powerful Auror? Oh ho! You know what that translates to, right? I’m totally going to be the senior Auror!”

“No, because you’re going to need the level-headed, calm, family man to keep you under control or your power might get too much for you,” Harry challenged.

“I bet I’ll be able to level forests.”

“What’s the point of levelling forests if you can’t stay calm in a hostage situation?”

“Well…uhm…okay, you make a good point,” Neville admitted reluctantly.

Harry smirked, “Anyway, having lots of raw power is great but you need the finesse to be able to harness it and that’s where I come in.”

Neville scoffed, “Oh get away, and Sumner said you weren’t smug?”

Harry grinned at him and got to his feet, “I better get home but before I go…Sumner said, ‘you’ll make a great Auror one day, Potter’. That totally means I’m going to be the Senior Auror Nev!”

“You’re totally not Harry!”

“Totally am!” Harry called from the hallway before the front door snapped shut.

Neville just shook his head in amusement and looked around the empty kitchen wishing Lily was here to share these moments with him.

**TBC.**


	111. Pressing on a Bruise

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the point that the story becomes exclusive to A03. I will very shortly delete the story from FF.net.
> 
> Also, chapter title comes from the song:  
Pressing on a Bruise by Brad Paisley

“Hey Draco.”

Draco looked up and smiled, “Oh hey Tam, how did that assignment go down?”

“Great, I nailed it thanks to your help,” The man, who was in the year above them, said. He had just plonked himself down across from them at the lunch table.

“Ah it was nothing,” Draco said, “But I’m glad it helped.”

Harry looked at Draco pointedly, “Fancy filling us in mate?”

Draco rolled his eyes, “I just gave Tam some insider knowledge. He was working on an assignment about the dangers of cult groups.”

“Oh your expert subject you mean?” Neville joked.

“See this? This is why I didn’t mention it to you idiots,” Draco muttered under his breath.

Tam waved his hand, “This is Auror training, the guys in my year are the same. It wouldn’t be the same without a little good natured ribbing. Oh I meant to say by the way, I never knew that your girlfriend was friends with Viktor Krum.”

Draco frowned, “She dated him years ago but she’s hardly friends with him.”

“Isn’t she?” Tam asked, “Sorry, it’s just that my wife Lara, she works in the DMLE. She said that they have lunch out in the courtyard all the time.”

“He’s in the UK?” Harry asked, “I thought he was still living in Europe.”

“He got a job as Head of the Department of Magical Games and Sports,” Tam replied, something caught his eye and he looked away, “Sorry that’s the guys from my year waving me over, thanks again for your help Draco.”

He got up and crossed the room with his tray while Theo, Neville and Harry waited for the inevitable explosion.

“She’s having lunches with Viktor Krum?” Draco seethed “Her ex-boyfriend, Viktor Krum? The large, muscular, Quidditch player?”

“Hmm,” Neville mused, “I can see why you feel threatened, he’s basically everything that you’re not. Maybe you aren’t her type after all.”

“Neville,” Harry tried to chastise, while holding back laughter.

Draco glared at them, “Shut up you two.”

“She’s probably just having friendly lunches with him,” Theo assured Draco.

“Friendly lunches with her ex-boyfriend?”

“He’s hardly a real ex though, is he?” Theo asked.

“What constitutes a real ex, exactly?” Neville asked with mock curiosity.

“Someone you’ve actually had physical contact with,” Theo said pointedly, “She went to the Yule Ball with him and hung out in the library with him, that’s it.”

Harry snorted, “Wow, you really think Hermione was more innocent than she actually was. Krum is definitely a real ex.”

Neville’s jaw dropped, “Are you saying she slept with him?”

“What? No! We were like 14 in 4th year Neville, jeez,” Harry exclaimed.

“Hermione was 15 actually, you always forget that she’s older because her birthdays in September,” Draco said irritably, “But yes, she didn’t sleep with him but from what I gather there was physical contact.”

“In the restricted section of the library,” Harry added.

“Jeez Harry, how do you know this?” Neville asked.

“Because Hermione and I talked about these things,” Harry replied.

Theo shook his head, “No wonder everyone thought you were gay until you started dating Daphne.”

“Nobody thought I was gay Theo.”

Neville made a face.

“Seriously, Neville?”

“What? People did kind of think you were gay,” Neville admitted.

Draco would normally have been rolling around on the floor laughing at Harry’s expense, but he didn’t even crack a smile. Before the others could try and convince him that Hermione definitely wasn’t having an affair with her ex, the bell for the end of lunch rang.

***

“Draco, you got a second?”

Draco paused at the gates of the centre, “Yeah, what is it?”

“I just had a thought earlier,” Harry said, they fell into step together, “I really doubt that anything is going on with Hermione and Viktor but if you are really worried about it, I could loan you my invisibility cloak. You could nip away during lunch tomorrow and see if anything really is going on.”

Draco narrowed his eyes at Harry, “Why are you offering to help me? You don’t normally take my side over Hermione’s.”

“You’re right, I don’t,” Harry agreed, “But I’ve been where you are recently. In my case, I worry Daphne will leave me when she realises how much better looking than me she is. In your case, you think Hermione is too good for you and you’re terrified that one day, she will realise that.”

Draco’s silence was his admission of truth.

“And the other thing is that Hermione is my best friend and you are a very good friend. I really don’t like the idea of being caught in the middle of a fight between you two, so I thought this way you could see that it was nothing without upsetting Hermione by accusing her,” Harry added.

Draco thought for a moment, “Harry, remarkably, that is a very good idea.”

Harry grinned, “I do have them from time to time. I’ll bring my cloak in tomorrow. Night Draco.”

“Night, Harry.”

***

“Are you seriously telling me that you’re going ahead with a plan that _Harry _thought up?” Theo whispered the following morning in the back of class.

“He managed to win a war with his plans, they can’t all be bad,” Draco argued.

“He won a war with your fiancé’s plans,” Theo corrected, “I mean I know Harry’s not stupid and he is going to make a great Auror, but do you really think he could break in to Gringotts? That takes the smartest witch of her age that plan.”

“He didn’t win the war by just doing what Hermione told him,” Draco muttered under his breath, “As much as Hermione would have you believe that when she’s arguing with him.”

“Look I’m just saying, Harry is a typical Gryffindor but Hermione has a lot of Ravenclaw in her. Without her methodical plans, Harry and Ron would probably have been eaten by a giant dog in 1st year,” Theo said pointedly, “Harry just charges in brashly because…well because hes Harry, let’s be honest.”

“What would you have me do instead then?” Draco challenged his best friend.

“Just sit down over dinner and calmly explain that someone mentioned to you that she had been having lunches with him and say something like, I didn’t know you were back in contact,” Theo whispered.

Draco scoffed, “And have her fly off the handle in one of her Hermione Granger rants? She would immediately go on the defensive _because she’s a Gryffindor_. Then she would inevitably hit me, that’s how it normally ends ever since that row about Buckbeak…”

“And you didn’t even get together till about 4 years later,” Theo joked.

“Seriously Theo, Harry’s plan is better this time,” Draco whispered, “I can find out if anything is going on without having to upset Hermione with accusations. For once in his life, Harry Potter has actually come up with a decent plan and given me good relationship advice.”

“Famous last words,” Theo muttered under his breath, but Draco ignored him.

***

That lunch break, Draco headed off to the ministry armed with Harry’s invisibility cloak and his ‘great plan’. It was relatively easy to slip into the covered courtyard unseen because it was a separate area which meant that there was no security wizard to bypass.

His heart sank when he saw her sitting on a bench with Viktor Krum.

“So then I caught the snitch and threw it back in his face,” Krum was saying.

“Isn’t that a little petty?” Hermione asked.

Krum shrugged, “Not in Quidditch, taunting is part of the job.”

“Hmm,” Hermione mused, “From what Draco says, I think its part of the job for Aurors too.”

“You talk about him a lot.”

“Yep, he is my fiancé,” Hermione said.

“Even though-”

“Viktor we have been over this,” Hermione said calmly, “Even though he was horrible to me when _you _were at Hogwarts, things change and people change. He isn’t horrible to me now and despite what you think, I do not deserve or need anything better.”

Viktor sighed, “Do you not miss our breakfasts by the lake, feeding toast to the giant octopus?”

Hermione looked at him in disbelief, “Okay firstly, it’s a squid and secondly, that wasn’t even you! It was Harry that I had breakfast with by the lake that year which implies you watched from the boat which is just creepy by the way.”

She got to her feet and before Viktor could say anything else she continued, “And these lunches are kind of creepy too. I’ve been playing nice, thinking you just didn’t have any friends over here but there’s too much flirting going on now. I’ve told you, more than once that I’m happy with Draco so that’s the end of this, whatever you think it is exactly.”

Without another word, Viktor left the courtyard and, satisfied that nothing was going on, Draco was about to do the same. However, before he got the chance, the invisibility cloak was ripped off and he was being pinned against a wall with a charm.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing?”

Draco coughed against the choking charm, “How did you even know I was here?”

Hermione glared at him, “My best friend is Harry Potter. I would know the stench of his invisibility cloak anywhere. Why are you spying on me?”

“I-”

“Don’t even think about trying to lie!”

Draco sighed, “A colleague said his wife had noticed you having lunches with Krum all the time. You told me you hadn’t spoken to him since Bill and Fleurs wedding so I was suspicious and I spoke to Harry about it and he said I should spy on you to see if there was anything to worry about before I confronted you.”

“And you took Harry’s advice, seriously?” Hermione asked in disbelief, “Harry who flew off the handle at Daphne because he heard a tiny fragment of a conversation she was having with Bill? Right yeah, Harry is great with relationship advice _clearly_.”

“I can see now that taking his advice was a mistake,” Draco conceded, “And I can also see that my suspicions were unfounded. Can you please let me down now?”

Hermione cancelled the charm and Draco fell in a rather ungracious heap onto the floor.

“We will talk about this later,” Hermione hissed, then she turned on her heel and left.

***

“Potter, you idiot!” Draco seethed under his breath when he walked into potions lab that afternoon.

“Oh did Harry’s great plan not go so great?” Theo asked sarcastically.

“She knew I was there because of the stench of your cloak and she went fucking mental,” Draco hissed, “I knew I shouldn’t have listened to you.”

“I did warn you,” Theo pointed out.

“I know, and I didn’t listen,” Draco rolled his eyes, “You’re right, Potter’s plans always do go to shit without Hermione to improve them.”

Harry frowned, “Harsh.”

“True,” Neville and Theo echoed.

“How mad was she?” Harry asked cautiously.

“She pinned me to a wall by my throat then dropped me in a heap to the ground and said we’ll talk about this later,” Draco replied, “Which either means we are going to have some very angry sex tonight or she really is going to have a serious yell at me when I get in.”

“Knowing you two it will be the sex,” Theo said.

Neville nodded his agreement, “Isn’t that how you resolve…well pretty much anything?”

“Not everything,” Draco muttered.

“But if it works, don’t knock it,” Harry shrugged.

“Must be a Slytherin/Gryffindor thing,” Neville joked.

“But either way, you’re going to be black and blue tomorrow morning,” Theo added with an amused grin.

***

When Draco limped into work the following morning, nobody gave him any sympathy.

“So Draco, how did it go last night?” Theo asked, too eagerly.

Draco grunted, “I need coffee.”

“I can’t tell, was it the sex or the beating?” Harry asked jokingly.

“Both,” Draco muttered, he poured black coffee into a cardboard cup and began to walk, well limp, towards the locker room with them.

_“We have got to find a new way to resolve arguments.”_

_Hermione bit her lip, “Sorry, I really didn’t mean to shove you off the bed. I just got a little…”_

_“Over-excited?” Draco asked with a raised eyebrow._

_“Let’s go with that,” She said sheepishly._

_Draco smiled, “I am sorry you know.”_

_“For thinking I’m going to run off and leave you?” Hermione asked pointedly._

_“For knowing you can do better than me and being terrified of the day you work that out,” Draco replied sincerely._

_“Draco, when are **you **going to work out that it isn’t about that. It’s about love, I know that it’s a cheesy Gryffindor concept to you that people fall in love and get married and have kids because they love each other but outwith your stupid pureblood circle it does actually happen.”_

_Draco’s smile widened, “You’re getting better at the whole sarcasm thing you know.”_

_“How can I not when I’m surrounded by you, Theo, Harry and Nev all the time?” Hermione asked, her lips quirked up into a small smile._

_Draco reached out and pressed a kiss to her cheek, “It isn’t a foreign concept, trust me. Yes, it may be unusual for people like me to fall in love and get married and have kids for love but that doesn’t make it a foreign concept. It just takes someone exceptional to make a pureblood, or a Slytherin, break the rules.”_

_Hermione smiled softly at him, “Do you ever wonder if we’re bad for each other? We’re both so volatile…”_

_“We are,” Draco agreed, “But we aren’t bad for each other in the way that you and Ron were. We aren’t fire on fire. We are fire and ice, I can cool you down when I need to and you can ignite me when you need to.”_

_Hermione tried to hide a smile behind her hands._

_“I just said something romantic and now you’re mocking me?”_

_“I’m not mocking you,” Hermione said as she fought to contain a giggle, “It was just cheesy, okay? And I have never heard you be cheesy, I mean not even when you proposed to me.”_

_Draco rolled his eyes, “That’s the last time I try to be romantic Granger.”_

_“Granger?” Hermione asked with a raised eyebrow, “You haven’t called me that for a long time, Malfoy.”_

_The use of each others surnames sparked something and they were a tangled up mess of kisses and limbs again._

_“Mmm, we are so bad for each other,” Hermione said against his lips._

_“How come this is so good then?” Draco asked, his grey eyes sparkled and she shrieked when he shoved her off of the bed._

_“Draco!”_

_“What? Revenge is a dish best served cold, Hermione.”_

_“Ugh!”_

“Draco! Did you listen to a word I just said?”

Draco blinked, they were at the locker rooms, and he had not heard a word that Theo had said.

“I…uh…you were talking about Sadie?”

Theo narrowed his eyes at him, “I was, but you weren’t listening to me. You just guessed, didn’t you?”

“I was thinking about something else,” Draco admitted, “So Sadie?”

“She has her 3 month appointment at St. Mungo’s soon,” Theo said, “And I’m nervous about it.”

“Why? Isn’t it just to confirm that everything is okay with the baby?”

“Yes, but what if everything _isn’t _okay with the baby? I mean she’s been so ill-”

“Don’t,” Draco cut in, “Don’t even go there. I’m sure everything is fine and there’s no point worrying yourself with what if’s.”

“You’re really good with advice, about all of this,” Theo mused, “I mean I know why but I didn’t…”

“You didn’t think I cared enough or paid enough attention to Pansy to notice?” Draco asked quietly, “You know, what I felt for her pales in comparison to the things Hermione makes me feel but Theo…that loss was hard, I didn’t know how much I wanted that baby until…”

Theo nodded briskly, “I’m sorry for bringing it up Draco, I know you don’t like talking about it.”

Draco just nodded back, and was glad that Harry and Neville caught up to them at that point. He was more than happy for the conversation to go back to general slagging of his and Hermione’s ways of resolving arguments if it meant that he didn’t have to think about Pansy and the baby they had lost.

***

When the floo whirred late on Sunday night, Daphne answered it immediately in the hope that it was her sister. When she saw Astoria’s face in the fire she breathed a sigh of relief, “Astoria! I’m so glad it’s you, I was really hoping to speak to you before tomorrow.”

“That’s why I called,” Astoria admitted, “Do you mind if I come through?”

“Of course not,” Daphne said, and she stepped back from the fire.

Seconds later Astoria stepped out and brushed herself down.

“Do you want a coffee?”

Astoria nodded and sat down heavily at the dining room table, “Where’s Harry?”

“Studying with Neville, they have a big assignment coming up,” Daphne replied, “He wanted to stay but I told him there was no point, he’s not any use here hovering over me.”

“So you’re going tomorrow?”

Daphne nodded, “I have to, it’s the preliminary hearing. They might need me to make a statement.”

“I was invited to attend but it isn’t obligatory,” Astoria said quietly, “And I can’t decide if I should go or not which is why I came here because despite it all, I always want to run to my big sister when I need advice.”

Daphne smiled at her, a little tearfully, “I was worried you wouldn’t think of me as a sister anymore…now that you know the truth.”

“See now that’s what I needed to talk to you about,” Astoria admitted, “The truth…because the thing is Daphne…you hit me with a lot of information that night. Finding out that Dad isn’t really my Dad, that didn’t really hurt because he never treated me like his daughter anyway. You were always his favourite, his golden girl.”

“Astoria-” Daphne began apologetically.

“And I know that’s not your fault,” Astoria continued, “And finding out that Phineas is my real Father, that didn’t actually surprise me as much as it should have done. He always treated me differently and frankly, I don’t know how I didn’t work that one out of my own.”

Daphne watched her sister nervously as the younger girl continued, “Finding out our Mother, who I had always viewed as the victim who made the best she could out of a bad situation, was actually cold blooded enough to plot to kill her husband, that hurt a lot.”

Daphne took a breath to say something, but Astoria raised a hand to stop her, “But the thing that hurt the most, was finding out that my sister, my best friend, who I thought I had always been able to rely on, had _lied to me for years_.”

Daphne swallowed a lump in her throat, “Astoria, you always seemed so much more fragile than me, ever since the fire. I toughened my armour so that nobody could hurt me again and it stayed like that until I met Harry but you had been affected so badly by everything that happened and I was terrified that telling you would tip you over the edge.”

“I know you did it for the right reasons Daphne,” Astoria said quietly, “And that’s why I will be able to forgive you, but the sting of my sister keeping something so huge from me isn’t going to just disappear in a matter of weeks.”

“I know,” Daphne said honestly.

“So I don’t know how I feel about going to that hearing tomorrow and having to relive all that hurt and confusion that I am just beginning to put to bed,” Astoria finished.

Daphne nodded, “I understand and I won’t push you either way. If you go, I will be by your side the whole time and I will wholly support you and if you don’t go, I’ll fill you in if that’s what you want or I won’t mention it if you would rather.”

Astoria sighed and rested her head in her hands.

Daphne placed a cup of coffee in front of her and added softly, “And you don’t have to decide now.”

Astoria cradled the cup and gave a small nod, “I think I’ll go…I think I have to.”

“Do you want to stay here?” Daphne asked, she glanced at the clock, it was almost midnight, “It’s late and you’re obviously upset.”

“Do you mind?”

Daphne shook her head and sat down across from her sister, “No, honestly I’m glad for the company Tori, and I’m glad you’re talking to me again. You’re the only family that I care about, losing you…”

“I get it Daph,” Astoria promised as she reached across the table and took her sisters hand.

***

When Daphne walked into the kitchen the next morning, Harry was making the coffee.

“I gather from the fact she was in our bed with you when I got home last night, that Astoria is coming today?” Harry asked with a smile.

Daphne nodded, “She came over to talk about it last night. Are you sure Sumner is okay with you having the morning off for this?”

“It’s fine, he understands,” Harry promised her. They were both wearing their most official black dress robes, “Is Astoria awake yet?”

“She’s just getting dressed,” Daphne replied, “Merlin Harry, I feel sick to my stomach.”

“Your Mother and her lover are being tried for murder Daphne, I’m not surprised that you feel sick,” Harry said gently as she placed a mug of coffee in her hands.

“They aren’t being tried yet though, are they?” Daphne asked, “This is just the preliminary hearing.”

Harry opened his mouth to explain, but as he did, Astoria walked into the kitchen.

“Morning Astoria, coffee?”

“Thanks Harry,” Astoria said, accepting the mug.

“We were just discussing the hearing,” Daphne explained, “It’s not really a trial yet.”

“Well, it is,” Astoria said with a frown, “The preliminary hearing is the start of the trial. They will be questioned under veritaserum before an impartially selected panel from the DMLE. The purpose of the hearing is to decide what charges they will be tried under and then it will go to court properly for a fully blown trial.”

Harry stared at Astoria in disbelief, “Uh…yeah. That was exactly what I was about to say.”

“How did you know that?” Daphne asked in disbelief.

“Because, despite the fact that everybody thinks I’m the stupid sister, I actually kind of want to be a lawyer,” Astoria replied, “I’ve been taking night classes at the DMLE all summer.”

“Wow,” Daphne said, “How did I never know that about you?”

Astoria shrugged, “Because I never told you, I guess.”

“In all fairness, even though that _is _the procedure, it hasn’t been followed lately,” Harry admitted, “During both wars, Death Eaters were sentenced at the preliminary hearing without a proper trial. Its how people like Sirius ended up spending 12 years in Azkaban for crimes they didn’t commit.”

“Which is why everything is being logged at the moment to make sure no slips like that ever happen again,” Astoria added.

“Right,” Daphne said, she glanced at the clock, “Well on the bombshell that my baby sister is going to be a hotshot lawyer one day, I think its time we headed to the Ministry.”

They apparated to the Ministry in silence and did not speak while they had their wands checked and got in the lift. It took them down to level 9 then they had to take the stairs to the lowest level of the ministry where the Wizengamot courtrooms were located.

“Ah, are you here for the preliminary hearing of Lareina and Phineas Greengrass?” A short witch with a blonde bob asked them.

Daphne nodded.

“Perfect, we were just waiting for you to arrive before we begun,” She said politely, “The hearing will take place in courtroom 1 since its just preliminary.”

She opened the door and motioned for them to go in. Daphne felt sick when she walked into the small courtroom and was met by the steely gaze of her Mother. Harry took her hand and led her towards a seating area at the left of the room. Daphne reached behind her and grabbed Astoria’s hand, her sister had gone white when she saw their Mother.

On the right hand side of the room was the panel, it consisted of 10 people (none of whom were known to the Greengrass family). It had to be that way to ensure that they remained impartial.

At the head of the room, seated in a podium above them all, was a judge. He rose to his feet once the trio had entered the room and the door had been closed.

“All rise for the preliminary hearing to determine whether Lareina Greengrass _nee Crouch _and Phineas Greengrass should be tried for the murder of Cygnus Greengrass on the 25th of February 1998.”

Everybody stood apart from Lareina and Phineas who were chained to their chairs.

“Let us begin by ensuring that no illusions or disguises are at play here,” The judge said, then he cast a charm that removed any charms or disguises.

When nothing happened he then beckoned a man forward, “The subjects will now be given veritaserum to ensure that all answers they submit today are entirely truthful.”

A small amount of veritaserum was forced down both of their throats, which Astoria found difficult to watch.

Then the judge spoke once more, “I, Judge Harold Quince, ask the subject known as Lareina Greengrass to rise. Everyone else, may be seated.”

The chains on the chair opened and Lareina rose to her feet.

“Can you confirm that you are Lareina Greengrass, formerly known as Lareina Crouch?”

“Yes.”

“Do you confirm that you are here today in complete control of your mental faculties?”

“Yes.”

Judge Quince nodded, “Then the questioning shall commence. In the days and weeks leading up to February 25th, 1998, did you plot to kill your husband Cygnus Greengrass?”

“Yes.”

Astoria squeezed hard on Daphne’s hand and Daphne squeezed back.

“Did you plot to do this with his brother, Phineas Greengrass?”

“Yes.”

“Was this because he was your lover?”

“Yes.”

“In these discussions, were you the one who was going to deliver the fatal blow?”

“No.”

“So it was your idea to kill your husband?”

“Yes.”

“But you would have had your lover actually do the deed?”

“Yes.”

Daphne swallowed hard, she didn’t want to turn and look at Astoria right now.

The Judge gave another small nod, “On the night of February 25th, 1998, can you confirm that you and Phineas went to the safe house where Cygnus was hiding with the intention of committing murder?”

“I can.”

“And can you confirm that you witnessed Phineas kill his brother that night?”

“I can.”

“Can you tell me what the murder weapon was?”

“Yes.”

“What was it?”

“A piece of pipe.”

The judge looked down at his notes and nodded, “That fits in with the coroner’s report perfectly. You may be seated once more Mrs. Greengrass.”

Daphne chanced a glance at Astoria and was heartbroken to see tears streaming down her face.

“I needed to hear it,” Astoria whispered, “So don’t say that I shouldn’t have come.”

“Okay,” Daphne replied softly.

“Can all be seated with the exception of Phineas Greengrass?”

The chains on his seat opened and he rose to his feet.

“Can you confirm that you are Phineas Greengrass?”

“Yes.”

“Can you confirm that you have never been known under any other name?”

“Yes.”

“Do you confirm that you are here today in complete control of your mental faculties?”

“Yes.”

“Good. Then the questioning may commence,” Judge Quince said, “Can you confirm that in the days and weeks leading up to the 25th of February, 1998 you plotted with Lareina Greengrass to kill your brother, Cygnus Greengrass?”

“Yes.”

“And can you confirm that you did this because Lareina Greengrass was your lover?”

“Yes.”

“Did you want to kill your brother?”

“No.”

“Then why did you agree to it?”

“I would have done anything for Lareina.”

The Judge shook his head marginally, probably at the ludicrous idea that someone would kill for love.

“On the night of the 25th of February, 1998, did you forcefully enter the safe house where your brother stayed?”

“Yes.”

“And did you go there with the intention of murder?”

“Yes.”

“Did you dress like a Death Eater to stage the attack?”

“Yes.”

“And can you confirm that, with a piece of pipe, you killed your brother that night?”

“No.”

An audible gasp went around the courtroom. The judge looked up in surprise, “Did Lareina Greengrass kill him then?”

“No.”

“Was the murder weapon something other than a piece of pipe?”

“No.”

Judge Quince frowned and learned forward, “Then please explain, in your own words Mr. Greengrass, exactly what happened on the night of the 25th of February, 1998.”

Phineas took a slow breath and began to talk, “We broke into the safe house and located Cygnus. He knew we were coming, it was like he was waiting for us. We had dressed as Death Eaters to divert attention from ourselves but he knew who we were beneath the cloaks. I hesitated when he said he knew I was better than this, so Lareina egged me on. She handed me a piece of pipe and told me to do it. She said if I didn’t, then we could never be together. I picked up the pipe and hit him hard on the head, he fell to the ground.”

Phineas paused for a breath, “Then Lareina panicked and apparated away, leaving me to deal with the clean-up. I checked for a pulse and realised that Cygnus was still alive. I knew I couldn’t heal him because if I did, he would go to the Ministry and I would go to Azkaban. But I could not bring myself to kill my own brother so I healed his head wound and gave him the draught of living death. When he was examined, the coroner believed that he was dead. We then had a funeral for him and I had him placed in the family crypt beneath Greengrass house.”

Daphne stared at Phineas in disbelief, Astoria’s hand had gotten hot and sweaty in hers.

The judge’s frown deepened, “Are you telling me that Cygnus Greengrass is alive right now, in the crypt beneath your family home?”

“Yes,” Phineas replied.

Judge Quince conjured up a patronus, “Any available Aurors. We have extremely reliable information that Cygnus Greengrass is alive, but under the influence of the draught of living death in the crypt beneath the Greengrass family home. Get down there straight away and confirm this information and get that man to St. Mungo’s.”

A great silver bear bounded out of the room.

Quince then said, “Lareina Greengrass, were you aware of this information?”

“No,” Lareina replied.

Daphne looked at Harry in disbelief. He looked just as stunned as she felt, and poor Astoria just looked wiped.

“I suggest a break in the hearing while we wait for this information to be confirmed,” Quince said, “I want everybody back in here in 10 minutes to decide on the charges that should be brought to trial.”

They all filtered out of the room, apart from Lareina, Phineas and the Aurors guarding them. Once they were sitting down on a bench in the corridor outside Daphne voiced her thoughts, “Harry…if it’s true what does it mean?”

“It means he won’t look anything like the man you remember,” Harry said honestly, “The draught of living death will have kept him alive, it will have kept his heart beating which kept blood pumping through his body so that means there will be no brain damage. But some other organs may have deteriorated because he hasn’t been eating or drinking and he will be deadly thin because he hasn’t burned any energy for over a year so his muscle mass will have deteriorated.”

“But will he recover?” Daphne asked quietly.

“If he wants to,” Harry replied gently, “If he doesn’t have anything to live for, I don’t know if he will survive the fight but if he does…then yes, in time he should recover.”

“You have to be his something to fight for Daphne,” Astoria said quietly.

Daphne frowned at her sister, “How can you say that Astoria, after the way he treated you?”

“He never loved me because I was a reminder of what Mother had done to him,” Astoria said, without looking at Daphne, “It wasn’t my fault but it wasn’t pleasant either. But he loved you Daphne, he had great dreams and wishes for you. If you can be his something to live for then you should be, because we don’t both have to lose a Father over this.”

Daphne gave her sister a tearful hug. This hearing had not gone the way that anybody had expected.

“The trial shall recommence in two minutes!” A call from within the courtroom said.

Silently they all traipsed back in and took their seats. Once everybody had re-entered the room, Judge Quince rose to his feet.

“I can confirm that the defendants story is true. Cygnus Greengrass has been recovered in critical condition and taken immediately to the intensive care ward of St. Mungo’s. With this knowledge I put forward the motion that Phineas Greengrass be charged with “Attempted Murder” and Lareina Greengrass with “Accessory to the Cause.” All those in favour, raise your hand and say aye.”

All 10 hands were raised and an echo of, “Aye”, went around the courtroom.

“Then it is agreed that we will gather in two weeks time, on Monday the 17th of October for the trial of Phineas and Lareina Greengrass. Hearing dismissed.”

He hit his hammer down on the desk and everybody began to leave the room. Once they were outside, Daphne said, “Harry, I have to-”

“Get to St. Mungo’s, I know,” Harry finished, “I’m coming with you.”

“But you need to get back to work.”

“They’ll understand,” Harry assured her, “Astoria-”

Astoria shook her head, “I’m not coming. He isn’t my Father, he never was. He wouldn’t want me there and I don’t want to be there but you two need to go. I’ll meet with a lawyer to discuss the charges and come over later to go over it.”

Daphne nodded in a dazed sort of way and let Harry lead her out of the Ministry.

**TBC.**


	112. Family is Family

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter title is from the song "Family is Family" by Kacey Musgraves.
> 
> THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH! So many have you followed this story over and stuck with it, and I am so so grateful for that. It's great to see that so many people love this story as much as I do. 
> 
> Hope you all enjoy the latest instalment! :)

Daphne gripped Harry’s hand so tightly that he thought she might actually draw blood. He could hear her heart pounding in her chest, all the colour had drained from her cheeks. In a matter of weeks her entire life had been turned upside down and inside out, all because she opened a box. Internally she sighed and thought, _I knew I should have taken that myth about Pandora more seriously..._

They reached the desk and Daphne opened her mouth, but no words came out.

“We need to know if we can see Cygnus Greengrass or speak to the Healers who are caring for him,” Harry said quiet

“Are you family?” The medi-witch asked.

“This is his daughter Daphne,” Harry replied, “She’s in shock.”

The medi-witch nodded, “Intensive care, ground floor. Just follow the signs and ask at the desk there.”

Harry nodded and thanked the woman. He gripped Daphne’s arm and half-dragged her through the hospital. When they reached the desk in intensive care, Harry quietly explained the situation and they were led to a small waiting area.

“Baby, are you alright? You look like you’re going to throw up.”

“I’m fine,” Daphne lied quietly.

Harry sighed and tightened his grip on her. A middle-aged male Healer stepped out of a door and gave them a small smile, “Are you the family of Cygnus Greengrass?”

Daphne looked up and swallowed, “I’m his daughter.”

The Healer took off a glove and shook her hand, “I’m Healer Drummond. Now the good news is that we were able to revive your Father which as I’m sure you know, is not always possible in cases like this. It seems that the dosage given was relatively low which is lucky.”

Daphne nodded, “And…how is he?”

“It’s going to be a very long road to recovery for him,” Drummond said honestly, “We revived him, his heart is beating, most of his organs are functioning fine but he isn’t alive so to speak. He needs something to pull him out of it, his body and his brain are in shock.”

“Do you think if I spoke to him he might…?”

Drummond nodded, “Most certainly. I was coming out here to suggest the same thing and to warn you that he does look very ill. His muscles have completely weakened due to inactivity which gives the impression that he has lost a lot of weight. He will need to learn to do everything again, from something as basic to waving to teaching himself to walk.”

Daphne gave a small nod.

“And he looks quite yellow, that’s because of the jaundice. His liver and kidneys haven’t been functioning properly because he hasn’t been eating or drinking,” Drummond added.

“What should I say to him?” Daphne asked quietly.

“Just talk to him, tell him about yourself, about what he has missed, tell him that you love him,” Drummond said, “Just give him something to live for.”

Daphne nodded and tightened her grip on Harry. She turned to look at him, “Will you come with me?”

“Of course,” He replied softly.

Together they followed Drummond into the room and Daphne’s eyes immediately welled up. The man she had always thought of as invincible looked broken before her eyes. He was very yellow, deadly thin and looked like a corpse frankly.

Her hand flew up to her mouth and Harry wrapped a comforting arm around her shoulder. Despite the shock of it all, she edged over to him and sat down in a chair by his bed. Harry stood behind her, his hand on her shoulder.

“Hi Dad,” Daphne said weakly, “It’s me, Daphne. I am so sorry that it took so long to find you, but I really thought that you were dead this whole time. I…” she paused, but Drummond nodded, _just talk to him_.

“Mother gave me a box from your study because she wanted to sell the house and I read your letters to Alfie Nott. I saw what you wrote on my marriage contract to Draco and I…I never knew how much you cared and it hurt to find that out after you had gone. I am so sorry that I let Mother manipulate me into thinking that you were the bad guy in this whole mess. Merlin Dad, I am so sorry for that.”

Tears streamed freely down her face, but she couldn’t stop now.

“What you wrote on the marriage contract, about wishing that I would find someone who was worthy of me and who made me happy…well that wish came true. It isn’t Draco, it’s someone better. He isn’t a pureblood but Mother still approved because he has money and a manor and he’s a Lord. That’s not why I’m marrying him though, its because I fell in love with him in a way I never thought possible. He was the first person that I really let my guard down around because I loved him enough to want to really _live _my life with him and it was worth it. We are getting married at New Year, but it’s a secret wedding. Everyone just thinks that it’s going to be a party.”

Daphne smiled slightly and reached out to take his hand, “I hope you can get well enough to be there and give that speech that you started writing.”

His hand twitched and Daphne looked up in shock.

Drummond nodded and mouthed, _Keep going_.

“We are adopting a little boy soon too,” Daphne continued, “Harry’s Godson, he’s called Teddy and he’s the sweetest little boy you ever saw. His parents died in the war and we want to give him a proper life, a good life. He would love to meet you I think, he loves Quidditch and hes a Puddlemere fan just like you. I think being a Grandfather might suit you actually Dad.”

This time Cygnus full on squeezed her hand and tears welled up in her eyes once more.

“So you need to get strong again,” Daphne continued, “Let the Healers do their job, and get your strength back up. I’ll visit you as often as I can. I'll bring Teddy in to see you every weekend and I’ll hope that maybe…you might be able to walk me down the aisle.”

His eyelids fluttered and then slowly, opened. Despite the skin tone, the thinness and the general air of sickness, those eyes remained just as Daphne remembered.

He couldn’t speak, his lips were dry and cracked, but he tried to anyway and Daphne could see the word that he was trying to form, _Daphne_.

“Don’t try to talk just yet Dad,” Daphne said gently as she gave his hand a gentle squeeze. His eyes fell on Harry who smiled weakly at him.

“This is Harry Dad,” Daphne explained, “Harry Potter, my fiancé.”

Cygnus gave a miniscule smile, because it was all that he could manage.

“I know, a half-blood, a Potter, and a Gryffindor,” Daphne said with a genuine smile, “But despite all of that, the love of my life.”

“Hey you forgot the whole, saviour of the wizarding world bit,” Harry said as he gave her a playful nudge.

“Yes, Harry did also kill Voldemort and save the world,” Daphne added, “Not that he likes to brag about it all.”

Another miniscule smile graced Cygnus's face.

“Does that smile mean that you approve?” Daphne asked, a little tentatively.

Cygnus squeezed her hand and Daphne smiled tearfully, “Mother and Phineas are going to pay for what they did to you Father. I made sure of it, the trial will start in two weeks and they will both spend time in Azkaban for it. You didn’t deserve any of this, it isn’t your fault that nothing you did ever pleased her.”

Another squeeze of the hand, but a weaker one that time.

“He’s getting tired,” Drummond said, “Little things like this will exhaust him until we can begin to get his strength up. We are going to have to give him water and food through a tube until he is well enough to start feeding himself again so don’t be alarmed if you see a lot of tubes when you next come in to visit him.”

“Thank you,” Daphne said, she let go of her Fathers hand and got to her feet, “I’ll visit again soon Dad and I…” she hesitated, words hanging in the air between them that hadn’t been said for a very long time, “I love you.”

Daphne could have sworn she saw a tear form in the corner of his eye as she left the room.

“Are you okay?” Harry asked her as they made their way out of the hospital.

“I’m fine.”

“Are you sure?” Harry asked, they stood in the cool, fresh October air outside St. Mungo’s, “Because with everything that has just happened to you, it’s okay to admit that you aren’t. It’s okay to want to go somewhere and hit things or burn things, anything you need Daphne _it’s okay_.”

Daphne let out a slow shaky breath, “I need to go to the shrieking shack and scream as loud as I can.”

“Okay,” Harry said simply. He took her hand and side-apparated with her to the field where the shrieking shack stood. He held her hand as they walked through the heather and the long grass into the abandoned, rickety old building.

He stood at the base of the stairs and listened to her scream and shout and throw things and get all the rage and the frustration and the pain out. Then when the sobs started, he held her tightly and tried not to cry with her because seeing her in pain genuinely did hurt him.

“Who am I Harry?” Daphne asked through her sobs.

“You are Daphne Greengrass, the strongest person I know,” Harry replied.

Daphne scoffed, “Hardly, you literally died to save the world.”

“And you would have died to save your sister, that’s far more noble,” Harry whispered into her ear.

Daphne shook her head, “I don’t know who I am anymore. My Mother is the bad guy and my Father is the good guy. Everything I thought I knew was a lie. The fire that changed my life and left me terrified for years…it was all my Mother who I thought was trying to shelter me!”

“It doesn’t change who you are,” Harry assured her, “Because people can change, people do change all of the time. Hermione changed Draco and he changed her and you Daphne, God knows you changed me. Before you I had no idea what love was, I was lost, I didn’t know what to do with myself after I won the war that I had spent my whole life fighting. You found me, you gave me hope and you changed me. I think I probably changed you too so who you are now, it has nothing to do with what happened to you back then. You were already well on your way to getting past it by the time I met you.”

Daphne’s breathing slowed a little, “You did change me.”

Harry didn’t know if she was going to elaborate, there was a long silence.

“I thought I knew what love was until I met you then the reality of it crashed down on me and it scared me. What I felt for you Harry, how intense it was and still is, it still scares me sometimes. I didn’t think I was capable of love, of compassion…I never thought I would marry for love. I never pictured myself as a Mother so yes, you changed me, wholly for the better.”

Harry leant down and captured her lips in a chaste kiss, “You are who you always were,” he deepened the kiss, “You are Daphne Greengrass, the strongest person I know.”

Daphne leant into his embrace and let go of all of the anger and frustration that had built up inside her over the past few weeks. She let the calmness that Harry exuded wash over her and clear her head.

She found herself going back to her ‘happy place’ which seemed to be her 8th year at Hogwarts. All of those stolen moments with Harry in broom cupboards or empty classrooms, the hurried kisses, the dangerous rendezvous towards the end of that year. Back when they were still within that bubble at Hogwarts, before the real world rained down on her like a meteor shower.

When he lifted her up with ease, she wrapped her legs around his waist and she was back there, laughing because he had pulled her into a broom cupboard on her way to class. He left a trail of kisses down her neck and she was there again, trying to make sure they put the right ties on before parting ways lest anyone caught her wearing a Gryffindor tie.

He said her name, softly and quietly and she was there. Back in the room of requirement that first time, when he had dreamed up a romantic forest with stars shining brightly. Come to think of it, Daphne thought as she threw her head back and looked up, the same stars were shining through the cracks in the roof of the shack tonight.

She told him she loved him, and rested her head on his shoulder and she was back there. The last time at school, lying next to him in bed wondering, _praying _that nothing would change when they left school.

“I love you too,” Harry murmured.

Of course everything around them had changed, but that didn’t mean that _they _had. They had responsibilities now, jobs, a child, a wedding to plan. They had real world problems, real family problems but they were still those two kids at heart. Those two kids who had seen horrible things and didn’t believe that the world could be a better place until they had shown each other the possibilities.

Yes, Daphne had thought that her world was crashing down around her and maybe it was. But with Harry by her side, she knew that somehow, in the end, it would all put itself to right again.

She knew, for the first time in a good few weeks, that someday it was all going to be okay again.

***

“Morning Bill.”

Bill smiled sympathetically at her on Tuesday morning, “Do you want to go home? You look like shit.”

Daphne shook her head, “I need to work, it keeps me focused.”

“Did the hearing go that badly?” Bill asked, he handed her a cup of coffee.

Daphne sighed and sat down heavily behind her desk, “Well my Mother and her lover aren’t murderers so there’s that I guess.”

Bill frowned, “So who did kill your Father?”

“Nobody,” Daphne replied, “He’s alive. My Uncle gave him the draught of living death then put him in the family crypt after the funeral. He’s in St. Mungo’s, Harry’s doing his best to make sure its all kept quiet until the trial. After that, there’s no way of stopping the news breaking.”

“Woah,” Bill said after a moment, “That’s dark.”

“Yep,” Daphne sighed, “So he’s ill obviously, having being left inactive for the best part of a year and a half. But then there’s the fact that when he does start to get better, I basically have to get to know my Dad again. When I was little I was always his golden girl, but then we started to drift apart when I went to Hogwarts because my Mother started spinning lies about him, making me believe he had set fire to the house when we were younger. In actual fact, the fire was an accident, nobody was supposed to be in but the insurance money would have saved the business.”

Daphne took a breath and continued, “And he was bitter, but only because my Mother blatantly shoved it in his face that she was sleeping with his brother. I mean that’s sick, don’t you think?”

Bill nodded.

“So I always thought my Dad was the bad guy and now…”

“Now you need to get to know him again,” Bill reiterated.

“Yeah,” Daphne sighed, she rubbed her eyes, “So I’m tired and I’m stressed, but I can’t let it stop me. I need work, I need life to go on as normal or I don’t think I will cope.”

“Alright,” Bill said, he clapped his hands together, “In that case, move your arse because we’re going to Surrey where some eejit is handing out cursed teapots that turn the drinkers into old ladies.”

Daphne laughed and got to her feet, “Do you know what? That’s exactly what I needed to hear this morning.”

***

Over the course of the week, Daphne visited her Father several times. He opened his eyes and managed small smiles and small squeezes of her hand but that was all that he had the strength for. So Daphne talked to him, she told him about her job, about Harry and Teddy, about her friends. Each time she visited, she spent at least an hour by his side and although he had lots of tubes attached to him, he was starting to look a little healthier again.

When the weekend rolled around, they collected Teddy from Andromeda’s as always and brought him back to Potter Manor. He and Harry went off to their weekly Quidditch game on Saturday afternoon. Then on Sunday morning, they all headed off to St. Mungo’s.

“Now Teddy,” Harry said quietly before they entered Cygnus’s room, “This is Daphne’s Daddy that we are going to visit. He is quite ill so you must be very careful not to jump on him or annoy him, do you understand?”

Teddy nodded, “Yeah Dad.”

“Alright then, let’s go.”

Daphne took Teddy’s hand and led him into the small room. She smiled when she saw that her Dad was awake, “Hey Dad.”

Cygnus smiled in return, a little broader than he had managed the last time.

“I brought someone for you to meet,” Daphne said, she lifted Teddy up, “This is Teddy, our…son.”

Harry smiled, he liked hearing those words. Even if the adoption paperwork hadn’t come back yet, it was going to be official very soon.

Cygnus smiled again.

“Why are all the tubes for Mummy?”

“The tubes are to help him eat and drink Teddy,” Daphne explained, “He is very weak so he can’t feed himself yet.”

“See that tube there, that gives him water,” Harry added, “And that one gives him food.”

Teddy made a face, “Yuck, it looks like chicken soup. I hate chicken soup.”

“I think most people do when they are ill little man,” Harry said, he ruffled Teddy’s hair.

Teddy looked at Cygnus and cocked his head, “So…you is Mummy’s Daddy.”

Daphne chuckled, “That’s right Teddy, he’s my Daddy.”

Teddy frowned, “So my Grandad.”

Daphne looked at her Father for a moment, unsure how he would feel about that. Cygnus smiled in response so she said, “Yes, your Grandad.”

“I didn’t thought I had a Grandad!” Teddy said excitedly, “I have Grandma but she’s old and boring. She drinks tea with Aunty Cissa all the time and knits itchy jumpers. Grandads are much better!”

Harry chuckled and shook his head, “You had better not let your Grandma hear you saying that Teddy.”

But it had made Cygnus smile so that was worth it.

“Why don’t you tell your new Grandad all about yourself?” Harry asked Teddy.

Teddy frowned as he thought about what to say, “Umm…I like Quidditch and Puddlemere are my bestest team. Daddy takes me to see them every game. Oh and I have cool hair, look!”

He changed his hair from black (which it always was when he was around Harry) to blue, to green, to pink and back to black. Then he proceeded to tell Cygnus in great detail all about his favourite toys and storybooks, but Cygnus didn’t seem to mind one bit.

***

That night Daphne and Harry tucked Teddy into his bed and made their way downstairs. They were just contemplating a night cap when the floo whirred to life.

“Call for Daphne Greengrass from St. Mungo’s.”

Daphne immediately accepted the call and Auror Drummonds face appeared in the flames, “You two need to get down here as fast as you can, your Fathers health has deteriorated.”

“What? But he was fine this afternoon!” Daphne exclaimed.

“Just get here as soon as you can,” Drummond said, then the floo call disconnected.

“Well whose going to watch Teddy?” Daphne asked in a panic, “Andromeda and Narcissa are away for the weekend and Theo and Draco are on that boys weekend camping thing-”

“It’s fine Daph,” Harry said quickly, he threw some floo powder into the fire and said, “Longbottom House.”

Neville’s face appeared in the flames straight away.

“I’m really sorry to interrupt on your weekend with Lil, but can you guys come round here and watch Teddy? He’s asleep and he shouldn’t wake up but Daphne’s Dads in trouble in the hospital and we have to go,” Harry explained quickly.

“You don’t even have to ask, we’ll be right through,” Neville assured him.

Surely enough, the moment Harry stepped back from the fire Neville stepped through it, with Lilly on his heels.

“On you go, we’ll be fine with Teddy,” Neville promised.

Harry grabbed Daphne’s hand, she was as white as a ghost and frozen to the spot, and they flew out of the front door.

Lilly sighed and sat down heavily on the sofa they had just vacated, “I feel so sorry for Daphne right now. This is all too much, adopting Teddy and then having all of this going on.”

“I think adopting Teddy is about the only thing keeping them going,” Neville admitted.

“How will we know if he does wake up anyway? We’ll never hear him in a big old house like this,” Lilly said, glancing around the room.

“Harry has charms set up in his bedroom. If he doesn’t move for any longer than 16 seconds, an alarm will go off and if he cries we’ll hear it through a charm that connects this room with his room.”

Lilly frowned, “How do you know that?”

“I’m over here quite a lot,” Neville admitted, “I get kind of lonely when you’re away so some nights I stay here and Daphne makes me breakfast in the morning.”

Lilly laughed, “I never thought Daphne would become the Mum of the group.”

“No,” Neville agreed in amusement, “I always thought that would be Hermione.”

“She is the type,” Lilly agreed, “Or she was, PD.”

“What does PD mean?”

“Pre-Draco,” Lilly explained.

Neville snorted, “What about me then, what was I PL?”

“I don’t know, you’ve never really been without me,” Lilly said, shooting him a grin, “You were my friend from the get go until you got too big for your boots and led an army.”

“I hardly led an army.”

“We fell out of contact for what, a year, two max?” Lilly asked, “And in that time you literally led an army of school pupils in a war against Voldemort and beheaded a giant snake. So I think my influence on you is a stabilising one.”

Neville smiled, “You’re probably right. Without you I am reckless and impulsive, you tame me Lilly.”

“Don’t make sexual innuendos when there is a toddler sleeping above us,” Lilly warned him, “That’s a dangerous game.”

“Oh come on, he won’t wake up.”

“This is Harry’s family home!”

“So? Think of the things we’ve doing in _my _family home,” Neville said as he captured her lips in a kiss.

Lilly tried to think of another objection, because sleeping in Harry and Daphne’s house while babysitting their kid was wrong on so many levels. However, she didn’t need to make one because at that point, a sharp cry sounded around the room.

“So much for he probably won’t wake up,” Lilly said.

Neville rolled his eyes, “I’ll sort him out, I know you aren’t mad on kids.”

He got to his feet and walked upstairs, unaware of the fact that Lilly had followed him, out of curiosity more than anything else.

Neville walked into the room and scooped the little boy up, “Hey, hey, whats wrong Ted?”

Teddy sobbed, “Want my Daddy, want my Mummy.”

“Mummy and Daddy had to go out for a little while,” Neville said gently, “But I’m here, do you want to tell me whats wrong?”

“I had a bad dream,” Teddy sobbed.

Neville hugged the little boy, “Do you want to tell me about it?”

Teddy shook his head.

“I might be able to help,” Neville said, “I used to have bad dreams all the time when I was little.”

“Did you Uncle Nev?”

Neville nodded, “And every time I woke up, my Grandma gave me a hug and told me that no matter how scary it was, it wasn’t real.”

Teddy nodded, “Daddy says that too.”

“He’s right,” Neville promised, “Do you think you might be able to get back to sleep?”

Teddy nodded again and rubbed his eyes. Neville lay him down in his bed and pulled the cover over him, “Do you want me to stay for a little while? Just in case the bad dreams come back?”

“Uh-huh,” Teddy said sleepily.

From the doorway, Lilly watched and struggled with an internal battle going on inside her head. She had always said that she didn’t really want kids. She knew Neville did, and she knew it was the biggest sticking point in their relationship.

Lilly loved what she was training to do and she wanted to do that for as long as possible. The thought of stopping to have kids then having to get back on track again scared her. But then again, so did the thought that she and Neville might miss out on this because she was too career driven.

She had come to terms with commitment, she knew now that she wanted to marry Neville one day. Not right away, she didn’t want to rush into anything but she knew that was something she wanted. She hadn’t been able to come to terms with the fact that Neville may have completely changed her views on the world, on what she wanted out of life…not until she saw him comforting Teddy that night.

She slipped away before he could notice that she was watching him. But in that moment, standing in the doorway, she knew that one day, in the not too far away future, she wanted to be standing in the doorway watching Neville comfort their own baby.

That thought, that revelation, it shook her to the core but she knew that it was what she wanted. Neville was good at that, he was good at showing her the things she had never known she always wanted.

***

“What’s wrong with him?” Daphne asked when she and Harry were met outside her Fathers door by Healer Drummond.

“It isn’t good,” Drummond said honestly, “It’s kidney failure.”

“But you said he was fine!” Daphne exclaimed, “You said his organs would recover!”

“I said that they should recover,” Drummond corrected, “But we couldn’t have predicted this. His kidneys haven’t been functioning properly because he hasn’t been eating or drinking but now that we are putting food and drink in, they still do not seem to be responding. Its like they have forgotten how to work.”

“Is there nothing you can do about it?” Harry asked.

Drummond shook his head, “There are no charms that can help with kidney failure Mr. Potter.”

“But a new kidney would,” Daphne said suddenly, “You only need one functioning kidney, don’t you? If he had one that worked…”

“In theory it might save his life,” Drummond agreed, “But the surgery might kill him and then there’s the matter of where exactly we would find a kidney at such short notice.”

“I’ll give him mine,” Daphne said.

Harry stared at her in disbelief, “Daphne, what?”

“I will give him mine,” Daphne said firmly, “We must be the same blood type, I mean I’m his daughter!”

Drummond sighed, “Even if you do have the same blood type, it’s not that simple-”

“It’s exactly that simple!” Daphne said, “My kidneys work fine. Just give him one and save his life please, I can’t lose him again, I can’t! Not just after I got him back!”

“Daphne you’re being rash, you aren’t thinking this through-” Harry tried to say.

“And neither did you when you made your most life changing decisions Harry!” Daphne snapped, “You didn’t think it through when you walked into the forest to your death or when you stood in front of Voldemort in the great hall that night! If there’s a chance I can save his life, I need to do it.”

Drummond looked between them for a moment. Harry didn’t say anything, he couldn’t defend himself because he knew that she was right.

“We can test you to see if you are a match,” Drummond said, “But it’s not all about blood type so please, don’t get your hopes up.”

Daphne nodded.

“Come with me,” Drummond said, he opened the door to a small consultation room.

“Harry, I know she thinks that she doesn’t want to know, but you should floo Astoria,” Daphne said as she walked away from him, “If he’s going to die, I’d like her to have the chance to say goodbye.”

Harry nodded, “I won’t be far away,” he promised.

He took a breath, it wasn’t just Daphne who had become weighed down with everything going on right now. He was carrying as much of the burden for her as he could. Harry slipped out of the little waiting room and disappeared into another room where private booths were set up, each one containing a fireplace.

Harry threw some floo powder into the fire and said the address of Astoria’s flat. A few seconds later, her face appeared in the fire.

“This can’t be good if you’re phoning from the hospital.”

Harry shook his head, “It isn’t. Your…Cygnus, he has taken a turn for the worse. Both of his kidneys are failing and without one working kidney to help the other one heal, he will die very soon. Daphne is devastated, she’s being tested now to find out if she’s a match.”

“And if she isn’t?”

“He has 2 days maybe, if hes lucky,” Harry said, “Daphne asked me to floo you. She said she knows you feel a lot of resentment towards him but if you did want to say goodbye or…anything…you ought to do it now.”

Astoria sighed, “I need to be there, to support Daphne as much as anything else. I’ll get dressed and join you soon.”

Before Harry could say anything else, she disconnected the call.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for another cliffhanger and sorry it took so long to update!


	113. For the Love of a Daughter

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter title is from the song "For the Love of a Daughter" by Demi Lovato.
> 
> There is a scene with Daphne and Astoria which is heavily based on the Kelly Clarkson song "Piece by Piece" as well. No copyright intended, I just felt that some lyrics fitted perfectly in this storyline.

True to her word, Astoria joined Harry 10 minutes later in the small waiting room.

“She won’t take this well. She was always Daddy’s little girl before the fire and regardless of how much she says she doesn’t care anymore…she does.”

“I know,” Harry said simply.

And they didn’t say anything else while they waited.

It seemed to take forever for Daphne to come out of the room, and when she did, they could tell that it wasn’t good news. Her eyes were puffy, her cheeks were tear-streaked.

“I’m not a match,” Daphne choked out.

She fell into Harry’s arms and he held her tightly.

“What happens now?” He asked Drummond.

“All we can do is make him comfortable,” Drummond admitted.

“Could I be a match?” Harry asked, “I would give him a kidney.”

Drummond shook his head, “It’s a noble thought Mr. Potter but it’s very rare for someone who isn’t family to be a match.”

“Could you test me?” Astoria asked, “I’m his…niece.”

Drummond nodded, “We could test you, but your cousin wasn’t a match-”

“Sister,” Astoria and Daphne said in unison.

Drummond frowned.

“We have the same Mother but our Fathers are brothers,” Astoria explained, “So we are sisters…and cousins…”

“Right,” Drummond said slowly, “Well like I said, I can test you.”

Daphne looked up at Astoria tearfully, “Why would you even offer Astoria? After the way he treated you?”

“He never loved me the way he loved you, but he didn’t mistreat me Daphne,” Astoria said softly, “He put a roof over my head, he gave me a comfortable life. I wouldn’t have had that if he had thrown Mother and I out when he found out what she had done. I can’t let him die if there’s a chance that I could do something about it.”

Daphne threw herself at her sister and hugged her tightly, “You’re a better person than me.”

“No, I’m not,” Astoria said, “You would do the same thing for Phineas.”

Daphne wasn’t sure if she would, but she kept that thought to herself as Astoria disappeared into the consultation room.

“Would you have done it?” Harry asked in the long, echoing silence.

“Given Phineas a kidney?” Daphne asked.

“If roles were reversed, would you have done it?”

“I think so,” Daphne said honestly, she turned to look at him, “Family isn’t all about blood. Sometimes the people who raise you are your parents, even if biologically that isn’t the case.”

“I never want Teddy to forget that his biological parents were heroes though,” Harry said quietly, “He calls us Mummy and Daddy and I can’t help but think that it might hurt Remus and Tonks. Sometimes I wish I hadn’t thrown away the resurrection stone…”

“No, you were right to throw it away,” Daphne said curtly, “You’ve lost too many people Harry. Keeping that thing would have been suicidal. Besides, I’d like to think that Remus and Tonks would be happy that Teddy is getting to grow up in a normal, loving family environment. He’s not a scared, lonely orphan like you were.”

“We’re giving him what Remus always wanted to give me,” Harry realised suddenly, “God…how have I never looked at it that way before Daph? Remus would have taken me in, he told me so himself but nobody would have allowed it because he was a werewolf.”

Daphne smiled weakly, “There you have it. They wouldn’t be angry or upset, they would be grateful. And Astoria’s right, our Father could have kicked Mother out and Astoria with her. He put a roof over their heads and did the best he could, but he loved Mother despite it all and every time he looked at Astoria he must have been reminded of her betrayal.”

“It can’t have been easy for him, all those years,” Harry agreed.

“It wasn’t fair on her either though,” Daphne said, “It wasn’t Astoria’s fault.”

“No,” Harry agreed, “I hate to say it, but it all comes down to your Mother and her selfishness. If she didn’t love your Father, why pretend for all of those years? Why not just divorce him? He seems like a reasonable man, surely he would have preferred that than the route she took.”

“I think he would have done,” Daphne said.

Harry sighed and slipped his hand into hers, “Do you know Daph, I don’t think any of us have a normal family life. My parents died when I was a baby and I was raised by dickhead Muggles.”

“My family is just fucking complicated.”

“Draco’s Dad was a piece of shit,” Harry said, “And what Theo’s Dad did to his Mum is disgusting. Neville was raised by his Grandmother and belittled by the little family he had left,” Harry said, “And Lilly’s Dad ran off with another man when she was a kid.”

“I think Sadie and Hermione are the only two who had something close to a normal upbringing,” Daphne admitted, “Sadie always had it good. Nice house, two loving parents, all that jazz. Then Voldemort targeted her family.”

Harry nodded sadly, “Hermione had it good, I was always jealous of the way that she grew up. Supportive parents, nice house, plenty of money, not having to wear hand-me-downs. But then she risked it all for me when she obliviated them and sent them to Australia.”

“She would have done anything for you,” Daphne said knowingly, “If that’s not the greatest friend you could ever have…I don’t know what is.”

“I know, trust me, I know,” Harry assured her, “What I’m getting at though…I don’t want to fuck up Teddy’s upbringing.”

“We won’t,” Daphne promised, “Whatever happens, we won’t. But I need you to promise me something.”

“Anything.”

“If it all goes south and we fall out of love with each other,” Daphne said quietly, “Let’s tell each other. Let’s just get a divorce and stay friends. Promise me that we won’t fall into the trap of staying in it for the kids. Promise me that we won’t end up like my parents.”

“I promise,” Harry said sincerely, “If I fall in love with your sister, I’ll tell you before I get her pregnant.”

Daphne punched him in the arm, “Harry!”

“Too soon?” Harry joked.

He hoped he had timed the joke right, but if he hadn’t then she was probably about to burst into tears. Instead she burst into hysterical laughter and he couldn’t help but laugh with her.

Thankfully, they had calmed down 5 minutes later when the door of the consultation room opened.

Astoria stepped out, looking a little pale, “I’m a match.”

Daphne gasped and stood up, “Are you…I mean there are _no _obligations Tori-”

“I’ve already said I’ll do it,” Astoria said before Daphne could dig herself a hole.

“We need to get your sister down to theatre as soon as possible to give your Father the best chance we can,” Drummond explained, “Once we have opened both your sister and your Father up, we can do a simple switching spell. After a few months of both parties having one working kidney, the second kidney should have healed itself. At that point we can do another switching spell to restore the kidneys to their original owners.”

Daphne nodded nervously, “And it’s not risky?”

“Not for your sister,” Drummond assured her, “But there is a chance that your Father’s body will reject her kidney. I need you to know that there is no guarantee that this will work.”

“Thank you for your honesty,” Daphne said hoarsely. She stepped forward and hugged Astoria, “Thank you Astoria, thank you so much.”

“It’s as much for you as it is for him Daphne.”

“Well we’ll be here,” Daphne promised, “We’ll be right outside until we know how you both are and if it doesn’t work…we tried the best we could.”

Astoria nodded and gripped her sister tightly for a moment. Then she let go and allowed Drummond to lead her down the corridor.

“Will you be okay on your own for a minute?” Harry asked, “I really ought to floo Neville.”

“I’ll be fine,” Daphne promised, “You floo Neville and I’ll head down to the café for coffee.”

“Alright,” Harry said, he leant in and kissed her on the forehead, “Try to keep your chin up love.”

***

“Hey, how is my little guy?”

“Fine now,” Neville said through the fire, “He did wake up, he had a nightmare but I got him back off to sleep fairly quickly. How are things going at the hospital?”

“Not good, that’s why I’m checking in with you,” Harry said, “We might be here all night and I didn’t know how you would feel about sorting Teddy out with his breakfast if, worst case scenario, we aren’t back by morning.”

Neville shook his head, “Don’t worry about it. Worst case scenario, I’ll give him breakfast, drop him at Andromeda’s and tell Sumner why you aren’t around. Is it saying goodbye kind of bad?”

“Not quite, but it’s bad,” Harry admitted, “His kidneys are failing so he needs a healthy one to heal the other one. Daphne wasn’t a match but Astoria is and she offered to give him a kidney. They are in surgery now, but there’s a chance that his body will reject the kidney and if it does then it will be time to say goodbye.”

“Shit Harry,” Neville sighed, “Right after she got him back.”

“Yeah she’s not in a great place right now,” Harry said honestly, “But we just need to see how it goes after the surgery.”

“Well we’ll be fine here for as long as necessary,” Neville promised him.

“Thanks Nev, I really appreciate it.”

***

Harry and Daphne spent the following few hours in silence, but with their hands clasped tightly together. When Drummond finally did walk into the room, they looked up expectantly.

“They are both okay,” Drummond said with a smile, “And everything seems to have gone well. All that remains now is to leave the kidneys to heal and then switch them back. We will need to keep your Father monitored in hospital for a few months, but your sister can leave in 48 hours and we’ll check in with her every month to see how the kidney is doing.”

Daphne breathed out a sigh of relief, “Can we see either of them yet?”

“Your sister is awake, but it will take your Father slightly longer to come around,” Drummond said, he motioned to a door leading off of the corridor.

Daphne gave Harry a small smile, “I’ll stay here Harry. You go home.”

“Daphne-”

Daphne shook her head, “No, I know you want to be here for me but Teddy needs you to be there in the morning.”

“Alright,” Harry conceded because he knew she was right, “But if anything changes-”

“I’ll floo you,” Daphne cut in, “I promise. Could you floo Bill for me and explain that I won’t be at work?”

Harry nodded, “Of course I will. I love you.”

“I love you too,” Daphne said, she leant in and gave him a quick kiss before disappearing into Astoria’s room.

***

“Hey.”

Astoria smiled, “Hey.”

Daphne sat down on the edge of her bed, “You are an amazing person.”

“At the end of the day Daph, he was my Father. Maybe not biologically, but he raised me,” Astoria said, she shut her eyes and edged closer to her older sister.

“You just gave a kidney, to a man who gave you a complex,” Daphne whispered, “He made you feel inferior, he made you feel like nobody wanted you.”

“And he gave you a complex too, even before the fire,” Astoria returned, “He scared you, the way he was to Mother.”

“I understand his anger and his frustration now, but he hurt her you’re right,” Daphne admitted, “He is the victim here but he isn’t a saint, I know that Tori. I remember what he did to her after the fire.”

“If you hadn’t stepped in, I think he might have killed her,” Astoria whispered.

“He didn’t mean to hit me, he was just so angry at her then I got in the way.”

“It still scarred you for a long time,” Astoria said knowingly, “It made you terrified of relationships, terrified that someone would hurt you like that one day.”

“Until Harry,” Daphne said softly, “Harry…he filled the holes that Father burned in me back then.”

Astoria smiled, “He’s your everything.”

Daphne smiled too, “He’s everything our Father wasn’t Astoria…he never walks away when things get hard. He takes care of me and Teddy, and he loves us unconditionally. It was Harry who made me believe that a man could be kind.”

“You’re nothing like him Daph, you know that?”

Daphne sighed, “I used to worry all the time that I was just like him. Cold, logical, you know? But now I can see that I fell far from the tree, we both did. The thing is…adopting Teddy and becoming his Mother…it changed my perspective on things. I could never hurt Teddy like he hurt us and he will never have to wonder his worth like we did. Because unlike Father, I’m going to put him first.”

Astoria squeezed her hand and she took a breath.

“I hope I find a love like yours one day,” Astoria said, she turned her head to look at her sister, “You’re so damn lucky with your perfect fiancé and your cute little kid.”

Daphne turned her head too, “Trust me, I know. But I also know you’ll find someone too, someone who makes you feel just as special as Harry makes me feel.”

Astoria sighed sleepily, “Stay Daph?”

“Of course Tori,” Daphne said as she edged closer to her baby sister.

***

When Daphne woke up a few hours later, Astoria was still out of it. She got up and performed a few spells to freshen herself up then went to the hospital café for a coffee. It was early morning now so she slipped into her Fathers room in the hope that he would be awake.

“Morning Dad,” Daphne said when she sat down by his bed.

He opened his eyes and tried to speak. When he had done this in the past, nothing had come out. But this time he managed a faint, “Daphne.”

Daphne looked up in surprise, “You spoke.”

Cygnus visibly swallowed, “I’m alive?”

Daphne nodded, “Your kidneys were failing, I offered to give you one of mine but we don’t have the same blood type, I have the same blood as Mum.”

Cygnus frowned.

“But you and Phineas obviously have the same blood type, so Astoria gave you a kidney.”

Cygnus’s eyes widened.

“She said, and I am quoting here, even if it wasn’t biological, you are still her Dad. You put a roof over her head, fed her and kept her well even though you knew she wasn’t yours and could have kicked her and Mum out easily enough.”

“She knows the truth.”

Daphne nodded, “It all came out recently when Mother decided to sell the house and I got a box of letters you wrote to Alfie Nott. I saw what you wrote on my marriage contract to Draco too.”

Cygnus smiled, “I meant it.”

Daphne smiled weakly, “I want a fresh start Dad, but I can’t pretend that you’re the only victim here. I understand that what Mum did made you bitter and angry, but you did some unspeakable things to her, and to me and Astoria. Things have to change if you want to be in my life.”

Cygnus gave a small nod.

“For one, you need to accept Astoria as your daughter,” Daphne said, “Because despite the fact you made her feel inferior for her entire life, she still loves you and I don’t think she can handle you rebuffing her again.”

Cygnus didn’t say anything so Daphne continued, “And you need to be a better Grandfather to my son than you were a Father to me. You can’t walk away when things get hard, you can’t lash out and you can’t choose to be there for him when it’s convenient for you.”

Hurt flashed across Cygnus’s face.

“I love you Dad, and I’m happy for this to be a fresh start but it has to be for _all _of us and that includes Astoria.”

Cygnus nodded, “I understand. She gave a kidney for me, I think that warrants official adoption.”

Daphne’s eyes widened, “You would adopt her?”

“She always reminded me of your Mothers betrayal, but that was no excuse to treat her the way that I did,” Cygnus admitted, “And as hard as it is to hear, you are right. I wasn’t always the best Father in the world and I apologise for that. I will do better for your son than I did for you, I promise.”

Daphne smiled, “Good.”

Cygnus smiled back, “He’s lovely you know.”

“Who, Teddy?”

“Well he is certainly lovely, but I meant Harry actually,” Cygnus said.

“You approve?”

“I approve,” Cygnus said, “From the year I spent at Hogwarts with his Father, I thought he was a smarmy little shit, but Harry seems to have his head screwed on and he obviously loves you. I can tell from the way he looks at you, I wish your Mother had looked at me like that.”

Daphne smiled sympathetically, “I’m glad you approve. Harry makes me happier than I’ve been in a long time.”

“I can see that,” Cygnus said, he reached out and took her hand, “It makes me happy to see you doing so well. How is Astoria doing?”

“Great,” Daphne admitted, “She wants to be a lawyer so she’s taking extra classes at the DMLE. She doesn’t have a boyfriend or anything, she dates wishy washy guys, I really need to set her up.”

“Why don’t you set her up with Draco?” Cygnus suggested.

Daphne chuckled and shook her head, “No, that ship has sailed. Draco is very happy with Hermione.”

“Who is Hermione?”

“She is Harry’s best friend and she’s a Muggle-born _and _a Gryffindor,” Daphne said.

Cygnus laughed weakly, “Draco Malfoy dating a Muggle-born, Gryffindor?”

“Oh he’s engaged to her actually,” Daphne smiled, “And he’s Draco Black now. He and his Mother changed their names when Lucius went to prison.”

“Good for her,” Cygnus said with a warm smile, “Narcissa Black always was too good for that cheating slimeball.”

Daphne knew fine well her Fathers opinion of Lucius, he had always been vocal about it.

“Is she doing well now?”

Daphne nodded, “She’s living with her sister Andromeda, they reconciled after the war. I expect she will come and visit you when we tell her the news, she was very upset at your funeral.”

“Was she?” Cygnus asked with interest.

Daphne hid a knowing smile, “She was distraught so I hear.”

“You heard?” Cygnus asked with a frown.

Daphne frowned too, “Well the thing is…I didn’t go to the funeral. I was angry and at the time, I thought you were the bad guy.”

“I understand,” Cygnus promised her.

They fell into comfortable silence for a while, then Cygnus said quietly, “Daphne…did you mean what you said when you first came in?”

Daphne frowned, “What part?”

“The part about wanting me to become well enough to walk you down the aisle,” Cygnus said.

Daphne’s eyes widened, “Oh, of course I did. I wouldn’t have said something like that if I didn’t mean it.”

Cygnus’s smile widened, “Then I would love to tell you that I would be honoured to do so. This is a fresh start for all of us, myself and my two wonderful daughters.”

Daphne smiled warmly, “It will do Astoria the world of good to hear that,” she told him.

Cygnus just squeezed her hand and they fell silent once more.

***

“Miss Greengrass?”

Astoria looked up at the Trainee Healer who had entered her room, “Yes?”

“Your Father is asking for you. Do you feel up to getting out of bed and being wheeled in to speak with him?”

Astoria felt rather sick with nerves at the thought but she nodded all the same. She got out of bed tentatively and let the healer wheel her into the room next door. She swallowed her shock when she saw how pale and frail the man was.

“Astoria,” Cygnus said quietly, “You came.”

Astoria nodded, “You asked to see me?”

“I needed to apologise, and to thank you,” Cygnus said honestly, “You gave me a kidney.”

“You gave me a good life, a kidney is nothing in comparison,” Astoria said timidly.

“A good life?” Cygnus questioned, “Do you really feel that way? Daphne always told me that I made you feel inferior and unwanted. Is that true?”

“I knew that you favoured Daphne over me and maybe I was timid for a long time because of that,” Astoria admitted, “But you put a roof over my head, you fed me, you clothed me in nice clothes. I never wanted for anything, in that respect Daphne and I were entirely equal. The only thing I felt you gave her over me was your love.”

Cygnus sighed, “I truly apologise for that. I did favour Daphne over you and it was because you reminded me of how much your Mother had hurt me. Of course, that wasn’t your fault and I should never have taken that out on you. Daphne and I discussed how this new lease of life should be a fresh start…for all of us…and I think that ought to begin with adoption.”

Astoria frowned, “What?”

“If you are willing,” Cygnus said slowly, “I would like to adopt you and attempt to start writing some of the wrongs I made in my previous life.”

Astoria opened her mouth then closed it again.

“I…I would be okay with that,” She said eventually.

“Would you also be okay with becoming the head of Greengrass Industries?”

Astoria’s eyes widened, “You…you want me to take over the business? Me? You always said I was the wishy washy one, that Daphne was the clever one.”

“I was wrong about that, as I was with many other things,” Cygnus admitted, “Daphne loves her job, that much is clear. But she said that you wanted to be a lawyer and that is what would make you a fantastic CEO. You know as well as I do that there are a lot of politics involved in the job. Of course, I understand if you don’t want it, after all the business is struggling and when news of what happened to your Mother and Phineas hits the press, stocks will plummet again-”

“And I’ll fix it,” Astoria said eagerly, “Father, I have so many ideas about how to fix the business. I know how to bring it into the 21st century, I’ve thought so much about this. So yes, I would love the job, and I will do everything that I can to save the business, you have my word.”

Cygnus smiled at her, “I’m sorry that it took me too long to realise that there was more of me in you than I thought Astoria.”

Astoria smiled proudly, “Thank you.”

“No,” Cygnus said, he reached out and took her hand, “Thank _you_.”

***

The trial took place the following week. It was very similar to the preliminary hearing, but far more official.

Daphne and Astoria didn’t have to give statements thankfully. But they did stand hand in hand while their Mother glared at them when she was dragged out of the courtroom. She was sentenced to 25 years in the low-security section of Azkaban for the attempted murder of her Husband.

Phineas just kept his head down, it was clear he felt great remorse for his actions. It was this remorse that saved him from a more serious sentence. He received 10 years in low-security with the possibility of parole after 7, for conspiracy to commit murder.

Daphne and Astoria both felt an immense sense of relief when it was all over. They went back to Potter Manor, stripped themselves of their official dress and walked into the kitchen in their casual clothes, feeling lighter.

“I’m sorry I couldn’t make the trial,” Harry said as he fought to keep the smile off of his face, “I lied about having to work.”

Daphne frowned, “So why weren’t you there?”

“I was handling this at the Ministry,” Harry said, he handed a certificate to Daphne.

Daphne’s face lit up, “Oh! Sweet Salazar…it’s official! Teddy is ours!”

Astoria grinned and looked at the piece of paper, “Edward Remus Lupin-Potter.”

Daphne’s eyes filled up with tears, she launched herself at Harry and hugged him tightly. He held her just as tightly as tears filled his eyes too.

“We bring him home tomorrow night,” Harry said.

“This is just what we needed after the last couple of weeks,” Daphne said cheerfully.

“I know,” Harry grinned, “I was just saying the same thing to Dave.”

“Who is Dave?” Astoria asked.

Daphne rolled her eyes, “His snake.”

“You have a snake, and you talk to it?”

“He talks back,” Harry defended himself.

“Harry’s a Parseltongue,” Daphne said by way of explanation.

“Ah,” Astoria realised, “What is he, a grass snake or something?”

“Oh no, that would be lovely, safe and sensible,” Daphne said matter of factly, “Dave is a boa constrictor and we have a toddler.”

“Dave would never hurt Teddy, he’s very protective of me and anyone that I love,” Harry said.

Astoria looked between them, “I’m guessing that this is an area of contention.”

“Slightly,” They said in unison.

“I keep him outside, that’s the compromise,” Harry said.

“Right,” Astoria said, it was clear that she was struggling to contain her laughter, “Look, I’m going to get away and let you two celebrate your happy news together. Are we still on for taking dinner to Dad in hospital on Sunday?”

“Yeah,” Daphne said with a smile, “We’ll bring Teddy too. It’s great how quickly he’s coming on, isn’t it? Even the healers are surprised by how well he’s doing.”

“It’s nice to see him off all of those tubes,” Astoria agreed, “He’s more himself again. Anyway congratulations Daph, I’m really happy for you.”

“Thanks Tori.”

Astoria disappeared into the fireplace and Daphne and Harry positively beamed at each other.

***

“You’re happy today.”

“Today is officially the day,” Harry said cheerfully, “Teddy has now become Teddy Lupin-Potter.”

“Congratulations man!” Neville said, he gave Harry a bear hug.

Draco hit him on the back, “Yeah congrats Harry.”

Theo smiled at him, “That’s great news.”

“It’s just what we needed after the trial,” Harry admitted with a grin, “When Daphne got back and saw the adoption certificate yesterday…it was just amazing.”

“When does he move in?” Draco asked.

“Tonight,” Harry said, “And we’ve already started explaining it to him so hopefully that makes the transition easier.”

“I’m sure he will adapt quickly, kids that young always do,” Neville said, “Look at me and you after all.”

“True,” Harry agreed.

“When he’s older, he probably won’t remember a time when he didn’t live with you and Daphne,” Draco agreed.

Harry nodded thoughtfully, “Also true. Either way, we’re both really excited about being able to call him our son officially,” he said as they reached the locker room.

“Course you are,” Neville said, “And so you should be, he’s an amazing little guy.”

Harry smiled softly, “Yeah, he really is.”

***

“Hey Teddy! You all ready?”

Teddy nodded, “Gramma says I get to live with you now.”

“Yeah,” Daphne said, she knelt down, “But Grandma is still going to look after you during the day when we go to work. Is that okay?”

Teddy nodded vigorously, “Uh-huh.”

“Good,” Harry said, he ruffled the little boys hair, “We’ve set your new bedroom all up for you. Daphne bought you some new bedtime stories and I got you a nice new night light. Are you excited?”

“Yeah Daddy!”

Harry smiled and picked the little boy up. He looked at Andromeda, expecting to see sadness in her eyes, but she just looked happy.

“I’ll see him all the time when you are at work, and I am always free to babysit if you need a date night,” She promised.

“Thank you,” Daphne said, she hugged the older woman.

“No, thank you,” Andromeda said sincerely, “For giving him the life he deserves, the life Dora would have wanted for him.”

Harry swallowed a lump in his throat and nodded, “Your welcome,” he managed to say.

***

They took Teddy home that night and put him to bed with a bedtime story and his new lamp. He fell asleep easily, and they lay in bed that night feeling on top of the world.

“I can’t wait to call you my wife.”

Daphne turned her head to look at him, “Where did that come from?”

Harry turned his head too, “You are an amazing human being, you are an amazing Mother and I can’t wait to be able to call you my wife too.”

Daphne smiled, “Cheesy.”

Harry gave her a boyish grin, “You love it really.”

Daphne chuckled and rolled onto her stomach, she propped herself up, “What are we doing about this wedding anyway?”

“I thought you had it all under control?”

“Technically I do,” Daphne said, “The venue, the theme, the cake, you know? But things like guests and bridal parties need to be finalised.”

“We’re having a small, intimate wedding aren’t we?” Harry asked.

Daphne nodded.

“So just close family and friends then,” Harry said, “I want the Weasleys there and I suppose I ought to invite Aunt Petunia and Dudley, but beyond that…I would be happy with our friend group and a few close friends from school.”

“Me too,” Daphne said, “I would like Narcissa and Andromeda there too, and I think we probably ought to invite Hermione’s parents.”

“But on the whole, keep it small,” Harry said with a nod, “Just a quiet wedding here at the Manor.”

“We could maybe invite more people to the evening,” Daphne mused, “You know, get married, have a nice meal then a huge party.”

“That would be very us,” Harry agreed.

Daphne hummed thoughtfully, “What are we going to do about bridesmaids? I want Sadie to be my Maid of Honour, but originally I wasn’t going to include Astoria as a bridesmaid.”

“What difference does it make if you do?” Harry asked cluelessly.

“Well it means you need another groomsman to even it out,” Daphne explained.

Harry thought on that for a moment, “Well worst case scenario, I guess I could always ask Blaise.”

Daphne snorted, “There’s a sight.”

Harry laughed too, he leant down to kiss her, “Not long now.”

Daphne shook her head, “A couple of months. Teddy’s going to be the pageboy right?”

“Of course.”

“Do you think we should ask Bill and Fleur if Victoire would like to be the flower girl?”

“That’s a good idea,” Harry admitted, “How is he these days anyway?”

“Not great,” Daphne admitted, “Fleur wants another kid and Bill is secretly contemplating their future together, but he’s too scared to say anything.”

Harry sighed, “Yeah, that isn’t great. I mean Fleur can be intense don’t get me wrong, but I don’t like to see my friends struggling.”

“I guess parenting isn’t for everyone,” Daphne admitted, she cuddled into Harry.

“I think it’s definitely for us.”

Daphne smiled into his chest, “Me too. I love my job, don’t get me wrong but this…it’s far more rewarding and I can’t wait to give Teddy a brother or sister.”

Harry smiled and pressed a kiss into her forehead, “I love you Daph,” he said, and he fell asleep with a smile on his face.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This story is now exclusively on A03. I have deleted it from FF.NET entirely after being targeted by another group of nasty trolls.


	114. Babies Making Babies

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter title is from the Miranda Lambert song "Babies Makin' Babies".
> 
> Long chapter coming up, with lots of drama!!

“Theo, why do you look like your going to pass out?”

“I’m just nervous,” Theo muttered.

“Your nervous? Why are you nervous? Should I be nervous?” Sadie asked in a panicked whisper.

“No, no, it’s going to be fine,” Theo assured her, “It’s just a little scary, don’t you think? Now we’re at this point it suddenly feels…”

“Real,” Sadie replied, looking around the room at all the pregnant women, “Scarily real.”

Theo nodded, but before he could say anymore a Maternity Medi-witch stepped out of a room and called out, “Sadie Nott!”

Sadie and Theo followed her nervously into the room. She smiled warmly at them, “There’s no need to look so nervous, I don’t bite!”

Sadie laughed weakly, “Sorry, we’re just a little nervous. This is our first baby.”

“Don’t worry, I will walk you through how everything works,” The medi-witch said, “My name is Halina, and I’m going to be the medi-witch looking after you throughout your whole pregnancy and during your birth. Now, after this appointment, I will come out to your home and see you there if you so wish to save you traipsing in here all the time.”

Sadie nodded.

“So I just need some basic information from you guys,” Halina continued, “Whats your address?”

“Number 11 Grimmauld Place, London.”

“And do you know roughly when that house was built?” Halina asked.

Theo frowned as he thought about this, “Around 1930 I would guess?”

Halina nodded as she jotted down their answers, “Do you know if it was ever painted with lead paint?”

Theo and Sadie looked at each other in surprise.

Halina looked up at their response, “Sorry, it’s a new question.”

“Is that really being implemented already?” Sadie asked in surprise.

Halina frowned, “Yes, it was just brought in this year. Do you already know the reasoning behind it?”

Theo smiled proudly, “Yes, it was actually one of my best friends Neville who discovered it while we were all researching our N.E.W.T potions projects.”

Halina smiled too, “Was it really? Well, your friend Neville would be delighted to hear that it is changing lives. We are able to identify really early if there is a problem which means we can keep an eye on potential problems with the foetus. The higher ups think that knowledge is going to reduce birth complications and stillbirths by at least 50%.”

“Wow,” Sadie voiced.

Theo nodded, “And in answer to the question, we tested for lead paint and found no traces. We think it was a muggle house before we took it on.”

“Perfect,” Halina said, “So I need to know some things about you guys too. Were you both born in the UK?”

Sadie and Theo both nodded.

“And do you have any close relatives who weren’t born here?” Halina asked.

“I don’t,” Theo said.

“Neither do I,” Sadie added.

“Textbook answers,” Halina said cheerfully, “Okay then let me tell you how today is going to go. I need to do a whole series of tests to check that your little one is doing okay and then you will be free to go.”

The appointment went well. Sadie’s blood test showed that her iron levels were a little low which might have been what was causing the faint spells so she was given a supplement to help with that. All of the other tests came up fine and when the medi-witch listened to the babies heartbeat she was happy with it.

***

At the end of the appointment, they left feeling much more calm. It had been late on Friday afternoon so they headed straight to Longbottom House. Neville and Lilly had decided that the group hadn’t seen as much of each other as they used to, so they had called a movie night.

On offer for the non-pregnant people was butterbeer, but Sadie had to settle for popcorn. Ginny and Blaise came, and Ginny was majorly pregnant now because she was due in around a month and a half.

“So how did it go today?” Neville asked conversationally.

“It went well,” Sadie replied happily, “The baby has a strong heartbeat and all my tests came back fine.”

“So why don’t you sound thrilled?” Lilly asked with a raised eyebrow.

Ginny cocked her head at her, “Is it because you didn’t find out the gender? Because you can do that later on, but its classed as private care so you need to pay for it.”

Sadie shook her head, “No, it’s not that. It’s…it’s silly.”

“Hey, I’m sure it isn’t silly love,” Theo said.

“And we’re your friends, we aren’t going to laugh even if it is,” Daphne promised.

Sadie sighed, “Does it make me a terrible person because I feel bad that I don’t know enough? I mean yes, I know the baby has a strong heartbeat and that _I’m _okay but I don’t know if it might be a squib or…you know.”

Lilly smiled slightly, “Sadie, it doesn’t make you a terrible person because everyone feels the same. I see it all the time-”

“You see it all the time?” Draco asked in disbelief.

“You’re training to be a trauma healer!” Harry chipped in, “Not a maternity medi-witch!”

Neville smirked as he sensed an inevitable sarcastic remark from his girlfriend.

“Yes you dumbasses, I _am _training to be a trauma healer but what if I find a pregnant woman in distress? Trauma healing isn’t the hardest field to master because we have to work in the field with what we have. It’s the hardest field to master because we have to know enough about _everything _to provide adequate care to get the victim to the hospital safely. Now if you don’t quit with the jibes, I’ll just leave you bleeding out when you inevitably fuck up in a duel.”

“You wouldn’t,” Harry said, “Neville loves me, you couldn’t put him through that.”

“Hmm,” Lilly hummed thoughtfully, “You’re right, I would have to save you or Neville would cry about it for months. But Draco, you’re fucked.”

Hermione positively cackled at that.

“Wow,” Draco said with a shake of his head, “The level of love in this room right now is astounding.”

Theo jumped on Draco from the row behind, “Don’t worry Draco, I would save you.”

Draco chuckled as Theo rugby tackled him, “Thanks Theo, at least someone loves me.”

Harry shook his head in amusement, “See Sadie, everyone has those worries.”

Sadie nodded, but she didn’t look convinced.

“Hey, if it helps, I can explain it a little better,” Lilly said. She shoved herself up onto the small stage that the projector projected onto, “The thing is, we can find out a lot at the 3 month check. We can check the gender, the magical power, we can check for birth defects but legally we aren’t allowed to.”

“Why?” Hermione asked in disbelief.

“Unfortunately, it goes back to old fashioned pureblood beliefs,” Lilly replied, “The Ministry worry about what a pureblood might do if they found out they were having a girl and that there was a 90% chance it would be a squib when they wanted a powerful male heir. You see where I’m coming from?”

Sadie nodded, “I understand.”

“I’m sorry Sadie, I know it sucks, but it’s just the way that it seems to be here,” Lilly said apologetically.

“It’s fine,” Sadie assured her, “Anyway, have you guys decided on a movie yet?”

“We’re watching ‘The King and I’ because I feel the need for a heartfelt romance,” Lilly decreed, “And I don’t care how much you boys complain, I am not being subjected to another action film!”

A collective groan went around the male contingent of the friend group.

Harry shook his head, “I dumped Teddy with his Aunt Cissa for this?”

Draco made a face, “Hearing you say that makes me feel kind of sick.”

“The thought of watching a romcom makes me feel kinda sick,” Neville said.

“Yeah, we should probably just go downstairs and ‘study’ in the bar,” Harry agreed as he got to his feet.

“Oh no you don’t,” Daphne said, she pulled him back down, “You forced us to watch Terminator last time, you have to watch a romcom this time.”

Another collective groan went around the room.

***

“I think I’m going to pop over and see Sadie this morning.”

Neville put a steaming mug of coffee down in front of her, “I thought you were going to say that.”

Lilly looked up, “Did you?”

Neville nodded and smiled, “I know you Lillian Moon, you don’t like knowing that you can help and not helping. It’s very Hufflepuff of you actually.”

Lilly raised an eyebrow at him, “And you like a bit of Hufflepuff, clearly.”

Neville raised _his _eyebrows at her, “Where did that come from?”

“Just a comment,” Lilly replied calmly, “You do seem rather fond of Hufflepuffs.”

“I’m more fond of Ravenclaws,” Neville said as he leant across the table to whisper in her ear, “It’s true what they say about smart girls, they do the kinkiest-”

“I get the point, Longbottom,” Lilly said as she pushed him away.

Neville grinned, a little smugly, at her, “You should go and see Sadie.”

“Do you think I should do the tests for her?”

“If she wants them, why not?” Neville said, “The only way you would get in trouble was if you got caught and Sadie isn’t going to dob you in, is she? She’s one of your best friends.”

“True,” Lilly agreed, she sipped her coffee, “I’ll go over later in the morning. I don’t want to disturb her if she’s actually getting some rest, you know she needs it right now.”

Neville nodded and put his coffee cup down on the table, “So you have around 3 hours to kill and nothing to do…”

“What ever could you be hinting at Neville?” Lilly asked innocently.

“I am hinting that you should abandon that coffee right now and get back in my bed, where you belong.”

Lilly eyed him playfully, “So dominating Neville is coming out to play.”

“You’ve never complained before.”

“No,” Lilly agreed with a smirk, “I haven’t.”

***

When Lilly stepped into the drawing room of 11 Grimmauld Place later that day, she saw Sadie lounging on the sofa with a book.

“Hey Lil,” Sadie smiled, “What brings you here?”

Lilly smiled back, “I just had a thought this morning. Technically I shouldn’t offer to do this but you’re my friend and as long as you don’t tell anyone I won’t get in trouble so…I could do the checks for you if you want?”

Sadie’s eyes widened, “Would you?”

Lilly nodded, “They are easy to do, it’s just that…we don’t always trust everyone with that kind of information. I trust you though, and Merlin help me but I even trust Theo.”

Sadie laughed, “Lilly, you are the best!” she said, she hugged friend, “I love you!”

Lilly smiled, “It’s nothing Sadie, honestly. Do you want Theo to be here when I do it?”

Sadie shook her head, “Just in case it is bad news like the baby is a squib, I would rather tell him myself.”

“I understand that,” Lilly said honestly, “Well if you’re ready, I just need you to lie down and lift your top up so your stomach is showing.”

Sadie lay down straight away and did as Lilly asked. Lilly then readied her wand and cast some sort of diagnostic charm. Sadie’s stomach glowed pink and Lilly looked at it more closely.

“So the first bit of good news is that there are no birth defects, that would show up bright red straight away,” Lilly began.

Sadie breathed a sigh of relief.

“And I can detect the gender, do you want to know?”

Sadie shook her head, “No, I’ll keep that as a surprise.”

“Okay,” Lilly said, “So magical power wise…woah!”

“What?” Sadie asked in surprise, “What’s wrong?”

“It’s just…” Lilly’s frown deepened, “Uh…”

“It’s a squib isn’t it?” Sadie asked.

“No, no!” Lilly exclaimed, “No Sadie, it’s the opposite. Look I need a second opinion,” she stopped the charm and Sadie’s stomach returned to normal.

“That test shows crazy magical power and I don’t think your pregnant with the next Merlin so I need to call in my supervisor to double check what it means,” Lilly said honestly, “Would you be okay if I called Clara?”

Sadie nodded, “I like Clara and if I ask her not to tell Sorenson, I’m sure she will listen.”

“I’m sure she will,” Lilly agreed. She pressed a button on the communication bracelet that she wore on her wrist and a ringing noise sounded.

After a few seconds Clara’s voice said, “Hey Lilly, what’s up?”

“I just need a second opinion on something Clara,” Lilly said honestly, “I did something I shouldn’t have done but it was for a friend and-

“Just stop. I’ll be over straight away, where are you?”

“Number 11 Grimmauld Place.”

“Sadie’s place?” Clara asked in alarm, “Is she okay?”

“She’s fine,” Lilly promised.

“Alright, I’m in the UK with Sorenson right now so I’ll be over straight away,” Clara said, then she ended the call.

Literally less than a minute later, the fire roared to life and, because her magical signature was recognised by the house, she was granted access.

“What’s up? What did you do?”

“Sadie was worried about squib genes and stuff,” Lilly said sheepishly, “So I said that I would do the tests for her, but the magical ability one went crazy, like off the scale.”

Clara breathed a sigh of relief, “So nothing is wrong, thank Merlin. I panicked when you called.”

Sadie frowned, “Why would it be off the scale? Theo and I aren’t massively powerful.”

“I’m not sure. I would need to check myself, are you alright for me to do that Sadie?” Clara asked.

“Of course,” Sadie replied.

Clara cast the same charm that Lilly had done. She looked around, prodded a little bit then cancelled the charm out. When she looked up at Sadie, she saw worry etched all over her face.

“So I’m sorry but you’re definitely not pregnant with the next Merlin,” Clara said, she shot Lilly an amused look, “Did the hospital tell you anything unusual about the pregnancy?”

“No, why what’s wrong?” Sadie panicked.

“Nothing darling,” Clara assured her, she grabbed the younger girls hand, “The thing is…the reason the magical signature was so powerful…it was because you aren’t having one baby, you’re having two.”

“Twins,” Lilly gasped.

“Twins,” Sadie said weakly.

“Twins,” A voice from the doorway said, it was followed by a thud.

***

“So we’re having twins…”

“Holy shit,” Harry said.

“Woah, you’re fucked mate,” Draco added.

Hermione hit him, “Draco! Congratulations Theo, that’s great news.”

“Yeah,” Theo said weakly, “Great news.”

“Well…it’s unexpected,” Neville admitted.

Daphne nodded, “Where is Sadie anyway?”

“She’s upstairs, sleeping it off.”

“Theo,” Daphne said irritably, “You better properly help her, this isn’t a joke!”

“I know it’s not a joke,” Theo said honestly, “It’s just…twins…you know, two babies…”

“Yes, we know what twins are Theo,” Harry remarked.

“And I don’t get what’s so bad about it,” Lilly added as she stepped into the room.

“I didn’t say it was bad, just surprising,” Theo said, “Anyway, how is Sadie?”

“Shocked, she had just gotten her head around having one baby,” Lilly admitted, “We gave her a mild sedative to help her sleep.”

“The fact its twins explains why she has been so ill and so faint though,” Clara added as she joined Lilly by the door, “So I’ve upped her iron supplement which will hopefully make her start to feel better in the next few days.”

Theo sighed, “That’s good.”

“Well,” Harry said, “I think we should probably just leave you to contemplate this bombshell. It’s a big thing to take in.”

The others agreed. They all gave their congratulations then left via the floo, all apart from Neville.

“I need to get back to France,” Clara said, “But keep an eye on Sadie for me while you’re here for the weekend.”

“I will,” Lilly promised.

“Will you stay for a drink Nev? I could use a stiff one”

Neville smiled at Theo, “That’s why I stayed.”

“I’ll go up and sit with Sadie, I think she might need a friend when she wakes up,” Lilly said.

***

“Twins Nev…”

“It’s a blessing in a way Theo,” Neville told him, “A lot of purebloods struggle to have any kids so to have two in one go…”

“I know,” Theo said, he sipped his whiskey, “You know…your research is already changing lives. The maternity medi-witch we saw asked us about lead paint, she said that the research should bring the stillbirth and birth defects rate down by 50%.”

“Really?” Neville asked with a slight smile, “That is great news.”

Theo nodded absentmindedly.

“I’m glad it’s changed someone’s life, because I’m resigned to not having kids,” Neville admitted, “I don’t think Lilly wants them and I want her, for worse or for better. If she doesn’t want kids I can live with that.”

“Really?” Theo asked, “You want a family so badly.”

“And the only person I can envisage that with is Lilly so if she doesn’t want kids, that’s it,” Neville said.

“Well you’ll be the Godfather to my kid, _kids_,” Theo promised him, “Sadie and I already discussed it.”

“Really?” Neville asked, “I’m touched by that Theo, I thought you would have gone for Draco.”

“Draco is my best friend, but he’s not my only friend,” Theo said, “When it’s advice or support I need, it’s you I want by my side Nev. Haven’t you noticed that when we split off from our Auror pairs, it’s always me and you, and Harry and Draco?”

Neville hummed thoughtfully, “True. You are one of my best friends Theo, I don’t think giving you advice or listening to you when you need to talk is a chore and I get why you’re stressing out. This pregnancy was a shock, so to find out that you’re going to have two babies…it’s a big deal.”

Theo nodded, “I don’t know how we’re going to cope.”

“I think you’ll just have to learn as you go like all parents of twins must,” Neville admitted, “The first thing you need to think about before you panic is what you are going to need two of. Let’s deal with this logistically alright? Two cots obviously and two mattresses, and some sort of double pram. I think there’s a shop in Diagon Alley that sells them. I can find out for you, but-”

“I love you Neville,” Theo said, a little tearfully, as he threw himself at Neville.

Neville hugged his friend back and patted his back, “Uh Theo. Which one of you is pregnant, you or Sadie?”

“I just needed someone practical and helpful right now, thanks Nev.”

“Anytime Theo,” Neville chuckled, “Now if you want helpful, here’s the most helpful bit of advice I can give you. However hard you think this is going to be, it’s going to be ten times harder for Sadie. She’s the one who is going to be stuck in the house with two babies while you chase after dark wizards. You need to help her get her head around this.”

Theo nodded, “She’s great and I know that she’s going to be a great Mother, but trying to make her see that is really difficult right now.”

“She’s scared,” Neville reasoned, “She’s going to be a young Mother, it’s understandable.”

“We’re both young,” Theo said, frowning into his drink, “I don’t know how we’re going to manage on our own. Neither of us really have the most supportive family…”

“Biologically maybe not,” Neville agreed, “But the family you chose is just as important as the family you come from, and you are certainly not alone. If you need a babysitter so you two can have a date night, you know Lilly and I will volunteer. You have Daphne who is Sadie’s best friend, she’s going to be there for you both too even if she acts like she hates you.”

“She loves me really,” Theo chuckled.

“I know,” Neville said with a smile, “Suse will babysit given half the chance too but if I were you I’d maybe wait until they were a bit older and less fragile.”

Theo snorted in amusement.

“And then there’s Draco,” Neville grinned, “I mean come on, did you see him with Teddy as a baby? He’s a baby whisperer, but he can’t just go around telling people that because it would ruin his cool, bad boy imagine.”

Theo laughed out loud at that and patted Neville on the back, “Thanks Nev. I really needed to hear that tonight.”

Neville just smiled at his friend, “I know you did Theo.”

***

When Sadie woke up, it was to find Lilly smiling down at her.

“Hey, you sort of passed out.”

“Twins…I didn’t dream that?”

Lilly shook her head, “No, you are having twins and I know it must come as a huge shock right after you came to terms with the fact you were having one baby.”

Sadie nodded.

“But it’s a good thing. If you only want two kids, then you get to have them at the same time and yes, when they are babies it will be hard,” Lilly admitted, “But having them young means that your career won’t suffer if you don’t want it to. And think of how great they will get along, they will have each other all of the time.”

Sadie nodded, “That’s true.”

“And as for stuff, well twins can share a lot of things,” Lilly continued, “But you probably have the space and money to buy two of everything anyway. Either way, apart from cribs and some sort of double pram you don’t need two of everything. You will need to rethink the nursery but apart from that, you’re going to be okay.”

“How am I going to manage on my own with twins?” Sadie asked tearfully.

“You aren’t because you aren’t going to be alone,” Lilly said firmly, “You have Theo and you have all of us. If you are _ever _struggling, you bring those babies into my hospital wing and I’ll tell my injured Aurors to wait it out. You take them to Gringotts and watch Daphne tell Bill Weasley to go break curses on his own. You take them into the DMLE and watch Hermione lead a Wizengamot trial while juggling them. You do not struggle on your own, not ever. Do you understand me Sadie Cauldwell?”

“Nott,” Sadie said with a smile.

“I’ve known you for 8 years, it’s still Cauldwell to me when I’m telling you off,” Lilly joked.

“I get it Lilly and I’m so lucky to have friends like you guys,” Sadie promised, “Thank you.”

“Anytime Sadie,” Lilly said.

“You know, this whole things has me thinking. Theo and I decided a little while ago that if you wanted to, we wanted you and Neville to be Godparents,” Sadie said.

“Neville and me?” Lilly asked in surprise, “Not Draco and Hermione?”

“Well they will have their own kids soon enough, but I know you don’t really want that so I figured you might like being a Godparent. That way you can hand them back at the end of the day,” Sadie joked.

Lilly didn’t want to get angry at Sadie, not right now. So she just frowned and said quietly, “Why does everyone assume that I don’t want kids with Neville? Maybe I do, maybe I got over my commitment fears, maybe I want to marry Neville and have his babies.”

Sadie bit back a smile, “You said maybe a lot.”

“Maybe I did,” Lilly said defensively.

“When did you decide you wanted to marry Neville and have his babies?” Sadie asked knowingly.

“Only last week to be fair, so I can’t blame you for not knowing,” Lilly said sheepishly, “But I am kinda fed up of everyone acting like I’m going to become some crazy cat lady.”

“Does Neville know that you want to have his babies?”

“I…do not know.”

“Maybe you should have that discussion,” Sadie said with a sly smile.

“Maybe you should really start thinking about baby names since you need two now.”

Sadie groaned, “Lilly!”

“Touche Sadie,” Lilly smirked.

***

On Sunday night, not long before she was due to head back to France, Lilly dropped a bombshell on Neville while he had his evening coffee.

“Neville…I want to have your babies.”

Neville did a spit take, “W…wh…what?”

Lilly stood in front of him and crossed her arms, “I’m not afraid of commitment. I want to marry you and I want kids, okay? I want that, I want babies and I want them with you.”

“Uh…”

“Say something then!”

“Well…I need to finish Auror training-”

“Uh! Not _now _Neville!”

Neville frowned and scratched his head, “Okay Lil, the thing is…I’m not following.”

Lilly rolled her eyes, “Everyone treats me like I’m gonna become some crazy cat lady who never settles down and I don’t know why so I figured I should maybe tell you that I don’t wanna be a crazy cat lady, okay?”

“You don’t want to be a crazy cat lady,” Neville repeated, “You want my babies.”

“Do you have to repeat everything I said?”

“Just letting it sink in,” Neville said honestly, “Where did this come from?”

“The whole Sadie and Theo thing, you know the twin thing?” Lilly mused as she paced back and forth, “Not to mention the fact that I’m not even halfway through my 6 months in France yet and I’m desperate to come home. I just want what everyone else has, I want domestic, I want boring, I want you in my bed every morning and every night.”

“I know baby,” Neville said as he drew her close, “I want that too, and I also want to marry you and impregnate-”

“Don’t finish that sentence.”

“Yeah, I’m not gonna finish that sentence. I just ruined the mood, didn’t I?”

“A little…”

“Sorry…”

“Neville,” Lilly said with a smile.

Neville looked down at her, “Yeah?”

“Don’t ever change,” Lilly said softly.

***

“How do you think Sadie’s coping with the whole twins thing?” Hermione asked Draco while they cooked dinner a few days later.

“It’s a bombshell but once she comes around to the idea, I think she will see that it’s a blessing too,” Draco mused.

“A blessing?” Hermione asked with a raised eyebrow, “Twins are hard work for any Mother Draco, let alone a young Mother whose husband has a very time consuming job.”

Draco looked up at her, “When you grew up like I did Hermione, twins would be a blessing.”

Hermione scoffed.

“What?” Draco asked defensively.

“You act like I had the perfect upbringing Draco. You didn’t grow up like I did.”

Draco scoffed this time, “With a loving family and everything you ever wanted? Stop acting like your life was so hard Hermione.”

Hermione looked at him with fiery eyes, “Yes, I had loving parents but before I went to Hogwarts I was bullied rotten for being too bookish and for having big teeth and bushy hair. Then when I got to Hogwarts I was bullied all over again for the same things, _by you_.”

“So why the hell did you agree to marry me then?” Draco asked coolly.

“Honestly, when you’re acting like this I don’t know!” Hermione replied angrily, “I did not have an easy life, not by any means Draco! What do you think I spent the whole war doing, twiddling my thumbs?”

“And fucking your best friend,” Draco said vindictively.

Tears burned in Hermione’s eyes but she didn’t let them spill, “I slept with Harry because I was terrified that I was going to die as a pathetic bookish virgin, if you really want to know Draco! I nearly died so many times, for Harry. By the time we got to Malfoy Manor, I had practically given up on surviving the war then I was tortured and I still have nightmares about it every night-”

“You were tortured for a day in my family home,” Draco said coolly, “I was tortured every day in that house some fucking summers. You had it hard during the war, but I had it hard my whole life so forgive me for thinking that your snug little life wasn’t so fucking hard Hermione! You had Harry Potter there to protect you all of the fucking time, I had no one!”

Before Hermione could respond, probably with more angry words, Draco stormed out of the house, slamming the front door as hard as he could behind him.

***

**SLAM.**

The whole ground floor of Number 11 Grimmauld Place shook.

“What the heck was that?” Sadie asked with a jump.

“I would say that was the door of Number 12 slamming because Draco and Hermione just had a fight so I would expect him to come crashing in here in about-”

The front door opened loudly.

“Now,” Theo finished.

Sadie smiled slightly and shook her head, “You two know each other a little too well sometimes.”

“Theo! Where the hell are you?”

“Living room!” Theo called back.

Seconds later, Draco stomped into the small living room on the ground floor, “I swear to Salazar, I have never been so angry at her in my life!”

“What the hell did she do?” Theo asked in disbelief.

“She kept going on about _her _hard life, _her hard life_! Her cushy upbringing with her loving parents and all,” Draco fumed, “Oh but I had it hard in the war she said, I had it so hard. Oh yeah, you had it so hard with Harry Potter right there behind you every step of the way to fucking protect you. I didn’t have a Harry Potter to protect me from the shit my Father did to me, did I?”

“You had me,” Theo said quietly, “Was I not good enough? I’m not Harry Potter, but I let you camp out at my house as much as I could to escape your Father. I let you stay in my summer house for two months when you ran away from home, do you know the beating I got when _my Father _discovered why food had been going missing from the kitchens? Salazar Draco, you can be an ungrateful fucking shit sometimes! Forget the fact I was there for you for fucking years because I’m no Harry Potter!”

Draco opened his mouth then shut it, as if he thought better of himself.

“Theo, that’s not what I meant-”

“It’s exactly what you meant,” Theo said irritably, “And do you know what? I’m sick of being treated second best ever since you and him became friends so you want advice? You want someone to rant to? Go talk to the guy who spent the war fucking the girl you loved!”

With a swish of his hand, Theo banished Draco from the house.

Sadie looked at him in surprise, “Theo-”

“Don’t say I acted rashly,” Theo began hotly.

Sadie shook her head, “I was going to ask if you needed a hug.”

Theo sighed and nodded, “Yeah, I really do.”

***

“Harry!”

Harry sighed when he heard Draco’s angry tones from inside the house.

“He’s outside feeding Dave,” He heard Daphne call, “What crawled up your arse and died tonight Draco?”

“His fucking best friend,” Draco muttered as he stormed outside towards Dave’s home in the garden of Potter Manor.

“Do you fancy doing me a favour and letting Hermione know that she hasn’t actually had a very hard life?” Draco asked sarcastically.

“You know as well as I do that there’s no telling Hermione anything. She believes, and does, what she wants,” Harry said calmly, “What’s all this about?”

“She said she had a hard life,” Draco fumed, “A hard life? She doesn’t know what a hard life is.”

“What happened to her was hard for her,” Harry said diplomatically, “The war for her was hard, the hardest thing she had ever been through. But in comparison to the way you were raised, to the way I was raised, or even the way Theo was raised, she didn’t have a hard life you’re right.”

“Thank you,” Draco huffed as he sat down heavily on a bench, “I mean yes, she was tortured and I probably shouldn’t have belittled that, but what they put her through for a few hours…that was my life Harry.”

Harry sat down next to him, “I know. I think trying to truly make Hermione understand that will be hard though Draco. I don’t know if there really is any way to show her how bad it was without actually _showing _her.”

Draco’s face darkened, “You mean like…a pensieve?”

Harry nodded, “She doesn’t mean to offend you, but to her you had a big house, lots of money. I’m not convinced she can actually understand how bad things were for you.”

“I don’t want to show her that,” Draco said quietly, “I don’t want anyone to see that apart from the only other person who really witnessed it at the time…”

“Your Mother?” Harry guessed.

Draco shook his head, “Theo.”

“You said that ominously.”

“I hurt his feelings,” Draco admitted, he let his head fall into his hands, “When I was ranting about Hermione I said that she didn’t have it so hard because she had Harry Potter behind her to protect her every second of the day and that I didn’t have that but the thing is…Theo was that for me.”

Harry whistled, “Wow, you fucked up.”

“Yeah,” Draco sighed, “I get caught up in our friendship sometimes and I forget Theo which is unfair. He was there for me when nobody else was…when my Mother was under my Fathers imperius curse and my Father was torturing me at Voldemort’s demands. It was Theo who let me camp out in his house, he even hid me in his summer house for 2 months the summer after 5th year because I was so terrified of being branded by Voldemort.”

Harry remained silent so Draco kept talking, “His Father found out and told my Father. I was given the dark mark that same day…Theo cried when we came back to school and I told him what happened, he kept saying that if he’d been able to keep the secret another week, he could have saved me from that. But my Father would have found a way, he would have taken me out of school or had Severus do it…there was no escaping what I became.”

“But Theo tried hard to stop it,” Harry said, “That’s a very brave thing to do.”

Draco nodded, “He is brave, braver than I ever was. He was brave enough to stand up to his Father time after time, even though he knew that a beating would follow. He would just stand stock still and silent, he never let his Father know how much it hurt. He’s the strong one, the brave one…I’m the sidekick really.”

“Maybe you should tell him that,” Harry said pointedly, “Because comparing him to me is one thing, I guess in a lot of ways Theo and I are very alike which is actually why we don’t get on as well as I do with you or Neville. But what he did for you…it is definitely on a par, if not more, than what I ever did for Hermione.”

Draco sighed again.

“If anything Draco, I didn’t do enough to protect her,” Harry said quietly, “I didn’t protect her from what happened at your house and I didn’t protect her from the darkness inside herself. The person who did that was you, ironically enough. The person who tormented her, was also the only person who could put her back together after the war. Call it poetic justice, I guess.”

Draco could only nod thoughtfully.

“Go and apologise to Theo, before this thing spirals out of control,” Harry prodded gently, “He’s your Auror partner, your best friend and practically your brother. Don’t let this fester, just put an end to it now.”

Draco pushed himself to his feet and nodded, “I will, thanks Harry.”

“Anytime Draco.”

***

Hermione needed to talk to someone too. She needed a rant, a _friend _who she could completely confide in who wouldn’t tell Draco. Of course, that put Daphne out of the equation because Draco was to her what Harry was to Hermione.

The natural choice was Lilly, who Hermione trusted completely and had been friends with since 1st year. She floo-ed her quarters in France, hoping that she would be there and breathed a sigh of relief when she got an answer.

“Hey Hermione,” Lilly said cheerfully when her face appeared in the flames.

“Lilly,” Hermione said tearfully, “I’m sorry to bother you, I know it’s later there than it is here but Draco and I just had a really big fight about our different backgrounds and I just need someone to talk to whose going to be on my side, not his.”

“Oh Hermione,” Lilly said gently, “Why don’t you come over? You can apparate without going through the centre, just make sure to make the jump from Dover to Calais then apparate to me from there. We can go out for a walk, it might help you clear your head.”

Hermione nodded tearfully, “That would be great Lilly.”

So, half an hour later, Hermione met Lilly outside her training centre in Amiens. Lilly hooked her arm through Hermione’s and asked, “What did you two fight about?”

“He said I hadn’t had a hard life,” Hermione said with a frown, “He said I had it easy with loving parents and a happy childhood then he totally shot down how hard I had it in the war because he said he had it hard his whole life.”

Lilly sighed, “It is a difficult one. I suppose you did have a good childhood, better than mine anyway but what you went through in the war… I couldn’t have survived it Hermione.”

“Sometimes I don’t know how I did,” Hermione admitted quietly, “I still have nightmares about the snake that bit Harry and the torture in Malfoy Manor. I still feel sick when I look down at the scar on my arm,” she subconsciously tugged at her sleeve.

Lilly just stayed quiet and led Hermione down a little cobbled path.

“I killed people, bad people but people all the same. I saw my friends die, I saw…I saw _horrible _things and that changes you as a person,” Hermione continued, “How could I just go back to the bookish girl who had a crush on one of her best friends after that? How could I just pretend I was okay to get married and have kids after the things I saw? I have to make a difference in the world somehow, I have to help prevent something like that ever happening again and I…I need more than the cushy life that Ron could have given me because…” she trailed off.

“Because the war changed you,” Lilly finished, “You need more, you need an adrenaline rush, something or _someone _a little dangerous. Someone with a darkness in them, someone that scares you. You can’t go back to ordinary, it would bore you after everything you saw and all you went through.”

Hermione nodded tearfully, “It’s so messed up.”

“It is _not _messed up,” Lilly said firmly, “You could have come out of that war as an alcoholic. Something could have snapped inside you and you could have gone dark. You did change, but not in a bad way, not in a dangerous way so do not call yourself messed up Hermione Granger.”

Hermione sighed and wiped her tears, “I miss you Lilly.”

“I miss you too,” Lilly admitted, she tightened her grip on Hermione’s arm, “The thought of having to spend another 4 months here sucks, but it’s my dream job so I have to suck it up. Look Hermione, I think you need to talk about all of this stuff with Draco. Does he know how much the war affected you?”

“I thought he did, but from the things he said…” Hermione shook her head angrily.

“What did he say?” Lilly asked curiously.

“Oh at one point he suggested that I spent the war twiddling my thumbs and fucking my best friend,” Hermione said bitterly.

Lilly scoffed, “Oh I swear to God, I’ll curse that fucking bastard myself! He can’t just say that he’s over that then bring it up every time it’s convenient in an argument.”

“Tell me about it,” Hermione muttered.

Lilly shook her head, “You two need to sit down and have a talk, a calm talk. You need to make sure that he really is over what happened between you and Harry. And you need to make him see how hard it was for you during the war, maybe showing him would help?”

“What do you mean?” Hermione asked, she wiped her eyes.

“Use a pensieve and show him some memories from that time,” Lilly advised.

Hermione snorted, “Show him the memories of me and Harry…” she trailed off and cleared her throat, “Like that would help.”

“Look Hermione, at the risk of getting cursed…I need to ask something,” Lilly said tentatively, “I would say I’m maybe your best girlfriend?”

Hermione nodded, “I don’t talk to Ginny much these days so yeah, you and Daphne are my best female friends.”

“Alright, in that case I have to ask…are you really completely over the whole Harry thing? Because I remember how much of a massive crush you had in him like pretty much all the way through school,” Lilly said, “You know, he was the first person you wanted to see when you woke up in 2nd year, you and him were so close in 3rd year and in 4th year…god it was so _obvious._ Do you really just get over something like that?”

Hermione didn’t say anything.

“Because I didn’t,” Lilly said, “I liked Neville as a friend, and I think underneath I knew I liked him more, and it didn’t go away. Not after I kissed him, or after I slept with him. So has it really gone away, all of the feelings?”

Hermione groaned and sat down heavily on an iron bench.

“I guess that’s a no,” Lilly said, she flopped down next to her friend.

“I don’t know,” Hermione admitted, “I think it has. You know I think I completely love Draco and I don’t get jealous when I see Harry and Daphne together. But there are just these moments sometimes when I can’t help but think, what if? What if we had given it a real shot…”

They fell into a thoughtful silence.

“So seeing him marrying Daphne isn’t going to hurt at all?” Lilly asked.

“There’s a pang there when I think about it,” Hermione said honestly, “But I’m not in love with him anymore. I always saw this perfect boy when we were growing up, but during the war…I saw a darker side to him and…well Daphne loves that Harry because he’s _her _Harry. But…he’s not _my _Harry. My Harry would never have tortured someone, Death Eater or not…he would never have used the imperius curse…I saw Harry torture, I saw him kill and…I just can’t shake that.”

Lilly hummed thoughtfully.

“And it makes no sense,” Hermione added, “It makes me a hypocrite because I know Draco has done the same, if not worse and I can still love him.”

“It makes perfect sense,” Lilly promised, “Seeing Harry do bad things, turn a little dark, that was hard for you because you had always seen him as perfect. But Draco…you had always known him as bad so to know that he’s done bad things, it isn’t such a shock. And as for why he’s perfect for Daphne, she never knew that perfect boy that you did. Her Harry has worked in shades of grey since she met him, that’s normal to her but it’s not the Harry you fell in love with.”

Hermione nodded and wiped her eyes again, “God Lilly, you give the best advice,” she said as she rested her head on her friends shoulder, “I can’t wait till you come home.”

“I can’t wait either,” Lilly assured her**.**


	115. Down Memory Lane

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TRIGGERS: Mental and physical abuse, general violence.
> 
> Really sorry for those that hate it, but some past Harmony scenes as well. 
> 
> It's all gonna get happier soon, I promise! Just hang in there with me, we get to Harry and Daphne's happy ever after soon!

Draco had been banished from Number 11 Grimmauld Place which meant the door threw him back when he knocked on it, literally. He also couldn’t get in via floo because his signature had been blocked.

So he resorted to standing on the roof garden shouting of number 12, “Theo! THEO! I NEED TO TALK TO YOU. I KNOW YOU CAN HEAR ME THEO. JUST LET ME IN THE BLOODY HOUSE!”

This went on for about 10 minutes, before the door to the roof garden opened. Theo stepped out, “What the hell do you want?” he shouted across the rooftop. The houses were terraced but the houses narrowed toward the roof so there was a small divide between the two roof gardens.

“I want to apologise,” Draco said honestly.

“You really think an apology is going to make everything better?” Theo asked irritably.

“Just hear me out, please.”

Theo crossed his arms, but made no move to leave the roof garden.

Draco sighed, “You were my Harry Potter, you’re right. In fact you were more than that. You were the one person who cared about me enough to try and get me through the hardest years of my life. You are the strongest person I know, the _bravest _person I know.”

Theo scoffed, “Braver than Harry Potter?”

Draco nodded, “Yes, braver than him. He did what he needed to do, he fulfilled a prophecy that had been written about him and yes, he was brave to do that. But it’s not the same bravery that I saw in you day in and day out. To stand up to your Father when you knew what was coming, to overcome that fear of the horrible man that he was and stand there taking a beating, being subjected to the cruciatus curse and not make a sound? That is whole other level of bravery Theo. You aren’t the weak one, you are the one who has been through the most so you are the one with the most material for dementors and the like to target. But the fact you survived it all, it makes you the strong one.”

Theo actually looked a little tearful.

“And I don’t know what I would have done without you,” Draco said honestly, “I don’t even know if I would still be here. If I had been forced to take the dark mark at the start of the summer…I would have been forced to do horrible things. As it was, you kept me safe and then Hogwarts kept me safe. If I had to bear a summer like the one after 6th year…I don’t think I would have survived it. You were always there for me Theo, you did protect me so for me to say that I was alone, that I had no one…that was wrong and selfish of me.”

Theo nodded and hastily wiped his eyes, “Thank you Draco. That means…that means a lot.”

“I really am sorry Theo.”

Theo nodded again, “Oh for Salazar’s sake, just get over here so I can give you a hug.”

***

When Draco walked into Number 12 Grimmauld Place, he expected a fight. He had said some awful things to Hermione and he figured that she would still be angry.

By the time he re-entered the main house after his heart to heart (and a few whiskeys) with Theo next door, it was late at night. He edged into the dark hall and began to creep along towards the staircase. He put his foot on the first step then Hermione walked out from the kitchen.

Draco jumped in alarm and yelled.

“Twitchy little ferret, aren’t you Malfoy?” Hermione asked calmly.

“Sweet Salazar Hermione,” Draco said, he clutched his chest, “Don’t do that to me!”

Hermione fixed him with a serious look, “I think we need to talk.”

“I think we do too,” Draco agreed.

He followed her silently into the kitchen where she had a pensieve set up. Draco frowned, “Uh…what?”

“I need to show you some memories from the war,” Hermione said by way of explanation, “I think it might be the only way to make you understand what I went through.”

Draco nodded slowly, “And I think I need to show you some of my memories to make _you _understand what _I _went through.”

Hermione nodded too, “You aren’t going to like everything you see, and some things…some things might scare you off.”

“I feel the same about showing you my memories,” Draco assured her.

“Better to do it now than after we’re married then I suppose,” Hermione said with a sigh as she reached out to take his hand.

He grasped her hand tightly and together, they dove into the pensieve…

_“Harry, please,” Hermione sobbed while Harry lay in a pile, convulsing, in the lower bunk of the tent they had shared._

_“Please don’t die,” Hermione begged, she buried her head in Harry’s chest, “Please Harry, I can’t lose you. Not after Ron left and…I can’t lose anyone else, I just can’t. You can get through this, you have to get through this.”_

_*_

_Hermione dabbed dittany on Harry’s wound, he still looked deathly ill. _

_“You have to beat this Harry,” Hermione whispered tearfully, “You’ve beaten so much, you can get past this stupid snake bite that I can’t even bloody heal! Smartest witch of my age? Hardly, I can’t even heal a snake bite to save my best friend!” she angrily kicked the base of the bunk bed then flopped down onto the floor._

_She let her head fall into her hands and whispered, “God Harry, you terrify me. The way I feel about you terrifies me, I would literally die for you. That’s not a normal way to feel about another person who isn’t…whose just a friend.”_

_Harry shifted slightly in his sleep._

_Hermione sighed, “You need to wake up Harry, I need you. Ron needs you and…Ginny, she needs you and you love her. Of course you love her, she’s Ginny, who wouldn’t love her? I’m just the best friend, I’ve only ever been the best friend.”_

_Harry squeezed her hand, “You’ve always been more than the best friend Mione,” he whispered before another seizure took hold._

_*_

_“Mione?”_

_“Harry!” Hermione gasped, “Oh my god, you’re awake! I thought…I thought I was going to lose you.”_

_Harry smiled weakly, “I’m not that easy to kill Mione.”_

_Hermione helped him drink some water and sat down on the edge of his bed, “You were out for 2 days Harry. It was so touch and go at times…you had me worried sick.”_

_“I’m fine Hermione,” Harry said gently, “But I do need to go and freshen up.”_

_Hermione watched him get to his feet and leave the tent shakily. _

_*_

_“I feel like a human being again,” Harry joked when he slipped back into the tent later that evening._

_Hermione smiled at him, “Try and eat something.”_

_Harry made a face, “Is that-”_

_“I didn’t make it, I stole it from Bathilda Bagshot’s house,” Hermione said with a smile, “I know I’m not the best cook Harry, don’t worry.”_

_Harry chuckled, he sat down and sipped at the soup for a moment. Then he looked up, “I was worried about you in Godric’s Hollow.”_

_“You were worried about me?” Hermione asked in disbelief, “You were the one who almost died.”_

_“But it could have been you, just as easily,” Harry said._

_Hermione frowned, “Harry…I think I’m going to die a virgin.”_

_Harry spat out some of his soup, “Uh…what?”_

_Hermione rolled her eyes, “Just hear me out. If I die in the war which is looking increasingly likely, I’ll die a bookish virgin who only ever kissed a guy. Isn’t that just pathetic? I mean I’m 17 and I haven’t even lived, not really. Have you?”_

_Harry frowned, “Well before the wedding Ginny and I…you know.”_

_“Of course,” Hermione muttered, “Ginny and you. I mean I had a choice of Viktor or Cormac so I think dying a virgin might be preferable to be honest.”_

_Harry smiled slightly, “I heard what you said when I was coming around earlier.”_

_Hermione frowned and pleaded ignorance._

_“You have always been more than my best friend Hermione,” Harry said softly, “I just never knew that you wanted that.”_

_Hermione looked down, “Harry-”_

_“I could have asked you to the Yule Ball,” Harry added, “When we spent all of that time together in 4th year and unlike Ron, I noticed you were a girl.”_

_Hermione looked up at him._

_“I definitely noticed,” Harry added which made Hermione blush profusely._

_“But I thought you liked Ron and I knew he liked you,” Harry continued, “And he is…he was my best mate. I didn’t want to hurt him but then he just up and left us, he hurt us so why the hell should we give any thought to what he wants?”_

_“Harry,” Hermione said nervously, “Are you saying what I think you’re saying?”_

_Harry got to his feet and crossed the room, “Would you mind if I was?”_

_Hermione swallowed, “I…uh…could we…could we ever go back to normal after…that?”_

_“Would you want to?” Harry asked as something flashed in his eyes, something like lust._

_“I don’t know,” Hermione replied quietly, “I don’t really know what I want right now.”_

_“Well if you don’t want this, tell me and I’ll stop,” Harry said._

_Before Hermione’s brain had a chance to catch up, Harry had closed the gap and captured her lips in a kiss._

_The kiss was slow, it was gentle and it was sweet, but it wasn’t just a kiss, it was filled with emotion. Quickly that gentle kiss turned more passionate and Hermione felt herself melting into it as Harry gently bit her bottom lip and slipped his tongue into her mouth, Hermione moaned as Harry flicked his tongue over hers and momentarily it felt like she was floating._

_Hermione was disappointed when Harry broke the kiss, but when she caught his eye she was surprised, she saw such raw emotion there and she realised that this was the most vulnerable she had ever seen her best friend. He was asking her once more with his eyes if she wanted to do this, and again Hermione replied with a slight movement of her head and by leaning in and capturing Harry’s lips once more. They both cried, and neither of them were quite sure why they were crying. This kiss was just as passionate as the first had been, but this time Harry allowed his hands to roam._

_Hermione had thought nothing could feel better than the way Harry was kissing her, but then he slipped his hands under her top and allowed his hands to roam, this made Hermione moan gently into Harry’s kiss. Harry groaned at the sweet sound and broke the kiss to pull Hermione’s top off. The two friends shared another look and this time Harry was giving Hermione one last chance to back out, but she didn’t, she captured Harry’s lips once more and broke the kiss only to pull off the baggy shirt he was wearing._

_*_

_“So what should we do with the filthy mudblood?” Bellatrix asked._

_“She has outlived her usefulness,” Lucius answered._

_Bellatrix cocked her head at Greyback, “Are you hungry?”_

_The werewolf grinned._

_“Greyback is rather fond of those with dirty blood,” Lucius Malfoy said distastefully, “Personally I wouldn’t touch her with a barge pole. Would you Draco?”_

_Draco swallowed and caught Hermione’s eye. She silently pleaded for help. _

_“Draco?”_

_“No Father,” Draco said quietly._

_“Go ahead Bellatrix,” Lucius said._

_Bellatrix’s eyes flashed wickedly, “Perhaps Greyback can help loosen your tongue, amongst other things.” _

_Greyback licked his lips and stepped forward, and Draco couldn’t take it anymore._

_“No!” He shouted as he ran forward, “She’s a mudblood but she doesn’t deserve that!”_

_“Enough Draco!” Lucius snapped. With a click of his fingers, Draco’s feet were frozen to the floor, “Hold your tongue, you foolish boy!” he hissed, and with another click of his fingers, Draco was silenced._

_“The boy has a point Lucius,” Rodolphus said calmly, “Perhaps we should try other methods to extract information before we resort to that option.”_

_Bellatrix rolled her eyes, “Boring!”_

_Rodolphus shrugged her comment off, “Make her a work of art my darling, and make it hurt.”_

_Bellatrix grinned wickedly and began to carve the word “Mudblood” into Hermione’s arm. _

_*_

_“Hermione, are you okay?”_

_“She hasn’t moved in 2 days.”_

_“She was tortured you idiot, do you really think she’s going to be fine after that?” Harry asked Ron irritably._

_Hermione’s eyes were shut tightly, “Just leave me alone.”_

_“We can’t leave you alone, we’re worried about you,” Harry said softly._

_“I’m fine.”_

_“Hermione, you need to tell us what happened when you were alone up there.”_

_“No, I don’t,” Hermione said firmly, “I’m fine just leave me alone.”_

_Harry and Ron shared a reluctant look, but left the room all the same._

_Hermione listened to them talking outside the room, “Do you think she will ever tell us what happened to her?”_

_“I don’t know,” Harry answered._

_“Do you think they…” Ron trailed off, “Do you think they did something really bad to her?”_

_“If anyone did, I’ll find out and I’ll kill them myself,” Harry said darkly, “I love Hermione and if anyone hurt her like that…I’ll have no qualms firing a killing curse at them.”_

_“You love her as a friend, you mean?” Ron asked tentatively._

_“Yeah Ron,” Harry lied, “I love her as a friend.”_

_*_

_“Are we really over us?” _

_Harry turned his head to look at her. They lay in a field near the Burrow, looking up at the stars, “I’m not. Are you?”_

_“I don’t know.”_

_“Do you want to give it a try, for real?” Harry asked hopefully._

_Hermione sighed, “I don’t know if I can Harry. I did love you once, but you aren’t the boy I fell in love with and God knows, I’m not the girl you met on the train…”_

_“Does it matter?” Harry asked, he propped himself up to look at her, “You’re still my best friend.”_

_“And maybe that’s all we should be,” Hermione said calmly, “If we tried to make a relationship work and we screwed up our friendship…I don’t think I could manage without you.”_

_Harry nodded, although he looked a little disappointed, “I get it, we’ll just forget about it then.”_

_“Harry-”_

_“It’s fine,” Harry said quickly, “Consider it forgotten.”_

_*_

_“I’m sorry about the way I reacted after the war…”_

_Hermione frowned and looked over at Harry. They were sitting in the 8th year common room._

_“Where did that come from?”_

_“I don’t know,” Harry admitted as he sat down next to her, “But I shouldn’t have gotten angry at you for saying that things wouldn’t work out between us. You were probably right anyway…”_

_Hermione cocked her head at him, “Are you okay?”_

_“I’m fine,” Harry said, “I just wish I could get Daphne to notice me.”_

_“I’m fairly sure she’s noticed you, she’s just ignoring you,” Hermione said with a slight smile, “She would be good for you, you know?”_

_“Yeah?” Harry asked, “What makes you say that?”_

_“She’s what you need right now,” Hermione said with a slight frown, “She’s fun, she’s different, she’s a challenge.”_

_Harry smiled, “And Draco is what you need, ironically enough. The boy who hurt you so much seems to be the only one who can help you heal right now, even I can’t do that.”_

_“It’s not personal,” Hermione promised, “But you’re right. When I’m with Draco I can feel myself getting better, getting back to my old self. He drowns out the hurt and the anger and all the self-hatred somehow.”_

_Harry nodded thoughtfully, “Sometimes there is good in goodbye.”_

_“Sometimes there is,” Hermione agreed, “You and I…it was messy and complicated. Neither of us need or want messy and complicated.”_

_“And messy and complicated messes up friendships,” Harry said, he reached out and took her hand, “And nothing is going to sacrifice that. You are the only one who has stuck with me from the beginning, I’m not abandoning you now.”_

_“And I’m not abandoning you either,” Hermione promised, she kissed him on the cheek, “You will always be my best friend Harry.”_

_“And you will always hold a bit of my heart Hermione,” Harry said, he got to his feet and kissed her on the forehead, “Good night.”_

_“Good night,” Hermione replied softly._

When they came out of the pensieve, Draco took one look at Hermione and decided that she wasn’t up for talking just yet. He silently extracted some memories from his own head and placed them in the pensieve.

Hermione wiped her tears away and dropped his hand.

“No,” Draco said quietly, “You showed me yours so I’ll show you mine.”

He took her clammy hand and dragged them into his world.

_“He’s back Narcissa, he’s back!”_

_“I know Lucius!”_

_“Then you know what this means.”_

_“It means he will come for our son,” Narcissa hissed. _

_Draco sat atop the stairs, listening to his parents talking. He was 15, just home from his 4th year._

_“Draco will be proud the day he takes the mark, just like I was,” Lucius said._

_“What if Draco doesn’t want that? He’s a good boy Lucius, a smart boy!”_

_“A wonderful asset for the dark lord, as soon as he is of age of course.”_

_Draco sat with his head in his hands._

_“No Lucius, you cannot take my son!” Narcissa said dangerously, “I will let you hurt me and I will let you control me but not him, **never **him.”_

_There was a sigh, “Narcissa, I don’t want to have to resort to this again. I do not take pleasure in placing you under the imperius curse but if you will not do my bidding as a good wife should-”_

_“I will never let you hand our son over to that monster,” Narcissa spat, “Never Lucius!”_

_Draco shook his head as tears burned in his eyes. He knew what was coming, but he still jumped when he heard the words, spoken harshly._

_“Imperio!”_

_Then there was just silence, a deadly, long silence. Draco held his breath for fear of being discovered, but it was too late._

_“Draco! How dare you listen in on our conversation?” Lucius hissed._

_“S…sorry Father,” Draco stuttered as he got to his feet._

_“How much did you hear?” Lucius asked, he cocked his head at his son._

_“Enough,” Draco replied, keeping his eyes cast downwards._

_“Enough to know that you will join the Dark Lord and serve him as I have?” Lucius asked._

_Draco nodded._

_“Does that fill you with pride, Draco?”_

_“Yes, Father,” Draco replied quietly, “May I go to bed now?”_

_Lucius gave a brisk nod, “The next time I catch you eavesdropping, you will not get off so lightly.”_

_“Yes Father. Sorry Father.”_

_*_

_Draco screamed in pain then fell to a heap, panting and gasping for breath._

_“Now Draco,” Lucius said calmly as he stood in his Death Eater robes, “What were you told about coming downstairs during my meetings?”_

_“I’m sorry Father,” Draco gasped, “I didn’t know you had a meeting.”_

_“Let the boy stay Lucius,” Voldemort said quietly._

_“I’m sorry my lord?”_

_“He will join us soon,” Voldemort said from beneath his cloak, “Let him watch the proceedings.”_

_“Sit Draco,” Lucius said briskly._

_Draco sat down and kept his eyes cast downwards._

_“I killed three muggle families this week,” A Death Eater said._

_Draco flinched as he continued, “Less scum in the world. You should have heard them begging, it was just like the Potters all over again.”_

_Draco shut his eyes tightly at that comment._

_“We need to keep recruiting,” Another Death Eater said, “The giants need more persuading.”_

_“We shall persuade them. Perhaps Draco could help our cause?”_

_Draco looked up a little, terrified of looking Voldemort in the eye, “Help?”_

_“My lord,” Lucius hissed, “You must address him as such.”_

_“My lord,” Draco added hastily._

_Voldemort’s eyes flashed wickedly, “A spy within Hogwarts…yes. Report back to your Father Draco. Tell him everything that Harry Potter does this year.”_

_“Y…yes my lord,” Draco said, then he cast his eyes downwards again._

_*_

_“Theo! Theo, help me please!”_

_Theo opened the door of Nott Manor and let his best friend in, “What’s happened?”_

_“I need your help,” Draco gasped, “Please, is your Father home?”_

_Theo shook his head, “No he’s out. How did you get here?”_

_“I ran,” Draco gasped._

_“You ran? Draco, what the hell is going on?”_

_“Let me stay here, hide me please Theo,” Draco begged, “They want to give me the mark and I can’t Theo. I can’t do it, please hide me here.”_

_Theo nodded and grabbed his arm, “Come on, you can hide in the old summer house. Nobody will know that you’re here, unless your Father comes looking for you but I’m a good liar.”_

_“Thank you Theo.”_

_*_

_“He was just here.”_

_“Who? My Father?”_

_Theo nodded and sat down gingerly, “He wanted to know where you were.”_

_“Did he hurt you?” Draco asked._

_“No, no, Lucius Malfoy doesn’t like to get his hands dirty,” Theo said, he grimaced, “He made my Father use the cruciatus curse while he interrogated me, but don’t worry. I’m used to it, you know how curse happy my Father is.”_

_“I’m sorry Theo.”_

_Theo shook his head, “I’m not going to let you become a Death Eater Draco,” he promised._

_“Do you know what they make you do when you join?” Draco asked quietly._

_“Kill someone?” Theo guessed._

_“Kill a muggle or a muggle-born,” Draco replied, “Someone with…dirty blood…someone like Granger.”_

_Theo looked up at him, “There are a lot of muggle-borns at our school, why did your mind go straight to the Gryffindor princess?”_

_“Because when my Father told me I would be joining the Death Eaters one day…it was her face I saw. Every time I have a nightmare, I’m being forced to kill her while they **brand **me,” Draco said quietly._

_Theo straightened up and grimaced again, “It’s because you like her, you have for ages.”_

_“I have a girlfriend,” Draco reminded him._

_“Yeah I know,” Theo said with a wave of his hand, “You’re dating Daphne, and Pansy’s still head over heels for you. But you secretly want the Gryffindor Princess.”_

_“Or maybe I just don’t want to kill her,” Draco said quietly._

_“You won’t have to,” Theo promised him, “I’ll keep you safe until we go back to school.”_

_*_

_The door of the summer house burst open and Lucius Malfoy stepped inside with Theo hot on his heels._

_“I didn’t tell him Draco I swear, he got Snape to use Legilimency on me!” Theo called from behind Lucius._

_“I knew that he was hiding you somewhere,” Lucius hissed, “How dare you run from who you are? You cannot escape this Draco!”_

_“No, I won’t do it Father! I do not want to join him!”_

_“You do not have a choice you foolish boy!” Lucius hissed, “Now come with me willingly or I will make you come.”_

_Draco stood still and didn’t move a muscle._

_“Crucio!”_

_Theo winced as his best friends screams filled the shack. He fell to his knees and tried to grin and bear it, but the pain was too much. Lucius twisted his wand and flicked it to move Draco’s limbs in directions that they should not have moved._

_By the time he was done, Draco was unable to resist going with him. He got up shakily and allowed his Father to drag him across the grounds of Nott Manor._

_*_

_“Ah Draco!” Voldemort said eagerly, “Come for your initiation.”_

_Draco was in the back room of Borgin and Burkes. He said nothing as he was placed in front of the dark lord._

_“Now Draco, you could look a little more excited,” Lucius hinted._

_Draco said nothing._

_Voldemort cocked his head at him, “To prove that you are serious about ridding the world of the scum that dilute our magic, you must show me that you are capable of murder.”_

_Draco winced as a girl was thrown down on the floor in front of him. Her arms and legs were tied together, she looked not much older than him and to make matters worse, she had brown curly hair. He swallowed and shut his eyes._

_“Kill her Draco, or I will kill your Mother,” Voldemort said calmly._

_Draco’s eyes snapped up and widened when he saw that Voldemort had his wand to his Mothers throat. _

_“I…I…”_

_“This foolish muggle girl or your Mother Draco,” Voldemort said, “A simple choice, no?”_

_Draco took a shaky breath and looked at the girl on the floor, she was crying and she looked positively terrified._

_“But…I…I can’t.”_

_“Then your Mother dies,” Voldemort said._

_“My lord, no, please,” Lucius said, he stepped forward, “Please spare my wife. She has only ever been loyal to you.”_

_“If your son does not kill the muggle girl then he cannot join us Lucius,” Voldemort said, “Clearly he needs a little motivation.”_

_Lucius looked at Draco and gave him a miniscule nod. Somehow, Draco understood what it meant. _

_He turned back to the girl and raised his wand. He took another shaky breath and said the words, without meaning them at all, “Avada Kedavra!”_

_Behind him, Lucius flicked his wrist in the direction of the muggle girl. If Voldemort noticed where the flash of green light really came from, he didn’t say anything. _

_“Well done Draco,” Voldemort said with some sick sense of pride, “You are now one of us. Mark him!”_

_He was grabbed and the arm of his shirt was ripped off. Then Bellatrix began to burn the mark into his arm and Merlin, it hurt. He gritted his teeth and tried his best not to cry out as his skin was burned. The smell made him feel sick, the taste made bile rise in his throat but he did not scream out in pain. He wouldn’t give them that satisfaction._

_*_

_“You coward!” _

_“Father-”_

_“Crucio!”_

_Draco fell to the ground and screamed in pain._

_“Your cowardly ways nearly killed your Mother tonight!” Lucius roared, “Do not think I stepped in to save your guilty conscience, I stepped in to save your Mother! You are weak Draco and you are a coward! You had better not fail this year!”_

_“I won’t fail Father,” Draco sobbed through the worst cruciatus curse he had ever experienced, “I won’t fail.”_

_“Prove your worth Draco, or I cannot in good conscience send you back to school with this mission,” Lucius hissed._

_Draco swallowed, “What do you want me to do, Father?”_

_“Kill a muggle. I don’t care who, pick a bad one if you must but your initiation is not complete until you kill one. Do it or I swear to Salazar, I will hand you over to the Dark Lord,” Lucius said coolly._

_“I…”_

_“Do it tonight, I will know if you have.”_

_Draco didn’t see another way out so he nodded, “Yes Father.”_

_*_

_He had wandered the streets of London for a while, wondering how he could just pick someone then bring their life to an end. _

_He had all but given up on living, after all if this was the way his life was going to be now. What was the point? Then he heard a cry for help and he dashed around the back of a night club that had just shut down for the night._

_A homeless man had robbed a teenage girl of her purse and ripped her dress off of her. It made anger rise in Draco, the sort of anger required to cast an effective killing curse. _

_He didn’t think about it, he just raised his wand and said the words, “Avada Kedavra!”_

_There was a flash of green light, then the man fell to the ground. The girl started screaming, so Draco obliviated her. Then he left the homeless man lying there and walked back down the street._

_His grey eyes had gotten a whole two shades darker, because it didn’t matter that his victim had been a terrible man, it only mattered that Draco was now a killer._

_*_

_The moment Draco stepped through the doors into Malfoy Manor, his Father smiled with some sick sense of pride._

_“You did it.”_

_Draco simply nodded._

_“You are capable of more than I thought. Perhaps you can do as the Dark Lord asked.”_

_“I will not fail,” Draco repeated, the words had been bouncing around his head all night._

_“You will kill Albus Dumbledore.”_

_A dangerous darkness passed across Draco’s face._

_“I will kill Albus Dumbledore.”_

_*_

_“You’re a Death Eater.”_

_“Daph, hear me out please,” Draco begged, “I didn’t want it-”_

_“So they just forced you to kill a muggle and take the mark then, did they?” Daphne asked coolly, “This whole year you’ve acted so weird and I thought it was me but this is why you didn’t want to have sex with me isn’t it? You didn’t want me to see the mark and find out, and you hid it from me, all fucking year!”_

_“Daphne-”_

_“No Draco, this is over!” Daphne snapped, “Regardless of the fact you were my boyfriend for a little while, you were my best friend long before that and you shouldn’t have kept this from me you fucking bastard! Just run back to your Dark Lord and serve him like the little bitch that you are!”_

_*_

_“She was out of line to say that to you.”_

_“To say what?”_

_“Everything,” Pansy said, she sat down next to Draco in the empty Slytherin common room, “Where’s Theo?”_

_“Off somewhere with Sadie,” Draco replied quietly._

_“You’re not a Death Eater Draco.”_

_“The giant fucking snake on my arm would suggest otherwise Pans.”_

_Pansy shook her head, “Maybe they forced the mark on you but you aren’t a Death Eater. The Draco Malfoy I know would never kill someone.”_

_“Then I’m not the Draco Malfoy you knew. My Father killed the muggle at my initiation. Then he made it look like it was me,” Draco said quietly, “But he made me kill a muggle to prove that I wasn’t weak. I picked a bad one, a homeless man about to rape a girl but I still killed him Pans…I tried to explain this to Daphne but-”_

_“She flew off the handle, because she’s Daphne. You know what she’s like Draco,” Pansy said softly._

_Draco looked up at her, “I’m terrified to go home Pansy. My Father is making me come home for Christmas and…I’m terrified of what he’s going to do to me or what the Dark Lord will make me do.”_

_“Don’t go home then. Stay here with me,” Pansy said, she reached across the sofa and took his hand._

_“I can’t,” Draco said, “They will come looking for me.”_

_“Give them a good excuse then Draco,” Pansy said, “What are they making you do? I know something is going on, you’ve been so distant lately.”_

_“They want me to kill Dumbledore,” Draco whispered, “And to do that, I’ve been working on a vanishing cabinet that will allow Death Eaters to travel from Borgin and Burkes to Hogwarts.”_

_“Then tell them you need to stay here over Christmas and work on the vanishing cabinet while the school is quiet,” Pansy whispered back._

_“Why are you helping me?” Draco asked as he looked her in the eye, “What I’m doing is horrible. Daphne dropped me like a hot coal the minute she caught wind of it and she doesn’t even know the whole story.”_

_“I’m not Daphne,” Pansy said simply, “She’s one of my best friends but that doesn’t mean that I agree with all of her decisions. I’m more interested in keeping you alive than I am in saving that old twisted wizard.”_

_Draco’s frown deepened._

_“Daphne is going home for the holidays, she might calm down a little while she’s away,” Pansy said, “But she can’t live with what you are. She’s too black and white for a Slytherin, I’m like you Draco, I see things in shades of grey. I focus on what needs to be done and I prioritise, right now my priority is keeping you alive.”_

_Draco gave a nod, “I’ll contact my Father.”_

_*_

_“He’s letting me stay! Salazar Pans, I could kiss you!” Draco said, he had grabbed her on her way to class and pulled her into a broom closet._

_Pansy smiled, “See? That wasn’t so hard.”_

_“I will need to do some work on the cabinet so he doesn’t work out that I’m lying,” Draco admitted, “I’m fairly sure he has Severus spying on me.”_

_“But you’re safe from his, and Voldemort’s, grasp for now,” Pansy said._

_“I am,” Draco agreed, “And that’s all thanks to you. Thank you.”_

_“Anytime.”_

_*_

_“Draco!”_

_Draco jumped when she grabbed him. But when he realised who it was, he stopped reaching for his wand._

_“Pansy, you scared me.”_

_“I didn’t know if you would come back, I was scared,” Pansy said, she wrapped her arms around him and pulled him into the empty compartment on the train._

_“I didn’t really have a choice,” Draco said bitterly, “What with them making it illegal not to come to school and all.”_

_“What did they do to you over the summer?” Pansy asked as she reached up and traced a deep cut on his face._

_“Nothing good,” Draco said as he averted his gaze, “And now they are here…I’m scared about what they will do to the people that I love…people like you.”_

_Their eyes met, and in a flash of emotion, they kissed. _

_A scoff from the doorway made them break apart._

_“Wow, that didn’t take long,” Daphne said as she glared at them, “But you are welcome to him Pansy. Personally, murdering Death Eaters don’t do it for me.”_

_She stalked off, with Sadie and Tracey hot on her heels. _

_Theo slipped into the carriage, “She’ll cool down Draco, just give her time.”_

_*_

_“Pansy!”_

_She lay in a heap on the floor of the dungeons, drenched in sweat and breathing heavily._

_“What did you do to her?” Draco hissed at Amycus Carrow._

_“Nothing that I haven’t already done to you,” Amycus said dangerously, “I do not like it when pupils talk back to me Draco. You ought to know how that ends.”_

_“Do whatever the hell you want to me, but do not dare touch her,” Draco hissed._

_“Whatever I want?” Amycus asked with a raised eyebrow, “Hmm…crucio!”_

_“Draco,” Pansy groaned as she reached out, but she couldn’t reach her wand._

_“Just go,” Draco said through gritted teeth._

_“I can’t leave you here.”_

_“Go Pansy,” Draco groaned, “I’ll be fine. Go!”_

_Pansy got to her feet and scrambled out of the dungeon while Amycus laughed uncontrollably and tortured Draco._

_*_

_“I need your help.”_

_Daphne looked stonily at him._

_“Daphne, I know I hurt you, Salazar knows I fucked up,” Draco said, “But Pansy is in the Dark Tower and I can’t get her out alone.”_

_Daphne didn’t say anything._

_“I know I hurt you Daphne but…I love Pansy,” Draco admitted, “And you were my best friend once, I want to get that back if I can.”_

_Daphne sighed, “Fine.”_

_Draco pushed himself to his feet, he breathed a sigh of relief and hugged her, “Thank you.”_

_“I’m not doing it for you,” Daphne said as she shoved him off, “I’m doing it for Pansy.”_

_“That’s good enough for me,” Draco said honestly._

_*_

_“Pansy, pansy wake up!”_

_Pansy opened her eyes groggily as Draco carried her out of the dark tower, “Draco?”_

_“Sorry it took so long to get you out,” Draco said while flashes of light bounced around the walls behind him, “I needed to get the cavalry on board.”_

_Pansy didn’t say anything, she was still groggy. They got to their secret bathroom hideout and all took a moment to catch their breath._

_“Daphne?”_

_“I’m sorry for being such a bitch Pansy,” Daphne said, she sat down next to her friend, “There’s a war going on in this school and if we want to survive it, we all need to be in it together.”_

_Pansy smiled, “Thanks for getting me out.”_

_“We all did,” Tracey said as she and Sadie stepped forward._

_Theo nodded, “We weren’t going to leave you up there Pans.”_

_Draco leant down and kissed her, “You’re going to be okay baby, just get some sleep.”_

_*_

_“Do you think we’re stupid?”_

_Draco rolled over in his bed to look at Pansy, “Why would I think we’re stupid?”_

_“For trying to help the light,” Pansy whispered, “Should we have just kept our heads down to stay alive?”_

_“What’s the point of staying alive if you have to live with a guilty conscience?” Draco asked._

_Pansy ran her hand gently along the dark mark on his arm and Draco flinched._

_“What does he want of you now?”_

_“Not much yet,” Draco sighed, “But I live in fear that he will call me in for a favour.”_

_Pansy closed the gap and kissed him, “I won’t let that happen.”_

_“You don’t have power over the Dark Lord Pans,” Draco said gently, “Just over me.”_

_“I think you underestimate how much I love you Draco Malfoy,” Pansy said softly._

_Draco smiled into her kiss, “I love you Pans, so bloody much.”_

_*_

_“Draco.”_

_Draco frowned, “Why have you been crying? What’s wrong?”_

_“It’s…I found something out today,” Pansy said, she swallowed hard._

_Draco stepped forward and grabbed her hands, “What is it? Did someone die? Is it news from home?”_

_“No,” Pansy said quietly, “Nothing like that. It’s just that I…I’m…I’m pregnant Draco.”_

_Draco’s eyes widened, “Pregnant?”_

_Pansy nodded, searching his face for a sign of fear or something in that vein, “I thought I had a stomach bug but then the sickness never went away and I was running late so…I had Daph do a test.” _

_“Daphne knows?” _

_Pansy nodded, "And Tracey, she told me how far along I was. From the dates, it must have been the night after you got back from the Manor."_

_"I...oh no...Pansy, it's my fault. I was in a state, I forgot to cast the charm," Draco whispered. _

_"I forgot too," Pansy reminded him._

_Draco laughed weakly, "Sweet Salazar, Theo will get a right laugh out of this one. He sleeps with half of our year group and doesn't get anyone pregnant then this happens to you and I."_

_"Theo knows," Pansy said weakly, "He overheard our conversation earlier."_

_Draco nodded numbly, "Of course he did."_

_“How do you feel about the whole thing?” Pansy asked nervously. _

_“Shocked,” Draco said honestly, “I mean I’m happy about it but…we’re in the middle of a war and that scares me.” _

_“I know, it scares me too,” Pansy admitted. _

_“You can’t leave this bathroom anymore," Draco said._

_“Draco-” _

_“Pansy, you can’t,” Draco said firmly, “The thought of losing you is bad enough, but the thought of losing this baby right after you’ve told me about it…I just can’t bear it.” _

_Pansy sighed, “So you want me to sit on my laurels and do nothing for the rest of the war?” _

_“Yes,” Draco said firmly, “Think of what a cruciatus curse could do to an unborn baby. Please, just take a step back, for me.” _

_Pansy watched him for a minute then nodded, “Okay,” she said reluctantly._

_*_

_“Did you hear that?”_

_Draco nodded, “Was that…”_

_“The babies heartbeat yeah,” Pansy said with a smile._

_“I like that sound,” Draco mused as they lay together._

_“Me too.”_

_Draco sighed and looked up at the top of the four poster, “I’m scared Pansy. Something is building…I can feel it, the meetings are being called more regularly and I can tell how angry the Dark Lord is. I think Potter is close…”_

_“That’s a good thing,” Pansy said, “That means that it will all be over soon.”_

_Draco frowned, he wasn’t so sure of that, “He seems to think that Potter will come to Hogwarts and if he’s right then there is going to be a battle here. People are going to die.”_

_Pansy looked him in the eye, “What are you getting at here, Draco?”_

_“If it comes to that, get out of here,” Draco said, he looked at her desperately, “Go to that room of Longbottoms and get out.”_

_“Run away you mean.”_

_“Yes,” Draco said, “Run away, far away and if I survive it, I’ll come and find you.”_

_Pansy frowned, “And if you don’t?”_

_“Call the baby Draco?” He joked._

_Pansy smiled slightly, “What if it’s a girl?”_

_“Draco is a unisex name,” He argued._

_Pansy hit him, “You’re an idiot.”_

_“I know,” Draco said, he kissed her, “But you love me.”_

_“I do, and I will run, I promise,” Pansy said, “I love this baby as much as you do. I don’t want anything bad to happen to it.”_

_*_

_Draco shot Pansy a look across the hall when push came to shove. Voldemort’s voice echoed around the hall, Harry Potter stood amongst them._

_“Run,” Draco mouthed._

_Pansy nodded._

_They couldn’t talk, not with everyone around, but he understood that to mean that she would go. He was dragged off after Potter, but he saw Pansy leave the hall and head in the right direction._

_*_

_When he saw her, standing in the middle of a duel, his heart leapt into his throat._

_“Pansy, no!” Draco called as he jumped into the duel and pushed her aside, “Run for heavens sake! I told you to run!”_

_“I tried but the route was blocked with Death Eaters,” Pansy said breathily._

_“Get out of here,” Draco said desperately, “However you can, please. Get out or hide Pansy.”_

_She took a step back but didn’t make a move to leave. Draco dodged a curse and threw up a shield charm big enough to cover them both. He turned back to the Death Eater he was duelling, “Pansy, please go. I can’t lose you, I can’t lose our baby, I’ve lost too much already.”_

_When he heard nothing, he assumed that she had heeded his advice and left. But when he chanced a glance over his shoulder, he saw her lying there in a heap with Dawlish standing above her._

_“Pansy! Pansy!”_

_*_

_Draco cried harder than he had ever cried in his life when he sat in front of her grave._

_“We had it all planned out baby,” Draco said through his tears, “Survive this goddamn war and get married. Raise our baby together…you weren’t supposed to die Pans and not hours before the end either.”_

_He let his head drop into his hands as he repeated the same words over and over again, “You weren’t supposed to die.”_

When Draco pulled them out of his memories, they both had tear-struck faces and at first, they couldn’t look each other in the eye.

“I’m sorry for suggesting I had it harder than you,” Hermione whispered.

“I’m sorry for not seeing how hard it was for you,” Draco said, just as quietly.

They fell into silence again, it wasn’t an uncomfortable silence but it wasn’t exactly comfortable either.

“I never really understood how painful it must have been for you to lose Pansy and your baby, all at the same time,” Hermione said quietly as she raised her gaze to meet his, “And you were right. I was tortured for a day, you were tortured for years.”

Draco sighed, “I’m sorry that I didn’t realise how much of a mark your torture left on you and I’m sorry for not realising how much Harry meant to you.”

Hermione swallowed, “You had Pansy before me and I had Harry before you. I think we need to come to peace with that.”

Draco nodded and reached out to take her hand, “I can come to peace with it if you can.”

Hermione nodded tearfully and threw herself into his arms, “I’m sorry for acting like such an ungrateful brat.”

Draco held her tightly and breathed in her familiar scent while he did so.

“I didn’t realise until I saw it back like that,” Hermione said through her tears. She drew back with red eyes and looked him directly in the eye, “I blocked out a lot of what happened at Malfoy Manor but if you hadn’t stepped in when you did Draco…Greyback would have…” she trailed off.

Draco shook his head, “Come here love.”

She fell into his embrace.

“He didn’t, I would never have let him hurt you like that,” Draco said firmly.

“I’m sorry that I didn’t realise it sooner,” Hermione said tearfully, “But you saved me from a much worse fate than having muggle-born carved into my arm.”

Draco held her tightly and shut his eyes.

“And despite everything I just showed you Hermione…all that I went through…you healed me after it all,” Draco said softly, “I didn’t think I could love again, not after Pansy. The thought of having kids was so painful but then there was you. Even though I didn’t want to love again, I fell in love with you fast and hard. You made me want all of those things again Hermione and I didn’t think that was possible.”

Hermione squeezed him tightly, “And you healed me after the war when everyone else had tried and nobody else had managed.”

“So I guess we’re just meant for each other then,” Draco said as he placed a kiss on her forehead.

“I guess we are,” Hermione whispered as a small smile graced her lips.


	116. Be the Change You Want to See in the World

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TRIGGERS: Mentions of date rape.
> 
> Okay so I felt bad about uploading a long, angsty chapter so here's another one yay! :) Not sure how long it will be till next update, next week sometime I hope!

“How are things with you and Draco?”

“Good,” Hermione replied with a smile, “Is that why you brought me lunch?”

“We haven’t spoken in like a week and a half,” Harry said, he put the brown bag down in front of her, “And although Draco told me things were okay, he didn’t tell me much more than that.”

“So are you concerned or nosy?”

“A bit of both,” Harry admitted, “Fancy a walk?”

“Sure,” Hermione said, she got to her feet and grabbed her coat. They slipped out of the Ministry together and restarted their conversation.

“Things are fine with Draco and I. It took a pensieve to show us how the other one had lived but we got there,” Hermione said honestly, “It just took some unpleasant truths.”

Harry frowned, “What did you have to show him?”

“He had to see for himself how things had gone down between us,” Hermione admitted, “But don’t worry, I made sure he didn’t see _everything_.”

Harry blew out a sigh of relief, “Thank Merlin for that.”

“And I had to see how things had gone down between him and Pansy which…well that shed light on a lot to be honest,” Hermione admitted, “But mainly, he saw the war from my perspective and I saw it from his.”

Harry smiled slightly, “And you’re good?”

“We’re good,” Hermione agreed.

“Good,” Harry said, “Draco came to me for advice after you two fought and I was worried I had said the wrong thing, but I’m glad that I didn’t.”

Hermione nodded thoughtfully, “Harry, since you’re here can I run something by you?”

“Of course,” Harry said, he handed her a muffin out of the bag.

Hermione took a bite, “I just caught wind of something in the Auror department before you dropped in for lunch. A girl came in to give a statement to the Aurors, she was slipped a potion on a date and she woke up the next morning….you get the jist right?”

Harry nodded, “That’s disgusting. Are they looking for the guy?”

“That’s the thing, they are but Rachel says that they can’t charge him even if they find him because there is nothing to say it’s illegal,” Hermione said.

“What?” Harry snapped, “That’s fucking disgusting!”

Hermione sighed, “I thought the same thing, but I don’t think there’s anything I can do about it.”

“There might be something that I can do about it,” Harry said, “Just keep an eye on the progress of the case and keep me in the loop okay?”

Hermione nodded, “I will, thanks Harry.”

“We’ll fix this fucked up DMLE,” Harry promised her, “One case at a time.”

“It will be easier when you all receive your invitations to join the Wizengamot,” Hermione agreed.

“I know,” Harry sighed, “But Draco said that might be as late as the end of the year.”

“Well, when it happens, change is going to come,” Hermione said confidently.

“Yes,” Harry agreed, “Yes, it is.”

***

“Draco…”

Draco looked up with a raised eyebrow, “That sounded ominous. What is it?”

Hermione sighed, “If I had found a loophole that allowed Lilly to come home early, should I tell her? Even if the loophole was slightly controversial…”

Draco put his book down, “Slightly controversial? Do they have to elope or something?”

“Not quite,” Hermione frowned, “But if they were engaged then she would be entitled to stay in Britain, with Neville.”

Draco raised his hands, “I am staying out of this one. Why don’t you ask _your _best friend since Neville is his Auror partner?”

Hermione sighed, “Fine, I will,” she said, somewhat huffily.

***

“Harry…”

“Hermione…”

Hermione crossed her arms over her chest, “Why are you always out here with Dave when I come by in the evenings?”

“Because it’s my routine,” Harry said matter of factly, “Have dinner, play with Teddy, bath Teddy, put Teddy to bed. Come out here, feed Dave and chill with him for a bit then go inside and have rampant-”

“- I don’t want to hear the end of that sentence,” Hermione rolled her eyes, “I need your advice.”

“I figured that when you came stomping out here in a huff.”

“Did Draco also warn you this morning?”

“Maybe.”

Dave lifted his head and hissed.

“What did Dave just say?” Hermione asked, narrowing her eyes at the snake.

“That I’m a terrible liar,” Harry snorted, he hissed something back at the snake then turned to Hermione.

“You are a terrible liar,” Hermione agreed, “So Dave is quite right.”

The snake hissed again and Harry scoffed, “Dave, quit flirting with her, she can’t even understand your language and she’s not a snake so it would never work out between you two.”

“Do I want to know what he said?” Hermione asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Nope,” Harry said, shaking his head in amusement, “So go on. What do you need my advice with?”

“I found a loophole that would let Lilly spend the rest of her training year in Britain,” Hermione began sheepishly, “But it’s slightly controversial so I don’t know if I should tell Lilly or not.”

“Let me guess, they have to be married?” Harry asked.

Hermione shook her head, “No…just engaged.”

Harry looked at her seriously, “Do you seriously need to ask my advice on that one? Neville is my Auror partner, he’s like the brother I never had so I’m kind of protective over him and that, that is a stupid idea Hermione.”

“Why? Why do you automatically assume the worst?”

“Because I’m a pessimist, it’s what I do,” Harry remarked, “But think about it. You tell Lilly and she proposes to Nev, or coerces him into proposing to her then sometime down the line Neville finds out why she did that. It’s a slippery road, they would be getting engaged for all the wrong reasons.”

“Don’t you think it’s up to them to make that decision though, if they had all the facts?” Hermione asked.

Harry shook his head, “No,” he said firmly, “You asked for my advice so here it is. I think you should keep that information very strictly to yourself.”

“Alright,” Hermione said with a reluctant nod, “Thanks for your advice Harry.”

She turned to leave then Harry said, “I’m sorry about what happened with your date rape case by the way.”

Hermione frowned and turned around, “What do you mean?”

“Didn’t you hear?” Harry asked, “They caught the guy and he got off with a slap on the wrist after his hearing.”

“Seriously?” She asked in disbelief, “How did you hear about that?”

“I was keeping my ear to the ground, after what you said last week,” Harry admitted, “Are you going to do anything about it?”

“What can I do about it? I’m not a lawyer, I’m in my training year in the DMLE I hardly have any authority do I?”

“No,” Harry agreed, “But I know someone who is training to be a lawyer. Besides, you don’t need to be a lawyer to call for an appeal. You just have to know enough about the law to do it.”

“Who do you know whose training to be a lawyer?” Hermione asked curiously.

“My fiancé’s sister,” Harry said with a smirk, “You could hook up with Astoria and appeal it, you have 30 days from the day the crime was committed so you’re still well within the parameters of that.”

Hermione paused for a moment, “Let me look at the legal side of it in a bit more depth tonight then I’ll get back to you okay?”

“Deal,” Harry agreed.

***

“Why are you reading wizarding law in your spare time?” Draco asked conversationally when he stepped into the drawing room that night.

“Because someone raped a girl and got away scot free,” Hermione said darkly, “And there are hardly any laws against that in this fucked up world that we live in.”

Draco frowned, “Seriously? I mean I know my Dad got away with a lot of shit that he shouldn’t have done. But even I would have assumed that rape is illegal.”

“Well according to the very small section on it here in the law,” Hermione said, “It is illegal to abduct or contain someone against their will and subject them to sexual abuse. But there is nothing in here about bringing a girl into your home then drugging her and raping her.”

Draco’s frown deepened, “Does it specifically mention the use of compulsion charms or the imperius curse?”

“Nope, so no doubt people have gotten away with that too,” Hermione fumed, “It is sick Draco, bloody sick!”

“It is,” Draco agreed darkly, “Are you going to appeal it?”

“I want to,” Hermione admitted, “But I don’t see how I can. If there’s nothing in the law about it, what can I do?”

“Talk to Astoria about it and see if she thinks it’s worth appealing,” Draco said honestly, “She’s got a really good head for law and politics.”

Hermione sighed and shut the dusty old book heavily, “Alright, I’ll owl her in the morning,” she promised.

***

When Hermione sat down to have coffee with Astoria, she felt irrationally nervous and she had no idea why. She remembered Astoria from school, she remembered her as timid and kind.

However, the Astoria who walked into the café was not the girl she remembered. She wore a dark suit and had her hair pulled up into a bun, she looked professional and a little intimidating.

Until she sat down and smiled at Hermione, “Hey Hermione. Your owl intrigued me, I’m technically not studying law anymore because Father asked me to take over the business but if I can help you find something to use in an appeal I definitely will.”

Hermione smiled back, “Thank you Astoria.”

Astoria ordered a coffee then said, “So give me a break down of the case.”

“Right,” Hermione began, “A girl came in to give a statement. She went on a date with a guy she had met in a bar. You know the story, they owled a couple of times then met up. Anyway, he invited her back to his place for a drink and she went. He put a sleeping potion in her drink, she passed out and when she woke up, she was in a state of undress. She panicked because she didn’t know what had happened, so she went to St. Mungo’s and when they examined her they found traces of semen.”

“So he raped her,” Astoria said, she shook her head in disgust, “And the guy got off?”

“He was given a slap on the wrist, but because she willingly went to his house it wasn’t classed as rape,” Hermione explained.

“That is sick,” Astoria muttered, “But it also doesn’t surprise me. You should see the amount of people who dupe people with love potions then sleep with them. A very small fraction of them are actually prosecuted and there is nothing in the law to prohibit the sale of love potions for that reason.”

“Is there anything that we can do about it?” Hermione asked, she figured she already knew the answer.

“There might be,” Astoria said, “But it is a longshot. There is a clause in the Prohibition of Dangerous Substances act. It defines misuse of substances classed as safe and the definition it gives is something along the lines of, using a product to conduct illegal or illicit affairs. We could argue that the use of a sleeping potion without consent was illicit, even if it isn’t illegal.”

“And we could use the clause about consent,” Hermione added, “Isn’t there a clause in that same act about only using potions or products with someone’s consent? Unless they are in a position where they are unable to give consent, such as if they are gravely ill.”

“Exactly,” Astoria smirked, “Between those two clauses, we have a leg to stand on. But it is still a longshot and it might gain you a few enemies in the DMLE. They might think you are trying to be too big for your boots because you’ve only been in the door for 5 minutes.”

“I don’t care,” Hermione admitted, “I don’t work there because I want people to like me. I work there because I want change.”

Astoria smiled slightly, “Then let’s do it. I’ll call for an appeal in writing later today, and once the request is granted we will have a week to come up with evidence in our victims favour. Then we present it at a hearing.”

Hermione nodded eagerly, “Thank you Astoria, I really appreciate your help.”

“Anytime,” Astoria said, she picked up her cardboard coffee cup, “We’ll change the ministry, one shitty law at a time.”

***

“This is completely pointless.”

“It’s never pointless,” Astoria said, she refilled Hermione’s mug without looking up from the document she was perusing, “You never know when you’re going to find something.”

Hermione sighed and looked over at the younger girl, “How can you keep going when you know it’s a losing battle?”

“Because it’s only a losing battle when you give up,” Astoria said, she refilled her own mug and looked up at Hermione, “I could have given up on having a Father a long time ago. My Father spent years resenting me and belittling me, but here we are 18 years later and he’s adopting me.”

Hermione frowned slightly.

“Everyone keeps telling me to give up on the business,” Astoria added, “Greengrass Industries used to be the biggest importer and exporter of wizarding goods on the continent until the war. But now it’s a shadow of what it was. All of the resources are still there, but there isn’t enough money, there aren’t enough buyers, and it probably would be easier to give up, but I won’t.”

Hermione smiled at her, “I admire you for that, and I can see that you and Daphne are very alike in that way.”

Astoria shrugged, “If nothing else, our Father taught us to be industrious and a big part of that is never giving up.”

Hermione nodded thoughtfully, “So how are you going to save the business?”

Astoria laughed, “I haven’t got it all worked out yet, but I have ideas. The trouble with the way it used to be was that it was old fashioned. We waited for people to approach us, we didn’t go out there and try to convince new companies to use us, and we didn’t poach services away from other companies but it’s a more aggressive world now so we have to do that. I’m hiring a team of Business Representatives to help with that. But there’s more to it than that, we need to expand our brand and import and export further afield than the continent. Canada would buy good British firewhiskey and the Japanese think that we have the best butterbeer in the world.”

“You really do sound like you have it all figured out.”

“I have the ideas, I just need the revenue,” Astoria admitted, “And without a big donation to kickstart us, that’s going to take a while.”

Hermione nodded thoughtfully, “I might be able to help you out with that big donation.”

Astoria frowned, “What do you mean?”

“I would have to talk to him about it, but I know that Draco saved a large portion of the sale of Malfoy Manor for when he decided to buy a house himself,” Hermione explained, “As it was, he was given the Black title and home by Harry so we used a fraction of that money to renovate the house.”

Astoria’s eyes widened, “No Hermione, you can’t ask that of him. We barely even know each other.”

“No, but Daphne is one of my best friends and she cares about you a lot,” Hermione said honestly, “If he were to agree, I would have one stipulation though.”

Astoria raised an eyebrow, “Which is?”

“Hire Sadie,” Hermione said, “She doesn’t know what she’s going to do with her life now but she needs some sort of purpose and you know her brain works the right way. I don’t know exactly what role would suit her best but I’m sure she would be able to work from home plenty and juggle the babies.”

Astoria nodded thoughtfully, “I could definitely find a place for Sadie, quite happily,” she promised.

Hermione smiled brightly, “Then I’ll talk to Draco tonight,” she promised.

***

“Draco?”

“What do you want?” Draco asked, he looked up from his book.

“How did you know that I wanted something?” Hermione asked with a frown.

“Because you made my name sound like a question,” Draco said, a smile tugged at his lips, “So what do you want?”

Hermione bit her lip.

“Don’t do that unless you want me to ravage you tonight,” Draco said as his eyes shifted to her lips.

Hermione’s cheeks flushed, “Draco!”

“Spit it out Hermione,” Draco teased.

“You know the money from the sale of Malfoy Manor? The money you were saving for when you bought a house?” Hermione said, very quickly.

Draco narrowed his eyes at her, “Yes. What do you want me to spend it on?”

“Well…what is it set aside for now?”

“Nothing,” Draco replied, “Why?”

“Well, I had a proposal for you,” Hermione said slowly, “I thought you could make a charitable donation to a company-”

“You want me to fund the upstart of Greengrass Industries,” Draco cut in.

Hermione nodded and caught his eye, “Well…I…yes, I do.”

“I saw that coming from the moment you got friendly with Astoria. Did she put you up to this? Because if she did, that might be the first Slytherin thing I’ve seen that girl do,” Draco mused.

“No, it was my idea,” Hermione said, “But it’s a good one, don’t you think?”

“I don’t owe Astoria anything,” Draco reminded Hermione.

“No,” Hermione agreed, “But you owe Daphne a hell of a lot. She’s one of your best friends, she’s there for you no matter what and you broke her heart when you became a Death Eater and fell in love with Pansy.”

“Thanks for the guilt trip Hermione,” Draco muttered under his breath.

“Don’t you think you owe it to Daphne?” Hermione asked, “Astoria is her sister and the company is hers too.”

Draco raised an eyebrow at her, “Sweet Salazar, you’re so Slytherin sometimes Hermione. Is it wrong that it turns me on?”

Hermione smiled slightly, “Draco, I’m trying to have a serious discussion with you right now.”

Draco smiled, “I’m sorry. Anyway, I will fund the upstart of the company. I don’t have many objections to doing so. But it will not be a charitable donation, I will make terms with Astoria. If I’m throwing this much money at the business, at the very least I ought to be a shareholder.”

“Right.”

“And this is the difference between you and I,” Draco said, an amused smile played on his lips, “You just want to throw money at people and not expect anything in return. If I’m throwing money at people, I want to gain something from it too.”

“Typical Slytherin prince,” Hermione said playfully, “Always out for your own gain.”

Draco’s eyes flashed mischievously as they met hers, “Typical Gryffindor princess. Always trying to help those in need.”

“Well, aren’t we both walking cliché’s?”

***

“Don’t you think it’s kinda weird?”

“What? That I’m feeding Dave mice today? We’ve been over this, he’s getting too fat with the diet of rats and-”

“Harry shut up, I’m not talking about Dave’s diet,” Daphne said, she folded the last of the washing and put it in the basket.

“But you said that just as I was telling you about Dave’s new diet,” Harry frowned.

Daphne looked over at him, “Were you? Sorry, I wasn’t listening. I was thinking about Hermione and Astoria. Don’t you think it’s weird?”

Harry’s frown deepened, “That they are working together to prevent injustice? No, not really. Why would it be weird?”

“Just because Hermione is one of my closest female friends,” Daphne said, “And she’s getting all chummy with Astoria. It’s weird.”

Harry laughed, “Are you actually jealous?”

“What? No!” Daphne scoffed, “But Astoria is more Hermione’s cup of tea, you know? She likes law, she likes justice prevailing. She can spend all night researching with coffee and actually finds it fun.”

Harry cackled, “Wow, I can’t believe what’s happening here.”

“What are you talking about?” Daphne asked irritably, “What’s happening here, exactly?”

“You’re worried that Hermione is going to like Astoria more than she likes you,” Harry said.

Daphne snorted, “No I’m not. That’s ridiculous, Hermione and I have been friends for a year and a half. She’s known Astoria for like one minute.”

Harry smirked at her.

“Stop it.”

“I’m right, admit it.”

“You are not right,” Daphne said as she grabbed her washing basket and stomped up the stairs, “Ice Queens do not get jealous.”

“Oh give it up baby, the Ice Queen melted a long time ago,” Harry called as she made her way up the stairs.

“Fuck you Harry.”

“Watch your language! Teddy’s up there.”

“And there’s a silencing ward on his bedroom so, fuck you Harry!”

Harry chortled and shook his head in amusement.

***

“What are our chances of winning this thing?” Hermione asked. She stood in a smart suit next to Astoria outside a court room.

“50%” Astoria said honestly, “It kind of depends on which judge we get and how lenient they are.”

Hermione noticed the smirk on the younger girls face, “Why are you smirking? Do you know something that I don’t?”

“No,” Astoria replied smoothly, “I was just thinking about all the judges we might get.”

Hermione shot her a confused look as they stepped into the court room.

On one side was the accused, a cocky guy in his mid 20’s. On the other side was the defence, a nervous looking girl in her early 20’s. They were the defence’s lawyers, but the accused had his own lawyer too.

Beyond that, there was no jury. The decision would just be down to a judge, but that judge had not taken their place at the podium yet. A man in dark robes stood in front of the podium and said, “All rise for the Honourable Andromeda Tonks.”

Hermione’s eyes widened. She chanced a sideways glance at Astoria and the younger girl said, “Oh, that’s convenient.”

Andromeda stood at the podium and said, “I am here today to reside over an appeal raised by the defence; Hilary Watson. The defence appeals the decision that the accused; Nigel Harris, is not guilty of one count of rape.”

She opened a document in front of her, “The decision was taken at a preliminary hearing not to prosecute Mr. Harris for the crime due to a lack of evidence to support the case. Would the defence please take the stand and explain their reasoning behind the appeal?”

Astoria got to her feet and walked to the stand, “Thank you, your honour. This appeal was raised because the judge at the preliminary hearing did not take the entirety of the law into account. The case was dismissed because the defence willingly went to the accused’s home. However, there are two clauses in the Prohibition of Dangerous Substances act that put that decision into dispute…”

Astoria argued their case, and then the accused had his lawyer take the stand.

“With all due respect your honour,” He said, “The defence are clutching at straws. The defendant willingly went home with the accused and therefore would likely have engaged in sexual activities with him in due course.”

“Objection your honour!” Hermione said.

Andromeda nodded.

“The defendant did not have that choice, hence why it was rape,” Hermione said, she tried her best to contain her temper.

“Does the accused have an alternative reason for putting a sleeping draught in the defendant’s drink?” Andromeda asked calmly.

“The defendant had been complaining of a long day at work,” The accused’s lawyer said, “He wanted to help her relax.”

“Objection your honour,” Astoria said.

Andromeda nodded once more.

“Under the Prohibition of Dangerous Substances act, giving the sleeping potion to the defence without her consent is illegal,” Astoria said.

Andromeda nodded, “Indeed Miss. Greengrass. This court has come to a decision. Order!”

She hit the hammer against the gavel and the courtroom fell silent.

“Nigel Harris. You are hereby charged with drugging a victim without due consent under the Prohibition of Dangerous Substances act. You are sentenced to one year’s incarceration in the low-security sector of Azkaban.”

“A year?” Hermione hissed under her breath.

They got to their feet and Astoria whispered, “It’s better than nothing, still a win at the end of the day.”

Hermione glanced over at the poor girl they were defending and silently debated whether it was a win. But she knew Astoria was right, it was better than nothing.

***

“Did you win your appeal then?” Daphne asked when Hermione and Astoria slipped into Cygnus’s hospital room later that day.

Hermione smiled at her, “You know we did. It was you who got Andromeda to be the judge, wasn’t it?”

Daphne frowned, “No…but that is too convenient to be luck. Did you set it up Harry?”

Harry shook his head and handed Hermione and Astoria wine in plastic cups, “Nope, that’s a very Slytherin-esque thing to do. Maybe you should ask the other Slytherin in the room who knows Andromeda if it was her.”

Astoria smirked.

Draco whistled, “Astoria Greengrass, showing your true colours. I’m so proud, I have a tear in my eye.”

Astoria rolled her eyes, “Shut up Draco.”

Cygnus smiled slightly, “I see what Daphne meant about you two being two much like siblings to ever be able to date.”

“Not to mention the fact that he’s head over heels for his favourite muggle-born,” Daphne joked as she shot Draco a grin.

Draco smiled at Hermione, “Well there is that. Have you had the pleasure of meeting Hermione yet Cygnus?”

“I have, she was in here discussing staffing ideas for the business just the other night,” Cygnus said, “If she weren’t so invested in her job at the DMLE I would poach her and make her Head of Staff.”

Hermione laughed, “Maybe one day Mr. Greengrass.”

“I wonder if that would be a good option for Sadie,” Astoria mused, “Head of Staff?”

“Head Accountant,” Daphne said as she poured herself a glass of wine, “Sadie would be a good choice for it. You know you can trust her, and that’s pretty crucial when it comes to the person handling your money.”

Astoria nodded, “That is true.”

“Where is the money coming from to hire all of these new staff members?” Cygnus asked curiously, “Did you acquire a silent partner?”

“We acquired a new partner,” Astoria said, “But I very much doubt he will be a silent one.”

Draco smirked, “I donated a large amount of money to Greengrass Industries. In return I asked for 14.5% of the annual yield.”

“14.5%?” Cygnus mused, “That’s a very specific number.”

Astoria smirked, “He asked for 20% and when he left, he thought he had a good deal.”

“And I always thought you were too nice to be a business woman,” Draco said with a shake of his head.

Cygnus smirked too, “That’s my girl. I knew making you head of the business was a good idea. How did you manage to convince him to put up the money?”

“I dropped a few subtle hints to his fiancé and waited for him to come to me,” Astoria said, she shot Hermione an amused look.

Hermione’s jaw dropped, “You did that on purpose?”

“Of course she did, she’s a true Slytherin,” Draco said with a slight smile, “And I knew she was doing it the whole time.”

“So why did you put the money up?” Harry asked with a frown.

“Because Greengrass Industries wasn’t the biggest shipping company on the continent for nothing,” Draco said honestly, “They can get back on track and when they do, the money will come rolling in.”

“Slytherins,” Hermione muttered with a shake of her head.

Harry caught her eye and chuckled, “It’s a different world, isn’t it? I’d have just left an anonymous check.”

Daphne scoffed, “You Gryffindors are too nice for your own good. That’s why you need Slytherins in your life to stop you throwing all of your possessions and money at those in need.”

“She has a point,” Harry said to Hermione.

Hermione just chuckled and glanced at her watch, “Is your Mother still coming tonight, Draco?”

Draco glanced at the clock behind her, “Yes, she’s probably just running late because she was waiting on Andromeda coming home from work. She’s bringing Teddy with her.”

“Narcissa is coming?” Cygnus asked with interest, “Why is that?”

“As the Mother of your new partner, I thought she might like to be here,” Draco replied, “And she jumped at the chance.”

“I bet she did,” Daphne muttered to Hermione.

Hermione frowned and whispered, “What does that mean?”

“Narcissa and my Father went to school together, I think my Father had a little bit of a crush on her,” Daphne whispered back, “But there was one small issue. My Father’s best friend back then was Lucius Malfoy.”

“Ah,” Hermione chuckled, “I see.”

Daphne just rolled her eyes in response, then the door opened. Narcissa stepped in with Teddy on her hip. She smiled broadly at Cygnus.

“Cygnus! You are looking well!”

Teddy scrambled to get down, “Dada! Mumma!”

Narcissa chuckled and popped him down, “On you go then poppet.”

The little boy ran for Harry and Daphne.

“It’s lovely to see you Narcissa,” Cygnus said after he looked at her for a moment longer than he should have done.

“And you,” Narcissa said, “I expect we shall see a little more of each other when you get well. After all, your Grandson is my nieces child after all.”

“Your niece?” Cygnus frowned.

“Andromeda’s daughter, Nymphadora is Teddy’s biological Mother,” Narcissa explained, “However she and her Husband Remus were killed during the war so care of Teddy fell to Harry who was his Godfather.”

“I see,” Cygnus said simply.

“Alright,” Daphne said loudly, “Let’s celebrate! The instatement of Astoria as CEO of Greengrass Industries!”

“Cheers!”

“The rebirth of Greengrass Industries!”

“Cheers!”

“And, our new silent partner, Draco Black.”

“Cheers!”


	117. Propositions and Politics

There was a knock at the door of Potter Manor on Halloween evening. Daphne and Teddy had just gotten Teddy dressed up as a pumpkin and they were about to take him into Godric’s Hollow trick or treating.

Harry had been unsure of the idea at first, he remembered how he had seen the kids playing and trick or treating when he watched Snape’s memory of his parents death. But Daphne had talked him around with talks of fresh starts and all, he knew that she was right. He couldn’t avoid Halloween forever, not now that they had a child who got very excited about the holiday.

Harry answered the door and was surprised to see Ron on his doorstep. They hadn’t spoken in a good few months.

“Happy Halloween mate! We’re about to take Teddy trick or treating, do you want to come?”

Ron smiled at Harry, “Hey mate, I’d love to but I can’t sorry. I just came by to tell you the news. Ginny went into labour this afternoon.”

Harry frowned, “Did she? I thought she wasn’t due for a couple of weeks yet.”

“She wasn’t, but the baby is okay,” Ron said, “She’s a good weight and all, they named her Zola. Ginny wanted me to let you know.”

“Wow, they had her tonight?” Daphne asked, “What a birthday, Halloween.”

Ron chuckled, “I said that. Ginny hit me when I said that she would always get a good meal on her birthday when she went to Hogwarts.”

Harry snorted, “It’s quite funny though.”

Ron grinned, “Yeah, I thought so too.”

“So is she up for visitors then?”

“Yeah, she’s keeping well. The birth was pretty smooth sailing, according to Mum,” Ron said, “It was quick too. I think she’s allowed visitors up until 9pm tonight.”

“Alright, we’ll take Ted trick or treating and head straight over. Thanks for letting us know Ron.”

***

“Oh,” Daphne said quietly when they walked into Ginny’s hospital room, “She is so tiny and beautiful.”

Ginny smiled at her, “She really is.”

“You look exhausted Gin,” Daphne said, “Do you want me to hold her for a bit?”

Ginny nodded and handed the baby to Daphne.

“Ron said you named her Zola?” Harry asked as he looked at the baby girl.

She had Blaise’s dark skin tone and thick curly hair, and right now she was waking up. Daphne chuckled at the little girl as she stretched and yawned.

“Yeah,” Ginny said, “Zola Zabini. We figured it was best for her to have Blaise’s surname.”

“It’s a lovely name,” Daphne said softly, “Look Teddy, it’s a baby.”

Teddy made a face.

Harry chuckled, “Do you want a baby Teddy?”

“No!” Teddy said firmly.

“Well that’s that,” Harry laughed.

Daphne smiled at the little boy, “She’s so tiny, isn’t she?”

Teddy made a face again, “Don’t like her.”

Ginny laughed, “I guess you two aren’t having another any time soon.”

“We aren’t,” Daphne laughed, “It wouldn’t be fair to Ted, we need to make sure he’s well and truly settled first. But seeing this little one makes me feel so broody.”

“Which is dangerous,” Harry said, he shot Ginny an amused look.

Ginny smiled, “Would you be her Godfather, Harry?”

Harry looked up in surprise, “I would be honoured, if that’s what you want.”

“Blaise and I couldn’t agree, naturally,” Ginny joked, “So we agreed to pick one Godparent each. I picked you and Blaise picked-”

“Me.”

Harry spun around and grinned at the girl who had just walked into the room.

“Blanche, hey.”

Blanche smiled back, “Oh wow, is this her? Ginny she is just so _precious_. Oh come on Daphne, give me a shot.”

Daphne chuckled and handed Blanche the baby girl, “How are you doing these days Blanche?”

“I’m doing great,” Blanche said, she looked up at Harry for a moment, “I just wish your fiancé and his sidekick would stop beating me to the top of the leaderboard.”

Harry grinned, “What can I say? I’m just a damn good trainee Auror.”

“And not at all smug about it,” Blaise deadpanned as he walked into the room.

“Congratulations you guys,” Daphne said, “She’s lovely.”

“She’s beautiful,” Blanche agreed.

“She’s so tiny,” Harry said as he looked at the little girl, “I can’t remember Teddy being that tiny even though I know it wasn’t that long ago.”

“You don’t realise how fast they grow,” Blanche said, “Hello Zola. I’m your Auntie Blanche and I’m one of the only sane Aunties you’re going to have.”

A chuckle went around the room, but Harry noticed that Ginny had gone suspiciously quiet. When he looked over at her hospital bed he realised why, she was fast asleep.

“Well I think we ought to go and leave you to your lovely new daughter Blaise,” Harry said diplomatically.

Daphne nodded, she hugged Blaise, “Congratulations to you both.”

“Thank you,” Blaise said sincerely.

Blanche smiled up at him, “See you tomorrow Harry.”

Harry gave her a wave, “See you tomorrow.”

***

“So has everyone met Zola then?” Hermione asked conversationally as she pulled a pizza out of the oven.

“We met her the night she was born,” Harry said, “She’s lovely.”

“So tiny and cute!” Daphne agreed, “Oh watch Hermione, the garlic bread is burning.”

“Oh shoot,” Hermione cursed. She pulled that out of the oven too, “We met her the day after. I even got Draco to smile when he was holding her.”

Draco rolled his eyes, “I’m not completely heartless.”

“She is so tiny and cute though,” Hermione agreed.

Neville smiled, “I met her the night she was born too. Gin floo-ed me not long after she had given birth. I couldn’t believe how tiny she was, I was scared to hold her in case I broke her.”

“Babies look so delicate but they are far more resilient than we think,” Hermione said, “Did you meet her Lil?”

Lilly shook her head and sighed, “No, I haven’t had a chance to get away from work yet. I’ll try and nip over to their flat sometime this weekend, I don’t want to be the only one who hasn’t showed face.”

“We were a little later in visiting,” Theo admitted, “Sadie wasn’t feeling great at the start of the week. It felt weird though, sitting there holding a baby.”

“It felt scary,” Sadie admitted, “To think we’re going to have two of them pretty soon. But oh my gosh, Zola is cute.”

“Isn’t she just,” Daphne agreed.

“I’m happy for Blaise,” Theo said, “He’s a bit of a weirdo at times, I always kind of thought he’d be a loner.”

“Wow harsh Theo,” Draco sniggered.

“True though,” Daphne agreed with a chuckle.

Sadie just nodded her agreement, “You really should go and meet her Lil, you’ll fall in love.”

“I will,” Lilly said with a sigh.

“You okay?” Hermione asked her with a frown, “Is it because you don’t like babies-”

“I like babies fine, okay?” Lilly snapped, “I don’t know why everyone thinks that I don’t. I’m just bummed that I’m always the one to miss stuff because I’m stuck in bloody France!”

“I know,” Neville said, he wrapped his arm around her.

“You know we would bring you back in a heartbeat if we could,” Daphne said.

Draco nodded his agreement, and so did Harry. Albeit a little uncomfortably.

“It sucks, you being in France,” Sadie agreed, “But it’s a necessary evil.”

“Yeah, it really is,” Lilly agreed, “But let’s not mope about it okay? The whole point of tonight is to eat pizza and spend time together.”

“Until Teddy wakes up screaming in 5 minutes and Harry and Daphne have a fight over who has to go deal with him and eat their pizza cold,” Hermione joked.

“He always does it in this house!” Harry said.

“Probably cause it’s old and evil and shit,” Neville shrugged,

“Who knows, maybe we’ll get through a slice of pizza each this time,” Daphne said as she took a bite.

Harry took a cautionary bite too then they heard it.

“Ahhhh!”

“Ugh, it’s really your turn.”

“It really isn’t.”

“I had a hard day today, I need pizza and wine more than you!”

“You broke one curse, I won two duelling contests!”

“Harry, pleaaaaase.”

Harry rolled his eyes and got to his feet, “Fine!”

Once he had left the room Daphne grinned, “Every time,” she said cheerfully as she took a huge bite out of her pizza.

***

“Hey Lilly…can I talk to you before you head?”

Lilly nodded, “In private?”

Hermione nodded and glanced around to make sure that nobody was watching them. They were all involved in their own conversations so nobody noticed Hermione and Lilly slipping into the small garden together.

“What’s up Hermione? Are things bad with Draco again?”

“No, things are fine since that last piece of amazing advice you gave me,” Hermione said with a smile, “It’s just that…I found out about something the other day and I feel bad keeping it from you.”

“Okay,” Lilly said curiously, “What is it?”

“I was talking to a colleague about your situation with the whole being stuck in France thing,” Hermione lied, because she had actually researched it, “And I found a loophole, but it’s extreme.”

She saw hope flash in Lilly’s eyes, “What is it?”

Hermione frowned, “Well he said if you have a legal partner, you are allowed to study in the UK so you can be with them. I asked what they classed as a legal partner and the answer was, someone you are either engaged to be married to or married to.”

Lilly frowned, “So…if Neville and I were engaged…I could come home?”

Hermione nodded, “Theoretically, yes.”

“Right.”

“But don’t do it for all the wrong reasons,” Hermione added, “Or it would feel a bit too much like you were using him, don’t you think?”

“I would never use Neville,” Lilly promised, “But if being engaged to him could allow me to come home…then maybe that needs to happen a little sooner than we had planned.”

“That’s all on you,” Hermione said honestly, “I just felt that it would be wrong to keep that information from you.”

“Thank you,” Lilly said honestly, “You didn’t have to tell me, but you did so thank you.”

“Anytime,” Hermione said with a smile, “I would like to think that you would do the same for me.”

“I would,” Lilly promised.

***

“Daph, Daph!”

“I’m dressing Teddy, what is it?”

Harry dashed up the stairs with a letter in hand, “Look what just arrived in the post!”

Daphne looked up with a frown, “It’s a piece of parchment?”

“It’s a letter,” Harry said excitedly, “Let me read it to you…”

_“Dear Lord Potter,_

_Please accept this letter as an invitation to take your family seat on the Wizengamot. Our records show that you have adequately passed your N.E.W.T’s and that you are now of age. _

_The Potter family seat has been vacant for several years, as such if you do not reply within 30 days in writing to confirm that you wish to take the seat, it will be released and gifted to another wizarding family._

_We look forward to hearing from you._

_Gregor Fisher,_

_Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot.”_

Daphne smiled slightly, “Which part of that got you excited, exactly? The fact you were referred to as Lord Potter or the fact you are able to take your place on the Wizengamot?”

“Both,” Harry grinned, “But it’s exciting isn’t it? Why don’t you have a letter?”

“Because I’m not the only Greengrass in line,” Daphne replied, “The seat was vacant until I came of age but now legally my Father could take it, or Astoria could.”

“So what happens then?” Harry asked with a frown.

“It goes to a vote. The three of us sit in a room together and decide who is best suited to take the seat,” Daphne replied, “And honestly, I think it would be Astoria.”

“Or you,” Harry said, “But your Father is of the older generation. I don’t know how easily he would fall in line with our ideas…”

“I don’t know if he would either,” Daphne admitted, “But that’s a conversation for another day. You had better reply and let them know that you wish to take your seat. I need to get this little guy fed and over to his Great Aunt Cissa before 9am.”

“Alright,” Harry said, he leant over and kissed her, “Love you, and love you little man.”

“Love you Dada!”

“And I love you too,” Daphne said, she kissed him back, “Have a good day.”

“You two baby, and be good for Great Aunt Cissa Teddy!”

***

“Draco!”

Draco smiled slightly, “Yes, I got my letter this morning. I thought you might be excited about it, is that the first time you’ve ever been addressed as a lord?”

“It is, and do you know what? I rather like it,” Harry said smugly.

Theo snorted, “You would, how your ego fits through the front door of this place I don’t know.”

They all stepped into the training centre together.

“Did you get a letter too Theo?” Harry asked, ignoring the Slytherins jibe.

“Indeed, I did.”

“So Neville is the odd one out then,” Draco said, “The Lord-less one.”

“I may not be a lord, but I do have a seat on the Wizengamot,” Neville’s voice said from behind them, “I won it last night actually.”

“Through conversation or violence?” Harry asked curiously.

“Violence,” Neville grinned, “I’m much better in a duel than my cousin.”

“So the four of us are on the Wizengamot,” Harry mused, “Do you think that’s going to make enough of a difference?”

“Depending on what Greengrass gets the seat, maybe,” Draco replied honestly,

“Sadie’s brother is on side too, and he sits in the Cauldwell seat,” Theo reminded them.

“And if we all got letters, Susan will have done too.”

“She might not pick up on it within the 30 days though,” Harry said, “If she’s off gallivanting with Percy.”

“Good point, I’ll send her a patronus when I get home tonight,” Neville said.

“So what happens now then?” Harry asked.

“Well, once they have received our replies, that’s it. We will all get keyrings and when they call the Wizengamot, they will burn to let us know that our presence is required,” Draco replied.

“Like the fake galleons you made in 5th year,” Neville said.

“Which Hermione modelled on the dark mark,” Harry admitted sheepishly.

Draco nodded, “But this is different, it won’t be burned onto my skin for a start.”

“So when does the Wizengamot sit?” Harry asked.

“Whenever they need to,” Theo replied, “Every time the Minister for Magic puts forward a new law for one. But once we have our foot in the door for a few months, we are also entitled to put forward new laws for consideration. The Minister has to sign off on them first, but then he can put them to the Wizengamot.”

“So this is the start of that change you talked about,” Draco said, “Right back at the beginning of 8th year.”

Harry nodded thoughtfully as they dumped their things in the locker room, “It’s strange to think that tomorrow is the 5th of November…”

“What’s significant about that?” Theo asked.

“A year since he started dating Daphne, officially anyway,” Neville piped in.

Harry nodded, “It just goes to show how much can change in a year.”

“And what a year it has been,” Theo said with a smile.

The others simply nodded their agreement.

***

“Lucille…can I talk to you about something?”

Lucille took a breath, “How can you be so unscathed by the fact we’re on our 4th lap of this track?”

“Neville used to have me running twice round the lake at Hogwarts in our last year of school,” Lilly replied, “And it’s a big lake. Anyway, you know how I spend 90% of my time here complaining about how much I miss Neville and the other 10% complaining about how much I miss home?”

“Uh-huh. Where are you going with this?”

“What if I told you that I found a way to get home, 3 months earlier than planned?” Lilly asked cryptically.

They reached the end of the track and paused to catch their breath, “What crazy loophole have you found?”

“If Neville and I are engaged, I get to go home,” Lilly said.

Lucille raised an eyebrow at her, “Girl, that is a slippery road.”

“Why?” Lilly complained, “I love Neville and I want to marry him. Would it really matter if the proposal happened a little earlier than planned?”

“Yes, it would. These things happen when it is the time for them to happen. Forcing them is tempting fate,” Lucille said wisely.

“But I miss him, and I miss my friends back home,” Lilly complained, “Sadie is having babies and Hermione needs me to stop her making self-destructive decisions. Daphne…well she’s Daphne, she does her own thing. And Neville…”

“Is your light, your sun and stars,” Lucille teased, “I know you miss him, but what is 3 more months in the scheme of all the years you will spend together?”

“I suppose,” Lilly said reluctantly, but she wasn’t convinced.

***

“Hey! How was your first time on the Wizengamot?”

“Enlightening,” Harry said, he kissed Daphne lightly, “Is Teddy asleep?”

“Yeah, I didn’t know how late you would be so I put him down half an hour ago,” Daphne said, “There’s pasta in the pot, do you want me to reheat it for you?”

“Don’t worry, I’ll do it,” Harry said as he walked to the stove, “Have you decided whose going to take your seat yet?”

“No, Astoria and I are waiting for Dad to get better before we have that debate,” Daphne said, “But enough about me. Are you going to tell me what happened tonight?”

“Well, Kingsley put forward a few new laws for consideration,” Harry said as he stirred the pasta in the pot.

“Uh-huh, which ones?” Daphne asked eagerly.

Harry smiled at her, “Lupin’s Law. To give werewolves the same rights as witches and wizards. They still have to register, but it’s more so that they can be caught if a violent crime is commited. Like how we keep the fingerprints of all known criminals on file.”

“Was it passed?” Daphne asked.

“It was passed,” Harry grinned, “We needed 12 votes to pass and we had them, we thought it was going to be right on the mark then Slughorn surprised everyone and passed the law.”

“That is a surprise,” Daphne said, “It’s against a lot of his family policies.”

“But Remus was his friend, and that was enough,” Harry said, “Kevin Brown put up a big fuss when it was passed because of what happened to Lavender.”

“It was awful what happened to her, but Greyback is an exception. Most werewolves are good people.”

“That was what Kingsley told him,” Harry admitted, he spooned some pasta into a bowl and pushed himself up onto the kitchen counter.

“So what other motions were raised?” Daphne asked eagerly.

Harry laughed, “You’re really into politics babe.”

“I’m really into reforming this shithole Voldemort created,” Daphne said with a raised eyebrow, “So what else happened?”

“The second law raised was for Veritaserum Vetting. The small print was that every member of the Ministry had to undergo it or if they refused, be released from their contract. And that all new members must undergo it prior to being appointed.”

“I bet that wasn’t a landslide,” Daphne said, “I know a lot of people thinks it’s ethically wrong, the Cauldwells for one.”

“It was passed, 16 votes when we only needed 12,” Harry said happily.

“Really?” Daphne asked hopefully.

“Really,” Harry said, “There’s going to be a big walk out from the Auror department I reckon, Kingsley thinks more of them are dirty than clean.”

“I could believe it,” Daphne admitted.

“The best one was the last one,” Harry said honestly, “Theo actually cried, have you seen Theo cry before?”

“On occasion,” Daphne frowned, “But not very often. Go on…”

“It was called Almina’s Law,” Harry said.

Daphne’s hand flew to her mouth, “Really?”

Harry nodded, “A law against domestic abuse. It makes it a crime, frankly it’s disgusting that it wasn’t a crime up until now. But from now on, if someone is being subjected to domestic abuse they can report it to the Ministry and they will immediately be taken to a safe house, given protection and their partner will be arrested.”

“Almina’s law,” Daphne said softly, “Merlin…how many women could that have helped?”

“Think how many women it _will _help.”

Daphne nodded, “You made a real difference tonight then.”

“It wasn’t just me,” Harry said honestly, “This new Wizengamot is what our country needs Daph. There is so much young blood and it’s exciting!” he shoved some pasta in his mouth, “I mean there are still a few old-fashioned arseholes like Henry MacMillan and Howard Abbott but I reckon there are more young people than old.”

Daphne nodded thoughtfully, “I really do approve of some of the new families they invited to take the abolished Death Eater seats. I mean Davies for a start, they are a very prominent family and the Weasley’s never should have had their seat taken from them.”

Harry swallowed his mouthful, “Giving the Goldsteins, Lovegoods and Scammanders a seat was inspired. I don’t think Lupin’s Law would have passed without them to be honest.”

“You said it a long time ago Harry, and now it’s happening.”

Harry smiled brightly at her, “Change is coming.”

“It certainly is,” Daphne said proudly.

***

“Is it acceptable to propose to a guy?”

“Is it a leap year?”

“What?”

Susan put her wine glass down, “It’s acceptable to propose to a guy in Dublin on the 29th of February.”

Lilly frowned and looked at her friend over her gin glass, “Well that’s not any good, because February is ages away and I don’t even think it’s a leap year.”

“You asked a question, I answered,” Susan said, “Why are you asking me about proposing anyway? I thought you and Nev were years away from that.”

“Months maybe, not _years_,” Lilly said sheepishly, “But if we were engaged then I could train in the UK and it’s really hard being so far away from him.”

Susan raised an eyebrow at her, “Do you _really _think that’s a good idea?”

“Why does everyone keep asking me that?” Lilly asked irritably.

“Why do you _think_?” Susan retorted.

“Look, I don’t care if I get engaged to Neville now or in a year!” Lilly exclaimed, “All I know is that I want to marry him, so why does it matter?”

“Have you told Neville this?”

“Not in as many words, no,” Lilly replied under her breath.

“Don’t you think that’s maybe a better way to approach the subject?” Susan asked, “Because I think a calm conversation is better than you randomly proposing to him and him being like, what the fuck Lilly?”

“Harsh Susan.”

“But fair, don’t you think? He loves you and he wants to marry you, but he would still be surprised,” Susan said, “And you know it.”

Lilly muttered, “Hermione is my only true friend, she was the one who told me about the loophole.”

“Look, just because Hermione told you, that doesn’t make her the good guy and me the bad guy. I’m being the better friend here because I’m telling you that it would be a bad idea and that it would inevitably end up with Neville finding out why you had done it and you guys probably breaking up, and I don’t want that to happen okay? You are good together, you make Neville happy, so you need to listen to your personal Hufflepuff agony aunt and do as I say. Okay?” Susan rattled off.

“Okay, godammit,” Lilly muttered as she drained her gin, “I’ll talk to him at the weekend!”

“Good,” Susan said cheerfully, “Now you Lillian Moon, look like you need another drink but I don’t speak French so you’re gonna have to order it.”

Lilly rolled her eyes and got to her feet, “Only you could come to visit _me _in France and make me buy all the drinks,” she teased as she headed for the bar.

***

“So what did you girls want to discuss?” Cygnus asked cheerfully as he sat with Teddy on his knee. He was doing much better, he could sit up now and get out of bed for short stints at a time.

“I’m sorry if it’s a controversial subject,” Daphne began, “But it’s about the Wizengamot seat.”

“Ah,” Cygnus realised, “The debate for who represents the family?”

Daphne nodded, “Now I would like to put forward the argument that it ought to be me. I fought in the war, I saw both sides and because of that I can be impartial-”

“No,” Cygnus cut in.

“No?” Daphne asked with quiet anger.

“No,” Cygnus reiterated, “It can’t be you. You are marrying Harry Potter and everyone knows that the Potter seat is one of the most respected. If Harry has to go away on a mission, you, as his wife, will have to take his seat by proxy. In that case, who would represent the Greengrass seat?”

Daphne opened her mouth to argue, but Cygnus continued, “And then there is the matter of you and your Husband both having seats on the Wizengamot. That’s a slippery road if you ever disagree on a policy, that’s why it isn’t the done thing. I mean look at Cauldwell and Nott, Sorenson sits on the Cauldwell seat because it would be a conflict of interests if Sadie were to sit in the Wizengamot with Theodore.”

“As much as I think you would be great for the seat Daphne, he has a point,” Astoria admitted.

Daphne sighed, “Fine, so you think Astoria should take the seat then?”

“No,” Cygnus said again.

“No?” Astoria asked with a frown, “You trusted me with the business Father! But not with the Wizengamot seat?”

“It is not through lack of trust,” Cygnus promised, “I propose that I take the seat on a temporary basis. Astoria, you are swamped with the business but once it is back on track again and things have settled down, the seat is yours.”

Astoria nodded slowly, “I can agree to those terms.”

“So can I, I suppose,” Daphne muttered.

“Why do you object to me taking the family seat so much Daphne?” Cygnus asked curiously.

“Because new reforms are being pushed through Father,” Daphne said irritably, “Reforms that myself, Harry and our friends feel passionately about, but they are not the reforms that you would vote for which means Harry has just lose an ally on the Wizengamot.”

Cygnus raised an eyebrow at her, “Tell me these reforms and I will tell you how I would vote. You may be surprised.”

Daphne crossed her arms and stared him down, “Lupin’s Law. Giving werewolves the same rights as witches and wizards so long as they register in the case of a violent crime being committed.”

“I would vote to pass that reform. Werewolves are stronger than the average person and have long struggled to find steady employment. However, if they could legally be employed, I could recruit them as an industrious workforce for Greengrass Industries,” Cygnus replied, “Perhaps that is not the reason why you would vote to pass the law, but the result is the same, is it not?”

Daphne narrowed her eyes at him, “Veritaserum Vetting in the Ministry. Every existing member and all new staff members must be vetted under veritaserum.”

“I would pass that reform too. The Ministry would be more functional if it was clean, less dirty Aurors means a better justice department so that if anything were to happen to those I loved, it would be investigated correctly,” Cygnus replied.

Daphne ignored Astoria’s amused smile and said, “Almina’s Law. Domestic abuse to be punishable with time in Azkaban like every other violent crime. And those who are being abused would be given protection by the Ministry from the moment it was reported.”

“I would pass that one too. Arranged marriages are dangerous, when people are forced to marry and have children with people they don’t love, people get hurt and children get hurt. If your Mother had not been forced into an arranged marriage with me she would not have had the affair that she did and she would not have tried to kill me. You could argue that what she did, was a form of domestic abuse.”

Astoria nodded, “That is a fair point.”

“So you see Daphne, my moral compass is not as far out of line with yours as you may think,” Cygnus said gently.

Daphne sighed, “Fine, then I guess I’m happy with you representing the seat, but please don’t get into any fights with Harry over reforms.”

Cygnus smiled at her, “Deal.”

***

“Lilly, what is going on with you?”

“What? Nothing!” Lilly said quickly as they walked down the Thames.

“You have barely said anything all night long, what is it?” Neville asked knowingly.

“I just have things on my mind,” Lilly said.

“What things?” Neville prodded.

Lilly sighed heavily and paused to lean against a railing, “Do you want to marry me?”

Neville frowned, “You know I do.”

“So would you be opposed to getting engaged to me a little earlier than you might have planned?” Lilly asked, she was unable to look in his eye.

“Right…explain that comment,” Neville said simply.

“Well, there’s a loophole,” Lilly said, “And it is that if we were engaged, I could finish my training in the UK which would mean no more France.”

Neville frowned.

“So,” Lilly said tentatively, “How do you feel about that?”

Neville sighed, “My first thought was that it would be…beyond amazing to have you back but…call me old-fashioned if you want, but getting engaged, proposing to you…it was sort of something I wanted to do in my own time.”

Lilly nodded and swallowed her disappointment, “That’s fine,” she lied, “I just wanted to tell you so you knew about it too and so that it didn’t feel like I was lying to you about it.”

“I appreciate that,” Neville said, he wrapped his arm around her, “Come on, let’s go home.”


	118. Tale As Old As Time

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So guys I finally did it. I published the book I've been writing for YEARS! It is on amazon and it is called "The Realms of Kyndra". It is a fantasy novel, set in a world torn apart by war where magic has been forgotten about. It has an awesome female heroine and I have spent 10 years of my life writing it so if you could all buy a copy I would be so eternally grateful! You can get it on amazon in any country, either in kindle/ebook format or as a paperback!!
> 
> Such an exciting day to be able to say that! I really hope you all read it and love it. Please let me know what you think if you do.
> 
> Thanks guys and enjoy the chapter!

“I had a weird conversation with Lilly on Saturday night.”

“Do I want to know?” Harry asked with a raised eyebrow.

“I don’t know, oh hey Dave.”

Dave raised his head and hissed.

“But, it kind of seemed like she was asking me to propose to her,” Neville mused.

Harry resisted the urge to roll his eyes, “Did it?”

“Yeah,” Neville frowned.

“And how did you feel about that? Jeez, I feel like a psychologist. Are you coming in for breakfast or are you just gonna stare at Dave because I think you’re freaking him out.”

“Right, I’ll have breakfast. Sorry Dave.”

Dave gave a half-hearted hiss.

Neville traipsed after Harry into the kitchen, “I don’t know. I mean I’ve already worked out how I’m going to propose to her but I haven’t bought a ring and I didn’t have a timescale. She got over her whole commitment thing, but I still didn’t think it was something she wanted to rush into.”

“Uh-huh,” Harry said non-committedly.

“What do you think?” Neville asked him.

“I think a decision that big should be up to you,” Harry said honestly, “Entirely up to you.”

“So your opinion is that you have no opinion?”

“Yes, exactly,”

“Right…see the thing is, that isn’t really very helpful,” Neville said sheepishly.

“To be honest Neville, the only person who can work out if you’re ready to propose to Lilly is…you,” Harry said.

Neville sighed, “Okay…I’m gonna go ask Theo.”

“He proposed to his girlfriend after like a week, he is not a good role model!” Harry called as Neville made his way through the entrance hall.

“I’m gonna ask him anyway!” Neville said, then the front door slammed.

Harry rolled his eyes and shook his head, “Why do I even bother?” He asked as he caught Daphne’s eye and realised she was struggling to hold back her laughter, “And don’t even answer that question Daphne Greengrass!” he added.

***

“Theo, hey Theo wait up!”

Theo slowed down so Neville could catch up with him on the way to the locker room.

“Hey Nev, what’s up?”

“I need to ask you something, but where’s your other half?”

“He slept in,” Theo said offhandedly, “We don’t actually go everywhere together you know.”

“You could have fooled me,” Neville joked, “But seriously, can I ask you a question?”

“Go for it.”

“I think Lilly was hinting that she wanted me to propose the other night and it had me thinking…should I? You know, propose to her?” Neville asked.

“Uh…well if she’s hinting then I think you’re probably fairly safe. I mean you do want to propose to her, don’t you?”

“Yeah, obviously,” Neville replied.

“So just do it. What’s the worst that could happen?”

Neville frowned, “She says no?”

“Exactly.”

Neville’s frown deepened, “I think I need to ask somebody else for advice about this one…” he muttered under his breath.

***

“Hey Hermione, do you have a minute?”

Hermione looked up from her sandwich and smiled, “Oh hey Neville. What’s up?”

“I need to ask your advice about something,” Neville said, completely ignoring Rachel who was sitting by her side, “About Lilly actually.”

“Right,” Hermione said somewhat awkwardly.

“I think she wants me to propose to her so do you think I should?”

“Uh…well do you want to propose to her?” Hermione asked diplomatically.

“Yes, but I wasn’t quite sure that I wanted to do it now,” Neville said honestly, “But I definitely want to marry her so I’m kind of confused.”

“Umm…”

“I mean the thing is, she told me about this loophole with her work,” Neville continued, “She said if we were engaged, she could come home and I want her to come home, I really do. But I want to propose to her the way that I had planned…”

“How did you plan on proposing to her?” Hermione asked curiously.

“Well,” Neville grinned, “It’s kind of elaborate and it’s a long story. How long is your lunch break?”

“Long enough,” Hermione said, she struggled to conceal a smirk as Rachel let her head fall heavily onto the desk next to her.

***

“Neville doesn’t want to marry me.”

“What? Don’t be stupid, of course he does.”

Lilly sighed, “He doesn’t. Does Harry know why? I bet he does, Neville is his best friend.”

“He hasn’t said anything to me about Neville not wanting to marry you,” Daphne said, she sipped her coffee and looked into the fire, “Where is all of this insecurity coming from?”

“I put forward the idea of us getting engaged a little early because I found this loophole, well Hermione found it actually, that would let me study at home if Neville and I were engaged. So I told Neville about it, and he shut me down.”

Daphne shot her a knowing look, “That doesn’t mean he doesn’t want to marry you and you know it. You know Neville, he probably just wants to propose to you in his own time, in his own way.”

“Or he just doesn’t want to marry me because I’m not Hannah or Susan-”

“Oh quit it with the self-pity rant,” Daphne said half-heartedly, “That’s a load of shit and you know it. Stop feeling sorry for yourself, if Neville doesn’t want to get engaged now it’s because he’s got an elaborate proposal planned for you. Do you really want to ruin that for the sake of a couple of months that you have to spend apart?”

“No,” Lilly sighed.

“So suck it up, put on your big girl pants and time will pass faster than you think.”

“Thanks Daphne, you always were the supportive one,” Lilly said dryly.

Daphne smirked at her, “Love you too Lil.”

“Yeah yeah, speak to you next week.”

The floo disconnected and Harry snorted, “You really aren’t the most supportive friend, are you?”

“Being supportive when your friend needs a kick up the arse is not helpful,” Daphne said as she got to her feet, “Sometimes you have to be the bitch.”

Harry chuckled and opened the kitchen door, “Bed?”

“Bed,” Daphne agreed with a yawn.

***

When the floo roared to life at ‘unsociable’ hours, it freaked Harry out. It made him jump out of bed, with his heart pounding, fearful that someone had been hurt.

As it was, when he answered the floo at 6am in nothing but his snitch patterned boxers, it was happy news.

Ron smiled through the fire at him, looking pretty exhausted, “Katie had the baby last night mate.”

Harry smiled broadly, “Great Ron! Is everyone okay?”

“They are both fine,” Ron replied, “Katie did great. I’ve told the family but I figured you might want to visit too, since you are his Godfather.”

“Him?” Harry asked, “You’ve got a little boy then?”

“Yeah, he doesn’t have a name yet, we’re between two,” Ron admitted, “I want to name him Fabian but Katie wants a more normal name so she’s thinking Jackson.”

Harry chuckled, “Well I’m thrilled for you, I really am. Let me chuck some clothes on and I’ll head over straight away. Daph would come too but she needs to stay here for Ted.”

Ron shook his head, “Don’t worry, I totally get it. See you soon mate.”

The floo disconnected and Harry smiled, despite the circumstances, he knew that Ron would make a great Father. He threw some clothes on, kissed Daphne on the cheek and left her sleeping as he headed for St. Mungo’s.

***

Harry grinned when he slipped into Katie’s hospital room, “He’s got the trademark red hair.”

Katie laughed, she looked exhausted, “He definitely has.”

The little baby had a full head of red hair, he was currently fast asleep in his cot next to the bed.

“Two Godchildren born within a week of each other,” Harry chuckled, “And I just adopted my own kid.”

“They are like buses mate,” Ron joked quietly.

Harry chuckled at the analogy, “How are you all doing?”

“I’m sore and tired, but otherwise okay,” Katie said honestly.

“I’m going to move in with Katie for the first few weeks,” Ron informed Harry, “Just to help out with the baby and make sure that she gets some sleep.”

“That’s good of you,” Harry said proudly, “Ron was saying you couldn’t decide on a name?”

Katie nodded, “Ron wants to honour someone, but I just want him to have a normal name.”

Harry sat down on the edge of Katie’s bed, “Well forgive me if this is an insensitive suggestion, but how about Fred?”

Ron frowned a little then looked over at Katie, “Fred is a bit too…it would be a bit too much to have another Fred so soon but how about-”

“Frederick,” Katie said at the same time as Ron.

“Fred for short, or Freddy,” Ron agreed with a smile.

“And that way his name honours someone that we both miss,” Katie agreed, she smiled too and looked down at the baby, “Frederick Bell-Weasley…kind of has a ring to it.”

Ron’s smile didn’t shift as he nodded, “Yeah, it does.”

***

“Hey babe, where were you this morning?”

“Naming a baby,” Harry said, grinning at his fiancé.

Daphne raised an eyebrow at him, “You gonna elaborate on that one?”

“Katie had the baby, Ron floo-ed at an ungodly hour this morning so I left you to sleep,” Harry explained, “They couldn’t pick a name. Ron wanted to honour someone but Katie wanted a normal name so I suggested Fred.”

Daphne smiled, “Of course you did.”

“So my latest Godchild is called Frederick Bell-Weasley.”

“How many do you have now?” Daphne joked.

“Three if you include Teddy,” Harry chuckled, “Theo and Sadie better make Hermione and Draco Godparents because I’m going to be skint at this rate.”

Daphne laughed and smacked him on the arse with her rolled up edition of the prophet, “Stop being a smart arse and get to work, or you’re going to be late.”

“Yes ma’am,” Harry grinned, he kissed her on the cheek and grabbed a slice of toast, “Bye babe, love you.”

“Love you too,” Daphne called as he rushed down the hall.

***

When Lilly stepped into Longbottom House on Saturday morning, she was expecting to find Neville.

Naturally she frowned when she saw Hermione, Daphne, Sadie and Susan waiting for her.

“Uh…hi?”

“Hey Lilly,” Hermione grinned, “We have a surprise for you, come on.”

Lilly was dragged out of the house seconds after she had entered it.

“Woah, where are we going exactly?”

“Somewhere fun,” Daphne promised her.

They reached the gates and Hermione hooked her arm through Lilly’s, “I’m going to side-apparate you there.”

Before Lilly could question this, or object, she was being side-apparated along. When she opened her eyes, she was in an alley somewhere in London. She frowned as she was dragged across the main street into a park where a circus had set up.

“The circus?” Lilly frowned, “Seriously guys, what the hell is going on?”

“We thought you liked the circus,” Hermione said.

“And you’ve been miserable lately,” Daphne added.

“So we thought that it would cheer you up,” A new voice said.

Lilly turned around and saw Neville, “So you set this up then?”

“Of course I did,” Neville replied, “I know how much you love the circus. I thought we could recreate our first date later, once this lot have pissed off.”

Lilly smiled at that, “I think that sounds fun.”

Neville put his arm around her, “But first, I want to win you something.”

“Are you going to cheat again?” Lilly asked with a knowing smile.

“Of course I am,” Neville said, the others drew back and headed to another stall to give Neville and Lilly some space.

“Four balls, knock the cans down and you win a prize!”

Lilly watched on in amusement as she watched his hands carefully. On the third ball he flicked two of his fingers towards the cans, causing a miniscule wind to hit them as the ball did, which of course knocked them down.

“And we have a winner! Pick a prize, any prize.”

“The big bear up top, for my lovely girlfriend over here,” Neville said, shooting Lilly a grin.

Lilly chuckled as he handed her a huge bear, it was about half the size of her, “Thanks Nev.”

“Wanna get some candyfloss and go through the tunnel of love?”

“That is so cheesy,” Lilly laughed, “I told you last time, it’s just a convenient make out spot.”

“Then I definitely want to go through it,” Neville teased.

Lilly laughed, “Alright, you’ve won me over.”

He bought candyfloss for them to share and they ate it as they walked over to the tunnel of love, “I’ve missed this so much you know.”

“What, the circus?” Neville asked.

Lilly laughed, “No, feeling normal. Being able to spend time with you and the girls, just doing normal stuff.”

“I’ve missed it too,” Neville said honestly, draping his arm over her shoulder.

“I hate France,” Lilly mused as they joined the queue for the tunnel of love, “It would be bearable if I liked the country, but I don’t. I hate France and I don’t like most people on the course apart from Lucille, and Clara obviously but at least I’ll see plenty of Clara in the UK with her marrying Sorenson.”

“When is that happening?”

“Sometime next year,” Lilly replied offhandedly, “I think Sadie’s babies will be really small at the wedding.”

“That still sounds weird, Sadie’s babies,” Neville said with a shake of his head, “I mean when you think about it, Ron has a kid and Ginny has a kid. Harry and Daphne have adopted Teddy. Now Theo and Sadie are having babies…I feel old before my time.”

Lilly chuckled, “I think the war made everyone feel like that Nev. But for the first time, I’m enjoying everyone else having babies without feeling pressure to have them myself right now.”

Neville smiled at her and they stepped into a boat. They sat down and sailed into a darkened tunnel, in the darkness Neville found Lilly’s hand and pulled her in for a kiss. When a bright pink light was illuminated above them, Neville pulled away and grinned, “Look at the back of the teddy bear.”

Lilly frowned at the sudden change of topic and turned the bear around. There was a patch which was held shut with Velcro.

“Open it.”

Lilly pulled the Velcro off and removed a small black box from the bears stuffing. Her eyes widened and she looked up at Neville, “Is that what I think it is?”

Neville flipped the box open and inside there was a silver ring with a sapphire at its centre.

“I know it’s soon, it’s sooner than I had planned but I have always intended to marry you Lilly,” Neville said sincerely, “And if proposing to you early means that I get the love of my life to come home, then I would be stupid and crazy not to do so,” he took a breath, “Will you marry me?”

Lilly, who didn’t often get emotional, was surprised by the fact that tears stung at her eyes. She nodded and swallowed a lump in her throat, “Yes.”

Neville smiled broadly at her and slipped the ring onto her finger, where it automatically shrunk to fit. He pulled her in for another kiss and whispered, “Thank Godric you said yes, I spent the whole week planning this.”

Lilly laughed tearfully and wiped her eyes, “It was worth it,” she promised, “I can’t think of a more perfect way to propose. You recreated our first date.”

Neville smiled sheepishly at her, “I’m a romantic at heart, you know that Lill.”

Lilly laughed her agreement and then the sun shone once more as the boat left the tunnel. Neville helped Lilly off of the boat and she burst out laughing when she saw the crowd waiting for them on the other side.

Neville grinned and held up Lilly’s left hand, “She said yes!”

There was a loud cheer as all of their friends rejoiced at this news.

“Let’s go to the pub and celebrate!” Theo said as he patted Neville on the back.

“We can’t go to the pub, we’ve got Teddy!” Daphne pointed out.

“Ah, stick him in a high chair and give him some fish fingers, he’ll be grand,” Theo said offhandedly.

Sadie snorted, “Excellent parenting skills there Theo.”

“He has a point though,” Harry chuckled, “Let’s celebrate with a pub lunch.”

“Hey, we could always go to that little pub with the play area,” Theo suggested, “Shove Teddy off to play and get rat arsed?”

“Are you at all concerned about the fact this man is going to be the Father of twins soon?” Neville asked, putting his arm around his friends shoulders.

Sadie laughed heartily, “All the time Neville.”

Theo grinned and said, partly to Sadie but partly to Neville, “Oh come on, you love me really!”

They all laughed as they walked towards the pub in the crisp afternoon sunshine. Life had its ups and downs, and these last few months had shown that more than ever but it was in those moments that they all truly realised how grateful they were for each other.

***

“So, when is the wedding?”

Neville rolled his eyes, “Shut up Theo,” he muttered as they got themselves ready for the day after their early morning work out and shower.

“We all know they only got engaged to bring Lilly home,” Harry joked from inside his cubicle.

“That is not the only reason we got engaged,” Neville said, leaning against the wall fully dressed while he waited for the others to get their arses into gear, “And I’m not going to hang around here waiting for you lot. I for one, do not want to be late for Auror Carters new class.”

“Auror Carter is a softy,” Draco scoffed as he threw on his Auror training uniform.

“She’s kinda scary actually,” Theo said, slinging his bag over his shoulder, “Jeez Potter, are you still in the shower?”

“No, he’s just too paranoid to get dressed in front of us,” Neville snorted.

“Years of playing Quidditch Potter,” Draco said with a shake of his head, “And you still can’t hack communal changing rooms?”

Harry stepped out of the cubicle fully dressed and grabbed his bag, “I wasn’t massively paranoid about how I looked during my years of playing quidditch, because those years were _before _the war that royally fucked me over.”

“Fair play,” Theo agreed.

The foursome began their walk back to the main complex, “So seriously, any dates on the cards Neville?” Draco asked.

“Not right now,” Neville admitted, “We did get engaged about 6 months earlier than I would have planned it, and yes that was because Lilly wanted to come home and I wanted her to come home but that doesn’t mean there is any rush to plan a wedding.”

“Very responsible of you,” Harry said with a smile.

“Speaking of weddings, when exactly are you and Daphne tying the knot?” Draco asked.

“Ah, I don’t know yet,” Harry shrugged, “Once everything settles with Teddy I guess. Are you and Hermione still in for a long engagement?”

Draco nodded, “Hermione wants a Christmas wedding so we were thinking next Christmas.”

“That’s a reasonable time, you will both have been in your jobs for a while,” Harry said with a nod.

“That’s the plan,” Draco remarked.

“So how is this going to work then? Lilly being back?”

“Well she’s going to be working in the trauma centre attached to this building,” Neville replied, “But it won’t interfere with my work too much, I’ll only see her on a Wednesday afternoon like before.”

“But you will get to wake up with her every morning, and go to sleep with her every night,” Harry said with a smile, “And that will make all the difference I expect.”

“Exactly.”

Draco scoffed, “Gryffindors ae such romantics.”

“It’s disgusting, isn’t it?” Theo agreed.

Neville snorted, “I remember you two wooing each other at school after your falling outs, you two can shut up about us being romantics.”

Harry laughed in agreement, “So when is Lil back then, Nev?”

“Saturday,” Neville said cheerfully, “She has to tie up some stuff over in France and then she’s back over here in an official capacity.”

“I wonder how they took the news…” Draco mused.

“I’m sure I’ll find out,” Neville chuckled.

***

“Engaged?”

“To be married, yes,” Lilly replied smoothly.

Clara raised an eyebrow at her, “Do you think I’m stupid?”

“No,” Lilly answered, “I think you are very intelligent and highly perceptive so I presume you know that I told Neville about the clause meaning that if we were engaged, I could get the hell out of France.”

“I guess that’s what you get with a Gryffindor boyfriend,” Clara said, smirking as she leant against the desk in her office, “Sorenson at least was able to wait for a year until he proposed to me in a bid to get me to come home. But Gryffindors are so impulsive, they just have to leap on an idea straight away.”

Lilly smiled slightly, “You would be right on that one. I only told him last week.”

Clara surveyed her with interest, “So you want to go home then.”

“Yes, more than anything,” Lilly admitted.

“You and me both,” Clara said, she sighed in a long-suffering way, “Come back here at 5pm and we’ll do the paperwork. You will be working out of the Alistair Moody Trauma Hospital which is attached to the Auror base so if your _fiancé _gets hurt, you’re going to have to deal with it.”

“Which I would have had to do once I qualified anyway,” Lilly pointed out, “And let’s face it, my boyfriend is going to get hurt. His best friend is Harry Potter for crying out loud.”

“Fiancé,” Clara smirked.

Lilly’s cheeks flushed slightly, “It’s still new, okay?”

“Let me see the ring then,” Clara said, dropping the professional tone.

Lilly smiled and lifted her hand up.

“Sapphire for a Ravenclaw?” Clara asked with a raised eyebrow, “A little stereotypical don’t you think?”

“Maybe, but I happen to like sapphires,” Lilly said, smirking right back, “I’m going to miss you Clara.”

“I’m going to miss you too, but I’ll be back in the UK once this class of morons are unleashed on the world so you won’t be without me for long,” Clara said with a smile, “Not to mention, you will see me when Sadie has the babies.”

“Yeah, she’s still freaking about the plural aspect of that,” Lilly chuckled.

“Do you blame her?” Clara snorted, opening the door of the office and glancing at her watch, “Come on, we’re going to miss a severe head injury observation if we don’t shift our arses.”

Lilly smiled at Clara, grateful that she had taken it so well, and just like that they clicked straight back into work mode.

***

“Good morning recruits!” Carter said cheerfully.

Not many people classed a Monday morning as good, but she still led every early morning class with this opener.

“Welcome to Muggle Culture 101,” Carter continued as she paced the room, “In this class, you are going to learn all about Muggle culture, a vital skill because you will all be working very closely with Muggles. There will be times when you need to co-operate directly with Muggle law enforcement. You will also be sent out on clean-up missions, being able to blend in and communicate with Muggles is therefore, essential.”

Draco felt like rolling his eyes, he felt that classes like this were entirely pointless.

“So I could talk at you,” Carter said, “Or I could throw you into simulation rooms to see how much, or how little you know about Muggle culture. You will each be given a tailored scenario, and you will be assessed on how you react to it.”

Harry grinned over at Neville, he loved tasks which involved the simulation room because he found lessons boring. Neville looked a little more apprehensive, because he didn’t have a great track record with speaking to Muggles.

Theo on the other hand…well he was probably fucked given how badly he had screwed up Muggle studies at school. It was probably for that reason that he looked so bloody ecstatic about the idea.

“Great,” Draco muttered under his breath.

***

The moment Draco walked into the simulation room, he knew he was going to screw up this ‘test’.

He didn’t know what he had expected, but he had _not _expected to be standing in front of a large, foreboding looking castle in the middle of a snowstorm. He glanced around, looking for a sign or something that would give him a clue about where to start, he heard a voice begin to talk from above.

_“Once upon a time in the heart of France, a handsome young Prince lived in a beautiful castle.”_

Draco scoffed, he knew that was Auror Carter’s voice. The doors of the castle opened and Draco stepped inside. The entrance hall was lined with portraits of himself, his Mother and his Father.

“So I’m the Prince,” Draco smirked.

“_Although he had everything his heart desired, the prince was selfish and unkind. He taxed the village to fill his castles with the most beautiful objects and his parties with the most beautiful people.”_

Draco had to bite back another scoff. He had to be honest, it sounded like the Malfoy thing to do.

_“Then one night, an unexpected intruder arrived at the castle, seeking shelter from the vicious storm.”_

Draco jumped as the door to the castle blew open. An old woman with twinkling stood upon the doorstep.

“_As a gift, she offered the Prince a single rose. Repulsed by her haggard appearance, the Prince turned the woman away. But she warned him not to be deceived y appearances. For beauty is found within. When he dismissed her again, the old woman’s outward appearance melted away to reveal a beautiful enchantress.”_

Draco frowned as the woman transformed into a beautiful golden haired witch.

_“The Prince begged for forgiveness but it was too late for she had seen that there was no love in his heart. As punishment she transformed him into a hideous beast and placed a powerful spell on the castle and all who lived there.” _

Thunder crackled outside and lightning struck the castle. The portraits of Draco as a handsome Prince became torn up into pieces. Then he felt a searing pain hit him in the chest and he fell to his knees. He could hear screaming and it took him a moment to work out that the sound was coming from his own mouth. When the pain subsided, he looked into the large mirror and realised that he no longer looked human. He was some sort of werewolf-like creature.

“_As days bled into years, the Prince and his servants were forgotten by the world for the enchantress had erased all memory of them from the minds of those they loved. But the rose she had offered was truly an enchanted rose, if he could learn to love another and earn their love in return by the time the last petal fell the spell would be broken. If not, he would be doomed to remain a beast for all time._”

Unsure if he could speak or not, Draco tried to say, “Bit fucking dramatic.”

His voice came out hoarser and deeper than he was used to.

_“As the years past, he fell into despair and lost all hope for who could ever learn to love a beast?”_

“Fucking offensive too,” Draco muttered under his breath, “Seriously Carter, what do you expect to gain out of this?”

He was met with silence, and then the castle spun and was replaced by a French village. Draco frowned and watched as Hermione stepped out of a little thatched cottage with a book in her hands.

He was just beginning to wonder what the point was when she started to sing, and skip.

“Carter, what the _fuck_? Why is she singing? Am I in the simulation room or am I fucking high?”

There was silence from above so Draco shook his head and followed Hermione as she skipped through a town, singing in French.

“And why is she French?” Draco asked as an afterthought, “I swear to Salazar, I’ve had less weird hallucinations from smoking mandrake leaves.”

He followed Hermione all the way to a library, no surprises there really. Then as he followed her through a marketplace, he saw Harry and Neville.

“Oh for the love of Salazar,” Draco muttered, “Those two are in here two, of course they are.”

Harry smirked at Neville and looked over at Hermione, “Ah there she is Neville, the most beautiful girl in this town.”

Neville frowned, “Well…yes.”

“And that makes her the best,” Harry said, puffing out his chest, “And don’t I deserve the best?”

“Uh…yes, you do,” Neville replied awkwardly.

Harry sighed, “My future wife.”

“But she’s so…well read,” Neville said sheepishly, “And you’re so…athetlically inclined.”

Harry shook his head, “But ever since the war I feel like I’ve been missing something and she’s the only one who gives me that certain…”

“Je ne sais quoi?”

Harry frowned, “I don’t know what that means.”

Draco scoffed, “So Potter is an idiot in any version of reality, well that makes me feel better about life.”

Just as he said this, Harry burst into song.

“Oh so he’s singing too? Why is my life a fucking musical all of a sudden Carter? Did Theo put you up to this? Did he tell you that I cried at Mamma Mia because that is a straight up lie!”

“Here in town there’s only she who is beautiful as me, so I’m making plans to woo and marry Hermione,” Harry sang.

All of a sudden three familiar girls popped up out of nowhere and started gushing over Harry which made Draco snigger.

Susan, Astoria and Lilly sang in harmony, “Look there he goes…isn’t he dreamy? Master Potter, oh hes so cute! Be still my heart, I’m hardly breathing! Hes such a tall, dark, strong and handsome brute!”

Draco shook his head in disbelief, “This is ridiculous.”

As the song came to an end, the scene changed again. This time he was inside Hermione’s cottage and she was singing, again.

“Can you imagine? Me? The wife of that boring, brainless Madam Potter, can’t you just see it? Madam Potter, his little wife, ugh! No sir, not me, I guarantee it. No, I want much more than this provincial life!”

Draco leant against the wall, “I am genuinely considering killing myself to force this simulation to come to an end right now.”

_“Don’t. That is an automatic fail and you’re already on your way there thanks to your sarcastic commentary.”_

Draco smirked, he had gotten Carter to talk which was half the battle.

The scene changed again, rather like being in a pensieve. This time he was in a pub and Neville was singing, why the hell did everyone sing?? To make matters worse, he was singing _to Harry_ who was sitting in some sort of fucking throne. Seriously, were they just trying to piss him off?

_“Gosh, it disturbs me to see you Harry, looking so down in the dumps. There's no man in town as admired as you, you're everyone's favourite guy! Everyone's awed and inspired by you and it's not very hard to see why…”_

Harry smirked and stood up, “I needed encouragement, thanks Neville.”

“Well,” Neville said, “There’s no one as easy to bolster as you!”

Harry frowned.

“Too much?” Neville asked.

“Yep,” Harry replied.

“And simulation room Neville fancies simulation room Harry,” Draco sniggered, “I can’t wait to tell them about _that _one.”

Mid sarcastic comment, the scene changed again. Draco looked around and found himself in a dining room with a bunch of supposedly random items of household furniture. He about pissed himself when all of a sudden the furniture came to life and started talking to him.

“Ah, finally, there you are!”

“What the fuck?” Draco exclaimed, “Why are you talking? You’re a fucking candlestick!”

“That’s no way to talk to your best friend.”

“Theo?” Draco asked in disbelief.

“I was cursed by that evil enchantress that Carter told you about at the start of her spiel, so I’m a candlestick now,” The candlestick/Theo said.

Draco frowned, “So are you actually Theo? Are we sharing a simulation?”

“I think so yep.”

“Why the fuck is everyone singing? And why are we in France?”

“Fuck knows,” Theo replied, “I mean why the fuck am I candlestick? Why the fuck are you a werewolf?”

“Why the fuck is Harry trying to marry Hermione?”

“That’s seriously one of your why the fucks?” Theo asked in disbelief, “I mean all of our friends are bits of household furniture but you’re worrying about why simulation Harry wants to screw simulation Hermione?”

“It’s a sore spot alright,” Draco huffed.

“Alright huffy werewolf,” Theo snorted, “You realise that clock over there is Blaise?”

Draco snorted as he looked at the broody clock.

“And here’s Sadie, she’s a fucking feather duster,” Theo said, gesturing behind him with one of his sticks, “Oh and did I mention that teapot over there with the little talking teacup? That’s Daphne and Teddy.”

Draco shook his head in disbelief, “Do you remember that time after the war when we nicked mandrake leaf from my Dads desk and smoked it?”

“Yeah, that was less weird than this and I’m fairly sure someone fucked a Thestral.”

“Who the fuck, fucked a thestral?”

“Maybe I just hallucinated that then…”

Draco snorted, “Yeah I’m pretty sure you did. But seriously, how do you think we end this simulation? I suggested killing myself but Carter said it’s an automatic fail.”

“Mate, how many times have we said fuck? I’m pretty sure we’ve failed anyway,” Theo pointed out.

“It’s really hard to take you seriously when you’re a fucking candlestick,” Draco said, trying not to laugh.

“Coming from you, wolfy?” Theo retorted.

“Fuck this,” Draco said with a shake of his head. He opened the window and looked down at the extensive jump, “Shall we just kill ourselves to end this torment?”

“Yep, throw me out of the window first.”

Draco shook his head at the absurdness of the comment but threw his best friend out of the window anyway. Then he jumped out after him.

There was a rush of wind, a lot of pain and then a flash of white.

When Draco opened his eyes, he was lying on the floor of the simulation room with Theo.

He got up and expected to see Auror Carter looking angry. Instead, he saw her struggling to contain her laughter, her cheeks streaked with tears.

“Well,” She said, a grin slipping onto her face, “You two have definitely failed, but thank you for giving me the best laugh I have had in years.”

Draco rubbed his head, “Did we fail because of our language or general inability to work out what the hell that was all about?”

“Both,” Carter smirked, “Recruit Black, I suggest that you ask your _Muggle-born _fiancé to show you a film entitled Beauty and the Beast. In fact, I advise you to get her to train you up on lots of popular Muggle films because I don’t think I can handle another week like that.”

“You and me both,” Draco said with a shake of his head, “I’m scarred for life.”

“A fail next week is a black mark on your record, for _both of you_,” Auror Carter said, resuming her serious stance, “So revise Muggle culture.”

“Yes ma’am,” They said in unison.

The two boys left the simulation room and looked at each other in disbelief once they were in the corridor outside.

“Can you believe she didn’t mention the mandrake leaves?” Theo asked in an undertone.

“Black, Nott.”

They jumped out of their skin when they realised that Sumner was waiting for them in the corridor.

Draco swallowed, “Uh…hello sir.”

Sumner crossed his arms and looked down at them, “You smoked mandrake leaves?”

“Uh…”

“Just once,” Theo said evasively, “After the war to let off a little steam, you know?”

Sumner surveyed them for a moment, “We all do stupid things when we are young but if you do that while you are here or even when you are an Auror, you’re out. Do you understand me?”

“Yes sir,” They both said quickly.

Sumner took a step back and said, “And if one of your friends really did fuck a Thestral that is illegal and morally wrong on…so many levels.”

Before they could respond to that, the Senior Auror had walked away.

Theo blew out a sigh of relief.

“Did someone really fuck a Thestral?”

“I’m pretty sure Ev Montague did yeah,” Theo replied.

Draco shook his head in disbelief, “That simulation room still felt like a worse trip though, right?”

“Yep,” Theo replied, “I mean I’m fairly sure I snogged Millicent Bulstrode which was pretty horrific but not as horrific as being stuck as a candlestick.”

“And I got beat up by a tree and convinced Daphne that she was a unicorn…”

“I wonder if Harry knows about that one,” Theo smirked, “In fact, do you think we should tell Nev to put it in his best man speech?”

Draco snorted in amusement as they walked into the lunch hall where Harry and Neville were waiting for them.

“Did you two fail? You took forever!” Harry exclaimed.

“We failed,” Theo said as he sat down, “Did you guys get a joint simulation too?”

“Yep, we passed though,” Neville said, “Why did you fail?”

“I think it has something to do with the amount of times we said fuck,” Theo mused.

“And my sarcastic commentary.”

“And the fact we had no fucking clue what was going on,” Theo added.

“At literally any point of the simulation,” Draco said, stabbing a sausage.

“We might have mentioned the fact we smoked mandrake leaves too,” Theo said.

Harry and Neville snorted in disbelief, “What the hell could have been so bad?”

“Well,” Draco began, “I was a werewolf, Hermione was French, you were…I don’t even know what you were but you wanted to fuck Hermione. Theo was a fucking candlestick and Neville…oh Neville you were Harry’s servant.”

“His servant?” Neville asked in disbelief, “I can handle being his sidekick but his servant?”

“And you totally wanted to fuck him,” Draco smirked.

Neville made a face, “Oh for fuck’s sake.”

“And you do realise you just described the plot of “Beauty and the Beast, don’t you?” Harry asked.

“I do now, because Carter told me so.”

“But seriously, I was Gaston? He’s the bad guy! I mean Draco, I am the embodiment of the good guy!”

“Take it up with Carter or whoever dreamed up the fucking crazy simulation,” Draco said irritably as he took a bite of food, “Anyway, you haven’t heard the best part yet…”

***

“I was a fucking teapot? Are you shitting me?”

Harry snorted in amusement, “I was the bad guy, and I wanted to marry Hermione.”

“Are you sure there were no drugs involved?”

“Positive,” Harry grinned, “But Draco did tell me about that time you smoked mandrake leaves at Malfoy Manor after the war.”

Daphne rolled her eyes, “Did he now?”

“Yep,” Harry said, leaning back in his chair and smirking at her, “So a unicorn huh?”

“Yes, Draco convinced me that I was a unicorn but I did not make out with Millicent Bulstrode like Theo did,” Daphne pointed out, “And I didn’t fuck a bloody Thestral!”

“Woah, who the hell fucked a Thestral?”

“Montague. You know the idiot who got-”

“- stuck in a vanishing cabinet,” Harry nodded in amusement, “He fucked a Thestral? Could he even see it?”

“Well obviously,” Daphne said wit ha roll of her eyes, “How else could he have managed it?”

Harry snorted, “See it’s time like this that I understand why you used to call me vanilla.”

Daphne merely smirked in response.

***

“Hey! When are you coming home?”

“Saturday,” Lilly replied cheerfully, “All the paperwork has been cleared so it’s official.”

“Great,” Daphne said conversationally from where she was sitting in front of the fireplace for their weekly catch up. Lilly would floo at 8pm every Tuesday night and they would sip coffee and catch up.

“Did Nev tell you about Draco’s simulation test yesterday?” Daphne asked, snorting at the thought.

“What, the whole Beauty and the Beast thing?” Lilly laughed, “Yeah, he said something about Draco being a werewolf and Hermione being French, oh and Harry being in love with Hermione.”

“Didn’t he tell you that in the simulation, Neville was Lefou?”

Lilly snorted, “Seriously? Harry’s servant? Bet he loved that.”

“Oh he so didn’t, he was still ranting about this morning over his bacon and eggs,” Daphne grinned, “Salazar Lil, I can’t wait for you to get back. Maybe your fiancé will start having breakfast in his own house and stop hanging around mine.”

Lilly laughed, “Yeah, I can’t really cook so no promises there Daph. Was I in this simulation of Draco’s by the way? And who were you?”

“I was a freaking teapot,” Daphne muttered, “And Teddy was a teacup.”

Lilly laughed even louder at that, “You do kind of Mother and feed us all,” she said through her laughter.

Daphne smirked, “And you Lillian Moon, were one of Gaston’s admirers.”

Lilly scoffed, “What? My whole purpose was to be one of Harry’s admirers?”

“Yep,” Daphne grinned.

“Not cool,” Lilly said with a shake of her head, “I don’t swoon and I definitely don’t swoon for Harry Potter.”

Daphne laughed out loud and grinned, “Somebody should put that on a t-shirt!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter title and idea come from the film, Beauty and the Beast obviously. Little bit of crack in this chapter, if I'm being honest! xD


	119. I'll Be Home for Christmas

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter title is from the song, "I'll Be Home for Christmas" by Bing Crosby.

Neville smiled softly as he rolled over and leant into Lilly’s embrace.

She yawned and stretched then looked up at him through bleary eyes, “Hey.”

“Hey,” Neville said softly, “Guess what? It’s Monday and we’re in the same bed.”

Lilly chuckled and kissed him softly, “The luxury will wear off soon enough,” she assured him.

“I know,” Neville said, running his hand along her cheek, “But right now, it feels like heaven.”

“Do you also feel really well rested?”

“Yeah,” Neville said, sighing contently, “I do.”

Lilly smirked, “You know why that is, don’t you?”

“Because I have you back in my arms where you belong?”

“No you cheesy bastard, because it’s 8am. Shouldn’t you be working up a sweat at the training ground right about now?”

Neville’s eyes widened as he glanced at the clock, “Fuck!”

Lilly shouldn’t have laughed, but she couldn’t help herself as Neville flew out of the door.

***

When Neville did rock up, he was only 10 minutes late but that did not escape Sumner’s notice.

“Recruit Longbottom!”

Neville grimaced and turned around, “Yes sir?”

“What time do you call this?”

“10 past 8 sir,” Neville replied.

“Don’t give me cheek recruit!” Sumner barked, “I know damn well that your fiancé got back from France last night but that is no excuse to show up late. Run around that track ten times for every minute that you were late!”

“Yes sir, sorry sir,” Neville said as he set off around the track amidst the laughter of his friends.

***

“Did you have a good run Nev?”

“Oh fuck off Harry,” Neville said irritably as he stripped and jumped into a shower, “I am fucking dying after that.”

“Don’t stay in bed shagging your fiancé all morning then!” Theo called from a few cubicles over.

“I wasn’t!” Neville objected, “It was just so nice to have her back that I fell into a really deep sleep and sort of didn’t wake up in time.”

Draco snorted from the cubicle next to his, “You must have had a better night than I did. Hermione forced me to watch that stupid Beauty and the Beast film. It was fucking awful, I mean whoever invented Disney is just fucked up.”

“That would be Walt Disney,” Harry chuckled from Draco’s other side, “You better do well today or you’re going to be in real shit. What did Carter say the theme was this time?”

“Muggle literature,” Draco said, stepping out of the shower with a towel wrapped around himself, “Which luckily, I can totally hack. I’m marrying a muggle-born bookworm after all.”

“Well, there is that,” Neville agreed.

“I guess I’ll just have to carry you though Theo,” Draco said, shooting his friend a smirk as he emerged from the shower.

“Yeah I won’t lie mate, you are going to have to carry me through this entire class.”

“Go figure,” Harry laughed as he stepped out of the cubicle, fully dressed as always.

“This is the guy who nearly lost a finger to the venomous tentacula after all,” Neville added.

“Oh fuck off, are you really still going on about that?”

“Oh yeah,” Neville grinned.

***

As November wore on, Christmas (and Harry and Daphne’s surprise wedding) began to sneak up on them all.

Neville was far more cheerful as he grew accustomed to Lilly being in the same country, house and bed as him every morning and every evening. Lilly was much happier working in the UK than she had been in France too and she had already befriended all of the older trainees at the centre.

Hermione’s time in the Auror office came to an end and she spent the remainder of the month working with the Ministry’s team of Hit Wizards. She liked aspects of the job, like communicating with the Muggle Law Enforcement and coming up with cover stories for the guys when she sent them off into the Muggle world. But morally, she struggled with other aspects of the job, like deciding which cases were important enough to assign hit wizards for. After all, you were basically sending a team of assassins after someone and morally, Hermione wasn’t sure where she stood on that one.

Towards the end of the month, the Auror trainees were gathered together in the lecture hall that they had gone to for the selection process.

“Good morning recruits!” Sumner boomed, “As we near December, we inevitably near Christmas. You will do well to learn early on that Christmas is a luxury that we cannot always afford in this job. Every year someone has to man the ship while everyone else gets pissed and starts family arguments.”

There was a general snort of agreement.

“So,” Sumner continued, “The two trainees who are on Christmas duty this year are Recruit Nott and…Recruit Potter.”

Harry had to fight to keep the disappointment from his face. It was his first Christmas with Teddy, Daphne had been looking forward to it so much as they worked out what gifts to get him and what family traditions they would implement. The thought of missing that to work made him feel sick to his stomach.

He glanced over at Theo, he looked equally as disappointed.

“Is that a problem?” Sumner asked.

“No sir,” Harry and Theo both replied.

“Good, dismissed then Recruits!”

***

“Harry, you alright?”

Harry sighed and nodded as he and Neville walked out of the centre together, “Yeah, just a bit down. You know it’s Teddy’s first Christmas with us as his parents and I just…I’m gutted that I’ll not be there.”

“And Daph is going to go mental, isn’t she?”

“Fair chance, yeah,” Harry said, rubbing his eyes, “But it is what it is, Sumner is right…this is going to happen in our line of work.”

“Still,” Neville frowned, “It’s Teddy’s first Christmas with you guys.”

“It is what it is Nev,” Harry said stiffly, “See you tomorrow.”

“Yeah, see you tomorrow,” Neville said, frowning deeply as he apparated back to Longbottom House.

***

“Hey Draco, what’s up?” Theo asked as he stood at the doorway that connected their basements.

“I just wanted to check that you were okay, with the whole Christmas thing?” Draco said.

Theo sighed, “I just have to be, don’t I? Sadie’s upset obviously because her family are big on Christmas and she’s pregnant and emotional but at least this way, I’ll probably get next Christmas off with the babies.”

“I know,” Draco frowned, “But it doesn’t feel fair, does it?”

“Life is hardly fair,” Theo pointed out, “Are you coming in for a drink or are you just going to hover in the doorway all night?”

Draco glanced at the time, “I’ll come in for a drink, but don’t tell Hermione.”

“Deal.”

***

“Would you mind if I had to work on Christmas Day?”

Lilly looked up with a frown, “You guys have to work Christmas?”

“Just two of us,” Neville said, “But if I had to, would you mind?”

“I won’t lie and say that I wouldn’t be upset, because I would be,” Lilly replied, “But I would understand. We would just have to make the best of it and have a Christmas Night instead of a Christmas Day.”

Neville breathed out a sigh of relief, “Thank you. I need to talk to Sumner on Monday morning and ask to take Harry’s place. They put Harry and Theo on Christmas Day.”

“The one with a kid and the one with two kids on the way?” Lilly asked in disbelief, “That’s a bit insensitive.”

“I know,” Neville agreed, “And it’s Harry’s first Christmas with Teddy since the adoption, he can’t miss that.”

“No, he can’t,” Lilly said with a nod, “As much as it will suck not to spend Christmas with you, it’s far more important that Harry gets to spend it with his son.”

Neville smiled and kissed her, “You’re a beautiful person, inside and out, and I love you so damn much for it.”

Lilly smiled into the kiss and mumbled, “Closet Hufflepuff right here.”

“You and me both baby,” Neville said, deepening the kiss and backing her up against the kitchen worktop.

***

“Love?”

Hermione glanced up from her paperwork, “Yeah?”

“How would you feel about me working Christmas?” Draco asked cautiously, “I know we’re supposed to be spending it with your family this year.”

“If you have to work, my parents would understand,” Hermione assured him, “And so would I, as much as I would miss you.”

“Two of us have to stay on duty for Christmas,” Draco explained, “The two who were allocated the job were Harry and Theo.”

Hermione scoffed, “That’s stupid.”

“I kind of thought the same thing,” Draco sighed, “So I thought if I volunteered then Theo wouldn’t have to work it and he could spend it with Sadie. Merlin knows, she needs him right now.”

“Of course she does,” Hermione agreed, “She’s having a horrible time of it with her pregnancy. On the bright side, twins are almost always born early so hopefully her ordeal will be over sooner than she expects.”

Draco hummed thoughtfully, “Thank you.”

“What for?” Hermione asked curiously.

“Being so open and accommodating,” Draco said, kissing her on the forehead, “You understand my job and don’t question it, I can’t tell you how much I appreciate that.”

Hermione smiled, “I just spent two months working in the Auror department. What you do for our country is a noble thing Draco. I won’t begrudge little things like missed Christmases or birthdays for the sake of that.”

“Still,” Draco said, holding her chin in his hand so that she was forced to look him in the eye, “I love you all the more for it.”

Hermione smiled and kissed him softly, “I love you too.”

***

“Excuse me sir,” Neville said, jogging alongside Sumner on Monday morning as they did their loop of the track.

“Yes Longbottom?”

“I wanted to ask you if you would switch me and Harry for Christmas duty,” Neville said.

“You _want _to do Christmas duty?” Sumner asked in disbelief.

“Not really sir, but Harry can’t do it,” Neville said, “He would never say anything, but it’s his first Christmas since he and Daphne adopted their little boy. He can’t miss that sir, he shouldn’t have to and my fiancé is fine with me having to work so if you could swap us out, I would appreciate it very much.”

Sumner surveyed him for a moment, “I will think about your offer Longbottom,” he said, before picking up the pace and running ahead of Neville.

Neville sighed and dropped back slightly. At the very least he could say that he had tried.

***

_Knock. Knock._

“Come in.”

Draco stepped into Sumner’s office, “Sorry to bother you at the end of the day sir.”

Sumner shook his head, “What can I do for you Recruit Black?”

“I just wondered sir…is it possible to change the roster for Christmas Day? I just feel like Theo should be at home with his wife. She is pregnant with their twins and she needs him, especially at a time like Christmas. I on the other hand, would be forced to spend Christmas dinner with my future wife’s in-laws who are very boring dentists so I would quite happily switch places with him.”

Sumner leaned back in his chair and smirked.

“If that’s possible sir,” Draco added.

Sumner hummed, “That is an interesting perspective Recruit Black. I will think on your offer.”

“Right,” Draco said, he took a step back towards the door.

“Dismissed Black!”

“Yes sir,” Draco said, exiting the office as quickly as he had entered it.

***

The following morning, the recruits were all called back to the lecture theatre and Sumner stood to talk to them all once more.

“Good morning again recruits!”

They all echoed a ‘good morning’ back at Sumner.

“You are gathered here today because I told you all a little lie yesterday. Once you qualify as an Auror, you will be required to work Christmas but right now, you are not. I simply used the timing to set you a small task which you all passed. I needed to see if those with loyalties out-with Auror training would put their family or their career first and Recruits Potter and Nott, you both put your career first so passed with flying colours.”

“I also wanted to test your bond with your Auror partner,” Sumner added, “Since both Recruits Longbottom and Black came to me and asked to switch places with their partner, you both pass too.”

Maxwell Harper raised a hand, “Why didn’t you test us sir?”

“Because Harper, the rest of you haven’t been doing well enough to warrant it.”

The others snorted in amusement at this witty retort.

Harry shot Neville a grin, “Thanks Nev,” he murmured under his breath.

“Don’t mention it,” Neville said calmly.

On their other side, Theo was hugging Draco in a very dramatic, overly affectionate show of thanks. And Draco was grumbling while he tried to shake him off.

Harry snorted, “Some things never change.”

“Clearly,” Neville said through his laughter.

***

“So,” Harry said, cornering Daphne in the kitchen of Potter Manor one evening early in December, “How do we keep a secret wedding a secret then?”

Daphne smirked, “Don’t worry I have it all planned out. Everyone already knows that we are having a huge New Years Eve party which is starting at 7pm. That’s actually going to be our wedding reception, but they won’t know until they get here.”

“Right,” Harry said, “And what about the others? I mean shouldn’t we tell Neville and Sadie if nothing else?”

Daphne shook her head, “As it stands the only people who are in on the secret are my Father and Astoria. I’m thinking we ask the bridal party to come over earlier to help set the party up and then when they get here, we tell them that they are actually at our wedding.”

Harry chuckled, “Yeah…that works.”

“And as for keeping it secret? There’s only a month to go and with everyone getting so excited about Christmas, I doubt they will notice anything amiss with us.”

“Alright, you have it all under control,” Harry agreed with a smile, “Of course you do. I’m sorry that I ever doubted you.”

Daphne grinned at him, “You should be,” she smirked as she stepped out of the kitchen.

***

“Have you ever heard of polyjuice prostitution?”

Harry raised an eyebrow at his best friend, “This is what you wanted to meet up and talk about a _week _before Christmas?”

“Seriously Harry, have you heard of it?”

“No,” Harry said, handing Hermione a cinnamon latte and heading out into the frosty park with her, “Why?”

“Because I unearthed it while working for the Hit Wizards last month and it is beyond wrong,” Hermione told him, “There is a brothel in Knockturn Alley.”

“I know, prostitution isn’t illegal in wizarding Britain,” Harry said in an undertone.

“It should be,” Hermione muttered, “But that’s not the point anyway, well not really. This particular brothel uses polyjuice potion so this is how it works. You get the hair of someone you want to sleep with, take it to this brothel, pay a _fortune _and you get one hour with that person.”

Harry frowned, “That’s…”

“Disgusting?”

“_How _is that not illegal?”

Hermione shrugged, “If I knew, I would tell you. I asked Draco if he would propose it to Kingsley when the Wizengamot meets tomorrow for the last session before Christmas but he was pretty reluctant.”

“Well, I can understand why,” Harry admitted, “We have only sat in on a few sessions. It would look like we were being pushy if we tried to propose laws so soon.”

“But you know Kingsley,” Hermione pushed, “And you don’t normally care about doing the right thing, even if other people don’t want you to.”

Harry smiled at her, “I’ll propose the law, but don’t get your hopes up. They might not allow it with me being a new member and all.”

Hermione beamed and shoved a folder into his hands, “Here’s the proposal, just drop it into Kingsley’s office when you get a chance.”

Harry shook his head in disbelief, “You are way too organised for your own good and you owe me big time for this one by the way,” he said as he walked away from her.

“I know!” Hermione called after him.

***

“Draco,” Hermione said as she slid a plate of food onto the table, “Don’t get annoyed with me but…I sort of asked Harry to put forward that law for the Wizengamot to consider.”

Draco looked up at her in disbelief, “Seriously? I said no so you ran to Harry, who you know is superior to me?”

“It has nothing to do with titles or how much respect one family apparently has,” Hermione said shortly, “It has everything to do with the fact I saw the case files of the girls working in that disgusting place! I saw how young they were, I saw their horrific back stories and I saw how they had been forced into that life. It is so goddamn wrong Draco! I think of how those girls are going to spend Christmas this year and I feel sick, so I need that law to be proposed! I went to Harry because you weren’t willing to put it forward and I understand why, Harry did too.”

“But Harry doesn’t mind putting his neck on the line, because he never has done,” Draco said testily.

“Harry doesn’t care about politics in the same way that you and Daphne do,” Hermione argued, “He just wants to do the right thing, regardless of how many people it pisses off or how many noses it puts out of joint. You play the long game, the clever, political game which is incredibly intelligent of you but Harry doesn’t have that in him.”

“So what you are in fact saying, in a particularly roundabout way,” Draco said with a slight smirk, “Is that you just used your best friend?”

“I…” Hermione cut herself off.

Draco’s smirk widened, “My my, Hermione Granger, I really have rubbed off on you.”

Hermione glared at him, “I didn’t use him-”

“So asking him to do it because you know he doesn’t care, or more to the point understand, politics enough to say no, wasn’t using him?” Draco countered, he leant back in his chair and surveyed her.

Hermione sighed heavily and sat down across from her fiancé, “So maybe I did use him a little bit. Why do you look so happy about it?”

Draco laughed, “I’m just thinking that I have trained you well, young padawan.”

Hermione rolled her eyes, “I’m regretting showing you Muggle movies for that damned class of yours.”

“Hey, I got an A in that class thanks to you,” Draco said with a smile, “Harry and Neville got a bloody O obviously, but an A is still a pass. You must be a good teacher.”

Hermione smirked at him, “Obviously.”

***

“Hey babe,” Daphne said, kissing Harry lightly and putting a plate down on the table when he walked into the kitchen, “How was your day?”

“Good, how was yours?” Harry asked, hanging up his coat and sitting down.

“Busy,” Daphne replied, she put a plate down in front of Teddy on the high chair and said, “Now, if you throw that on the floor there will be _no _jelly.”

“Uh-huh.”

Harry chuckled, “You’re being more of a domestic goddess than usual today. Did you break a particularly difficult curse or do you have bad news?”

“It’s a bit of both,” Daphne admitted, “We did have a pretty interesting, but really creepy curse today. It looked like a haunted house, but it was actually a cursed chest in the basement with a,” she looked at Teddy who was busy stuffing his face with mashed potato then mouthed to Harry, “body inside.”

Harry frowned, “Yep, that’s creepy.”

“And Bill is more mopey than usual at the moment too,” Daphne added with a wave of her hand, “But the other thing is, I finished early today so I visited Dad in the hospital.”

“Yeah? How is he doing?”

“Good,” Daphne replied, “They are happy to discharge him at the end of the week but until he’s properly on his feet again, they will only discharge him into the care of a relative and Astoria has such a tiny flat-”

“Of course he can stay here,” Harry interjected to save her having to go off on a tangent.

Daphne breathed a sigh of relief, “Are you sure? He is difficult when you have to spend a lot of time with him and it means our free time will be even less our free time than it is right now.”

“And it’s not going to be forever, just until he’s walking by himself and eating properly again,” Harry said, “So it’s fine. Can you get away early on Friday to pick him up?”

“I doubt it, Bill and I have that international case over in Belgium on Thursday and unless it’s a quick one to close, I don’t think I’ll be back,” Daphne admitted, “I was going to ask if you could do it?”

“I can’t on Fridays Daph, I have the weekly duelling tournament all afternoon,” Harry pointed out.

Daphne cursed under her breath then frowned, “I suppose we could always ask Narcissa to do it?”

Harry raised an eyebrow at him, “Are you trying to set your Dad up with Draco’s Mum?”

“No,” Daphne said, making a face, “The thought is horrific, but she would do it. My Dad is her friend.”

Harry nodded, “She would do it, you’re right. Whose dropping Teddy off tomorrow morning?”

“You are, I’m off to Surrey first thing,” Daphne replied.

“Alright, I’ll ask her when I drop in then. Are you picking him up tomorrow? I’ve got the last session with the Wizengamot before the Christmas break,” Harry said, glancing over at his little boy.

“I know, I’ll be fine to pick him up,” Daphne replied.

“How has he been today?” Harry asked conversationally.

“Hyper since I picked him up,” Daphne chuckled, “He had fun visiting Dad at the hospital. Andromeda said he had been pretty quiet today though.”

“We’ll keep an eye on him,” Harry said, cocking his head at the little boy.

Teddy looked up with a mouthful of carrot and grinned.

Daphne chuckled in amusement, “Agreed, but I’m pretty sure he’s adjusting just fine.”

“Me too,” Harry said though his laughter.

***

“Hey! How did it go?”

“Sweet Salazar!” Draco jumped.

“Sorry,” Hermione said sheepishly.

“You could have let me take my coat off before you jumped on me,” Draco said, hanging his coat and scarf up, “Have you been waiting in the hall?”

“No, I just came in when I heard the front door,” Hermione admitted sheepishly, “So how did it go?”

“It’s killing you that you can’t sit on the Wizengamot isn’t it?”

Hermione scoffed, “It’s hardly democratic, is it? Letting the lords of the country decide the laws for all of us.”

“Luckily for you, the lords of this country seem to like you,” Draco said, shooting her an amused look, “Your golden best friend persuaded Kingsley to propose the law.”

“And?” Hermione asked eagerly.

“It passed,” Draco replied, “By a landslide vote. Polyjuice prostitution is now illegal and anyone who runs an illegal brothel, or uses one, will get time in Azkaban.”

“What about the girls forced to work there?”

“They will be re-educated and given respectable jobs,” Draco replied, smiling softly at Hermione, “You are changing this world Hermione Granger, one favour at a time.”

Hermione smiled tearfully and hugged him tightly, “Thank you Draco!”

***

“Do you think he’ll find them?” Daphne asked, looking at the pile of Christmas presents for Teddy on the top shelf of their wardrobe.

“Daph, hes a toddler!”

“Exactly!” Daphne exclaimed, “He’s into everything! He climbed inside the sofa yesterday Harry, _inside _it!”.

Harry snorted in amusement, “I don’t think he can climb our wardrobe yet though, and if you are so worried about it, there’s an easy fix.”

“Is there?”

Harry shot her an amused look and said, “Colloportus.”

“Oh shit,” Daphne muttered, “Why didn’t I think of that?”

“Take that one up with Hermione,” Harry grinned, “She’s the one who said, _but there’s no wood! _When Ron told her to set a fire to scare the devils snare.”

Daphne shook her head in amusement, “Are you going to wind her up about that forever? She was eleven!”

“Yeah and you’re 20 so you have no excuse,” Harry said, grinning at his fiancé.

“Oh I forgot to ask when I got in,” Daphne said offhandedly, “Is Narcissa okay with picking Dad up on Friday?”

“Yep, I’ve added him into the blood wards so he can let himself into the manor,” Harry replied, “Narcissa said she would stay with him until I get home from work.”

“Is she bringing Teddy back too then?” Daphne frowned, “Because I worry that might be too much, my Dad is still pretty reliant on other people.”

“Andromeda is off on Friday so Teddy will stay with her until I pick him up,” Harry said, “It’s all worked out so don’t worry. Just enjoy your case in Belgium. It’s an interesting one, isn’t it?”

“It’s a high profile one,” Daphne said, “The family is very influential and rich apparently. We don’t know much about the actual case yet, just that the supposedly cursed object is some sort of jewel.”

“Talk about too much money being a curse,” Harry joked.

Daphne shot him an unimpressed look, “You really have started making Dad jokes lately.”

Harry laughed and watched her pack her case, “You break off for Christmas after this case, don’t you?”

“Yes,” Daphne said excitedly, “And we are _so _taking Teddy to the parade in Diagon on Saturday.”

“You know I’m in,” Harry smiled, “I know how much you love Christmas.”

Daphne’s smile widened, “This year is going to be all the more special because of Teddy. Did Andromeda confirm that she would be here?”

“Yep, her and Narcissa are both coming,” Harry replied, “And your Dad will be here too now.”

“I’m glad he got to come home for Christmas,” Daphne admitted, “I think Draco and Hermione will pop by for a bit in the evening so that they can see Narcissa and Teddy but the Grangers roped them into Christmas dinner.”

Harry grinned, “Oh that’s brilliant! Draco is going to have to watch the Queens speech!”

“Why are you cackling about that?” Daphne asked, raising an eyebrow at him.

“Because it’s fucking hilarious!”

Daphne shook her head and hid an amused smile, “I swear to Salazar, I do not understand you sometimes.”

***

When Narcissa walked into Cygnus’s hospital room, he was already sitting on the edge of the bed with his bag packed at his feet. He smiled over at Narcissa when he saw her.

“You look much healthier Cygnus,” Narcissa said with a smile.

He still needed to put on some weight, but he no longer looked gaunt around the face and there was some colour in his cheeks again. His hair had been cut and he was in his own clothes, he almost looked like himself again.

“I feel it,” Cygnus said, he grabbed a cane that rested against the side of the bed and used it to push himself up.

Narcissa frowned slightly as her eyes lingered on the cane.

Cygnus followed her line of sight and then realisation flashed through his eyes, “Oh, it is only a temporary measure Narcissa, until I am strong enough to walk unaided. I will not need it for life like Lucius did.”

Narcissa swallowed and nodded, “I apologise Cygnus. I just have several bad memories surrounding Lucius and his cane.”

Cygnus sighed, “I wish you had never been forced to marry that brute.”

Narcissa smiled sadly, “I once wished for the same thing, but had I not married Lucius then I would not have Draco.”

“And if I had not married Lareina, I would not have my girls,” Cygnus agreed, “But I would still never wish a marriage contract on either of my children.”

“Nor would I,” Narcissa sighed, she walked to the window and kept her gaze on the false environment outside, “Our children fought for the right to marry for love, I could never take that from them. They are an inspiration Cygnus, the change that they are bringing to our world…”

“Did you hear about Almina’s law?” Cygnus asked, he sounded closer.

Narcissa shut her eyes tightly, “Yes. If only such a law had existed 20 years ago,” she turned around and smiled sadly at him, “But back then, we simply had to play our part and hope that would be enough for us to escape punishment. Almina…she was always too rebellious to sit on the side-lines as the perfect housewife and pretend that was enough for her.”

“Gifted witches should never be forced onto the side-lines,” Cygnus agreed as he caught her eye, “You could have been a great Healer, you know.”

Narcissa smiled sadly and glanced towards the door as it opened. A Medi-Witch walked in and smiled at them, “You look ready to go home Mr. Greengrass.”

“Trust me, I am,” Cygnus said with a warm smile, “You have given me the most fantastic care over the past few months but it will be lovely to have a little more freedom.”

“Of course,” The Medi-Witch said kindly, “I just need you to fill out these discharge papers.”

Narcissa took the papers from her and filled them out. She handed them back and the Medi-Witch scanned them then looked up with a smile, “Perfect, you are free to go Mr. Greengrass.”

Narcissa smiled at Cygnus and hooked her arm through his. They were silent as they walked through the hospital.

When they stepped outside into the cold winter air, Cygnus breathed in deeply, “Daphne always loved this weather as a little girl.”

“And now Teddy loves it,” Narcissa said with a soft smile.

“You seem rather fond of him,” Cygnus noted.

“I am,” Narcissa said softly, “I moved in with Andromeda after the war. We reconciled after Lucius was sent to prison and at the time, Andromeda was looking after her Grandson. Harry and Daphne returned to school to finish their N.E.W.T’s you see. I grew very fond of him and I still care for him regularly while Harry and Daphne work.”

Cygnus shook his head, “I still cannot wrap my head around the fact that I went to sleep during a war then woke up to find my daughter marrying the chosen one and Draco being best friends with him.”

Narcissa chuckled, “That year the children went back to school changed everything,” she said honestly, “For the better I do believe.”

“It certainly seems so,” Cygnus said honestly, “How are we getting to Potter Manor?”

“Side apparition,” Narcissa said, leading Cygnus into a back alley, “It isn’t far, just to Surrey.”

“When was it restored?” Cygnus asked curiously.

“Just recently,” Narcissa replied, “Are you ready?”

Cygnus nodded. He shut his eyes, anticipating the nauseating feeling that came with side apparition. It came, and it was worse than he remembered.

When they reached the gate of Potter Manor, Cygnus was as white as a sheet.

Narcissa glanced at him anxiously, “Ah, I was worried that it may drain you. Come now, it is just a short way up the path then we can get you settled.”

Cygnus took a moment to catch his breath then let Narcissa lead him up the path. He placed his hand on the front door and it granted him entry, Narcissa helped him into the entrance hall.

“Daphne decided it would be best to give you the room on the first floor,” Narcissa said as she let Cygnus lean on her while they ascended the stairs, “It is the only bedroom on this floor so you will have plenty of privacy. You also have your own private bathroom and there are not too many stairs for you to cope with.”

Cygnus smiled, “That was very considerate of her.”

“She cares greatly for you Cygnus,” Narcissa assured him, “Both of the girls do.”

“Oh, I know,” Cygnus said honestly.

They fell silent as Cygnus struggled up the stairs. Once they reached his bedroom, Narcissa helped him into bed and stood up, “I will leave to let you get settled-”

“Narcissa,” Cygnus interrupted, “Please, stay for tea?”

Narcissa paused halfway to the door.

“It would be nice to catch up properly,” Cygnus elaborated.

Narcissa smiled and sat down next to his bed. She clicked her fingers and summoned Kreacher.

“Mistress Black,” Kreacher said, bowing lowly, “Kreacher is most honoured to serve you.”

“Thank you Kreacher,” Narcissa said gently, “Would you be so kind as to fetch myself and Cygnus a tray of tea?”

Kreacher’s eyes widened, “Yes Mistress Black. Kreacher is pleased to see so many purebloods again now that Master Potter is to be married. No more blood traitors and filth to serve, no.”

The elf disappeared with a crack and Cygnus raised an eyebrow at Narcissa.

Narcissa chuckled, “Kreacher was my Aunt Walburga’s house elf. He has a certain disregard for Muggle-borns and before Harry met Daphne, he did not have much knowledge about pureblood culture.”

“I see,” Cygnus chuckled, “Speaking of Purebloods, did you say that Nymphadora Tonks had a child with Remus Lupin?”

“Yes,” Narcissa said, “She did.”

“The Remus Lupin who we saw sorted in our 5th year?”

Narcissa smiled slightly, “Yes, there was a rather large age gap between them.”

“Indeed,” Cygnus said.

Kreacher arrived with the tea and Narcissa busied herself with pouring it out.

“How bad was he to you?”

Narcissa frowned, “That is not a proper thing to discuss Cygnus.”

“Perhaps not,” Cygnus agreed, “But I need to know Cissa. He always had a nasty streak while we were at school so I need to know. How bad was it?”

Narcissa sighed and cradled her cup of tea, “It was not a pleasant experience. After the first war, it was bearable. He was never a caring, loving husband but he was not violent either. When the dark lord returned…”

“He hurt you.”

“He controlled me mostly,” Narcissa said, keeping her eyes downward, “He loved me in his own way but when I got too stubborn, he placed me under the imperius curse for months at a time until I agreed to do his bidding of my own free will. He stopped me from saving Draco from the fate of being branded by the dark lord.”

Narcissa paused to take a breath, “But he also killed a muggle to save me when Draco was uncapable of killing to complete the ritual required to become a Death Eater.”

“If you think that is love, your idea of love is very sick and twisted,” Cygnus said quietly.

“Of course it is Cygnus,” Narcissa said as she placed a teacup in his hands, “I spent years at the hands of a monster.”

“How you survived it is beyond me,” Cygnus said, “But you were always strong, even as a girl.”

Narcissa cleared her throat and changed the subject, “Now, on a happier note. I do believe we will be spending Christmas together this year.”

“Oh, you aren’t spending it with Draco?”

“He is obliged to spend Christmas with Hermione’s parents this year,” Narcissa explained, “But he will be dropping in later in the evening. Harry and Daphne kindly asked if I would like to spend Christmas here as Andromeda and Teddy will be here.”

“That was very kind of them,” Cygnus said, smiling at her.

“You will find Cygnus, your future son-in-law has much kindness in his heart,” Narcissa said as she rose to her feet, “Now, get some sleep. You need to rest up so that you can enjoy Christmas day with your family.”

“I will,” Cygnus promised, “Thank you, Cissa.”

Narcissa smiled at the old nickname, “Of course, Cygnus.”


	120. Happy Xmas, War is Over

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter title comes from the song of the same name by John Lennon and Yoko Ono.
> 
> 10 POINTS FOR YOUR HOUSE IF YOU CAN SPOT THE SHERLOCK REFERENCE IN THIS CHAPTER ;)

Harry had never been much of a fan of Christmas. He had never seen the magic of it growing up, he had just seen Dudley get spoiled rotten but still throw at least one temper tantrum about something he didn’t get.

When he had come to Hogwarts, Christmas had become a great excuse not to have to go home to the Dursley’s but, as much as he enjoyed it, he had never thought much of it.

However, that Christmas morning when Teddy ran into the kitchen, Harry truly understood the magic of Christmas. His eyes had lit up when he saw the small pile of presents next to the fireplace and Harry had never felt as content as he did, sitting in a comfortable chair with a cup of coffee watching the love of his life help their little boy open his presents.

He knew he probably looked ridiculous, sitting there with a smile on his face and occasionally saying, “Wow Teddy!” when the little boy showed him one of his presents. Harry didn’t care though, he just liked to see Teddy happy.

Once he had torn into all of his presents and was munching on his toast, while refusing to let go of his new, giant cuddly Hippogriff, Harry pressed a mug into Daphne’s hands, “Drink your coffee, it’s going to be a long day.”

Daphne laughed, “Teddy loves his presents though. I just got you something small this year since we decided that Christmas was about Teddy.”

She reached under the tree and pulled out an envelope. Harry opened it and smiled, “A Puddlemere season ticket? You shouldn’t have done that Daph.”

Daphne smiled, “It’s your thing, you love taking Teddy to the games.”

“Thank you,” Harry said, kissing her again, “It was very thoughtful. I do have a gift for you too, but I’ll give you it later.”

“Daddy! I play new broom?”

Harry glanced at Daphne, “Can he play with his new broom?”

Daphne looked up at the clock, “It’s 9am, wrap him up warm and sure.”

Harry grinned at Teddy, “Alright little guy, let’s get you dressed in some warm clothes and then we can play outside!”

Teddy grinned and ran up the stairs excitedly, Harry followed him up and Daphne let a fond smile slip onto her face as she watched them go.

“Motherhood suits you, my love.”

Daphne chuckled and turned around to see her Father, “How did you slip in unnoticed?”

“I discovered a secret passage from my wardrobe which lets out in the pantry,” Cygnus said, easing himself into a chair, “It is rather useful for an old cripple like myself.”

“You are hardly an old cripple Dad, you’re just recuperating,” Daphne said, “Would you like a coffee?”

Cygnus nodded so Daphne poured him a cup and set it down in front of him, “Merry Christmas.”

Cygnus smiled, “You always did love this time of year.”

“I still do,” Daphne admitted, “All the more so now Teddy is in our lives.”

“He is a lovely boy,” Cygnus agreed, “Narcissa said she was spending the day with you?”

“Yes,” Daphne replied, “Herself and Andromeda are coming over for Christmas lunch then once Teddy goes to bed tonight, we’re having our friends over. It will probably get a little loud so I do apologise if we keep you up. There is a balcony overlooking the drawing room right across the hall from you and the sound tends to carry.”

Cygnus shook his head, “It is Christmas Daphne, enjoy yourself and do not worry about keeping me up.”

Daphne smiled and sat down across from him, “Astoria is coming for Christmas lunch too you know? She is bringing her new boyfriend with her.”

Cygnus narrowed his eyes at his daughter, “Do you know who he is?”

“I do,” Daphne admitted, “And I am not entirely convinced that you will approve but we shall see when he gets here.”

“How very Slytherin of you,” Cygnus remarked.

Daphne’s eyes flashed mischievously, “I learned from the best Father.”

***

When Daphne stepped into the garden, a broad smile lit up her face. Teddy was playing in his new broom and occasionally bumping Harry, who dramatically ‘fell’ from his broom into the snow.

She laughed heartily as she watched them, and Harry grinned at her. He dismounted her broom and ushered her over.

Daphne picked her way through the snow to join him by the barn.

“Are you ready for your Christmas present?” Harry asked cheerfully.

“My Christmas present is in the barn?” She asked, quirking an eyebrow at him.

Harry grinned and stepped into the barn. A few minutes later, he returned with a big black bundle in his arms, “Say hello to your Christmas present.”

Daphne’s eyes widened, “A dog?”

Harry nodded eagerly, “I know you always wanted one. I haven’t named him yet, figured you would like to do that but he’s very friendly.”

Daphne grinned and took the dog from her, she had assumed it was an adult at first, but when the dog started yapping and licking her face, she realised that it was just a very big puppy.

“Oh my gosh, a newfoundland puppy! Harry, how did you know that this was one of my favourite breeds?” Daphne asked excitedly.

Harry smiled, “I had a chat with your Dad about it, he gave me a few pointers.”

Daphne laughed as the puppy excitedly began to lick her again, “This little guy is going to get very big and very strong, and he’s pretty excitable so do you know what I think we should name him?”

“Hagrid?” Harry joked.

Daphne laughed and shook her head, “No, Padfoot.”

Harry paused, his face fell and for a moment, Daphne thought she had said the wrong thing, “Unless that’s too-”

“No,” Harry said quickly, he cleared his throat and tried to clear the tears in his eyes, “No Daph, Padfoot is perfect and the fact you came up with that…_you _are perfect,” he stepped forward and kissed her cheek, “Merry Christmas.”

Daphne smiled back, “Merry Christmas,” she said softly.

***

“Where is my favourite nephew? I have lots of presents for him!”

Daphne raised an eyebrow at her sister as she walked into the drawing room with an armful of gifts, “He’s your only nephew, and don’t you think you’ve gone a bit overboard?”

“I have the right to go overboard for my only nephew,” Astoria said offhandedly, “Hey Teddy! Happy Christmas!”

“Aunt ‘storia!”

Teddy hugged Astoria then looked at the presents, “They for me?”

Astoria laughed, “This one is for your Mummy, this one is for your Daddy and this one is for your Grandad,” she said as she handed out the rest of the presents, “But all of these ones are for you.”

“I open them Mummy?” Teddy asked, looking up to Daphne for approval.

“On you go love,” Daphne replied.

The little boy wasted no time, he dove into the presents straight away.

“Where’s your other half? I thought he was joining us for Christmas lunch,” Daphne said as she opened the gift from Astoria.

“He’s running late so he’s going to floo straight here,” Astoria replied smoothly.

“This is lovely Astoria, thank you,” Daphne said, the gift was a diamond charm with the word ‘sister’ for the matching charm bracelets that she and Astoria had gotten as children.

“And thank you for the chocolate,” Harry added, she had given him a Honeydukes box.

Cygnus smiled over at her, “Thank you Astoria,” he said, holding up the quality quill and inkpot set, “It will come in handy now that I can write again.”

“I had it engraved,” Astoria added.

Cygnus looked down and read the small print. It simply said, “To Father. Merry Christmas. Love, Astoria” but it still brought a tear to his eye.

“You definitely win favourite daughter this Christmas, I just got him a cashmere jumper,” Daphne joked under her breath.

Astoria laughed, but before she could say anything else there was a cry of, “MUMMY! DADDY! A NIFFLER!”

Harry looked over in disbelief and Daphne’s jaw dropped.

“Astoria,” Harry began slowly, “Did you seriously get our toddler a _Niffler_?”

Astoria smirked, “So? The kid likes animals.”

“And his Mother likes shiny things,” Harry pointed out, “Can you see how those two things don’t go together _at all_?”

The Niffler darted across the room and nabbed Daphne’s engagement ring from her finger, “Astoria!”

A loud, barking laugh sounded from behind them and for a moment everyone was confused, until they realised that the sound was Cygnus who was positively beside himself with laughter.

Daphne glared at her sister as she caught the Niffler and gave it a good shake in order to retrieve her engagement ring, “You-” she said to her sister, “- are taking this back. It’s not staying in my house. I can handle Harry having a goddamn Boa Constrictor in the back garden and Neville building Teddy a greenhouse with a baby venomous tentacula but I cannot handle that thieving monstrosity stealing all of my nice jewellery!”

Harry grinned at his fiancé, “You know baby? Sometimes I forget that you’re Daphne Greengrass; Slytherin Ice Queen, high maintenance pureblood. But then there are times like this that you just prove you haven’t changed that much.”

Daphne rolled her eyes and dropped the Niffler into Harry’s lap, “Get that out of my sight right now.”

“What do you want me to do with it exactly?” Harry asked, looking over at Teddy who was now preoccupied with a moving Quidditch set.

“Does Dave like Niffler?”

“Daphne!”

“Who is Dave?” Cygnus asked.

“Dave is my Boa Constrictor Cygnus,” Harry replied, “And although he will eat literally anything, Daphne knows that it would be morally wrong to feed a living Niffler to a snake.”

Daphne scoffed, “Give it to Hermione then. She likes anything small and furry, it can steal Draco’s expensive family jewellery instead of mine.”

Harry snorted, “For now, I think I’ll just pop it in the greenhouse. There’s nothing shiny in there so what harm can it do?”

“Famous last words,” Daphne muttered.

Astoria didn’t even have the curtesy to look sheepish about the whole thing.

***

When Harry was returning to the house after depositing the Niffler in the greenhouse, he was greeted by Andromeda and Narcissa who had just been let in by Kreacher.

“Merry Christmas,” He said, kissing Andromeda on the cheek and giving Narcissa a hug.

“And you,” Andromeda said, “Have you had a good morning?”

“We have had a brilliant day so far,” Harry said, unable to hide his grin, “There has just been the one snag which involved Astoria buying Teddy a Niffler.”

Narcissa’s eyes widened, “No?”

“Yes, I have just deposited it in the greenhouse,” Harry chuckled, “But Daphne would have had me feed it to Dave given half a chance.”

“Dave?” Narcissa frowned.

“Harry’s Boa Constrictor,” Andromeda said.

Narcissa’s eyes widened, “You have a deadly snake around Teddy? And you allow this Andromeda?”

“Harry is a parselmouth, Cissa,” Andromeda explained with a smile, “He talks to the snake as a companion. It would not harm him, Daphne or Teddy but it would attack if he asked it to.”

“I see,” Narcissa frowned.

“Anyway,” Harry said, “Would you like to come up to the drawing room for a pre-dinner drink? Everyone else is already here.”

“Of course,” Andromeda said, and the two women followed Harry up into the drawing room.

When they entered the room, Teddy shouted, “Grandma!” and threw himself at Andromeda. She laughed and picked him up, then was told, “Look my presents!” so she sat down to play with him.

Narcissa hung back a little and smiled as she watched her older sister with her Grandson.

“Merry Christmas Narcissa.”

Narcissa glanced over at Cygnus, “Merry Christmas Cygnus,” she said.

Harry handed her a glass of wine and she sat down next to Cygnus on the sofa, “We always expected our families to come together, but never like this.”

“No,” Cygnus agreed, “I always expected Draco to marry one of the girls.”

“But Daphne fell in love with the saviour of the wizarding world, and Draco fell in love with a Muggle-born,” Narcissa said with a smile, “I think he must have gotten more from his Aunt Andromeda than I realised.”

“I think at heart, Draco was always more of a Black than a Malfoy,” Cygnus said honestly.

“Unfortunately he had to hide the best parts of himself for so long, in order to please his Father,” Narcissa sighed.

“But that is not something to discuss on Christmas Day,” Cygnus said, resting his hand on top of hers.

“No,” Narcissa agreed, “It is not.”

Andromeda shot her sister a knowing smile from the other side of the room, but Narcissa made no move to take her hand out of Cygnus’s.

The floo whirred to life and everyone turned their attention to it.

“Access granted,” Harry said, he, like Daphne, knew who Astoria’s new boyfriend was.

The fire turned green and a stocky, tattooed redhead stepped out of it. He smiled at Astoria, “Merry Christmas everyone. Sorry that I’m running late, I had to give the creatures in the Forbidden Forest their Christmas dinner before I could get away.”

There was a stunned silence around the room.

Daphne broke it by smiling at the man, “Merry Christmas Charlie. What can I get you to drink?”

“A firewhiskey would be great, Daphne,” Charlie replied cheerfully.

Astoria hooked her arm through the older mans and said, “For those of you who don’t know, this is Charlie Weasley, my boyfriend.”

Cygnus cleared his throat, “And how much older than you is this man, Astoria?”

Astoria raised an eyebrow at her Father, “9 years if you must know Father, but if you deem me old enough and mature enough to run your company then by association you must also deem me old enough and mature enough to make my own decisions.”

Cygnus, annoyingly enough, could not fault this logic.

“Well,” Andromeda said, surveying them, “How on earth did you two meet?”

“Daphne,” Astoria said.

While Charlie answered, “Bill.”

Daphne laughed and said, “Harry, Teddy and I went to Bill and Fleur’s for a pre-Christmas night out and I invited Astoria because I thought she could use a little time away. As it turned out, Bill had invited Charlie because he was lonely in the aftermath of a break-up, and low and behold, the two of them got talking.”

“Got talking?” Cygnus questioned, “What ever could you have in common with a…” he frowned, “Weasley?”

“Well Father, this Weasley happened to be a dragon tamer for several years before returning to the UK to work at Hogwarts,” Astoria said matter of factly, “But he chose that career because he likes magical creatures, not because he lacked the intelligence to do anything else. We got talking about the company and I quickly realised that Charlie could have had a fantastic career in the Ministry if he hadn’t been terrified of a desk job, so I invited him to a dinner meeting which sort of became a date.”

“And she also got you a new job,” Harry grinned, “When do you start at Greengrass Industries?”

Charlie chuckled, “After the Christmas break, Rolf Scamander will be replacing me. I’m sure he’s more than qualified enough, considering who his Grandfather is.”

Charlie then addressed Cygnus directly, “I’m sorry I haven’t met you until this point sir but Astoria wanted you to recover a little more before she shocked you with the news. I am well aware that the age gap is large, and if it truly is an issue then of course I would not continue to court your daughter without your consent-” at this Astoria quirked up an eyebrow in Charlie’s direction, “-But I think we both know that your daughters both have a way of getting their own way and I think it would go against both of our best wishes to upset either of them on Christmas day.”

Cygnus narrowed his eyes slightly at the man, “Why don’t you bring that firewhiskey over here son and we’ll continue this discussion?”

Charlie shot Astoria a vaguely amused look and replied, “Of course sir.”

He disappeared to the other side of the drawing room with Cygnus, and Narcissa made herself scarce by going over to wish Teddy a happy Christmas.

Daphne grinned, “He took that better than I thought he would.”

“Well Charlie can play the political game as well as either of us can,” Astoria reasoned, “You ought to tell your future Husband that so he can stop getting played by his best friend.”

“Give him more credit than that,” Daphne said in an undertone, “He knew what Hermione was up to but he thought that she had a point so he presented the case to the Wizengamot anyway. Those bloody heroic Gryffindors have got to stick together with their righteous attitudes after all.”

“I can hear you, you know?” Harry said, from his spot a few metres away, “I’m literally right here.”

“Yes, we know,” Astoria replied.

Harry rolled his eyes, “Bloody Slytherins.”

“Harry, look around you,” Daphne said with a sly smile, “Who are you spending your Christmas with?”

Harry frowned as he glanced around the room, from Daphne and Astoria, to Andromeda and Narcissa, to Cygnus.

“Holy shit,” Harry muttered under his breath, “When did I sign up to fill my manor with Slytherins for Christmas?”

Daphne raised an eyebrow at him, “When you asked me to marry you?”

“You aren’t having second thoughts, are you?” Astoria quipped, “Because it’s a little late if you are.”

“Never,” Harry promised, “I cannot wait to call your sister my wife, Astoria.”

Astoria made a face, “If you two are going to act like this, I think I’ll take my chances with Dad and Charlie.”

“Be my guest,” Daphne said, nudging her sister in that direction with a snort of amusement.

***

“You and Cygnus looked rather cosy.”

Narcissa shot Andromeda a reprimanding look, “Andromeda, he has just returned from the dead and I am still married to Lucius, regardless of where he is right now.”

“I just said that you looked cosy Cissa,” Andromeda said with a slightly sly smile, “No need to read into it that much.”

Narcissa resisted the urge to roll her eyes as she looked over at Teddy who was still playing away happily with his new toys.

“Alright,” Daphne called loudly, “Dad, if you have finished interrogating Astoria’s latest catch, it’s time for lunch!”

Andromeda chuckled as she got to her feet and lifted Teddy, “Have I mentioned how much I like Daphne, Cissa? I feel like Harry made a fantastic choice when he asked her to become his wife.”

Narcissa smiled too, “As do I,” she said honestly.

***

Christmas lunch passed smoothly, Charlie successfully made small talk with everyone at the table and only brought up dragons once, which resulted in Astoria elbowing him in the ribs rather painfully.

When they had finished eating, Teddy was exhausted so he said his goodbyes to everyone and went up to bed a little early. Harry and Daphne had not long returned to the drawing room when the floo roared to life once more.

“Floo signatures: Draco Black and Hermione Granger.”

“Access granted,” Daphne said.

Moments later Draco and Hermione stepped out of the fireplace, looking a little irritated.

“You are never getting invited back there for Christmas again,” Hermione muttered irritably,

“Look I said sorry,” Draco complained, “I warned you that I am a pureblood prat who doesn’t understand muggle shit, I literally warned you _this morning_!”

Harry grinned, “Oh dear God. What did he do?”

“Don’t even get her started Potter,” Draco said, glaring at the Gryffindor boy.

Daphne raised an eyebrow, “Go on Hermione, what did he do?”

Hermione shook her head in disbelief, “When the Queens speech came on, he asked my parents who this Queen was anyway? And when they explained, he questioned why she even had any authority and proceeded to rant about the fact that the Queen doesn’t even know about wizards and doesn’t make laws so has no real authority and therefore might as well be overthrown,” she rattled off.

Harry whistled.

“And do you know what?” Hermione added angrily, “He might have gotten away with it, if he hadn’t finished with, ‘Maybe I should replace her? I would look damn good in a crown’.

By the time Hermione had finished, Harry was literally crying with laughter. Charlie wasn’t much better, and Astoria was just shaking her head in disbelief.

Amongst the chaos, Daphne led Draco towards the drinks cabinet and whispered, “Good job, you definitely won’t have to spend Christmas with them next year.”

Draco smirked, “I’m counting on it.”

Meanwhile, by the fireplace, Harry regained his composure and said, “Do you reckon he did it on purpose so that your parents don’t invite him back for Christmas?”

“I’m fucking sure of it,” Hermione fumed, “I swear to Merlin, I will kill him tonight.”

“Nah, you won’t,” Harry said, patting her on the back, “You love him too much. Come on, get yourself a drink before the others arrive.”

“Yeah. I think I – Charlie, what are you doing here?” Hermione asked, frowning when she saw him.

“Just passing by, you know?” Charlie grinned, “Wishing my favourite adopted brother a merry Christmas and all.”

“In person?” Hermione asked, narrowing her eyes at him.

“Why not?” Charlie shrugged.

Draco re-joined Hermione and rolled his eyes, “You have got to be kidding me.”

“What?” Hermione asked cluelessly.

Draco had turned his attention to Astoria, “You can’t seriously be dating him?”

“What?” Hermione said in disbelief.

“Stop saying what love, it’s making you look a bit dim,” Draco said offhandedly.

Hermione whacked him around the head, much to Harry’s amusement.

Astoria raised an eyebrow at Draco and took Charlie’s hand, “I fail to see why it matters to you anyway Draco.”

Draco scoffed, “I can’t believe this. I mean it was bad enough when you got together with Harry fucking Potter Daphne-”

“Middle name is James actually Draco-”

“Shut up Potter,” Draco interjected, “But now Astoria and a Weasley? Cygnus, how can you let your daughters do this to you?”

Cygnus smiled slightly, “Let’s be honest Draco. I don’t _let _my daughters do anything. They do as they wish, regardless of my intentions.”

“Well let’s be real Dad, your intentions were for me to marry Draco which is a horrific thought,” Daphne said, “And for Astoria to marry Theodore Nott which is probably the worst idea you have had in…well, ever.”

“Harsh Daph.”

They turned to the door where Theo and Sadie stood hand in hand.

“Why didn’t you use the floo?” Daphne asked.

Sadie raised an eyebrow and pointed at her stomach, “Uh, pregnant with twins remember?”

“Oh, yeah,” Daphne realised.

Harry snorted.

“How much have you guys had to drink today?” Theo asked with an amused grin.

“A lot,” Daphne admitted.

“She stumbled through Teddy’s bedtime story,” Harry chuckled.

“Well the little shit had to go and pick Babbitty Rabbitty didn’t he? Do you know how hard that is to read when you’re a bit drunk?” Daphne complained.

“Imagine being 6 years old with your drunk Dads trying to read you The Hunchback of Notredame when one of them is from the East End of London and the other one is Irish.”

There was a collective snort of amusement as Neville and Lilly stepped into the drawing room.

“What excuse do you two have for not using the floo?” Hermione asked with an amused smile.

“Neville was too drunk to use it, so I side apparated him here,” Lilly grinned, “My Mum and Dads kept plying him with drink until he fell asleep in front of the TV during the Queens speech.”

“That’s the best way to get through the Queens fecking speech,” Neville muttered.

Draco grinned, “Yes! Neville come here and get a drink, let’s discuss this farce that is the Queen.”

“You are skating on thin fucking ice Draco Malfoy,” Hermione muttered.

“It has been Black for quite some time now love,” Draco said, ushering Neville to the side.

Lilly shook her head in amusement, “I’m not even going to ask what that was about but merry Christmas everyone! Is Suse still coming?”

“She said she was, but you know Susan, she’s always late,” Daphne said with a wave of her hand.

At that moment the floo buzzed.

“Floo signatures: Susan Bones and Percy Weasley.”

“Access granted,” Harry said.

Susan stepped through looking very cheerful, and Percy followed her looking far more like his old self in smart jeans and a jumper, rather than his bounty hunting gear.

“Merry Christmas!” Susan shouted when she walked in, “Oh shit, you have a baby now!”

“A toddler,” Daphne corrected, “And Christmas has exhausted him, I don’t think a hurricane would wake him up right now. Merry Christmas Suse.”

“And I guess we must be the last to arrive as always because Susan takes so long to get – Charlie! What are you doing here?”

Charlie snorted, “Is nobody just happy to see me? Merry Christmas to you too Perce.”

“I mean yes, Merry Christmas Charlie,” Percy frowned, “But, why are you here?”

“I just thought I would spend Christmas with my girlfriend,” Charlie said offhandedly from where he was perched on an armchair near the fire.

Percy’s eyes scanned the group then widened, “Oh…right. Well…that is a shock. I would have thought that Charlie was too young for you Mrs. Malfoy.”

Draco spat out his firewhiskey, Narcissa looked incredibly offended and Charlie guffawed with laughter.

Susan looked at him in disbelief, “Percy, how can you be so stupid? Why the hell did I marry you?”

There was an echo of, “What?”

“Oh yeah,” Susan said with a grin, “We sort of eloped. I don’t even know if it was legal though.”

Charlie grinned, “I’m dating Astoria by the way, and what country did you elope in?”

“Bolivia,” Susan replied.

“Did you get married by a guy in a loincloth who could barely speak English?”

“Yep,” Susan replied.

“Nope, not in any way legally binding,” Charlie said in amusement.

“Go figure,” Susan laughed, “Shall we just grab close family and head to Gretna after the new year then Perce?”

Percy smiled at her, “I’m fine with that, and my apologies Mrs. Malfoy. I thought Astoria was still in school Charlie.”

“Hey,” Charlie said testily, “You do not get to give me a lecture about dating someone younger than me.”

“The difference is that Susan is only 4 years younger than me and she isn’t 17,” Percy said.

“I’m 18 actually Percy,” Astoria said matter of factly, “And I am the CEO of Greengrass Industries so my maturity really should not be questioned. If I were you, I would endeavour to stay on my good side if you want to keep your contract with The Red Stone Group, because they are a sub-division of my company.”

Percy grinned and hit Charlie on the back, “I like her.”

Charlie laughed, “I thought you might. Come on, get yourself a drink.”

“I did not know that they were that close,” Harry said as he watched the two Weasley’s.

“Yeah that’s a recent development,” Susan remarked, “About as recent as Percy’s decision to tell the Ministry to fuck themselves and become a bounty hunter.”

Now that they all had drinks, they split off into smaller groups to catch up. Draco found himself standing next to Daphne, as their eyes lingered on the same spot.

“You did this.”

“Not intentionally,” Daphne promised.

Draco crossed his arms and looked at the spot where their parents sat on a sofa, very closely together, laughing.

“Are you trying to set my Mother up with your Father?”

“No,” Daphne said, she made a face, “That would be weird, don’t you think?”

Draco cocked his head at the pair, “It would be weird, but I think it would also make my Mother very happy and…I can’t remember the last time I saw her happy.”

Daphne hummed thoughtfully, “I don’t think I could begrudge my Father happiness after everything that happened.”

Draco groaned, “They are totally going to have sex.”

“Not in my bloody house,” Daphne muttered under her breath, “No geriatric sex and no fucking Nifflers.”

“Do you want to explain the part about Nifflers?” Theo asked as he appeared behind them.

“My _sister _bought Teddy a Niffler for Christmas,” Daphne muttered irritably, “Don’t suppose you want it Sade?”

“Definitely not,” Theo interjected, “No animals in my house. Animals and me don’t mix.”

“Neither do plants and you!” Neville called, “Want a venomous tentacula for your birthday?”

“Fuck off Neville!”

“Draco, do you want-”

“I do not want a Niffler,” Draco cut in, “Hermione would think it was cute until it stole all of the cutlery then I would be the one who had to find a nice home for it and pretend I hadn’t thrown it in a river.”

Neville frowned at him, “Uh…what did you throw in a river exactly?”

“Nothing…it was just a thought I had once about that fuck ugly cat she had,” Draco said sheepishly.

“Draco, I loved Crookshanks!” Hermione said, then she promptly burst into tears.

“I know you loved him Hermione,” Draco said, patting her on the head unhelpfully.

“But you still have to admit that he looked like he ran into a wall as a kitten and never recovered," Theo said, "He was fuck ugly, and you know it."

"But he was my companion,” Hermione sobbed.

“Holy fuck, she’s drunk,” Susan sniggered.

Lilly grinned, “Is it wrong that I’m finding it a bit funny?”

“No, because you’re not the only one,” Neville whispered, “God, I love Christmas.”

***

The residents of Potter Manor, on the whole, slept in very late on boxing day to recover from their hangovers. All but one that was, Daphne had woken up, thrown back a vial of sobering up potion then followed it up with a very strong cup of coffee because Teddy had been standing at the door of his bedroom shouting for her and he didn’t care that it was 6am or that his Mum was incredibly hungover.

As a result, she was trying to stay awake in a kitchen chair at 6.30am while Teddy threw toast all over the kitchen. She was jolted into alertness when she heard footsteps outside the kitchen so she rose to her feet and looked out into the entrance hall.

She had to bite back a snort of disbelief when she saw Narcissa sneaking towards the front door.

“The floo is open if you would like to use it Narcissa,” Daphne said, unable to contain her smirk, “But you could always have a coffee first and say goodbye to Teddy?”

Narcissa raised an eyebrow at Daphne and stepped into the kitchen, “I know what you are trying to do here Daphne and, rest assured, I did not do what you think I did last night.”

“I suggested nothing of the sort,” Daphne pointed out.

“Not verbally, perhaps,” Narcissa said as she stood by the fireplace, “Your Father is still ill and I would never take advantage of that. However, I did fall asleep while keeping an eye on him last night.”

“I never asked you to explain yourself,” Daphne said, still smirking slightly.

“You did not need to,” Narcissa said simply, “I shall see you on New Year’s Eve.”

“See you then, goodbye Narcissa,” Daphne said.

Narcissa threw some floo powder into the fire and disappeared. Daphne grinned at a bemused Teddy, “Great Auntie Narcissa wants to sleep with Grandad Teddy! And I don’t know why I’m laughing about it because it’s a pretty disgusting thought.”

Teddy frowned and then threw some toast at his Mother.

“And I guess that’s what you think about that,” Daphne said, she yawned and had a piece of soggy toast shoved into her mouth.

“Ugh Teddy, Mummy is still hungover, just don’t.”

Teddy clapped his hands together, “Mummy hungover!”

Daphne just shook her head at the little boy in amusement.

***

“You will never guess who did the walk of shame at 6.30am this morning,” Daphne smirked when Draco slunk into the kitchen at 9am, the first person to awaken apart from herself.

“If you say my Mother, I swear to Salazar, I will feed myself to Dave.”

“Well, that will be an interesting sight,” Daphne said, setting a cup of coffee down in front of him, “Do you want some toast? I’m going to do a big brunch when the lightweights wake up.”

Draco shook his head and sipped the coffee, “Our parents are going to get together.”

“Yep,” Daphne agreed, “Which wouldn’t be the worst thing to be honest. My Father loved your Mother, he would have married her if it hadn’t been for marriage contracts.”

“And the fact he was best friends with my Father?” Draco pointed out.

“That had less to do with it I think,” Daphne replied, “I think deep down, my Dad always knew that your Dad was a dickhead.”

“Harsh, but probably accurate,” Draco agreed.

Daphne chuckled, “And it’s not like they are _that _old. I mean you can totally find love again at…44…right?”

Draco smiled slightly, “You’re trying to justify this to yourself, aren’t you?”

“Yeah,” Daphne admitted, she glanced over at Teddy to check he was alright, but he was too busy playing with his Christmas toys to notice the adult conversation.

“Yes, I think you can find love again at 44,” Draco said with an amused smile, “And I think two people who have had been dealt such crappy cards, are entitled to that. I do suspect that neither of them will marry again, having had such terrible experiences of marriage.”

“Hmm,” Daphne said, nodding thoughtfully, “I would agree with you on that one. She stayed here last night to keep an eye on my Dad, she really cares about him.”

“She always did,” Draco said calmly, “Don’t you remember the early birthday parties when we were young? They would be talking and laughing, and your Mother would glare at them or my Father would whisk her away.”

“Ironic considering that they were both the victims of cheating spouses,” Daphne muttered irritably.

Draco shrugged, “Try to put that in the past and enjoy this time with your Father.”

“I am,” Daphne promised him.


	121. It's a Nice Day for a White Wedding

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Finally, Daphne and Harry's wedding! It took forever, but here we are guys! :D

“How are you feeling?”

“Fine,” Daphne said, frowning over at Harry, “Why?”

“Because it’s the 29th of December,” Harry said with a slight smile, “We’re getting married in two days.”

“Well, I don’t have any pre-wedding jitters if that’s what you’re referring to,” Daphne said with a chuckle. They were hanging up decorations in the drawing room which would convert into a ballroom.

“Are we just going to banish this furniture into the attic room for the wedding?” Harry asked, glancing around the room.

Daphne nodded, “The sofas and tables will go and we will replace them with tables for the meal. Then before the ‘New Years Party’ starts, we’ll get rid of most of the tables so that we have plenty of dance floor space.”

“We’ll need to get the stage ready too,” Harry said.

Daphne frowned, “What stage?”

“The stage,” Harry re-iterated, “This was designed as a ballroom. We just tend to use it as a drawing room in everyday life.”

“I know, but I helped restore this place and I don’t remember there being a stage,” Daphne pointed out.

“Well there is one,” Harry said, he walked to the far end of the room and pointed his wand at a large portrait of the Potter family, “Alohomora!”

The portrait slid away, revealing a small stage with deep red curtains pulled across it. When Harry opened them, a lot of dust was displaced.

“Right, we will need to get that ready then,” Daphne agreed with an amused smile, “It should be big enough for the Weird Sisters.”

“I reckon so,” Harry agreed.

“Daddy do puppet show!” Teddy exclaimed.

Daphne laughed, “I think we’ve gotten enough done for the wedding today so go on.”

Harry grinned and jumped up onto the dusty stage, “Time for the Potter family puppet show creation…the mysterious ticking noise!”

Daphne shook her head in amusement and continued to hang decorations while Harry amused their son.

***

“Alright so this is my, I’m now slightly nervous that I’m getting married tomorrow, checklist,” Daphne rattled off as she sat in the kitchen with Astoria the following morning.

Astoria chuckled, “Go on.”

“I have my wedding dress and I have dresses for you, Sadie, Hermione, Lilly and Susan,” Daphne said, ticking a box, “Harry has his dress robes and he picked up the robes for Neville, Theo, Draco, Ron and George.”

“George is one of the groomsmen?” Astoria asked in surprise.

“Yeah, he needed a fifth to make up numbers and he said that George was probably the Weasley he was closest to after Ron and Gin,” Daphne said offhandedly, “Anyway. I have Teddy’s little suit and I have a little dress for Victoire. The ballroom is completely ready and set up. I have the house elves on the meal and the wedding cake so that’s fine.”

“Who is doing the ceremony?”

“Someone from the Ministry, he’s booked in for 2pm,” Daphne said with a flick of her hand, “Dennis is doing the wedding photographs.”

“My ex-boyfriend, Dennis?” Astoria asked, raising an eyebrow at her sister.

Daphne smirked, “Consider that revenge for the Niffler.”

“Touché,” Astoria said with a slight smile, “Wedding favours?”

Daphne nodded, “Done. I have everything squared with the Weird Sisters and the stage is all set for them. They are going to be here at about 6pm to set up.”

“Flowers?”

“Arriving first thing tomorrow morning,” Daphne said.

“What about a honeymoon?” Astoria asked.

“We aren’t really having one,” Daphne admitted, “Harry needs to be back at the training centre on the 4th of January so Andromeda is going to have Teddy for a couple of nights while we have a long weekend somewhere.”

“You haven’t even worked out where?” Astoria asked in disbelief.

“No, it’s all booked but I haven’t planned it,” Daphne said with a smile, “Harry wanted to surprise me.”

Astoria rolled her eyes, “What a romantic. Right, wedding shoes?”

“Got them.”

“Accessories?”

“Sorted, I dove into the family jewellery box,” Daphne said with an amused smile.

“Who is going to do your hair and make-up?”

“Susan, even if she doesn’t know that yet,” Daphne grinned.

“Do all the guests _know _they need to be here for 12noon tomorrow, under the ruse they need to help set up?” Astoria asked.

“Yes, they do,” Daphne replied.

“Wedding rings?”

“Safe in a drawer upstairs.”

“And last but not least. Have you got your something old, something new, something borrowed and something blue?” Astoria asked her.

Daphne frowned, “Something old can be the tiara because that was Great Grandma’s. Something new…my dress?”

“Something borrowed and something blue?” Astoria asked.

Daphne shook her head.

“That’s what I thought so here,” Astoria said, she took her charm bracelet off and gave it to her sister, “Something borrowed.”

“Thank you Tori.”

Astoria just smiled and handed her a box, “And something blue. Consider it an early wedding gift.”

Daphne cracked the box open and smiled, “Aquamarine and diamond earrings? Astoria, these must have cost a fortune!”

“Well your big sister only gets married once,” Astoria said softly, “And they will look beautiful with your hair.”

Daphne hugged her little sister tightly, "Thank you Astoria.”

“Anytime,” Astoria promised, hugging her sister back.

***

“Uh babe!”

Daphne popped her head out of the shower, “Yeah?”

“Teddy’s in bed but where am I sleeping tonight?”

Daphne frowned, “In the bedroom?”

“Are you sure?”

“Just come in!”

Harry slipped into the bathroom.

“What are you on about? Where else would you be sleeping?”

“Well I’m not meant to see you the night before the wedding, am I?” Harry pointed out.

Daphne rolled her eyes, “You want to go with that old tradition then?”

“I don’t know, I just didn’t know if you did?” Harry asked.

Daphne shook her head, “Don’t be silly. Go to bed, I’ll be there soon. It’s going to be one hell of an early start tomorrow, not to mention a really busy day.”

Harry chuckled, “That’s an understatement. Night love.”

***

Daphne felt the first twinges of nerves the following morning as she waited in the entrance hall for the guests to arrive. She looked every inch the part of a party planner as she stood in her jeans with her hair in a bun and a clipboard in her hands so she hoped that they wouldn’t catch on before she wanted them to.

They arrived in groups; first Sadie, Theo, Neville and Lilly. Then Astoria, Charlie, Susan, Percy, Bill, Fleur and Victoire who had all been staying at Shell Cottage. Then Draco, Hermione, Narcissa and Andromeda. Finally, Molly, Arthur, George, Angelina, Ron, Katie, Frederick, Ginny, Blaise and Zola arrived.

Her Father was already here of course, he was leaning against the staircase with the support of his cane. Harry was upstairs finalising a couple of things and Teddy was ‘helping’.

“Hey everyone. Happy New Years eve!” Daphne said cheerfully, “Thanks for coming along to help out. Now I need to assign everyone some jobs so if you can just hear me out for five minutes that would be great!”

They were all listening intently.

“Charlie, Bill and Percy,” Daphne began, “Make sure the front path is clear of ice and snow please.

Ginny and Katie, could you take the kids upstairs into the playroom and help keep Teddy occupied please?”

There were nods from those addressed so Daphne continued, “Neville, Draco, Theo, Ron and George; I’m going to need you guys to go upstairs and find Harry so that you can get dressed.”

There were some frowns beginning to form now.

“Fleur, I’m going to need you to get Victoire into the dress I picked out for her,” Daphne continued, “Susan, I’m going to need you to do my hair and Sadie, I’m going to need you to do my make-up. Hermione, Lilly and Astoria? You guys are going to have to get into your dresses.”

Realisation was beginning to dawn on their faces.

“And Dad, I’m going to need you to get into your dress robes because you will be walking me down the aisle in,” she glanced at the clock, “an hour and a half.”

There was much laughter, clapping and shouting at this news.

Daphne grinned and said, “Welcome to our surprise New Years Eve wedding! We wanted you guys here for the ceremony, everyone else is coming for the party later on.”

“Oh my gosh Daphne!” Sadie exclaimed, “I can’t believe you kept this a secret!”

“How on earth did you not slip up?” Hermione agreed.

“It’s so exciting!” Lilly exclaimed.

Daphne grinned at them, “We decided to bring in the new year with style.”

“That’s one way of putting it,” Susan laughed, “Come on future Mrs. Potter, let’s make you even more beautiful than you already are.”

Astoria smiled at her sister and said, “Have fun getting ready with your friends. I’m going to help Dad, he will struggle with all of the clasps on dress robes.”

Daphne nodded and smiled at her little sister, “Thanks Astoria,” she said as her friends swept her away.

“Come on Daphne, we have to see this dress that you picked out without us,” Sadie said, giving her friend a pointed look.

“Hey, I am not as picky as you were,” Daphne teased Sadie, “I was perfectly capable of picking out my own dress.”

The other girls laughed at this as Daphne led them into the spare room that she had turned into a wedding dressing room. Her dress was hanging up on the wardrobe and the girls all gaped.

“You are going to look like an angel in that,” Sadie said tearfully.

“Hormones are making you crazy Sade,” Daphne chuckled, “You haven’t even seen it on yet.”

“We don’t have to,” Hermione said, “You are going to look beautiful in it.”

Daphne smiled and said, “Your dresses are in the other wardrobe. Trying to come up with a dress that would flatter you all was impossible because Hermione and Sadie are tall and Lilly, Susan and Astoria are tiny. Then there was the matter of Hermione having brown hair, Sadie having blonde hair, Susan having red hair and Astoria and Lilly having really dark hair,” she rattled off, “So long story short there are two different colours and styles.”

Daphne opened the wardrobe and took out the first style. These dresses were short and pastel blue, “So Susan you are in blue because pink would look awful with your hair, and I figured pale blue would be a good contrast against how dark your hair is Lil so you are in blue too, and so is Astoria.”

“Not at all harsh Daph,” Susan snorted as she took the dress from her friend.

Daphne ignored her and continued, “Sadie and Hermione, you two are in pink because I figured it would compliment your hair and skin tones.”

She held up long pastel pink dresses.

“You really thought this through,” Hermione said, hiding an amused smile.

“This is why I’m going to elope,” Susan muttered under her breath.

If Daphne heard her, she didn’t let on, “Right so hair and make-up please girls!”

***

When the boys found Harry in the drawing room, Neville shook his head in amusement, “You’re getting married and you didn’t tell me?”

“Here we go,” Theo muttered to Draco.

“I mean I’m not just your best friend,” Neville continued.

Harry bit his lip, “Nev-”

“I’m also your Auror partner-”

“I know, and I’m-”

“And practically your brother,” Neville finished, crossing his arms and looking at Harry.

“I know, I’m sorry Neville,” Harry burst out.

Neville grinned and whacked him on the back, “I’m kidding Harry, congratulations.”

George laughed out loud and said, “Nice one Neville. Hey thanks for making me a groomsman Harry.”

“Anytime,” Harry said, letting out a nervous laugh, “Has Daphne given you guys your marching orders yet?”

“We’ve got to get dressed,” Draco said with a roll of his eyes, “Please tell me you picked decent dress robes.”

“I’m sure you will approve,” Harry promised.

“Are we going to look like we’re from Beauxbatons like at my wedding?” Theo grumbled.

“Definitely not. I’ll show you once Teddy’s babysitters arrive,” Harry laughed.

“Here we are,” Ginny said as she and Katie walked into the drawing room with their two month old babies.

“Are you sure the two of you will manage him with your own little ones?” Harry asked.

“He’ll be fine,” Ginny said with a smile, “Look at him, sitting entertaining himself.”

“He’s good at that,” Harry said, smiling proudly at the little boy.

“On you go, get dressed for your wedding,” Katie said, giving him a nudge.

“Alright,” Harry conceded, “Come up a couple of floors guys.”

They followed Harry into a spare room, a floor below the girls ‘dressing room’. 

“So there is definitely no Beauxbatons blue,” Harry grinned as he opened the wardrobe, “I went for subtle with a flashy hem.”

Draco rolled his eyes, “You have got to be kidding me.”

“I won’t be seen dead in that,” Theo agreed.

“Theo, you looked like a ponce in your dress robes for your own wedding,” Ron remarked.

Harry and Neville laughed loudly at this.

“You did,” Harry agreed, “What’s wrong with black dress robes?”

“I think it’s the gold hem they are objecting to,” George grinned, “I like it, very flashy.”

“I agree,” Neville said.

Ron nodded, “Me too.”

“Of course you do!” Draco fumed, “It’s _gold_! Gold is a Gryffindor thing.”

“And I am a Gryffindor, and it’s my wedding day,” Harry smirked, “So shut up and get dressed. The robes will shrink to fit, it won’t be quite the same as when Madam Malkin fits them but it was a surprise wedding so,” he shrugged.

“What made you want to plan a surprise wedding anyway?” Ron asked curiously.

“We wanted to be spontaneous,” Harry said honestly, “And Daphne didn’t want the whole big white wedding thing.”

“Why New Years Eve?” Theo asked.

“Because,” Harry smiled, “When we had the big New Years Eve party here last year…I said to Daphne I was grateful that I had gotten that far because I never thought I would survive the war to see myself ring in 1999. She then said that she would be standing right beside me, to ring in the millennium in style.”

Neville smiled, “That’s one hell of a story.”

“That will be a good one to tell the kiddos one day,” George agreed.

Harry just chuckled, “I need to get dressed, then I need to try and remember my vows. I don’t want to have to write them on my hand.”

“You wrote your own vows?” Draco asked in surprise.

“Yeah, which I’m regretting now because every time the nerves kick in, I can’t bloody remember them,” Harry said with another nervous laugh.

Neville put his arm around his friends shoulder, “Stop bricking yourself Harry. You’re marrying the love of your life, the Mother of your little boy so calm down and enjoy today.”

Harry took a breath and nodded.

“Now that is a good best man,” Theo said, smirking at Draco, “Not like the one who let me get lost in Vegas.”

“Oh would you give that up you fucking prick?” Draco exclaimed, “It was not my idea to go to Vegas and _you _were the one who wandered off and got lost!”

Ron and George laughed loudly about this and asked, well begged really, to be filled in on the story while they got dressed. Harry was pretty glad, because it took his mind away from how nervous he was.

***

When Daphne finally walked out of the walk-in wardrobe wearing her dress, there was an awed silence.

“That’s good, right?” She asked, surveying them all tentatively.

They all nodded.

Daphne had her hair in a loose bun with some curled strands coming down at the front. Her make-up was subtle, but her dress was stunning. It was white, floor length and slim fitting which meant that it flattered Daphne’s figure perfectly. The bodice had long sleeves and was rather low-cut in a V style. The lace arms and bodice were decorated with diamantes and the dress was pulled in around her slim waist with a rose gold ‘S’ shaped clip.

“You look every inch the high-class pureblood that you are,” Astoria said as she slipped into the room in her bridesmaid dress.

“Harry Potter is one lucky man,” Sadie agreed.

“And he knows it,” Hermione assured them.

Daphne smiled too, “How is Dad, Astoria?”

“Dressed and resting,” Astoria replied, “He doesn’t want anything to affect his ability to walk you down the aisle so he has agreed to let Draco put him in a wheelchair and levitate him down the stairs to the ballroom.”

Daphne tried to hide the tears that swum in her eyes upon hearing those words. She cleared her throat, “And the boys?”

“All dressed and ready to go,” Astoria assured her sister, “Everyone is sitting down in the ballroom. Teddy is in his suit, he hasn’t spilled anything on it yet but he is bouncing around the ballroom because there are so many people for him to talk to and Victoire is having a nap so she should have plenty of energy when the time comes to throw confetti at everyone.”

Daphne laughed, “So we’re all ready to go then?”

“We are,” Astoria said. She glanced out at the clock on the wall in the hall, “And it’s only 5 to 2. Are we really saying that Daphne Greengrass is not going to be fashionably late on this occasion?”

“I think on this occasion, I owe it to Harry to show up on time,” Daphne said with a soft smile.

“I can’t take all this romance,” Sadie said tearfully.

“Jeez Sadie, the wedding hasn’t even started yet,” Susan sniggered.

Lilly chuckled and patted her on the back, “Double the babies, double the hormones Sadie.”

Astoria laughed and looked at her sister, “Ready?”

“Ready,” Daphne replied.

The dress she had chosen didn’t have train which made life easier. Astoria placed a beautiful golden tiara on her head then attached her veil to it.

***

“Stop looking at the clock,” Neville whispered, “She’ll be late.”

“She always is,” Draco added from Neville’s other side.

Harry swallowed a lump in his throat, “I can’t help it, sorry.”

“You have nothing to be nervous about,” Neville whispered in his ear, “You know she isn’t going to do a runner. You two adopted that amazing little boy together, marriage is hardly commitment after that.”

Harry smiled at the spot in the front row where Teddy was playing with Victoire and a couple of cuddly toys. He knew that Neville was right, “It’s an irrational sort of nervous, but I can’t shake it,” he admitted.

“It’s your wedding day Harry,” Neville smiled, “If you are ever allowed to be irrationally nervous, it’s today.”

Harry chuckled and scanned the room. He was very glad that Daphne had wanted a small, intimate wedding because his hands were shaking and he felt nauseous with nerves. He couldn’t imagine if there were hundreds of people here, rather than just close family and friends.

The clock ticked to 2pm, and his heart began to beat faster than ever before while his eyes remained fixed on the door.

***

When the bridal party arrived outside the ballroom, Cygnus was waiting for them in the wheelchair that he hated to use. When he saw Daphne he pushed himself up using his cane and smiled tearfully.

“You look beautiful my love,” Cygnus said softly. He kissed both of her cheeks then drew her in for a hug.

Daphne smiled back, just as tearfully, “Thank you Dad.”

“I am so very grateful I did not miss this day,” Cygnus promised her.

Astoria smiled from the side lines while she lined up the rest of the bridal party so that they would walk into the ballroom in the correct order.

“Ready when you are Daphne,” Astoria said once she was finished.

Daphne smiled and held out her hand to her Father.

“Astoria,” Cygnus said, holding out his cane to his youngest daughter.

Daphne frowned, “Dad, you can’t walk without your cane.”

“I will walk my eldest daughter down the aisle unaided,” Cygnus said firmly. He held out his hand to her and she hooked her arm through his.

Daphne put her veil down, then with a wave of her wand, Astoria opened the doors to the ballroom and the bridal march began to play.

Daphne took a breath and stepped into the room. Her Father walked slowly, but steadily, a look of pride shining in his eyes.

Daphne’s eyes found Harry’s immediately, she could see him visibly relax a little when he saw her.

On Harry’s part, he could not believe quite how lucky he had gotten. He had gone back to school for an eighth year, not really knowing what he wanted to do with his life and it had in all honesty _made _his life. If anyone had asked him how he expected to spend his life, having survived the war, he would never have answered that he would marry a Slytherin, that they would adopt his Godson together and that she would complete him. But they had adopted Teddy, he was marrying her and she _did _complete him.

As she glided down the aisle, looking like an angel, Harry really had to thank his lucky stars.

When they reached the front row, Cygnus whispered, “I am so proud of you Daphne,” then he lifted her veil.

The officiator conducting the service asked, “Do you give this woman to this man?”

Cygnus smiled and placed Daphne’s hand in Harry’s, “I do.”

Daphne turned her tearful smile to Harry as her Father sat down, and he smiled nervously back at her.

“Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today to witness the marriage of Harry James Potter to Daphne Lareina Greengrass. Today Harry and Daphne will be united in body and soul for life through the binding of their magic. However, before we can begin I must ask if any man can show just cause as to why Harry and Daphne may not be lawfully joined together. Let him speak now, or forever hold his peace.”

There was silence, which was always good.

Harry smiled at Daphne as the officiator continued, “Do you Harry James Potter, and you Daphne Lareina Greengrass, promise to comfort, honour, protect and be faithful to each other for as long as you both may live?"

"I do," Harry said sincerely.

"I do," Daphne echoed.

"Then I would ask you to give your vows to one another," The man said with a smile.

Harry took a shaky breath and began, “Daphne, when you came into my life, I was a broken man. I had survived a war that had taken so much from me and there were holes in my soul that I did not think would ever be filled until you filled them. You give me strength in the most difficult times and you provide light in the darkness. When I feel I cannot take the weight of the world anymore, you are always there to take the weight from my shoulders.”

Harry paused for a breath and was surprised to see Daphne looking close to tears, “My love for you has not, and never will change. I promise that, here to you today, in the presence of our closest friends, our family and our son. I promise to love you until the end.”

Daphne did not often let her emotions show, and especially not in front of other people but she did have to take a breath to steady herself and to stop the tears in her eyes from spilling.

All the same, her breath still caught in her throat as she began her vows, “Harry, you came into my life at a time when I needed some hope that someday things would get brighter. For a long time, I had been living in the darkness, content with my own loneliness until I met you. You changed everything, you challenged my opinions, you made me rethink the way that I looked at the world, you made me feel more alive than I ever had in my life. Before you, I don’t think I ever truly lived. Although I know I don’t express it often enough, I cannot tell you enough how deeply I love you so in the presence of our family, friends and most importantly our little boy, I vow to never let that love go to waste.”

Harry had tears in his eyes by the time she had finished, and plenty of their friends were crying. Sadie was practically having an emotional breakdown and Theo looked like he was struggling to keep a straight face while he patted her on the head.

The man conducting the service smiled and continued, “Do you Harry James Potter, take Daphne Lareina Greengrass, to have and to hold from this day forward? For better, for worse, for richer or poorer, in sickness and health, to love and to cherish until death do you part?”

“I do,” Harry said, without a tremble in his voice.

“And do you Daphne Lareina Greengrass, take Harry James Potter, to have and to hold from this day forward? For better, for worse, for richer or poorer, in sickness and health, to love and to cherish until death do you part?"

“I do,” Daphne said, her voice breaking slightly.

The moment was fraught with emotion. They both took a moment to catch their breath as their eyes met once more.

“Teddy, that way.”

“No, wanna go that way!”

Harry bit his lip and saw Daphne fighting back laughter too as they turned to the little boy. Neville was trying to get Teddy to walk up to Harry and Daphne with the rings.

“You need to go give the rings to Mummy and Daddy,” Neville whispered.

“I want them, they my rings!”

A ripple of laughter went around the guests. Harry couldn’t help but join in, he knelt down to Teddy’s level, “Come on over then Teddy, you can come up here with me.”

Teddy reluctantly walked over and let Harry pick him up. He apologised to the officiator, “Sorry for the less than conventional service.”

The man smiled and said, “This is normal compared to some of the wedding ceremonies I have seen.”

Harry chuckled and the man said, “Place the ring on Daphne’s finger, Harry.”

Harry opened the box and took a ring. He sat Teddy on his hip and slid the diamond band onto Daphne’s finger.

“And would you place the ring upon Harry’s finger, please Daphne?” The man then asked.

Daphne slid a simple golden band onto Harry’s finger.

"I am now delighted to pronounce you man and wife," The man said with a smile, "You may now kiss the bride!"

Harry leant forward, and nudged Teddy over to one side so he could kiss his new wife. She smiled into the kiss when Teddy grabbed her and tried to jump from Harry over to her. A golden glow surrounded them as their magic combined, and all of their friends and family cheered.

“Want Mumma!”

Daphne laughed and took Teddy from Harry, “Hey baby. Guess what? We all have the same surname now.”

“Technically he goes one better than us, because he’s got two surnames,” Harry said, beaming at Daphne.

“Throw the confetti Victoire,” Fleur whispered from the front row.

Victoire, being a baby, took this literally and threw the whole pot of confetti into the air. Neville grabbed the tub before it hit anyone but the confetti rained down all over the occupants of the ballroom regardless.

“Come on everyone!” Neville said, quieting down the guests, “Everyone down to the entrance hall for photographs!”

***

By the time everyone reconvened in the ballroom for the wedding meal, plenty of photographs had been taken and plenty of glasses of prosecco had disappeared in the process.

Everyone was seated for the meal, and more alcohol was served along with the food. As such, by the time the food had been consumed everyone had loosened up a little which was a good thing because it was time for the speeches. Harry and Cygnus had both had time to work on theirs, but Neville was going to have to wing it because he had only found out that morning that he was going to be giving a Best Man speech.

Cygnus rose to his feet first, keeping himself upright with his cane. He cleared his throat and smiled, “I would like to thank everyone for coming today, especially because you had no idea that you would be attending a wedding. Thank goodness for transfiguration charms, or we would all have been in our comfortable clothes.”

There was a ripple of laughter at this.

“I would like to thank Astoria for helping Daphne plan this secret wedding, and I would like to thank everyone who helped this day come together,” Cygnus continued. He took a breath and steadied himself, “So what can I say about Daphne? Well it is a beautiful name for a beautiful girl, that was what I said to Daphne’s Mother the first time that I saw her as a newborn baby. Most people know the name ‘Daphne’ is Greek but it actually means laurel tree, or bay tree. In Greek mythology, Daphne was a nymph who was saved from an over-amorous Apollo by her Father, the river God. As the Father of _this _Daphne, I am certainly no river God, but I am protective. Daphne is my eldest daughter and she is strong, intelligent and has the sharpest wit. Harry, you are a very lucky man, but you had better keep your eyes open because I will warn you, I have taught her some wicked home-made curses over the years.”

The guests laughed, but Daphne was smiling tearfully because the speech he was giving, was the one she had found attached to her marriage contract when she had opened the fateful box that changed everything.

“I once wrote up a marriage contract for Daphne, but I think deep down I knew that Daphne would always marry for love, not convenience and I had one condition concerning that,” Cygnus continued, “I would only allow Daphne to marry a man worthy of her and I think she might have taken that advice a bit too literally since she has just married the saviour of the Wizarding World.”

Daphne rolled her eyes as the guests laughed and Harry grinned.

Cygnus smiled, “In all seriousness, I am very happy for Harry and Daphne and I would like you all to raise a glass with me.”

Everyone raised their glasses.

“And toast their marriage,” Cygnus finished, “To Harry and Daphne.”

“To Harry and Daphne!” Echoed throughout the ballroom.

Cygnus sat down and Daphne smiled at him, “Thank you, that was beautiful.”

Cygnus’s smile could not have been more genuine, “It was only the truth.”

Daphne was still smiling as Neville got to his feet, “Alright everyone, bear with me here. I only found out that I was giving a Best Man speech today a few hours ago so I am well and truly winging this.”

Harry grinned and leant back in his chair, he was expecting Neville to stumble and be awkward.

“So what can I say about Harry and Daphne?” Neville asked with a mischievous grin, “A lot, for starters I never thought I would be standing here as Harry’s best man at his wedding to Daphne when we first went back to school for our final year. I mean yes, Harry was obsessed with Daphne, but she pretty much blanked him for a good couple of months.”

Harry rolled his eyes while Daphne smirked.

“But Harry kept trying and trying, _and trying_,” Neville said, “As his friend, it was a very trying time let me tell you.”

There was a ripple of laughter at these words.

“And eventually Daphne said she would go out with him, probably just to get him off her back, but here we are,” Neville chuckled, “But in all seriousness, Daphne was the best thing that could have happened to Harry. She kicked him in the arse when he was filled with self-pity and she still does that now when he needs it which, let’s face it, is a lot.”

Harry snorted, “Cheers Nev.”

“He has a point,” Daphne chuckled.

Neville grinned over at his best friend, “And let’s not forget that they have taught each other a lot. Daphne has taught Harry how to act like a respectable pureblood and Harry has taught Daphne how to watch Muggle movies.”

There was another bout of laughter.

“But as much as I joke, Harry and Daphne are perfect for each other. Anyone with eyes can see how much they love each other and how much they adore their little boy. All of us, myself and my fiancé, Draco and his fiancé, we all get relationship envy from these two because they just make everything look so damn flawless! I think that is definitely Daphne’s influence because flawless has never been a word I would attribute Harry with!”

Daphne shot Harry an amused smirk.

“So like Cygnus, I would like to toast Harry and Daphne!” Neville said, raising his glass.

“To Harry and Daphne!”

Harry shot Neville an amused look as he rose to his feet, “I would like to thank Cygnus for his moving speech and Neville for his interesting one. It was definitely clear that you were winging it.”

“Don’t spring a wedding on me then!” Neville objected, to the laughter of the guests.

Harry chuckled too and turned to the hall where everyone was waiting for him to begin his speech, “One of the things people ask you all of the time when you tell them that you're getting married is, "When did you know you were in love with her?" and I hate that question because I can't pinpoint one moment.

I fell for Daphne over a period of time. It didn’t just happen, it took weeks or maybe even months in that time Neville so kindly referred to earlier,” there was some chuckling at this.

Harry smiled, “And little things in that time made me fall further and further. I don't know exactly which moment was the one that truly made me fall in love with Daphne. It might have been when she finally agreed to be my girlfriend on Bonfire night, or when I saw how much she loved Christmas. It might have been when she was there for me after the events of Valentine’s Day. I don't know if it was during family planning week when she took to Teddy better than I thought possible. I think the closest moment I can pinpoint of them all was when we took Teddy away for Easter and she treated him as if he was her own.

But my point is, there were so many moments when I looked at her and thought, Godric, I'm so lucky, that I can't tell you exactly which one was _the_ one. There are still moments like that, all of the time, moments like today. So I prepared a little something to show Daphne how much I love her, how thankful I am for her and how much I appreciate her.”

Daphne raised an eyebrow at him, “You did?”

Harry grinned at her and nodded, “I did,” he said as he jumped down from the top table and climbed up onto the stage behind it.

“This is something that not many people know about me, not even you Daph. When I was a kid, I wrote poems. My cousin used to tease me something rotten for it and during the war, Hermione told me that a poem is just a song without music,” Harry explained, “So I have a little bit of help since I cannot play a single instrument,” he pulled the cord to open the curtains, revealing the Weird Sisters all set up on the stage, “And I don’t know how great my singing is, but we’re about to find out. Daphne, I’ve been working on this for a little while and I hope you like it.”

Daphne looked just as stunned as everyone else as the music began to play. Harry took a breath and stood behind the microphone. He shut his eyes and began to sing, with a remarkably good singing voice. Daphne’s jaw dropped, “How did I not know that he can sing?” she asked the top table in general.

“Probably cause you never had to share a shower room with him,” Neville joked.

Daphne chuckled but then fell silent to listen to the song that Harry had written for her.

“I need a family, to drive me crazy. Call me out, when I’m low and lazy,” Harry sang, opening his eyes to look over at Teddy, “It won’t be perfect, but we’ll be fine cause I’ve got your back, and you’ve got mine,” he caught Daphne’s eye, “You’ve got mine.”

“We’ll have tiny boxes, for memories. Open them up and we'll set them free,” Harry kept his eyes on Daphne, “There’ll be bad days and some hard times, but I’ll keep your secrets, if you keep mine.”

Daphne smiled, albeit very tearfully at him. She would always keep his secrets, and he knew that.

“You are the memory that won’t ever lapse, when 25 years have suddenly passed. Wherever you take me, it’s clear I will go cause your love’s the one love that I need to know,” Harry sang beautifully.

“Who knew he was such a romantic?” Draco whispered to Hermione.

Hermione smiled softly, “I did, and I never underestimated how much Harry loves Daphne like you did.”

Draco smiled a little and grabbed Hermione’s hand.

“Take my picture and then you laugh, but I hate the way I look in photographs. Keep your memories, but don’t live in the past. I’m looking forward to the best days we will have,” Harry said, his eyes flicking over to Teddy who was bopping his head in time to the song, even though it was fairly slow.

As Harry sung the chorus again, it was clear to see that Daphne wasn’t the only one who connected with the song.

“You are the memory that won’t ever lapse when 25 years have suddenly passed,” Sadie caught Theo’s eye from where she sat at the top table. He noticed and smiled back at her, “Wherever you take me, it's clear I will go. Your love's the one love that I need to know.”

Draco tightened his hand on Hermione’s and Neville caught Lilly’s eyes from the top table too.

“You can cry away all your complicated memories, that keep you up so many times. But darling save your apologies, because I know that you’re scared but I swear, you’ll be alright,” Harry said, looking Daphne straight in the eye.

Daphne swallowed a lump in her throat and raised her hand to dab away the few tears that she had allowed to fall.

“When the answers escape us, when we start to fade, remember who loved you and the ones who have stayed,” Harry sang, and Daphne thought of their friends, of her Father and of her sister.

“Cause my body will fail, but my soul will go on so don't you get lonely, I'm right where you are,” Harry sang, and that lyric held more meaning than most people knew because Daphne was one of the few people who Harry had trusted with the truth about the fact he had been a horcrux.

“You are the memory that won’t ever lapse, when 25 years have suddenly passed,” Harry sang for a final time, “Wherever you take me it’s clear will I will go cause your love is the one love that I need to know.”

The song finished, and everyone clapped. Daphne wasn’t the only one who was crying either. Harry made his way over to the top table and she rose to her feet. She had dabbed the worst of the tears away, but a few more spilled as she kissed him and whispered, “Thank you. That was…that was the nicest thing anyone has ever done for me.”

Harry smiled back, “It took a lot of overcoming my stage fright, but Dave was a good listener.”

Daphne laughed weakly, “You practiced on Dave?”

“Snakes are very critical, I needed that to improve,” Harry said entirely seriously, “He would have told me if I was tone deaf.”

“I swear, you are unnaturally close to that snake,” Neville muttered which caused a ripple of laughter to go down the top table.

As people dispersed following the meal, Daphne whispered to Harry, “I’m going to nip out for a chat with my Dad. Are you okay on your own?”

“I’ll be fine,” Harry assured her, “I love you.”

Daphne smiled radiantly at him, “I love you too.”

She slipped out and left Harry to set the ballroom up for the party that would begin in the next hour or so. The guests had mostly gone to either the kitchen or the garden. Daphne was relatively sure that she would find her Father outside somewhere. After all, he could hardly go far and she liked to think that she knew him fairly well. She smiled when he saw him, sitting on a bench looking up at the night sky.

She sat down next to him and they were silent for a moment.

“I cannot tell you how proud of you I am today,” Cygnus said quietly.

Daphne frowned, “Why? All I did was get married.”

“To the man you love,” Cygnus said, turning to look at his daughter, “You went against typical pureblood etiquette, you went against your marriage contract and you married for love. You were strong enough to do that, and that makes me very proud of you.”

Daphne looked away from him to the night sky, “All I did, all I ever tried to do, was what felt right to me. That was why I couldn’t stand by Draco when he became a Death Eater. I did love him, but I couldn’t love a man who was capable of that. Harry…he has his flaws of course, the war left him with more mental scars than physical ones but he is a good man, he is a good Father and I love him, more than I ever thought I could love a person.”

"You know I approve of him, and I am glad you did not go down the route that your Mother and I did. You could have done, quite easily...due to the way we raised you."

Daphne sighed, “You tried your best to raise Astoria and I without the prejudice that you were raised with, and you did a good job of it. I mean I married Harry Potter, who is a blood traitor and Astoria-”

“You know fine well you married properly,” Cygnus cut in, smiling at his daughter, “Harry Potter may be a blood traitor but he has a title, a family manor and a hell of a lot of honour. Your sisters new boyfriend has no claim to any fortune.”

“Does it matter if Astoria is happy?” Daphne asked, “She never did have expensive tastes.”

“Unlike you,” Cygnus said, his smile turning into a smirk, “I know you love Harry and I know you married for love, but I doubt you see it as an inconvenience that he has money, a beautiful home, a title, a seat on the Wizengamot.”

“It isn’t about that, you’re right,” Daphne said honestly, “But all the same, I was raised a certain way and I am a bit of a privileged princess, which Harry likes to remind me of every so often,” she smiled, “So yes, it would have been hard to live without that.”

“Do you think Astoria will realise, in time, that she wants that too?” Cygnus asked.

Daphne leant back thoughtfully, “Do you know? I don’t think that she will because I genuinely don’t think it bothers her. Yes, she was raised in a nice big house with nice things and lots of money but for a long time she never knew your love so I think she craves love far more than nice things.”

Cygnus put his arm around her and sighed, “When did you get so grown up and wise, Daphne?”

Daphne smiled and kissed her Dad on the cheek, “When you were having your big nap Dad,” she said softly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The song that Harry sings to Daphne is called "Boxes" and it is by the Goo Goo Dolls :)


	122. Millennium

As everyone filed into the ballroom for the New Years Party, they had no idea that they were actually at a wedding. The guests who had witnessed the ceremony had been sworn to secrecy and although the hall was decorated, there was nothing to suggest that it had been for a wedding.

Everyone was in their dress robes and smart dresses, but the hosts were missing. This was because Harry and Daphne were planning to make a grand entrance.

The curtains on the stage drew back magically, and the Weird Sisters (who nobody had known were playing) walked forward. This in itself was the cause for a huge round of applause.

“Thanks for the warm welcome guys!” The lead singer said when the crowd had quietened down enough, “We just want to welcome you to the Potter New Years party on behalf of Harry and Daphne. Your lovely hosts have asked me to inform you that there are free drinks in the bar downstairs, but without further ado let’s welcome your hosts!”

There was a rumble as the music began to play, it was one of the bands slower songs.

“Wish a Happy New Year to Mr and Mrs. Potter!”

There was quiet confusion as Harry and Daphne stepped out onto the balcony on the upper level of the ballroom. Theo set off a couple of Weasley fireworks to draw the attention of the guests to the balcony.

Once they saw Daphne in a wedding dress, they all erupted into cheers.

Theo, although this should have been Neville’s job, then shouted loudly, “Happy surprise New Years wedding! Now let’s have one hell of a party!”

The Weird Sisters struck up the first few notes of one of their most popular, rocky songs and the party well and truly began.

Everyone had a great time, Daphne spent the night dancing her feet off with her best friends with a brief break to walk her Father back to his room when it all got a bit too much, but he had done so well that day. Harry enjoyed himself too, how could he not on his wedding day? He danced, he drank, he socialised and he laughed with his closest friends.

Most of all, he watched Daphne and wondered how the hell he had ever gotten so lucky. But sometime around 11.30pm, he slipped outside for a break from the noise and the heat of the hall. He thought he was hiding pretty well in a secluded little corner of the garden, but someone found him.

“Hey, you all out of steam already?” The voice asked, “I lasted longer than you and that was with Death Eaters trying their best to ruin my wedding.”

Harry smiled slightly, “Hey Bill,” he said as the eldest Weasley sat down next to him.

Bill leant back and handed Harry a hipflask.

Harry shook his head and leant back against the cold wall.

“What are you doing hiding out here? Your wife has been looking around the hall for you for the last five minutes,” Bill pointed out, swigging from the flask.

“I just needed a minute to think about the people who should have been here today,” Harry said, his voice caught a little, “I don’t know if Daphne has given much thought to the fact that her Mother isn’t here. I mean I doubt it with the way it all ended but…” he sighed, “I look at all I have and I feel so goddamn lucky, I do Bill, but I also see the things I’ve lost.”

Bill nodded, but said nothing.

Harry took a shaky breath, “I see Sirius getting too drunk and being an arse, only to get dragged away by Remus.”

“That is definitely how that would have gone down,” Bill said with a fond smile.

“And I see Tonks rocking out with all the younger ones to the Weird Sisters,” Harry continued, “I see Fred setting surprise fireworks off and pranking everyone with George.”

The fond smile on Bill’s face faltered slightly.

“And I-,” Harry’s breath caught again, “I see my Mum and Dad dancing, my Dad being silly about it and my Mum rolling her eyes and smacking him around the head.”

Bill placed the hipflask in Harry’s hand, “You have lost a lot Harry, we all have but you more than most. I can understand why that is hitting you today but you need to focus a little bit more on what you _do _have. Fred isn’t here to set fireworks off with George, but Theo managed just fine as George’s accomplice when they turned all of your Muggle guests into flamingo’s earlier.”

Harry chuckled at the memory.

“And Sirius isn’t here to get too drunk and be reprimanded by Remus,” Bill agreed, “But I’m fairly sure you’re going to see a just as hilarious, if not more so, exchange between Draco and Hermione at some point if he doesn’t ease up on the firewhiskey.”

Harry smiled at the thought.

“And your parents aren’t here,” Bill finished, “Not in body anyway, but I think we both know that they have not missed a second of this day. You died in the final battle and although you won’t talk about it, you know something. You have been so much more content since then because you know that there is _something _after this. You know that wherever they are, they are together and they are happy.”

Harry couldn’t argue with that.

“So get your arse back into that ballroom and dance with your wife, kiss your wife, _love your wife _because this is your wedding day. Once this day is over, you can’t get it back so do not miss one second of it moping,” Bill said firmly.

Somehow, although it was harsh, it had been exactly what Harry needed. Feeling far less sorry for himself, he got to his feet and smiled at the Weasley, “Thank you Bill,” he said before jogging back to the house.

When he got back to the ballroom, Daphne beamed at him so he made a beeline for her.

“Hey!” She said, pulling him in close, “Where did you go?”

“Just outside for a breather,” Harry said quietly.

Understanding flashed in Daphne’s eyes, “Are you okay now?”

“Perfect,” Harry said honestly.

“Alright everyone! I’m going to need the bride and groom up here to count us down to the millennium!”

A drunken cheer went around the hall as Daphne grabbed Harry’s hand and dragged him up onto the stage.

Harry smiled out at their friends and family, and conjured up a giant, glittery countdown above the stage.

“Thanks for joining us for this very special day everyone!” Harry said as he stood with his hand in Daphne’s, “We wanted to get married on New Years Eve because Daphne made a promise to me last year that she would be standing next to me this year to ring in the millennium with style.”

“She wasn’t kidding!” Theo shouted.

“It’s definitely got style!” George added.

Harry laughed and said, “So we’re going to need your help to do that. Are you ready?”

There was a general cheer along with several shouts of “Yes!”

Harry grinned. As they approached the millennium he couldn’t help but think back on the last ten years and the fantastic memories he had made, even in the midst of a war.

Daphne squeezed his hand tightly as the countdown began.

“10!”

Harry thought of the previous New Year, of Daphne making her promise and kissing him in this very room.

“9!”

Harry thought of dancing around the tent with Hermione, laughing and forgetting for a while that they were surrounded by war and death and pain.

“8!”

Harry thought of the Weasley’s and how they had taken him in, more so than ever in his 6th year.

“7!”

Harry thought of Sirius; of how he had stood there with a crooked smile, holding a glass of wine, grinning at him and smiling fondly at Remus in a way that he hadn’t understood until much later.

“6!”

Harry thought of Cho and how tentative that first kiss of his had been. He thought of Cedric and how much of a life had been wasted. He thought of Fleur and Viktor and the lasting friendships that he had made.

“5!”

Harry thought of Remus and that year when he had come into his life. He thought of that half-smile of Remus’s, of his tendency to offer chocolate to those in need.

“4!”

Harry thought of Ron and Hermione, and how they had stuck by him in 2nd year. He thought of Hermione and how she had rushed at him when she woke up at the end of the year. He thought of Draco as he remembered how much the blonde boy had glared at him for that one.

“3!”

Harry thought of his first Christmas and New Year at Hogwarts. He thought of Hagrid lugging the tree about. He thought about Flitwick decorating it. He thought about floating lanterns and fairy lights and Dumbledore with his twinkling blue eyes.

“2!”

Harry thought of the moment that he got that fateful letter. The day that he knew that his life was going to change. He thought about owls and Diagon Alley and the Hogwarts Express.

“1!”

Harry grinned at his wife and thought about their life together, the life they had built together. He thought about how happy she made him, about how seeing her with Teddy made his heart swell.

“HAPPY NEW YEAR!”

Somebody, Harry was pretty sure it was Theo, screamed that it was time to party like it was the millennium, but he wasn’t paying much attention. He was far too busy kissing his wife, thinking about the memories that they had made together and the memories that they would make in the future.

He knew, somewhere deep in his soul, that she would fulfil every wish and desire in his heart.

“Thank you.”

Daphne frowned as she broke away from him, “Thank you?”

Harry nodded, “Thank you,” he said sincerely, and somehow it needed no further explanation.

***

The party went on well into the early hours of the morning. After all, it wasn't just a wedding, it was also the only time that they were going to have the chance to ring in the millennium.

They had moved the party down to Harry’s little room of requirement/bar after they rang in the New Year as that was when the Weird Sisters went home. The only people who were left now were the hardcore drinkers, even Theo had been forcibly dragged away by Sadie sometime around 2am.

They were pretty unsure of the time, but it was somewhere in the region of 3-4am. Harry and Daphne were still going strong, and they were both very grateful that Andromeda had offered to stay in the guest room upstairs near Teddy so that they could enjoy their wedding night.

Harry smiled at his friends, those that were left were his closest friends. Fleur had gone home with Victoire hours ago, but Bill was still here with George. Charlie was sitting on a sofa with Astoria. Ron hadn’t passed out yet, and Percy was holding his liquor pretty damn well, although not anywhere near as well as Susan. Hermione, miraculously was still awake and semi alert and Draco was pretty far gone, but still with them for the moment. Neville and Lilly were doing pretty well, but Lilly was obviously more sober than Neville which was no surprise.

“I never thought I would see this day,” Harry admitted.

“What your wedding day?” Ron asked cluelessly, “I know you were a bit shit with girls but that’s kinda extreme.”

Daphne snorted in amusement, “I think he meant he didn’t think he would live till the millennium Ron.”

Harry chuckled, “Yeah I did. I thought that arsehole Voldemort would have killed me by now.”

“Nah,” Neville yawned, “We always knew you’d beat him.”

Hermione nodded and said unsteadily, “Well yeah…he was pretty fucking stupid.”

Draco raised an eyebrow at her, “Wanna elaborate?”

“Well,” Hermione said, pushing herself to her feet and then grabbing the bar for support, “What age was Dumblydore when he fell off the tower?”

“I think he had a bit of help from Snape,” Lilly snorted.

Hermione waved a hand, “Details, details. But he was like…one hundred and something right?”

“Yeah,” Harry said slowly.

“And Voldymort was what like 80?”

“Voldymort?” Harry giggled.

“Shoosh,” Hermione hushed drunkenly.

“Yeah he was like 70 or 80 or something,” Draco agreed.

“So,” Hermione said, “Having horcruxes didn’t exactly help him live forever.”

Harry slapped himself in the face.

Ron snorted, “Mione! You told Harry never to tell nobody about horcruxes.”

“Voldemort had horcruxes?” Draco asked.

“Yeah like 6,” Hermione said with another wave of her hand, “Well 7 if you include the one in Harry but you know, 6 _proper _horcruxy ones.”

Harry hit his head off the table, “Hermione, you are never allowed to drink again.”

Charlie raised his hand, “Fancy telling us what a horcrux is?”

“Oh its really bad magic,” Hermione explained, “Like you put your soul in something else, but only a little bit not the whole thing but you have to kill someone to do it so its very bad, very very bad.”

“So that’s why you had visions of Voldemort,” Bill said with a nod.

Harry nodded, “Yep, I was a horcrux thanks for throwing that one out there Mione.”

Hermione shrugged, “But seriously, Voldymort was so useless because he basically just thought magic was the answer to everything like a silly little pureblood even though he wasn’t even a pureblood.”

“She kinda has a point,” Lilly agreed, “If he just ate well and exercised he could have lived till at least a hundred, probably.”

“But no,” Hermione said dramatically, “He had to go and split up his soul and ruin perfectly good jewellery, what a fucking dumbass.”

“Yeah…” Draco agreed.

“And why did he have to go and fuck himself with the killing curse when Harry was a baby?” Neville asked.

“Yeah…Why didn’t he just throw him out of the window? Babies are fucking delicate man,” Ron added.

There was a general ripple, or more of a roar as it was, of laughter at this.

Until of course, Bill said, “Kinda concerning that you came out with that since you have a two month old kid Ron.”

Before anyone could insult Ron for his parenting skills, or lack thereof, a loud thud told them that Hermione had just passed out.

***

When Harry woke up the following morning, he felt very _very _ill. He reached over for Daphne but realised that the bed was empty, and that light was streaming in through the window. He sat up and immediately regretted it. As the room came into focus he thought he was going to have to dash to the bathroom, then he saw a vial on the bedside table.

Harry picked it up and threw it back before he even read the note underneath it.

_“It’s sober-up potion with a bit of an anti-nausea cure thrown in, but it’s a good thing it isn’t poison really since you just drank it before reading the note.”_

Harry chuckled at how well Daphne knew him. Then he got up, threw himself in the shower, got dressed and headed downstairs.

He felt the chill the moment he reached the entrance hall so he headed for the backdoor where Daphne was wrapped up in a warm jacket.

“Careful baby!”

There was a soft thump then the sound of Teddy’s laughter. Harry smiled and snuck up behind her, “Morning babe.”

Daphne smiled and leant back against him, “Good morning. Have you seen what your son is up to?”

Harry looked out into the garden where Teddy was playing on a junior broomstick. He had just climbed back on and whizzed across the garden, only to fall off again into a snowdrift.

“He’s doing it on purpose,” Harry laughed as the little boy got up and beamed over at them.

“Don’t you think he looks just like a little teddy bear in his fluffy snowsuit?” Daphne asked.

“Hmm, he does,” Harry agreed, kissing her on the cheek, “I love you, thank you for marrying me.”

“Is that because of the hangover potion?” Daphne asked knowingly.

“That’s not the only reason,” Harry promised, “But you were right, I didn’t read the note.”

Daphne chuckled.

“How long have you been up for?” Harry asked, “And what time _is _it?”

“It’s just after 11am,” Daphne replied, “And I’ve been awake since 7am. I didn’t feel great, not surprisingly after all of that alcohol last night, so I got up, took some of that potion I gave you, had some toast then picked Teddy up.”

“He had a lie in this morning then,” Harry noted.

“Are you really surprised?” Daphne asked, without taking her eyes off of Teddy, “It was a busy day for him yesterday.”

“It was a busy day for all of us,” Harry yawned, “When did we hit the sack?”

“4am,” Daphne said with a shake of her head, “I’m going hit the wall this afternoon after my three hours of sleep.”

“I’ll let you have a nap,” Harry joked, “Did everyone get home okay?”

Daphne snorted, “Are you serious? Did you see the state that they were in last night? They are all still here, I managed to get some of them into the guest rooms but the rest are sleeping in the bar downstairs.”

“It’s going to be a mess,” Harry grimaced.

“The house elves don’t mind tidying it, but I asked them to wait until tomorrow,” Daphne said honestly, “They have to spend Christmas eve cleaning and Christmas day cooking so I like to give them New Years off. We can handle a messy house for a couple of days.”

Harry smiled, “That’s very considerate of you, Hermione would be proud.”

Daphne just chuckled and called, “Teddy, time to come inside and get ready for lunch!”

“Wanna play snow Mummy!”

“I think you’ve had quite enough playtime in the snow!” Harry called out, “Listen to Mummy and come inside for lunch.”

Teddy huffed about it but dragged his broomstick inside anyway.

Daphne rolled her eyes, “He always listens to you first time.”

“It’s because I’m the authoritative figure,” Harry grinned, “You’re too nice babe.”

“You would not have said that a year ago,” Daphne said, an amused smile slipping onto her face.

“Well, a lot can change in a year,” Harry said, looking down at the shiny new wedding band on his finger.

“It certainly can,” Daphne agreed.

***

The rest of the drunkards from the night before surfaced at lunchtime after Harry plied them with Daphne’s magical hangover potion and Daphne cooked a full, delicious smelling English brunch for them.

When they were all sitting around the table, in various states of hungover/disarray, Harry said, “So Hermione, do you remember telling everybody about horcruxes last night?”

Ron snorted as Hermione’s face paled, “I…what?”

“Yeah, you told everyone about horcruxes,” Daphne said, putting a plate of sausages in the middle of the table.

“And you might have mentioned that Harry was one too,” Ron added.

“Oh…shit.”

“Hey, language!” Harry exclaimed, “No cursing in front of my son.”

“Sorry,” Hermione said sheepishly as Ron sniggered at Hermione’s expense.

“You were really drunk last night Hermione,” Draco said, an amused smile on his face.

“Coming from you?” Daphne snorted, “Draco, you kept walking into the support pillars then apologising to them!”

Draco’s cheeks flushed as the others laughed at them.

“Bill, do you actually want me to cook this bacon?” Daphne asked, glancing over her shoulder at her colleague, “I mean the full moon is like…tomorrow?”

Bill nodded, “Just give it a quick blast in the frying pan and it will be grand.”

Charlie shook his head, “Alright then wolfy.”

Bill nudged his younger brother and asked, “Where’s your other half?”

“Complaining that she’s dying and that she’s never drinking alcohol again and going on about some Niffler she found in her bed last night.”

Harry spat out his mouthful of coffee and looked at Daphne, who was smirking, “Daphne! You didn’t?”

“What?” Daphne asked innocently, “Did the Niffler escape from the greenhouse last night? That is _so _unfortunate.”

Charlie grinned, “Do you know what? I think I’m going to have to marry into this family after all.”

Harry barked out a laugh, “Anyway, back to the point. As I was saying, since Hermione told everyone about horcruxes last night I thought I better clarify. When everyone was at Hogwarts or fighting the war, Hermione, Ron and myself were hunting down and killing Voldemort’s horcruxes so when the battle came, he would be mortal and therefore would stay dead. That huge snake that Neville so awesomely beheaded? She was the last horcrux, when she died, Voldemort was mortal which was how I defeated him. As for how I became a horcrux, Voldemort’s soul was so fragile that when he killed me, it split again without him realising and part of it latched onto the only living thing in the vicinity; me.”

“How did you get rid of it?” Charlie asked curiously.

“I died,” Harry said honestly, “When I died out in the forbidden forest, the part of Voldemort’s soul inside me died but I came back, it had something to do with the fact my Mother sacrificed herself for me out of pure love.”

“Wow, that is deep,” Susan said after a long silence.

“But Harry is no longer a horcrux,” Daphne said, depositing a plate of well cooked bacon for the normal people and a plate of barely cooked bacon for Bill, “And the only weird side effect is that he can still talk to snakes so let’s drop the issue, never talk about or think about horcruxes again, and eat brunch. Okay?”

“Yes Mum,” Charlie joked.

Bill chuckled, “You are kind of a feeder.”

“And you do look after everyone,” Harry said, smiling fondly at his new wife as she sat down next to him.

Daphne rolled her eyes, “Great, I’m totally the Mum of the group,” she conceded to the laughter of their friends.

***

After lots of hugs, and at least three “Be good for Grandma”’s, Harry and Daphne headed off on their very short honeymoon. It was only a couple of days away, but it was exactly what they needed after the stress of planning Christmas and a surprise wedding right at the back of it.

“So where are we going?” Daphne asked as Harry slung a bag over his shoulder and led her down the garden path towards the gates, “You have been very secretive about it.”

Harry smiled at her as he opened the gates, “It’s a surprise.”

“It’s Paris, isn’t it?”

“It’s not Paris,” Harry said, he clicked his fingers, “Because Paris is _your _roaming ground, you already know it like the back of your hand.”

Daphne narrowed her eyes at him, “So where _are _we going?”

At that point, a chariot descended from the sky and landed in front of them.

“Is that a winged horse?” Daphne asked in disbelief.

“Yeah, it’s just a Thestral that Charlie used some weird, but totally ethical charm on,” Harry grinned, “But do you get the hint?”

“Greece!”

Harry frowned, “No…Rome.”

“But winged horses are from Greek mythology,” Daphne pointed out.

“Are they?”

Daphne nodded and hid a smile behind her hand.

“Well…fuck. I messed that one up a bit.”

Daphne couldn’t help herself, she let out a snort of amusement, “I’ve never been to Rome though so don’t sweat it.”

Harry blew out a sigh of relief, “Alright, then I didn’t mess up too badly, that’s fine.”

Daphne laughed as he helped her into the chariot. Once the doors were shut, Harry hit the roof and it took off. Daphne couldn’t help but smile as she looked out of the window at Potter Manor, the house that had very quickly become not only _her _home, but their family home.

Not for the first time, Daphne thanked the stars for all the luck that they had granted her.


	123. When in Rome

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the long wait for an update, my life has been hectic thanks to work and the holidays with two kids under the age of three! I have two chapters coming up today, but no idea how long a wait it will be for the next update, sorry! :(

“Anyone else think this is weird? You know, drinking without Harry?”

“Nah, just you that’s missing your boyfriend,” Theo joked, slapping Neville on the back as he placed a drink in front of him.

Blanche snorted, “Coming from you Theo? You couldn’t have been any gayer with Draco unless you were actually fucking him.”

Draco snorted and spat out of his firewhiskey, while Neville chuckled in amusement, “Nice one Blanche, thanks.”

Blanche just winked at him, “His loss anyway, missing out on pre-term drinks with us. I mean we’re _great _company.”

“Not as great as his new, very hot wife, who I bet he is having a lot of fun screwing,” Theo pointed out.

“Not as much fun as you did hopefully, or he’ll have two kids before long,” Olivia joked, smirking at Theo.

Draco and Neville roared with laughter at that while Theo rolled his eyes, “Oh go on, joke all you want. I’ll be a great Dad, thanks very much.”

“I’m sure you will be, but you still have to admit that you didn’t plan on being one so young,” Draco pointed out.

“True, fair point,” Theo shrugged, sipping his firewhiskey, “Did anyone actually invite Harper and Emily?”

Olivia snorted, “No, why would we? All they do is complain and try to cover up the fact they’re shagging each other.”

“Yeah they aren’t going to last beyond first year, are they?” Neville asked, although it was pretty much a rhetorical question. Despite that, the others all shook their heads.

“So cheers to us, for lasting this long,” Draco said, holding up his firewhiskey glass, “We’re like the Olympians of Auror Recruits.”

“What…the fuck…is an Olympian?” Theo asked.

“You mean like in Ancient Greece?” Blanche asked.

“Ancient Rome actually, but no,” Draco said offhandedly, “Olympians as in Muggle sports people?”

He was met with a sea of blank faces.

Draco rolled his eyes, “So the best of the best sports people in the Muggle world enter this competition called the Olympics every four years, and the country with the team of best sports people wins it.”

Blanche raised an eyebrow, “Sounds like a farce to me.”

Olivia nodded, “Muggle conspiracy if I ever heard one.”

Draco frowned, “Uh…_how_?”

“I mean who invented these Olympics?” Blanche continued, “Sounds like the kind of thing some billionaire investor would do to find the greatest humans and create a justice league, you know?”

“I can honestly say that I have never thought that Blanche,” Draco deadpanned.

“But,” Olivia pointed out, “It makes sense, doesn’t it?”

“It does,” Neville agreed.

Theo nodded thoughtfully, “Yeah…I mean or maybe the DMLE are behind it. Maybe the Olympics is a mass muggle experiment to see what Muggles are capable of.”

“Ooh, good idea Theo!” Blanche said, while Olivia nodded eagerly.

Draco shook his head in disbelief, “Right, forget I ever mentioned it!”

This, of course, did not happen.

“Speaking of conspiracy theories, most of the muggle ones can be explained away by magic,” Theo said as he waved the waitress over to get them another round of drinks.

“Oh here we fucking go,” Draco muttered under his breath.

“For example,” Theo continued, “Princess Diana, that was the hit wizards that were behind that one. I mean she was a bloody Witch, wasn’t she? She could hardly keep using compulsion charms and love potions to worm her way into the nations hearts.”

Draco let his head drop onto the table.

“And!” Theo continued, “JFK? The second gunman, also a hit wizard from MACUSA obviously. He was threatening to expose the truth about wizards, obviously couldn’t let _that _happen.”

Draco groaned, he had been subjected to this _too _many times. Theo had hated Muggle Studies, but he had _loved _conspiracy theories.

“And _everyone _knows that Area 51 is actually the site of MACUSA’s department of mysteries, hence _aliens_,” Theo rolled his eyes, “So MACUSA basically invented UFO’s and the little green man. Come to think of it, they should get royalties from that film with the little alien dude on a bicycle.”

“Theo, would you please just _stop_?” Draco asked, although his voice was muffled because his head was still in his hands.

“No, no. I haven’t even gotten started on crop circles yet-”

“Ugh,” Draco groaned, letting his head hit the table, “I miss Harry.”

***

“Okay, so I love Rome.”

Harry grinned over at his wife, “I knew you would.”

Daphne laughed, it still sent shivers down Harry’s spine when he heard the beautiful, melodic sound. She threw her head back and leant against the railing as they stood outside the ruins of the Imperial Palace on Palatine Hill and looked out over Rome while the sunset.

“I feel naked when I’m with you, you know.”

Daphne turned her head to the side to look at him, “Well we are naked together, a lot,” she joked.

Harry shook his head and looked her in the eye, “No…that’s not what I mean. I mean that…it’s easy to take your clothes off and have sex. I mean people do it all the time, sometimes with people that they don’t even care about. But you see through the whole chosen one thing, you see past the fame and the war guilt, you look past it all and see _me_. I opened up my soul to you, I tell you my thoughts, my fears, my hopes and dreams for the future and…it makes me feel naked, to you.”

Daphne smiled softly at him, “That was deep.”

Harry shrugged, “Well, we are on our honeymoon.”

Daphne reached across and took his hand, “I feel naked with you too. You saw past my defences when nobody else could, you still do every single day actually. You see past the ice queen and the bitterness to see _me. _So by your definition, I feel very naked with you.”

Harry smiled at her.

“I also _like _being naked with you,” Daphne added with a cheeky smirk, “A lot.”

Harry laughed heartily and pulled her in for a kiss, “By Merlin, I love you Mrs Potter.”

Daphne grinned against his lips, “And I love you, Mr Potter.”

***

“I reckon you should come to dinner today.”

“With your family?”

Charlie raised an eyebrow at the girl lying in his bed, “Tori, you literally introduced me to _all _of your family at Christmas. Like your scary Dad and his scary sort of girlfriend who also happens to be the wife of _my _Dads sworn enemy. I reckon you can hack a bit of slagging and slightly overdone beef at the hands of my family.”

Astoria rolled her eyes. She got up, draped her silk dressing gown over herself and crossed her arms, “I am not afraid to meet your family if that is what you are insinuating Charlie. _I _am a business woman, _I _am the CEO of Greengrass Industries and I can handle Molly Weasley any day of the week.”

Charlie smirked at her, “So _why_ are you so reluctant then? You had no problem telling your Father where to shove it when he questioned that you were dating a Weasley so what is your problem with me putting my family in their place?”

Astoria sighed and clicked her fingers to conjure the coffee pot, “If I explain, do you promise to be supportive and not judgemental?”

“Of course love,” Charlie said, accepting the cup of coffee she had just handed him.

She perched on the edge of the bed and sighed again, “I’m not scared, but I am nervous because your family dynamics could not be more different to mine. I am used to my sister and my Mother, my Father was rarely around to be honest. Then there was my Uncle who obviously is my biological Father, but he was around even less and he was always more interested in my Mother than Daphne or I.”

Charlie smiled fondly, “You’re rambling.”

“I know,” Astoria rolled her eyes, “But my point is, I’m not used to brothers and I know how you and your brothers are with your teasing and taunting, and that makes me nervous.”

“If my brothers tease you or make you uncomfortable, I’ll knock them for six,” Charlie assured her, “They might slag me for dating someone half my age, but they can’t tease you, can they? I mean _look at you_, you are beautiful, intelligent, funny, you like dragons, you Astoria Greengrass, are perfect and far too good for me. So if they slag me, that is why.”

Astoria smiled slightly, “Alright, I’ll come.”

Charlie smiled back, “Good, because if it makes you feel any better, I was dreading meeting your family. I like Daphne from what I’ve seen of her at the Burrow, and Harry is practically my brother but meeting your Dad? That was scary for me.”

Astoria sipped her coffee, “I can understand that. Meeting my Dad after he woke up…that was scary for me. But I am sorry that I didn’t realise how nerve-wracking it must have been, meeting my family on Christmas Day. I just figured since you knew Harry and Daphne you wouldn’t mind…Harry sort of engrained himself into our family seamlessly, you know? It was like one minute he was dating Daphne at school and then the next thing I knew he was just so familiar, and my Dad loves him too. It’s nerve-wracking for me, because I feel like I’ll never get a boyfriend like that.”

“You put too much pressure on yourself,” Charlie said softly, “And on me. We’ll never be Harry and Daphne because those two are like the freaking power couple of our generation. But we don’t have to be them, it’s okay to just be _us_.”

“And how are your family going to feel about us?” Astoria asked anxiously.

“They’ll be fine with it,” Charlie assured her, “Just trust me on this one.”

Astoria searched his eyes for a moment before nodding, “Fine, I trust you Charlie, I do.”

Charlie got up and kissed her lightly, “They’ll love you as much as I do,” he promised.

The words were already out of his mouth before he realised the impact they would have. Her eyes widened and she nearly slipped off the bed, which would have been funny in other circumstances.

“You…you love me? Charlie, we’ve only been together for a few months-”

“I know, I’m sorry,” Charlie said quickly, “That was stupid of me to say it too soon. I’ve freaked you out, haven’t I?”

Astoria swallowed and shook her head, “Uh…no. You just…honestly, you just took me by surprise,” her expression softened, “You do that quite a lot actually.”

Charlie smiled, his shoulders visibly relaxed with relief, “Good. Now look, you don’t have to say it back until you’re ready alright? No obligations at all.”

Astoria just nodded.

“I’m gonna have a shower then get ready for lunch,” Charlie added, kissing her again before slipping into the bathroom.

***

“Charlie!”

“You came sweetheart!”

Charlie smiled at his family as he stood in the doorway of the kitchen. 

“Hey everyone,” Charlie said as he stepped aside slightly, “For those of you who don’t know, I’d like you to meet my girlfriend Astoria.”

There was a stunned silence which Percy broke by smiling at Astoria, “Hi Astoria, how are you doing?”

“Good thank you Percy,” Astoria replied with a nervous smile.

Bill stepped forward and raised an eyebrow, “Hi Astoria. Hey Charlie, not gonna lie, I’m still pretty annoyed about the fact I found out you two were dating when I caught you snogging at Harry and Daphne’s wedding though.”

Charlie fixed his brother with a long look, “Bill, don’t be judgemental about this just because I didn’t tell you straight away. I mean you can’t judge, your wife is 7 years younger than you.”

“I’m not judging,” Bill said flatly, “But I am pissed off because _you, _my brother and my best friend, did not tell me about this and Daphne, who I spend almost every day with in a small office with not much else to talk about, did not bloody tell me about this!”

“She did just find out before Christmas,” Astoria defended Charlie.

“But I mean I knew before you Bill,” Percy smirked, “And I thought _you _were Charlie’s favourite brother.”

“Boys,” Molly warned.

“Percy knew before me?” Bill asked in disbelief, “Percy?”

“Come on Bill, he’s dating Susan Bones, she was at Potter Manor for Christmas too,” Charlie pointed out, “It’s not like I’ve been intentionally keeping it from you, you’re my best friend.”

“Whatever Charlie, we’re done. I need to go find a new favourite brother,” Bill said, smiling slightly as he did.

Charlie punched him in the arm, “You’re a fucking fanny you know that?”

“Language Charles!”

Astoria hid a smile behind her hand.

“Sorry Mum,” Charlie and Bill said in unison.

Molly smiled at Astoria, “Hello Astoria, it is lovely to meet you. Daphne has talked about you a lot of course.”

“Has she?” Astoria asked in surprise.

“Of course,” Molly said with a kind smile, “She always seemed very proud of you. Would you like to help me set the table?”

“Of course,” Astoria replied.

Molly handed her a pile of cutlery and asked, “So however did you and Charlie meet? Forgive me if I sound rude, but you do not exactly run in the same circles.”

Astoria laughed, “No, we don’t, you’re right. We met by chance actually. Daphne and Harry were going to Shell Cottage to spend the weekend with Bill and Fleur, and they asked me if I wanted to tag along. I didn’t realise that Bill had also invited Charlie to cheer him up after his break up, and while we were there we got talking.”

“I see,” Molly said as she set glasses out on the table with a wave of her wand, “Terrible business his last break-up.”

“I know who he dated, don’t worry,” Astoria said before Molly could go into it, “Charlie was completely honest about his attempted relationship with his former flame.”

“So you know that it ended because Aurora did not want to have a family for quite some time, and that Charlie did?” Molly asked.

Subtle Molly, Astoria thought to herself. However, she just smiled and replied, “Yeah, I knew that.”

“Oh good,” Molly said, smiling brightly, “A relationship is always better without secrets. Don’t you think?”

Astoria nodded her agreement, but before anymore could be said, the backdoor opened once more.

“Oh Hermione, Draco, you made it,” Molly said cheerfully as she hugged Hermione and smiled warmly at Draco.

Draco smiled back and handed her a bottle of firewhiskey, “A belated Christmas gift Molly.”

“Oh thank you Draco,” Molly said, as she set it down on the table.

Draco shot Astoria a grin, “You two must be official if he brought you here.”

Astoria smirked, “You’re just jealous because it took Hermione a year to bring you here.”

“And the rest,” Hermione chuckled, “But Draco _was _a bit of a dick to almost everyone in this house for many years before I managed to reign him in. You and Daphne on the other hand, are just nice people who happen to have been in Slytherin house.”

“Good point, well made,” Charlie said, putting his arm around Astoria and grinning at Hermione, “I saw that article you wrote about guard dragons for the prophet last week by the way. Kudos to you.”

Draco rolled his eyes, “Oh great, Tori, fancy a tour of The Burrows very impressive farm gardens? Those two are going to be talking dragon welfare for at least half an hour.”

Hermione glared at Draco, “At least someone appreciates the work I am trying to do Draco!”

“See?” Draco mouthed to Astoria.

Molly chuckled, “Don’t be too long, dinner will be ready soon.”

“We won’t delay you Molly,” Draco promised as he led Astoria outside.

Astoria hooked her arm through his as he ‘showed’ her the chicken coup, “What are you up to?”

“Partly, I don’t want to listen to my fiancé drone on about fucking guard dragons for any longer than I need to,” Draco said, shooting Astoria an exasperated look, “But also, I wanted to give you a word of advice.”

“About what? Dating Charlie?”

Draco nodded, “About dating someone of a different class.”

“Draco-”

“Just hear me out,” Draco said calmly, “This isn’t like your sister and Harry. Yes Harry is down to earth and doesn’t realise how powerful or famous he is, but he is a lord, he has a manor and a title and a place on the Wizengamot.”

“I don’t care about that Draco,” Astoria assured him, “I will have my own place on the Wizengamot when the business settles, I do not need to find one through a husband.”

“I know you don’t, and I know you don’t care about that stuff right now,” Draco said honestly, “But there will come a point when you will realise quite how different you are. It might be something small, or it might be something big but something will make you think; oh shit, I’m the Princess and he’s the frog, you know?”

Astoria frowned, “No, I really don’t know.”

Draco sighed, “Basically Astoria, someday you will realise that you are a Greengrass with a rich Daddy, a good family name, and plenty of money and that he is a Weasley with no claim to anything. When that day comes, it will test your relationship and if you don’t expect that day to come, it can really knock you for six.”

“You sound like you’re talking from experience,” Astoria said, shooting him a knowing look.

“Of course I am,” Draco admitted. He stopped in the orchard and leant against a tree, “I love Hermione and I am fully committed to marrying her and raising a family with her but that is _now_. It wasn’t always that way, and even now most of our fights are about cultural differences. There was this point when it became make or break, and I either had to accept that things would change if I chose Hermione, or break things off with her. Obviously, I accepted the changes but I am not a Malfoy anymore, I lost my name, my manor, my fortune, all of it. I’m a Black with a minor title, a seat on the Wizengamot not anywhere near as prominent as my old one and a relatively small house in London. My life changed because I chose love over status.”

Astoria sighed and leant against the tree too, “I know what you’re saying.”

“And?”

“And I can hack it, a life without status,” Astoria said, “Besides, I don’t think it should all be about who your Husband is. I think it can be about how powerful you are as a woman, and I intend to bring Greengrass Industries into the 21st century.”

Draco smiled and pushed himself off of the tree, “Then I am sure that you will be just fine.”

Astoria followed him back in the direction of the house, “But I appreciate the heads up Draco, honestly.”

Draco shrugged, “If someone had given me a heads up, Hermione and I wouldn’t have struggled to adapt so much.”

They walked past the chicken coup and heard Molly calling that dinner was ready. Draco laughed and opened the door, “You had better hurry in quickly, you don’t want to face Molly’s wrath.”

***

Astoria had managed to make small talk with everyone over lunch. Once everyone had eaten, they migrated into the living room as they often did.

Charlie was sitting in the window seat, watching Astoria talk animatedly with Percy about economics, when he was tapped on the shoulder. He looked up and drew himself out of his thoughts, “What’s up Bill?”

“You got a minute to chat? Quietly?” Bill asked.

Charlie frowned, but rose to his feet and followed Bill out of the room anyway. They slipped through the kitchen into one of the downstairs bedrooms, the one that they had shared as kids. Their Mother used it as a laundry room now but there were still remnants of their childhood, like the muggle posters of half-naked girls with tattoos, sitting on motorbikes, that they had attached to the walls with permanent sticking charms.

“I just wanted to have a chat with you, about Astoria,” Bill said honestly as he perched on a chair.

Charlie raised an eyebrow at him, “A serious one this time?”

“Yeah,” Bill said, he ran his hand through his hair, “Because the thing is Char, I _do _know what it’s like to date someone when there is an age gap concerned. There are 7 years between me and Fleur but there are 9 years between you and Astoria and…you never think it’s going to be an issue, but it can be.”

Charlie sighed, “Go on?”

“When Fleur and I started dating, we fell in love really quickly. She was hot as hell and Merlin, that French accent did things to me and I had never fallen head over heels for a girl like that, but when the adrenaline died out and we were left exhausted with a screaming baby, we started to realise that we really didn’t have anything in common.”

“Bill-”

“Just hear me out Char,” Bill cut in.

Charlie raised his hands, but shut up.

Bill continued, “But that could have happened to any couple, regardless of the age gap. Then we hit the killer one, I was quite happy with one kid but Fleur wants more, she wants to have another baby then get back to her career. She said that I’ve had my career so I should take a step back for her, but Char I don’t want to step back. I’m only 30, yes I’ve taken on a less active role for Vic but I can’t hack giving it all up, I’ve got a lot left in me yet. But Fleur’s only 23, she’s still so young and full of ambition. It just…it doesn’t always work out Char.”

“I appreciate what you’re trying to do,” Charlie said, placing his hand on his brothers shoulder, “But with all due respect Bill, you and Fleur rushed into marriage because of the war and Mum might not, but you and I both know that Vic, as amazing as she is, wasn’t exactly planned.”

Bill nodded reluctantly.

“Tori and I don’t have that problem,” Charlie said calmly, “And we definitely don’t have to worry about the ‘nothing in common’ thing. She is a die hard Puddlemere fan, she loves tagging along to games with the Potters-”

“Okay, it’s weird that we can call them that now,” Bill interjected.

Charlie chuckled, “I know, but what I’m saying is that Astoria and me, we aren’t you and Fleur. No offence to her, but Fleur has always been a little immature. Astoria has had a harder life, she’s the CEO of a globally recognised company at 19 years old for crying out loud, sometimes I genuinely forget how young she is because Merlin knows she doesn’t act it.”

“I get that,” Bill promised, “And I’m sorry if I offended you Char, I just don’t want you to make the same mistakes that I did.”

Charlie smiled sympathetically, “I appreciate that Bill, I really do. And I’m sorry things are still shit with Fleur, are they not getting any better?”

Bill shook his head and rubbed his eyes, “No, if anything things are getting worse. It’s just…Merlin Charlie, there’s just no love there anymore, only anger and resentment.”

“You’ve got to end it then Bill,” Charlie said, squeezing his brothers shoulder, “Before Vic gets dragged into the mess.”

Bill dragged his hands through his hair again and nodded, “I know I do, deep down I know that. We’ve been trying to make it work for her, but we’re making each other miserable and we both know that.”

Charlie sighed, “I’m sorry Bill, I really am. Here I am, stupidly happy when I should be helping you through this.”

Bill shook his head, “Don’t be stupid Char, it does me the world of good to see you stupidly happy. When you broke up with Rory, I worried I would never see that again.”

Charlie smiled and hugged his brother, “You’ll be happy again too, even if you do split up with Fleur. There’s light at the end of every tunnel Bill, you just never know how long that tunnel is when you’re in it.”

Bill hugged his brother back, “Thanks Charlie,” he said, hoping his brother wouldn’t be able to tell that his voice was slightly choked because he was holding back tears.

**TBC!**


	124. Brothers & Sisters

When Daphne walked into the office yawning on the 4th of January, she expected a slagging from Bill.

“Coffee, with a shot of vanilla because it’s the new year so why the hell not?” Daphne said, in-between yawns as she placed the cardboard cup down in front of Bill, “Merlin, I am tired. I should have asked for the day off since I literally just got back from my honeymoon.”

“Uh-huh,” Bill said non-committedly.

Daphne frowned and sat down at her desk, “What’s up with you?”

“Nothing,” Bill replied.

“Cut the crap Bill,” Daphne said bluntly, “I’m too tired for subtlety. What did I do to piss you off?”

“Well you never told me that your sister was dating my brother for a start,” Bill said irritably.

“Seriously?” Daphne asked in disbelief, “I found out _after _we broke off for Christmas and this is me just seeing you now so what is this _really _about?”

“It’s about this alright?” Bill snapped as he threw a pile of parchment down in front of her angrily.

Daphne only had to glance down briefly to realise that it was a divorce settlement advice pack.

“It’s about the fact that I’m a failure as a Husband and a failure as a Father! It’s about my brother finding happiness with your sister of all people while my life is fucking falling apart! I have never been a jealous man Daphne but right now, I am!”

“Stop,” Daphne said sharply as she pushed herself to her feet, “I have just had a hectic holiday and I was up half the night with a teething werewolfy toddler so boss or not, I am not taking your shit today! You are not a shit Father, by realising that you and Fleur are making each other miserable, you are being a very good Father because you are ensuring that your beautiful little girl will not grow up watching a toxic relationship and thinking that’s the norm! You are not a shit Husband just because your marriage didn’t work out! You got married in a war Bill, you were bloody scared, I mean of course you were. You remember the first war, you remember the deaths, you remember losing your bloody Uncles, you remember it all! You rushed in, and maybe that was a mistake but you have created a wonderful daughter together and you have had some great years together so you _do not _get to call yourself a failure, do you understand me?”

Bill sighed and sank back down against his desk, “Sorry, you’re right. I’m being a twat.”

“You’re being an idiot, there’s a difference,” Daphne said as she picked up his coffee and pressed it into his hands, “I’m sorry that it’s gotten to this point through Bill.”

“So am I,” Bill said quietly, “Because when the shit hits the fan, she’s going to fight me with that vicious French temper of hers and I know I’ll only get to see Vic every so often because that’s how it goes, the Father never bloody comes into it when there’s a divorce.”

“Which is wrong,” Daphne agreed, “But you have really good grounds to put forward the mixed custody argument. You are breaking up on amicable grounds because you have fallen out of love, you haven’t cheated or done something that would put a mark against your name as far as the judge is concerned. You also have a very good job, I really think if we put forward the case of split custody, with you getting Vic every weekend, the judge signing off on the settlement will go for it.”

“We?” Bill asked, glancing over at her.

“Of course, we,” Daphne said with a roll of her eyes, “Do you really think I’m going to let you drag yourself through this on your own? Astoria and I will get our heads together and help you write up the best settlement plan we can think of, and Charlie and Harry will make sure you don’t lose yourself in alcohol and self-pity. I can only imagine how shitty a time this is Bill, but you aren’t alone, I promise.”

Bill managed a small smile, “Thank you Daphne.”

Daphne smiled back, “Drink your coffee.”

Bill laughed weakly, “Whose the boss here again?”

“Sometimes I wonder,” Daphne said, smirking over at the Weasley, “Now, what are we actually doing today?”

“Catching up on the two weeks’ worth of letters that came in over Christmas break,” Bill said, gesturing to the bundle of letters on her desk.

Daphne split them and chucked half onto his desk, “Get reading then, it will take your mind off of your current plight.”

Bill chuckled again as he picked a letter up, “Touché.”

***

When Harry jogged out onto the pitch that morning, he was expecting some sort of prank. But his friends just grinned and said, “Look, it’s the newlywed!”

Harry laughed as he joined them.

Theo raised a hand, “Join the happily married with kids club dude.”

Harry hi-fived him and chuckled, “Thanks Theo,” he said as they began their first lap. For once, they were eager to run because it was the 4th of January, therefore it was _freezing_.

“How was Rome?” Draco asked.

“Amazing, Daphne loved it,” Harry replied

“You knew she would,” Neville said, shooting his best friend a grin.

“Nev missed you while you were away, he thought it was weird drinking at The Phoenix without you,” Theo joked.

Harry snorted, “I was away two days Nev.”

“I didn’t miss you, I just thought drinking without you was weird because you’re always there,” Neville pointed out, “Not that you missed much, apart from Theo banging on about conspiracy theories while Draco tried to drink himself into a stupor.”

Harry positively cackled, “Sorry I missed it actually.”

Draco rolled his eyes and Sumner shouted, “Pick up the pace girls! This is training not a goddamn Sunday stroll!”

They picked the pace up and Theo asked, “So what did you do in Rome? Apart from shag?”

“Unlike you and Sadie, we didn’t spend our honeymoon shagging like rabbits,” Harry teased, “But we did squeeze a lot into a couple of days. We saw the Colosseum and the Circus Maximus, then I took her to Palatine Hill to watch the sunset over Rome.”

“Merlin, you Gryffindors really are a romantic bunch,” Draco grumbled, “Hermione had better not expect that when we go on our honeymoon.”

“You need to set a date for the wedding before you start talking about honeymoons,” Harry joked.

“We have,” Draco argued, “Since we are getting married _this _year now, Hermione figured that setting a date might be a good idea.”

“So when is the big day?” Neville asked.

“23rd of December,” Draco replied, “She wants a Christmas wedding, but nobody wants to go to a wedding on Christmas Eve, so I convinced her to go for the 23rd.”

“Where are you getting married?” Harry asked curiously, “Because her Muggle family will want to come, won’t they?”

“She’s not bothered about anyone apart from her parents so it’s going to be a wizarding wedding,” Draco said, “No idea where she wants to have the damned thing though. She was adamant that she wasn’t getting married at Grimmauld Place.”

“Yeah, I really don’t blame her for that one,” Harry snorted, “You can use the Manor if you want?”

“I don’t think she’ll go for that idea,” Draco said, “You know, you got married there and this is Hermione we’re talking about, she’ll want to do something different.”

“Knowing the princess, she’ll want to get married in a castle,” Theo joked.

“Or a library,” Neville chortled.

“Salazar knows,” Draco muttered under his breath as they passed Sumner once more.

“A little less conversation, a little more action boys!”

Theo grinned at Sumner, “Didn’t know you were a fan of Elvis sir!”

“Shift your arse or you will be doing an extra 5 laps Nott!” Sumner barked in response.

***

“How was your first day back at work?” Harry asked as he swept into the kitchen a little late that night.

“Awful, but tell me about yours first,” Daphne said, putting plates down on the table and a plastic bowl on Teddy’s high chair.

“Fine, minimal slagging from the guys for being a newlywed and no sympathy from Sumner about the fact we’ve all spent the last few days eating our body weight in food,” Harry said with a grin, “We’ve all gained a bit of weight, slowed down a bit you know? He gave us a week to get back in shape for a duelling contest on Saturday afternoon, spectators are allowed.”

“As much as watching you get all hot and sweaty in a duel would be enjoyable for _me, _I don’t think it’s a good idea for Teddy to see that,” Daphne said, shooting him an amused look.

“Fair point, unfortunately,” Harry grinned, “What was so awful about your day? Tough curse?”

Daphne shook her head and sank down into the seat opposite him, “No, Bill and Fleur are getting divorced.”

Harry’s face fell, “Really? Oh sh – sugar plum fairies, I thought they could work it out.”

Daphne nodded glumly, “I thought they would too. I thought maybe it was just a slump after Vic was born and that they would get through it, but Bill doesn’t love her anymore and without love…there’s no chance.”

“So they are properly getting divorced then?” Harry asked sadly.

Daphne nodded again, “Astoria and I are going to help him write up a good settlement so that he and Fleur get shared custody of Vic and I’m going to need you to help Charlie keep Bill from going off the deep end.”

Harry nodded, “I can do that, Bills like a brother to me…all of the Weasley’s are like family.”

“I know babe,” Daphne said, she shoved her food around the plate, “And really quickly, Bill has gone from being my boss to one of my best friends. Logically I know that he didn’t have any long-term serious relationships before Fleur and he was just fine, so he should be again but heart break can do things to you and not being able to see your kid apart from on weekends…”

“I get it,” Harry said, resting his hand on top of hers, “If anything happened between us and I had to go from being a full-time parent to a part-time one, I wouldn’t cope well with it either so from that perspective I can relate to Bill. As for keeping him from going off the deep end, that one is definitely going to be up to Charlie. From everything I’ve heard about the Weasley boys, when Bill does go off the deep end, Charlie is the only one who can bring him back.”

Daphne nodded and looked down at her untouched plate of food, “Yeah…I figured it was going to be that way. I’ll talk to Charlie about it tonight, once Ted’s in bed.”

“Alright,” Harry said, squeezing her hand, “But Bill’s going to get through this, as hard a time as it is for him, because he has his family and he has us.”

Daphne smiled warmly at him, “Do you know something? That’s exactly what I told him.”

“Guess my ‘pointless optimism’ as you once called it, is rubbing off on you,” Harry said with a fond smile.

“Guess so,” Daphne chuckled.

“MORE PEAS!”

“And the moment is ruined by the pea hungry toddler,” Harry said, while Daphne laughed heartily.

“Here you go little man, I don’t really like peas anyway,” Harry chortled as he tipped a handful of peas onto the little boys plate.

***

Daphne wasn’t entirely sure how much time Charlie and Astoria were spending together these days, so she tried Charlie’s place first. She figured if he wasn’t there, then she could floo Astoria and ask if he was at her place.

As it was, Charlie answered the floo call pretty quickly.

“Hey Daphne, everything alright with Tori?”

“Yeah, everything is fine,” Daphne replied with a smile, it was sweet that his first thought had been Astoria, “But I do need to talk to you about something. Is it okay if I come through?”

“Sure,” Charlie replied, and his face disappeared from the fire.

Daphne stepped through and dusted herself off, then she looked around the living room. Charlie lived in a little cottage on the edge of a large estate. The stone built walls and cosy hearth made it feel very warm and homely, it would have been quaint if it hadn’t been for all of the dragon memorabilia.

“Yeah, it’s pretty dragon heavy,” Charlie agreed with a chuckle as he saw her looking around, “Do you want a cup of tea?”

“Sure,” Daphne replied, and she followed him into the kitchen which was pretty nice for the size of the place.

“You have a range?” Daphne asked as her heels clicked against the flagstones.

“I am a damn good cook I’ll have you know,” Charlie said with a grin, he put a kettle of water onto the stove to boil, “So, what can I do for you?”

“Well,” Daphne said as she leant against the kitchen counter, “This is about Bill.”

“I figured it might be,” Charlie admitted, “When I spoke to him yesterday at Mums…he seemed pretty down about the situation with Fleur.”

“He was miserable when I got in this morning and it didn’t take much prodding to get to the reason why,” Daphne explained, “He threw a divorce settlement advice pack down on the desk.”

“So he’s going straight to divorce?” Charlie asked in surprise.

“Charlie, they’ve been trying to work through this since not long after Vic was born,” Daphne said softly, “He plays the hard man to you because you’re his baby brother, but he’s been struggling with his for a long time.”

“I know he has been,” Charlie admitted, “I just didn’t realise quite how bad it had gotten.”

Daphne opened her mouth to elaborate, but the kettle screeched loudly to let them know it had boiled. She shut her mouth and watched him make the tea.

Once he was done, he handed her a chipped blue mug with a red dragon on it and said, “So what are we going to do about it?”

“There isn’t much we can do about it,” Daphne admitted, “Besides handling the fall out. Bill is doing the right thing here, he and Fleur are miserable together and if Victoire grows up seeing that…she will think love is about resentment and anger and fights. It will put her off relationships from an early age.”

“Sounds like you’re talking from experience,” Charlie said, raising an eyebrow at her over his own coffee mug.

“I am,” Daphne said, cradling her mug, “I remember sitting in the cupboard with Astoria, covering her ears while my Mother screamed at my Father. I remember holding her till she fell asleep in our safe place which was this-”

“The bell tower room at the top of the house,” Charlie said softly.

Daphne looked up in surprise, “She told you about that?”

Charlie nodded, “And about how much it meant to you both.”

Daphne sighed and nodded, “I remember being that kid who hated to hear her parents fighting. I grew up wondering what the point of love and marriage was when it just made you miserable. If Bill and Fleur try to carry on the way they are right now, Victoire will grow up just like that and nobody wants that for her.”

“No, you’re right,” Charlie agreed, “It would be far better for her to grow up with two loving parents who have acknowledged that they don’t love each other anymore.”

“But Bill is still going to struggle to adapt,” Daphne said, she sipped her tea, “How did you know how I take my tea by the way?”

Charlie chuckled, “I didn’t, I just made it the same way that I would for Astoria.”

Daphne smiled slightly at that.

“And you’re right,” Charlie continued, “Of course Bill’s going to struggle. He’s used to kissing Vic goodbye in the morning and going home to her every night so to go from that to just seeing her at weekends, well it’ll be hard.”

“It will be harder if Fleur does what he thinks she’s going to do,” Daphne said darkly, “He thinks she’s going to kick off and take Vic back to France.”

“I wouldn’t put it past her,” Charlie admitted.

“Which is why I’m going to ask Astoria to help him write up his divorce settlement so that from the instant the papers are submitted, they get shared custody,” Daphne continued.

Charlie nodded, “So it sounds like you have it all worked out. What do you need me for?”

“You know what I need you for Charlie,” Daphne said as she caught his eye, “By all accounts, the only person who can bring Bill back when he goes off the deep end is _you_. I’ll do what I can to make this as easy on Bill as I can from a legal perspective but it’s going to take you to keep him together.”

“I can do that,” Charlie said as he set his mug down, “You know, I don’t know how much Bill talks about me but I am his best friend as well as his brother.”

“I know,” Daphne admitted, “Because he talks about you all of the time. He straight up told me you were his favourite brother and he still feels guilty all of the time about what happened when you guys were kids.”

Charlie rolled his eyes, “I’ve been telling him for years to let that one go, but the old bugger never will.”

Daphne smiled, “You know Bill, he won’t just let something go when it hurt someone that he loves.”

“I know,” Charlie said, “And he’s lucky to have you as a friend Daphne, you went above and beyond for him, you didn’t have to do that.”

Daphne shrugged and set her mug down on the table, “Harry might not be a Weasley in blood, but he thinks of you all as family and as his wife, that makes you my family too. And despite the way I grew up, the Greengrass family motto is Family First.”

Charlie smiled at her, “You’re good for Harry, you know that? So you can consider yourself an honorary Weasley, as far as I’m concerned.”

Daphne smiled too, “Thanks Charlie. Keep an eye on Bill won’t you?”

“Always have, always will,” Charlie replied as he walked Daphne back into the living room, “If he starts to get in too deep at work, floo me and I’ll sort him out.”

“Alright,” Daphne said, “We’ve got a deal.”

Charlie chuckled as he flew some floo powder into the fireplace, “Honestly, you Greengrass’s and your deals. We don’t have a deal, we just have a mutual friend who needs our help.”

“You Gryffindors and your hero complexes,” Daphne joked with a grin, “And unless you missed the huge surprise wedding last week, I’m a Potter now.”

Charlie grinned, “That’s going to take some getting used to.”

“Tell me about it,” Daphne laughed, she stepped into the fireplace and said, “See you later Charlie.”

Charlie just waved as Daphne said, “Potter Manor!” and disappeared in a flurry of green flames.

*******

“How do you think things are going to go down between Bill and Fleur then?” Harry asked Daphne one evening, a few days later, after Teddy had gone to bed.

Daphne sighed and continued folding laundry, “I don’t know, but Astoria and I have written up a great settlement between us. I have advised Bill to meet Fleur at the Ministry and hand her the settlement in front of a lawyer, so she can’t run away with Victoire.”

Harry hummed thoughtfully, “That’s a good idea…” he mused as he watched her fold the laundry, “You do realise we have a house elf for that right?”

Daphne raised an eyebrow at him, “You had better not let Hermione hear you say that.”

Harry snorted, “We give our elves holidays and clothes, we’re nice masters. But seriously, we have house elves to fold laundry and cook but you still insist on doing it.”

“When I have time, I like to,” Daphne shrugged, “I find laundry folding therapeutic.”

Harry sniggered, “Alright, I won’t say anything about that because I can’t think of anything…nice.”

Daphne rolled her eyes and opened her mouth to insult him, but before she had a chance, the front door slammed loudly.

“Who the hell is that?” Harry asked as he looked up at the roof, hoping the noise hadn’t woken Teddy up.

“Daphne!”

Daphne shot Harry an exasperated look, “That would be my sister,” she muttered before calling, “In the kitchen!”

Astoria stormed into the kitchen, “I think I need to break up with Charlie.”

Daphne looked up in surprise, “Why? What has he done?”

Astoria crossed her arms over her chest, “I went to his place for the first time and I just…I’m sorry but I can’t date a guy who has two pygmy dragons called Hamlet and Ophelia. I just can’t.”

Daphne snorted in amusement.

“Daphne, you are meant to be a supportive sister!”

Daphne smiled sweetly, “I’m being supportive, okay? He has pygmy dragons, of course he does, he’s a dragonologist sweetie.”

“Don’t you _sweetie _me like a little girl,” Astoria fumed as she turned around and saw Harry sitting on the kitchen worktop, “Hi Harry.”

“Hi Astoria,” Harry said, biting back an amused smile and sipping his coffee.

“He doesn’t just have pygmy dragons Daphne, he _dresses them up_! He has pictures of them in Halloween costumes and Christmas hats. He lets them eat at the table in his kitchen, he treats them like bloody children!” Astoria continued, turning back to her sister.

Daphne raised an eyebrow, “If you are looking for someone to tell you how weird that is, or that you should leave him for it, can I just remind you that are talking to the person whose husband has a pet Boa Constrictor called Dave that he talks to?”

Astoria rolled her eyes, “Yes but you should have expected that when you started dating Harry, I mean everyone knew he was a bit weird when we were at Hogwarts.”

Harry scoffed, “I’m literally right here.”

Astoria waved a hand nonchalantly.

“And you should have expected dragons when you started dating Charlie,” Daphne pointed out, “He _is _a dragonologist.”

“Ugh!” Astoria said, stomping her foot like a child, “It’s not just about the dragons, okay? I mean at first Charlie seemed great, he’s all gentleman-like and the tattoos are hot obviously, not to mention the sex which is just mind-blowing-”

Harry made a gagging sound from behind, which made Daphne smirk.

“But we come from two different worlds,” Astoria continued, “It was never going to work! I mean I come from a pureblood family, I grew up in a nice house with nice things and Charlie is a blood traitor who grew up in a hovel-”

“Hey!” Harry interjected, “I like that hovel! I made some of my best childhood memories there!”

“Harry, would you just butt out of this conversation?” Astoria asked irritably.

Harry looked at her incredulously, “I don’t just live here you know, Astoria? This is actually my house, you know _Potter _Manor? My name is literally on the gates.”

“It’s my name too babe,” Daphne pointed out, “Why don’t you go and have a chat with Dave?”

Harry rolled his eyes and walked out of the house, muttering irritably under his breath.

“You were saying?” Daphne nudged Astoria.

“Yes, I live in a nice flat in the uptown area of London and where does Charlie live? In a shack, I mean it is literally a _shack _in the middle of the fucking lake district with his _pet dragons_! I have a lovely original Van Gogh on my wall and Charlie has a dragon scale!”

Daphne smiled slightly, “Astoria, I know you and I know that if you were completely sure that you wanted to break up with Charlie, you would have done it by now. Instead you are here, telling me all of the reasons why you and Charlie shouldn’t be together because you don’t actually want to break up with him.”

Astoria sighed heavily, “Maybe I do, maybe I don’t. I just don’t think two people from such different worlds could ever work.”

Daphne hummed thoughtfully, “You know, Dad said that this would happen?”

“What?” Astoria frowned deeply.

“At my wedding,” Daphne remarked casually, “He asked me if I thought you and Charlie would end up married. He reckoned you would never make it, what with you growing up with lots of nice things and Charlie being a Weasley.”

Astoria narrowed her eyes at her sister.

“But I said no, I think you’re wrong Dad, I don’t think those things matter as much to Astoria as they do to me,” Daphne said with a shrug, “I figured with you being CEO of Greengrass Industries, you would make enough money to have all of those nice things without your husband having to supply them for you, but I guess I got you all wrong.”

“Daphne, stop being manipulative,” Astoria said irritably.

“Simply passing on snippets of a conversation, sweetie,” Daphne said politely.

Astoria rolled her eyes, “You are telling me about these snippets of a conversation because you think that if I _know_ Dad wanted me to break up with Charlie, I therefore _won’t _break up with him just to prove Dad wrong but _you’re _wrong.”

“Am I?” Daphne asked calmly.

“You are,” Astoria said testily.

“So you’re off to break up with Charlie right now then?” Daphne asked, quirking an eyebrow up at her sister.

Astoria huffed and stalked out of the room irritably, but before she could reach the front door, she turned around and stomped back in, “Ugh dammit you’re right! I don’t want to break up with him because I love him!”

Daphne smirked, “You’re just going to have to learn to love the dragons, like I had to learn to love Dave.”

“You hate Dave!” Astoria objected, “You always tell me that you think he’s going to kill you in your sleep one day.”

“Okay so I hate Dave, but I had to learn to pretend to like Dave to keep Harry happy,” Daphne compromised.

“This is shit advice Daphne,” Astoria grumbled.

“Maybe you should go and talk to Hermione, she loves dragons,” Daphne shrugged.

“Why didn’t Charlie marry her then?” Astoria muttered irritably.

“Because Weasley’s don’t do it for Hermione, she likes a man with class,” Daphne smirked.

“What’s she doing with Draco then?” Astoria joked, causing both of the sisters to burst out laughing.

***

When the floo roared to life, and Astoria’s face appeared, Draco smiled politely, “Hey Astoria, what can I do for you?”

Astoria smiled weakly, “It was actually Hermione that I wanted to talk to Draco. Is she home?”

Draco frowned, “Uh yeah…she’s just in the living room. I can get her-”

“If it’s not too much hassle, could I just come through?” Astoria interjected.

Draco’s frown deepened, “Yeah sure,” he said, granting her access and stepping back from the fireplace.

Seconds later Astoria stepped through and dusted herself down, “Where is the living room?”

“Up the stairs, first door on your left,” Draco replied, “Is everything okay?”

“Not really, but I just need some advice from her before I make a big decision,” Astoria said, stalking up the stairs in search of Hermione.

When she reached the living room, she knocked on the door before walking in.

Hermione looked up and frowned, “Hi Astoria, were you looking for Draco?”

“No, I need advice, from you,” Astoria said, sitting down in an armchair, “How do you learn to love dragons?”

Hermione smiled slightly, “Uh…well…if you don’t like dragons then there isn’t much more to it than that I’m afraid.”

“No, I like dragons,” Astoria corrected, “I find them majestic, beautiful even. I can even admit that pygmy dragons are pretty damn cute. But what I cannot live with, if Charlie and I are to move in together, is dragons eating at my dinner table.”

Hermione made a face, “Yes, you are quite right. You will need to lay down the law, just like Daphne had to do with Dave.”

Astoria frowned, “What do you mean?”

“When Harry brought Dave home, he was all for keeping him in the kitchen and Daphne was having none of it,” Hermione explained, “If Harry had it his way Dave would probably have slept in their bed, but Daphne lay down the rules. You would have to do the same, no dragons in the house, it’s not sanitary.”

“Exactly!” Astoria exclaimed, “So I should give him an ultimatum then?”

“Uh no,” Hermione said quickly, “No, that’s a very Slytherin perspective. I simply meant have a conversation about it…you know, calmly?”

“Calmly?”

“Over coffee,” Hermione finished.

Astoria frowned, “That seems very civil. I thought laying down the rules first then telling him it was me or the dragons would be more effective.”

“Not against Charlie,” Hermione said, deciding not to add her thought about how he would probably just pick the dragons.

“So…talk to him…over coffee?” Astoria said, sounding perplexed.

“Yes,” Hermione said, trying to hide an amused smile.

***

Astoria, to her credit, tried to take Hermione’s advice. She had invited Charlie over that evening, so when he arrived she made him a coffee and sat it down heavily in front of him at the breakfast bar in her kitchen.

“So Charlie,” She then said, crossing her arms over her chest, “Here’s the thing; if we’re going to live together the dragons need to be out of the house.”

“Uh…okay?” Charlie said, completely bemused.

“I mean don’t get me wrong I like dragons, I couldn’t have spent the last two months sleeping with you if I _didn’t _because you do talk about dragons more than the average man,” Astoria rambled, “And maybe they don’t need to leave the house, but they need to be out of the kitchen because that is not sanitary. I get that with you, one man’s dragon is another man’s dog but dogs don’t eat at the dinner table, especially not when you have polite company over, like a girlfriend, for example?”

Charlie smiled slightly, “Fair point. You _are_ saying you want to move in with me though, aren’t you?”

“Uh, no,” Astoria said distastefully, “I do not want to move into that…uh place…you call a house. However, you could move in here?”

Charlie scoffed, “Here? Why would I want to live here? There’s nowhere for my dragons for a start and there is too much glass. Not to mention the shiny-ness, why is everything in your kitchen shiny? What do you have against plain old wood?”

Astoria glared at him, “It is trendy and modern!”

“It’s fucking ugly and then there’s the fact you _never _cook because even you can’t use that fancy oven. Just get a range and be done with it love.”

“Well we didn’t all grow up on a bloody farm!”

“Course love, I forgot you had house elves to cook you up whatever you fancied.”

Astoria growled, “I was right when I was talking to Daphne earlier, I should have just broken up with you!”

Charlie raised an eyebrow at her, “You _could_, or we could just buy a new place that would suit us both. You know, a cottage with a nice garden so my dragons have somewhere to live since you stated very clearly that you don’t want them in the house.”

“You don’t get cottages in London.”

“Well that’s simple, I don’t want to live in London,” Charlie said, clapping his hands together.

“I like living in London, not to mention I work here!”

“Astoria love, you can apparate. You could live in the fucking highlands of Scotland and it wouldn’t make a damn bit of a difference!”

“Ugh, you are impossible Charlie!”

“And you’re a high maintenance pain in the arse!”

“Maybe we should just break up!” Astoria screeched.

“Maybe we should!” Charlie agreed irritably.

Their eyes met, and the next thing they knew, they were kissing and Charlie was pinning Astoria to the kitchen worktop.

***

When Astoria entered Potter Manor the following evening for dinner with Daphne, Harry and her Father, she was greeted immediately by her older sister.

“So, how did breaking up with Charlie go?”

Astoria shot her sister an irritated look, “How do you _think _it went?”

“Knowing what I know about the dynamics of a relationship where one person is a strong-minded, opinionated Gryffindor and the other a cool, calculating Slytherin; I am going to hazard a guess that you fought, ended up having sex and now feel even more torn than ever,” Daphne said calmly.

“I hate how right you are,” Astoria grumbled.

Daphne smirked, “Does he know you love him?”

“I haven’t told him, if that’s what you’re hinting at,” Astoria said, they reached the doors of the dining room, “And no mention of this in front of Dad.”

“My lips are sealed,” Daphne said, winking at her younger sister than stepping into the room.

Cygnus smiled when he saw them, “I do so love to see you two smiling together. Good evening Astoria.”

“Good evening Father,” Astoria said, kissing him on the cheek, “How are you feeling?”

“Much better,” Cygnus replied warmly, “And how are you?”

“Great, my plans for the business are coming along brilliantly,” Astoria said cheerfully as she took her seat, “We are really building up a great staff now which is going to help with implementing all of the changes I plan to bring around.”

Cygnus smiled, “And how is Charles fitting in?”

“_Charlie _is fitting in brilliantly,” Astoria corrected, “He really brings a different perspective to the table which is enlightening.”

“So I hear,” Daphne joked, Harry looked down to hide his amused smile.

Cygnus of course, didn’t notice.

“So Dad,” Daphne said, she clicked her fingers and bowls of soup appeared at the table, “Why did you call for a family dinner?”

“Does there have to be a reason to spend an evening with my daughters?” Cygnus asked innocently.

“No,” Daphne admitted, “Yet I still get the feeling that there _is _a reason.”

Cygnus’s smile turned a little more sneaky, “There was something I wanted to tell you all, but that was not exclusively why I called for a family dinner.”

“Go on,” Astoria said, narrowing her eyes at her Father.

“I wanted to firstly thank you Harry, for allowing me to recuperate in your family home,” Cygnus said, smiling at Harry before turning to look at his daughters, “And I wished to inform you girls that I shall be moving out next week, now that I am virtually back to full health.”

Daphne raised an eyebrow at him, “Oh Father, _wherever _could you be going?”

Cygnus fixed her with a stern look, “Do not be like that Daphne.”

“I completely understand, you want to live your life without feeling like a burden to us,” Daphne said, raising her hands, “I am not offended in the slightest, but you could at least have the curtsey to tell us the _truth_. You are moving out because you woke up from your big sleep to a whole new world and you had an epiphany.”

Cygnus leant back in his chair, soup abandoned, and crossed his arms, “Did I?” he challenged.

“You did,” Daphne continued firmly, “You realised that you had treated your daughters like shit and that things had to change. _Then _you realised that Lucius Malfoy was rotting on the other side of the world and that Narcissa Black, the first love of your life, was a poor sad little widow.”

“Daphne-” Cygnus said, a warning tone to his voice.

“So you are moving out to go and stay with her,” Daphne concluded, “Am I right or am I wrong?”

Cygnus looked steely, more like his old self than he had in a while, “While I do not appreciate the degrading view on my character, you are right.”

“Exactly,” Daphne remarked, “I knew it, Astoria knew, even Harry knew it and Harry doesn’t pick up on anything. Our Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher had Voldemort on the back of his head for a year and Harry just thought he smelled funny because he didn’t have great personal hygiene.”

Harry snorted, “I didn’t notice you running about telling everyone that Quirrell had Voldemort on the back of his head Daph.”

“Well if I had been best friends with Hermione that year, I would have noticed,” Daphne pointed out.

Astoria chuckled, “In case you wondered Dad, Harry was the reason we had drama every year at school.”

“I hardly caused drama _every _year,” Harry argued.

Daphne raised an eyebrow at her Husband, “Sorry babe, but you did. I mean second year, the chamber of secrets was opened and everyone started hating on Slytherins because Voldemort wanted to kill you.”

“Not my fault,” Harry pointed out.

“Third year, the best Defence teacher we ever had turned out to be a gay werewolf who was in love with an escaped convict who we thought was trying to kill you, but was actually trying to protect you because…plot twist, he was your Godfather,” Daphne continued.

Harry rolled his eyes at her description, “Remus wasn’t gay, was he? We’ve adopted the child that he had with a _woman_.”

“Yes but your Godfather, his long-time lover was a _man_,” Daphne pointed out, “Anyway, fourth year, drama galore because some wannabe Death Eater entered you into the Triwizard Tournament which you royally sucked at and would never have survived without Hermione.”

“True,” Harry admitted sheepishly.

“Fifth year, you were suspiciously quiet because you were secretly running a freaking army,” Daphne said with a wave of her hands, “Sixth year, you had that crazy phase when you thought you were in love with Ginny Weasley. I mean honestly, what else happened that year besides _that_ and Hermione thinking that Ronald Weasley was good enough for her?”

“Besides Dumbledore teaching me about Voldemort so I could kill him?” Harry asked, raising an eyebrow at her, “Oh I mean there was a battle, do you remember that? You know Bill Weasley, your new best friend-come boss, got mauled by Greyback and Snape freaking killed Dumbledore. Ringing any bells?”

“Alright, so a lot happened that year,” Daphne reasoned, “Then seventh year was just royally awful because of the war and the Death Eaters running the school.”

“It would have been much worse if you and your friends hadn’t protected the younger Slytherins,” Astoria pointed out.

Daphne shrugged, “What we did at Hogwarts was nothing compared to what Harry did.”

“I didn’t do much,” Harry said with a shake of his head, “I owe the fact we won that war to Hermione. But what you guys did and what Neville did at Hogwarts…you kept the younger students safe and that is far more noble.”

Cygnus frowned, “I’m sorry, would you mind catching me up?”

Daphne sighed, “While I was in seventh year, the war was ongoing. Snape became Headmaster and the school was essentially being run by the Carrows, who _just _loved torture. Draco, Pansy, Tracey, Sadie, Theo and I, sometimes with the help of Blaise, tried to keep the younger students safe. It started out that way anyway, but before we knew it we were rescuing each other from the dark tower when the Carrows captured us and it was…it was intense. Draco and Pansy were together, and I was still angry at Draco for taking the dark mark. But Sadie and Theo got closer that year…that was when they fell in love.”

“So it wasn’t all bad,” Harry said, reaching across the table and squeezing her hand.

Astoria gave her sister a small smile, “Harry is right, but how about we change the subject to something a little happier? Like congratulating Dad on his new girlfriend.”

Cygnus laughed, “Oh no Astoria. Narcissa is a dear friend who has offered to take me in. There is nothing more to it.”

“Right now,” Astoria said, shooting her Father a knowing look.

She could have sworn that she saw the faintest blush rise in his cheeks, and when she saw Daphne smirking, Astoria knew that she hadn’t imagined it.

**TBC**


	125. Breaking's What the Heart is For

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter title comes from the All American Rejects song, "Breakin'" 
> 
> 10 points for anyone who spots the "Hot Fuzz" reference!

Bill had never felt as nervous as he did that morning, sitting behind a table in the DMLE, tapping his fingers against the surface tunelessly.

“She will show up,” Astoria promised Bill gently, “If she doesn’t and she takes Victoire out of the country, she will be breaking the law.”

Bill nodded, but until Fleur walked through that door, he would never be entirely sure.

When the door opened and she swept in, her long blonde hair flipping behind her in it’s ponytail, his heart began to beat faster and the palms of his hands began to sweat. She sat down across from him and eyed Astoria with intuitive blue eyes, “When I was summoned here, I thought zis was ze end.”

“I’m sorry Fleur,” Bill said, surprising himself when his voice cracked.

Fleur cleared her throat and looked him in the eye, “We are not happy, William.”

Bill shook his head, “No, and I’m scared about the effect that will have on Victoire in the long-term.”

“Yes,” Fleur said, sighing softly, “I agree.”

“So Astoria has helped me draw up a divorce settlement which I think is very fair, to both of us,” Bill said, glancing nervously at Astoria.

The younger women slid the paper over the table to Fleur.

Fleur flipped it open and scanned the first page with the summary of terms, “You will give me ze house?” she asked in surprise.

“Of course I will,” Bill replied, “It’s the only home our daughter has ever known and you love it, it reminds you of France.”

Fleur smiled a little tearfully, “Thank you. I cannot tell you what zis means, to not have to fight you for it.”

“Or for Victoire,” Bill said, “I think the agreement is fair on that front?”

Fleur turned the page and read the arrangements for custody of their child in more detail. Her brow furrowed and Bill began to panic, “You have her every weekend?”

“If you read more closely Fleur,” Bill said, pointing to a particular paragraph, “The sum I plan to pay you is such that you would be able to reduce your hours at the bank, enabling you to spend more time with Victoire during the week.”

Fleur opened her mouth to object, but Bill cut in, “And I know that you are ambitious, and that you want to further your career so I asked around and there is a promotion up for grabs under Gareth, it’s a good department and he’s looking for someone on around 20 hours.”

Fleur pursed her lips and read the section again, thinking on his offer. It had to be the longest five minutes of Bill’s life, he was sure that she could hear his heart beating.

Eventually she sighed and nodded, “Yes. I also agree about special occasions such as Christmas. One year she is with me and you may visit, and ze next year, she is with you and I visit.”

Bill nodded, trying to contain his sigh of relief.

“It is a very amicable divorce settlement Bill,” Fleur said, looking up at him, “Despite how awful things have been, you have been very considerate.”

“I’m sorry that we can’t seem to love each other anymore Fleur,” Bill said honestly, “But you are still the Mother of my child and I have the utmost respect for you where that is concerned. I want you both to be happy.”

He decided not to add the part about how he was desperate to ensure that he got to see his daughter regularly.

Fleur nodded and reached across the table to take his hand, “I am happy to sign this, and although you have not asked, I can sense ze question within you so I shall give you ze answer. Of course, for the sake of Victoire and her relationship with her Father, I shall stay in England.”

Bill really did sigh with relief at that. He got up and walked around the table so that he could pull Fleur into a hug.

“Thank you,” He said, unashamed of the tears flowing down his cheeks, “And I really am so sorry.”

Fleur hugged him back, shutting her eyes tightly, “I am sorry too,” she whispered.

***

When Astoria walked into her apartment that night, she sighed when she saw Charlie sitting on the sofa.

Charlie raised an eyebrow at her, “I know we’ve been arguing a bit lately, but I expected a warmer welcome than that.”

“Well I’m not in the mood for it tonight,” Astoria said glumly, “I watched a couple who had obviously once been in love and who still had so much respect for each other, sign divorce papers today and it got me thinking, what the hell is the point in pretending that this is going to work? You’re from a completely different world from me Charlie and you’re so much older, you want marriage and babies, and I want to focus on my career. It’s never going to work, so why let ourselves fall in love? Why not just cut it off now and save all of that hurt?”

“Maybe because I have more faith,” Charlie said stubbornly, “I won’t give up on us that easily.”

“Why not?” Astoria asked irritably, “You were quick enough to give up on every other girlfriend or boyfriend that you had before me!”

“Because none of them were anything like you,” Charlie said calmly, “You are something entirely different Astoria. You give me faith that I can be truly happy one day, I don’t care about class or any of that.”

“But you do,” Astoria cut in, “I care about class because I’m vain, because I grew up surrounded by luxury and there’s a big part of me that doesn’t know if I can give that up. I don’t know if I’m cut out for a life in the countryside with a bunch of pet dragons for kids.”

Charlie opened his mouth, but Astoria raised a hand to silence him, “And you care too, but in a different way. Just like I don’t know if I can give up my world to live in yours, you don’t know if you can give up your world to live in mine. You don’t know if you’re cut out for moving into a big posh house with more rooms than you know what to do with. You don’t know if you’re cut out to be the son-in-law of a business tycoon like my Dad. You don’t know if you’re cut out for the country club, socialite life.”

“I know I’m not cut out for it,” Charlie snapped, “Because I hate everything about that world. I hate the dress robes, the entitlement of the people you probably call friends. I hate it all, but I thought, maybe wrongly, that you weren’t like the rest of them. I thought you were different.”

Astoria crossed her arms sternly, “So how the hell is it fair for me to give up my world and step into yours when you freely admit that you wouldn’t do the same for me?” she challenged.

Charlie scoffed and shook his head, “We’re not doing this tonight. If you want to break up with me, then that’s fine but we’re not doing it through an argument when you’ve had a bad day. So take some time to work out what you want, and we’ll talk soon.”

He didn’t wait for Astoria to say anything further on the issue, he just stepped out of the flat and apparated home.

He stood outside his front door for a good few minutes, debating whether he should go and talk to the person who was on his mind, and eventually he made the decision and apparated away again with another crack.

***

“Master Harry!”

Harry jumped, “Uh, yes?”

Daphne smirked, “Don’t mind him,” she said to one of their elves, “He was just dozing in his chair like an old man.”

Harry shot her an amused look, “I’ve had a long day. How many duels did you have today?”

“That is not the point,” Daphne chuckled, “There’s someone at the door.”

“Is Mister Charlie Weasley,” The elf squeaked, “He insists on talking to Master, and not nobody else.”

“Alright,” Harry said, getting to his feet and frowning at Daphne, “Reckon him and Tori have broken up?”

“I wouldn’t be surprised if they had,” Daphne shrugged.

Harry sighed and slipped out of the lounge into the hall. He met Charlie at the door and smiled as he let him in, “Hey Charlie, what’s up?”

“I need to talk to you about…compromising,” Charlie said, frowning all the while, “Does this bloody huge place have a mancave, with whiskey?”

“There’s the room of requirement with a bar, but I’ve got someplace I think you’ll like more,” Harry admitted, leading Charlie out of the back door into the darkened garden. As they walked, Charlie surveyed the beautiful gardens; they were typical of this type of posh pureblood manor, which was everything that he hated.

“Here we go,” Harry said when they reached a small wooden cabin, “This is probably more your scene.”

Charlie frowned as he looked at the large caged enclosure outside, “Is there anything in that?”

“Nah, he’ll be inside probably. He doesn’t like the cold in winter, comes from a warmer climate you know?” Harry said, leading Charlie into the cabin.

Charlie was instantly blown away by the blast of heat. That and the greenery, there were tropical plants everywhere. He felt like he stepped onto another continent.

“Sorry,” Harry said, “He’s from South America, he likes it hot-”

There was a loud hiss then a snake snapped at Charlie. Harry rolled his eyes and spoke to the snake in parseltongue. Charlie watched in amazement as the snake shook it’s head then spoke back.

“Sorry about that Charlie,” Harry said, looking up at the Weasley, “This is Dave, he’s a Boa Constrictor and a good friend of mine. He’s kind of touchy with strangers, but now he knows you’re my friend, so he’ll probably get friendly with you.”

Charlie smiled, “Hey Dave,” He said cheerfully, “I probably smell weird to you right? It’s because I have pygmy dragons.”

Dave hissed distastefully.

Harry snorted, “He asked why you keep pygmy dragons as pets when they make such good snacks.”

Charlie laughed, “Well, if I had it my way I’d have a welsh green in my back garden but that’s kind of frowned upon.”

Dave nodded his head and hissed again.

Harry chuckled, “He likes you. Do you want to meet the others?”

“You have more?” Charlie asked in surprise.

“Yep,” Harry replied, “Dave is the most dangerous, he’s an exception because he was my first and I rescued him. He also reminded me of the first time I talked to snakes, it’s kind of a long story. But either way, I don’t take in any dangerous snakes apart from him, because I do have a toddler you know?”

Charlie nodded in amusement, “I get it, and yeah I’d love to meet the others.”

“Come this way,” Harry said, “I keep them separate from Dave, he has a bit of a temper and I wouldn’t put it past him to eat them if they pissed him off.”

Charlie snorted at that thought, “I had a dragon like that, you know her actually, Norberta.”

Harry grinned, “Yeah, Norberta! How is she doing?”

“Oh she’s great,” Charlie said cheerfully, “She was always my favourite you know? Fiery but caring underneath it, she would only let a handful of trainers anywhere near her when she needed treatment, and it was the ones who rescued her as a baby. Dragons have long memories.”

“Like elephants,” Harry mused.

Charlie nodded, “I delivered her babies, nearly got myself killed in the process but it was a great experience.”

“I don’t really have the same risks with snakes,” Harry chuckled, “Dave once threatened to choke me to death if I fed him another Niffler, he said he was throwing up metal for weeks.”

Charlie snorted, “Did you actually feed him that Niffler that Astoria got Teddy?”

“Not intentionally,” Harry admitted sheepishly, “It escaped from the greenhouse and got too close to the enclosure so Dave ate it. I wasn’t exactly bothered mind you, and neither was Daphne but it’s probably best that you don’t tell Tori about that one.”

“Astoria and I are kind of on the rocks right now,” Charlie admitted.

“I kind of figured,” Harry admitted, he opened a door and stepped into a huge room that literally looked like the depths of a jungle.

“Wow,” Charlie breathed.

Harry grinned and sat down on the mossy ground. A long green snake instantly began to coil its way around his shoulders. He greeted it in parseltongue then told Charlie, “This is Venom, hes a rough green. He calls himself venom because he thinks it makes him sound intimidating even though he’s not actually venomous.”

The snake squeezed Harry’s neck a little tighter. Harry chastised it in parseltongue then ran his hand along the back of another snake that was creeping towards him. This one was larger, and it was a mixture of yellow and brown, “Oh and this is Stanley, he’s a Bull snake. That one over there is Betsy, she’s a milk snake. They are fascinating because they look very similar to coral snakes which _are _poisonous, but milk snakes aren’t. It helps protect them from predators, you’ll get that working with dragons, won’t you?”

“Oh yeah, there are lots of dragons that have evolved cleverly like that,” Charlie said, sitting down across from him on the ground, “There is a breed of Ridgeback that has developed the venomous stinging looking tail, without the actual venom for example. Nature and evolution really are fascinating. Will they let me touch them?” he added as a snake began to move towards him.

“Most of them will, but avoid Betsy,” Harry advised, “She’s just buried her eggs so she’s really antsy right now.”

“Do you cross breed them?” Charlie asked curiously.

“Not intentionally, it has happened once but I let them do their own thing,” Harry replied, “Most of the time they are pretty picky, the females in particular, so they tend to stick to their own type. That’s Garry, the snake who mated with Betsy,” he said, nodding his head in the direction of the snake that was currently slithering towards Charlie.

Harry hissed a warning at the snake and Garry, turned his head towards Harry, nodded slowly then began to slither up Charlie.

“I just told him not to hurt you because you were a friend of mine,” Harry informed Charlie, “But anyway, you said you wanted to talk about compromise?”

“Yeah…” Charlie mused, “But did you do all of this yourself? The charms and all?”

“Yep,” Harry replied, “Daphne thinks I feed Dave out here, she has no idea about what’s really in the cabin. It’s not that I’m lying to her, it’s just that I know the truth would stress her out and it doesn’t need to so I don’t see why I should bother her with it.”

Charlie hummed thoughtfully as Garry settled on his shoulders, “Well, the thing is, I don’t know if I can compromise enough to slot into the kind of life that Astoria wants and I figured that you might be the person to talk to about that, because you had to slot into this whole pureblood life when you and Daphne left school.”

“I did,” Harry agreed, “And there were compromises that had to be made there too. I mean don’t get me wrong, I love this house and I like being on the Wizengamot because I can actually make a difference in the world. But the parties and the formal dinners, the posh teas with Narcissa and Andromeda? By Godric, I hate that side of it.”

“I hate all of it,” Charlie admitted, “The thought of being dragged to all of her events, black suit and tie, husband of the powerful CEO Astoria Greengrass you know? I don’t know if I can hack that life. I don’t want the big house, the posh dinners, I don’t want any of that. I just want a house in the country with enough space for my dragons.”

“I wanted a London townhouse,” Harry pointed out with a slight smile, “But when I realised there was a Potter Manor, my perspective changed. For me, it was because of the fact it was my family home. But the fact that it pleased Daphne helped too, this was the life that she was used to and I know that it would have been hard for her to adapt to something else.”

“I don’t think Astoria could either,” Charlie said, “Which is why we’re on the verge of breaking up unless we both compromise but I just don’t know how to do that.”

“Well,” Harry began slowly, “Sorry…Betsy is having a little spat with Vivian.”

Charlie watched in amusement as he had a short conversation with the milk snake and another rough green snake in parseltongue. When he was done, Vivian hissed in outrage and slunk away into the bushes, then Betsy settled down happily on the patch of earth where her eggs were buried.

Harry turned back to Charlie and rolled his eyes, “It’s like having kids sometimes, honestly. But anyway, as I was about to say; I think you could compromise on a couple of things. I get that you don’t want the big, posh house, but you could always buy a manor in the countryside. That way Astoria gets the house that she wants, and you get loads of land in a secluded area so you can maybe have something bigger than a pygmy dragon, assuming you and Astoria aren’t planning on having kids obviously because they are definitely more dangerous than snakes.”

“I think I’ll settle for dragons,” Charlie admitted, “I did want kids, and a part of me still does but I appreciate the fact that I’m a lot older than her so by the time she wants kids, I might not be able to give her that.”

“Look Charlie, I’m not getting into this really awkward conversation with you but there are…facilities…at St. Mungo’s where you can put stuff on ice for when you need it.”

“Ahem,” Charlie coughed, “Garry that’s a bit tight there pal.”

The snake eased off, and Charlie tried to hide the colour that had risen in his cheeks, “Yup, uh, thanks for that Harry.”

Harry smiled sheepishly, “Right, so like I was saying, you could compromise with the house in that respect. As for the parties? I don’t know if you’ll be able to get out of going to them but Slytherins do love to bargain. I reckon if you play the part and go to her parties, make small talk like a pro, she’ll let you have as many dragons as you want. Heck, you could start your own dragon reserve mate.”

Charlie scoffed, “Damn, why didn’t I think of that?”

“You’re too much of a Gryffindor,” Harry chuckled, “It’s something I learned after the war. The best team is a mixed team, because everyone has different perspectives and different ways of thinking. Sometimes it pays to think like a Slytherin.”

“Still, you’re pretty good at it,” Charlie pointed out, “Is that because of your relationship with Daphne?”

“That, and my friendship with Draco and Theo,” Harry answered, “But to be honest, it’s always been there. I mean I can talk to bloody snakes Charlie, and I was very nearly in Slytherin.”

“Seriously?” Charlie asked in surprise.

“Yeah,” Harry replied, “The sorting hat really wanted to put me there but I asked it not to, because at the time I thought Draco was a prick.”

Charlie snorted, “And look how that turned out for you.”

Harry laughed, “I know, but if the hat hadn’t put me in Gryffindor then I would never have become friends with Ron or Hermione, and I wouldn’t have all you Weasley’s as an adopted family so I’m pretty happy that it played out the way that it did.”

“I guess so,” Charlie said thoughtfully.

Harry nodded, “So I guess you just need to take a step back and decide what you want to do. If you don’t want to compromise then you’re going to have to call it quits, but to be honest Charlie, with your interests and career choice, I feel like you’ll always have to compromise in a relationship. Granted, this one has more compromises than most because of Astoria’s background, but the concept is the same and she does love dragons.”

“Yeah,” Charlie agreed, “Thank you Harry, that was surprisingly insightful.”

Harry just smiled in return.

“Do you mind if I hang out here for a bit longer?” Charlie asked, “I really like this place, although Dave is kinda intense.”

“Yeah Dave and I have a special bond, nobody else really comes close to being in Dave’s good books apart from Teddy,” Harry admitted, “And Daphne only lets Teddy see him very occasionally, he’d never hurt him though, he loves him to bits.”

“It just makes me miss the dragons in Romania,” Charlie sighed.

“I get it,” Harry said honestly, “But as hard as it is, you can start again and you’ll form bonds just as strong with your new dragons as the ones you had in Romania.”

“I know, but starting over is always hard,” Charlie mused, “It felt like leaving my kids when I left Romania after all of that time over there.”

“I guess the question is, do you love Astoria enough to give up the dragons and the solitary Romanian life for suits and dinner parties?” Harry quipped.

“That depends, are you going to be there to keep me from losing my mind when they all start talking economics?” Charlie asked.

“I’ll definitely be at the dinner parties, because most of them are in my bloody house and are hosted by _my _wife,” Harry said with a roll of his eyes, “But you’re going to have to go the posh balls and fundraisers alone, sorry.”

“Damn,” Charlie cursed.

After that, Harry and Charlie fell relatively silent for a while as Charlie enjoyed the slightly surreal experience of being in a room filled with snakes from all across the world. Charlie asked the occasional question about a particular breed of snake or about a particular spell on the room, but apart from that they both just unwound and enjoyed the experience, which Charlie came to understand, was just as relaxing as Harry had said it was.

***

When Harry eventually walked into the bedroom late that night, he was not expecting Daphne to still be awake.

“Hey,” He said in surprise when she looked up from her book. Even when she was in bed, in her nightclothes, with no glamour charms and her hair pulled up into a bun, she was still the most beautiful woman he had ever seen.

“Hey,” She said softly, “Have they broken up?”

“Not yet,” Harry replied, stripping down to his boxers and climbing into bed with her.

“Are they going to break up?”

“I don’t know,” Harry admitted, “Charlie hasn’t quite made his mind up yet. Sorry that I was out there for so long.”

“It’s okay, I understand,” Daphne said honestly, “Did Charlie enjoy meeting your snakes?”

Harry frowned, “Snakes? It’s just the one snake actually.”

Daphne smiled at him in a slightly mischievous way, “Harry, when are we going to stop pretending that I don’t know about your cabin full of snakes and that you don’t know about my thousand galleon shopping trips to Paris?”

Harry turned to her in surprise, “You know?”

“Of course I know you idiot,” Daphne laughed, “Why do you think there’s always human food out there? I get the house elves to put it in the cabin for you, because you always go in there armed with enough rats and spiders to feed an army of snakes but nothing for yourself.”

“Is that how you worked it out?” Harry asked with interest.

“Well that was part of it, as big as Dave is, he doesn’t need _that _much food,” Daphne said, “And I could feel the magic on the place, I could tell there was a big expansion charm on it so I knew that you were hiding something. Also, I mean, there was no way you could spend five hours out there talking to Dave, was there?”

“I could actually,” Harry mused, “He’s really interesting. He has some amazing stories to tell and a wicked sense of humour. He also really gets politics which makes for some interesting conversations.”

“Harry, what are you going to do when Dave dies?” Daphne asked, raising an eyebrow at him “You’re really attached.”

“Hey!” Harry objected, “Don’t talk about Dave like that. He’s a young snake, they can live to over 40 easily. He’s got at least another 30 years in him.”

“Alright,” Daphne conceded with a vaguely amused smile.

“How long have you known about the cabin anyway?” Harry asked.

“How long have you known about my shopping trips?” Daphne countered.

“Ages,” Harry chuckled.

“Exactly,” Daphne said, smiling at him fondly, “Did it help Charlie?”

“I think so,” Harry said hopefully, “I hope so.”

“So do I,” Daphne mused, “For Astoria’s sake, but also for Bill’s. He and Fleur signed their divorce papers today, if he’s going to go off the deep end, he’s going to do it soon and we need Charlie to be in a good head space if he’s going to help Bill through that.”

Harry sighed and settled down in bed, “Weasley’s are doing my head in right now. Can we not just have a peaceful life?”

“We’re Potters,” Daphne pointed out with a smile, “So in short, no.”

Harry just chuckled and wrapped his arms around her lazily, “Good point, night Daph.”

“Night Harry.”

***

When Daphne walked into work that morning, 1 minute before she was due to start, and found the office empty, she began to worry. Bill was _always _here before her, every single day. She was never late, but she cut it fine every day which he liked to remind her of, and which she regularly blamed on Teddy when it had really just been due to her taking too long to get her glamour charms right.

All the same, there was a first time for everything and with everything going on in Bills life, she could hardly blame him for being late. So, she sat down at her desk and flicked through the letters that were sitting there, wondering what case was urgent enough to be tackled that day.

When the clock hit half past, and Bill still hadn’t arrived, she decided to floo Charlie.

“Hey Daphne,” Charlie said when he finally answered the firecall, “What’s up?”

“Bill hasn’t showed up to work,” Daphne frowned, “He hasn’t called in or anything, he’s just AWOL and I’m kind of worried, what with him and Fleur signing the divorce papers yesterday-”

“That was yesterday?” Charlie interjected, “Oh shit. Don’t worry, I’ll find him. I think I have a pretty good idea of where he is.”

“Alright, thanks Charlie.”

***

As it so happened, Charlie found Bill in a muggle pub that they used to drink in when they were younger. It was open all night and started serving breakfast at 5am so it had quickly become their favourite place for a catch up when they both happened to be in the same country.

“Oh for the love of Godric,” He muttered when he saw Bill sitting at the bar with his head down.

“Sorry mate, he got divorced yesterday,” Charlie said to the man behind the bar who was making coffees.

“I know, he’s told me and every other member of staff that he’s seen at least twice,” The man replied, “And he hasn’t paid yet.”

“How much is his tab?”

The man slipped a receipt over the desk, “Bloody hell Bill,” he muttered when he saw the amount of figures. All the same, he reached into his pocket and pulled out a wad of Muggle cash that he had converted before he came here, because he had a feeling that Bill was in a self-destructive mood.

“That should cover it,” He said, putting it down on the bar and shaking his brother, “Bill, you got to wake up man.”

Bill opened his eyes groggily and muttered something incoherent.

“Bill, it’s 10am,” Charlie said irritably, “You’re supposed to be at work.”

“Who cares about work anyway?” Bill slurred, “What’s the point in living without love?”

“Oh sweet Salazar, you’re still bloody drunk,” Charlie muttered under his breath, glancing around to make sure the man behind the bar was out of earshot.

“No I’m not,” Bill slurred, “Perfectly sober.”

“I hate to break it to you Bill, but you’ve always been a lightweight and right now, you’re well and truly hammered,” Charlie said matter of factly, “Now Daphne floo-ed me because she was worried about you when you didn’t show up for work today, and by the looks of it, she had good reason to be. Is this all because you divorced Fleur yesterday?”

“I was a shit Husband,” Bill lamented, he looked truly awful with heavy lidded eyes and an unsettling yellow-ish pallor which had Charlie hoping he wasn’t going to get vomited on.

“Falling out of love doesn’t make you a shit Husband,” Charlie said calmly.

“No but cheating does, doesn’t it?”

Charlie frowned, “You cheated on Fleur? When?”

“Last night, in the bathroom with this girl with huge-”

“Yeah I get the point,” Charlie cut him off, “And shagging someone while you’re blind drunk after signing the divorce papers doesn’t really constitute as cheating Bill.”

“Stop using big words,” Bill complained childishly.

Charlie snorted, “Look, you spent last night drinking your sorrows away and I spent it surrounded by snakes with Harry so all in, we’ve both had a weird couple of days. So why don’t we just go back to my place, you can sleep this off and when you wake up feeling like a plonker tonight I’ll do you a fry up. Sound like a plan?”

“Yeah,” Bill said, yawning through the word and getting to his feet shakily, “D’you say something about Harry spending the night with a snake?”

Charlie chuckled under his breath, “Not quite, I’ll fill you in when you’ve sobered up.”

“M’okay.”

“Come on, let’s get you to bed,” Charlie said, taking Bill’s weight as he dragged him out of the bar.

***

Bill was asleep the minute his head hit the pillow, so Charlie left the room and headed back to the lounge. He threw some floo in the fire and directed it to, “Gringotts Bank; the office of William Weasley.”

The floo connected and Daphne’s face appeared in the flames, “Hey, did you find him?”

“Yeah, I found him,” Charlie said, “But he’s definitely not fit for work, mainly because he’s still drunk.”

“Oh for Salazar’s sake,” Daphne cursed.

“I know,” Charlie agreed, “He’s sleeping it off here, I’ll have a word with him tonight when he’s seeing sense and I’ll make sure he’s at work tomorrow.”

“Don’t worry so much about that side of it,” Daphne said, “Despite what he thinks, I can manage just fine without him.”

“Of course you can, you’re brilliant,” Charlie said with a smile, “That’s why you’re his protégé. He knows it too, I think he just worries that if you get stuck and he’s not there, you could get into trouble.”

“I’m not stupid, I’ll stay away from field work until he’s back,” Daphne promised, “And you can pass that on to him when he’s sober. Just look after him Charlie.”

“I will,” Charlie promised, “And can you fill Astoria in? We sort of ended on a big fight and with this stuff going on with Bill, I won’t have the chance to talk to her straight away. Can you just tell her that I’ve been working through some things and that I think I’ve found a way to make it work?”

“Of course I will,” Daphne promised, smiling at the fact that he wasn’t planning on breaking her sisters heart, “Thanks Charlie. Speak soon.”

“Will do,” Charlie said, before he cut the connection and ended the call.

***

“Hey Astoria,” Daphne said cheerfully when she stepped into her sisters office at lunch-time later that day.

Astoria raised an eyebrow at her sister, “What brings you to Greengrass Industries? I thought you hated it here.”

“Oh, I do,” Daphne admitted, looking out of the window at the small bay behind the building, full of wizarding ships, “This is my least favourite part of London, and this building brings back memories of Father bringing me here and leaving me to read for hours while he sat through an important business meeting.”

She drew herself out of her thoughts and added, “But it’s your domain now and I do like to see my sister on a lunch break, on occasion.”

“What do you want?” Astoria asked, smiling slightly at her sisters transparency.

“Just to pass on a message from Charlie,” Daphne replied, unsure how that would go down.

Astoria scoffed, “Really? He’s getting you involved now?”

“Look, I don’t know what’s going on with you two,” Daphne said honestly, “But I do know he spent hours, _literally hours_, out in Harry’s snake sanctuary last night so they were obviously talking about something in that time.”

“Something other than snakes?”

“Yes, something other than snakes,” Daphne said with a roll of her eyes, “And then Bill was AWOL this morning so I had to send Charlie to find him, which he did thankfully. But all the same, when Charlie floo-ed to tell me that Bill was okay, apart from still being drunk from last night, he also asked me to pass on a message.”

“Which was?” Astoria asked, reluctant about the fact she wanted to hear it.

“That you shouldn’t give up hope on him just yet because he’s been working through some things and he thinks he knows how to make it work,” Daphne relayed.

Astoria’s expression softened, “That means he’s willing to make compromises for me…I didn’t see that coming.”

“Fancy filling me in on what the issue was in the first place?” Daphne nosed.

Astoria sighed, “I told Charlie I couldn’t give up my high class life to be with him, and I said I didn’t think he could give up his life to step into that world. He initially agreed but then said we needed some time apart to think about things.”

“I see,” Daphne mused, “No quaint little cottages for you then?”

Astoria fixed her with an amused look, “Daphne, I’m the youngest CEO of a wizarding company since Regias Nott over 100 years ago. Can you really see my living in a quaint bloody cottage?”

“No,” Daphne smiled, “I can see you living in a lovely large country house, hosting dinner parties and fundraisers, being forever glamorous.”

“You just described yourself,” Astoria said, her lips quirking up in amusement.

“Well of course I did. Why would you want to be anything else when you have such a good role model before you?” Daphne grinned.

“You’re impossible,” Astoria chuckled.

Daphne laughed too, “I hope you and Charlie can work it out you know. He’s a nice guy, I’ve got a lot of respect for him and I reckon Dad will come around quick enough now that this place is starting to take off again.”

“We’re almost ready for the launch,” Astoria agreed, “I just need to get Sadie on board as Head of Accounts then arrange a big opening party, with lots of press because we need as much coverage as possible.”

“We’ll get there,” Daphne promised, “And this place will be just like it was in its heyday.”

Astoria smiled warmly, “That’s my hope,” she admitted.

**TBC**


	126. Most People Are Good

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter title comes from the song of the same name by Luke Bryan!
> 
> Sorry about the delay in getting this chapter up. Sometime's I'm on a roll and I'm fast, other times I get writers block for weeks sorry! :(

“Well, well, well,” Daphne said when Bill walked into the office at 9.05am the following morning, “Look what the kneazle dragged in.”

Bill looked at her sheepishly, “Yeah, I’m really sorry about yesterday Daphne. Did you manage okay by yourself?”

“I managed great,” Daphne replied, “I filed every single letter we got over Christmas break, most of which aren’t worth investigating because a little bit of research proved that they were muggle pranks. Then I re-organised the entire filing cabinet, tidied both of our desks and dusted the whole office.”

“You were bored senseless, weren’t you?” Bill asked with an amused smile.

“Totally,” Daphne replied, “But I’m not stupid. I’m not fully qualified, I wouldn’t do field work by myself.”

“Thank you for that,” Bill said, sinking into the chair behind his desk, “And thanks for sending Charlie to find me. I was in a right state.”

“So I heard,” Daphne commented.

Bill sighed, “I had my breakdown, and don’t get me wrong, I’m still feeling pretty down about it all, but I’m mentally stable now, I can assure you.”

“I’ll take your word for it,” Daphne promised, “But I’m also going to be keeping an eye on you.”

“You and Charlie,” Bill said, rolling his eyes, “Charlie’s trying to convince me to move in with him. He’s saying it’s to help me find my feet again, but I know it’s so he can keep an eye on me.”

“Of course,” Daphne realised, “You promised Fleur Shell Cottage in the divorce settlement, didn’t you?”

Bill nodded glumly.

“So you have nowhere to go,” Daphne said with a nod, “If you don’t want to stay at Charlie’s, you could always stay with us? The Manor is a huge place.”

“No way,” Bill said, “I’m your boss, there’s no way I’m living at your house. I’ll stay with Charlie.”

Daphne turned around to get something out of the filing cabinet and smirked, _fell for that one hook, line and sinker Bill, _she thought to herself, “That’s true, probably the best option anyway with Charlie and Astoria being on the rocks right now. You two can keep each other company through your misery.”

“You are just a ray of sunshine this morning,” Bill muttered under his breath, “Do you want to go solve a curse? Would that make you feel better.”

“_So _much,” Daphne grinned.

Bill rolled his eyes, but smiled as he opened the filing cabinet, “You trainee Curse Breakers, always so eager. Wait till this is all you do, all day every day, you’ll tire of it.”

Daphne raised an eyebrow at him, “You never have,” she pointed out.

“Details, details,” Bill shrugged. He shut his eyes and reached into the ‘open’ section of the cabinet, “Let’s take a lucky dip shall we….”

He grabbed a letter out and scanned it, “Alright, to Aberystwyth we go!”

“Easy for you to say,” Daphne joked, grabbing her jacket and sweeping out of the office, with Bill hot on her heels.

***

Astoria had just settled down with a book and a glass of wine when a knock on her door sounded. She sighed and got to her feet, hoping it wasn’t some nonsense caller because that was the last thing that she wanted to deal with on a Friday night.

She unlatched the door and opened it, surprised to see Charlie standing on her doorstep.

“I can compromise,” Charlie promised as he handed her a bouquet of flowers, “Not on everything, but on some things.”

“You had better come in,” Astoria said, fighting back a smile. She turned her back to him and walked into the kitchen to put the flowers in water. She could feel Charlie following her, but he didn’t say anything.

“Do you want a drink?”

“I’d love a firewhiskey.”

Astoria poured one out, over ice as she knew he liked it and handed it to him. Then she leant against the kitchen worktop and surveyed him with interest. Charlie sipped from the glass then set it down.

“I can handle the big house, but it has to be out in the country, somewhere secluded,” Charlie began, aware that he was setting out terms in a rather business-like way, but he knew that she would understand that, “It needs to have lots of land and I mean _lots_ because one of my conditions is that if you get the big house, I get dragons.”

“I saw that one coming a mile off,” Astoria said, letting the smile slip onto her face.

Charlie just continued, because he had to get it all out, “And I will act the part, I’ll be the perfect boyfriend/husband/whatever of a big-time CEO female power-chief. I’ll go to the parties, I’ll make small talk, I’ll charm potential business partners. But my condition is that Harry has to go to them too so that when things get really dull, I have someone to get drunk with.”

“Harry would have been going regardless, he doesn’t have a choice,” Astoria said, a Slytherin smirk slipping onto her face, “He’s Harry Potter, if it’s known that he’s affiliated with the business it will bring in custom _and _charitable donations. He doesn’t know it yet, but Harry is going to become the face of Greengrass Industries.”

Charlie chuckled, “You really are sneaky.”

“Despite the fact that everyone underestimated me for my entire life, I am a true Slytherin,” Astoria pointed out with a smirk, “So I agree to your terms. But the kind of house I want, with the kind of land that you want, is going to have to wait.”

“Oh I know,” Charlie said, “I mean I have a lot of money in savings because I didn’t use any of my earnings in Romania at all. They just went straight into an account here, but I understand that you will want to start the business up again first.”

Astoria nodded, “Once things are steady, we can think about the house and with it…marriage?”

Charlie smiled, “I know, you’ll want to be married before we move in together, you’re a pureblood, I get it.”

Astoria breathed a sigh of relief, “So we _are _on the same page.”

“I think we are now, yeah,” Charlie said, that carefree smile back on his face, “And I don’t think taking things slow is going to kill us. Especially considering the fact I have my brother living with me at the moment.”

Astoria sighed, “How is he doing? It was rough the other week, watching them sign those papers.”

“I didn’t realise that it was them you were referring to when you told me that story,” Charlie admitted, “But yeah Bill is struggling. He’s sad, he’s missing his daughter and he’s really throwing himself into work but I’ll get him back to normal eventually, I have in the past.”

“Has he always been like this?” Astoria asked curiously.

“What, a total drama queen who takes break-ups badly?” Charlie joked, “Godric yes, he’s a nightmare.”

Astoria laughed too, “Well since you’re here…do you want to stay for a drink, or two?”

Charlie smiled boyishly at her, “I might even stay for three.”

***

“So, have you gotten any further with the wedding planning, apart from setting the date?”

Hermione raised an eyebrow at Harry, “This is the kind of question I expect from someone like Sadie, not you.”

“What? I can’t take an interest in my best friend’s wedding ?” Harry objected as they shared lunch in the courtyard of the Ministry.

“You can, I just didn’t expect you to,” Hermione said. She chuckled, “And no, because we can’t agree about where we should have it. I would really like to get married in a castle, and there’s one where you can get married in the library but it’s Muggle and Draco’s totally against a Muggle venue.”

“Trust you,” Harry laughed, “But if you have your heart set on it, don’t forget your soon to be husband and your best friend are trainee Aurors. We could just obliviate all the muggles so you get your dream wedding.”

“You better be kidding Potter!”

“Course I am Auror Radcliffe,” Harry said, shooting a grin over his shoulder at a greying man who was having lunch with another Auror.

Hermione shot him a knowing look.

“What?” Harry objected, “I am,” he lowered his voice, “Mostly.”

“As sweet an offer as that is, it won’t be my dream wedding if my Husband and best friend get fired or even worse, go to Azkaban,” Hermione pointed out with an amused smile.

Harry laughed, “Well I’m sure you’ll agree on somewhere.”

“I hope so,” Hermione mused, “The only other thing that we _have _agreed on is the wedding party. Oh speaking of which, I meant to ask, we would love Teddy to be the pageboy, if you don’t mind?”

“Of course I don’t,” Harry said cheerfully, “He’ll love it, he’s becoming a right little attention whore.”

“Harry!”

“What? He is!”

“Yes but this is your toddler your referring to,” Hermione said through her laughter.

“Just ask Daphne, he is,” Harry snorted, “Whose your maid of honour again? It’s not Gin, is it?”

“No, it’s Daph,” Hermione replied, “Along with Sadie, Suse and Ginny.”

“You know, I’ve been meaning to ask you for a while,” Harry said thoughtfully, “You said you knew Daphne and the others, before 8th year?”

“Not to be really friendly with, but to speak to, yes,” Hermione replied.

“Well, how did you meet them exactly? Because we were together literally all the time, we sat together in every class and we hung out together at break and we spent our evenings in the common room, apart from when you were in the library obviously,” Harry said.

Hermione smiled, “Well I did talk to Sadie in particular in the library a lot. But I became friends with them all at the start of second year.”

Harry’s frown deepened.

“Do you recall that train trip that I had to endure alone? Because you and Ron flew a bloody car to school like a couple of morons?” Hermione asked, raising an eyebrow at him.

“Oh…yeah,” Harry said sheepishly.

Hermione chuckled, “That was when we became friends, I shared a carriage with them for that entire trip.”

_“Hey Hermione!”_

_Hermione smiled and waved nervously through the window of a carriage. The voice that had called her belonged to Susan Bones, who she had known from first year through the fact they had worked on a couple of projects together in Herbology._

_Susan jumped up and opened the door, “Are you looking for somewhere to sit?”_

_“Yes,” Hermione frowned, “I can’t find Harry and Ron. They weren’t on the platform either, don’t you think that’s odd?”_

_“I’m sure they will be here somewhere,” Susan said, “But you can sit with us, if you’d like?”_

_Hermione looked into the carriage nervously._

_A small blonde girl smiled and said, “It’s okay, we don’t bite.”_

_“Or do we?” A dark haired girl said, then she made a loud gnashing sound._

_“Tracey!” The small blonde girl chastised._

_Susan laughed and beckoned Hermione in, “Hermione these are my friends. This joker is Tracey and this is Sadie, I call her baby spice.”_

_Hermione laughed at the reference._

_“And I have literally no idea what that means,” Sadie said._

_Susan grinned, “Tracey is definitely scary spice and I’m ginger spice obviously. This is Daphne, she’s posh spice.”_

_Daphne, a taller blonde girl, raised an eyebrow at Susan, “Suse, your family manor is about ten times the size of the house I grew up in.”_

_“I know, but you just exude luxury Daph,” Susan said cheerfully._

_“So who is sporty spice then?” Hermione asked Susan jokingly._

_“Oh that’s my other friend Lilly, do you know her, Lilly Moon?”_

_Hermione laughed, “Yeah, I know Lilly.”_

_“Everyone, this is Hermione Granger,” Susan said, dropping back down into her seat._

_Hermione sat down next to Susan._

_“Of course she is, we all know who Hermione Granger is,” Tracey said with a roll of her eyes._

_“Smartest witch in our year,” Sadie said, a hint of respect in her voice._

_“Has the most massive, obvious, crush ever on Harry Potter,” Daphne added, looking at her in amusement, “Salazar knows why.”_

_“Slytherins, they love that phrase,” Susan said, rolling her eyes._

_Hermione blushed, “I do not have any sort of crush on Harry, he’s my best friend.”_

_“Of course he is,” Daphne said knowingly._

_“Hey, is it true that you broke a million school rules last year and killed a giant dog?” Tracey asked with interest._

_“And that you kicked Voldemort in the face?” Susan added._

_“Uh…” Hermione frowned, “Well I definitely didn’t kick Voldemort in the face.”_

_“But you did kill a giant dog?”_

_“I thought nobody was supposed to know about what happened,” Hermione said cluelessly._

_“It’s Hogwarts sweetie, everyone knows,” Daphne said with a wave of her hand._

_“See, Posh spice,” Susan whispered._

_Hermione smiled and said, “Well no we didn’t kill a dog. We snuck past it to get into the secret chambers beneath the school.”_

_“Then what did you do? Did Potter kick Voldemort in the face?”_

_“I really don’t think anyone kicked him in the face Trace,” Sadie said._

_“And I didn’t do much really,” Hermione said modestly, “I just told Harry and Ron to stop being idiots when they were wriggling to try and get away from the Devils Snare.”_

_Daphne rolled her eyes, “Imbeciles. Didn’t they listen in Herbology?”_

_“In short, no,” Hermione said, a smile creeping onto her face, “And I helped with this potion riddle thing, which was pretty dangerous because if I had picked the wrong one, we could have died. But I picked the right one, thankfully.”_

_“Wow, that is pretty heavy stuff to do at the end of first year,” Tracey said._

_“Yeah, Trace thought she was mature because she kissed Dean Thomas.”_

_“Oh my god how many times? I didn’t kiss him! I was in the freakin’ classroom with him because he got us both in detention!”_

_Hermione chuckled._

_“Tracey’s a drama queen, in case you couldn’t tell,” Sadie said with an amused smile._

_“Sadie’s the bookworm,” Daphne put in._

_“And Daphne’s the ice queen.”_

_“Doesn’t really count when it’s self-nicknamed, does it?”_

_“Draco gave himself the nickname, Slytherin Prince, and that’s stuck hasn’t it?” Daphne argued._

_“Has it?” Hermione interjected, “I call him the Slytherin prat personally.”_

_This sent a ripple of laughter around the carriage and broke the ice for good._

“And that was that,” Hermione finished, taking a bite out of her apple.

“Did you actually have a crush on me?” Harry asked with a grin.

“In 2nd year?” Hermione chortled, “Uh yeah, a huge one.”

Harry snorted, “I find that hilarious. Did Daphne really call me an imbecile?”

“She was bundling you and Ron both into the imbecile category yep,” Hermione smirked.

“You didn’t tell her about your infamous little, _but there’s not any wood_! comment though, did you?”

Hermione just rolled her eyes and said in a long-suffering tone, “Shut up Harry.”

***

“Harry!”

Harry stepped into the kitchen and looked up at his wife, “Yeah?”

“Look at the morning paper,” Daphne said, thrusting the Daily Prophet in his face.

Harry took it and looked down, examining the front page article with a frown.

**CONTRAVERSIAL LAW LEADS TO MASS WALK OUT AT MINISTRY**

** _This morning, in a public service announcement, Minister for Magic, Kingsley Shacklebolt announced the immediate instatement of a controversial new law which will require all members of the Ministry to be subjected to Veritaserum questioning. _ **

** **

** _The move is a risky one, designed to root out the ‘dirty’ Aurors, politicians and public officials who aided He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, financially or through services offered to him. It comes after a landslide vote by the Wizengamot, despite several families being opposed to the general idea of Veritaserum questioning on moral grounds. The success of the vote has largely been attributed to the change in the Wizengamot. In the wake of the war, several vacant seats have been taken by heirs who are now of age, leading to the youngest Wizengamot the Ministry has seen in several decades. The inspiring member of this new Wizengamot is Harry Potter, who has helped to push through this law and a series of other revolutionary reforms._ **

** **

Harry scoffed and shook his head, “They’re putting my name on this? They are trying to take it away from Kingsley by suggesting that it was my idea? I voted for it, but so did Neville, Draco, Theo, and several others!”

“They aren’t famous though Harry,” Daphne pointed out, “Not like you are. They didn’t defeat Voldemort and save the wizarding world.”

Harry shook his head irritably.

Daphne gave him a stern look and elaborated, “Harry, for the rest of your life people are going to link you with important events and look at you like a figurehead. You’re not only famous, but you’re an inspiration to lots of people. There is no use getting irritated about the fact they are putting your name on this, all that matters is that it’s still a win. The law was passed, and yes you weren’t the only one who helped with that, but it was passed and this publicity is _good_! But anyway, you need to read on because the interesting thing is further down.

Harry disagreed with her, but he thought it was best to keep quiet about that so he kept reading.

** _The announcement led to a mass walk out by Ministry officials. The most notable department to lose members was the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, the department estimated to be the most corrupt. Tiberius McLaggen, Head of the DMLE, has informed us that those who have chosen to leave of their own accord will not be investigated or apprehended for this. However, anyone who is vetted with Veritaserum and is found guilty of any war crimes, will face incarceration. It is estimated that the DMLE has lost around 40% of its staff, and that the Auror force, already depleted due to the war, has lost at least half of its workforce. _ **

** **

** _The law comes into effect immediately. Commencing tomorrow in the DMLE, each staff member will be vetted until every department can be declared ‘clean’. In addition, any new members of staff will be vetted before they are permitted to join the Ministry. Talk at the Ministry is very conflicted; some members of staff think it is a great idea for those that have nothing to hide as it will make the Ministry a much fairer workplace. However, others feel that it is an invasion of privacy that they do not deem necessary. _ **

** **

** _Time will only tell if the Minster for Magic, with the support of his Wizengamot, made the right decision.”_ **

** **

“I’m intrigued by the fact that the article is mostly positive,” Harry said honestly, “And I can’t say that I’m surprised about the Auror department to be honest. I knew things had to change there, Sumner had already told me as much.”

“Still, to lose half its workforce?” Daphne said in surprise, “They were already low on staff after the war.”

Harry nodded thoughtfully, “Yeah, it’s not ideal. Especially with the amount of Death Eaters still floating about. Anyway, I better get going or I’ll be late. See you tonight.”

“See you later,” Daphne said, waving him off as he dashed out of the house.

***

“What did you make of that article this morning then?” Harry asked the others while they showered that morning.

“What article?” Theo asked, “I didn’t have time to read the Prophet, Sadie was up half the night complaining of twitchy legs.”

Draco snorted, “The article about Kingsley announcing veritaserum questioning coming into law, as of today.”

“Yep, the one with the statistics about the mass walk out from the DMLE,” Neville added in amusement, “40% of the staff walked out.”

“And they reckon the Auror force lost half its workforce,” Harry added.

Theo whistled, “Holy shit, that’s a lot of dirty folk in the DMLE.”

“Not necessarily dirty,” Draco pointed out, “But people with something to hide, people who don’t want a Ministry official poking around their head.”

“Or even just people who disagree with the use of veritaserum and are walking out as a statement,” Neville agreed.

“But most of them were probably just dirty Theo, you’re right,” Harry said bluntly.

“How the heck are they going to manage then?” Theo asked curiously, “They’re going to be on minimal staffing.”

“Godric knows,” Harry shrugged.

***

Draco brought up the article over dinner that night, “What did you make of that article in the prophet this morning?”

Hermione looked over at him, “I’m all for it, I don’t mind letting someone question me because I know I have nothing to hide.”

“The Ministry have probed me enough already, they know about it all,” Draco said with a frown, “So I doubt they could uncover anything that isn’t already in my file. But, what did you make of the walk out?”

“I can’t say it surprised me,” Hermione said logically, “I work in the DMLE, I’ve got a fair idea of how dirty some of them are. The most corrupt people are the ones with the most power, and those people tend to have positions in the DMLE, like Aurors, lawyers, judges, you know?”

Draco nodded and chewed his pasta absentmindedly as he thought about this. His Father had been a lawyer, and he had been corrupt as hell. In fact, so many Death Eaters had worked in the DMLE…

“You know, if they had sense, they would pull the best recruits out of training and put them in the field,” Hermione commented thoughtfully.

Draco scoffed, “As if they would do that. You haven’t met my trainers Hermione, they are all about protocol and that’s definitely not protocol.”

Hermione shrugged and said, “I’m just saying, as someone who thinks logically, I can see that it’s an option that makes a lot of sense.”

Draco smiled fondly at her, “That’s because you’re brilliant and you will make a brilliant Head of Department one day, but they don’t think like that now, trust me.”

“Then someone should suggest the idea to them,” Hermione pointed out, “Because they lost so many people during the war and they did nothing to try and replenish their staff after that.”

“They did,” Draco argued, “The intake this year was higher than it had ever been.”

“That’s a long-term solution though, isn’t it?” Hermione pointed out, “In three years, they would have a large influx of newly trained Aurors, but it didn’t help them immediately after the war.”

“Well they could hardly have just taken people on without putting them through the extreme vetting or training exercises, could they?” Draco asked her with a raised eyebrow.

“No, but they _could _pull the best recruits out of training and give them extra supervision in the field, they could probably double their workforce by doing that,” Hermione said, leaning back in her chair, “Just admit I’m right.”

“You are, but I still don’t think they would ever go for it,” Draco said honestly, “There’s just a way that things are done in the Auror workforce, and it’s the way things have always been done. I don’t see them changing that anytime soon.”

“Well only time will tell, I suppose,” Hermione mused.

“Anyway, how are you finding your latest placement?” Draco asked, in a bid to change the subject before it could transcend into an argument.

Hermione shrugged, “It’s okay I guess, but I’m not enjoying it as much as I enjoyed working with the Aurors or the Hit Wizards.”

“I thought you felt conflicted about the Hit Wizards?” Draco queried.

“I did, I do,” Hermione corrected herself, “Talking to MI5 was surreal but so interesting, and doing the research to work out if the perpetrator was Wizarding was really enjoyable. But essentially signing a death warrant by sending the Hit Wizards after someone? I struggled with that, even though I knew the people were really awful people who deserved it because…on paper, in 6th year, you could have been classed as one of those people.”

Draco nodded, but said nothing.

“So although I loved aspects of it, I would also be able to enjoy those things if I worked in the Auror department,” Hermione explained, “I would still co-ordinate with Muggles, but it would be Muggle police rather than MI5. And I would still get to have fun coming up with alternate identities and cover stories for Aurors when they had to go and work in the Muggle world, you know? It’s essentially the same job, but with a lower pay grade because you aren’t signing death warrants.”

“I understand that,” Draco said with a smile, “What’s so bad about Magical Law Enforcement Control?”

Hermione rolled her eyes, “It’s grunt work Draco. It’s so boring, I spend my time doing crowd control at Quidditch matches and helping old ladies who have fallen over in Diagon Alley. Every time it starts to get interesting, we have to hand it over to the Aurors.”

Draco chuckled, “How much longer do you have to do it for?”

“Only another week, thank Godric,” Hermione muttered, “But I doubt that the next one will be much better, it’s the Improper Use of Magic Office and it’s a two month long placement. I think I’ll spend most of my time doing paperwork and writing letters, or you know, wrongly convicting a troubled 15 year old boy who was being attacked by Dementors.”

“Who could you possibly be referring to?” Draco asked sarcastically.

Hermione shot him an amused grin and chucked a piece of garlic bread at his head.

**TBC!**


	127. Lightning Strikes Twice?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So sorry about the long wait for the update! Things have been so hectic! I lost my job due to the whole Coronavirus pandemic then my other half got sent home from work for 3 weeks when we went into lockdown. Between keeping him and the kids entertained I've had next to no time or energy to write but eventually, I have a chapter for you guys so I hope you enjoy it! :)
> 
> Chapter title comes from the song:  
Lightning Strikes by The Shires

“Is it wrong to purposefully bring up a difficult case, just to make your boss feel better?”

Harry snorted and looked over at Daphne while she wrestled with Teddy in an effort to get him to eat his porridge, “You’re gonna have to explain that one.”

Daphne sighed, “We’ve not had much work lately. Most of our cases are contracted, meaning people pay the bank who then pay us a decent cut of the money to solve that case. But in the wake of Christmas, people don’t have as much money so there’s not much work coming in for us.”

“So you’re making your own work now?” Harry asked, looking at her with an amused smile.

“No, I’m just actively looking for a case rather than waiting for one to come to us,” Daphne admitted sheepishly, “And I’ve just found a really complicated one that will keep Bill busy for a while, therefore distracting him from his misery.”

“What’s so interesting about it?” Harry asked, his curiosity getting the better of him.

“Well, it would involve our first real foray into the muggle world, for a start,” Daphne said thoughtfully, “I saw it in the Muggle papers yesterday morning. A girl who went missing 15 years ago called her parents. There had been no contact and she had been assumed dead this whole time but then this phone call came out of the blue.”

“You think it might be a curse?” Harry asked.

Daphne nodded, “An ancient one too, if I’m right. I mean the way I see it, either the girl _is _dead and this is some dark magic curse to taunt her parents, which would imply that they murdered their own daughter.”

“Or?” Harry asked, he liked to play devil’s advocate to her during these chats.

“Or, she’s alive in which case it has nothing to do with us but it’s still an intriguing story to occupy Bill,” Daphne said with a shrug.

“Well, it can’t hurt to look into it, can it?” Harry said.

“That’s what I’m hoping Bill will say!”

***

Bill tapped his fingers against the desk, deep in thought, after hearing Daphne’s spiel about the Muggle ‘case’.

“It’s out of our jurisdiction,” He said.

“I know,” Daphne admitted.

“And there’s a high chance that it has nothing to do with us,” Bill added.

“I know that too,” Daphne said, sighing quietly, she had known that it was a long shot.

“But it sounds more interesting than any case I’ve worked since my time in Egypt so fuck it, let’s go,” Bill said finally.

Daphne grinned, “Really?”

“Really,” Bill said, throwing on his coat, “I’m trying to adopt Charlie’s attitude to life; throw caution to the wind, do what you want and see how it plays out.”

“Fair enough,” Daphne reasoned, “I guess that worked out for Charlie…eventually.”

Bill ignored the slight jibe as they walked out of the bank together, “So, since you are the expert here; who do you think we should talk to first?”

“Not the parents,” Daphne replied immediately, “If my suspicions are right, they could be the murderers. I read in the newspaper report that the girl was close to her Aunt so she might be a good place to start.”

“Any hint of wizarding blood anywhere in the family?” Bill asked.

“Not obviously,” Daphne replied, “But I haven’t looked into it in much detail. The general breakdown is that the girl was 5 when she went missing so would be 20 now if she is alive. She has been missing for 15 years, nobody has seen her or had any contact with her in that time leading to the assumption that she was dead.”

“What were the circumstances of her disappearance?” Bill queried.

“She was playing outside one evening in the summer. Her Dad was in his workshop with the door shut, occasionally looking out the window to check on her and her Mum was in the house with the door open, doing the washing up, also keeping an eye on her. They both glanced out to check and couldn’t see her, so a huge search party searched the street and the local woods for her day and night for a week, but no trace was found.”

“And no body ever showed up?”

Daphne shook her head, “No body.”

“Alright, where are we going?” Bill asked, they had reached the apparition point.

“Keighley.”

***

“What’s our cover?” Bill asked Daphne as they walked along a quiet, residential street.

“I have a plan, just roll with it,” Daphne shrugged.

Bill raised an eyebrow at her, “Woah, hang on a minute. You’re taking the lead on this one.”

Daphne shot her boss a smirk, “You _just _noticed?”

“I’m still your boss, and you’re still not qualified,” Bill said, he was trying to sound stern but the slightly proud smile on his face gave him away.

“You’re also being kind of pathetic right now, sorry,” Daphne said. She shot him an amused smile then led him up a garden path to a small, quaint cottage.

A woman came to the door a few minutes after they had knocked. She had dark blonde hair, green eyes and looked to be in her late 20’s or early 30’s.

“Hi ma’am, my name is Daphne and this is Bill. We’re from a local newspaper and we would like to talk to you about what happened to your niece,” Daphne said politely.

“No, you’re not,” The woman said in a whisper, a frown knitting it’s way across her face, “You’re from the bank and if you’re here, that must mean that you think magic is involved.”

Daphne started at that, “I…uh…how on earth did you know that?”

“Because Lara and I went to school together,” Bill said from Daphne’s side, “I think you might be onto something with your whole, magic is involved here theory, Daph.”

“You think?” Daphne asked sarcastically.

Bill smiled weakly at the woman, “Hi Lara. Don’t suppose we can come in for a cuppa?”

Lara sighed and took a step back from the door.

Bill walked into the cottage and Daphne followed his lead. They followed Lara into the kitchen where she set a kettle on to boil, with electricity.

“So, are you still living as a muggle after marrying Greg then?” Bill asked, Daphne detected a hint of awkwardness.

Lara rolled her eyes, “No, if you must know Greg left me for some skanky girl at his work years ago. But being married to a muggle did teach me that sometimes electricity is more useful than magic. How about you? Are you married now or are you and your brother still chasing adventure and dragons all over the world?”

Daphne made a face, “Sore subject, he just got divorced.”

Lara’s eyes widened, “Oh…I’m sorry about that Bill. I didn’t mean to bring it up like that.”

Bill shrugged, “It’s okay, it was a mutual decision. No skanky girls, or guys, involved. But I still don’t really like to talk about it.”

Lara smiled, “Still the most emotional Weasley then?”

Bill chuckled, “Nah, come on, you know that title goes to Charlie.”

“How is Charlie doing?” Lara asked with a smile.

“Oh he’s alright, finally settling down I reckon,” Bill replied, “With this one’s little sister, actually.”

Lara raised an eyebrow at Daphne, “Forgive me if its rude, but you don’t look that old yourself so how young is your little sister?”

“She’s 19, but she’s the CEO of an international company so she acts older than her years,” Daphne said with a shrug.

“And she brought Charlie back to the UK,” Bill added.

Lara scoffed, “I didn’t think I’d see the day that either of you settled back in this country.”

Daphne raised an eyebrow at the two of them, “Okay, you two seem to know each other _really _well for two people who just went to school together.”

“Yeah,” Bill said sheepishly, “That’s because Lara was in Charlie’s year, she fancied the pants off of him till she found him snogging her older sister in a broom closet. Then she ended up dating me for…a while, until I broke up with her to run away to Egypt.”

“Wow,” Daphne said, “That is a dick move Bill.”

“It really was,” Lara agreed.

“How long is ‘a little while’ exactly?” Daphne asked curiously.

“Three years,” Bill muttered.

“Three years?” Daphne echoed in surprise, “Bill you were only with Fleur for 3 and a half years, this is practically equal with your longest relationship!”

“Yeah,” Lara said, crossing her arms to look at Bill, “It was kind of a big deal. Your Mother really wanted us to get married.”

“Yeah, she did,” Bill agreed sheepishly.

Daphne tutted and shook her head, “And you haven’t spoken since then?”

“Nope,” Lara replied, “We haven’t seen each other in years.”

“So will we talk about why we came here? Or will I just go out and get coffee to let you two keep catching up?” Daphne asked, a hint of amusement in her voice.

“No, because I really hope you are here because of Emery.”

“Emery?” Daphne frowned, “I thought your niece was called Emily?”

“To Muggles, yes,” Lara replied, “We didn’t want to draw attention to her here so we called her Emily but my sister and I are both Muggle-borns, so she was christened Emery.”

“I see,” Daphne said, sitting down at the kitchen table, “So did you think she was magical?”

“I always thought that she would be,” Lara said with a sigh, “She was so intelligent and she had this magical aura around her…I think magic had something to do with her death, if she even is dead.”

“So you think the phone call was real?” Bill asked curiously.

“I want it to be real, but I don’t see how it can be,” Lara admitted, “But if you’re here, you must think it’s a curse?”

“We think it might be,” Bill admitted, “But why don’t you think the phone call was real?”

Lara sighed again, heavily this time, “Because my sister confided in me a long time ago that her Husband killed Emery that night when she began to manifest accidental magic. It scared him and the more angry he got, the more volatile her magic got until he completely lost it in a fit of rage.”

Daphne frowned, “If she confided this in you years ago, why didn’t you come forward?”

“Honestly, because I was afraid,” Lara admitted, “I wasn’t a Gryffindor like Bill and Charlie, I was a Slytherin. I was afraid that if I said anything, my sister would be implicated and she had been through enough by losing her daughter.”

“You don’t have to have been in Gryffindor to be brave,” Daphne said firmly, “So I don’t think that’s a fair excuse if I’m honest. This man killed your niece, who by all accounts and purposes you were very close to. Surely you want him to be punished for that?”

“Daphne-” Bill warned.

“Don’t be protective just because she’s your ex,” Daphne said calmly, “I know you agree with me on this one.”

Bill looked at Lara’s teary eyes for a moment and said, “I think there’s more to it than you’re telling us Lara.”

Lara sighed and rubbed her eyes, “Lucie and I have always had a theory that maybe Emery is an obscurial. Her Dad, Nige, he’s a muggle so we couldn’t fathom how he had killed her and left no trace, no body, nothing. We thought maybe she had lost control and that if she had, there was a chance that we could find her.”

“But if you told the authorities, they would hunt her down and kill her because obscurials are insanely dangerous,” Bill finished.

Lara nodded.

Daphne sighed, “So to sum things up. Either Emery is an obscurial in which case, we’re all going to die. Or, there’s a cursed object at play. Let’s hope it’s the second option.”

“No, let’s not hope that,” Lara snapped, “Because if it is that, it means she’s gone.”

“Either way, she’s gone,” Bill said, grabbing Lara’s shoulder and forcing her to look him in the eye, “You’re smart enough to know that when someone becomes an obscurial, it’s a one way road Lara.”

Lara sighed, it was a heavy, world-weary sigh.

“So my question has to be, who would want to torment your sister and her Husband for what they did to Emery?” Daphne asked, “This person clearly thinks that they did it together.”

“There was someone else there that night,” Lara confessed, “Emery’s older brother, Matthias.”

“Was he magical?” Daphne asked.

“He never got a Hogwarts letter so we assumed not,” Lara said honestly, “He was 10 when Emery went missing so he would be 25 now.”

“Would be?” Bill frowned, “What do you mean by that?”

“I haven’t seen him since he ran away from home when he was 15,” Lara replied, “He stopped speaking after Emery’s disappearance then one day, he packed a bag and left in the middle of the night.”

“So although he’s not magical, he might know someone who is,” Daphne realised.

“Or he’s found a cursed object and he’s using it,” Bill interjected, “He knows about magic, even if he’s not magical.”

Daphne nodded slowly, “Thank you Lara. I promise that we’re going to do everything we can to find out what happened to Emery.”

Lara smiled weakly at her then looked at Bill, “Do you think I might finally get some closure?”

“Yeah,” Bill said, grabbing her hand and giving her a supportive smile, “I think you might, but I’m sorry that it’s taken this long Lara.”

Lara shook her head, “Don’t be sorry, just get to the bottom of this puzzle Bill.”

“I always do,” Bill said, dropping her hand and getting to his feet.

He and Daphne left the house and apparated back to the bank silently, but once they were safely within the walls of Gringotts, it was a different story.

“So…Lara seems nice.”

Bill rolled his eyes, “One adopted kid later and you already sound like my Mother.”

“Not gonna lie, trying very hard not to be offended by that,” Daphne remarked dryly.

Bill grinned at her, “Good, that was the intention.”

Daphne made a face at him, “I hate you being my best friend. How did I, the self-professed Slytherin ice queen end up becoming best friends with you, Bill Weasley, werewolf-extraordinaire.”

Bill let out a loud barking laugh at that, “I never thought we were best friends, but you’re right. We are, aren’t we?”

“Unfortunately,” Daphne answered sarcastically.

Bill chuckled and put his arm around her, “Will I make us matching friendship bracelets?”

“Ugh, I hate you,” Daphne muttered, “And I know what this is by the way, a ploy to get me to stop asking you about Lara.”

Bill snorted, “Was it that obvious?”

“I’m married to Harry Potter, I’m the queen at spotting obvious ploys to distract me,” Daphne said, smirking at him, “And that feels kind of good to say you know?”

Bill just laughed, “Look you want the truth? Lara was my first love. She was brilliant, I honestly could have married her but I didn’t and the reason I didn’t was because I didn’t want to become like my parents. I didn’t want to get married straight out of school, have a bunch of kids and end up in a meaningless, badly paid job. I wanted to see the world and back then, it felt like a choice.”

“Lara or the dream job,” Daphne said.

Bill nodded, “Exactly. Looking at it in hindsight, I should have just asked Lara to come with me but hindsight is a wonderful thing.”

“It is, but we’ve all been there,” Daphne said with a smile, “But the universe is giving you a second chance.”

“The universe?” Bill scoffed.

“The universe has its own plans you know,” Daphne said matter of factly, “Divination isn’t the fools subject that everyone thinks it is. There is a lot to be said in the stars if you look closely enough. They can tell us about our past, and our future, the universe has plans and there’s no such thing as a coincidence. You bumping into Lara today, it was meant to happen.”

Bill rolled his eyes, “That’s it, you’ve gone crazy. I’m karting you off to the loony bin.”

Daphne smirked, “You’re being offensive because you don’t want me to see how hurt you are.”

Bill echoed her earlier sentiment, “I hate you.”

Daphne just grinned, “Maybe lightning strikes twice Bill!”

“Or maybe it doesn’t,” Bill argued grumpily.

Daphne ignored him and said cheerfully, “Right then, you hit the archives and see what kind of curse could do this. I’m going to see where Matthias went when he disappeared off the face of the Earth.”

“Yes boss!” Bill chuckled, “But before you bugger off, I need to talk to you about something.”

Daphne turned around in the doorway, “Yeah?”

“You do realise with the way that this is going, there’s a chance we’re going to have to bring Aurors in?” Bill asked.

“Well yes, I expected so,” Daphne answered.

“And I know Harry’s trainer, I’ve worked with him before,” Bill added, “I wouldn’t put it past him to bring Harry along.”

Daphne scoffed, “First years don’t go on field missions. He wouldn’t break that rule just to get a laugh out of watching Harry have to work with his wife,” she said with a shake of her head, “See you in the morning!”

Bill smirked to himself, “Wouldn’t he?” he asked the empty room with a chuckle.

***

“Do you reckon its too soon to set Bill up?”

Hermione raised an eyebrow at Daphne, “Just a few weeks after his divorce was finalized? Uh yeah, I think it’s a bit too soon.”

“Even if the universe wants it to happen?” Daphne added.

“Oh come on, not the ‘universe has a plan’ thing again Daph,” Hermione said, topping up her friends wine glass, “You know my opinion of Divination.”

“Doesn’t make you right,” Daphne said in a sing song voice as she drew her feet up underneath her and got comfortable. She had a rare night off while Harry watched Teddy, so she was spending it drinking wine with Hermione at Grimmauld Place.

“Alright then,” Hermione said, smirking at her friend, “Tell me how the universe has a plan and I’ll dispute it.”

“We were working on a case today and we bumped into Bill’s first girlfriend, who he confessed was his first love,” Daphne said, smiling smugly at Hermione, “Fate.”

“Coincidence,” Hermione argued.

“There is no such thing as coincidences,” Daphne said, “It’s just a word scientists came up with to explain things that they can’t because they can’t fathom that the universe has a plan.”

“This whole idea of yours makes you sound crazy, you do realise that right?” Hermione asked, leaning back in her comfortable armchair and sipping her wine.

“I have been told that,” Daphne remarked nonchalantly, “But for two people to be drawn together right now, when they both need it and they both need each other? That’s not chance Hermione. Something pulled and pushed them together, a force stronger than us.”

“Look Daphne, your one of my best friends and I love you, but you’re never going to convince me on this one so shall we just drop it before it becomes an argument?” Hermione asked reasonably.

“Probably for the best,” Daphne chuckled, “Anyway, we have a wedding to plan!”

At this Hermione smiled with excitement, “Yes, we do,” she agreed happily.

***

“How was your night out?” Harry asked, smiling over his glasses at Daphne as she traipsed into the bedroom. He shut the book about Auror protocols that he had been reading and put it down on his bedside table.

“Good,” Daphne said cheerfully. “We got lots of very good planning done tonight. She still needs to decide on a venue mind you.”

Harry chuckled, “I feel sorry for you, having to deal with her incapability to make a decision.”

Daphne rolled her eyes, “Don’t even go there.”

“You seem remarkably sober,” Harry pointed out in amusement, “You aren’t normally this sober when you get back from Grimmauld Place.”

“Well I am a responsible Mother now, and it is a school night,” Daphne said, shooting him a grin, “I only had a couple of glasses. I’m only this late because I went for a walk through London before coming home.”

Harry frowned, “What’s got you going for late night walks? You normally only do that when you’ve got stuff to think about.”

“Yeah, I was thinking about stuff,” Daphne admitted, throwing herself onto the bed, “This case I hauled up for Bill to get him out of his rut…”

“Tough one?”

“Weird one,” Daphne said, lying on her side and propping herself up on her elbow to talk to him, “What do you know about obscurials?”

Harry’s eyes darkened, “I really hope that’s a hypothetical question.”

Daphne made a face, “Kinda?”

“Daph, if there’s the slightest chance that you could be dealing with an obscurial you need to call in Hit Wizards ASAP,” Harry said sharply, “They are unbelievably rare and dangerous.”

“There is chance we are dealing with one, but it’s a very small chance because of how rare they are,” Daphne said, “The magic has to be really strong and I’m just not convinced that it would have been with this girl. She was the daughter of a decent muggle-born witch and a muggle.”

Harry sighed, “Yeah…I don’t want to sound prejudiced, but it doesn’t sound like it. The kid of Hermione Granger and Draco Malfoy for example, that’s the kind of power that it would take.”

Daphne nodded glumly, “Which means that the poor kid really is dead and someone is using a cursed object to torture her parents.”

“Why would they do that?” Harry asked with a frown.

“Because her parents killed her,” Daphne replied bluntly, “So they deserve the torture, but the kids Aunt doesn’t. She just wants answers, and she was Bill’s childhood sweetheart.”

“Well, that’s one way of making the case interesting for him,” Harry said, raising an eyebrow at her, “Did you know that when you pushed him to take the case?”

“Maybe,” Daphne said, hiding her face behind a pillow.

Harry laughed fondly, “If this goes sour, I’m not going to help you deal with the fallout, you manipulative wench,” he grabbed her and pulled the pillow away from her face.

“Fair,” Daphne chuckled as she kissed her Husband.

***

“Morning,” Daphne said cheerfully as she set coffee down on the desk.

“Morning,” Bill said with a smile, “Why are you so happy?”

“Had a nice little evening drinking session with Hermione last night,” Daphne said, shrugging and sitting down behind her desk, “Wedding planning and being a fabulous Matron of Honour.”

Bill snorted, “You had a nicer night than me then. This morning I taught my brother how to use a basic wandless silencing charm because I heard your sister saying things that I never wanted to hear last night.”

Daphne grimaced, “Ew.”

“Imagine having to listen to it through paper thin walls,” Bill pointed out.

“I’d really rather not,” Daphne said, shaking her head to erase the thought, “I do have bad news this morning too, which is going to break the happy bubble a little.”

“Let me guess, our victim really is dead?” Bill guessed.

“Yeah,” Daphne agreed sheepishly.

“I had worked out the same thing,” Bill admitted, “There’s no way the kid of a mediocre Witch and a Muggle could harness enough power to become an obscurial.”

Daphne sighed, “Yeah, which means someone is using a curse to torment her murderers.”

“It’s got to be the brother that Lara was telling us about,” Bill said.

Daphne nodded, “Looks like it’s going to be a pretty open and shut case, doesn’t it?”

“In a sense,” Bill agreed, “But this is going to be a first for you. We are dealing with a murder case here, and someone knows about that murder and is using that knowledge for blackmail and manipulation purposes. This is out of our jurisdiction now.”

“Does that mean that we need to give up the case to the Aurors?” Daphne asked irritably.

“No, it means you need to work with an Auror on it,” A new voice said. A tall, balding man stepped into the office and smiled, “I’m Senior Auror Sumner and this is the Recruit who will be assisting me with the case.”

“Oh you have got to be kidding me,” Daphne said in disbelief while Bill positively cackled with laughter.

Harry grinned, “Hey honey.”

Sumner crossed his arms and said, “In all seriousness, you two are going to be working together on cases like this a lot so it pays well to be able to work professionally together when you need to.”

“This is a test sir, isn’t it?” Harry asked.

“Of course it’s a test Potter,” Sumner scoffed, “Why else did you think you were getting a field trip?”

Harry smirked, “Just thought I was your favourite sir.”

“Quit showing off in front of your missus Potter or I’ll have you scrubbing toilets for the next week,” Sumner barked.

At this Daphne smirked triumphantly when Harry fell silent.

Bill was trying his hardest not to laugh at the hilarity of the situation. He put his serious Senior Curse Breaker head on and smiled at Sumner, “Hey Jack, been a while since we worked a case together eh?”

“A good couple of years,” Sumner agreed, shaking Bill’s hand, “Good to work with you again Bill. Wanna give us the lowdown on what’s going on here?”

Bill nodded, “Yeah here’s the file, but the truth is that it’s likely to be the brother, who is using a cursed object to manipulate the parents.”

Sumner skimmed the file then handed it to Harry, “Likely yes. You have no idea of the brothers whereabouts though?”

“No,” Daphne replied, “His Aunt said that he knew magical people but that he wasn’t magical. That was all she could tell us though.”

Harry frowned at this.

“Well we can head into the Ministry and research a little further, hopefully find a last known location on Matthias. He will be a person of interest due to his magical heritage anyway so-”

“Borgin and Burkes.”

“What Potter?” Sumner asked irritably.

“He’s not magical but he knows magical people,” Harry said, “He can get into Diagon Alley and therefore Knockturn Alley. Where would he go to acquire a cursed object? Borgin and Burke’s.”

Bill raised an eyebrow at Sumner, “He has a point.”

“Which is why he’ll make a damn good Auror,” Sumner agreed, a little reluctantly.

“Assuming he bought it,” Daphne said, “Sorry to trample on your idea _sweetie_, but someone else might have bought it for him.”

Harry smirked at her, “Doubtful _darling_. This is a revenge crime, that makes it more likely that he bought it himself.”

Sumner snorted at the interaction between the newlyweds, “The only way to find out is to go into the shop undercover and find out if he has sold anything to Matthias.”

Harry nodded eagerly.

“And the best person to glean information from that sleazy old idiot would be the one that he will most definitely be attracted to,” Sumner added, looking at Daphne.

“Uh…what?” Harry asked in surprise.

Bill frowned, “Yeah I’m with Harry on that one. Daphne isn’t an Auror and that seems pretty dangerous.”

Sumner and Daphne scoffed in unison.

“Dangerous?” Daphne asked in disbelief, “Flirting with a sleazy shop owner?”

“A dealer of dark items,” Harry added, “He doesn’t sell bloody flowers Daphne.”

“And I’m training to be a Curse Breaker, aren’t I?” Daphne asked calmly, “I’ve dealt with my fair share of dark items Harry, I’ll be fine.”

“I already hate this plan,” Harry muttered irritably.

“She’ll be in there for less than five minutes and we’ll be outside if anything goes south,” Sumner said logically.

Harry sighed and caught Daphne’s eye, “I don’t like it, but I know my Wife sir. There’s no talking her out of an idea once she’s got it planted in her head.”

Daphne smiled triumphantly, “Good! Come on then boys, I want this case closed by tonight. I have to drag my best friend to an antenatal appointment that she really doesn’t want to go to and that’s at 6pm so clocks ticking!”

“Is she always like this?” Sumner asked, looking between Bill and Harry.

“Yeah,” They both answered quietly as they followed Daphne out of the office.

“Sometimes I forget I’m her boss,” Bill muttered to Harry.

“Sometimes I forget I have an opinion,” Harry muttered back.

“I can hear you both, you know that right?” Daphne asked, putting her hair into a bun with a flick of her wrist and shooting them both a mildly amused look.

Sumner lowered his voice and said, “I’m still going to give you hell if she makes you late, but I understand why you don’t argue with her and just take the laps.”

At this Harry laughed, and caught Bill sniggering out of the corner of his eye too.

***

“What are you doing?”

“Undoing a couple of buttons,” Daphne answered as she adjusted her blouse.

“_Why?” _Harry asked incredulously.

“Because I’m going in there to flirt the truth out of him, cleavage helps Harry,” Daphne said with a roll of her eyes.

Harry shook his head in disbelief, “You’re impossible to work with.”

“You’re impossible to work with,” She counteracted.

“I’m not being your go-to Auror when you need one,” Harry continued, “You can have Draco and Theo, they can put up with your flirty, I’m just stripping to get some information act.”

“She undid two buttons Potter, she’s not stripping,” Sumner said in a harsh whisper.

“I’m with you here Harry, if she was my wife I’d be fuming too.”

“Well I’m not your wife Bill so respectfully, shut up,” Daphne said, crossing her arm over her recently exposed cleavage, “And if you want me to keep being your wife Harry, shut up and let me do your job for you.”

Harry glared at her but said nothing else.

Daphne pulled red lipstick out of her bag and began putting it on.

“Seriously?” Harry burst out, despite himself.

“Shh!” Daphne muttered irritably, putting the lipstick back in her bag and heading for the door, “See you in five,” she promised.

Harry huffed irritably in her absence. Bill grinned, “You knew she was going to be hard work when you married her Harry, admit it.”

“How was it you described Fleur again? Hot as hell but she could really rub you up the wrong way with just a couple of words?” Harry asked.

Bill snorted, “Yeah, that sound familiar?”

“Very,” Harry said, peering into the window as Daphne approached the counter.

“Good luck with that,” Sumner said in amusement, “My first wife was just like her.”

“Your first wife?” Harry asked tentatively, “Uh…why did you end up having a second wife?”

“Because the first one ran off with my best friend and took all of my money,” Sumner replied, giving Harry a pointed look.

“You’re safe Harry, she doesn’t fancy Neville,” Bill joked.

“Funny,” Harry remarked dryly, but he did hide a small smile.

He glanced back in and panicked momentarily when he could no longer see Daphne at the counter.

“Where-”

Sumner cut in, “It’s fine, I saw where she went.”

“Yeah but where-”

“Be quiet Potter.”

Harry was about to open his mouth to say no when the front door opened and Daphne stepped out. She walked up the alley and they followed her. Once they were a little closer to the point where Knockturn Alley met Diagon Alley, Daphne smirked and said, “Matthias was in there a week ago and he made a purchase.”

“What did he buy?” Harry and Sumner asked in unison.

Daphne looked at Bill when she answered, despite the fact he was the only one who _hadn’t _asked, “A cursed skull.”

Bill’s eyes widened, “Of course…of course! And it’s probably still at the house! A cursed skull, why didn’t I think of that?”

“I don’t know, because I didn’t either,” Daphne said, “But they are quite rare, aren’t they? Borgin said that Matthias paid a very nice price for it.”

“Where do you reckon he got that kind of money from?” Bill asked her.

“I don’t know but that’s their problem isn’t it?” Daphne asked, shrugging her shoulders in the direction of Sumner and Harry, “When they arrest him, they’ll have to work that out. We just need to find the skull and destroy it to break the curse.”

“We’ll come with you, just in case Matthias has returned to the scene of the crime,” Sumner said.

Bill nodded, “That’s probably wise. You will need to arrest the parents when we get to the house too. Daphne and I haven’t spoken to them yet, we went through the Aunt when we took the case on.”

“Alright, time for your first real life arrest Potter,” Sumner said, slapping Harry on the back.

***

“I feel kind of bad for them.”

“I don’t,” Daphne said darkly as they searched the dimly lit cellar, “They killed their daughter.”

“_He _killed his daughter,” Bill added, shivering at the thought, “Which I don’t understand. I love Victoire with everything that I have and I just don’t get it.”

“That’s because you’re normal,” Daphne said, smiling at him, “A normal, great Dad.”

“I don’t feel like a great Dad right now,” Bill sighed.

“I know, but you’ll get there,” Daphne promised him, “You and Fleur are working out a new normal right now, it’s natural that Vic will find it a little hard to adapt. Give it a few months and things will be fine again, I promise.”

Bill smiled at her, “I love your blind optimism sometimes.”

“Blame Harry, it’s his influence rubbing off on me,” Daphne said with a roll of her eyes.

“You two weren’t kidding earlier on when you said you couldn’t work together, were you?” Bill asked with an amused, but knowing smile.

“No, we weren’t,” Daphne said with a shake of her head, “I love him to bits, but I can’t work with him. He’s overbearing as hell, I wanted to smack him.”

“You should have, his Auror trainer would have pissed himself,” Bill chuckled.

Daphne laughed too, but stopped short when she saw something in the corner, “Bill!”

Bill saw it too, he saw it move a fraction despite the fact that neither of them had moved their wands.

“Don’t move,” He said, “Don’t move a muscle.”

Daphne stayed stock still, “What is it?”

“It’s Matthias,” Bill said, moving his lips as little as possible, “Borgin lied to you, he didn’t buy that skull days ago. He bought it years ago, and he hasn’t returned to the scene of the crime, he never left it.”

“What do you mean?” Daphne asked, her heart beating out of her chest.

“He’s dead, he probably died not long after his sister,” Bill replied, “He bought the skull straight away to get his revenge but it takes a soul to work. He thought it would take his sisters soul, but it took his. Matthias is dead but that is his soul and that is what is tormenting his parents, the skull is just a conduit.”

“Like a horcrux,” Daphne breathed.

“Yes, and the minute you take your eyes off of him, he will jump into your body and possess you,” Bill reiterated.

Daphne was about to say that she wasn’t sure how much longer she would be able to stay still for when the cellar door opened.

“Soul of Matthias is in the cellar!” Bill called out, grabbing Daphne and yanking her back towards the stairs as the light distorted all of the shadows in the cellar.

Harry and Sumner darted down the stairs and pushed the Curse Breakers behind them.

“Do you know how to defeat a soul attached to a cursed item, Potter?” Sumner asked, his eyes scanning the cellar for movement.

“Much the same as a horcrux sir,” Harry replied calmly.

“Yes, and do you know how to destroy a horcrux?” Sumner asked, “Because last time I checked we didn’t have any basilisk venom, or big shiny swords or your boyfriend in a bloody cardigan.”

Harry would have laughed if it wasn’t for the tension in the room, “Would fiendfyre destroy it?”

“It would, but nobody can control fiendfyre,” Sumner said, “And certainly not in the cellar of a house. The whole place would come down on us.”

“Not if there was somebody who was really good at controlling fiendfyre in that cellar,” Harry pointed out, “Sir, shadow in the right corner!”

“Keep your eyes on it Potter, it can’t jump inside of us unless we look away,” Sumner said as he scanned the cellar for the skull, “Bill, there is a skull on the back wall towards the left, is that our object?”

Bill did a diagnostic charm and nodded, “Yep, that’s it.”

“Alright,” Sumner said calmly, “Potter, are you bullshitting me here or is one of your superhero boy who lived tricks that you are an expert at controlling fiendfyre?”

“I really am that good sir,” Harry said entirely seriously.

“Okay,” Sumner said, looking right at the shadow, “I’m watching your shadow so you can look away. Destroy that skull _now,_ and civilians…out of the cellar please.”

“No chance,” Bill and Daphne replied in unison.

“You know this is dangerous Daphne,” Harry said, turning to look at her.

“Yes, and I know how good you are. We’ll all be fine,” Daphne said confidently, “Just kill that thing, now.”

Harry nodded and turned around. He held up his wand, took a deep steadying breath and said the incantation. A string of fire shot out of his wand and weaved its way across the cellar to the skull. It then encapsulated the skull which caused a scream to be emitted from the other side of the cellar where the shadow of Matthias had been. Harry let the fire burn the skull until the echoes of the scream had disappeared. He then twisted his wand in the other direction and took another deep breath before lifting one finger from his wand and beckoning the fire back towards him. Slowly, it weaved back across the room into his wand, leaving small puff of smoke once it was gone.

“Back out of the cellar,” Sumner said.

They all did, and the door was then snapped shut. They all breathed in gratefully and were happy to be standing in a sunlit corridor once more.

“Potter,” Sumner said, looking at Harry with real admiration, “I’ve never seen anyone do that. Not in training or in real life, that was pretty amazing.”

Harry smiled a little sheepishly, “Thank you sir.”

Sumner shook his head, still in shock at what he had seen such a young Recruit do, “We’ll get special services out here to secure the area and make sure that he really is gone. Until then this area is sealed off, and we have the parents to question back at the Ministry.”

“Alright,” Harry said, he smiled at Daphne, “See you tonight after Sadie’s appointment love.”

“See you tonight,” Daphne agreed, kissing him on the cheek, “And you were bloody brilliant today, you know?”

“So were you,” Harry said with a smile.

Bill made a face, “This is sickening. Come on Daphne, we have to go and tell Lara that we cracked the case.”

Daphne chuckled and let him drag her out of the house. It wasn’t until they were outside that she said, “Do you know what? I think I’ll just bow out a little early and let _you _tell Lara that we cracked the case. That way you two can catch up properly.”

“Don’t think that I don’t know what you’re doing here!” Bill called as she began to walk away from him.

“I’ve got no idea what you’re talking about!” Daphne called back, grinning at him and slipping between two houses to apparate away.

***

_Knock. Knock._

“Bill!”

Bill smiled sadly at her, “Hey Lara. We solved the case for you, but…it’s not exactly happy news.”

Lara’s face fell. She nodded and pulled the door back, “Come in.”

Bill stepped in and followed her to the kitchen.

“Tea?”

“Tea sounds great,” Bill said, sitting down behind her breakfast bar.

“So, Emery is dead isn’t she?” Lara asked.

“Unfortunately, she is,” Bill replied, “We tried our best to keep it on the down low but we had to work with an Auror who has arrested your sister and her husband on suspicion of her murder. It is likely that your sister will get a minor sentence because she only knew of the act, she didn’t help.”

Lara nodded and let out a shaky breath, “I understand.”

Bill took a breath.

“Oh Merlin, there’s more?” She asked in disbelief.

Bill nodded, “I’m afraid so.”

Lara sat down across from him at the breakfast bar, “What is it?”

“Matthias is dead too,” Bill said quietly, “He died not long after Emery but his soul has been hanging around. He got a cursed skull to enact his revenge, not realising that it would take his soul not Emery’s. We had to destroy the object and therefore Matthias’s soul, to break the curse.”

Lara let her head drop into her hands, “My family is so messed up Bill.”

“I’m sorry,” Bill said, tentatively reaching across and placing his hand on hers.

Lara elaborated, “It was why I loved your family so much. They just took me in, I felt like I would always be at home with them and with…you…” she frowned and shook her head. She pulled her hand out from underneath his and stirred the tea, “Stupid I know.”

“It’s not stupid,” Bill said quietly, his tone softer than it had been a moment earlier, “Because you did fit in and I was stupid to throw away what we had to run after adventure. I was an idiot Lara, all I wanted was to break the norm. I wanted adventure and fun, not a wife and kids and a boring desk job. Back then I couldn’t see that I could have that without losing you.”

“You were young, and rash, and stupid,” Lara said, smiling sadly at him, “We both were, but we learned our lessons, didn’t we? We’ve both been married, we’re both divorced. We’ve seen the real world.”

Bill nodded thoughtfully.

“You moved up in the world,” Lara pointed out, “I researched you after I saw you last. I learned about your hot French wife.”

“She had a fiery French temper too,” Bill said with a sad smile, “She was either hot or cold, there was no in-between and the age gap between us became an issue. What split you and Greg up?”

Lara sipped her tea and sighed, “A difference of opinions, and cultures. I missed the wizarding world sometimes and he didn’t get that, he thought we were all a bunch of weirdo’s. He used to get a kick out of telling his friends that he had rescued me from a cult.”

Bill scoffed, “He sounds like an idiot.”

“He was,” Lara admitted, “I don’t know why I married him to be honest with you. I think I got to a point where I thought that he was the best that I was going to get so I might as well settle. Either way, he wanted kids and I didn’t so he left me for his secretary.”

Bill made a face, “What an arse. I didn’t realise that you didn’t want kids though.”

Lara shook her head, “Not particularly. I didn’t come from a very loving family as you know. All of this….it’s more a reason to let the line stop with me.”

Bill debated telling her about Victoire, but in the end it just came out, “I have a kid.”

“Do you?” Lara asked in surprise.

Bill nodded, “She’s called Victoire, I wanted to call her Victoria because she was born in England but Fleur said she should have a French name.”

“Just call her Vic,” Lara chuckled.

“I do,” Bill said with an amused smile, “She’s 1 and a half, and she’s pretty much my whole world.”

“Cool,” Lara said with a fond smile, “Why did you tell me that?”

“Because you said you didn’t want kids and I was seriously thinking about asking you out so I figured that might be pivotal information,” Bill said, looking up to meet her eye.

Lara’s eyes sparkled with amusement, “I don’t want to bring any kids into my family but I like kids Bill. I’m not so convinced about you asking me out though.”

“Why not?” Bill asked, trying not to sound too hurt.

“Because I don’t want to be your rebound,” Lara said honestly, “You just got divorced and the first woman to come into your life after that was me, a person who have a lot of history with. I’m the obvious choice for a rebound, even if that is a subconscious choice.”

Bill sighed and looked down into his coffee, “True,” he admitted grudgingly.

Lara reached across the breakfast bar and placed her hand on top of his, “But I wouldn’t say no to being your friend again because right now, I think you need one and I need someone to help me get back into the wizarding world.”

Bill looked up and smiled warmly at her, “I…I can do that. Friendship sounds great.”

Lara smiled back at him, just as warmly, “Good,” she said decisively.

***

“I am never, and I mean _never _working with my wife again.”

“Hey Harry, staying for tea?” Lilly asked in amusement.

“Yeah Lil, what you cooking?” Harry asked, peering into the pot.

“Pasta, and my spidey senses must have been tingling because I cooked an extra portion,” Lilly said with a grin.

“Nev told you I’d be here because I had to work with Daphne today, didn’t he?”

“Would I?” Neville asked sarcastically.

“Yes, you would,” Harry said, grinning at his partner, “Traitor.”

Neville grinned, “Shut up and grab us both a beer would you?”

“Oi! Get me one too!” Lilly exclaimed.

“Yes boss!” Harry joked, disappearing into the pantry and returning with three bottles. He tossed one to Neville, handed one to Lilly and opened his own then he leant against the kitchen counter, "Seriously though, she’s impossible to work with.”

“Dare I ask, why?” Neville asked, clearly finding this entire thing hilarious.

“Well she thinks she can get her way by taking her bloody clothes off for a start,” Harry muttered irritably, “She used cleavage to get information from Mr. Borgin.”

“Funny how the things that attracted you to her when you first met are annoying you now,” Lilly said with a sweet smile.

“Oh shut up Lil, don’t you start,” Harry said with a roll of his eyes, “I’ve been getting this from my inner Hermione all day.”

“Your inner – sorry what?”

Neville barked out a laugh as Lilly tried to process what Harry had just said.

“It’s the little voice in his head, you know the one that keeps you alive and tells you when you’re being a prick? His talks with Hermione’s voice,” Neville grinned.

“_Hermione _is your subconscious?” Lilly asked in disbelief.

“Yeah, kind of,” Harry said with a wave of his hand, “But the point is, she can’t just spend the rest of her life putting red lipstick on and popping a button in her blouse to get her own way!”

“Weeeeeeelll…” Lilly said.

Neville snorted at that.

“It pissed me off,” Harry muttered.

“Yeah, I did get that impression,” Lilly said, hiding her smile as she dished out the pasta, “Do you think Daphne liked working with you?”

“Obviously,” Harry scoffed, “I totally cracked the case and controlled fiendfyre. She’s never seen me in Auror mode before, I bet it turned her on.”

“Well I’m sure you’ll find out about _that _one later,” Neville said as Lilly put three bowls down on the table, “Where’s Ted by the way?”

“Being babysat by his Grandad and Narcissa,” Harry said with a shrug, “Daphne thinks they are friends with benefits, which is gross apparently because they’re old.”

Neville chuckled, “Either way, I doubt Cygnus is doing much of the babysitting.”

“Yeah, I know,” Harry chuckled, “Daphne had to drag Sadie to that antenatal appointment that Theo can’t attend. She was nervous about going because he wasn’t allowed to so she volunteered in his place.”

“Why can’t he go?” Neville asked curiously.

“It’s a late pregnancy appointment, they will want to do some charms and ask a few questions to make sure she’s not a victim of any sort of domestic or sexual abuse. It’s because they are both purebloods, it’s a precaution to make sure she wasn’t forced into the pregnancy or anything like that,” Lilly said, waving her fork in the air as she spoke.

“That’s horrible,” Harry said with a frown.

“It’s procedure in the wizarding world,” Lilly shrugged, “I don’t like it much either but it’s better that they do it than ignore the issue, don’t you think?”

“I suppose so,” Harry said, taking a bite of pasta absentmindedly, “This is really good by the way.”

“Thanks,” Lilly said dryly, raising an eyebrow at him.

“What?” Harry asked defensively.

“You didn’t have to sound so surprised,” Lilly said, only a little defensively.

Neville sniggered into his pasta, “Mate, just shut up and eat or she’ll either knock you out or kick you out.”

“Yeah okay, sorry Lil,” Harry said sheepishly, taking another bite of his pasta gratefully.

***

“See? That wasn’t scary, was it?” Daphne asked with a smile as she led her friend out of the hospital.

“No, but it was offensive,” Sadie muttered irritably, “Daphne, could you slow down a little? I’m the size of a baby whale.”

Daphne snorted, “Hardly Sadie, you’re glowing,” she said, but she did slow down a little.

“I can’t believe they asked me all of those questions about Theo-”

“They were generic-”

“No, they weren’t,” Sadie said, lowering her voice as they left the hospital, “I saw a note in my file next to his surname. They asked those questions because of his family history.”

“Well, you can understand why they have to, surely?” Daphne said softly, “To someone who looks at Theo on paper but doesn’t know him, his background history is a little worrying where kids are concerned. But I think she knew that there wasn’t really anything to worry about because she didn’t really question you. She accepted your answer as no to all of the questions really easily.”

“I suppose. Do you think I’m doing that thing where I get really offended over nothing because of hormones?” Sadie asked with a sigh.

“A little bit, yeah,” Daphne admitted, smiling at her best friend, “But you are growing _two babies _so I think we can all forgive you for that.”

“Thanks for reminding me,” Sadie chuckled.

Daphne just grinned at her, “Come on, let’s get you home to your loving, supporting, sap of a Husband!”

“Did you have to say it so loudly?” Sadie laughed.

“Just reaffirming that you and the rest of the world have nothing to worry about,” Daphne said, smiling supportively at her best friend.

“I love you,” Sadie said tearfully.

Daphne laughed and pulled her into a hug, “I love you too Sade, but you are super hormonal and tired so right now I think you really need to get home.”

“Yeah,” Sadie said through her tears, “That sounds great. Oh sweet Salazar, why am I crying so much?”

“I don’t know,” Daphne replied through her laughter, “But it’s bloody funny.”

Sadie glared at her pathetically through blood stained eyes and the two friends burst into laughter once more.

**TBC**.


	128. Hey Girl, I Think I Wanna Marry You

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Song title comes from the Bruno Mars song, Marry You :)
> 
> I'm a roll with this story! I've been writing so much that I've not stopped to edit for a while. I am hoping (please cross all your fingers for me!) that I will be able to get this story finished within the next few weeks :D

Daphne was clock-watching. It was Monday and it was almost lunch-time, she was planning on enjoying every minute of her one hour paid break, because she and Bill were having the slowest, more boring day ever. Bill had said that January and February were their slowest months, but she hadn’t thought that it would be _this _bad.

It was at precisely 1.02pm that the day began to get interesting. There was a bang as the door was pushed open, then a grinning redhead barged into their office.

“Hey! Cheer up guys, aren’t you meant to be saving the world?”

Daphne grinned up at her, “Suse! How are you doing? I haven’t seen you since Christmas!”

“I’ve been busy, travelling, you know?” Susan said, she shrugged off her bag and perched herself on Bill’s desk, “But I need to have a super important chat with my best girl.”

“Right, well I’ll take that as my que to leave then,” Bill said, pushing himself to his feet.

“No you won’t,” Susan said, placing her hand on his chest and shoving him back into his chair, “You will stay right there for this super important chat because it’s your brother that I’m marrying on Saturday.”

“Marrying?” Daphne asked, her eyes widening, “On Saturday?”

Bill made a face, “You’re marrying Percy? _Percy_. Percy is getting married…someone is marrying Percy?”

“Shh!” Daphne exclaimed, whacking him around the head, “What do you mean you’re getting married on Saturday?”

“Don’t freak out, it’ll be fine,” Susan said cheerfully, “But we need witnesses and you are my oldest friend.”

Daphne just stared at Susan in disbelief.

“And Perce said that you were his least judgmental brother and therefore his favourite, so he asked if you would be our second witness,” Susan added for Bill’s benefit.

Bill shrugged, “Yeah, I can do that. Marriage is over-rated though.”

“He also said that you would say that and told me to ignore you because you’re going through a self-pitying phase due to your recent divorce from your hot French model wife,” Susan added.

At this Bill grinned and leant back in his chair, “I really like the man that Percy has become.”

“Me too,” Susan said, winking at the eldest Weasley and turning to Daphne, “Right my love, have you picked your jaw up from the floor? Will you be a witness?”

Daphne didn’t say anything.

“Witness Daphne, it’s simple. You just need to pick up a quill and sign a piece of paper,” Susan said slowly.

At this Daphne frowned, her eyes snapped up to meet Susan’s, “Hey! Don’t be a condescending cow about it, I’m just wrapping my head around the fact that it’s Monday and you’re getting married on Saturday. I know what a witness is and I’ll be one, even if you are a crazy bitch.”

Susan grinned and hugged her friend, “I love you too. Wear what you want, it’s not a fancy thing okay? I need you guys at Gretna Green for 4pm on Saturday for the ceremony. Everyone else is coming to the after party at Bones Manor.”

“I thought Bones Manor was a ruin,” Daphne said.

“It is, but the house elves have maintained the grounds,” Susan said eagerly, “It’s going to be great, I’m talking fire pits and endless alcohol, it’s going to be the biggest party of the year but it’s just our friend group and the Weasley’s, no point making a big deal of it after all is there?”

“No of course not, it’s only your bloody wedding,” Daphne muttered sarcastically.

“You’re my oldest friend Daphne and I love you, but sometimes you are such a pureblood, aristocratic old wench,” Susan said with a fond grin, she leant forward and kissed Daphne on the cheek, “See you on Saturday, make sure you get a sitter cause no kids kay? Love Teddy and all, but there’s no place for a baby at a Bones party. Au revoir!”

Without another word she blew out of the office.

Daphne leant back against her desk and frowned, then looked at Bill, “I…Bill I just…I can’t process this.”

“Yeah,” Bill said, looking at Daphne in amusement, “She has kind of broken you hasn’t she. Are you a robot?” he added, waving his hand in front of her face.

Daphne swiped it away irritably, “Who tells someone they are getting married with less than a weeks’ notice?”

“Susan and Perce apparently,” Bill replied nonchalantly.

“Why are you so calm about this?” Daphne asked, looking at her boss in disbelief.

“Meh, we’re Weasley’s,” Bill said with a grin, “We’re kind of prone to flights of fancy and shotgun marriages. I mean my parents had a shotgun wedding because my Mum fell pregnant with me when she was like 19 and I just had to wrap my head around Charlie dating a 19 year old, remember? Let alone the fact she’s my best friends little sister. I don’t think anything could surprise me anymore…”

“I’m pregnant.”

“What?!”

Daphne grinned, “Thought you said nothing could surprise you anymore?”

“I meant within my family,” Bill said, his eyes had about popped out of his head.

“I am your family, I’m married to Harry,” Daphne reminded him.

“Yeah but…well okay fair point but…you’re not actually pregnant are you?”

“No,” Daphne laughed, “Just wanted to make a point.”

“Well don’t do it again please,” Bill said, resting his hand on his heart, “I’m not a young man anymore and I can’t lose my best trainee Curse Breaker for the best part of a year because she wants to have a baby. You have a Teddy, that’s enough for you for now right?”

“Yeah,” Daphne laughed, “But in all seriousness, what are we going to do about _this _shotgun wedding?”

Bill shrugged and smiled, “Play along and hope it lasts better than the last Weasley shotgun wedding.”

Daphne frowned, “The last Weasley shotgun wedding…oh _your _wedding,” she realised.

Bill rolled his eyes, “You’re a bit slow on the uptake today.”

“Still wrapping my head around the fact that one of my oldest friends is getting married in less than a week,” Daphne said with a shake of her head, “Oh sweet Salazar, how am I going to get a sitter? I’m going to have to beg Andromeda, or my Dad and Narcissa…”

“Are they together yet?” Bill asked curiously.

“No he just lives with her and shags her,” Daphne said with a disgusted face, “It’s horrible, honestly.”

“Be a Slytherin and use your disgust to make him feel bad, then ask him to babysit on Saturday then,” Bill suggested.

Daphne’s eyes lit up, “Bill! If it wasn’t for the fact that I’m happily married, I could kiss you right now!”

Bill snorted, “I’ve had enough of young blondes thanks,” he joked as he got to his feet and accepted the lunch time post.

Daphne chuckled at those words and began to sort through the letters he had thrown her way, hoping one of them actually had a worthy case for them.

~ ~ * ~ ~ * ~ ~ * ~ ~

“Harry! Do you have any plans on Saturday?”

“No! Why?”

“We’re going to a wedding!”

“Cool!” Harry called, giving her a thumbs up from the porch of his snake cabin. She was standing in the back doorway, having just put Teddy to bed.

He had gotten home late that night so he had gone straight to the cabin to feed Dave.

“Cool?” Daphne questioned as she walked across the wet grass and drew her cloak around herself.

“Yeah cool,” Harry said, frowning at her, “Is that not an okay response to give?”

“Well most people would ask whose wedding we are attending,” Daphne pointed out.

“Oh I just figured it was someone from the bank or something,” Harry shrugged, he locked the door on the cabin, “Do we have a sitter?”

“Yeah I bribed my Dad into taking Teddy overnight,” Daphne replied offhandedly.

“You bribed – actually do you know what, I’m not going to ask,” Harry decided halfway through the question.

“Yeah you don’t want to know,” Daphne said with a shake of her head, “And it’s not someone from the bank, it’s Percy and Susan.”

“What?” Harry asked in disbelief, stopping in the middle of the lawn.

“Yeah.”

“Percy and Susan are getting married on Saturday?”

“Yup.”

“This Saturday?”

“Uh-huh,” Daphne said, shivering a little, “Could we maybe talk about this someone other than the lawn by the way?”

“Oh, yeah, sorry,” Harry said sheepishly, dashing towards the warmth of the house.

Once they were in the entrance hall, Daphne locked the backdoor and they headed towards the kitchen together, this was a ‘need a cup of tea’ kind of conversation after all.

“I found out at lunch time today because Suse asked me and Bill to be the witnesses,” Daphne said, “It will just be the four of us at Gretna then they are having a party with and I quote, fire pits and endless booze, in the gardens of Bones Manor.”

“Well,” Harry said as he considered this, “Fair play to them. They did make a joke about just grabbing family and getting married at Gretna at Christmas time but I didn’t put much stock in it.”

“Neither did I,” Daphne admitted, “But they were obviously being serious.”

“And if nothing else, we know it’s going to be one hell of a party,” Harry said, grinning at Daphne as he handed her a cup of tea, “So…and I regret asking already, how did you bribe your Dad into watching Teddy?”

Daphne made a face, “You’re gonna wish you hadn’t asked.”

~ ~ * ~ ~ * ~ ~ * ~ ~

“Morning chaps! Shall we have a race this morning so we can all get fit for the impromptu wedding on Saturday?”

“Oh don’t start, Hermione was banging on about it for hours last night,” Draco said with a roll of his eyes as they all left the locker room together, “We got an invite through the post and she was all, Draco! How can someone give us less than a week to prepare for a wedding?! I don’t quite understand what the problem is, we didn’t have any plans anyway!”

“That’s because, no matter how effeminate you might be, you just don’t get girls,” Neville joked.

“I am not!”

“You kinda are, you take longer on your hair than Hermione and that’s saying something because have you _seen _her hair?” Theo remarked.

“And I’m the effeminate one?” Draco asked in disbelief.

Harry snorted, “The truth is that this is Hermione we’re talking about, she’s a control freak. She plans everything in her life down to a tee. I mean she didn’t just plan out how to study for her own exams at school, she planned how Ron and I should study too. She just can’t handle short notice, you know what she’s like.”

“It’s mad though isn’t it?” Theo piped up, “Susan marrying Percy?”

“Nah, makes a lot of sense actually,” Neville said as they began to run, “Susan is impulsive and although he goes along with her a lot of the time, Percy knows how to reign her in when she needs it. That’s the kind of guy she needs, someone who can be the spontaneous person that she wants him to be, but stop her from going too far. If Percy is okay with the idea of marriage, then that means it’s not a totally out there idea for them, they will have actually discussed it.”

“Wow, that was deep for a Tuesday morning bro,” Theo said.

“Well he practically dated her, he would understand her mental state more than we do,” Harry pointed out.

“Exactly,” Draco piped up, “Fancy telling Hermione all of that Nev?”

“Not really,” Neville said, shooting Draco a grin, “I think you need her to give you hell every once in a while, it brings you down a peg or two.”

Harry snorted at that, “Nice one Nev.”

“Arsehole,” Draco muttered, glaring in Neville’s general direction while Theo sniggered.

“Ladies! Pick up the pace and quit gossiping!” Sumner barked from the center of the pitch.

“Yes sir!”

~ ~ * ~ ~ * ~ ~ * ~ ~

“So, the hot topic is the shotgun wedding, am I right?” Lilly asked Hermione as she sat in the kitchen of Grimmauld Place.

“Well, obviously,” Hermione said with a roll of her eyes, “Draco told me to shut up about it. He said it’s their wedding, their choice, it doesn’t matter if you approve or not Hermione.”

“Well, he’s not wrong,” Lilly said, she glanced pointedly at her friend, “It doesn’t matter if you approve or not.”

“I know, but I just can’t wrap my head around it,” Hermione said with a shake of her head, “How can anyone plan a wedding in a week? I’ve had months and I’ve only planned 20% of my wedding!”

“Not everyone is a control freak like you, no offence but you did just tell me how much of your wedding you had planned with a percentage,” Lilly said with a small smile.

Hermione made a face, “Yeah well I like statistics.”

“I know, you’re a nerd, that’s why we’re friends,” Lilly chortled, “But really with weddings, it’s not all about the perfect dress, the perfect venue, etc for everyone. It’s about loving the person you’re marrying.”

“I know, but-”

“There are no buts,” Lilly interjected, “They seemed like a mismatched couple at first but look at them now, there is no denying that they are good for each other. They obviously want to get married and they are obviously in love.”

“Well yes, they must be but it is a little bit about the perfect dress and all of that,” Hermione said honestly, “I mean love is the most important part obviously, but appearances do come into it a little.”

Lilly raised an eyebrow at her, “Hermione Granger, so _shallow_.”

Hermione made a face, “Come on, you wouldn’t get married in a red dress would you?” Hermione pointed out, “The white dress, a nice meal for your guests, a good party you know? Appearances.”

Lilly grinned and shook her head in amusement, “I can’t believe my ears. Hermione Granger is a closet pureblood, you are a closet Slytherin, aristocratic pureblood!”

“What?” Hermione barked, “I am not a closet pureblood!”

“Oh you kinda are though,” Lilly teased, “Appearances matter, I’m Hermione and I want to wear a white dress and have a big, white, perfect wedding! You are a total closet Slytherin, no wonder you get on so well with Draco’s Mother.”

“Wow, now that is just offensive,” Hermione said, crossing her arms over her chest but struggling not to laugh.

Lilly grinned, “Admit that I have a point.”

“A very, very vague one,” Hermione admitted grudgingly, “But it’s more of a cultural thing than a pureblood thing. My parents are pretty well off, I grew up in a big house with regular skiing holidays.”

“Lucky you,” Lilly snorted, “The closest I got to a skiing holiday was watching the winter Olympics on the telly which is why I think Draco is an entitled eejit. That’s why you two don’t actually encounter that many cultural differences in the scheme of things you know? You have a different blood status but the same class.”

A scoff sounded from the doorway at these words, “Class? That implies Hermione has class.”

“Funny,” Hermione said, sending a glare Draco’s way.

“She has more class than you,” Lilly said, raising an eyebrow at Draco, “And more balls. Did you get around to telling her about how you were crying in my hospital wing last week?”

“I wasn’t crying,” Draco muttered irritably, “My eyes were watering in pain.”

Hermione raised an eyebrow at her fiancé, “No, you didn’t tell me about that.”

“He got bitten by a plimpy on a training exercise and he cried,” Lilly said, grinning at Hermione.

“A plimpy?” Hermione asked, hiding her grin behind her wine glass.

“I hate working with you,” Draco said, glaring at Lilly.

Lilly just raised her glass and clinked it against Hermione’s, “Touche,” she said, winking at Draco while Hermione giggled at the exchange.

Draco rolled his eyes, “I’m going to Theo’s,” he said, disappearing through the side door into Theo’s kitchen.

~ ~ * ~ ~ * ~ ~ * ~ ~

“Are you sure about this?” Daphne asked as she popped a hair grip into her mouth.

“Letting you loose with my hair or getting married?” Susan joked.

Luna smiled from Susan’s other side, “I think she’s concerned by how quickly you decided to marry Percy.”

“I think you’re right there Luna,” Susan said with a chuckle, “And I’m sure Daphne. I knew Hermione would be skeptical but I didn’t expect it from you. We were in Divination together, I figured you were with me here, the universe has a plan.”

“The universe does have a plan and I do believe in fate,” Daphne said honestly, “I’m not skeptical, I was just surprised because of how quickly it was happening.”

“Why wait when you love someone?” Luna asked in her usual dreamy way.

Susan smiled broadly, “Exactly.”

Luna cocked her head at Susan, “I think you need more glitter.”

“Then give me more glitter, I trust your eye,” Susan said, smiling fondly at the younger woman as she glamoured her up.

Daphne put the final flower in Susan’s hair then wrapped her arms around her friends neck, hugging her tightly, “And I trust your heart. If this feels right to you then I’m happy for you Susie.”

Susan grinned, “Thank you for not being a judgmental pain in the arse.”

“Never,” Daphne said, smiling brightly at her friend, “Now, if you had asked Hermione to be a witness on the other hand…”

Susan laughed, “No, no, no. I like Hermione but I would never be stupid enough to ask her to be a witness. I know she doesn’t approve, but it’s hardly a surprise is it? Hermione and I are big enough to admit that we are two very different people.”

“But it doesn’t stop you being friends,” Luna said, adding the finishing touches to Susan’s face, “Hermione is quite judgy but she’s lovely too.”

“It’s no wonder she and Draco are such a good fit,” Daphne chuckled as she conjured up a mirror, “So what do you think Suse?”

Susan grinned at her own reflection. She was wearing a short white off the shoulder dress with a lace trimmed skirt and Daphne had just weaved white flowers into her hair. Luna had spent the last thirty minutes doing her make-up and it looked incredible. She had white and silver glitter around her eyes, with real gemstones sparkling in the cool morning sunlight.

“You look beautiful Suse,” Daphne said, grabbing her hand and glancing at the time, “But we better hurry up because we need to meet Percy and Bill in five minutes.”

Susan nodded, she kissed Luna on the cheek, “See you at the party soon Luna. Thank you so much for the make-up.”

Luna pushed herself to her feet with an easy smile, “Anytime. Good luck!”

~ ~ * ~ ~ * ~ ~ * ~ ~

“Hey Bill thanks for – why is Charlie here?”

“Because he insisted on having a chat with you before you got married,” Bill said, he rolled his eyes, “He’s trying to take the moral high ground.”

Percy sighed, “Guys, if this is an intervention there is really no need-”

“You’re marrying someone you barely know-”

“We’ve been together since she was in her 8th year Charlie,” Percy cut in, “We’ve travelled together and lived together. This isn’t some spontaneous thing, it’s something that we both want. I don’t expect you to understand that-”

“Why don’t you expect me to understand that?” Charlie asked irritably.

“Well you can’t exactly take the moral high ground here,” Bill pointed out, “You’re dating a fetus.”

“Oh and Percy is so much better?” Charlie asked in disbelief, “He’s marrying one!”

“Yeah, that really didn’t help your argument,” Bill said, biting back an amused grin, “What is it with us Weasley men and younger women? What’s wrong with women our own age?”

Percy chuckled, “Look, I didn’t start dating Susan because she was young and hot. I started dating her because the moment I met her, I felt like we had a connection. She’s smart, she’s far more mature than she acts and she has the same lust for adventure that I developed after Fred’s death. Both of us have been changed by loss and we both believe that life is too short to be wasted. I love her and I know that this is right.”

Bill smiled and patted Percy on the back, “Our little Percy the prick of a prefect has grown up Char.”

Charlie laughed and patted Percy on the back harder, “I’m so proud Billy.”

Percy rolled his eyes, “Shut up.”

Charlie grinned, “I’ll see you at the after party alright? And I’m sorry for interfering, but I wanted to make sure that _you _were sure of this.”

“You were being a good big brother, in your own psychotic way,” Percy said with a smile, “I get it.”

Bill chuckled and nudged Charlie out of the way, “Off you pop Charlie. Percy only wants his favourite brother to be the witness at his wedding.”

“His favourite brother?” Charlie asked, looking around the garden, “I don’t see a clone of Percy anywhere.”

The other two Weasley’s laughed as Charlie dashed out of the room and left them in peace.

“I’ve been trying not to judge, I mean how can I? I rushed into marriage with someone way younger than me,” Bill said, putting his arm around his brothers shoulders as they headed towards the chapel, “But what you said to Char back there…it made me realise something for real Perce.”

Percy frowned at him, “What’s that then?”

“I knew that Fred’s death changed you,” Bill said, his voice rough as he spoke about something he had tried to forget about, “It changed all of us, but I knew it changed you more than the rest of us. You thought that we wished it was you instead of him, and I can tell you that not once did _any _of us think that.”

“I know that now Bill,” Percy said quietly.

“Just let me finish,” Bill said softly, “I figured it had made you have a nervous breakdown, hence the bounty hunter thing. But I can see what it was now, it made you appreciate life and how short it can be. That’s not a bad thing Perce and…loving someone with all that you have, loving them with a passion like that, even if it’s not forever…it can only be a good thing.”

Percy smiled up at his eldest brother, “Thanks Bill,” he said genuinely.

Bill just grinned and dropped his arm from his shoulder when he saw Susan and Daphne waiting for them at the door, “Go get her tiger,” he joked.

~ ~ * ~ ~ * ~ ~ * ~ ~

The actual wedding was very short and formal. It was clear that Susan and Percy wanted to be married, but cared very little about the actual ceremony. They gave their vows to each other, and they exchanged rings.

Daphne was intrigued to see the colour of their union. She and Harry had been enveloped by a golden glow when they had gotten married, as had Sadie and Theo, but she knew that was quite rare. When their bond was formed and their marriage linked, they kissed and were enveloped in a bronze glow.

“Fleur and I were silver,” Bill whispered to Daphne.

“And you still got divorced so shut it,” Daphne muttered back.

“Fair play,” Bill agreed with a nod.

Percy drew back, grinning at Susan. She held up her bouquet of dogwood flowers and said, “Alright! Party time!”

Daphne laughed as she and Bill followed them out of the chapel. From there they apparated back to Bones Manor where the rest of the guests were gathered. Considering that it was wedding party, there weren’t many people there but the gardens of Bones Manor were just as grand as Susan had described.

There were several huge stone-built fire pits. There was a pop-up free bar and the whole garden was filled with several smaller, walled secluded gardens. Ivy grew up the walls, there were hidden doorways behind vines and the whole place had a very cool, fairy-tale vibe about it.

The moment they apparated into the garden, Susan and Percy were swamped with people which made it easy for Daphne to seek out Harry and for Bill to slip away somewhere.

“And just like that, she’s a Weasley,” Daphne joked, slipping her hand into Harry’s.

“Another one,” Harry joked.

Daphne laughed, “This place is cool, isn’t it? I haven’t been here since I was a really little kid.”

Harry nodded, his eyes falling thoughtfully on the newlyweds.

“Where are the others?” Daphne asked, drawing him out of his thoughts.

“Oh, Sadie and Theo are running late because Theo was having trouble resizing Sadie’s dress apparently,” Harry said, he grinned at his wife, “Draco and Hermione heard the argument through the wall. I believe the words, I’M NOT THAT FAT YET, were roared rather loudly.”

“Ouch,” Daphne grimaced.

Harry chuckled, “Neville and Lilly were looking at some old creepy greenhouse they discovered earlier, and Draco and Hermione just went to get drinks.”

“Speak of the devil,” Daphne said as Draco appeared with a tray of firewhiskeys, “Where the hell is Neville?”

“Still at the greenhouse,” Harry replied, grabbing a glass from the tray.

“Hey Daphne,” Hermione said brightly when she appeared behind her fiancé, “How was the ceremony?”

“Short and sweet,” Daphne replied, “Ooh is that for me?” she added, grabbing a cocktail from the tray.

“The other one is Lilly’s, if she ever resurfaces,” Hermione said, putting the tray down on a nearby table and picking up a wine glass.

“Oh there they are,” Harry said gesturing over Draco’s shoulder.

They glanced behind them and saw the couple approaching, talking animatedly.

“I know! Three species!” Lilly was saying excitedly.

“And two of them cross-pollinated!” Neville was brimming with excitement.

“What has you two so excited?” Draco asked dryly.

“Venomous tentacula,” Neville and Lilly replied in unison.

“Ugh, don’t talk about them,” Another voice said as Theo walked towards them with his arm in Sadie’s, “My finger still throbs at the very thought.”

“That’s because you’re an idiot,” Lilly said matter of factly, “And you look great Sadie! You’re glowing!”

“Yeah,” Draco said, looking at Sadie, “You’re so…uh…”

“Fat?” Sadie said defensively.

“I was going to say pregnant,” Draco said.

Harry shook his head in disbelief, “And I’m the clueless one apparently,” he muttered.

Hermione cut in before Sadie could start crying, “Theo, we got you a whiskey and Sade, we got you an elderflower wine.”

“Thanks Hermione,” Sadie said, picking the glass up.

“Oh is the cocktail for me? Thanks Mione,” Lilly said, picking up the last glass and handing Neville his firewhiskey.

“We’re not going to stay long, since I’m pregnant and boring,” Sadie said as she suppressed a yawn, “I might, if he’s on his best behaviour, let Theo stay out a bit later.”

“Don’t be daft Sade, I’ll go home with you as soon as you want to,” Theo said, putting his hand on her lower back.

Sadie raised an eyebrow at him, “It’s because we had a fight earlier, isn’t it?”

“Yeah,” Theo admitted sheepishly.

The others just laughed at this then beckoned Susan and Percy over, “Ah it’s the newlyweds!”

“Welcome to married life bro,” Theo said, raising a glass at Percy.

“Just don’t do what we did,” Sadie remarked dryly.

“Don’t worry, no twins in the foreseeable future,” Susan chuckled, “But we had better be super careful because they do run in the family,” she added.

“They do,” Percy agreed, a sad smile gracing his face.

Susan glanced at him apologetically then turned back to her friends, “Anyway guys, enjoy the food and the free bar!”

“We will!” Theo promised her.

~ ~ * ~ ~ * ~ ~ * ~ ~

And they did. Sadie and Theo, as predicted, didn’t last long. Molly and Arthur didn’t stay for very long either, and next to go were Ginny and Blaise because they had left Blanche to babysit Zola. Not long after that, Ron left because it was his weekend with Frederick.

As the stragglers all drank together on bench seats around the biggest firepit, the subject of Lara came up between Bill and Charlie.

“Hey, did you meet up with Lara yet?”

Daphne’s ears picked up on that and she moved closer, “Ooh so you and Lara are going on a date then?”

“No, I’m helping her move back to the wizarding world and we’re being friends,” Bill said, shooting Daphne a knowing look, “And I knew exactly what you were doing that whole time you know? You would never have given me a case to pursue unless you had thoroughly researched it first so you _knew _that Emery had magical heritage and you knew that Lara was my childhood sweetheart.”

Daphne grinned, “Guilty, _but _it did get you out of your rut didn’t it?”

“It did brother, she’s got a point,” Charlie said, nudging him in the ribs.

Bill smirked, “Maybe it did, but unlike you Charlie, I have learned a thing or two from the Slytherins that I’ve dated.”

“You’ve dated Slytherins?” Daphne asked in disbelief.

“Oh yeah, course I have,” Bill replied with a mischievous grin, “I could have been one actually, everyone knows I’m ambitious after all don’t they?”

“You were a hat stall,” Daphne realised, “Of course you were a hat stall, that makes sense. I always knew there was a reason why you were the only Weasley I liked,” she shot Charlie a grin.

Astoria chuckled by his side, “Polite Daph.”

“I’m not even surprised anymore,” Charlie said as he swigged his beer, “Bill is everyone’s favourite.”

“Well, he’s not _my _favourite,” Astoria said, slipping her hand into Charlie’s.

Daphne rolled her eyes at the exchange and looked at Bill, “So you knew all along?”

“Of course I did,” Bill replied smoothly.

“Yeah that’s why he asked Sumner to bring me along,” Harry said from Daphne’s other side.

Bill shot the younger man a warning look, but Harry was rather tipsy and didn’t notice.

“Sorry, what?” Daphne asked, turning to look at her Husband.

“Yeah Bill and Sumner go way back, so he asked Sumner to bring me along,” Harry said, digging the hole even deeper for Bill, “He thought it would be a laugh, serve you right for dragging him to see his ex.”

“Harry,” Bill groaned, “What are you telling her that for?”

“Oh,” Harry’s face fell, “Shit, I wasn’t meant to tell her that was I?”

“No you bloody idiot, you weren’t,” Bill said with a shake of his head.

Charlie guffawed, “Oh this could be good cause I reckon Daphne could kick your arse into next week, easy.”

At this Daphne grinned, “I take it back Charlie, you’re my favourite.”

Charlie laughed loudly.

Daphne crossed her arms and looked over at Bill, “I can’t believe you got one over on me.”

Bill grinned and winked at her, “Never judge a book by its cover Daphne.”

“I’m still not happy about the fact you set me up though,” She added.

“Yeah well we can fight that out at the office on Monday,” Bill said as he got to his feet,

“Woah, you’re going already?” Charlie asked his brother.

“Yeah, it’s after midnight Char,” Bill said, throwing his coat on, “I’ve got Vic tomorrow, got to be fresh for a day of tower building and blanket fort making.”

“You’re such a good Dad it’s sickening,” Harry said with a shake of his head.

“Shut up, you’re a ridiculously good Dad, it’s annoying how cute it is sometimes,” Daphne said, slapping him around the back of the head.

Bill laughed and bowed out before anyone else could try and stop him.

“He loves that kid,” Charlie said, smiling fondly at his brothers retreating form.

“She is a pretty awesome kid to be fair,” Daphne said, glancing around the fire pit at the remaining guests. They were down to herself and Harry, Charlie and Astoria, George and Angelina, Draco and Hermione, Neville and Lilly, and the newlyweds themselves.

Up until that point, they had all been sitting around the fire talking, or dancing to whatever song the wizarding radio was playing. But Daphne decided that it was time to make things a little more interesting. She got to her feet and said, “Alright, time for a good old round of truth or shots!”

Hermione groaned, “I’m going to die.”

“Yes, but of embarrassment or alcohol poisoning?” Draco teased.

Susan laughed, “Yes! Truth or shots! I haven’t played that in ages!”

“I brought the pack of questions, just in case,” Daphne said with an amused chuckle as she took them out of her handbag, “I’ll spell them so that one card flies to each person around the fire in turn.”

She cast a spell on the cards and the deck floated away from her, landing on the nearest table.

The first card floated from the top of the deck towards Susan who reached up and caught it deftly.

“Remember, tell the truth and if you can’t, take a shot. If you tell a lie, you get hexed,” Daphne said, reminding people like Charlie who probably hadn’t played this since his school days, of the rules.

Susan laughed as she read the card, “Alright so my question is, “Have you ever been handcuffed? If so, by who and in what circumstances?”

Percy chortled knowingly at that, which made the others listen with interest to her answer, “Yes, I have been handcuffed. Percy and I may have indulged in the really obvious bounty hunter role play once…or twice.”

“Oh come on, enough of us are married to Aurors here to accept that,” Daphne said, grinning at Harry, “I mean who hasn’t right?”

Hermione’s cheeks flushed and Draco smirked, giving away _their _answer to that question.

At that point a card floated into Percy’s hand and he snorted when he read it, “I have, ‘What personality trait do you try and hide when you want to impress someone?’ and the answer is, my entire nerdy personality. Most of you know what I used to be like and the truth is that I’m still that person, minus the smarminess, underneath the whole bounty hunter act.”

“He acts tough but once the leather is off, he’s just a nerd reading a book about plants in a bath,” Susan said, nudging her husband in the side.

“Sounds familiar,” Lilly said, shooting Neville a grin.

Neville just grinned sheepishly.

Another card flew out of the deck and this time it headed for Charlie. The deck was distributing cards to them around the circle that they sat in around the fire pit.

Charlie grinned and said, “So my card says, ‘Who in this room do you think could get actually away with murder?’ and that is an easy one. The answer is 100%, Daphne Potter.”

Daphne raised an eyebrow at him, “Me?”

“Yep,” Charlie said, leaning back to survey her, “You work with cursed objects, you could make it look like an accident and you’re married to future Head Auror Harry Potter who could make it all go away because his love for you is stronger than his moral compass.”

Daphne scoffed, “He’d hardly cover up murder for me Charlie.”

Harry grimaced, “Weeeeellll…”

Daphne’s eyes widened, “You’d cover up murder for me?”

“I’d do pretty much anything for you so…yeah,” Harry said meeting her eye.

“That’s so romantic,” Daphne said softly.

“Since when is covering up murder for someone romantic?” George asked incredulously. He looked at Angelina and shook his head, “Thank Godric you’re not a Slytherin.”

Harry laughed at that as a card landed in Astoria’s hand. She glanced down at it warily and turned rather red, “Well, the card says, ‘What is something you have tried sexually and will never try again?’ and since there is no way I’m answering that, I’ll take a shot.”

“Ooh our first forfeit!” Daphne teased her sister, “Susie, you’re the bride. Pick Astoria’s poison.”

“If she’s anything like her big sis, it’s got to be tequila,” Susan said, flicking her wrist in the direction of the bar.

Astoria groaned as a shot of tequila drifted towards her, “I hate you Susan because I am like my big sister, too much sometimes.”

Daphne smiled apologetically at her, “Sorry Tori, the game is the game so drink up!”

Astoria made a face as she knocked back the shot of tequila, “Ugh, disgusting.”

Charlie chuckled and patted her on the back, “It’s cute how much of a lightweight you are,” he teased, earning himself a slap around the head.

Daphne laughed at her sisters expense as a card floated into her hands. She read it then laughed, “Well my card says, ‘If you had to play matchmaker, which two friends would you set up?’ which I find pretty fitting because I basically set up Astoria and Charlie. Oh and Bill and Lara are totally going to rekindle their love, and I set that one up too.”

“You also kind of set up Draco and I,” Hermione pointed out with a smile, “You’re kind of good at it.”

“You kinda are,” Harry agreed.

“Maybe I’ll make a career out of it,” Daphne joked as a card landed in Harry’s hand.

Harry looked down at the card nervously and breathed a sigh of relief when he realised that it wasn’t sexual, “My question is, ‘Who in this group, has the worst ex?’ which is an interesting one.”

“Well it’s not me, my ex was boring,” Percy said, smiling at Susan, “I’ve moved up in the world.”

“And I kind of didn’t date before Percy so it’s not me,” Susan said in amusement, “I mean Neville has to be in the running though, doesn’t he?”

“Yeah Hannah kind of went a bit pyscho in the end,” Neville agreed.

“A bit?” Lilly asked, raising an eyebrow at him.

Harry nodded, “Oh yeah Neville is definitely in the running but honestly I reckon it’s got to be Daphne.”

Daphne frowned, “What?”

“I mean your ex is Draco,” Harry elaborated, “So yeah, it’s definitely you.”

Draco rolled his eyes, “Fuck you Potter.”

“I’d really rather not Malfoy,” Harry said, smirking at him, “You ought to go ask Theo if that’s what you’re after.”

Hermione snorted, “It’s cute how you two revert to surnames when you bicker you know.”

“Especially since Draco hasn’t been a Malfoy for _ages_,” Daphne added, sharing an amused look with Hermione.

Hermione chuckled and looked over at Neville as a card floated into his hand, “Oh good Godric, why do I always get the sexual questions?” he muttered with a shake of his head.

Lilly raised an eyebrow at him, “Go on.”

“My card says, ‘If you could have a threesome with two people in this room, who would you choose?’ and I’m seriously thinking about taking a shot so I don’t have to answer it,” Neville said as the colour rose in his cheeks.

“Oh come on Neville, don’t let the side down!” Harry exclaimed, “Only Tori has forfeited so far and that’s to be expected from a Slytherin.”

“Hey!” Astoria objected.

“He has a point though,” Charlie said, nudging her in the ribs.

“Yeah come on Longbottom, just answer the question, I’m sure your missus won’t get too pissed off,” George piped up.

“As long as I’m one of the people,” Lilly said, looking pointedly at him.

“Well obviously you are,” Neville said with a roll of his eyes, “It’s the other one I’m less willing to confess about.”

“Implying you know the answer already so you’ve already thought about it,” Daphne said, raising an eyebrow at him, “It’s Harry isn’t it?”

“What?” Harry and Neville asked with identical disbelief and disgust.

“No,” Neville said as he made a face, “No offence Harry, I love you man but I don’t ever want to shag you.”

“Absolutely no offence taken,” Harry said, making the same face.

“So who is it then?” Draco asked, “You’ve said enough now, you’re not getting away with a forfeit.”

Neville grimaced, “My answer is Lilly and Hermione.”

Hermione’s eyes widened, “What?”

“Well, it makes sense,” Harry said, grinning at Neville’s discomfort, “Lilly and Hermione are similar, and everyone knows that Neville had a massive crush on her in school.”

“I did not know that,” Draco said, glaring at Neville, “But I do know lots of dark curses so back off Longbottom.”

Lilly shook her head in disbelief and caught Hermione’s eye, “Hit him please.”

Hermione obliged and hit Draco around the back of the head, “It’s a hypothetical question, idiot.”

“I love you too honey,” Draco muttered, rubbing the spot where she had hit him.

Lilly leant across Hermione and lowered her voice, “Stop being an over-protective idiot or I’ll tell everyone about the plimpy incident.”

Hermione sniggered as Lilly grabbed the card that had floated over her way. She looked down at it and chuckled, “Oh, here we go. Right well my question is, ‘What is the craziest thing that you have done while drunk?’ and before I answer, I need to give you all a bit of background. You have to remember that I’m a Muggle-born from a really shitty part of London right? So this happened when I was about 16, in-between 6th and 7th year.”

“Yeah we don’t need your life story Moon,” Draco said, smirking at her, “Just your embarrassing tale so get on with it.”

Lilly stuck her tongue out at him, “Shut it Black. Right well that summer I was out camping with my friends and the police showed up and drunk me thought it would be a good idea to…flash the police officer.”

A bout of laughter went around the friend group at these words.

“You flashed a muggle police officer?” Neville asked, crying with laughter.

“Guess you always had a thing for law enforcement Lil,” Susan said, winking at her friend.

“Yeah, yeah, very funny,” Lilly said, shaking her head and nudging Hermione as a card hovered in front of her face.

Hermione grabbed the card and muttered, “At least I didn’t get that question because my answer would have been shagged Harry Potter.”

Lilly giggled at this and Hermione glanced down at her card. She burst out laughing and said, “Okay so this will give some people a good laugh. My question is ‘What was your first impression of your partner?’ which I’m sure some people know.”

Draco made a face, “Oh sweet Salazar, here we go.”

The others just laughed as Hermione smirked in her fiancé’s direction, “Well my first impression of Draco Malfoy was, what an entitled little shit. I thought he was smarmy and sarcastic, albeit it witty. I thought his hair was ridiculous and that he had Daddy issues.”

“Wow, you were _spot _on!” Daphne said, teasing her friend, “Are you _sure _you’re not a seer Hermione?”

“That is just mean,” Draco said with a roll of his eyes.

“But accurate,” Harry chortled, “Cause it’s not far off my first impression of you.”

“Or mine,” Susan admitted, “I thought you were a douchebag.”

“He was a douche bag,” Half of them chorused.

“Wow thanks guys, really feeling the love right now,” Draco said with a shake of his head.

“Oh shut up, you know we love you,” Hermione said, leaning over to kiss him on the lips which she didn’t often do in public, “You were just a bit of an arsehole for a while.”

At this Draco huffed a little but didn’t say anything more on the subject. Mostly because at that point his card hovered to a stop in front of him.

He grabbed it and looked down. He could have rolled his eyes at the question he had been given. He sighed and said, “My card says, ‘What is the stupidest thing you have done in front of a crowd?’ which is a dick question because the answer is obviously hugging Lord Voldemort.”

Those who had witnessed the exchange couldn’t help but laugh at this, Neville more than most, “Oh that was good.”

“It had to be the most awkward hug ever,” George chortled.

“Thanks guys,” Draco said dryly, “One of the most traumatizing moments in my life, but I’m glad it gives you all a good laugh.”

“Draco, they didn’t mean it like that,” Harry began to say.

However, before he could finish, Draco got to his feet and stalked off. Hermione looked apologetically at them, “Sorry, I’ll go and stroke his bruised ego. You know Draco, he goes melancholy when he gets drunk.”

Daphne nodded, “Yeah, go and give him a kiss to cheer him up, he’ll get over it soon enough,” she joked.

Hermione smiled, “I will, you guys finish your game,” she added, jogging off after Draco.

The next person to be asked was Angelina, she looked down at her card and cringed, “Well my card asks if I have ever lied to get out of having sex with my partner and the answer is yes.”

“What?” George asked in mock disbelief, placing his hand upon his heart.

“When you had me trial those love bite chocolates, I said they had a side effect of a really bad headache,” Angelina said, cringing once more, “Because I just really wasn’t in the mood.”

“What?” George asked again, “Angie! I didn’t put those into production because of that!”

“Sorry!” Angelina said apologetically while the others laughed.

George was still shaking his head as his card floated into his hand, “Ooh, my card asks what my guilty pleasure is and I’ve got to be honest with you guys, I love a hot bubble bath with scented candles.”

This revelation got a huge laugh, and the game carried on in that vein. As they got through the cards, the questions got far more revealing so more and more people chose shots over having to tell the truth. As such, by the time Draco and Hermione returned a good half an hour later, everyone had given up on the game and very few people could be considered tipsy anymore. They were all absolutely hammered, but they were young and they were in love, and they were having a damn good time.

And after all that they had been through, that was all that mattered.

**TBC!!**


	129. Somewhere Only We Know

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have now written everything apart from the epilogue! Which is going to be in five parts probably, because this has taken 10 years to write so I can't tie it up in one! :D I'll try and post a chapter either once a day or every couple of days. Some will take longer to edit than others depending on length and how bad my grammar was that day lol!
> 
> Chapter title comes from the song:  
Somwhere Only We Know by Keane

Harry and Daphne did not feel good the morning after Susan and Percy’s wedding. They did not wake up before midday and they did not wake up feeling healthy. Draco and Hermione had crashed at Potter Manor, mainly because Daphne and Harry had been a little more sober and hadn’t trusted those two to get home without splinching themselves and/or each other.

As such, they would awake to sobering up potions on their bedside tables because Harry and Daphne had the best house elves. Daphne felt more grateful than ever to said elves that morning as she downed the potion and flung herself back against her pillows, “What time did we come home at last night?”

“You mean this morning?” Harry groaned, knocking back the potion and covering his eyes with a pillow, “I dunno but I think the sun was coming out.”

“Yeah I think so too,” Daphne said, blinking away the blurriness in her eyes, “Did you and Draco slow dance?”

Harry made a face, “Yeah…did you kiss Susan?”

Daphne frowned as she concentrated on the blurry memories, “Yeah, I think so.”

“It was a pretty good night though, right?” Harry asked, turning his head to look at her.

“Oh yeah, it was one hell of a night,” Daphne replied, grinning at him, “But do you know what I would kill for right now?”

“A fry up?” Harry guessed.

“Yes,” Daphne sighed.

“Oh Mrs. Potter, you are a woman after my own heart,” Harry said, grinning at her, “Grease makes everything better, especially a Susan Bones related hangover.”

“Susan Weasley,” Daphne reminded him.

“Oh yeah…that’s weird,” Harry said with a shake of his head.

“Not as weird as you and Draco slow dancing,” Daphne giggled.

“I’m going to erase that memory from all of your heads as soon as the alcohol has left my system,” Harry said with a shake of his head as he slipped into the ensuite and turned the shower on.

~ ~ * ~ ~ * ~ ~ * ~ ~

One floor up, Hermione woke up with the strong suspicion that she was going to throw up.

“The sober up potion is on the bedside table,” Draco mumbled from her side.

Hermione blinked a couple of times and saw the potion. She knocked it back in one then lay down on her back on the bed, “I feel sick.”

“I’m not surprised, you were doing shots until 3am, or maybe it was 4am,” Draco said, stretching out and turning to look at her, “Amongst other things.”

Colour rose in Hermione’s cheeks, “Oh my god, that happened.”

“Oh _that _happened alright,” Draco said, grinning smugly at her.

Hermione shook her head, “I…I can’t believe we did that. Why did you let us do that? We had sex in Susan’s garden! Anyone could have seen us! Do you think they did?”

“Pretty sure we would have heard about it now if they had,” Draco snorted.

Hermione glared at him, “It’s not funny.”

“It is funny because I knew you would freak out the minute you sobered up,” Draco said with a grin, “You’re so uptight when you’re sober.”

“Uptight?” Hermione fumed, “You…you’re an arsehole.”

Draco snorted, amused that she couldn’t come up with much more than arsehole.

Hermione lay back down and shut her eyes, fuzzy memories coming into focus, “Did you slow dance with Harry last night?”

“Yeah, he stood on my toes _a lot_.”

“Are you embarrassed about anything you did?” Hermione asked, opening one eye to look at him.

“Oh I’m moderately embarrassed about hugging Neville, that was a moment of weakness.”

“But slow dancing with Harry and sleeping with me in a garden, approximately 10 metres away from the party, wasn’t?” Hermione asked in disbelief.

Draco grinned at her, “Nah. Do you smell bacon?”

“You are unbelievable,” Hermione muttered.

“_You _were unbelievable last night,” Draco said, winking at her, “I’ll let your memories catch up while I go for a shower.”

Hermione wasn’t sure what he was talking about at first, but then her memories began to catch up with her and her cheeks turned beetroot. She pulled a pillow over her face and said to herself, “Oh my god! In Susan’s bloody garden!”

She was sure she could hear Draco laughing in the bathroom.

~ ~ * ~ ~ * ~ ~ * ~ ~

Hermione had hoped to drag herself towards the kitchen in peace, but she didn’t get that lucky. Moments after she and Draco had left their room, they were joined on the landing by Harry and Daphne.

“Morning,” Harry yawned.

“Thanks for the sobering up potions,” Draco said.

“Don’t sweat it,” Daphne replied, she shot Hermione an amused look, “How’s your back this morning Mione?”

Hermione frowned, “What do you mean? Did I hurt my back last night?”

“I don’t know, did you? Those walled gardens are pretty haphazard, anything could have poked you anywhere,” Daphne teased, waggling her eyebrows at her friend.

Hermione flushed with colour, “Oh my god Draco, you said no one knew!”

“No, I said I figured we would have heard about it by now if they knew,” Draco corrected her.

“Had to save it for the morning, sorry,” Harry said, grinning at them in amusement.

Hermione shook her head, “Just don’t, please,” she muttered as they reached the entrance hall. She practically darted into the kitchen so that she could make tea and hide from the embarrassment. She was surprised to see two figures sitting at the breakfast bar in the kitchen, one reading a book about rare sea plants and the other looking at pictures of gory injuries.

Harry frowned when he stepped into the kitchen, “Uh…morning?”

“Morning,” Neville said, raising an eyebrow at Harry, “Feeling rough?”

“A little,” Harry admitted, “How did you guys get here?”

“We crashed here last night, remember?” Lilly asked, looking at Harry in amusement.

“Honestly…no,” Harry answered, scratching his head, “How long have you guys been up for?”

“A few hours, it took you lot ages to surface,” Neville replied, sipping his tea, “We’re on like our fourth cup of tea.”

Daphne frowned at them too, “How are you guys not hungover? Did the elves leave you a sober up potion?”

“Nah, wouldn’t have needed it anyway, we’ve obviously just got steel stomaches,” Lilly said, grinning at her friends.

“No way, not with the amount of shots you two were doing last night,” Draco said, narrowing his eyes at them.

Neville looked up at his friend and smiled, “We stopped drinking at 1am. We were transfiguring our shots into water while pretending to be as wasted as you lot were. So while you idiots were knocking back tequila, we were sobering ourselves up.”

“You’re a killjoy, but a smart one,” Draco said, patting Neville on the back, “Fair play to you.”

“Well we had to keep an eye on you lot,” Lilly said with a chuckle, “Apart from when you and Draco snuck off Hermione, we figured we’d just leave you to that.”

Hermione’s cheeks flushed once more, “Does everyone know?”

“Pretty much,” Neville chuckled.

Hermione sighed and began to make the tea. Draco just grinned and sank down into a seat across from Neville, “I can’t wait to tell Theo about last night, what a night eh?”

“For you, clearly,” Neville said in amusement.

“Where did Susan and Percy go last night?” Daphne asked as she poured herself a coffee, “They were more drunk than any of us.”

“I’m pretty sure they crashed in a tent in the garden,” Lilly replied.

“Classy,” Draco said, looking pointedly at Harry.

Harry rolled his eyes and looked at the clock, “Funny Draco. Daph babe, we need to pick Teddy up from your Dad in like…3 minutes. Do you want me to go?”

“Yeah love, that would be great,” Daphne replied, “I’ll have breakfast sorted before you come back.”

“Perfect, I love you,” Harry said, kissing her lightly then disappearing into the fireplace.

“When did we all get old, boring and domestic?” Neville asked in amusement.

“Godric knows,” Hermione chuckled.

“We might be older and more domestic, but we’re definitely not boring, are we Hermione?” Draco asked her suggestively.

“Oh shut up,” Hermione groaned, hiding behind her mug of tea.

Draco grinned over at his friends, “I’m going to be able to use this one for weeks.”

“I don’t know why you put up with him honey,” Daphne said, looking at Draco with a long-suffering look in her eyes.

“Neither do I sometimes,” Hermione muttered, glaring half-heartedly at Draco.

“She loves him really,” Neville said, without looking up from his book about plants.

“All the good girls love a bad boy,” Lilly agreed, crossing her feet underneath her and cocking her head, “Oh wow, who wants to see this picture of a guy with his head caved in?”

“I think I’m gonna be sick,” Hermione said, dashing from the room.

Daphne made a face, “Way to put me off my breakfast Lil.”

“Lightweight,” Lilly said, grinning wickedly at her friend.

Daphne shook her head in amusement and started to pull breakfast ingredients out of the pantry. She glanced over at her friends as she did so and a smile came to her lips. They were crazy, but they were her family.

~ ~ * ~ ~ * ~ ~ * ~ ~

“Lilly! You have to come and see this!”

Lilly looked up from her book in surprise. Neville had just run into the house, rather sweaty and muddy after his morning walk. Now that January had bled into February, the crisp air began to disappear earlier in the mornings so Neville had been exploring the gardens in the wake of spring when he and Lilly planned to spruce them up.

“Jeez Nev. What have you found, buried treasure?” Lilly joked as she pulled her coat on.

“Not quite, but that’s what it feels like to me,” Neville said breathlessly, “Come on!”

He grabbed her hand and dragged her out into the garden. He took her beyond the nicely maintained section of the garden, into the vast woods at the back which were also part of their property. He took her through the woods, along an overgrown path, until they emerged in a clearing.

The minute they came to a stop, Lilly realised what Neville had been so excited about. Overgrown and hidden amongst the trees was a beautiful greenhouse. It looked Victorian; constructed of glass and beautifully sculpted steel. It was ornate and stunning, not to mention huge.

“A secret garden with a greenhouse Lilly,” Neville said, positively brimming with excitement, “Do you want to look inside?”

Lilly looked up in surprise, “You’ve been inside? But Neville, you don’t even know if it’s structurally safe!”

“Lilly,” Neville said, grinning at her, “I’m training to be an Auror, I’m not stupid. I did a spell to check the structural integrity. It told me that the back right section of the roof was caving in, so I put shield charms around that area. It’s perfectly fine to go inside, trust me.”

Lilly did trust him, with her life in fact, and she really wanted to see inside the greenhouse, “Is anything in there still alive?” she asked, looking at the sections of broken glass and the section of roof that Neville had mentioned was caving in.

“Oh loads,” Neville replied eagerly. He dashed up the stone steps towards the entrance and pushed aside a curtain of ivy, “A lot of it is growing out of the greenhouse though. I mean don’t get me wrong, it’s a project. The building needs work, not to mention what has been left to grow inside but look.”

Lilly stepped in and looked around in amazement. There were plants everywhere, both of the wizarding and muggle variety. Squirrels dashed around in the roof space, birds flew around freely, “This place is amazing.”

Neville nodded, a broad grin gracing his features, “This was where my Dad used to take my Mum when she came here to visit him in the summer. I found their initials carved into that bench over there,” he said, smiling with a fond sort of sadness.

Lilly reached down and grabbed his hand.

Neville looked at her, tears in his eyes and said, “So I thought maybe it could become our place. Our secret garden with its own greenhouse, somewhere that the others don’t know about. Somewhere that’s just for us.”

“It’s perfect,” Lilly said, wrapping her arms around his neck and kissing him deeply.

~ ~ * ~ ~ * ~ ~ * ~ ~

“Nev, wake up,” Harry said, poking his best friend in the face with the end of his quill.

Neville blinked down at his parchment, “Sorry, what did I miss?”

“Just a summary of the pros and cons of having an Animagus form, but I’m pretty sure you’re good on that one," Harry whispered.

Neville chuckled, “Yeah I reckon so.”

“You okay? It’s not like you to fall asleep in class,” Harry said in an undertone.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” Neville yawned, “I was just up late last night.”

Harry raised an eyebrow at him, “Were you?”

“Not doing _that_,” Neville snorted, “I was…gardening.”

Harry laughed quietly, “You don’t need me to tell you how sad that sounds.”

“I know, but I’ve got this new project and I got a bit obsessed,” Neville said, yawning again.

“Well you better get some coffee into you at lunch,” Harry whispered, “It’s duelling this afternoon and if you’re not on the ball, Draco and Theo are going to overtake us in the league.”

“That is not happening,” Neville said, suddenly seeming more awake as his competitive side came out.

Harry grinned and patted him on the back, “There’s my plucky sidekick back.”

“Call me your plucky sidekick again and I’ll Expelliarmus your arse into next week.”

Harry snorted in amusement at the comment.

“Potter! Longbottom! Less talking, more listening or you will both be listening from the door while you scrub the corridor! Understood?”

“Yes ma’am.”

~ ~ * ~ ~ * ~ ~ * ~ ~

“Lilly! Can I get a little help here?”

“Yeah, what do you-” Lilly looked up from the panel of glass she had been repairing and crossed her arms in disbelief, “What did I tell you about going on the roof without a proper harnessing charm?”

“Not to do it?” Neville said sheepishly as he hung from the roof of the greenhouse.

“Yes, and do you see why now?” Lilly asked irritably.

“Yes, you were right and I was wrong. Now can you please get me down _before _this vine breaks please?” Neville asked.

Lilly cocked her head at him, “Oh I dunno, I reckon I should take a picture first, for blackmail purposes you know? Because this does kind of remind me of that time a bunch of pixies hung you from a chandelier.”

Neville snorted, “Thanks for that. Are you done laughing at me?”

“Nearly,” Lilly said, she grinned and pulled a wizarding camera from her bag then snapped a picture.

“Lilly!” Neville groaned.

“Now I’m done,” Lilly said with a smirk. She cast a cushioning charm on the ground then cut the vine that Neville had gotten himself tangled in. He screeched as he tumbled down to the floor where he landed ungracefully.

“Lesson learned, I will use a proper harnessing charm from now on,” Neville said, rubbing his hip as he got to his feet, “But the good news is that the unstable section of the roof is now stable.”

“And,” Lilly said, waving her wand in the direction of the pane of glass that she had been working on, “All the glass is now repaired.”

“Which means it’s just the inside of this place that we need to handle,” Neville said, looking around the overgrown greenhouse.

“Just?” Lilly scoffed, “It will take weeks.”

“Yeah but it will be fun,” Neville said, shooting her a grin, “Come on, I reckon it’s time for a coffee break, and maybe a warm bath.”

“Should have used a harnessing charm,” Lilly said in a sing-song voice as they left the greenhouse together.

~ ~ * ~ ~ * ~ ~ * ~ ~

“Are we doing anything for Valentines Day this year?” Harry asked Daphne one morning as the 14th of February approached.

Daphne frowned into her cereal.

“I didn’t think you would want to celebrate it,” Harry added, “With it being the anniversary of Tracey and Deans deaths and all. I mean, I don't want to celebrate it because of that to be honest."

Daphne nodded, “Yeah that’s fine, I don’t want to celebrate it. I don’t think I will ever really be able to enjoy it again to be honest.”

“Me either,” Harry admitted, “I just thought I should check first so you didn’t try to divorce me if I didn’t get you a card.”

Daphne smiled over at him, “It was sweet of you to check, but you’re right, let’s just give it a miss this year.”

“Alright,” Harry said, kissing her on the cheek, “Are you okay to get Ted to Andi’s today?”

“Yeah I’m fine, just get to work,” Daphne said, throwing him his cloak, “See you tonight?”

“You will see me tonight, I promise I’ll be home on time,” Harry said, leaning forward and kissing her properly, “I love you.”

“I love you too,” Daphne said, falling into thoughtful silence as he left for work. She didn’t want to celebrate Valentine’s day, because that just felt wrong but she did feel like she ought to do something so she penned a quick letter to Sadie.

_“Hey Sade,_

_I don’t think any of us want to celebrate Valentine’s Day this year with it being a horrible anniversary for everyone. But I think it’s important that we celebrate Tracey’s life and don’t forget her so do you mind if I come over for a bit? We can just chat and reminisce if you’re up for it._

_Love,_

_Daph.”_

She borrowed Harry’s owl and sent the letter off, hoping that Sadie would like her idea and that it wouldn’t be too upsetting for her.

~ ~ * ~ ~ * ~ ~ * ~ ~

Sadie sent a reply back at lunchtime saying that she thought it was a great idea, so Daphne ran it by Harry that evening. He had said that he had no problem watching Teddy to enable Daphne to go and spend some time with her best friend.

So on the 14th of February, once she had finished work, Daphne headed over to Sadie’s house and cooked her up a nice, but bland, meal. They talked about everything; work, the babies, how Sadie and Theo could not agree on names no matter how hard they tried. They just reconnected in a way that they hadn’t done for months.

Once they had eaten, they ended up getting comfortable in the drawing room which was when they started to talk about Tracey and about how much they had missed her.

“What do you reckon she would be doing now?” Sadie asked thoughtfully.

“Oh, only Salazar knows,” Daphne chuckled, “She’d have been married already. Her and Dean would have gotten married right out of school I bet.”

“Maybe our babies would have grown up together,” Sadie said, sadness entering her tone of voice.

“Maybe,” Daphne said, thinking of Teddy and Sadie’s two un-born babies. It would have been right for a mini Tracey to have run around with them. The idea was so miserable that Daphne decided that she had to brighten the mood a little, “Do you remember what Draco said about us all after I broke up with him?”

Sadie frowned and looked down at her, “No, what did he say again?”

Daphne smiled and said, “He told me to bugger off and cry to my friends about how he was a terrible person who had broken my heart.”

“Oh yeah I do remember this,” Sadie said, she chuckled, “He was ranting to Theo about us wasn’t he? He called us the unholy trinity and he said something about how there are always three of them.”

Daphne nodded, grinning up at Sadie, “There are always three of them he said. The wild one, the cute innocent one and the one with the “I don’t give a fuck attitude”-”

_“Why did I fall in love with **that **one_?” Sadie joined in as they did a bad impression of Draco.

They both laughed and Sadie said, “You know, I always thought you were gonna marry Draco one day. I thought maybe it would have been the two of us...the ladies who lunch, Mrs. Nott and Mrs. Malfoy.”

“Instead it’s Mrs. Nott and Mrs. Potter,” Daphne said, grinning at her best friend.

“Yeah _that_ I never saw coming,” Sadie admitted.

“You and me both,” Daphne confessed, “I thought it would be me and Draco too, for a long time. I really believed I could make him better, that I could make him turn away from the darkness in himself and see the light. But I could never have done that, even Pansy couldn’t do that. In the end, it took a saint.”

“Hermione’s hardly a saint,” Sadie said, smiling at Daphne, “She’s just what Draco needed. _You _were what Harry needed, you were the breath of fresh air that gave his life meaning again. The universe has a plan Daphne, you were meant for Harry and Hermione was meant for Draco. It just took a couple of false starts for you to realise that.”

“When did you grow up and become the wise one?” Daphne asked, reaching up and grabbing Sadie’s hand.

“Sometime when I became the size of a whale I guess,” Sadie joked.

“You’re not that big,” Daphne said, looking at Sadie’s baby bump, “Especially considering that you have two babies in there! You look amazing, you are going to be one hot mummy.”

“Don’t,” Sadie laughed, “You sound like Theo.”

“Oh sweet Salazar, no!” Daphne said with mock horror.

Sadie laughed again then made a face, “Don’t make me laugh too much, I’ll pee myself!” she exclaimed.

“Wow, isn’t pregnancy glamourous?” Daphne joked.

Sadie snorted, “Tell me about it. You know, did you all really think that I was the cute innocent one back then?”

“Oh yeah, course you were!” Daphne said with a chuckle, “Tracey was obviously the wild one, and you always were the most naïve. You didn’t have as much Slytherin-ness in you, you know? You were sweet and kind, and way too trusting.”

“Until the war,” Sadie said thoughtfully.

Daphne nodded, “Then the sneakiness came out and your true colours shone. But you know, you were always self-conscious about that weren’t you? You didn’t feel like you found yourself until the heat was turned up but you weren’t the only one. Look at Neville, he really came into his own that year too. Sometimes, it just takes a bit of pressure to make a person into the person that they were always meant to be.”

“I suppose,” Sadie mused, “Do you really think that the universe has a plan for us all Daph?”

“I don’t know,” Daphne said, looking out of the window absentmindedly, “I think we all have a path in the stars that we are destined to follow but not all of it is set in stone, you know? You fell pregnant and you weren’t sure what to do. At that point your life could have gone one way, or the other and you had to make a choice.”

“But stuff like Harry being the boy-who-lived, nothing could alter that,” Sadie realised.

Daphne nodded, “Harry had to be the boy who lived. Neville’s parents had to be tortured. Susan’s Aunt had to die. Some moments…they define us as people and I think that they were always mapped out up there, destined to happen which would explain how seers can only see big events in people’s lives.”

“That would make sense,” Sadie said, realization dawning in her eyes, “You are really good at this whole theoretical astrophysics stuff. You’d make a good teacher you know?”

“Yeah,” Daphne mused, “I might branch out into that one day, if I ever get bored of curse breaking.”

“Do you think some people are destined for each other too?” Sadie asked, looking at a wedding photograph of her and Theo. They danced around the floor together, pivoting and laughing.

“Definitely,” Daphne replied, smiling at the photo, “The universe knows what it’s doing Sade. Susan was right about that, when you know you…_know_.”

“Yeah,” Sadie said softly, her hand resting on her bump, “You do.”

~ ~ * ~ ~ * ~ ~ * ~ ~

“Lecture hall?” Harry whispered to the others as they traipsed in that direction from the showers one breezy morning towards the end of February.

“Yeah, something is obviously up,” Draco replied in an undertone.

“We normally only get called there when the shit is hitting the fan,” Neville agreed.

“Reckon it’s about the mass walk out from the DMLE?” Theo asked.

“Could be,” Harry replied, but they didn’t discuss it further.

Once they reached the lecture hall and sat themselves down, Auror Weir stepped out and stood at the lectern which surprised them all, because Sumner or Sheppard usually led these briefings.

“Good morning all,” She said with a warm smile, “I know you are probably all wondering why you were called here, but do not worry, I can assure you that this is not bad news.”

Harry almost breathed a sigh of relief, he was so used to bad news these days.

“You are here because this year, due to the unique circumstances, we have decided to trial something that has been discussed several times among the staffing panel here,” Weir explained, “For one week, you will all receive a placement within the Auror Department. You will be working alone, not within your Auror pairs, because we want to see how you cope without your partner by your side.”

Harry’s interest was piqued by this so he leant forward in his chair.

“This will give you all a chance to put the skills you have been learning over the past few months into practice, but it will also provide us with some extra time to get your final exam for the year prepared. Are there any questions?”

Theo raised his hand.

“Yes Recruit Nott?”

“Do we get to pick our placements?” Theo asked.

“Unfortunately not,” Weir replied with a smile, “We have already chosen placements for you, and I shall be assigning them to you today. You will start your placement immediately, and you will be required to report back here for duty one week from today. Is that clear?”

They all nodded and no further questions were asked so Auror Weir took a step back and projected a list onto the wall behind her, “As I hope that you are all aware, there are several different squads within the Auror Department that you can choose to specialise in once you are fully qualified. We will be placing you in one of these squads so this is a basic run down of what each squad does which means it’s time for a pop quiz.”

There was a general groan around the room.

“An easy one, if you have all read your basic textbooks,” Weir added, raising an eyebrow at them.

“Oh shit,” Theo muttered, making Draco snort in amusement.

“Behind me, the names of the squads are going to appear and you are going to tell me the role of that squad,” Weir continued, flicking her wrist to make the first squad name appear.

“Homicide. Recruit Nott?”

“Murder and attempted murder,” Theo replied instantly.

“Correct,” Weir flicked her wrist again, “Vice. Recruit Potter?”

“Gambling, narcotics, prostitution and,” Harry frowned, “Uh, something else.”

Weir raised an eyebrow, “Anyone?”

Draco raised his hand.

“Yes Recruit Black?”

“The illegal sale of alcohol and potions Auror Weir,” Draco filled in.

“Correct, brush up on your reading Potter,” Weir said, a warning tone to her voice.

“Sorry ma’am.”

Weir flicked her wrist again, and the third squad name appeared, “Domestics. Recruit Wood?”

“Sexual abuse or assault, and domestic abuse,” Ophelia answered.

“Correct. Robbery/Burglary, Recruit Harper?”

Max answered, “Self-explanatory ma’am.”

“Less cheek Harper,” Weir said, irritation cutting into her voice, “Be more specific.”

“Uh…well…”

Weir rolled her eyes, “Anyone?”

Harry raised his hand, trying to redeem himself.

“Yes Recruit Potter?”

“With regard to buildings, breaking and entering. However, they also cover general theft such as pick-pocketing,” Harry said.

“Spot on Potter. Next we have, Organised Crimes. Recruit Longbottom?”

“Group crimes ma’am,” Neville replied, “Dealing with terrorist groups or cults, like the Death Eaters.”

“Precisely. Missing Persons, that one really is self-explanatory Recruit Harper,” Weir said, giving him a pointed look. This made the others snigger.

Weir continued, “Juvenile Crime. Recruit Wilde?”

Emily replied, “Dealing with crimes commited by those under the age of 17.”

“Yes,” Weir said with a nod, “Fraud. Recruit Black?”

“They investigate fraud cases and all other economic crimes,” Draco answered.

“Indeed they do. Finally, arson. Recruit Potter?”

“Wizarding fire brigade in essence ma’am,” Harry said, “They put out dangerous magical fires that cannot be contained by the public. However they also investigate the cause of the fires.”

Weir nodded and clicked her fingers. The words on the wall behind her then disappeared. She stepped away from the lectern and walked towards them with a pile of envelopes. She handed one to each of them and said, “Open your letter to find out what your assigned placement is. Your letter will also tell you which Auror you will be shadowing. You will report to the Auror Department within the Ministry to meet them. Understood?”

They all nodded once more.

Weir smiled, “In that case, good luck recruits.”

There was an echo of “Thank you Auror Weir” around the room. The moment that she left, they all ripped into their envelopes excitedly.

“Oh yes, I got Vice!” Theo said excitedly.

Draco looked down at his with a frown.

“I got Domestics,” Harry said with a sigh.

“Oh man, somebody doesn’t like you,” Theo laughed.

“Yeah Domestics sounds boring,” Draco said, folding up his letter.

“What did you get?” Harry asked curiously.

“Organised Crime,” Draco replied quietly.

“Wicked!” Theo said excitedly, but Draco didn’t look so keen.

Draco nodded and looked at Neville, “What about you Neville?”

“Homicide,” Neville said, slipping the letter into his pocket.

“What? You got Homicide!” Theo whined, “That’s the coolest squad there!”

“It’s murder Theo,” Neville said darkly, “It’s gory and brutal, it’s telling a Mother that her son is never coming back, it’s hardly glamourous.”

“That outlook is probably why they gave it to you,” Draco mused quietly.

“What did you guys get?” Harry asked, drawing his concerned gaze away from Draco to talk to Blanche and Ophelia.

“Fee got Arson and I got Missing Persons,” Blanche replied, “I should be decent there, I’ve had enough Step-Fathers go missing.”

Harry chuckled, “Arson sounds cool Fee.”

Ophelia nodded eagerly, “Yeah, it does sound fun. What did you get Harry?”

“Domestics,” Harry admitted.

“Domestics?” Blanche made a face, “Dull.”

Harry had to agree. Everyone knew that Domestics was considered as one of the weaker squads in the department, he felt a little offended to have been tossed in there.

“We better get a move on if we need to report to the Ministry,” Neville said, nudging Harry in the ribs.

“Yeah,” Harry agreed, getting to his feet and heading for the door with the others.

“Hey Ems, where are you and Max headed?” Blanche asked Emily and Maxwell.

“I got Juvenile Crime,” Emily complained, “Which is probably as awful as it sounds.”

“And I got Robbery/Burglary,” Maxwell replied, “Boring, right?”

“Not as boring as Domestics,” Theo joked.

Harry didn’t respond to his jibe, he just jogged ahead a little to fall in line with Draco, “Your face fell when you read the letter, what’s up?”

“What’s up?” Draco whispered in disbelief, “I’m on a placement in Organised Crime without _any _of you to have my back. These people arrested my Father more than once, these are the people whose families he tortured then blackmailed to stay out of Azkaban. They are all going to hate me Harry and I need to work with them.”

“You know why they put you there then,” Harry said quietly, “You’re going to have to work with these people every day once we’re out of training. There are going to be times when Theo is out chasing a lead and you’ll have to work with them. This is a test Draco, you need to show them that you’re different, that you aren’t your Father or you'll never gain their respect.”

“Easier said than done,” Draco said quietly.

Harry nodded, “I know, but you’ve come this far. You’re not going to throw the towel in now, are you?”

Determination shone in Draco’s eyes, he shook his head, “No, I’m not."

~ ~ * ~ ~ * ~ ~ * ~ ~

When the group of trainee Aurors entered the Auror Department to meet the Auror that they would be working with, they all split off in different directions

Harry searched the bullpen for a sign saying ‘Domestics’. Every other squad had a big sign emblazoned above their bull-pen area. Homicide, Vice and Organised Crime had the shiniest ones. Harry felt a tug of embarrassment, he knew that he, Neville, Draco and Theo were the best in their year group. Those three had all gotten the top squads so why had Harry been singled out?

He sighed, there was no sign for Domestics so he walked through the bullpen. Eventually, when he was just about to turn back, he found it. Wedged between a supply closet and a fire exit was one desk with a ratty hand-written sign above it saying, ‘DOMESTICS’.

Sitting at that desk was a man who looked to be in his mid to late-30’s. He had short, dark blonde hair. His Auror robes looked a little more well-worn than the shiny robes of the Homicide, Vice and Organised Crime Aurors.

Harry stepped forward, “Uh, excuse me. Are you Auror Wolfe?”

The man looked up, he had tired grey eyes, “Yep that’s me, call me Rob though. Nobody around here calls me Auror these days.”

Harry frowned, but didn’t ask why, “Right, I’m Harry.”

“Yep you’re Harry Potter,” Rob said, surveying Harry with interest, “You saved the world, everyone knows who you are.”

“Yeah,” Harry said awkwardly.

“So who the fuck did you piss off?” Rob asked, crossing his arms.

“Uh, what do you mean?” Harry asked.

“You only get thrown in here if you piss someone off,” Rob said, sitting on his messy desk, his eyes still surveying Harry, “Case and point, me.”

“I don’t know who I pissed off,” Harry said honestly, “Who did you piss off?”

Rob laughed, “Better question would be who didn’t I piss off? I rub a lot of people up the wrong way kid, guess that happens when you’re a Muggle-born who speaks his mind.”

“Being a Muggle-born has nothing to do with whether or not you can speak your mind,” Harry remarked, “You’re a Wizard, just like the rest of us.”

“Ah, an activist are you? Makes sense I guess,” Rob said with a cynical smile, “Well, you're gonna learn quick kiddo, around here it doesn’t work like that.”

Harry scoffed, “We’ll see about that.”

“What, you’re gonna change that when you’re in charge?” Rob guessed, “Well Junior, you’re not in charge and you ain’t gonna be for quite some time. Until then you’ve got to go with the flow or you won’t get to have a career, you’ll spend the rest of your days here with me and Joey and Juliette.”

“Who are Joey and Juliette?” Harry asked, glancing around and seeing nobody.

“The house elves who clean the place,” Rob said, gesturing to the supply closet.

“Right,” Harry said, he shifted on his feet awkwardly, “So…what’s so bad about Domestics?”

“What’s so bad about Domestics?” Rob laughed, “Well we have no resources for one because everyone basically thinks we’re a joke. You know that one guy who is the butt of every joke?”

Harry nodded.

“Yeah well here, that guy is us,” Rob said, “We respond to calls about domestic abuse and sexual abuse. Most of the sexual abuse calls get nicked by Vice, bunch of fucking entitled pricks. Most of them are doing illegal shit on the side and half of them are addicts themselves.”

“Sounds legit,” Harry commented.

Rob smirked and continued, “And the domestic abuse cases are just fucking soul destroying. Most of the time there’s nothing we can do. Basically, you do this job for a year and you realise that there is no good in the world and life isn’t worth living.”

“Right,” Harry said dryly, “And how long have you been doing it for?”

“Coming up on five years,” Rob replied, opening a filing cabinet absentmindedly.

“Well, you haven’t killed yourself yet so it can’t be that soul destroying,” Harry pointed out.

“No, it really is. I just have a damn good kid who keeps me alive,” Rob said, tossing Harry a rusty old badge.

Harry glanced down, it said, ‘TRAINEE’ on it in large writing.

“Put that on or you ain’t allowed in the field,” Rob said.

Harry pinned the badge onto his robes, “Seriously though, what did you do to end up here?”

“Ah well, it’s a long story,” Rob said with a shrug, “I got sidelined for years because of my blood status. The big guns, Homicide and all that, they are all flashy pureblood bastards. It’s like being in school Potter. Homicide are the popular Gryffindors. Vice are the cool, sexy Slytherins. Organised Crimes are the super smart hot Ravenclaws. Everyone else is a Hufflepuff and we…well we are basically the house elves, actually we might be lower than the house elves, we might be the squibs.”

“You’re a ray of sunshine,” Harry said sarcastically, “But you still haven’t told me how you ended up here.”

“And I have no intention of doing so,” Rob said cheerfully, “You’re the trainee here which means shut up and do as you’re told and, unlike me, you’ll be out of here soon. Comprende?”

“Yeah, I get it,” Harry said with a sigh, he had the feeling that it was going to be a long week.

~ ~ * ~ ~ * ~ ~ * ~ ~

Draco walked into the Organised Crime squads section of the bull-pen nervously. There were four Aurors there, all talking loudly and laughing. They were all aged between 25 and 45 Draco would have guessed, all with their hair in place perfectly and their robes perfectly straight.

He cleared his throat and said, “Excuse me, I’m looking for Auror Graves.”

An Auror with black hair and defined facial features turned around and frowned, “Whose asking?”

“Trainee Auror Black sir,” Draco replied, “I’m on placement here.”

“Black?” Another of the Aurors laughed, “You’re not a Black, you’re a fucking Malfoy.”

Draco swallowed, “No sir, I’m a Black. My Mother-”

“It doesn’t matter if she divorced the murdering bastard or not _Malfoy_, you’re still his piece of shit son,” Graves said coldly.

Draco bit his tongue.

“Cat got your tongue, _Malfoy_?” Another of the Aurors asked with a laugh.

“My name is Black,” Draco ground out.

“You’re a Malfoy and you always will be,” That same Auror said, “We don’t want your type around here so you might as well just run off and quit. You are hated in this place, your Father is the reason that my last partner died.”

Grave’s eyes flashed dangerously, “And the reason why my wife was tortured for information. You might as well hand in your resignation boy, nobody wants you here.”

“I don’t care,” Draco said, dropping his bag and looking up at Graves, “I don’t care if you want me here or not, because I want to be here and I deserve to be here. You spent years trying to catch my Father but you never responded to any of the domestic calls did you? You know _exactly _what he was capable of and I was _raised_ by that man! I don’t know what you all think, do you think it was all happy families? Because it wasn’t.”

He took a breath and shook his head, “And I’m not giving you a sob story to make you feel sorry for me but you need to understand that I am _not _my Father. Because of him I knew what the cruciatus curse was before I was five years old. I learned how controlling fear was _because _of him and I am the reason that he went to Azkaban. I am the reason that he’s in a prison that he will never escape from, because one of my best friends and I put him there!”

Draco couldn’t stop now that he had started, even though he knew this rant could get him beaten up or thrown out of the training programme, “And I know you all think that I’m only here because Harry Potter is my friend, but I worked hard for this and I won’t give it up just because you don’t like who my Father was.”

The three Aurors standing behind Graves were silent, their eyes on the man who was obviously their leader. Graves crossed his arms over his chest and surveyed Draco, “Alright kid, you might be a Malfoy but you have balls.”

“I am _not _a Malfoy,” Draco said, his voice quiet but the intention clear, “And I never want to be associated with that name again. All that I am, every bit of good in me was instilled by my Mother so I am a Black. Okay?”

“Alright kid,” Graves said with a nod, “You’ve got balls, I’ll give you that. Don’t ever expect us to be bosom buddies but you’ve got a chance so don’t fuck it up.”

“I won’t,” Draco promised.

Graves bowed his head, “Black, this is my partner Brady and these guys are Snow and Nolan. We’re the A shift, there are another four Aurors that cover the B shift when we get our downtime. It’s us you’re going to be working with all week.”

Draco nodded.

“You’ve not got a desk, but we’re not in here much anyway,” Graves continued, “So don’t get comfy, it’s a rare day that you get to finish a coffee around here.”

**TBC!**


	130. Sit Beside Me When the World Comes Down

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another chapter, sorry for the delay, it's been a crappy couple of days.
> 
> This chapter is based on a post I saw on tumblr ages ago, but I can't remember who posted it so if anyone knows please tell me and I'll credit the person for the idea :)
> 
> The chapter title comes from the song:  
Mona Lisa by the All-American Rejects

“Come on Potter, first call of the day,” Rob said, grabbing Harry by the arm and yanking him to his feet.

Harry glanced over at the clock, “But it’s 4.30pm.”

“And?” Rob asked.

“Well we finish at 5pm,” Harry said.

Rob looked at him, “So?”

“So doesn’t this mean we’ll finish late?” Harry asked with a frown.

“Kid, nobody works in Domestics but me, there is no early or late,” Rob said, “I just work when I'm required. I'm meant to be off tonight and tomorrow morning, then back in to do a backshift tomorrow but I can tell you, I'll get calls tonight.”

Harry frowned, “But I have a kid to get home to, that’s not at all flexible.”

Rob scoffed, “I’ve got a kid too Potter. Some days he sees his Nan more than me, that’s life as an Auror so you had better get used to it, crime doesn’t sleep.”

Harry sighed but said no more on the subject. He just followed Rob to the apparition point and followed the co-ordinates the Auror had given him, which took them to Diagon Alley.

“What are we doing here?” Harry asked curiously.

“Responding to a noise complaint,” Rob replied, leading Harry through the busy alley until they reached a small close between two shops, “Neighbour called it in, said she heard her upstairs neighbour screaming her lungs out. Got to investigate it and fill out an incident form, it’s the law.”

Harry nodded as he and Rob squeezed into the close. It was so narrow that one relatively thin person could stand in it (as long as they weren't claustrophobic because there were two very tall buildings on either side), but someone like Charlie would never have fitted.

Harry hadn’t even known that this was here, and as he looked ahead of him, he was shocked to see several doors. Rob obviously noticed the shock on his face, he stepped into an empty stairwell and dragged Harry in after him, “This is one of the worst wizarding areas in London, probably worse than Knockturn to be honest with you. There’s not a day that goes by that I don’t get a call to one of these flats.”

“How many of them are there?” Harry asked quietly.

“About 10 doors between each shop,” Rob replied, "Each door leads to about 9 flats so...a lot."

“Each shop in the alley?” Harry asked in surprise.

Rob nodded, “Yeah probably over a hundred across the alley. The living conditions aren’t great by the way, not quite as bad as in Knockturn but pretty close so just…don’t look too disgusted when we go inside or you’ll offend someone alright?”

Harry nodded and followed Rob up the staircase. They passed several doors until they eventually came to a stop on the top floor, which Harry reckoned was the 5th.

Rob knocked on the door loudly. Inside the flat there was incoherent shouting and banging as someone approached the door. It was yanked open and a young witch who was still in her pajamas answered the door.

She rolled her eyes, “What the fuck do you scum want this time?”

“Noise complaint Hetty,” Rob replied simply, “Came in from one of your neighbours, got no choice but to investigate it,” he held up his badge.

“Fucking bitch downstairs,” The woman, Hetty, muttered, stepping back from the door.

Rob walked into the flat and Harry followed him. The living conditions were pretty bad: black mold grew on the walls, there didn't seem to be any heating as the flat felt freezing. Harry glanced at Hetty again, she didn’t look much older than him.

Rob looked around, as if he knew what he was looking for, then his eyes fell on two little boys who were obviously twins. They were sitting on a moth eaten sofa with old toys, both with pieces broken off of them. Harry couldn’t quite bear the poverty, but when he saw those boys he felt a lump rise in his throat. He stayed close to the door, just in case he had to make a quick escape because he was well aware of how much he was struggling to contain his emotions.

One of the boys had a black eye, and the other had something wrong with his arm.

Rob knelt down in front of them, “Hey boys. What happened to your eye Joe?”

The little boy shrugged, “Fell off my bed Auror Wolfe.”

“Yeah?” Rob asked, turning to the other boy, “And what about your arm Jimmy? Looks like a sore one.”

“It’s nothing really Auror Wolfe.”

Harry swallowed, it wasn’t nothing. The boys arm was hexed, and the wound was bleeding. The other boy’s black eye didn’t look like it had been caused by a fall either.

“Doesn’t look like nothing,” Rob said gently.

“We were just playing with a Weasley’s Wizard Wheeze Auror Wolfe,” Jimmy said.

“You sure about that?” Rob asked, his eyes falling on the boys more.

Joe nodded, “Yeah really Auror Wolfe.”

Hetty glared at him, “See? I don’t abuse my kids. Can you get the fuck out of my flat now?”

Rob nodded, “That’s three noise complaints this month Hetty, your landlord is gonna kick you out soon. Keep the noise down, alright?”

“You hear that?” Hetty asked the boys, a dangerous look flashing in her eyes, “You keep the bloody noise down like Wolfe says.”

The boys both nodded, “Yeah Mum.”

“Alright,” Rob said, putting his hand on Harry’s arm, “Come on Potter.”

Harry let Rob lead him out of the flat and he said nothing as he followed the Auror down the stairwell. His mind raced as it caught up with what he had just witnessed. That kid with the black eye, that had been him, quivering when his Uncle raised a hand to him.

The kid with the hexed skin, Harry had pictured a young Draco, terrified of his Father when he saw that kid. How was that okay? Why were they just walking away from that?

“Why didn’t you do something?”

“Not here,” Rob hissed under his breath, they had just emerged into the tiny close.

Harry looked up and caught Rob’s eye, “Come on,” the Auror muttered.

He wanted answers so Harry followed him. Once they were in the main alley, Rob led him into the Leaky Cauldron. He showed Tom his badge and Tom smiled and nodded, gesturing at a room behind the bar.

Rob opened the door and led Harry into a smaller, private room which was currently empty.

“What’s this?”

“Private drinking place for Aurors,” Rob replied, “Now, why did we just leave? Well, because I didn’t have much of a choice. The kids said they were fine, I couldn’t arrest the Mother on a hunch even if I do end up in that house every other week.”

“Why?” Harry asked angrily, “Why can’t you arrest her on a hunch?”

“Because it’s against the law and she would get out the moment a lawyer realised I had no evidence,” Rob said simply, “Welcome to the real world Potter. People are fucking arseholes and there is _nothing _you can do it, that’s life!”

“Well it’s not right!” Harry fumed, “She abuses those kids! That black eye was from a fist and the hexed skin…it’s not from a bloody Weasley item.”

“You think I don’t know that?” Rob scoffed, “The problem is, there is nothing we can do about it. We don’t have child protective services like the Muggles do Potter. Here, we have me, and the minute I catch Hetty doing anything I’m going to throw her arse in jail but when I do, fuck knows where those boys will end up.”

“Anywhere is better than there!” Harry spat.

“Is it?” Rob fumed, “Because they will probably go to an orphanage, probably a muggle one too and they will be bullied for being different.”

“Better to be bullied than abused!” Harry exclaimed, “Those kids are…” he took a breath then stopped himself.

“The same age you were?” Rob guessed.

Harry looked up, “What?” he asked sharply.

“I’ve been doing this job for a while Potter,” Rob said, his tone a bit softer, “I can spot an abused kid when I see one.”

“I…” Harry frowned, “No, I wasn’t…”

Rob raised an eyebrow at him, “Right, let me tell you a little something. I got shoved in Domestics because I had the balls to call my colleagues cowards when a smart little kid said that Voldemort was back a few years ago. They all shoved their heads in the sand and I said, no, we start preparing now because if he comes back and we’re unprepared, there is gonna be another war.”

Harry looked up at Rob in surprise.

Rob just continued, “But no, they chucked me in Domestics and I hate it, I fucking hate this place. But I hate it because I can’t make much of a difference, no matter how hard I try. The reason I stay, even now when I know I could ask for a transfer and have it granted, is because I grew up in an orphanage. It was a Muggle orphanage and it was run by nuns, sadistic nuns. You probably noticed the Irish accent right?”

Harry nodded, he had noticed an accent but being his typical clueless self, he hadn’t been able to work out if Rob was Irish or Welsh.

“I try to make a difference to their lives cause nobody gave a fuck about mine,” Rob said, with a note of finality, “So you don’t have to pretend with me, alright kid?”

Harry nodded, sitting down at one of the tables in the room. He sighed and said, “My Muggle Uncle was abusive. He spent the first ten years of my life trying to beat the magic out of me.”

“Alright,” Rob said with a nod, “See, we’re getting to know each other now. That’s good, means we’re going to be a good team.”

Harry smiled sadly, “A good team doing what? Seeing abused kids and doing nothing to help them.”

“It’s a long game kid,” Rob said, patting him on the back, “We do what we can do and hope we can get them away from the abusers before…well you know what before.”

_Before the abuser kills them_, Harry thought to himself. He didn’t say that, he just nodded.

“You draw comfort in the thing that gets you through,” Rob said, “For me, it’s this little gem. His Mum killed herself when he was 2 so its just me and him, and he’s my lifeline.”

Rob showed him a photograph of a boy who looked to be around 4 years old. Harry smiled at the photograph, “What’s his name?” 

“Nicholas,” Rob replied, “But I call him Nick. What about your kid? He must be pretty young.”

“He is,” Harry said, showing Rob a picture that he loved. It was of Daphne and Teddy lying in bed together, Teddy grinning and trying to grab her ponytail while she kissed his nose.

Rob smiled, “Cute, your missus got pregnant young then huh?”

“No,” Harry said, looking down at the photograph thoughtfully, “Teddy is my Godson. My good friend Remus, he and his wife died in the final battle so we adopted Teddy. His full name is Edward, after his Grandad.”

“Takes a lot of guts, to adopt a kid at your age,” Rob said, looking at Harry with interest.

Harry shrugged and put the photograph away, “He’s a special kid, kind of our whole world actually.”

“You must have one hell of a wife,” Rob remarked.

“Yeah,” Harry said, a proud smile lighting up his face, “I do.”

“Hold onto that,” Rob said, “Hold onto her and that kid of yours this week because the things you’re going to see…well if you found that hard, it’s gonna get worse and the only way you’re going to get through is by holding onto the good stuff.”

Harry nodded, “Thanks Rob, sorry for being a bit of a dick to you.”

Rob shook his head, “Don’t sweat it kid, everyone is a dick to me. You were only a dick because you cared, that makes you pretty unique.”

Harry wanted to say that he wished he could change that, instead he just nodded.

“You get on home to that missus of yours,” Rob said, heading for the door, “And I’ll see you tomorrow for the backshift. I’ll take any calls tonight myself.”

Before Harry could volunteer to help him, he had left.

~ ~ * ~ ~ * ~ ~ * ~ ~ 

“Baby?”

Harry looked up from his food to see Daphne looking at him with concern, “Are you going to eat any of that?”

“Sorry,” Harry sighed, “I’m just…I’m not really hungry.”

Daphne frowned at him, “Are you going to tell me what happened today? Did a training exercise go wrong or something?”

“No, I’m on a placement,” Harry said, his eyes falling on Teddy as he threw his chips around the kitchen.

“A placement?” Daphne asked with interest, “In the real world?”

“Yeah, it’s something they are trying out,” Harry said, “They put us all with squads in the Auror department. It’s just for this week…I don’t know if it’s a test or something…I don’t know.”

“Well what happened?” Daphne asked as she got to her feet and walked towards him, “Because you seem really shaken up.”

“I’ll talk to you once Teddy’s asleep,” Harry promised her, “But do you mind if I bath him and put him down tonight?”

Daphne’s frown deepened, “Of course not.”

Harry smiled at her then picked the little boy up from his high chair, “Come on little guy! You are filthy, let’s get you all cleaned up and ready for bed!”

He knew that Daphne was worried about him, mostly because of all the hovering that she was doing. Harry was aware of her hovering near the bathroom while he bathed Teddy and then outside the bedroom door while he read the little boy his bedtime story.

Once Teddy was all tucked up with his favourite blanket and night light, Harry slipped out of the room and sought Daphne out in the library.

“Alright, I’m well and truly worried,” Daphne conceded, “What’s going on?”

“I told you, a placement,” Harry said, sinking into a comfortable armchair by the fire, “I got put in Domestics.”

“Domestics,” Daphne repeated, “Is that like Husbands beating Wives up?”

“Kind of like that,” Harry replied, “But I don’t know if I can hack it Daphne. It’s so wrong…it’s just so fucking wrong.”

“What’s so wrong about it?” Daphne asked softly.

“The big squads like Homicide, Vice and Organised Crime have at least two pairs of Aurors on each shift,” Harry explained, “But Domestics is one guy at a desk shoved at the back of the bullpen. He has no resources and basically no power. Today we got a noise complaint and we went to these flats in Diagon Alley that were disgusting.”

“The Closes,” Daphne said.

Harry looked up, “You know about them?”

“Everyone knows about them Harry,” Daphne said, her eyes meeting his, “The Closes coming off of Diagon Alley. There are flats crammed in there, and the conditions are appalling. It’s where the poorest of the poor live, the highest rate of squibs are born to families living there too which is why they think it’s got something to do with poverty.”

“So if _everyone _knows about it, why does nobody do anything to help those people?” Harry asked, pushing himself to his feet in disbelief, “Why does nobody care about a Mother who clearly abuses her fucking children? How is it that Rob has been in that flat every other week for months but can’t do _anything _to take those children away from that sick woman!? It’s fucking wrong Daphne!”

Daphne stepped forward and placed her hands on his hips, instantly calming him to a stop.

“It’s not right,” Daphne agreed softly, “But you have to accept that there is a very large class divide in our world. You always knew about it but you don’t realise how bad it was until you saw it firsthand. That, unfortunately, is the problem. Everyone ignores it because they don’t have to see it firsthand.”

Harry rested his head on her shoulder, “Rob is right, I can’t fix this.”

“Not on your own,” Daphne agreed, “But if you can _make _them see it firsthand then maybe, with a bit of help, you can.”

“You think?” Harry asked, drawing back to look at her.

Daphne nodded, bringing her hand up and resting it on his cheek, “You’re Harry Potter, and that’s not me saying you can do whatever you want because you’re the boy who lived. The name Harry Potter instils hope in so many people and that’s why I believe you can do anything, _especially _when it comes to changing the world.”

Harry smiled warmly at her.

Daphne smiled too, she placed a chaste kiss on his lips, “But you’ve got to get through this week first.”

Harry rested his forehead against hers, “Yeah,” he said, thinking of her and Teddy and how right Rob had been, “But I reckon I know how to do that.”

~ ~ * ~ ~ * ~ ~ * ~ ~

Hermione knew that something was wrong the moment Draco dragged himself in the door that night. He usually came in with a smile, he would greet her with a kiss or a hug. But that night, he came in and smiled half-heartedly at her.

“Hey love,” Draco said, dropping down onto the bench seat in the basement kitchen, “How was your day?”

“Boring,” Hermione replied as she put a plate of food in front of him, “I’m in the Improper Use of Magic Office right now, it’s 90% paperwork.”

“I thought you loved paperwork,” Draco said, picking up his fork and looking down at his food.

“Not that much,” Hermione said, sitting down opposite him, “Does it really look that bad?”

“No, it looks great,” Draco said honestly, he put a small amount on his fork and ate it, but Hermione could tell that he didn’t really want to.

Hermione leant back and raised an eyebrow, “Okay, let’s drop the pretenses shall we. I know you had a placement today, it has been the talk of the office. So what happened?”

Draco dropped his fork and sighed, “I got Organised Crime.”

Hermione frowned, “Right.”

“Right?” Draco asked in disbelief, “_Organised Crime _Hermione. Just to make things clear, that is what is left of the Aurors who hunted down the Death Eaters.”

Hermione’s eyes widened, “Oh…oh! Oh my god! Did they beat you up? Are you hiding broken bones? Are you okay?”

“I’m fine, physically,” Draco snapped, letting his head rest on his hands, “But I spent the whole day defending myself against any Auror who wanted to have a go at me. I can’t count how many times I was called Malfoy, one of them even spat on me. That’s the opinion they have of me Hermione, the people who are going to be my colleagues.”

“That’s disgusting!” Hermione said, throwing her fork down on the table and standing up, “What happened to equal opportunities? You have just as much right to be there as anyone else! Just like house elves have the right to ask to be paid for their employment and just like Muggle-borns should be treated the same as every other Witch or Wizard! I’ll storm in there myself tomorrow and set them right, was it Graves? I bet it was fucking Graves, wasn’t it!”

“Hermione!” Draco snapped, getting to his feet and grabbing her by the shoulders, “You won’t go anywhere near that bullpen because this is my battle and I need to fight it on my own. Do you really think it’s going to help my case if my war heroine fiancé goes in there to fight my battles for me?”

Hermione blew out a breath, “No, but I want to.”

“Of course you do,” Draco said, smiling softly at her, “You just want to protect everyone, and you also have a tendency to fire up and lose your temper. Why do you think we all called you the Gryffindor Princess?”

Hermione smiled slightly, “I just don’t think you deserve it Draco.”

“Whether I deserve it or not, I need to get through it,” Draco said with a sad smile, “It’s just for a week. With any luck I can gain their respect, but if I don’t, once I graduate I’ll always have Theo, Harry or Neville hanging around to have my back.”

Hermione nodded, “Okay, I won’t go and fight any battles for you.”

“I appreciate the thought,” Draco promised, leaning in and kissing her.

~ ~ * ~ ~ * ~ ~ * ~ ~

As Harry spent the week with Rob, he realised quite how hard it was. The noise complaints didn’t get better, and he already dreaded going to the Closes. The moment they got a call there, Harry knew that it wouldn’t be pretty and there was never anything that they could do about it.

The more time he spent in the Closes and at Muggle orphanages, the more Harry thought about the lack of care there was for children in the wizarding world. It was like nobody gave a shit about them until they went to Hogwarts but by the age of 11, some of them were already fucked up beyond repair.

When he thought about it, it was a wonder that he hadn’t turned out just like Voldemort. He had grown up with people who hated him, with no concept of love. Often he thought that the sacrifice his Mother had made to save him must have kept him sane and good somehow. But Voldemort had turned out the way he had because the system failed him. There was an old myth of course, that those conceived under the influence of a love potion were incapable of love. But even if that were true, they could still be capable of empathy. His mind ran wild with what if’s. What if Voldemort had been raised by someone who loved him? Someone who taught him right from wrong? Someone who taught him that fear wasn’t the key to harmony?

“Potter.”

Harry looked up.

“Call,” Rob said.

Harry swallowed and got to his feet, hoping that Rob wasn’t about to tell him that it had come from the Closes, “Where?”

“In the lobby,” Rob replied, “Come on, you’ll see. It’s a new one for you.”

Harry very much doubted that was a good thing. He followed Rob, thinking that he meant the foyer outside the DMLE but he didn’t. Rob led him to an area of the DMLE that he hadn’t known existed. It was a room off of the bullpen, a tiny waiting room with no more than three chairs crammed into it, and nothing else apart from a tiny table with old magazines and a machine that distributed free water.

Two seats were empty, but the third was occupied by a little girl. She couldn’t have been older than five, she looked about the right age to start primary school. She had blonde hair which was currently pulled back into pigtails. She wore a summer dress and knitted tights, she was holding onto an old copy of the Quibbler, and Harry’s stomach fell when he saw that her hands were stained with dried blood.

He was supposed to be shadowing Rob, but Harry couldn’t help himself. He stepped into the room and knelt down in front of that little girl, “Hey sweetie,” he said softly.

She looked up from the magazine and Harry smiled at her, “My names Harry and I’m here to help you, okay?”

The little girl nodded.

“Can I use a spell to clean up your hands?” Harry asked her.

She nodded.

“It will tickle a little,” Harry said, then he cast the charm which scrubbed the blood from her hands. He was aware of Rob’s eyes on him, but he just carried on.

“Thank you mister Auror,” The little girl said.

Harry smiled sadly at her, “Call me Harry.”

“Okay Harry.”

“What’s your name?” Harry asked her.

“My names Nina.”

“That is a beautiful name Nina,” Harry said, smiling warmly at her.

She smiled back brightly, “Thanks! Are you gonna find me a new home?”

“Yeah honey, we are,” Rob’s voice said from behind Harry.

Harry stood up and let Rob take over. He smiled at the little girl, “You stay here and read your magazine and we’ll be back real soon okay?”

Nina nodded and looked down at the Quibbler once more.

Rob opened the only other door in the room and led Harry inside. Harry shut the door behind him and looked around, the room was filled with scrolls.

“Accio the family tree of Nina Frost.”

“She’s an orphan, isn’t she?” Harry asked, his voice thick with emotion.

“Yes, she is,” Rob replied, smoothing out a family tree.

“What happened to her parents?”

“Potions accident,” Rob replied quietly, “She found their bodies.”

Harry drew in a sharp breath, “That poor kid.”

“There’s a lot of poor kids like her that pass through these doors,” Rob said, looking down at the family tree, “Most of their parents don’t have a will.”

“Does it make a difference?” Harry asked.

“Course it does,” Rob replied, “A will states who will raise the children in the event of the death of both parents.”

“Why the hell was I raised by Muggles then?” Harry asked bitterly.

“Because Albus Dumbledore decided that he knew better,” Rob said darkly, “He had a habit of doing that. Your parents will stated that you would be raised by Sirius Black and Remus Lupin in the event of their death. When your Godfather was sent to prison, Remus Lupin should have taken you in but Dumbledore argued against it because of his blood status.”

“Because he was a werewolf,” Harry muttered irritably.

“Yeah,” Rob replied with a sigh, “So you went to the Muggles because Dumbledore thought it was best.”

“Doesn’t that just prove how fucked up our system is?” Harry fumed, “Or lack of it more to the point? I mean why the hell was the Headmaster of a school the person who got to make the call about who raised me Rob? Why did a man who wasn’t part of my life for another ten years get to make the biggest decision of my life? I admired him for so long but I don’t know why because he was the reason I ended up there, thinking that I was going to get beaten every time I said something wrong, getting locked in that fucking cupboard for weeks on end, being half-starved by the time I got free of them.”

Rob reached out and grasped his shoulder, “Working this job, it makes you reflect on your own fate but you can’t dwell too much. You got strong, and you got out. That’s all that matters Harry. You’ve got your sanity and your pride, and you’ve changed the world for a hell of a lot of people.”

“Not for everyone though.”

“You can’t save everyone,” Rob said simply, “I know you want to but you just can’t.”

“I know,” Harry said, thinking of all the people who he hadn’t been able to save up to this point. From Cedric through to Remus, Tonks and Fred, to Dean and Tracey.

“Right now, we’ve got to focus on Nina,” Rob said, drawing Harry out of his thoughts, “We’ve got to get that kid somewhere other than an orphanage because anything is better than that.”

“Not quite anything,” Harry said, looking down at the family tree, “What are you doing?”

“Tracing her relatives,” Rob replied, “Ideally in the wizarding world, because she has shown signs of her magic manifesting. Placing her with Muggle relatives is a last resort.”

“But her Mother was a Muggle-born and her Father was an only child,” Harry pointed out.

“Yep, but if we go back to here…” Rob traced lines with his fingers, “Then go down this line here, there is a living relative.”

“Rob,” Harry said in disbelief, “You’re going back five generations just to make a connection. That person will have no idea who Nina is, and you just want to do what? Write them a letter then drop a kid on their doorstep?”

“That’s pretty much how it works, yeah,” Rob replied.

“Well it’s fucked up,” Harry said with a shake of his head, “You can’t just farm that kid off to some distant relative.”

“What’s the alternative Harry?” Rob asked, looking up at Harry irritably, “Have you got one? Cause I’ve been doing this a long time and I don’t.”

Harry sighed and looked towards the door, “I could take her in for a few days until we work something out.”

“No, you’re a trainee Auror, you’re not just taking some random kid home,” Rob said with a shake of his head, “We have 48 hours to place her or she goes to an orphanage so I suggest you get off of your high horse and write a letter to this person.”

Harry looked down at the family tree.

“No.”

Rob growled, “Potter-”

“No, I’m not going to write a letter to her,” Harry said calmly, “She’s a name on a piece of paper right now. We don’t know anything about her, so I’m going to put her name into the system and visit her. I’m going to spend half an hour drinking tea with her and explaining Nina’s situation before we dump her on her fucking doorstep Rob, because that’s what a decent human does.”

“Fine,” Rob said, throwing down his quill, “On you go!”

~ ~ * ~ ~ * ~ ~ * ~ ~

“Hi there Mrs. Argent. My name is Harry Potter, I’m a Trainee Auror and I wondered if I might come in to discuss some sensitive information for you?”

The woman on the doorstep was dark-haired and looked to be around 40. She nodded and took a step back, allowing Harry access to her townhouse. He followed her into the lounge and sat down on an armchair, looking up into her expectant eyes.

“There was an incident earlier today and a young girl called Nina Frost, became an orphan,” Harry explained, “She is very distantly related to you which makes you the first person in line to be asked to take her in.”

“A child?” Mrs. Argent said.

Harry nodded, “Yes, she’s five years old.”

“I have no wish for a child Auror,” The woman said distastefully, “There was a reason why I did not have any of my own.”

Harry’s heart fell, “Would you consider taking her in? The only other option is an orphanage."

Mrs. Argent sighed, “Of course I would take her in, but only because I felt obliged to not because I would want to.”

“Mrs. Argent,” Harry said, leaning forward in his chair, “Can we be entirely straight with each other here please? If you took Nina in would you love her?”

Mrs. Argent scoffed, “Of course not, but I would feed and clothe her. The elves would keep her company and make sure she did her homeschool work. She would fair better than she would at an orphanage that way.”

“Yes, she would,” Harry agreed, “But that doesn’t always make it right.”

Mrs. Argent frowned, “You are a strange Auror.”

“First of my kind,” Harry said as he got to his feet, “I intend on starting a trend.”

The woman’s frown deepened.

“Thank you for your time Mrs. Argent,” Harry said, leaving the house without any further ado.

~ ~ * ~ ~ * ~ ~ * ~ ~

When he got back to the department, he found Rob at his desk. He threw a vial down and said, “Go to the memory room and watch that, then you will understand why there is no way that I’m letting Nina go to that woman.”

Rob rolled his eyes and disappeared. When he returned five minutes later he simply said, “It’s better than an orphanage, Mrs. Argent is right.”

“Better isn’t good enough,” Harry said, “I’m taking her home with me tonight and by the time the 48 hours is up, I’ll have a better solution.”

“Yeah and who is going to okay that Potter?” Rob asked in disbelief.

“Senior Auror Sumner already did,” Harry said, slapping an authorization note down on the desk, “So I’ll see you tomorrow Rob.”

He didn’t wait for a reply from the Auror. He just walked away and found Nina in the waiting room. He gently explained to her that she would be staying with him for a few days until he could find somewhere safe for her to stay. Once he was sure that she understood he took her into the main foyer and took her through the floo to Potter Manor.

Daphne looked at him in surprise when he stepped out of the fireplace with a little blonde girl. He smiled at her, “Hey love, this is Nina. She’s going to be staying with us for a few days. Nina this is my wife Daphne.”

Nina smiled shyly and said hello.

“Do you want to play in the garden Nina?” Harry asked, gesturing to the open door, “My little boy is playing out there.”

Nina nodded and walked out of the backdoor cautiously. The moment she saw Teddy, she sat down on the edge of his sandpit and tentatively began to play with him.

“Did we just acquire another kid or…?”

“Her parents died this morning,” Harry replied in a whisper, “Potions accident. Rob wanted to leave her on the doorstep of some distant relative who doesn’t want her and I just…I couldn’t let him Daphne.”

“I get that baby,” Daphne replied in an undertone, “But we’re already young parents, we can’t adopt a five year old.”

“I’m not suggesting that we adopt her,” Harry promised, “But we need to find a better solution than Rob’s and we only have 24 hours to do that so the pressure is on.”

“Isn’t it always with you?” Daphne asked, looking at him proudly.

“Time to change the wizarding world again,” Harry said. He closed his eyes and conjured up his patronus. He then recorded a message, “We have a situation and I need your help. Potter Manor tonight at 8pm.”

He then duplicated the patronus and sent it off, stags dashing in all directions.

“How many people did you send that to?” Daphne asked curiously.

“A few,” Harry replied.

“What few?”

“The few that can help,” Harry said, his eyes on that poor little girl, “Hermione who will bring Draco, Neville who will bring Lilly, Ginny and Molly.”

“Molly?” Daphne asked in surprise.

Harry nodded, “You’ll understand tonight,” he promised, disappearing out of the backdoor after the children.

Daphne sighed and shook her head, “Will I?” she muttered to herself, “Will I understand why you keep bringing strays home? Oh sweet Salazar, this is going to be the rest of my life.”

~ ~ * ~ ~ * ~ ~ * ~ ~

That evening, shortly after 8pm, it all became clear.

Harry had gathered everyone in the drawing room. He then stood to make an announcement, “I have been working on a placement this week and throughout the course of that placement, I have realised that the wizarding world needs to change and it needs to change soon. There are no form of child protective services in our world which is so unbelievably wrong! I have seen black and blue, hexed kids this week. I’ve got a beautiful little kid called Nina sleeping in a guest room upstairs because the Aurors think it’s acceptable to go back _five _generations just to find a doorstep to dump her on and it has to stop.”

Molly smiled proudly while the others nodded their agreement.

“I’m not going to allow there to be anymore Harry Potters or Tom Riddles,” Harry said firmly, “Which is why I plan on putting a new law forward to Kingsley tomorrow. We need a new department, domestics is useless so what we need instead is Child Protective Services. We need somewhere that kids can go and be cared for after they witness a tragedy like the death of a parent. We need somewhere that kids can go when they are scared of the person that they live with.”

He took a breath, “And we need a law that allows Aurors to take children out of the custody of parents they believe to be abusive. We need them to authorize legilimency and veritaserum testing on those suspected of child abuse. All of this is going to be put forward to Kingsley tomorrow and then hopefully to the Wizengamot in the form of a set of reforms, but that’s not what I need you guys for.”

Ginny smiled as she sensed where Harry was going with this.

“I need you guys for the last part. This part is, I think, the most important,” Harry said honestly, “We need somewhere safe for kids to go, kids who don’t have anywhere else. Kids who need to be adopted or who just need a safe, nurturing environment to grow up in while they wait to go to Hogwarts and I want to create that, with your help.”

“You want to create a wizarding orphanage,” Ginny said softly.

“Yeah, I do,” Harry agreed.

“Oh, Harry,” Hermione said, bringing her hand up to her mouth, “I think that’s a wonderful idea.”

Harry looked over at her, but more to the point at Draco who was sitting by her side.

“I want the Ministry to make proper use of Malfoy Manor, Draco,” Harry said, looking his friend directly in the eye, “I want them to make it into a safe, happy place for kids because that will be proof that happiness really can be found in the darkest of places. I have it on good authority that Kingsley is going to go for it, by which I mean I’ve already asked him as a friend,” Harry admitted, “And we know that the only way this will work is with the right people behind the wheel.”

“And you think those people are us?” Neville asked in surprise.

“Of course those people are us,” Harry said, “We’ve changed the world before, and we can do it again. We _will _do it again because we have to. Neville, you and I can make sure that the kids go through the right people, that they don’t get lost in a screwed up system. Lilly, I was hoping you would take on a little bit of extra work to train a matron for the orphanage.”

Lilly nodded, “Of course.”

“Hermione, I need you for the legal side of it all,” Harry said.

Hermione smiled tearfully, “Of course you do.”

“Draco, I need you to help me turn the home you hated into a safe haven.”

Draco swallowed a lump in his throat and nodded, “I think I can do that.”

“Gin,” Harry said, his eyes falling on his ex-girlfriend, “I was hoping you would be the Matron, I can see you doing a damn good job of looking after those kids and I know that you want to be a Healer.”

Ginny smiled broadly, “I’d be honoured.”

“And Molly,” Harry said finally, his eyes falling on the woman that he thought of as a second Mother, “There is nobody I trust more than you to run my orphanage. You took me in when I needed someone and you raised me to be the man that I am today. No muggles who looked after me before then did that, you did that, you and Arthur.”

Molly’s eyes welled up and she rushed across the room to draw him into a hug. Harry hugged her back and heard the words, “Honoured,” through her tears.

Daphne smiled tearfully at Harry from the doorway of the room. She nodded and gave him a thumbs up, and he managed a tearful smile back.

It was time to change the world, again.

**TBC!**


	131. New Horizons

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You may have guessed, Elizabeth Weir and John Sheppard are totally based on the characters of the same name from the sci-fi show Stargate Atlantis. That was the first couple I shipped and I shipped them so hard, it was unreal!

“Elizabeth.”

Elizabeth Weir smiled at her Husband, “John. Did you call this meeting?”

John Sheppard shook his head, “No I thought you did.”

Weir shook her head, “Jack?”

Jack Sumner shook his head, “Nope, I thought it was one of you.”

“So who asked all of us here then?” Sheppard frowned, looking around the room. They had all been called into the main Auror department and given that it was almost the end of the trainees placement week, they thought that one of them had gotten into a spot of trouble.

“I did.”

They all looked up in surprise.

“Rob!” Elizabeth exclaimed.

Rob smiled and waved at her, “Lizzie.”

“Back off,” John said, giving him a warning glare, “This isn’t Auror training Rob, we’re not kids anymore and Elizabeth and I are married now.”

“I am perfectly aware of that, don’t worry Sheppard,” Rob said, shutting the door behind him, “I didn’t call you here to split up your marriage.”

“Why did you call us here then Rob?” Sumner asked, looking down at the younger man. He was aware of the fact that Rob had gone through Auror training with Weir and Sheppard.

“To talk to you about a young recruit of yours,” Rob said, “The one you bundled in with me, Harry Potter.”

“What has he done?” John asked instantly.

“Nothing but good,” Rob said, crossing his arms and staring them down, “Which is why I’m here to knock some sense into you three. We are severely understaffed here, and I know you’re under pressure to release some of those trainees into the department.”

“Don’t spread rumours,” Elizabeth said coolly.

“Everyone knows it,” Rob said smoothly, “That kid is wasted in Auror training and you all know it. He has done more good here in a week than I’ve done in five years working Domestics. He cares and he has heart, not to mention political pull and the hearts of the nation on his side.”

“He’s the saviour of the wizarding world, of course he does,” Sumner remarked irritably.

“He is brilliant,” Rob said, “And I know what’s in the works. Come May, maybe June at a push, this entire department is going to go through the ringer. We can all sense a change coming so here’s my proposal, release Potter now.”

“What?” Sumner barked.

“Release Potter, let him work with me. He’s doing great things,” Rob said, “He managed to get emergency legislation through to the Minister for Magic. At the end of this week they are going to sit to discuss what they are calling the ‘Child Protection Reforms’. What happens in that court room is going to be huge, and he should be a part of it. He made it happen, he should be here with me to build it.”

“You want us to release him as a Junior Auror?” John asked in disbelief, “Without putting him through any of the exams?”

“Put him through the exams,” Rob said simply, “I don’t think he’ll pass all of them, he’ll probably stumble on the theoretical ones because that’s not what he’s best at. Where that kid shines is out here in the field, making a difference.”

“You’re insane, no wonder they chucked you in Domestics,” John said with a shake of his head, “He’s 6 months into first year, he won’t pass them all.”

“I guarantee you, he’ll pass every practical exam you throw at him,” Rob said confidently, “And do you know what? I reckon he’ll even beat some of the records set by Sirius and Moody.”

They all looked at him for a long moment.

“You know his talents are wasted sitting in a classroom when he’s so badly needed _here_,” Rob said with a note of finality.

Elizabeth sighed and looked at the other two men, “I hate to admit it, but Rob has a point. Harry is special, we always knew it but we didn’t want him to get big-headed so we treat him like any other recruit but maybe…maybe he would be better off out here, where he can make a difference.”

Sumner looked at Elizabeth for a long moment then sighed too, “Yes, Wolfe you do make a valid point,” he conceded.

“But at the end of this week, the choice has to be Harry’s,” John re-iterated, “We can put the idea forward to him, but if he doesn’t want to do it then you have to respect that choice.”

“Of course I will,” Rob said sincerely.

Sumner got to his feet, “And since you are so sure of yourself, let’s make this a little more interesting. If Harry agrees to take the exams and he does pass all the practical ones, he’s your partner, a fully-fledged Junior Auror. But if he flunks any of the practical exams, he stays in Auror training and you hand your badge over.”

“Deal,” Rob said with a smirk, “I’ve had faith in this kid since he said Voldemort was back five years ago. That’s what got me stuck in Domestics so whats one more gamble huh?”

“You are a loose cannon,” John said, glaring at the other man as Rob opened the door for them.

Rob smirked once more, “You just don’t like me because Lizzie dated me first.”

“Elizabeth had the sense to break up with you,” John pointed out.

“And Elizabeth can fight her own battles,” Elizabeth added, glaring at both men, “Stop acting like children.”

Rob smiled sweetly as he held the door for them, “Of course. Nice to see you again Lizzie.”

Elizabeth's cheeks flushed and John glared at Rob again, “You’re pushing it mate.”

Rob smiled sweetly at him, it was totally false and John knew it, but to save a fight he simply placed his hand on Elizabeth's back and led her out of the room.

~ ~ * ~ ~ * ~ ~ * ~ ~ 

Harry was supposed to go home after he left the courtroom where the Wizengamot sat. He was already going to be unbelievably late home and he expected Daphne to be at least a little bit pissed off with him, even if she knew it was for a good cause.

He glanced at the clock, and said goodbye to his friends. As much as he wanted to try and race home in time to help put Teddy to bed, there was somewhere else that he really needed to be right now so he headed to the lifts and rode up.

When he reached the Auror bullpen, the A shift was switching over with the B shift. Harry scanned the bullpens and saw Rob, sitting behind his desk looking exhausted. He headed over to him and dropped into a seat across from his desk with a grin.

“Thought you were going home to your kid after your big hot-shot lordy meeting?” Rob asked dryly.

“I’m meant to be,” Harry admitted, “But there’s something I want to tell you. I’m not meant to tell you yet, but I’m going to tell you anyway.”

Rob grinned at him, “It’s only a week and I’ve already taught you how to bend the rules.”

“I already knew how to do that,” Harry chuckled, “Ask any teacher who had the misfortune of supervising me while I was at Hogwarts. You wanna hear the news?”

“Yeah, go on what’s happening?”

“As of Monday you won’t be one guy at a desk on his own anymore,” Harry said, leaning forward and lowering his voice, “You’ll have your own department, Child Protective Services.”

Rob’s eyes widened, “Yeah?”

“Yeah, it was a landslide win in the Wizengamot Rob,” Harry said excitedly, “And it’s not just a fancy title either. It’s an _office _with co-workers, and more legal powers too. I’m talking veritaserum and legilimency testing on parents or guardians who you suspect of abuse.”

Rob leant back in his chair and grinned, “Damn kid, you’re good.”

Harry grinned broadly, “I haven’t even gotten to the best part yet.”

Rob raised an eyebrow at him.

“When Kingsley makes the announcement about the Child Protection Reforms that I just told you about on Monday, he’s going to be announcing something else too,” Harry said proudly, “The launch of Lupin House, Britain’s first wizarding orphanage.”

Rob’s grin widened, “Alright, if we’re playing this game, I’m going to tell you something that I shouldn’t as well.”

Harry looked at the older Auror in surprise, “Something good?”

“That depends on your perspective,” Rob shrugged, “But I had a little chat with your trainers the other night because I reckon you are wasted in a classroom.”

“Necessary evil though,” Harry said simply.

“Not for someone like you,” Rob said, catching Harry’s eye, “On Monday they are going to bring you in for a meeting and they are going to ask you if you want to come and work for me.”

Harry’s eyes widened, “Seriously?”

“Seriously,” Rob promised, “You’re bringing this change about Harry, you should be here to see it through. It’s a choice though, if you don’t want to I won’t be offended. But if you _do _want to, you’re going to have to pass your exams.”

Harry sighed, “Right,”

“Not all of them mind, just the practical ones,” Rob added, “But I doubt they will tell you that. They’ll want to keep you on edge.”

At this Harry relaxed a little, “Just the practical ones? I might…well I don’t want to sound arrogant but I think I might be able to do that.”

“I’m sure you can,” Rob said with a smile, “But just make sure it’s what you want before you make a decision alright?”

“I don’t have to think about it,” Harry said honestly, thinking of how much he had hated but equally enjoyed the past week. He also had incredible respect for Rob, “I want to do it.”

“If all goes well then, I’ll see you on Monday,” Rob said, patting him on the back and grinning, “But right now, you better get your arse home to your missus before she sends out a search party.”

“Alright,” Harry said, grinning back at Rob, “See you Monday hopefully.”

Rob gave him the thumbs up and Harry left, his mind spinning with that news.

~ ~ * ~ ~ * ~ ~ * ~ ~

Harry had spent Friday evening thinking things over, not to mention discussing things with Daphne. She had been completely on board and also incredibly proud at the fact Harry was even being offered this opportunity.

As such, the remainder of his weekend had been spent studying. He felt confident in his physical abilities, but the theory side of it was where he would be let down so he crammed as much knowledge into his brain as he could.

By the time Monday morning came around, he felt a little nervous but he tried not to let on to his friends as they did their usual morning warm up together. They hit the showers and dressed, ready for their first class of the day. However, the moment they left the locker room, Sumner called, “Potter! Meeting in my office stat.”

“Yes sir,” Harry said, his heart beating fast as he followed Sumner to his office. He had expected this, but he was surprised by the fact that Aurors Sheppard and Weir were also there.

Sumner sat down behind his desk and surveyed Harry, “I expect you know what this is about?”

“No sir,” Harry lied.

John laughed, “You need to get better at that Potter, even the weakest criminal wouldn’t believe you.”

“Not to mention, we know Auror Wolfe,” Elizabeth replied, smiling at Harry, “He has struggled to keep his mouth shut for the past 15 years, I do not expect he would start now.”

Harry smiled sheepishly, “He did give me an inkling of what was to come,” he admitted.

Sumner nodded, “And do you know what you want to do?”

Harry nodded too, “I want to take the exams sir and if I pass, I would like to join Auror Wolfe in Domestics.”

“Alright,” Sumner said, a hint of pride in his voice, “But, you need to take them today.”

“Alright,” Harry said simply.

“Now,” Sumner added.

Harry nodded, “Okay.”

Sumner looked over at John. The younger Auror smiled and said, “I reckon Wolfe might have been right about you Potter. Come on, I’ll walk you to the exam centre and I’ll fill you in on what's going to happen.”

Harry followed him to the door and once he got there, both Sumner and Elizabeth wished him luck. He thanked them both and left with John. All the Recruits were now in their first class of the day so the corridors were almost completely empty.

“So you will be sitting six exams,” John told him, “You will sit the theoretical exams first and then you will sit the practical exams. There are three of each.”

Harry nodded as he listened intently.

“The theoretical exams are ‘Potions & Herbology’, ‘Stealth, Tracking & Disguise’ and ‘Law and Ethics’. Feel okay about that?”

“Apart from Law and Ethics, yeah,” Harry replied honestly.

John grinned, “A lot of people feel that way about Auror Weir’s classes.”

Harry strongly suspected that John and Elizabeth were married so he laughed at the comment.

“As far as the practical exams go, you will sit them in a very specific order. The order is designed to make it accurate for a real life situation. All practical exams will take place in the simulation room one after the other and I will not be telling you the names of the three sections, understood?”

“Yes sir,” Harry said.

They reached the simulation room corridor which had changed from the last time he had been here. This time there were only two doors, one labelled as ‘THEORETICAL’ and the other as ‘PRACTICAL’.

“Once you head into that room, you have two hours to complete all the theory tests,” John told him, “When you come out, get yourself a glass of water, take at least ten minutes of a break to get yourself into a good frame of mind for the practical tests. It will be over when you have completed all three tasks, if you die it’s an automatic fail. Any questions?”

Harry shook his head.

John smiled and said, “Good. Do you know what Sirius asked at that point, when we were asked for questions?”

Harry chuckled, “Something cheeky probably?”

“Oh yeah,” John said, his smile was one of amusement, “He said, does it also count as a fail if we accidentally amputate a major body part or do we just get an Alastor Moody award?”

Harry laughed out loud at that comment, “Well…it’s kind of a fair question.”

“The Head Trainer at the time really didn’t think so,” John said, clapping Harry on the back, “Good luck Potter.”

“Thank you sir,” Harry said, taking a deep breath and opening the door into the theoretical exam room.

The two hours passed quickly, but the exams weren’t actually as hard as Harry was expecting. The Potions & Herbology one had mostly been about key ingredients for brewing potions such as Polyjuice Potion. There had also been a section on common poisons and how to deal with them that he found easy. The Stealth, Tracking and Disguise exam had also been a breeze. The section about the pros and cons of Animagi, and on the process of becoming one was a dream for Harry. The only exam that he really struggled with was the Law and Ethics one, which was to be expected because he spent most of that class napping through Auror Weir’s monotone speeches.

When he left the room, he took Sheppard’s advice. He had a glass of water, went to the toilet and took ten minutes to compose himself then he took a deep, steadying breath and entered the simulation room.

From that moment, it was fast and furious. He was faced with a war zone at first, clearly designed to put his field healing to the test and he thought that he did pretty well all things considered. The next section of the test involved dealing with a hostage situation which he also found relatively easy. The duel at the end of that section was a breeze compared to some of the duels he had fought as a teenager against the likes of Voldemort and Bellatrix Lestrange.

The final section was the one he had expected, but dreaded. It was a resistance test, he was subjected to the imperius curse which he managed to fight, and then he was worn down with the Cruciatus Curse but he kept his resolve. Just when he thought it was all over, his mind was invaded through the use of Legilimency. That was the hardest part of the entire exam if he was honest, but the relatively basic grasp that he had on Occlumency had been enough to force the assailant out of his head.

Once he had done that, the scenario around him faded away until all that was left was a desk. Sitting behind that desk were three people; Aurors Sumner, Sheppard and Weir.

Harry pushed himself to his feet and wiped his brow, “How did I do?” he asked a little breathlessly.

“Well,” Elizabeth said, looking down at his results, “Let’s start with the theory tests. You passed ‘Potions & Herbology’ and ‘Stealth, Tracking and Disguise’ adequately.”

Harry’s face fell, “I failed ‘Law & Ethics, didn’t I?”

“No,” John said, glancing down at Harry’s result, “You scraped a pass but when we say scraped, we _mean _scraped because you actually got exactly what you needed to pass and no more.”

“And I think some of that was by chance in the multiple choice section,” Elizabeth admitted.

“Yeah,” Harry said sheepishly, “It probably was, sorry Auror Weir.”

Sumner looked like he was struggling to contain a look of amusement. He also glanced down at Harry’s result then he looked back up at the young man, “However you did exceedingly well in your Practical exams. You passed all three with flying colours, you even beat a few records.”

“Did I?” Harry asked in surprise.

Sumner nodded, “Yep, you beat the hostage situation faster than anyone else has. The record holder for that was your Godfather, Sirius was always able to talk his way out of anything.”

Harry grinned at that news.

“You also set a new record for the resistance section,” John told Harry, “That record was held by Moody so you should be proud about that one, because he was a tough old bastard.”

“I beat that section faster than Moody?” Harry asked in disbelief.

“You sure did son,” Sumner said, he smiled at Harry, “And you set a record overall time for the practical exam too. You know who you beat on that one?”

Harry shook his head.

“Only your old Dad,” Sumner said proudly.

Harry swallowed a lump in his throat, that packed a bigger punch than the others.

“He was a brilliant all-rounder your Dad,” Sumner elaborated, “He was a damn good Auror, it’s no surprise his son aced his end of training exams ¾ of the way into his first year.”

“So…” Harry looked at them in disbelief, “Does that mean I’m qualified?”

Sumner got up from the desk and handed him a badge, “Proof is in the pudding Potter.”

Harry looked down at the shiny golden badge which said in bold writing above the Ministry crest, _JUNIOR AUROR, _and underneath it was his surname emblazoned in bold, **_POTTER_**.

John walked over and smiled at him, “Congratulations Potter. Wolfe was obviously onto something, he was right to bet his badge on you.”

Harry looked up in surprise, “He bet his _badge _on me?”

“Oh yeah,” Sumner said, smirking at Harry, “He was so sure that you were going to pass _and _beat records that he agreed to quit if you didn’t.”

Harry was stunned by that news, “Would you actually have let him?”

“Yeah, I can't stand that guy,” Sumner replied.

John nodded his agreement, “He’s arrogant, he thinks that he knows best. That’s why he got stuck in Domestics when we all got promotions to the training centre.”

Elizabeth stood up and walked around the table, “Wolfe didn’t end up in Domestics because he was a bad Auror. He ended up there because he was a good one, because he stood up when nobody else would and told the world the news that nobody wanted to hear. I think you and he will make a good partnership Potter.”

John rolled his eyes.

Harry noticed this and said, “You really don’t like Rob, do you?”

“Nope,” John replied, “But you can obviously work with him and since you are the first in about 5 years, congratulations.”

Harry smiled, “So what happens now?”

Sumner glanced at a clock which had just appeared on the wall, “You go to lunch with your friends and tell them the good news. Then you head on over to the Ministry, get yourself some red robes and tell Wolfe that he was right about you because I sure as hell am not going to do it.”

Harry chuckled, “Thanks Auror Sumner for giving me this chance, and thanks for everything Aurors Sheppard and Weir.”

Sumner smiled, “It’s Jack, John and Elizabeth to you now Harry. We aren’t your trainers anymore, we’re your colleagues.”

Harry grinned with pride at those words.

~ ~ * ~ ~ * ~ ~ * ~ ~

Harry practically skipped into the lunch hall. He saw his friends and made a beeline for them, they all looked up the minute that he sat down.

“Where the hell have you been all morning?” Draco asked in disbelief.

“Is everything okay?” Neville added.

“Everything is fine Nev,” Harry said, beaming, “More than fine actually. I have news, bloody brilliant news!”

“Oh no, don’t say Daphne’s pregnant,” Theo said with a grimace, “No more babies!”

“No more babies,” Harry laughed, “You know how I worked with Rob all week and kind of hit it off with him?”

“Yeah,” Draco said, frowning at Harry.

“What, you’re marrying him and forming a triad?” Theo joked.

Harry rolled his eyes and punched Theo in the arm, “No, he spoke to the trainers here and told them I was wasted in a classroom so Sumner, Sheppard and Weir let me sit my final exams today.”

“Your final, end of _third _year exams?” Draco asked in an outraged whisper, “It’s not even the end of first year!”

“Shh,” Neville hushed him irritably. “How did you do?”

“I passed them all, aced the practical ones,” Harry said with a smug grin, “I start working with Rob today.”

“What?” The three of them echoed.

Harry pulled his badge out of his pocket and put it on the table.

“Holy fucking Helga.”

“Don’t take the Founders names in vein Theo,” Neville joked half-heartedly as he looked down at the badge then up at Harry, “That’s huge Harry, congratulations.”

Harry grinned, but then his face fell, “Oh…but Nev…what’s going to happen to you?”

“I’ll be fine without a partner,” Neville said, smiling at his friend, “Don’t worry about me, this is great news for you and you bloody deserve it! What you did for that department, for kids like us, it’s brilliant Harry.”

Harry put his arm around Neville’s shoulder and said, “You know, this is going to sound sappy, but Auror partner or not, you’re still my plucky sidekick.”

Neville punched him in the arm at that.

“Ow!”

“Stop calling me your plucky sidekick!” Neville exclaimed, “Sidekick I will accept, but I’m not plucky!”

Harry rubbed his arm but chuckled, “Alright, alright, I’ll stop,” he promised.

Neville shook his head in amusement, “You better think about heading off to your fancy new job, you’ll want to tell Rob the news.”

Harry nodded and got to his feet, “I will, but you guys will come over for drinks soon right? So we can celebrate?”

“Yeah, course we will,” Neville promised.

With one last grin, Harry left the lunch hall. Draco and Theo looked at Neville expectantly as he dropped the happy façade.

“Are you going to cry?” Theo asked, pushing the last slice of cake across the table to him.

Neville frowned, “Why do I feel like I just got broken up with?”

“Probably cause you did,” Draco said with a shrug.

“Yeah, your boyfriend just got a new job and ran away to pursue it,” Theo added.

“You guys aren’t gonna leave me too, are you?” Neville asked them.

“Never,” Theo said, grinning at him, “We’ve got your back Fatbottom.”

Neville rolled his eyes, “Arsehole,” he said affectionately.

“Dickhead,” Theo shot back in the same tone.

~ ~ * ~ ~ * ~ ~ * ~ ~

When Harry walked into the Auror department, he decided to seek out Rob before he ‘robed up’ in the iconic red Auror robes. He headed to the back of the department where Rob appeared to be dozing on his desk. It was mean, but he knocked on it hard a couple of times.

Rob jerked awake and looked up at Harry, “Woah Potter, not a cool way to wake a guy up.”

“Don’t sleep on the job then,” Harry said with an amused smile.

Rob blinked away the blurriness in his eyes.

“I just popped in to say thanks,” Harry said with a smile, “For having faith in me.”

“You’re not staying?” Rob asked.

Harry shook his head, “Nah, it’s Auror training for another couple of years for me but Sumner is here. He wants to talk to you about something.”

Rob’s eyes widened, “He wants to talk to me? Oh…oh _fuck!_”

At this point, Harry sniggered, making Rob look up sharply, “Oh you little shit!”

“Serves you right for putting your badge on the line, partner,” Harry said, grinning and putting his own badge down on the desk.

Rob grinned, “I knew that you could do it! Yes! Well done kid!”

Harry chuckled and sat down on the edge of Rob’s desk, “I passed all of the tests, even beat some records.”

“I told them you would,” Rob said proudly, “I bloody told them!”

“So they said,” Harry snorted, “They don’t like you very much do they? Well, Sumner and Sheppard that is.”

“Sumner doesn’t like me because I was a 1st year when he was a 3rd year in training and I beat him all of the time,” Rob said with a grin, “Sheppard doesn’t like me because I dated his wife all the way through training.”

“You dated Weir?” Harry asked in disbelief.

“Oh yeah, she acts all strict and ethical but,” Rob whistled, “It’s the good girls Harry, they are _so _bad.”

Harry made a face, “That’s gross.”

Rob just grinned.

“Right then,” Harry said, crossing his arms to look at the older man, “This is the point where I tell you that _every time _someone comes into my life and believes in me, or has faith in me, it turns out that they are a long-lost Father figure who knew my parents so…”

Rob nodded thoughtfully through Harry’s spiel. When he was done he said, “Yeah, you’re right. That does happen in your life a lot, doesn’t it? You’ve got this whole epic hero persona too so I guess it’s fitting that now is the time for me to tell you the truth.”

Harry frowned, “What truth?”

Rob took a deep breath and said, “Harry…I am your Father.”

“Rob, you’re a fucking idiot,” Harry said, instantly sensing his sarcasm, “That’s a line from Star Wars.”

“Good kid, you like Star Wars!” Rob clapped him on the back and laughed, “Nah in all seriousness, I knew of your parents but I wasn’t friends with them or anything. I was a couple of years behind them in school, but I was a background Gryffindor so they didn’t know my name.”

“A background Gryffindor?” Harry asked with a frown.

“Yeah, there are always background Gryffindors,” Rob said with a wave of his hand, “You and your friends were the heroes but I bet there were other Gryffindors in the years below you who you would know to look at but couldn’t even hazard a guess at their names right?”

“Uh…yeah,” Harry admitted sheepishly.

“That was me, I was a background Gryffindor to the Marauders,” Rob said with a shrug, “Which was to be expected, they had big personalities. I knocked your Dad off his broom once in training, I was a beater in his final year as captain. Oh and I had a crush on your Mum but I hate to break it to you Harry, everyone had a crush on your Mum.”

Harry made a face.

“Not a creepy, obsessive crush like old Sevvy mind you,” Rob added, “Just a normal, I’d definitely do her’ crush.”

Harry could have gagged, “Rob, that’s my Mum you’re talking about!”

“Well yeah but, Lily Evans,” Rob said with a content sigh, “The amount of wet dreams-”

“Rob!” Harry exclaimed, “Can we get down to business here?"

"I suppose so," Rob shrugged.

Harry raised an eyebrow at him, "How are we going to implement all of these changes?”

“Well, since you decided that you were going to restructure my department for me, you tell me what we’re doing,” Rob smirked, leaning back in his chair.

“That’s your way of saying you’ve got no fucking clue, isn’t it?” Harry guessed.

“Yep kid, it really is.”

Harry snorted, “I don’t think anything is going to change until the big bosses tell us that it has to. The orphanage is well on it’s way to being set up but that’s not being handled by us, I put my adopted Mum in charge of that.”

“Your what?”

“Molly Weasley kind of raised me,” Harry said with a shrug, “Ron Weasley was my best friend through school and his kid is my Godson. Ginny Weasley’s kid is my Goddaughter which is a bit weird because she’s my ex but yeah, those guys are my family.”

“You dated your adopted sister?” Rob asked distastefully.

Harry rolled his eyes, “No, they didn’t actually adopt me, they just – oh do you know what, forget it. I was trying to do an analogy.”

“Don’t, analogies are my thing, find your own thing,” Rob joked, “Do you have a thing?”

“Em…I like Expelliarmus?”

“You’re a weird kid,” Rob said, shaking his head.

At that moment a memo appeared on his desk and he grinned.

“What is it?” Harry asked with a frown.

“It’s a call,” Rob said, “So you better robe up.”

“Why are you so happy about a call?” Harry asked curiously.

“Because it’s from the Closes,” Rob replied, turning around so that he could look at Harry while he walked backwards out of the bullpen, “It’s Hetty’s house and your new laws came into force this morning.”

“Oh…” Harry realised, his face lighting up.

“I CAN FINALLY ARREST THE BITCH!” Rob cheered triumphantly, “EVERYONE THIS IS MY NEW PARTNER HARRY POTTER AND I THINK I LOVE HIM!”

Harry just followed him out of the bullpen with an amused shake of his head.

~ ~ * ~ ~ * ~ ~ * ~ ~

Daphne was singing in the kitchen as she prepared dinner. Teddy was playing away happily upstairs and she was enjoying a rare moment of peace and quiet.

It didn’t last long, because the front door opened and three loud men trudged into the entrance hall. She rolled her eyes as they sought her out in the kitchen.

“Something smells great.”

Daphne turned around and raised an eyebrow at the three of them, “Boys.”

Theo grinned at her, “Hey Daph.”

“Yes, you can stay for dinner,” She said with a roll of her eyes, “What have you done with my Husband?”

“We haven’t done anything with your Husband, he left us,” Draco replied.

“For some hot, rugged Irish Auror,” Neville complained.

Daphne raised an eyebrow at him, “Hot?”

“Well, he is all rugged and Irish,” Theo said with a shrug.

“Wow, way to spoil the surprise that Harry passed all of his exams Theo,” Daphne said dryly.

“Oh come on, you knew he was going to,” Draco snorted, “He’s Harry Potter.”

“I did suspect he would pass them all,” Daphne admitted with a smile, “But why are you lot so miserable? You should be happy for him.”

“We are happy for him,” Neville said unconvincingly.

“No we’re not, I’m fuming,” Theo objected, “How come he passed the third year exams in his first year? It’s not fair.”

“It is fair,” Daphne said, crossing her arms and staring them all down, “Yes, he’s Harry Potter but that’s not why he passed all of the exams in first year. It’s not because they fudged them, or because they let him do whatever he wanted. It’s because he’s brilliant.”

Theo snorted.

“Have any of you defeated a Dark Lord?” Daphne asked, directing the question at Theo first, “Have you?”

“No,” Theo muttered irritably.

She then turned to Draco, “No,” he said with a roll of his eyes.

Daphne then looked at Neville.

“Well I beheaded-”

“Goddamn it Neville, beheading a snake doesn’t count,” Daphne said, torn between actually being annoyed and being fondly exasperated with the lot of them, “Harry is unique and he deserves this so all three of you need to stop wallowing in your own self-pity and start being good friends!”

Neville frowned down at his hands for a moment then nodded, “Yeah, you’re right, we do. We are being shit friends right now.”

Draco sighed, “Yeah, we kind of are.”

“What would good friends do?” Daphne asked the three of them, feeling more like a Mother than ever.

“Have a party!” Theo exclaimed, “Yes, surprise party! I’m on it, Neville you can get everyone here by floo. Draco, you sort the food out. I’ll go and sort the booze out and Daphne,” he faltered, “You can make dinner and put the kid to bed?”

“I am more than a bloody house wife and Mother Theodore Nott!” Daphne exclaimed, hexing him in the direction of the front door, much to the amusement of the other two men.

~ ~ * ~ ~ * ~ ~ * ~ ~

Harry was on cloud number nine when he got home that night, it was later than Daphne had expected him but he had sent her a patronus to let her know that he wouldn’t be home until closer to 7pm.

He walked through the door and noticed that the lights were dimmed upstairs so he made sure to stay quiet until he reached the kitchen, “Daphne, I have had the best day-” he began to say, but he stopped short when he saw Draco, Neville and Theo sitting at the table.

“What are you guys doing here?” Harry asked with a frown.

“Being good friends,” Neville said with a smile.

“And congratulating you,” Draco added.

Theo grinned and said, “SURPRISE,” with jazz hands.

At that point, several people jumped out from various hiding points throughout the kitchen. In the commotion of it all, Harry almost missed Hermione knocking herself out on the breakfast bar as she tried to jump out from underneath it.

“Oh for the love of Rowena,” Lilly said with a roll of her eyes, “Thank the founders that one of us is a Healer.”

“I just passed field training,” Harry joked.

“Go on then, wake her up,” Lilly said with a smirk.

“Enervate,” Harry said.

Hermione woke up then cried out in pain.

Lilly said another incantation and shot Harry an amused look, “You forgot the numbing charm.”

“Oops,” Harry said, grinning around at his friends, “You didn’t have to do this, but I appreciate it, thank you,” he said, tears burning at the back of his eyes.

Daphne wrapped her arms around him and smiled, “Congratulations baby,” she said, and the pride in her voice made it all the more sweet.

**TBC!**


	132. Today is the Day, the World Begins Again

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter title is from the song:  
Better Days by the Goo Goo Dolls.

None of the first year recruits were surprised to be called to the lecture hall the following morning. News travelled fast so everybody knew that Harry had left. Not everybody knew where he had gone or why he had left, but they hadn’t missed his absence for the entirety of the previous day.

When Sumner stepped out, he looked pensieve which made Neville a little anxious.

“Alright,” He said, clapping his hands together, “You all had a placement last week. That went better for some of you than others, I assume you have all noticed Recruit Potters absence.”

Blanche’s eyes widened, “Oh my god, did Potter quit?”

Sumner rolled his eyes, “No, Potter did not quit. Potter is now a qualified Junior Auror thanks to a meddling pain in the arse that we all know as Auror Wolfe. If you ever meet him feel free to punch him.”

He didn’t give them long to revel in this shocking news. He simply cleared his throat and continued, “However, the feedback we received about Recruits Wilde and Harper was less than satisfactory,” his eyes fell on the two recruits, “I think you both know that you have been struggling for a couple of months, so unfortunately this is the end of the road for you guys.”

Emily burst into tears as she fled the room, making Neville roll his eyes irritably. Maxwell had a bit of temper tantrum and stormed out like a child.

Sumner sighed and crossed his arms, “We have another problem in the form of you Longbottom. You need a partner, but we have an odd number.”

Neville looked up at Sumner, “Okay?”

“So what are we going to do with you?” Sumner asked him.

Neville felt a little irritated at the thought that he could be let go from the programme because of numbers when he knew that he was one of the most promising recruits. He frowned and looked Sumner dead in the eye, “Let me do the exams too.”

“What?” Sumner scoffed.

“You let Harry do them,” Neville pointed out.

“Yes Longbottom, but-”

“But what?” Neville cut in, “But he’s the chosen one? I thought you said that didn’t give him any preferential treatment. This looks like preferential treatment to me and I wonder what the Prophet would think about that if I presented it to them? It would look kind of like the DMLE, which has recently been exposed as corrupt, was fast-tracking one trainee above all others just because he is the chosen one.”

Sumner’s eyes darkened.

“So conniving Nev,” Theo whispered, “I’m so proud of you.”

Neville ignored this comment as he looked at Sumner, trying to gauge his response.

“Fine,” Sumner said in a low voice, “You can do the exams but, as a result of your blatant cheek and ignorance, if you fail _any _of them you are out on your ear. Do you understand?”

“Completely sir,” Neville replied smoothly.

Draco shook his head in disbelief, “What, an idiot,” he muttered.

“Stop stealing your girlfriend’s lines,” Theo joked, nudging Draco in the side.

Draco looked at Neville, “Enjoy being a Herbology Professor mate.”

Neville raised an eyebrow at him, “What makes you so sure that I’ll fail?”

“Call it a hunch,” Draco shrugged.

“Well we’ll see about that,” Neville said, determination glinting in his eyes.

~ ~ * ~ ~ * ~ ~ * ~ ~ 

“Rob…Rob…you’re meant to be working.”

“I am working.”

“On what?” Harry asked, cocking his head to look at his partner.

“Working on how to get this desk to fucking sit straight.”

Harry rolled his eyes, pointed his wand at the desk and said, “Reparo!”

The desk wobbled but then stabilized. Harry leant on it and said, “Would you look at that, it's as good as new.”

“I do not like you,” Rob said, pointing at Harry and poking him in the chest, “You think that you can just come in here and change laws and fix desks? Well…well you can, but I’m not happy about it.”

Harry snorted and glanced at the clock, “No calls from the Closes today. That’s good isn’t it?”

“Hetty’s arrest will keep them quiet for a few days,” Rob shrugged, “It’s good to instill a little fear into a community like that every once in a while.”

“Hmm,” Harry hummed thoughtfully, “I wonder how Lupin House is coming along.”

“Why’d you call it that?” Rob asked curiously.

“Lupin House?” Harry mused, “It’s a metaphor I guess. Remus Lupin was basically my Godfather since I’m pretty sure he was sleeping with my actual Godfather-”

“Yeah he was,” Rob said, stifling a yawn, “I walked in on them in a Potions supply cupboard once and-”

“And I’m good with that sentence ending there,” Harry said, putting his hand over Rob’s mouth, “But the point is that Remus never felt like he belonged anywhere or that he was safe anywhere so calling the orphanage Lupin House…it’s to symbolize that it’s a place where _everyone _is accepted and where _everyone _is safe regardless of blood status or sexuality or...well...or anything I suppose.”

“Shit speech,” Rob said with a snort, “Good sentiment though, you’re awfully sentimental aren’t you?”

“Oh yeah, you’ve not even seen the half of it.”

Harry spun around and grinned, “Nev! What are you doing here? Do you have another placement?”

“Not exactly,” Neville said, grinning right back at Harry, “I’m your new partner.”

“Woah, paws off, _I’m _his partner,” Rob chimed in.

“Actually, I was his partner first,” Neville said.

“Right, I am my own person,” Harry said, standing in between them, “I don’t belong to either of you, the only person who has a claim to me is Daphne. Now what the hell do you mean Neville?”

“Well long story short, we got dragged into the lecture hall this morning,” Neville began, “And we were told that perfect Potter with his scar and his broomstick and his mesmerizing green eyes was getting preferential treatment.”

“Did Sumner actually say that?” Harry asked, raising an amused eyebrow at Neville.

“Nah, just practicing my Draco impression,” Neville joked, “Anyway, Maxwell and Emily got kicked out."

“About time,” Harry said.

Neville nodded and continued, “Then Sumner started on me, saying that he didn’t know what to do with me because I didn’t have a partner and we had an odd number so I told him to let me take the exam too. He shot me down, I threatened to go to the Prophet-”

“Did you say this to him in private or were you still in the lecture hall?” Harry cut in.

“I was still in the lecture hall,” Neville answered.

Rob grinned and clapped his hands together. He put an arm around Harry and whispered, “I like him," he looked back up at Neville, "I like you kid. You’re my new favourite now.”

“Oi!” Harry objected.

“Carry on with this story, I’m enthralled,” Rob said, ignoring Harry.

Neville snorted in amusement, “I took my exams, passed them all, set a bunch of records-”

“What-”

“Don’t worry, I didn’t beat any of yours,” Neville said, guessing where Harry was about to go with that, “I just beat my Dad’s score on two of the theory tests and my Mum’s on the other one.”

Harry grinned, “Course you did.”

“And then Sumner gave me a badge,” Neville finished.

“And chucked you in Domestics for your cheek?” Rob guessed.

“Nah, I picked it,” Neville replied.

“What is it with you kids and this department?” Rob began, then he frowned, “Woah, or did you just pick it so you could be with your buddy?”

“No, I picked it because I like what you two are doing here,” Neville replied, “I voted for the reforms too you know? I gave Harry 25% of the funding he needed for Lupin House. I wasn’t an orphan technically, but my parents weren’t in my life, I was raised by my Grandmother and she didn’t abuse me, but she did neglect me. I agree with everything that Harry said about this department, about how it should ensure that there aren’t anymore Harry Potters or Tom Riddles, but I don’t want there to be anymore Neville Longbottoms either.”

“What is it with you guys and speeches?” Rob scoffed, “Why does everything have to be a heroic speech? This isn’t a movie, there’s no one filming your monologues. I mean who is this dude Harry, is he like the Han to your Luke?”

Harry snorted in amusement, “He’s more Princess Leia.”

“Right, I know enough about Star Wars to be offended by that,” Neville said, looking between the two of them in amusement.

“You’re definitely going to fit in here then,” Rob said with a grin, “So, if you two are partners then what am I? The third wheel? Or is this a three way? Because let me tell you, three ways can get very complicated. It’s all fun and games until someone doesn’t want to share anymore.”

“Now _that _was a long time ago,” A new voice said.

Harry looked from Rob to Elizabeth Weir and said, “_That’s _why Sheppard hates you.”

Rob grinned, “Guilty. To what do I owe this rare pleasure, Elizabeth?”

“I’m just the messenger,” Elizabeth said, leaning against the wall, “Sumner doesn’t like you so he sent me.”

“Touché,” Rob said with a smirk.

“There is going to be a big shake up in the department,” Elizabeth informed him, “Not just your new department, but within the whole Auror department. It’s going to happen over the next week or two but big changes are afoot, you were right about that when we spoke last week.”

“Are you going to tell me anything more than that or is this a cryptic kind of chat?” Rob asked, raising an eyebrow at her.

“I can’t tell you much more, just that the squads will become more like teams,” Elizabeth answered, “Each squad will have a minimum of six members of staff so you guys are going to be getting some new colleagues soon. For the moment though, these guys are partners and you’re in charge of them Rob. Around the Ministry, they can do what they want but you can’t let them out in the field on their own yet, they are still Juniors.”

“Got it, I’m their babysitter,” Rob said, mock saluting her.

“If that’s the way you want to take it, then that’s fine,” Elizabeth said, smiling slightly.

“Such a diplomat these days,” Rob said with a shake of his head.

“Kids will do that to you,” Elizabeth chuckled.

“Oh yeah,” Rob agreed with a smile, “So, any hints on who our new colleagues will be?”

“Even if I did know, I wouldn’t tell you,” Elizabeth said, smirking and turning on her heel.

Rob cocked his head at her as she walked away. He shook his head and said, “Do you know what, 15 years on and I would still go there every day and twice on Sunday.”

“I can see why Sheppard hates you,” Neville said matter of factly.

“Yeah, the feelings mutual,” Rob said calmly, “So…there are three of us and we still have one desk. This is going to get real cozy, do you think we should set a little magical fire and toast marshmallows? We can talk about our first kisses and tell each other our deepest darkest secrets.”

“Or we could just do this,” Neville said, clicking his fingers, twisting his wrist and expanding the desk so that there was more than enough room for three of them.

Rob rolled his eyes, “Harry, make him go away. He’s ruining our fun already.”

Harry just grinned, “Welcome to Domestics, my plucky little sidekick.”

“OW!”

~ ~ * ~ ~ * ~ ~ * ~ ~

“Stop sulking.”

Draco huffed, “I’m not sulking.”

“Yes, you are,” Hermione said, pulling on her coat and handing him his, “You’re not going to be less of an Auror than Harry or Neville just because they passed their exams first.”

“Passed their exams first?” Draco scoffed, “Hermione, they passed them two years early!”

Hermione rolled her eyes, “Draco, there is more to this than meets the eye. Do you really think it’s a coincidence that Harry and Neville happen to get this chance just weeks after the mass walk out from the DMLE?”

Draco frowned, “Wait a minute…do you _know _something?”

“Of course I don’t, the Aurors are a secretive bunch,” Hermione said, shooting him an irritated look, “And if I did know anything, obviously I would have told you. I’m just being logical and what makes sense is for them to pull any able recruits out of training to get numbers in the department up.”

“So what’s your point?” Draco asked as they reached the alley and prepared to apparate.

“That you and Theo might follow in their footsteps sooner than you think,” Hermione said, smiling at him, “So stop whining and put on your big boy pants, you’re going to need them before you walk into Malfoy Manor again.”

Draco nodded and took a deep breath, “Let’s go.”

They apparated to the Manor together and the first sign that big changes were afoot was right in front of them. Where grand, iron-wrought gates had once said, “MALFOY MANOR”, they now said, “LUPIN HOUSE.”

“My Father would be turning in his grave,” Draco said, looking up at the house, “If he was dead. Mind you, he might be for all I know..."

Hermione took his hand, “What does your Mother think?”

“That only good can come of this,” Draco said, smiling at his fiancé, “You know how soft she is underneath the whole pureblood trophy wife façade.”

Hermione chuckled as they began to walk up the path towards the Manor. The gardens had been kept immaculate, probably due to the house elves that had come with the house when the Ministry acquired it.

“Just stop for a minute,” Draco said, halfway up the path.

Hermione frowned and looked around, thinking he had sensed some sort of trap with his Auror senses, “What is it?”

“I just…” Draco stared at the house, a look in his eyes that Hermione had not seen for a long time. It was a haunted look, like he was lost in a moment from his past.

“I’m going to find it hard to walk in there with you,” Draco said quietly, “Because of what they did to you the last time we were in this place together.”

Hermione’s eyes softened. She tightened her grip on his hand and said, “This is a fresh start for everyone Draco, us included.”

He took a breath and nodded, letting Hermione lead him up the garden path to the front door. The moment they stepped into the entrance hall, they could sense the changes that were afoot in the house. All of the Slytherin green had been replaced with a neutral off-white which looked great with the dark wood stairs and beams. All of the family portraits had been taken away too, which made Draco feel oddly sad for the first time. He had spent so long being ashamed of all of the ‘Malfoy’ in him that he hadn’t realised how proud he had been of some of his ancestors.

“Come on,” Hermione said softly, dragging him towards the drawing room, “Molly needs our help.”

Draco nodded and let her lead him through a house that had once been his. When they stepped out into the drawing room, it was clear that this was the room that was being redecorated at the moment because it was half complete.

“Hermione, Draco!” Molly said, pulling them both in for hugs when she saw them.

Hermione smiled and drew back from the hug, “Hi Molly, how are you getting on?”

“Oh we’re getting on great Hermione,” Molly said cheerfully, “We have all of the bedrooms converted, and the dining room has been turned into a dining hall. The house elves have asked for some changes to the kitchen, and the drawing room needs to be turned into a community hall but we’re almost there.”

“That’s great news,” Draco said, smiling a little sadly.

Molly noticed, “Oh Draco dear, I’m so sorry. I should never have asked you to come along. This must be difficult for you, seeing your family home change completely.”

“It’s a big of a shock, but it’s for a good cause,” Draco said honestly, “And you said you needed my help with something?”

“Yes,” Molly replied, “Our scanning spells all show a compartment underneath the drawing room floor but there’s not a trapdoor or any other obvious way to open it. We need to make sure we open it and fill it. I worry that if we don’t, one of the kids might work out how to open it and then trap another one there for a prank. It’s just the sort of thing that George and,” pain flashed through her eyes, “Fred, might have done so I know how badly it could go wrong.”

Draco nodded, his eyes falling on the section of floor where he knew that compartment was. He swallowed a lump in his throat and walked over to one of the gas lights on the wall. All it took was for him to pull the middle section of the light down, and the floorboards covering the secret compartment slid away.

Molly thanked him, but Draco didn’t hear her. He was too busy staring into the secret compartment. He didn’t hear Hermione tell Molly that of course she would help stock up the hospital wing at the weekend before the official opening of the orphanage. He didn’t hear Hermione tell Molly that they had better head home because Draco had had a long day.

She took his arm and dragged him out of the house. He followed her in a daze. It wasn’t until they got outside and the fresh air hit him that he pulled himself out of his rut.

“It was so small,” Draco said.

Hermione was fairly sure that she knew what had been bothering him so she nodded, “Was that the first time in a while that you’ve seen it?”

“Yeah,” Draco said quietly, “And I just…I couldn’t help but think that it was so small and suddenly the fear I felt when he put me in there as a kid was vindicated. I remember feeling like I couldn’t breathe, wondering how much air could actually get through the floorboards.”

Hermione wrapped her arms around him, the memories had made him physically shake.

Draco sighed and shook his head, as if he was trying to shake the bad memories away, “You know something Hermione? If you’re right about them pulling us out of training early…if we get a say in where we’re going I think I’d like to work in Child Protective Services, and that’s not because I want to stick with Harry and Neville.”

“I would never expect you to make a choice based on sentiment over your own career path,” Hermione said, smiling proudly at him, “Because I know you’re better than that.”

Draco smiled weakly back at her, “It’s a good department, one I wished had existed when I was a kid because…no kid should have to grow up in fear of their own Father. No kid should have to endure what I did, or Theo did, or Daphne and Astoria did. All my family members who made it in the Ministry are known for things that I’m not proud of, but I want to start a trend. I want to be known as Draco Black, the man who pushed through reforms that changed the world or the man who worked for the first ever department that cared about the welfare of wizarding kids.”

“Or the man who allowed his family home to be turned into a safe haven for scared, unwanted children,” Hermione said, reaching up and kissing him lightly, “Don’t put so much weight on your shoulders, you’re already doing a great job.”

Draco smiled warmly at that and kissed her back.

~ ~ * ~ ~ * ~ ~ * ~ ~

“Hey! How is my favourite Nina getting on?”

Nina giggled, “Harry, I’m the only Nina you know!”

“Exactly, that’s why you’re my favourite,” Harry said, kneeling down in front of her, “How do you like your new house?”

“It’s cool,” Nina said with a smile, “But it’s kind of lonely.”

“Not for long,” Harry promised her, “Soon you will have lots of friends here, but right now you are special because you are the first person who gets to stay here.”

Nina smiled broadly.

Harry smiled back at her, “So what do you think this place needs Nina? Does it have everything a kid needs yet?”

“Well…” Nina thought about it, “It’s awesome but the garden kind of sucks. It doesn’t have any play things in it just these angry blue birds.”

“Peacocks,” Harry laughed, “You’re right though, the gardens aren’t very kid friendly. I had better think about changing that. What do we think about a big playground and a little Quidditch pitch?”

“That would be amazing!”

Harry grinned, “You’re my inspiration Nina Frost and with a name as cool as that, you’re going to be a brilliant witch one day.”

Nina beamed at him.

Harry pushed himself to his feet, “Now, do you know where I can find Mrs. Weasley? I need to tell her about my playground plans.”

“She’s in the kitchen,” Nina said, skipping off towards the drawing room.

Harry headed down to the house elves kitchen where he found Molly discussing recipes with one of the elves. She looked up when she heard the door and she smiled when she saw Harry.

“Harry dear!”

Harry hugged Molly as tightly as she hugged him.

“I didn’t know you were dropping by,” Molly said cheerfully.

“I just wanted to check in on Nina,” Harry said honestly, “She’s settling in great, isn’t she?”

“She’s a lovely girl, very happy,” Molly agreed with a smile.

“She wants a playground so while I’m here, I’ll get on that. I’m thinking of chopping some wood down from the trees at the back of the garden and then transfiguring it into a climbing area. What do you think?”

“As long as you make it safe,” Molly said.

“I’ve got a toddler now, I’m an expert at kid-proofing,” Harry said with a smile, “How are we feeling about the grand opening next week?”

“Ready,” Molly answered honestly, “It’s just finishing touches now.”

“Rob, Nev and I have been working hard too,” Harry informed her, “We’ve sourced quite a few kids that we’re going to pull out of muggle orphanages. Some of them suspect that they have magical heritage and others have no idea so we’ll talk to them first and explain what’s happening then we’ll bring them here, if that’s what they want.”

Molly smiled proudly.

“There are a couple of kids in temporary homes that will come here too,” Harry added, “Like Joe and Jimmy, these kids that Rob and I managed to get out of the Closes earlier in the week. We expect there to be about 10 kids coming in the early part of next week and from there on, we’ll send any kids here that need a safe place.”

“It’s wonderful Harry,” Molly said, smiling tearfully at Harry, “You ought to be very proud.”

“You ought to be proud,” Harry said, smiling warmly at her, “I just had the idea. You put it all into practice.”

“Thank you,” Molly said, hugging Harry once more.

~ ~ * ~ ~ * ~ ~ * ~ ~

“Hey Gin, how are you doing?”

Ginny looked up and smiled, “Great Lilly, this place is great.”

“Yeah, Harry really is quite something isn’t he?” Lilly asked, looking around the hospital wing, “Converting the long gallery into a hospital wing…he’s a clever guy.”

“He’s brilliant,” Ginny said as she looked around her new domain. The long gallery had large, ornate windows lining one whole side of the room. As the name suggested it was a long thin room which was currently lined with 10 hospital beds. At the far end of the room was a small area filled with children’s toys, books and magazines. Next to it there was a door with a large glass panel which led into a little office space where Ginny could brew potions, “It’s no wonder we all had a crush on him at some point really.”

Lilly laughed, “I never did. Now Neville on the other hand…I always fancied him but Harry didn’t do it for me.”

Ginny smiled, “I used to think I loved Harry, but really I think it all got distorted. He was my brothers best friend, and my Mum had practically adopted him. There is such a thing as too complicated.”

“There is,” Lilly agreed, sitting down on one of the hospital beds and looking over at Zola as she slept soundly in a bassinet, “Are you sure you’re up to this so soon after having Zola?”

Ginny nodded, she smiled at her sleeping daughter, “The time feels right. Zola is getting less dependent on me the older she gets. I know she’s only 5 months old but this is a live-in role and my Mum is here too so we can make it work between us.”

“What does Blaise think of the whole thing?” Lilly asked.

Ginny’s expression darkened, “Not much to be honest but…I was lying to myself and to all of you when I played happy families with him. Blaise is a very good Father, and I have no doubt that he loves Zola but…we didn’t plan on having a baby and we both want careers. I don’t think Blaise is fond of the fact that I want to have mine while Zola is young, but I won’t put my life on hold just because I had a baby when I was young. I want Zola to grow up seeing me work and care for her, I want her to know that she didn’t hold me back and that, not once, did I ever regret her because-” Ginny cut herself off for a moment and took a breath before finishing, “Because I often felt like getting pregnant young held my Mum back and I felt guilty. I don’t ever want Zola to feel guilty for being born.”

Lilly smiled and pulled Ginny in for a hug, “You’re an inspiration and you are going to do great work here. I know Harry wanted me to set you up as the Healer but Gin, you didn’t need any help. You know it all and you have a mothering instinct which is very important, that’s something I could never bring to this place.”

“Not yet anyway,” Ginny said.

Lilly smiled sadly, “Maybe not ever. But _you _can bring that to this place and you are going to be great here. You are going to be great, with or without Blaise, and I think Zola is going to be very proud of her Mum.”

Ginny smiled broadly at that, “Thanks Lil. I’m really glad you know? That after spending his life feeling like he wasn’t worth anyone’s love, Neville found you.”

“Thanks Ginny,” Lilly said, smiling genuinely at the redhead, “I know how close you and Neville are so coming from you, that means a lot.”

~ ~ * ~ ~ * ~ ~ * ~ ~

“Harry!”

Harry locked up the snake cabin and looked over to the back door, “Yeah?”

“Come inside, Theo’s here,” Daphne called, “He wants to talk to you.”

Harry frowned at that, Theo and he were friends but they were by no means as close as Harry was with some of his other friends. All the same he stepped into the kitchen and smiled at the Slytherin, “Hey Theo, how are things at the centre?”

“Dull without you guys there to keep us on edge,” Theo answered honestly.

Harry chuckled, “Sorry, I won’t make it worse by telling you what I’ve been up to this week,” he said with an apologetic smile.

Theo smiled, but it didn’t reach his eyes, “That’s not why I’m here. I need to talk to somebody about…something...and I know we’re not that close but you’re my only friend with a kid so…”

“Ask whatever you want, I promise I’ll try to give you a decent answer,” Harry said as he put the kettle on to boil.

Theo looked down at his hands and sighed, “Sadie’s due date is getting closer and closer, and it’s not that I’m freaking out. I’m actually excited but we keep saying that we don’t mind if we have two boys or two girls, or a combination and that’s…that’s not the truth.”

Harry smiled knowingly, “You want a boy? There’s no shame in that, every guy wants a boy but not everyone admits it.”

“It’s more than that,” Theo admitted, “There is this part of me, a huge part that would love a boy and the reason is so that there’s someone to carry on the family name. It’s such an old-fashioned pureblood outlook so I feel guilty for feeling like that but…it’s not for the same reason that my Father wanted a boy.”

Harry cocked his head, “Go on.”

“I want a boy so that he can carry on the Nott name,” Theo said with a sigh, “I want it to mean something different Harry. I don’t want the name to be associated with Voldemort or Death Eaters. I want there to be Notts in a few generations time who are Aurors and Healers, and I want that to be because of me.”

Harry laughed and set a cup of coffee down in front of him, “Your Father wanted the family name to carry on so that he could have an heir who would spread fear throughout history.”

Theo frowned at his cup of coffee.

“But you Theo, you’re just vain,” Harry said, smiling fondly at his friend.

At this Theo chuckled, “Yeah that kind of rings true…doesn't it?”

“Just a bit,” Harry grinned, “And there is no shame in it either. Why do you think I gave Teddy my surname? I didn’t have to do that, sometimes I still feel like it was a selfish decision. There was a part of me that wanted Teddy to have the same name as Daphne and I so that he knows while he’s growing up that he truly is part of our family but there’s more to it than that too.”

Theo looked up in surprise, “Is there?”

Harry nodded, “Worst case scenario, Teddy is my heir. He’s not my blood but I love him as if he were and I know he would do the family name proud.”

“You don’t think you and Daphne will have kids?” Theo asked him.

“I hope we will,” Harry said, he smiled at Theo, “But she has her career and she loves it. By the time she decides she’s ready, maybe that chance will have passed for us. But we’ll always have Teddy and I have a feeling he’s not the first kid we’ll adopt. I can’t help myself, I feel bad for strays.”

Theo laughed at that, “Thanks Harry.”

“Anytime,” Harry promised with a smile.

~ ~ * ~ ~ * ~ ~ * ~ ~

“Hermione knows something.”

Theo snorted, “Have you met your fiancé? She’s the Gryffindor princess, she knows everything.”

Draco wrapped a towel around himself as he and Theo stepped out of the showers. It still feel odd to go through the motions at training while the other two were working as real-life Aurors now.

“No, I mean she knows something about what’s going on in the Auror department,” Draco elaborated, “She made a cryptic comment and you know her, even if she says she doesn’t like gossip she can’t help but hear things.”

“She’s a liar, she loves gossip,” Theo said, shooting his best friend a grin, “What did she say?”

“Something about how she didn’t think you and I would be stuck here on our own for much longer,” Draco said quietly, “She thinks it’s connected to the mass walk out. She told me she didn’t know anything but she’s a bad liar.”

Theo’s eyes lit up, “You reckon we might get to do our exams too?”

“I don’t know,” Draco answered honestly, “And if we do, how do we even know that we’ll pass? We’re not soldiers like Harry and Neville.”

Theo shrugged, “Arguably we are, we were just on the wrong side.”

Draco let that thought sink in for a moment as he got dressed. Once he was done, he looked up at Theo and sighed, “Look Theo, I’ve been meaning to talk to you about that. Assuming Hermione is onto something here and we do get out of training sooner than we expect…I know you want to go to vice because you have this idea in your head of us taking on drug cartels together and in your daydream about it there are explosions and we’re always wearing sunglasses, but I don’t think that’s what I want.”

Theo chuckled, “Yeah, it’s not what I want right now either. I mean don’t get me wrong, Vice is the dream job but you don’t want to start at the top do you?”

Draco was surprised by his friends outlook.

“Plus, I’m going to be a Dad soon,” Theo continued as they left the locker room, “Really, kind of scarily soon actually, and that gets you thinking about a lot, like it gets you thinking about your own childhood and what you’re going to do differently from your parents, you know? I know it sounds like I just want to hang out with my friends but I kind of want to work in Child Protective Services.”

At this Draco smiled.

“Not because I miss Harry or Neville,” Theo added, “But because I think I could make a real difference there.”

“Yeah,” Draco said, still smiling at his best friend, “Me too.”

~ ~ * ~ ~ * ~ ~ * ~ ~

One week after Neville had joined Rob and Harry in Domestics, the trio entered the DMLE and reached a rather large road block, or rather, human block.

“What the fuck?” Rob muttered. The foyer leading into the DMLE was full of Aurors.

“Some sort of announcement,” Another Auror said.

“It’s big,” Auror Graves added.

“How do you know?” Harry asked.

“Because it’s not Head Auror Robards who is giving the announcement,” Graves replied, “It’s coming from the Minister for Magic.”

“It’s got to be related to the huge shake up that Elizabeth told us about,” Harry said in an undertone.

“Well done Sherlock,” Rob remarked sarcastically, “Bet you feel like a really smart cookie right now eh?”

Neville sniggered as Harry rolled his eyes and told Rob where to shove it.

“Attention please!”

Everyone stood to attention and fell silent as Kingsley Shacklebolt swept into the foyer.

“I am sure you all want to know why you are not allowed to enter the department,” Kingsley said in his booming voice, “So I will endeavor to make this explanation a quick one. The Auror department has been redesigned overnight. When you enter, you will discover that there is no longer a loud, open bullpen. Instead, you will be faced with a corridor, lined with doors. Each door leads to an isolated bullpen, and there are 7 of them, one for each department.”

Whispers went around the group of Aurors at this news because as it stood, there were currently 9 departments.

“Do not be alarmed, nobody is going to lose their job over this change,” Kingsley promised, “This is to signify the start of a new era for this department. As we discovered upon the introduction of Veritaserum testing, the DMLE is the most corrupt department in the Ministry. We need to change that, and to do so we need fresh blood, trust and order. That is why we have decided to shake up the department by creating teams instead of squads.”

Harry frowned, unsure what the difference was if he was honest.

“There will be a lot of new people joining the department, due to a fast-tracking programme within the training centre,” Kingsley continued, “And due to some Aurors returning to field work. As a result of this, not all of you will be working in the same specialty that you are now. We will now be operating with 7 teams. The Juvenile Crime squad has been disbanded but two Aurors from that squad will be going to work in the Improper Use of Magic Office. It has come to our attention that sending owls threatening children when they are scared and have accidentally used magic, is not the best idea. This is why every incident of underage magic will now be investigated by an Auror.”

Harry smiled, he approved of that idea but it hadn’t been one that he had put to Kingsley.

“The other squad that will cease to exist in its current form is the Burglary and Robbery squad,” Kingsley continued, “We will transfer responsibility of these crimes to the Wizarding Law Enforcement squad and re-distribute the Aurors who currently work for the squad.”

Another murmur went around the group of Aurors upon hearing this.

“Finally, in the wake of this change, the Domestics team will be renamed Child Protective Services,” Kingsley added, “And Auror Wolfe will pioneer this first for wizarding Britain, along with Junior Aurors Potter and Longbottom. Are there any questions?”

Rob raised his hand.

“Yes, Auror Wolfe?” Kingsley said.

“If you’ve rejigged the bullpen, can I not be next to the supply closet anymore?” Rob asked.

“You are no longer next to the supply closet Auror Wolfe,” Kingsley replied with a smile, “In fact, you are very close to the front.”

Rob did a fist pump.

“Any further questions?” Kingsley asked.

Rob raised his hand again, “Yes Auror Wolfe?”

“Can Homicide be at the back with the supply closet?” Rob asked, making Harry and Neville snigger.

“No. Are there any other relevant questions?” Kingsley asked.

Rob threw his hand up again.

Kingsley rolled his eyes, “No Auror Wolfe, Vice is not going to be next to the supply closet either.”

Rob just smirked as Kingsley continued, “Before I let you all explore the new department, congratulations are in order. As I expect most of you know, Junior Aurors Harry Potter and Neville Longbottom passed through into the department last week. Having seen how successful this was, Head Trainer Sumner decided to allow anyone who was willing, to attempt their final exams. All of those who passed are now joining us in this department with immediate effect, because you have all made me aware that the department is severely understaffed.”

Harry and Neville caught each other’s eyes, desperately hoping that Draco and Theo had gone for it and had passed, because neither of the Slytherins had mentioned anything to them.

“Without further ado let me congratulate our new Junior Aurors,” Kingsley said, "From 3rd year at the centre, Junior Aurors Beatrix Hart, Cassia Barlow, Alaric Snow and Oberon Aimes. From 2nd year at the centre, Conrad Willow and Temperance Cromwell. Finally, from 1st year at the centre we had an unprecedented pass rate. Let us welcome Junior Aurors, Blanche Zabini, Ophelia Wood, Draco Black and Theodore Nott."

Harry grinned and high-fived Neville as all of the Junior Aurors that Kingsley had mentioned entered the room from a side door.

“In addition to this, several trainers form the centre have decided to come back into the field,” Kingsley continued, “So I would like to welcome back Auror Cameron Mitchell who will be heading up the Vice team.”

Mitchell stepped out from the same side room that the recruits had done, and someone else followed him.

“And Auror Elizabeth Weir, who will be sharing leadership of the new Child Protective Services team,” Kingsley said.

At this, Rob grinned as Elizabeth approached them.

“Lizzie.”

Elizabeth rolled her eyes, “Rob.”

“How on Earth did you persuade your Husband to let you work on the same team as me?” Rob asked cheerfully.

Elizabeth smiled sweetly, “I told him that I wanted to work in this team, he doesn’t rule my life you know.”

“Doesn’t he?” Rob asked, far too suggestively.

At this Harry and Neville shared a semi-disgusted look.

“Lastly,” Kingsley said over the noise, “In light of all of these changes, Head Auror Robards has decided to step down to allow the department a true fresh start. In his place is a new Head Auror who has elected to bring in an Assistant Head to deal with any issues that arise from this drastic change in the way that the department works.”

Rob narrowed his eyes as he awaited the punch-line.

“So please welcome back an esteemed Auror, well known for the astounding work he did during the ten years he spent in Homicide-”

“Oh no,” Rob muttered.

“Oh yes,” Elizabeth smirked.

“Auror John Sheppard!”

There was a round of applause as John stepped out of the side room.

“Oh goddamn it!” Rob complained.

From across the room John grinned and waved at Rob, then winked to Elizabeth who stood by his side.

Rob glared at the man who was now very much his boss.

“And,” Kingsley said, his voice booming over the crowd, “Our new Head Auror, a man whom you have all worked with and whom you all respect. After spending the last decade training up new recruits, I am honoured to welcome back Jack Sumner.”

“No!” Rob exclaimed, “Oh for fucks sake, I quit.”

“I’ll happily take that resignation Auror Wolfe!” Sumner called across the foyer.

“I’ll never give you the satisfaction!” Rob called back.

At this point, Kingsley interjected, “Without further ado, please enter your new department. You will find a full list of team members on the door to each bullpen. Thank you for your time, I have faith in every Auror in this room, regardless of rank. Together we can make the DMLE great again.”

With that, he left, and Harry and Neville really wanted to go straight to Draco and Theo but Rob had other ideas.

“Come on then dumb and dumber, let’s find out who else is joining our little harem.”

“Rob, this is not a harem,” Neville said as he followed his boss into the new department.

It was strange to see a corridor where a huge room had previously been, but it was much cleaner and quieter. Large signs above each door stated what team it belonged to.

Rob positively squealed, “Third door along! _Third_! Guys! We’re next door to Homicide and across the corridor from Vice!”

“You’re easily pleased,” Harry said in amusement as he looked on the door.

The list read,

** _Senior Auror Rob Wolfe_ **

** _Senior Auror Elizabeth Weir_ **

** _Junior Auror Harry Potter_ **

** _Junior Auror Neville Longbottom_ **

** _Junior Auror Draco Black_ **

** _Junior Auror Theodore Nott_ **

** **

Harry grinned, “Yes! We have Draco and Theo!”

Neville grinned too.

“Yep, the gang is back together again,” Theo said, grinning at them as he and Draco stepped into the corridor.

Rob opened the door and rolled his eyes at Elizabeth, “Four _Junior _Aurors,” he scoffed as they stepped inside, “Why did we get all the kids?”

“Who cares? We got the best kids,” Elizabeth said with a slight smile.

“We would have had the best kids,” Rob teased.

“My Husband is the Assistant Head Auror Rob,” Elizabeth said with another of those ‘too sweet’ smiles.

“Which is the only reason why he was okay with you working for me,” Rob said, rolling his eyes, “I hate him, have I mentioned that?”

“One or two hundred times,” Elizabeth replied smoothly, “And I work with you, not for you. We are both Senior Aurors, therefore equals.”

“And also partners,” Rob pointed out.

“Only in the field,” Elizabeth said, giving him a pointed look.

“Still partners,” Rob said, glancing over at the four ‘kids’ who were happily chatting to each other, “So as much as he plays the part, Sheppard can’t hate me that much or he would never have let you join this team. You know as well as I do that in the field, our lives are in each other’s hands.”

Elizabeth smiled, “You are more perceptive than you look.”

“I’m a pretty good Auror,” Rob joked.

Elizabeth nodded, her eyes also falling on the ‘kids’, “You’re right, John doesn’t like you but he does know that you still care about me and he knows that you are a good Auror so yes, he trusts you with my life. _But_, if you try anything on with me, he _will _kill you-”

Rob opened his mouth, already equipped with a witty retort. However, Elizabeth beat him to it, “_After _I’ve finished with you.”

Rob shut his mouth and nodded, “Okay, got it.”

Elizabeth smirked as Rob got to his feet and clapped his hands, “Right kiddos, less gossiping, more changing the world please! Let’s open an orphanage and prevent any future Dark Lords rising!”

**TBC!**


	133. Forever Changed

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter title comes from the song:  
Forever Changed by Carrie Underwood.

“Harry, where are you going?”

Harry leant down to kiss Daphne, he suspected that she was half asleep anyway, “I’m on call baby, Rob just sent me a patronus.”

“What time is it?” Daphne mumbled.

“3am,” Harry said, kissing her on the forehead, “Go back to sleep, I’ll see you later.”

“Be safe.”

“I always am,” Harry promised, slipping out of the bedroom and transfiguring his PJ's into Auror robes.

He yawned as he darted through the house as quietly as possible to avoid waking Teddy up. Harry had been working for Child Protective Services, or CPS as they tended to nickname it, for a few weeks now and he was finally settling into the new routine. They all had to be on call at night, it was part of the job, a part that Harry had expected. On any given night, two Aurors were on call and tonight it was himself and Rob.

The patronus from Rob hadn’t said much, but they never did. Part of that was because of the fact that patronuses could be intercepted but it was mostly because Rob hated night time calls. When Harry met him in the atrium of the ministry, he was scowling.

“What’s the call?” Harry asked, stifling a yawn, “Was it from the Closes?”

“No,” Rob replied, yawning.

This surprised Harry as it was normally from the Closes at this time of night, “No?”

“Yes Potter, I said no, keep up,” Rob complained dryly, “It’s from the Muggle world.”

“Isn’t that out of our jurisdiction?”

“The child is a wizard so no,” Rob said, glaring at him.

“You’re in a spectacularly bad mood tonight, worse than usual,” Harry commented.

“Well my kid was being an arsehole and now I’m here so I’m kind of tired,” Rob said irritably, “Why are you so happy in the middle of the night?”

Harry shrugged as they walked out of the Ministry together, “I’m kind of used to it, I guess. I used to spend my nights wandering around Hogwarts talking to ghosts, spying on people and trying to catch people who I thought were scheming against me.”

Rob snorted, “I’m gonna go ahead and nickname you Mad-Eye Junior right now.”

Harry chuckled, “Well he’s probably the most famous Auror ever so I’m alright with that. Where is this case?”

“Muggle London,” Rob replied, “He's the kid of a Muggle politician. The nanny is a Witch, she called it in because she thinks the kid is being abused.”

“Why do we have to go in the middle of the night?” Harry asked with a frown.

“Because the call came in after we had finished for the day and the nanny reckons that it’s happening at night,” Rob replied.

Harry’s eyes darkened, “Does that mean…”

“No, I don’t think it’s that kind of abuse,” Rob said with a shake of his head, “Either way we’re doing this like a stake out.”

“A stake out?” Harry asked excitedly.

“Oh yeah, this is your first one isn’t it?” Rob asked. He yawned again, “I hope you don’t think it’s gonna be all doughnuts and sharing secrets because I plan on sleeping while you do all the work.”

“Sounds about right,” Harry snorted.

Rob smirked and told Harry the co-ordinates. They apparated to the large London townhouse together and camped out in the back garden under disillusionment and perception charms. Rob taught Harry how to set up appropriate wards then he cast a spell that made all human heat signatures within the house show up through the walls so that they could monitor the inhabitants of the houses movements.

“So what’s the story here?” Harry asked in a whisper as they watched a boy, who looked around 7 years old, pacing his bedroom floor.

“Muggle-born kid, pretty much raised by the nanny who is a Witch and has told him stories about magic and Hogwarts,” Rob said with a wave of his hand, “He thinks of it like a fairy-tale land where all of his dreams are going to come true.”

Harry frowned, that was exactly what Hogwarts had been for him.

“His Dad is a Muggle, a powerful but stupid one,” Rob continued, “He doesn’t understand magic, he just thinks something is wrong with his son and that makes him angry so he lashes out.”

Harry sighed, “Sounds familiar.”

“Yeah,” Rob said, sighing too, “That’s everyone’s story isn’t it? Abused by Muggles who are scared of what they don’t understand.”

Harry nodded.

“I don’t know how you grew up to be a Muggle lover cause I sure as hell ain’t,” Rob admitted, “I mean don’t get me wrong, I never wanted to join Voldemort and kill them all, but I don’t like them either.”

“Neither do I,” Harry admitted, “I’m not a Muggle lover. Like you said, I don’t hate them all but I do find the majority of them to be ignorant and small-minded. I think about how my Aunt, Uncle and cousin treated me and I think about what happened to you, and to Tom Riddle.”

Rob didn’t say anything.

“This whole situation gets me thinking,” Harry said, looking up at the big house, “About how you can never tell what a person has been through just by looking at them. I mean Draco and I are the perfect example of that. Would you say that we’re friends?”

“You seem pretty friendly,” Rob replied, “Not as close as you and Neville mind but friendly enough.”

“Yeah well, we used to hate each other,” Harry said with an amused smile, “And I don’t mean we were petty to each other. We hated each other, we argued, we had midnight duels, we always got caught by Filch mind you. We tried to kill each other on at least two occasions as well, but now we’re close friends and he’s marrying my best friend.”

“I know enough about your life to say that sounds legit,” Rob joked.

Harry chuckled, “The point is, when Draco met me he thought I had been raised with a silver spoon in my mouth, getting everything handed to me on a golden platter because I was the boy-who-lived. He had no idea that I had been raised by Muggles who were incapable of loving me and who beat me,” he pointed out, “And I thought Draco had the perfect pureblood life with the perfect house and the perfect family. I had no idea that his Father had controlled his Mother and abused both of them in a far worse way than my Uncle had abused me.”

Rob looked up in surprise, “Did I say you were happy tonight? Cause I’m taking that back, you’re depressing the fuck out of me. But that does come as a surprise to me, that Draco was abused as a kid.”

“Yeah, he hides it better than I do,” Harry said with a sigh, “He and Theo both do.”

“Theo too?” Rob asked, he shook his head, “Well that makes sense now…”

“What does?”

“Why they both picked CPS,” Rob replied, “Elizabeth told me that they hadn’t been told they were going to join us, they chose to. I figured they had done it just because they wanted their little friend group to stick together.”

“No,” Harry said firmly, “They both had difficult childhoods. Theo’s Father killed his Mother then he locked Theo up in that same basement every time he misbehaved. All of our simulation tests, the ones designed to break us in Auror training, were based around our childhood trauma.”

“What is it with you attracting abused kids?” Rob asked with a frown, “Are you like a magnet or something?”

“I must be,” Harry said with a weak laugh, “The point is that they are all there because they have a reason to be.”

“That makes me feel better about getting all the kids,” Rob joked.

They fell silent for a while, but then Rob spoke up again, “I’m sorry if I’ve been a bit of a dick to the other guys this last week by the way. I was kind of pissed off because I thought they picked CPS for the wrong reasons but…I’m struggling to adapt too. I went from being one guy working with abused kids to sharing responsibility for four Juniors with my ex-girlfriend. Sometimes I feel like the outsider with you guys all being so close.”

Harry snorted, “I thought we weren’t sharing secrets? Do you think I should set a campfire and get some marshmallows?”

“Fuck off Potter.”

Harry grinned and looked over at the older man, “That’s more like the Rob I know. But in all seriousness, we are close but we’re also professional while we’re at work. We would do great if you chucked us into a fight but we don’t know it all yet, and that’s why we need you. I reckon that’s why you got Elizabeth too, she’s a feminine touch which I think is something our team needs. But she’s also a bit of a paper pusher, between the two of you we’ll learn how to file properly.”

Rob sighed, “It’s still shit though, having to work with your ex when her Husband is your boss.”

Harry wanted to make a joke, but he didn’t think it was what Rob needed right now, “You didn’t really have a three way with her and Sheppard did you?”

“Nah,” Rob replied, “It was just me and Lizzie to begin with. I knew of her all the way through school, but she was in Ravenclaw so we didnt talk much. Me, her and John all went through Hogwarts together actually."

"Was Sheppard in Gryffindor with you?" Harry asked curiously.

Rob nodded, "Yeah, we were friends. Not really best friends at school, he was more of a back-up friend I guess. We hung out every so often but we weren't joint at the hip. Then I joined the Aurors, and so did Lizzie. We got together at the start of training, whirlwind romance but I thought it would last forever like a sentimental idiot. John and I got closer too, pretty much became best friends that first year of training..."

Harry’s eyes widened, “Was he your Auror partner while you were in training?”

“Yup,” Rob replied bitterly, “Elizabeth hated him at first, thought he was this flyboy idiot which he was. Then we went into second year and something changed, something happened in a simulation exercise and John realised how much of a dick he was so he started being a bit nicer which led to Elizabeth falling in love with him and breaking up with me.”

Harry made a face, “Ouch.”

“She was always graceful and apologetic about it,” Rob said with a shrug, “So it was hard to be angry at her, but John was never gracious in victory. We got split up as Auror partners after a particularly violent duel and we never really talked after that.”

“That does suck,” Harry agreed, “But you must have fallen in love again since you had Nick?”

“Yeah, I suppose I did,” Rob said, he shrugged, “That didn’t last either. I never thought it would to be honest, I met Gaia in the Closes. One of my first cases…it was a domestic call from a neighbour. She answered the door, heavily pregnant and black and blue. She tried to make up an excuse about how she’d had a fall. I ended up duelling her Husband and arresting him for assault. I looked after her, took her in and protected her, fell in love with her and promised I’d raise her kid as my own. She had issues, addiction mostly,” Rob shrugged, “She killed herself but I promised her I’d raise Nick differently from the way she'd been raised so I’m doing that.”

Harry hadn’t realised that Nicholas wasn’t biologically Rob’s son.

“You’re a good man Rob,” Harry said quietly, “And I have a lot of respect for you, as a colleague and a friend. I reckon you’ll be happy one day.”

Rob laughed humorlessly, “You would Harry, you’re so optimistic that it’s annoying sometimes.”

Before Harry could respond to the jibe, there was a flurry of movement in the house so the duo sprang into action.

~ ~ * ~ ~ * ~ ~ * ~ ~ 

“Right so let me get this straight,” Daphne said, shaking her soaking wet hair out and casting a drying charm, “You’re like 35 and you can’t swim?”

Bill raised an eyebrow at her, “Right first off, I’m only 29,” he then grinned, “And of course I can swim. I just didn’t fancy throwing myself into a freezing cold lake in February to get that cursed sword.”

Daphne glared at him and pulled her jumper on, “I hate you.”

Bill laughed and handed her a cup of coffee, “Nah you don’t. I’m your best friend, you said it yourself.”

“Best friend or not, right now I really don’t like you,” Daphne said, throwing herself into the comfortable chair behind her desk.

The moment she had sat down, the floo roared to life. At first, she thought it was a client but then she saw Sadie’s face in the flames. She smiled, “Sadie, hey!”

Sadie smiled too, she looked exhausted, “Hey Daph.”

“What’s up?” Daphne asked, kneeling in front of the fire.

“I just wanted some advice,” Sadie admitted, “I’m kind of having some early labour signs but it’s way too soon right?”

Daphne frowned, “Yeah, you are a good few weeks away from your due date. What kind of symptoms do you have?”

“Nothing too bad,” Sadie replied, “A little bit of back pain and nausea, but I’ve had the nausea from the beginning. It’s probably just Braxton Hicks right?”

“Yeah, it probably is,” Daphne agreed, “But twins can come early so why don’t you give Lil a call? You know she’ll be there to check on you in no time.”

“No Daphne, she’ll be busy at the training centre,” Sadie said with a shake of her head, “And I really don’t feel that bad.”

“Sadie,” Daphne said, her tone a little harsher, “You are pregnant with twins, it’s far better to be safe than sorry. Floo Lilly and have her check in on you and the babies.”

“Okay,” Sadie said, “I’ll floo her, I promise.”

“If anything changes let me know,” Daphne said.

“I will.”

“Love you, stay safe,” Daphne said, blowing a kiss through the fireplace as the floo disconnected.

She got to her feet and turned to look at Bill, “How early do twins tend to come?”

Bill frowned as he thought about that, “Well let’s see… Fred and George came on April Fools Day and they were due sometime in May so that’s about a month. Why?”

“Sadie is having some early pregnancy symptoms,” Daphne replied, “She’s right, it does sound like Braxton Hicks but she’s having twins so I told her to floo Lilly and get a check-up, just in case.”

“When is she due?” Bill asked with interest.

“Not till the end of March,” Daphne replied, glancing up at the calendar on the wall, “So if she is in labour the twins would be 4 weeks early.”

“You’re right, it probably is just Braxton Hicks,” Bill said with a comforting smile, “Try not to worry too much.”

Daphne nodded absentmindedly, knowing that she would still worry about her friend.

~ ~ * ~ ~ * ~ ~ * ~ ~ 

Sadie floo-ed the hospital wing of the Auror training centre, hoping that Lilly would be the one to answer. She breathed a sigh of relief when she saw her friends face in the flames.

“Sadie!” Lilly said in surprise, “Are you okay?”

“I think so,” Sadie said, smiling sheepishly at Lilly, “Daphne made me call you. I floo-ed her because I’m pretty sure I’m having Braxton Hicks sort of labour symptoms but she told me to floo you, just in case.”

“You are getting pretty close to the big day,” Lilly said, looking over at a calendar, “4 weeks till your due yeah?”

Sadie nodded, “Yeah. That was why Daphne was worried, she said twins can come early.”

“They do tend to,” Lilly admitted, “I’m meant to finish in ten minutes so I’ll just head off early. I’ll come by the house and check you over, it’s better to be safe than sorry with you carrying twins. Are you in a lot of pain or discomfort?”

“No, I’m fine,” Sadie said honestly, “A little bit of back pain, nausea and the cramping just started.”

“Alright, I’ll be there in ten minutes or less,” Lilly promised, smiling at her friend, “Go and lie down, if it is Braxton Hicks, the best thing for it is rest.”

“I will,” Sadie promised, “Thanks Lil.”

“Anytime,” Lilly said with a warm smile.

~ ~ * ~ ~ * ~ ~ * ~ ~ 

Lilly let herself into Number 11 Grimmauld Place and headed up to the drawing room where she found Sadie lying on a sofa. She had her eyes closed and she was breathing slowly and deeply, but she wasn’t asleep.

“Hey Sade,” Lilly said cheerfully, “How are you doing?”

“I’m okay,” Sadie replied, opening her eyes and turning her head to look at her friend, “The back pain is worse but if it was labour I would be in a lot more pain, right?”

“You would probably be crying by now,” Lilly said with a chuckle, “Let me just do a couple of checks though.”

Sadie nodded and let Lilly check her blood pressure, the babies positions and heartbeats. She frowned as she pressed her hands down on Sadie’s stomach.

“What’s wrong?” Sadie asked, beginning to panic.

“Nothing,” Lilly promised, “It’s just…the position that one of the babies is in, it definitely seems to be ready for delivery.”

She moved her hands a little lower and then looked up at Sadie in surprise, “Did you feel that?”

“The crampy sensation?” Sadie asked.

“Doesn’t it hurt?” Lilly asked.

Sadie shook her head, “It’s just a little uncomfortable.”

Lilly maintained her calm persona, but she was beginning to worry too, “Can I do one last check? It’s pretty intrusive so-”

“If you need to examine me just do it,” Sadie cut in, she smiled sheepishly, “You kind of lose your dignity when you’re pregnant.

“I’ll be as gentle as I can be,” Lilly said.

Sadie had obviously been examined before and she wasn’t too uncomfortable about the idea which made Lilly feel a little better. She did the examination, took a breath and then stood up.

“Okay Sadie,” Lilly said calmly, “I don’t want you to panic but I’m going to floo Clara.”

“Why what’s wrong?”

“Don’t panic,” Lilly said, placing her hand on top of her friends, “But those cramping sensations are contractions and you are pretty dilated so I think these babies are going to have to be born here. I can probably do it, but they are premature so I’d rather Clara was here.”

“Now?” Sadie asked, her eyes widening, “But it’s so early!”

“It’s common with twins,” Lilly assured her, “They are pre-term but not dangerously so. It’s going to be fine, alright? Just take some deep breaths for me, I’m going to go and floo Clara.”

From that point onwards, things happened very quickly. Clara came through the floo the moment that Lilly had contacted her. She examined Sadie and confirmed that she was 8cm dilated so the babies were well on their way to coming.

“How is she not screaming in pain?” Lilly asked Clara in a whisper.

“High pain threshold obviously,” Clara whispered back, “Alright Sadie, because you went into labour early your waters haven’t broken by themselves. I’m going to break them for you and things are going to happen very quickly from that point.”

“Can you get Theo then?” Sadie asked, sighing as Lilly dabbed a cool cloth to her head.

Clara shook her head, “Honey, when I say fast, I mean fast. These babies are early and that means they are little. They are going to be born quickly and we’re going to have to get you all to St. Mungo’s for a decent check-up. The minute we transport the three of you to the hospital, we will floo Theo.”

“I’ll drag him out of the ministry myself,” Lilly promised.

Sadie nodded and took another deep breath.

Clara broke Sadie’s waters and as predicted, things happened very quickly from that point onwards. The first baby was born, and it was tiny.

“Is it okay?” Sadie asked, breathing heavily. The first signs she had shown of true pain had been when the baby’s head was crowning.

“She’s fine Sadie,” Clara said, handing the baby to Lilly.

“She?” Sadie asked, peering around her bump.

Lilly wrapped the baby in a towel and cleaned her up then she showed her to Sadie, “You have a little girl.”

Sadie smiled tearfully then cried out as another intense contraction came.

“I’ll clean her up and look after her,” Lilly promised, “You just focus on getting the next baby out okay?”

Sadie nodded and blew out a breath, “I’m just so tired.”

“You can do this Sadie,” Clara said, reaching up to grab Sadie’s hand, “You are young and strong. I can already see the baby’s head so it’s not going to be long alright? Just a few big pushes with the next few contractions.”

Lilly did all the basic checks on the little girl, but she appeared to be perfectly healthy. She had cried the moment she was born and her lungs were fully developed which was one of the big worries with premature babies. The baby was tiny, Lilly weighed her as part of the new baby checks that Healers conducted and she only weighed 4 pounds, 8 ounces.

“That’s it Sadie, one more big push and the head will be out,” Clara assured Sadie.

Sadie cried out in pain and Clara smiled encouragingly, “That’s it, we have a head. Just little pushes now, it’s almost over.”

Tears shone on Sadie’s cheeks as she panted and pushed.

“That’s it,” Clara said, wrapping the second baby in a towel, “You have a little boy Sadie.”

“A boy?” Sadie asked tearfully.

“A boy,” Lilly said, kissing her friend on the forehead, “You got one of each, just like you and Theo wanted.”

Sadie managed to glance over and look at her little boys face for a brief moment before she passed out.

“Is she okay?” Lilly asked, panicking as the colour drained from Sadie’s cheeks.

Clara shook her head, “Postpartum hemorrhage, she’s losing a lot of blood. I need to get her to St. Mungo’s right now. Can you-”

“I’ll bring the babies,” Lilly said, and they both sprang into trauma healer mode as the adrenaline well and truly kicked in.

~ ~ * ~ ~ * ~ ~ * ~ ~

“Nope, it’s not my turn.”

“It’s your turn Theo.”

“Nah Drakey, it’s definitely your turn.”

Rob walked into the office, “What are you pair of jessies arguing about?”

“Whose turn it is to do the end of day paperwork,” Harry said, shooting his friends an amused look.

“Theo, it’s your turn,” Rob said with a roll of his eyes, “Draco did it yesterday. Pull your finger out and get it done.”

“That’s a different way to motivate your students,” Elizabeth remarked, trying to hide an amused smirk.

“Hey, it works doesn’t it?” Rob asked with a grin as Theo began to fill out the end of day paperwork.

Elizabeth shook her head in amusement, “Do you want to head home early Rob? It’s you and I on call tonight and with it being a Saturday, I’m expecting at least one call from the Closes.”

“Oh no doubt,” Rob said, he yawned, “I’ll apologise in advance if I’m grumpy. Nick is going through a nightmare phase.”

“Do you mean he’s being a nightmare or hes having nightmares?” Harry asked, shooting Rob an amused look.

“Both,” Rob complained.

“Noted, I’ll go past a garage and get coffee if we do get a call,” Elizabeth chuckled.

“Oh Lizzie, you’re a woman after my own heart. You’re wasted on flyboy Shep.”

Elizabeth gave him a long-suffering look.

At that point, the door of the office opened and they all looked around. They expected to see another Auror there, or perhaps Sheppard or Sumner. But they didn’t expect to see Lilly.

“Lil!” Neville said in surprise, “Everything okay?”

Lilly shook her head, “Theo, we need you at St. Mungo’s now.”

Theo’s face paled, “Is it Sadie? Is she okay?”

“She’s had the babies, it was very fast,” Lilly replied, “She didn’t know she was in labour but when I went in to check on her, she was practically fully dilated.”

Rob’s eyes widened, “Jeez, she must have some pain threshold.”

Elizabeth nodded her agreement.

“The babies are absolutely fine,” Lilly continued, “They are in the nursery at St. Mungo’s but Sadie had a postpartum hemorrhage. We got her straight to the hospital and she’s having an emergency transfusion but it’s…well, I just think you should get there as soon as you can okay?”

Theo nodded numbly.

“You heard Lil, get your arse to that hospital,” Harry told Theo.

But Theo didn’t move.

“She’ll be fine Theo,” Draco said, stepping forward, “Sadie’s survived a hell of a lot. She survived the Dark Tower, remember?”

Neville nodded and pushed Theo towards Lilly, “And you know our Lil will have looked after her so on you go. Go see your wife and your babies.”

Lilly smiled at the three of them and grabbed Theo’s arm, “Visiting hours are from 6pm. You might not be allowed to see Sadie, but you can visit the babies.”

Without another word, she dragged Theo out of the office.

“Do you reckon Sadie really will be okay?” Harry asked once the door had shut behind them.

Elizabeth waded into the conversation, “She will be fine. She’s in the best place, and it sounds like they got her to the hospital quickly. Postpartum hemorrhages used to kill witches before it became more common to give birth in a hospital.”

They breathed a collective sigh of relief. The thought of Theo without Sadie was terrifying, and the thought of Theo having to raise his kids without their Mother was heartbreaking.

“I can’t believe she’s had the babies,” Draco said, “Theo is a Dad.”

“You’re a Godfather,” Harry said with a smile, “Welcome to the club.”

“Oh shut up, you’ve got about ten god-kids,” Neville snorted.

“Three actually,” Harry said in amusement, “And I adopted one of them so he doesn’t count anymore.”

Rob smiled and clapped Draco on the shoulder, “Congrats Godfather. I’m gonna call you that from now on, actually no I’m not because that’s a cool nickname and you’re a loser.”

Elizabeth rolled her eyes, “That was profound, thank you Rob.”

Harry laughed, “I wonder what they had.”

“Humans I hope,” Rob chimed in.

Elizabeth punched him in the arm and Rob winced, “Ouch.”

“Stop making bad jokes,” Elizabeth remarked.

“Theo always said he wanted a boy and a girl, in an ideal world,” Draco said, his eyes glancing up to the clock. It was nearly 5pm, and they would be able to visit at 6pm.

Before any of them could say anything more, a memo appeared on the desk. Elizabeth picked it up and scanned it, “It’s a call, from the Closes.”

Rob pushed himself to his feet and grabbed his red Auror robes, “Robe up Lizzie, these idiots are way too happy to be productive right now.”

Elizabeth laughed and grabbed her own robes from the back of a chair. She put them on and smiled at the three men, “Rob’s right, you three are not in the right frame of mind to work so just head on home a bit early. Tell your other halves the good news and have a shower before you go to visit the babies.”

Harry, Neville and Draco all thanked Elizabeth. Then Rob grabbed her arm, “Come on, work to do Lizzie,” he said, then he pulled her out into the corridor and added, “Soft touch.”

As they walked up the corridor together, both in their official robes, Rob said, “This is our first field call as partners, Lizzie,” he placed his hand on her back.

Elizabeth shot him a look, but before she could say anything, a door at the end of the corridor opened. John stuck his head out and pointed at Rob, “Hands where I can see them Wolfe.”

Rob rolled his eyes and dropped his hand, “I hate you,” he said calmly as they passed the door of John’s office.

“I know,” John said, smirking at the other man and going back into his office.

“I hate him,” He added for Elizabeth’s benefit.

“Yeah Rob, I know,” Elizabeth said with an amused shake of her head.

~ ~ * ~ ~ * ~ ~ * ~ ~ 

“Sadie’s given birth!” Harry announced the moment he stepped into the house.

“Has she?” Daphne asked, dashing out of the kitchen, “I thought she might have been in labour when she called but wow, that must have been quick. Did she call Lilly? Are they all okay?”

“I think she must have called Lilly because Lilly and her supervisor Clara delivered the babies,” Harry said, smiling at his wife, “And the babies are fine but Sadie had a postpartum hemorrhage, she’s getting an emergency transfusion.”

Daphne paled so Harry cut in, “But Elizabeth thinks she’ll be fine and she’s had two kids so I’m sure she knows her stuff.”

At this Daphne sighed with relief.

“We can visit at 6pm,” Harry said, glancing at the clock, “We might only be able to see the babies though.”

Daphne looked up at the clock as well, “You had better grab a shower then, you smell like the Closes.”

Harry knew what she meant. When he had been working in the Closes all day he had a certain aroma about him and it wasn’t a pleasant one.

“Will do,” Harry said, leaning in to kiss her, “Get Teddy ready. We'll drop him off at Andromeda's then head over to the hospital."

Without another word he dashed up the stairs.

~ ~ * ~ ~ * ~ ~ * ~ ~

“Hey love,” Draco said, walking into the kitchen with a skip in his step.

Hermione looked over, “You’re in a good mood. Did you save a kid today?”

“No,” Draco said, smiling broadly at her, “I became a Godfather though.”

“You became a…” Hermione trailed off as the realization hit her, “Oh my god, Sadie gave birth?”

“Yeah,” Draco said, “It’s a bit touch and go right now I think. Theo missed the birth and had to rush off to the hospital, Sadie had a postpartum….something.”

“Hemorrhage?” Hermione asked with wide eyes, “Did she give birth in hospital?”

“No, but Lilly and Clara got her there really quickly,” Draco answered, “And Elizabeth thinks she’ll be okay. I think she is probably qualified to give advice since she’s had two children.”

Hermione nodded, “Thank Merlin for that,” she sighed, “What did she have?”

“We don’t know yet,” Draco replied, “Lilly came in, grabbed Theo and left. We can visit at 6pm though so I’m going to grab a quick shower.”

“Good idea,” Hermione said, wrinkling her nose as he kissed her on the cheek.

He drew back and started to walk up the stairs then Hermione frowned and called, “Wait, did you say _Lilly _and Clara?”

“Yeah Lilly delivered them!” Draco called back, disappearing up the basement stairs.

“Lilly delivered them?” Hermione repeated with a shake of her head, “Jesus Christ Lil, is there anything you can’t do?” she muttered to herself.

~ ~ * ~ ~ * ~ ~ * ~ ~ 

Theo let Lilly drag him through the hospital when they arrived. He was in a bit of a daze and he was feeling more things than he could comprehend. He was worried about Sadie, shocked by how early the twins had been born and also bubbling underneath all that, excited but nervous to meet his babies.

When they reached Sadie’s hospital room, Lilly pushed Theo into a seat in the corridor then slipped inside. Theo heard her talking with someone else in hushed tones, then she emerged from the room and smiled at him. It wasn’t a wholly happy smile, it was a relieved smile but there was a sadness there too.

“Is she okay?” Theo asked, feeling the tears that he had been holding back pricking at the corners of his eyes.

“She’s okay,” Lilly replied, “The transfusion worked and they managed to stop the bleeding. She’s going to be alright.”

Theo got to his feet, “Can I see her?”

Lilly nodded, “She’s unconscious but you can go in.”

Theo frowned, Lilly hadn’t moved away from the door yet.

“What aren’t you telling me?” Theo asked quietly.

“She had a severe postpartum hemorrhage Theo,” Lilly replied, her eyes meeting his, “She lost a lot of blood. She went into shock and it was really touch and go for a few minutes. They gave her a blood transfusion but she was losing so much blood that it wasn’t working fast enough so they,” she paused for a moment and took a breath, “They had to act quickly since they couldn’t find an obvious source for the bleeding, which meant they couldn't slow it down. They removed her uterus Theo.”

Theo stared at Lilly for what felt like a very long moment, in actuality it was less than 30 seconds.

“She can’t have any more children,” Lilly finished, her voice breaking, “I’m so sorry.”

Theo shook his head, “It’s not your fault, don’t be sorry. Can I…can I just see her Lilly, please?”

Lilly nodded and stepped aside, allowing Theo to walk into the hospital room. She sighed and looked at the clock, it wasn’t long until visiting hours so she decided to wait for Neville in the foyer.

~ ~ * ~ ~ * ~ ~ * ~ ~

Theo’s breath caught in his throat when he walked into the hospital room and saw Sadie. He had seen her pale and ill-looking in the past, when she had been in the Dark Tower for one. But this was different, he knew that Lilly hadn’t been exaggerating, it had clearly been touch and go for a while.

He sat down by her side and placed his hand in hers, she had so many tubes attached to her. One giving her fluids, another clearly still transfusing blood into her and Merlin knew what the rest were for. Her hand was as cold as ice, but he could tell that she was breathing, her chest moved up and down slowly underneath the crisp, white hospital sheets.

The Healer who Lilly had been speaking to gave Theo a sympathetic smile, “Would you like me to have the children brought in from the nursery Mr. Nott?”

Theo nodded and swallowed a lump in his throat, “Yes, I want to meet them.”

“Of course,” He said, bowing his head and leaving the room. The nursery was obviously close to Sadie’s room because less than five minutes later, he returned with two babies bundled together in one cot.

Theo looked down at the cot, at the two bundles, one in a pink blanket and the other in a blue. The tears he had been struggling to hold back finally spilled then, but they were happy tears.

“A boy and a girl,” Theo breathed, touching their cheeks gently. Both of the babies were soundly asleep and looked positively angelic.

“Congratulations Mr. Nott,” The Healer said with a smile, “I will leave the children here. I expect your wife will wake up soon and the children will be hungry. They were bottle fed in the nursery, due to the conditions.”

Theo nodded and said that he understood. The Healer left after that so Theo sank down into a seat next to Sadie’s bed and stared at his children as they breathed slowly and snorted every so often in their sleep. He wasn’t quite sure how much time had elapsed when a rustling sound next to him drew him out of his trance.

He looked up sharply as Sadie began to stir. He placed his hand on hers and said softly, “Don’t move too much love, there are a lot of tubes attached to you right now.”

Sadie opened her eyes and blinked a few times. She turned her head to the side to look at Theo, “Are they okay?”

“They are perfect,” Theo said, tears pricking at his eyes again, “And they are right here.”

Sadie looked down and saw the babies in the cot.

“I feel so weak,” Sadie whispered, not taking her eyes off of them.

“You nearly died,” Theo said, tightening his grip on her hand a little, “You had a severe postpartum hemorrhage and they couldn’t slow or stop the bleeding. You were losing blood so fast even the transfusion wasn’t working so they had to…” he frowned, “They had to remove your uterus.”

Sadie’s eyes widened, “You mean…”

“No more kids,” Theo said with a nod, “Which is fine, isn’t it? We got two this time around so we’re pretty damn lucky.”

“But Theo you always wanted a big family-” Sadie began to say.

“And I always wanted you,” Theo cut in, “I have that and I have two perfectly healthy, beautiful, tiny kids. I don’t need anything else, okay?”

Sadie searched his eyes for a moment then she nodded, “Okay.”

“You’re going to be in hospital for a little while,” Theo said, touching her cheek gently, “The babies are small and you need to be monitored for a while. They will let you go once they are satisfied that you can manage on your own, but that might be a couple of weeks.”

“I understand,” Sadie said quietly.

“I’ll be here the whole time,” Theo said, smiling at her, “I get two weeks off work and if you need me to take a little bit of holiday at the end, Sumner is okay with that.”

“That makes me feel better,” Sadie admitted.

“The Midwifery Healers will help you out lots while you’re here too,” Theo added, “You’re not alone in this Sade.”

Sadie smiled and tore her eyes away from his to look down at their children, “A boy and a girl, just like you wanted.”

“Yeah,” Theo said, beaming proudly.

“We really need to agree on some names now though,” Sadie joked.

Theo laughed, “Yeah. I have one in mind for the girl but I don’t know if you’ll like the idea or not.”

“Almina?” Sadie guessed.

Theo looked at her, “Yeah.”

She smiled, “Almina Tracey Nott.”

Theo’s smile turned a little tearful, “Yeah?”

“Of course Theo,” Sadie said, smiling weakly at her Husband, “Why would I not want to name her after your Mother? And Almina is a lovely name, we can shorten it to Mina which is nice and normal. That was what we wanted, pureblood names that can be normal.”

Theo nodded and smiled at his daughter, “Almina,” he said, testing the name out on his lips. He wiped away a few stray tears and chuckled, “No idea what you’re going to be called though mate,” he said to the sleeping little boy.

“I have an idea,” Sadie admitted, “But you’re going to have to ask someone for permission first…”

~ ~ * ~ ~ * ~ ~ * ~ ~

Neville wasn’t expecting to see Lilly at the house that evening so he went home, showered, grabbed a sandwich and then headed for St. Mungo’s. He figured Lilly would have hung around, expecting to meet him there and his hunch was right because he found her in the large waiting room at reception.

“Hey,” Lilly said with a tired smile.

“Hey you,” Neville said, grinning at her, “You delivered Sadie’s twins today.”

“With help,” Lilly added, “I couldn’t have done it without Clara.”

“I bet you could have,” Neville said.

Lilly shook her head, “Not with what happened after.”

“How is Sadie?” Neville asked anxiously.

“She’s going to be fine,” Lilly replied, “There are some consequences but that’s not for me to tell you. Theo is with her now, when she wakes up they are going to bring the babies through to see her. With any luck she’ll be awake for visiting hours.”

Neville nodded, “Good, I reckon Daphne and Draco will want to see her. How are you?”

“Me?” Lilly laughed, “I’m fine Nev, why wouldn’t I be?”

“Because you’re shaking for one,” Neville said, picking up her hand and holding her wrist. Surely enough her hand shook a little.

“It’s just the come down from the adrenaline rush,” Lilly yawned, “You’d know about that.”

Neville nodded, he remembered wrapping himself up in a blanket in the boys dorm and sleeping for a whole day after the Battle of Hogwarts. He put his arms around Lilly and held her tightly, “Once we’ve visited, I think we should go home, stick a movie on and cuddle up under a blanket together.”

“It’s a greenhouse night though,” Lilly objected.

“The greenhouse can wait for one night,” Neville said, kissing her on the top of the head. Normally she hated it when he did that because she felt like he was making fun of her for being short, but on this occasion, it was just comforting.

“It was awesome you know,” Lilly said as she leaned into Neville’s embrace, “Delivering the babies, it was awesome but terrifying.”

Neville chuckled, “Sounds like an accurate description of childbirth.”

Lilly laughed weakly, “I think I could do that for a career one day. Once I’m old and fed up of being a Trauma Healer.”

“I think you’ll be great, whatever type of Healer you choose to be,” Neville said supportively as he pulled her in closer.

~ ~ * ~ ~ * ~ ~ * ~ ~

Due to Sadie’s condition, only two visitors at a time were allowed into her hospital room. That, combined with the fact that they only got an hour, meant that they would all have to be relatively quick. As the group of friends sat in the waiting room outside the postnatal ward, they decided that Draco would have to be the first one to go in since he was the excited new Godfather.

Just after 6pm, Theo stepped out of the hospital room and smiled at them all, “I’ll make an announcement about the twins in a minute, but I need to talk to Harry for a second first if that’s okay?”

Harry was intrigued. He stood up and nodded, “Yeah course it is,” he said, huddling by the door with Theo.

“It’s about a name,” Theo said in a whisper, “We have a name in mind that we like but we sort of need your permission to use it.”

“Oh God, you’re not calling him Harry are you?” Harry joked.

Theo made a face, “Definitely not, far too common. Wouldn’t want him to think some loser in glasses was cool.”

Harry grinned, “Good. What’s the name then?”

“It’s Charlus,” Theo replied quietly, “It’s a pureblood name but it can be shortened to Charlie which is nice and normal. But it’s a traditional Potter family name, not to mention that it’s your Grandfathers name-”

“Theo,” Harry cut in with a chuckle, “It’s fine. If you want to use the name, go for it. I know that it’s a Potter name, but I never met my Grandfather. The only people who I have any interest in naming my kids after are my parents and Sirius so don’t worry about it.”

Theo grinned, “Thanks Harry. I’m so glad you said that because we were really drawing a blank on boys names, we had tons for a girl!”

Harry laughed and stepped away from the door, “Go on then, make your announcement.”

Theo beamed proudly, “Sorry about the brief interlude there folks. I would like to announce the birth of Almina Tracey Nott and her younger brother, Charlus Draco Nott.”

Draco immediately welled up, “You…his middle name is Draco?”

“Oh sweet lord,” Lilly muttered, looking between the two men.

Theo nodded, “Course it is Draco.”

“Theo,” Draco said as genuine tears pricked at his eyes, “That means so much to me. I just…I can’t tell you how much that means to me.”

“I know Draco,” Theo said, “Come on, let’s hug it out.”

“I don’t do hugging it out,” Draco said tearfully.

“Yeah I know but right now I think we need to hug it out,” Theo said, and he pulled Draco in for a hug.

Hermione shook her head and looked over at Daphne and Lilly. Both women looked completely exasperated but equally, not surprised.

“Aren’t you glad you don’t have to put up with this?” She asked them.

“Yeah,” Harry said, grinning over at Neville, “I’d never put ‘Neville’ in my kids name, I don’t wanna torture it.”

“And why would I want to name my kid after the oblivious eejit who saved the world?” Neville snorted.

“Shut up if you wanna see my insanely cute kids you two,” Theo said, pulling back from the hug.

Harry chuckled, “Alright, fair play.”

“Come on Draco,” Theo said, smiling over at Hermione, “And you too princess. The kids should meet their Godparents first.”

For once, and probably for the only time in her life, Hermione didn’t even tell Theo off for calling her princess. The couple just followed Theo into the hospital room where Sadie was sitting up in bed, looking exhausted but with a baby girl in her arms.

“Oh my gosh,” Hermione breathed, “They are so small.”

“It’s because they were premature,” Theo explained, “They are both under 5 pounds, but they are healthy.”

“And so cute!” Hermione squealed as she looked down at the babies. Both had pure blonde hair and blue eyes, but she suspected that those would change as all babies were born with blue eyes.

Draco nodded and looked down at the little boy in the cot who was just beginning to stir.

“Do you want to hold him, Draco?” Sadie asked, smiling at her old friend.

“Oh but he’s so small-”

“It’s fine,” Theo said as he gently picked the baby boy up, “It’s the same principle as with any other baby. Just support his head here like…this.”

Draco stared down at the tiny baby in his arms, “I feel like I’m holding a china doll,” he breathed.

Hermione smiled over his shoulder at the little boy, “You picked lovely names.”

“Harry had no issues with Charlus,” Theo told his wife.

“I told you he wouldn’t,” Sadie said with a knowing smile, “I’m sure he’ll name his kids James, Sirius, Remus and Lily.”

“Oh given half a chance I expect he would,” Hermione chuckled, “But Daphne says he isn’t allowed to name all of his kids after dead people because it isn’t healthy.”

“She does have a point,” Draco said, unable to take his eyes off of the baby.

“Hello Charlus,” Hermione said, waving down at the baby who blinked blearily.

“Aren’t they just perfect?” Theo asked his best friend proudly.

“Yeah,” Draco said, smiling up at him, “You make a perfect family, the four of you.”

Something flashed in Theo’s eyes, and Sadie swallowed a lump in her throat. Draco made a mental note to ask Theo about it the next time that they were alone together. Now just didn’t seem like the right time.

“Stop hogging the baby, I want a cuddle with my Godson too,” Hermione teased, making Theo laugh and lightening the mood once more.

~ ~ * ~ ~ * ~ ~ * ~ ~

Harry and Daphne went into the hospital room next. At this point, Sadie was feeding Charlus.

“Oh Sadie!” Daphne said, grinning from ear to ear, “You made such beautiful babies. How is that possible? Did you sleep with a hot French man?”

“Daphne,” Sadie laughed weakly, “Don’t make me laugh right now, it hurts.”

“And that comment hurt my pride,” Theo joked, but he was too happy to even pretend to sulk.

“You did make cute kids,” Harry agreed, looking down at Almina who was in Theo’s arms, “But they are _so _tiny! Teddy was huge when he was born, I’m sure he was double the size of these two.”

“He probably was since he was born at term,” Daphne pointed out, “These babies were four weeks early Harry.”

“Sorry,” Harry said sheepishly, “We adopted our kid, I don’t know the ins and outs of pregnancy and childbirth.”

“Read it up when I tell you I’m pregnant,” Daphne joked.

Harry chuckled, “Noted. I love the name you chose for her by the way Theo. It’s lovely, honouring your Mum like that.”

“It felt right,” Theo said, smiling at Sadie, “For both of us.”

“That’s all that matters,” Daphne said honestly, “And the names will be lovely together when you shorten them too. Will you use Mina and Charlie?”

Theo nodded, “That’s the plan isn’t it Sade?”

“Yeah, it is,” Sadie said, she yawned.

“Go on Daph, have a cuddle,” Theo said, holding Almina out to Daphne.

Daphne took the baby girl with ease and instantly had her comfy in a cradle position. Almina yawned then shuffled a little and promptly fell asleep.

“Baby whisperer,” Harry said in amusement.

Daphne smiled over at Sadie, “I know it’s not quite the same but Harry and I have been through a lot of this with Teddy. He was older and we didn’t have him full-time but if you need to ask me about anything, anytime, you can Sadie.”

“I know,” Sadie said, grabbing her friends hand.

“I mean it, if it’s 4am and you can’t stop them crying just call me. I get woken up in the middle of the night by Robs angry patronuses anyway,” Daphne said with a chuckle.

Theo snorted in amusement, “Yeah he doesn’t like nights does he?”

“No,” Harry laughed, “No, he really doesn’t. What Daph says goes for me too though Sadie, if she’s working and you’re struggling, I’ll do whatever I can to help too.”

“We’re all here for you Sadie,” Daphne promised, squeezing her best friends hand.

~ ~ * ~ ~ * ~ ~ * ~ ~

Visiting hours were nearing their end when Neville and Lilly stepped into the room.

“Thank you so much Lilly,” Sadie said, the moment she saw her friend.

Lilly smiled, “You don’t have to thank me Sadie, you did all of the hard work.”

“And I don’t know if I would have survived it without you and Clara so thank you,” Sadie said, both of the babies were fast asleep in their cot again.

“I can’t believe you were almost fully dilated and you only had a little bit of back pain, nausea and cramping,” Lilly said with a shake of her head, “Your pain threshold must be through the roof.”

“I always knew it was pretty good,” Sadie admitted, “But that one took even me by surprise.”

Neville chuckled, “You did great Sadie. Bet your glad it’s over now though.”

“Yeah,” Sadie said, smiling a little sadly, “I just wish we could go home with our babies now but I understand why they have to keep us in here.”

“It’s for your safety,” Lilly said, “And I spoke to the Healer in charge of the ward. They normally make the Husbands go away at night time but I’ve convinced them to let Theo set up a camp bed in here.”

“Did you?” Sadie asked, relief flooding her face, “Oh Lilly, thank you so much.”

Lilly smiled warmly, “Anything for a friend, especially a friend with really cute, really tiny babies.”

“They are so cute,” Neville agreed, “And so tiny.”

“They remind me of the dolls I played with as a kid,” Lilly said, immediately regretting saying that one out loud.

“You had dolls?” Theo asked, grinning at her, “Punk rocker Moon had dolls?”

Neville laughed quietly, so as not to wake up the babies, “Oh yeah, she’s a liar. She’s a big softy underneath it all, played with dolls, loves the colour pink and romantic comedies.”

“He’s a liar,” Lilly said matter of factly.

Sadie chuckled, “I’ve known you for years, we both know he’s not lying.”

“They are all liars Almina,” Lilly said to the little girl who had just stirred in her sleep, “Your Aunt Lilly is a punk rocker all the way.”

“Their Aunt Lilly is the reason they and their Mother survived childbirth,” Theo said, reaching out and grabbing her hand, “That’s all they need to know about her as they grow up.”

Lilly looked at Theo in surprise, “Wow…okay uh…I genuinely don’t know what to do with this uncommon sincerity and sentimentality from you Theo. It’s making me uncomfortable, really uncomfortable. Make a joke or be a dick or something, please.”

Theo laughed and dropped her hand, “Get used to it, I’m a Dad now. I’m only going to get more sappy and sincere.”

“Miracles do happen,” Neville said, grinning at Sadie.

Sadie laughed softly then yawned.

Lilly grabbed Neville’s hand and got to her feet, “Anyway, we’ll leave you guys in peace. Sadie needs rest and I think you should get some too Theo, before these two little angels wake up again.”

Theo yawned as well and nodded, “You’ll visit again won’t you?”

“Of course we will,” Lilly promised, “See you in a few days. If you need _anything_, anything at all just floo or send a patronus okay?”

They both said that they would, so Neville and Lilly left them to enjoy their babies in peace for a while.

**TBC.**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That was a super hard chapter to write, and the next few coming up were as well because they deal with Sadie struggling after a difficult labour which I 100% wrote from my own experience after having my first son.


	134. Do You Still Believe in Love, I Wonder?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry, kind of went off in a tangent with Rob's back story here, oops! Next few chapters are much more Theo and Sadie orientated :)
> 
> Chapter title is from the song:  
Hey Brother by Avicii

"Morning,” Rob yawned when Harry and Neville traipsed into the office.

“Good morning,” Harry said with a smirk.

“For you maybe, not for me,” Rob remarked, “Where’s Black?”

“Not with us,” Neville replied, sitting down on one of the desks in the room.

“Yeah he normally comes in with Theo,” Harry said with a shrug.

“Why do they always arrive together?” Elizabeth asked as she stepped into the office.

“Because they live next door to each other,” Harry and Neville replied in unison.

Rob looked at them in disbelief, “Really?”

“Yep,” Harry said with an amused smile, “And they built an adjoining door between their houses.”

Rob just shook his head, but before he could say anything else, Draco stepped into the room and smiled, “Morning.”

Before Rob could start slagging him off, Elizabeth smiled and asked, “So how are Theo’s wife and babies?”

“Sadie is fine now,” Draco replied, “Although she will have to stay in hospital for a while. The babies are fine too, but they are tiny because they were so early. They called them Almina and Charlus.”

“Oh go on,” Harry said, smirking at his friend, “Tell Rob and Elizabeth what Charlus’s full name is.”

“I’m not that vain," Draco objected.

“Yes you are,” Neville said with a chuckle, “Tell them, you know you want to.”

Draco conceded, “They called him Charlus Draco Nott.”

“Oh fuck me,” Rob said with a shake of his head, “Seriously?”

“Seriously,” Harry grinned, “Draco cried.”

“Like a girl,” Neville added with a wicked laugh.

“There were tears and hugs, it was like a scene from one of those shitty romantic comedies that Daphne keeps leaving lying around the house,” Harry said with a grin.

“The ones you read on the toilet and pretend you hate?” Draco quipped, raising an eyebrow at Harry.

“Shut up Malfoy! I told Hermione to keep that to herself,” Harry interjected.

Rob snorted and shook his head, “I’m starting to get suspicious about you and Theo, Draco.”

“We’ve been suspicious about them since 8th year of school,” Harry joked.

“Ah well, you know these ancient Slytherin, pureblood families,” Rob smirked.

Draco rolled his eyes, “No, we’re just friends.”

Harry snorted, “Apart from when you’re isolated from the world for two weeks.”

“Shut up Potter,” Draco warned him.

“No, no, no,” Rob said, grinning and leaning forward, “Are you talking about Auror training isolation?”

“Uh-huh,” Harry grinned.

“What happened during your isolation?” Rob asked eagerly.

Draco glared at Harry, “Don’t you dare tell that story.”

“Alright then, I’ll tell it,” Neville said, smirking in Draco’s general direction. He then turned back to Rob (and Elizabeth, who was pretending that she wasn’t listening).

“Fatbottom-”

“Shut up,” Neville said smoothly, “So Draco and Theo ended up camping in the Scottish highlands together. They met a couple of muggle fellow campers and Theo said that they were together. That couple then spent the next two weeks with them so Draco and Theo had to keep up the act for two whole weeks.”

Rob stared at Draco with a blank expression.

“And,” Harry cut in, “To make matters worse, it turned out that the muggle couple were actually Carter and Mitchell, who had been observing them.”

That was it, Rob burst out laughing.

Draco glared at Harry and covered his face with his hand, “I hate you Potter.”

“Nah you don’t,” Harry said, far too cheerfully.

Rob was crying with laughter, to the point that he didn’t notice a memo appearing on the desk. Harry reached past him to grab it and saw Elizabeth smirking.

“Now Rob, it’s hardly fair that you get to laugh at Draco’s isolation story when our new colleagues haven’t heard yours,” Elizabeth said.

Rob stopped laughing and looked up at her, “Oh no you don’t-”

Elizabeth just placed her hand over his mouth and smiled at the younger Aurors, “Rob’s Auror partner back then was John Sheppard.”

Harry had already known this, but that news took both Neville and Draco by surprise.

“They ended up in Canada, back then it wasn’t confined to Britain,” Elizabeth explained, “And a few days in, they were desperate for food so Rob killed a bear. He then had a mental breakdown over the fact he had killed a poor, innocent bear and spent a good few hours crying to John about how he missed me and how he was going to be a useless Auror who would never be as good as John.”

Harry snorted, “You’ve still not got over those issues mate. But if I ever see you welling up near a bear, at least I’ll know why.”

“I regret sticking up for your scrawny little arse when you said Voldemort was back,” Rob retorted, glaring at Harry.

“Yeah to be fair, I didn’t know who you were then Rob,” Harry pointed out in amusement, “I was just a 15 year old kid who you had an unnatural obsession with.”

“There have been a lot of men like that in your life,” Neville said with a frown.

“Yeah it’s pretty weird,” Harry said with a nod.

“Yep,” Draco agreed, thinking back to Snape, “I feel your pain there actually.”

“You two are not getting into the whole, 'We’re two sides of the same coin, one light, one dark, destined to be friends' thing right now,” Neville said, pointing his finger between them, “It’s not even 7am yet and the last time you had that chat, there was a lot of crying.”

“We were very drunk to be fair,” Harry said in his defense.

“I don’t even remember that,” Draco admitted.

“You wouldn’t, it was at Susan and Percy’s wedding,” Harry filled him in, “About ten minutes before you dragged Hermione off into the bushes.”

Neville snorted and nearly spat out his coffee.

Harry chuckled and handed the memo to Rob.

Rob was still chortling as he scanned it, “Call in the Closes. Harry, Neville, finish filing the reports for those calls you attended yesterday. Elizabeth…do whatever it is you do while we’re out on call all day. Loverboy, you’re with me.”

Draco glared at Harry and Neville, “I’m going to be saddled with that for the rest of my career, thanks.”

“You’re welcome,” They said in unison.

Rob patted Draco on the back as they left the office together, “It’s alright Draco, you don’t want to work in Vice like your boyfriend. He’s going to have the fun of retelling that entire story to his work colleagues when he gets the promotion, I’ll make sure of it.”

Draco raised an eyebrow at Rob, “I want to work in Homicide so that’s not much better, is it?”

Rob grinned, “Oh you’ll be fine in Homicide Draco. That’s all the old pureblood Aurors, they are all shagging their best friends, hell half of them even live with them so you’ll fit in just fine.”

“I’m not shagging Theo!” Draco objected as Harry and Neville laughed out loud.

~ ~ * ~ ~ * ~ ~ * ~ ~ 

“Hey sis!”

Sadie smiled up at her brother, “Hey Sorenson.”

“You look like crap,” Sorenson said, setting down a gift basket on her bedside table.

“She gave birth to twins yesterday, you idiot,” Clara said, glaring at her other half.

Sadie chuckled, “And they tried their best to kill me.”

“But she’s fine now,” Theo said, yawning and stretching out his legs.

Sorenson raised an eyebrow at him, “You gone all domestic already?”

“Being a Dad changes you,” Theo said, he would have shrugged but Almina was sleeping in his arms.

“It does,” Sorenson agreed, his eyes falling on his sister as she rocked Charlus to sleep.

“They are beautiful Sadie,” Clara said with a warm smile, “Now that they are all cleaned up and I’m not trying to rush you to hospital.”

“Thank you Clara,” Sadie said sincerely, “I dread to think what would have happened if it hadn’t been for you and Lilly.”

“Lilly did all of the hard work, I just helped,” Clara said honestly, “You’re very lucky to have a friend like her.”

“I know,” Sadie said, “We would have named Almina after her but it was important to Theo to name her after his Mother and Sorenson knows why her middle name had to be Tracey.”

Sorenson smiled sadly, “Yeah, I get it Sade.”

“Lilly doesn’t mind,” Clara assured her, “She did it because she cares and because she loves you, not because she wants a kid named after her. She’s a Hufflepuff in disguise that girl.”

“Oh definitely,” Sadie agreed.

Sorenson leant down and kissed his sister on the forehead, “I’m glad you’re okay Sadie, congrats.”

“Thanks Sorenson,” Sadie said, stifling a yawn.

“Congrats Theo,” Sorenson added, shaking Theo’s hand.

“Thanks bro,” Theo said with a grin.

“Don’t call me bro, ever again,” Sorenson added, raising an eyebrow at him, “Especially now that we work together. I don’t ever want anyone to know that we’re related.”

“Wow Sorenson, harsh,” Clara cut in, raising an eyebrow at him.

“Well everyone thinks he’s shagging Draco,” Sorenson said in his defence, “So I don’t really want the fact that he’s my brother-in-law to become common knowledge.”

Sadie snorted then tried to cover it up.

“What?” Theo asked sharply, “People think I’m shagging Draco?”

“Yeah, Wolfe has a big mouth. I don’t know how you can work with that arse,” Sorenson said with a roll of his eyes, “He was going on about how you named your kid after Draco and Draco cried.”

Theo looked over at Sadie in outrage then he frowned, “Why are you _laughing_?”

Sadie couldn’t contain herself, she giggled, “Well because it’s you and Draco. You have always had a bit of a…funny relationship haven’t you? I thought you were gay for ages in school!”

“You…you thought I was gay?”

Clara chuckled and hid her mouth behind her hand.

“Well yes,” Sadie admitted, biting her lip, “You were unnaturally close to Draco. Then we grew up, he fell in love with Hermione and you two still couldn’t let go. You put an adjoining door between your houses, you became Auror partners. You can see why it looks like that to the Aurors, can’t you?”

“No, I can’t,” Theo huffed.

“Either way, at work we’re not related,” Sorenson said, clapping Theo on the shoulder rather hard, “I’m a hot-shot Auror killing it in Organised Crime and you are a Junior working for CPS.”

Clara rolled her eyes and shook her head, “Ignore him Theo, he’s an idiot.”

“Thanks,” Sorenson said sarcastically.

“She’s right,” Sadie said, smiling at her brother in amusement.

“We’re going to go,” Clara said, smiling at Sadie, “But look after yourself and give me a shout if you need anything, alright?”

Sadie nodded, “Thanks for visiting Clara. See you later Sorenson.”

Sorenson waved at her with a smile, then he pointed at Theo and said, “We. Don’t. Know. Each. Other,” as Clara dragged him out of the hospital room.

Theo shook his head and muttered, “I can’t believe you thought I was gay.”

~ ~ * ~ ~ * ~ ~ * ~ ~

The Auror department was pretty empty after 7pm most nights. They all finished between 5 and 6pm, but sometimes people would hang around for an hour to do paperwork. However, nobody stayed later than that unless they had to and since two Aurors from each team were on call at night, there was no need to hang around the Ministry.

On this particular Saturday night, Rob had stayed later than that. He didn’t really need to catch up on paperwork but that was what he had told everyone, because the truth was a bit more depressing that that. Nick was staying with his Grandmother for the night, and when Rob didn’t have Nick to go home to, he had nothing so he preferred to stay in the Ministry.

He was pretty sure that he was alone in the department, because why would anyone else be here at 10pm on a Saturday night? The rest of them had lives beyond their kid.

Rob sighed and reached for his coffee, it had gone cold because he had gotten lost in thought again. He looked up at the clock, he knew that he would have to go home sometime soon.

“Any Aurors on duty?”

The shout from the corridor made him frown. Rob got to his feet and opened the door of the office. At the end of the hall stood a young man in basic Ministry robes.

“Whose asking?” Rob called.

“My names Brian sir,” The young man replied, “I’m just a Security Wizard, but I just took a call from the old Auror box in storage.”

“An Auror box?” Rob asked in disbelief. They were like police boxes, but they had a fireplace in them and a direct link to the Auror department, “I didn’t think anyone used them anymore.”

“Neither did I sir,” Brian said with a shrug, “But the caller said that she was in danger. She said that she had killed her Husband years ago, but that he was coming back to kill her tonight at midnight.”

Rob glanced into his office and looked at the clock, “I’ll pursue it, I’ve nothing better to do,” he said, grabbing his Auror robes from the chair behind his desk.

The young security wizard nodded and told him the co-ordinates then left the department. Rob began to make his way up the corridor when a door opened.

“What are you still doing here?”

Rob gritted his teeth and turned to look at John, “I was doing paperwork, now I’m responding to a call from a batshit insane woman who thinks her dead Husband is coming back to kill her.”

“On your own?” John asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Yeah on my own,” Rob said irritably, “I’m not going to bother Longbottom with this on a Saturday night. It's out of our division and probably a lot of horseshit.”

“How do you know it’s a lot of horseshit?” John argued

“Because the floo call came in via an Auror box in the archives,” Rob replied, looking pointedly at John, “It’s got to be an old woman, nobody else would even know how to use one.”

“True,” John said with a frown, “But it’s against regs to go out without a partner so I’m going with you.”

Rob’s face fell, “No.”

“Yes,” John said, grabbing his robes from the back of his office door. He slung them on and stalked out into the corridor, “If you die while you’re out in the field on your own then your kid doesn’t get the insurance pay out and you don’t get your badge of valour.”

“Okay firstly, I don’t give a fuck about the badge of valour because I’ll be dead so what use is a bit of metal?” Rob remarked with a raised eyebrow, “And secondly, since when did you give a shit about my kid?”

“I don’t hate you Rob,” John said, walking to the end of the corridor, “And I definitely don’t want your kid to go without because you were too proud to accept help. You coming?”

Rob rolled his eyes but followed John out of the corridor, into the apparition zone. They exchanged co-ordinates and both spun on their heel.

~ ~ * ~ ~ * ~ ~ * ~ ~

“Theo, do you think she’s okay?” Sadie asked tearfully.

“She’s fine Sadie, I think she just has trapped wind,” Theo replied as he paced the room with Almina, tapping her on the back gently while bouncing her.

“She just won’t stop crying though,” Sadie said, tears spilling down her on cheeks.

“She’s a baby Sade, it’s what they do,” Theo said, yawning and tapping Almina a little harder.

She let out a loud burp and immediately began to settle down. Theo smiled over at his wife, “See?”

This just made Sadie cry more.

Theo lay Almina down in her cot and crossed the room, “Why are you crying Sadie?”

“I’m just so bad at this,” Sadie sobbed, “And you’re such a natural. I wasn’t made to be a Mother Theo, I’m not good at this. I'm a terrible Mother.”

“It’s early days Sadie,” Theo soothed her, “You’re still learning, you’re not a terrible Mother.”

“Why are you so good at it then?” Sadie cried.

“I just pick things up very fast, I always have done but even more so now that I’m an Auror,” Theo said, holding her hand and smiling at her, “You had a traumatic birth and you’re exhausted. Don’t be so hard on yourself, okay?”

Sadie nodded tearfully.

“Try to get some sleep,” Theo said, kissing her on the forehead gently.

~ ~ * ~ ~ * ~ ~ * ~ ~

“See? Batshit insane old lady,” Rob said, gesturing in the general direction of the thatched cottage with lace curtains.

“Stop jumping to conclusions,” John warned him, “Don’t you remember what they taught us in Auror training? Always expect the-”

“- unexpected, yeah Sheppard I know,” Rob said irritably, “You don’t need to keep up the perfect Auror act with me.”

“What, do you think it’s all just an act that I put on to piss you off?” John asked in disbelief.

Rob cocked his head, “Sounds like something you’d do.”

John scoffed, “Get off your high horse Rob. You hate me, but I don’t hate you. We were friends a long time ago, _good _friends till you decided you were going to question every Senior Auror in the department and throw your career into the fucking bin.”

“No that’s not why we stopped being friends John,” Rob said coldly, “And you know it. We stopped being friends when you decided to steal my girlfriend right out from under my feet. Stealing my title as best dueler in the year wasn’t good enough for you, beating me in every single test wasn’t enough. You had to have Elizabeth too.”

“Wow,” John snorted, “You’re still bitter about that? It’s been bloody years Rob! We’re married, we have a family together-”

“Oh yeah I know,” Rob said bitterly, “I know all about the life you two have together and yeah, I’m still bitter about it because that’s the life I wanted. She wasn’t just a girl I was seeing while I was going through training, she wasn’t just my first serious girlfriend who I forgot all about a couple of years later. She was the love of my life John and you knew that, you were my best friend so you _knew _that!”

John’s eyes widened and he took a step back.

“What? Shocked by the truth?” Rob scoffed, “I was going to propose to her, you knew that I had the ring.”

John shook his head and raised his wand, “Inferi.”

“What?”

“There’s a bloody Inferi behind you Rob!”

Rob spun around and saw it, “Oh fuck.”

“Not such an insane old lady,” John said, grabbing Rob and pulling him back a few paces, “Any ideas?”

“Kill it with fire?” Rob suggested.

“I don’t know about you, but I can’t conjure fiendfyre.”

“Some big hot shot Auror you are Shep,” Rob snorted, “Can’t even conjure fiendfyre. My little 19 year old lad can do it.”

“Your little 19 year old lad killed Lord Voldemort,” John said as they edged further back, “He doesn’t count!”

“Well he’d be more use to me than you right now!”

“Well I’m all you’ve got so suck it up and come up with an idea or we both die here,” John said irritably.

“Fire repels them, any kind of fire,” Rob said quickly, “We can’t kill it but we can trap it inside a fire dome which will give us time to think of something more permanent.”

“Great plan,” John said. He raised his hand and moved it in a circular motion. He spoke the incantation. for the spell, which was in Spanish. A storm of fire began to form overheard and he sent it towards the Inferi. As the storm swirled around the Inferi, the creature found itself caught in the eye of the storm, unable to leave without passing through the flames.

Rob pointed his wand at the firestorm and cast a spell which made the flames stop flickering.

“What did you do?”

“Froze the flames in place so we can both have our wands at hand,” Rob replied, “Right so there is an Inferi but the better question is, whose controlling him?”

“Not the old lady,” John said, “You said that she killed him, didn’t you?”

“Yep,” Rob answered, “So who enchanted that Inferi? Because if we find them, we can make them cancel the spell.”

A laugh sounded from behind them, “You will have to kill me first.”

John and Rob spun around and came face to face with a man in his 40’s.

“The son,” John said quietly.

Rob gave a miniscule nod.

“Sons,” Another voice said.

“Shit,” Rob muttered.

“Back to back,” John whispered.

Rob turned a little so that his back was against John’s and the second sons face came into view. Both of the men were pointing their wands at the Aurors.

“Backs up against the wall, just me and you, it’s like old times,” John joked, grinning as he pulled his wand on the man that he was facing.

“You don’t have to sound so happy about it,” Rob added, pulling his wand on the other man.

They launched into a duel, and Rob was amazed that he did so well because he had spent the last five years working in a department that was much slower paced than he was used to. Although they hadn’t dueled together in years, they slipped back into it with ease. Spells flew back and forth, on at least two occasions Rob had saved John’s arse by making sure his shield charm covered both of them. In return, John had sent a couple of particularly nasty curses back over his shoulder at Rob’s opponent.

By the time they had knocked out both of the brothers, both John and Rob were sweating and breathing raggedly.

“Fuck me, I’m getting old,” Rob said, pointing his wand at the man he had been dueling and draining his magical core, thus removing the source of the Inferis life.

John did the same then wiped his brow, “Yeah, definitely not as young as I used to be,” he agreed.

The Inferi inside the firestorm slumped down and went back to being a corpse. Rob took the freezing charm off with a flick of his wrist and John put the flames out with an elaborate twist of his wrist.

"Showman," Rob scoffed.

John smirked, "No harm in making it look good," he said.

Rob snorted and threw himself down on a bench in the old lady’s garden. He blew out a breath. The front door opened and he waved at her, “Hey missus! We just took out your two sons because they re-animated your dead husbands corpse to make him kill you. They are going to spend a long time in jail and they tried their best to kill us, so a cup of tea would be just grand!”

John snorted as the woman disappeared back into the house and a light switched on in the kitchen.

“I missed that you know,” He said, turning his head to look at Rob.

Rob laughed humorlessly.

“I’m serious Rob,” John said sincerely, “You and me, fighting together like that…it took me right back to when we were training together and you and I were gonna be the best Auror pair the Ministry had seen in forever.”

“Just stop,” Rob said irritably, “We’re not having a homoerotic moment alright? I’ve spent all week ribbing Draco about his unnatural bond with his Auror partner.”

“Yeah those two are a bit suspect,” John admitted, “But Potter and Longbottom. What do you see when you look at those two?”

“The hero and his plucky little sidekick,” Rob said, turning to look at John, “Sorry Shep, but being the sidekick got old. The hero always gets the girl after all, doesn’t he?”

John sighed and opened his mouth to say something, but before he could, the front door opened. The little old lady stumbled out and placed a tray of tea down in front of them, thanking them profusely and telling them to try her home made ginger biscuits.

“We should probably arrest her,” John said once she had gone back into the house, “She killed her Husband.”

Rob bit into one of the biscuits, “What’s the point? She’s old, she’ll die soon anyway and…she makes fucking amazing biscuits. Go on, try one.”

John chuckled and picked up a mug of tea and a biscuit. They fell silent as he ate it, but then he spoke again, “I’m sorry for what happened back then. I did know you were in love with Elizabeth, I knew you were going to propose to her but I knew Elizabeth’s side of the story too.”

Rob frowned, “What do you mean?”

John sighed and leant back against the bench, “She was going to break up with you. While you were talking about proposals, she was whispering to Sam at the back of a classroom about how she really liked you as a friend but the spark just wasn’t quite there for her.”

Rob’s eyes darkened.

“I’m not being a dick Rob,” John said quickly, “That afternoon was simulation, you and I got paired up with her and Sam remember?”

“How can I forget?” Rob retorted.

“You obviously don’t remember it the same way that I do,” John said, looking at a spot in the distance, “It was the very end of 1st year. The war was raging all around us, they were talking about letting us go straight into the department if we passed all our exams. There were a lot of parallels to whats happening now actually.”

“I know John, I was there,” Rob reminded him, "We _did _go straight into the department after first year, like those kids did just now. Our second year was a probation year in the department...one that only half of us survived."

“I know, but we should have gone into the department as partners," John said with a sigh, "We were partners for that last simulation exercise before the exams, remember?"

Rob just nodded.

“We got given a very real situation-”

“Death Eater attack on Diagon Alley,” Rob said quietly, “Like I said, I remember it.”

“Not all of it,” John said sharply, “Because my cockiness got you killed in that simulation Rob. Then my arrogance got everyone else killed, Elizabeth included. You were dead by that point, you didn’t see her bleeding out in my arms from a cutting curse that I hadn’t been able to save her from. When the illusion faded away, she remembered that and I remembered it but you didn’t. She broke up with you because I told her to, I told her not to break your heart by stringing you on anymore.”

Rob stared at John in disbelief.

“Then we got together in-between final exams and starting that probabtion year at the Ministry,” John finished, “So yes, I can see how it looks like I stole her away from you but I didn’t.”

“I can’t fucking believe you,” Rob said, getting to his feet and staring at John.

“What?” John asked cluelessly.

“21 years John,” Rob said in disbelief, “This happened 21 years ago! Why are you just telling me this now?”

“Shit happened Rob,” John said, getting to his own feet, “We got separated as partners after that little duel in the canteen and then we were in a scary world. We were kids, thrown in at the deep end during the last year of a war that was killing off Aurors far more experienced than us. You said it yourself, how many of our trainers did we see die that year? Every single day we would walk into the department and there would be an announcement until finally, they said that one of the most promising Aurors in the department had died, but that his son had somehow managed to save us all at one year old.”

Rob sighed, he couldn’t argue with that, "And now that one year old kid is my protege. Bet you didn't see that coming?"

John shrugged, "No, but you and that kid have a lot in common so I can see why he respects you. Anyway, my point is that when the dust settled after the war, Elizabeth and I were engaged and you were pretty happy working in Vice with Mitch so I didn’t see the point in reopening old wounds."

“Yeah,” Rob said with a sigh, “You’re right, there wouldn’t have been any point.”

“It’s different now though,” John added as he left the garden.

Rob jumped the wall and followed him, “Because you’re my boss.”

“Yeah,” John replied, “You work with Elizabeth and I’m your boss. Don’t you reckon it’s time that we turn over a new leaf?”

As much as he didn’t want to admit that John was right, Rob nodded and said, “Yeah, I reckon two decades is enough time to stew on it.”

John laughed and patted him on the back, “You’re growing up Rob, I’m so proud of you.”

Rob snorted.

“I’ll do you a deal. Get rid of the corpse and book those two idiots into the holding cells and I’ll get pizza?” John suggested.

At this Rob grinned, “You’ve got yourself a deal.”

~ ~ * ~ ~ * ~ ~ * ~ ~

When Elizabeth came into work on Sunday morning, she expected to be the first one in their office. She knew that John had worked through the night because he hadn’t come home but he had sent a patronus saying he had things that he needed to get done.

She didn’t expect anyone from CPS to appear earlier than 8am though, so she was confused when she heard talking and laughing coming from within the CPS office. When she approached the office, she peered through the slightly ajar door and she was astounded by what she saw.

John and Rob were sitting around the briefing table, an empty box of pizza open between them and two abandoned cups of coffee on the desk behind them.

“Yes!” John laughed, “I do remember that one! Mitch fell off the tower into the lake screaming his head off because he believed Sam’s story about the Kelpie.”

“It was fucking brilliant,” Rob chortled, “He was all spluttering and flailing in the water and Sam was just pissing herself.”

“That was the moment I knew those two were a match made in Heaven,” John joked.

“Took them bloody ages to get together mind,” Rob said with an amused shake of his head.

“Tell me about it, I had to listen to far too many of Sam’s conversations with Liz,” John snorted, “Those two are shit at silencing charms for a couple of Aurors.”

Elizabeth stepped into the office and both men looked up at her.

“Morning love,” John said with a tired smile.

Rob waved, “Looking fresh Lizzie.”

Elizabeth looked between the two of them and frowned, “Have I just walked into a parallel universe or am I still asleep?”

“Asleep?” Rob grinned, he looked over at John, “So she’s dreamed about this huh Shep?”

“Probably, she talks in her sleep,” John replied with an amused smile.

Elizabeth’s eyes widened, “Are you both okay? Nobody is imperiused?”

“Nobody is imperiused,” John said, pushing himself to his feet, “Rob and I just reconnected last night.”

Elizabeth’s eyebrows shot up.

“Oh your mind jumped to dirty way too fast,” Rob said, smirking at her, “You _have _had this dream before haven’t you?”

“Shut up Rob,” Elizabeth retorted, trying to stop the colour as it rose in her cheeks.

John chuckled and looked at his wife, “We defeated an Inferi together and dueled back to back, it was just like old times. We’re getting old now Liz, it made us get sentimental and we decided to turn over a new leaf.”

“There were a lot of ‘_we’s_’ in that sentence Shep,” Rob said, “You talked, you got sentimental, you wanted to turn over a new leaf. I just agreed for the sake of an easy life.”

Elizabeth smiled, “You seem rather happy for a man who just agreed for the sake of an easy life Rob. I know you two must have been missing each other, you were so close back then and I was a big part of the reason that friendship broke up-”

“Don’t go apologising, we’ve sorted it all out,” Rob said, stopping her before she could continue the sentence.

“And we’ve not been missing each other that much,” John added.

Elizabeth gave him a knowing look, “Oh please, you two were almost as bad as Draco and Theo back then. Is that what brought this on?”

“Uh no,” Rob said, “Because we’re two completely straight males.”

Elizabeth laughed, “Okay, but now that you’re friends again I expect it to be about,” she glanced at the calendar and scrunched her nose up in thought, “Two weeks before you start hanging around together every weekend and expressing latent homosexual feelings for each other.”

“Nah,” Rob said with a shake of his head, “Give it at least a month.”

“Six weeks tops,” John added with a grin.

“Oh for the love of the founders,” Elizabeth muttered, torn between exasperation and happiness that the two of them had managed to rekindle their friendship.

~ ~ * ~ ~ * ~ ~ * ~ ~

“Hey Sadie!”

Sadie smiled weakly when her friend blew into the hospital room, “Hey Suse.”

“Look at these two,” Susan said with a grin, “They are beautiful, they must get their looks from you.”

“Oi!” Theo objected with a grin as Percy followed his wife into the room, “Hey Perce.”

Percy smiled, “Hey Theo. How is fatherhood?”

“Tiring,” Theo replied.

“Oh I bet it will be so worth it though,” Susan said as she reached into the cot and smiled at Charlus who was awake, Almina was fast asleep by his side.

“Sorry it took us so long to visit,” Percy said apologetically, “We got the floo call from Harry last week but we had a few loose ends to tie up in Europe before we could head home.”

“We should be back for a while now though,” Susan said, holding Charlus’s tiny hand, “Perce is looking around the job market and I really need to settle on something too.”

“Had your fun gap year then?” Theo asked with a chuckle.

“Something like that,” Susan said with a smile, “Oh these two are so adorable Sadie. Poor little Charlus though, having to be saddled with Draco as a middle name.”

Percy chuckled at that comment, “Guess that was your idea?” he asked Theo.

“Yeah,” Theo said, his smile gone, “As much as we get ribbed for it, Draco is my best friend and he’s like a brother to me.”

“I get it,” Percy said honestly, sitting down next to the younger man, “Bill and Charlie are like that, but nobody would think twice about it because they are brothers. If that’s how you and Draco feel about each other, it doesn’t matter if its by blood or not.”

Theo nodded, glad that somebody finally understood.

“How much longer do you reckon you’ll be in hospital for?” Percy asked conversationally.

“Another week,” Theo replied, “The Healers are happy enough with the twins now that they are over 5 pounds but it’s Sadie’s recovery that they are worried about.”

“Harry said it was a hard birth,” Percy said quietly.

“Yeah,” Theo sighed, unsure why he was spilling his heart to Percy. He got on well with the older man, but they weren’t that close in comparison to his relationship with Draco, Harry and Neville.

“She can’t have anymore kids,” Theo said, he was talking in an undertone but Sadie and Susan were talking loudly enough that they didn’t have to worry about being overheard anyway.

“Good thing you got two the first time around then,” Percy said with a comforting smile.

“I know,” Theo said, casting his gaze downwards, “But it’s doing something to her. I don’t know if its that knowledge or just the difficult birth but something is up with her Perce. She’s…she’s so sad.”

“Give it a bit of time Theo,” Percy said gently, “It could just be the baby blues. It happens to everyone, a baby is a big adjustment and Sadie has just given birth to two. I know that my Mum struggled when she had Fred and George, and that was when she had the experience of looking after babies already.”

Theo nodded, his eyes still on Sadie.

“I can tell you’re worried about her, but unless it continues or gets worse when you leave the hospital, try not to be,” Percy said, clapping Theo on the back, “You have a beautiful family Theo, you’re a very lucky man.”

Theo nodded and forced a smile onto his face. He wanted to believe that, but he had never seen Sadie like this before and regardless of what anyone said, he wasn’t so convinced that it was harmless.

~ ~ * ~ ~ * ~ ~ * ~ ~

It had been a few days since their visit to the Notts when the floo in the Weasley-Bones household went off in the middle of the night.

“Is that the floo?” Susan murmured, looking up and seeing a green light flashing in the living room.

“Yeah,” Percy said, pushing himself out of bed, “It’s probably just Charlie or Bill, it’s a Saturday night and one of them is probably out cold.”

“It’s the middle of the night though Perce.”

“I know, go back to sleep Suse,” Percy said, kissing her on the forehead, “I’ll get it.”

Susan lay back down on the pillow and mumbled something incoherent. Percy grabbed a dressing gown from the back of the door, flung it on and headed for the living room, being sure to shut the door quietly behind him.

“Who is it?” He asked.

“Unknown floo signature.”

Percy swallowed then said, “Allow access.”

There was a roar as the flames came to life. A masked face appeared in the flames and a voice, disguised with magic, said, “We need you again.”

Before Percy could argue, or even respond, the connection was cut and the fireplace went black.

Percy sat down on the sofa, letting his head drop into his hands. He swore under his breath at himself then transfigured his clothes and left the apartment he shared with Susan.

~ ~ * ~ ~ * ~ ~ * ~ ~

“Rob.”

Rob looked up and saw Cameron Mitchell hovering in the doorway, “Yeah Mitch?”

“Can I borrow you for a job? There’s a vulnerable kid involved,” Cameron informed him.

“Yeah, you want me to bring a partner?” Rob asked, getting to his feet and grabbing his robes.

“Nah, just you on this one Rob. It’s an undercover job, not a good one to bring a Junior along on,” Cameron said, he looked at said Juniors and apologised, “Sorry guys.”

They weren’t particularly bothered by this. Harry however asked, “Does this mean I’m in charge?”

“Uh no chance hotshot,” Rob said, smirking at him, “Elizabeth is in charge. Do whatever she says or I’ll hex you into the DRCMC when I get back.”

Elizabeth raised an eyebrow at him, “You realise that I trained these three Rob? I know how to make them do what I say.”

Cameron laughed and grabbed Rob’s arm, “Come on Wolfie, I’m in a hurry.”

Rob rolled his eyes, “Don’t call me Wolfie,” he complained as they left the office together.

“You call me Mitch, I call you Wolfie, that was the deal,” Cameron said with an amused grin.

The two of them began to walk up the corridor together. Rob sighed, “Fair play. What’s the case?”

“Complicated,” Cameron replied, “It’s an undercover joint I’ve been working for the last week. There’s this prick marketing potions as the real deal when they are all counterfeit. The Fraud team handed it over to us at Vice when they realised that there was a black market involved and illegal importing of potions ingredients.”

“Right, sounds very Vice,” Rob said sarcastically, “Where do I come in and do I need a pair of cool black sunglasses to fit in with you guys?”

Cameron shot him an amused look, “No, you don’t because you’re not one of us. Those glasses are ceremonial you know.”

“I genuinely can’t tell if you’re being serious or not right now,” Rob admitted with an amused chuckle.

Cameron was about to tell Rob about the role that he would play when a door in front of them opened, “Oh Mitch, you heading out on that case?”

“Yeah, I grabbed Rob like you said,” Cameron replied, “I reckon you’re right about him coming in handy on this one.”

“He’s useful occasionally,” John said, grinning at Rob.

Rob snorted, “More useful than you Shep.”

John chuckled and held out his fist. Rob fist pumped him then they did something weird with their fingers.

Cameron looked at them in disbelief, “The secret handshake is back? When did _that _happen? I thought you two hated each other?”

“Nah that was so last week Mitch,” Rob joked.

“We turned over a new leaf,” John elaborated.

“After 20 years?” Cameron asked, shaking his head at his friends.

“Ah well, no time like the present eh?” Rob shrugged, “Anyway, are you gonna tell me why you need me?”

“The guy whose running the whole op has a three year old kid,” John replied, “And since Mitch is going to go in there all ablaze, cursing the fuck out of everyone and blowing shit up because he’s in Vice now and that’s what they do, I figured someone needs to remember to grab the kid.”

“We do not just wear sunglasses and blow shit up,” Cameron said defensively.

John raised an eyebrow at him, “You have sunglasses on your head right now.”

“It’s sunny outside.”

“It’s March in the UK,” Rob deadpanned.

“So why are you really wearing sunglasses?” John asked.

“To protect my eyes when I blow shit up in the raid,” Cameron admitted sheepishly.

“Exactly,” John said, looking at Rob in amusement, “Grab the kid, don’t die then let them do their thing.”

“Alright,” Rob chuckled.

Cameron made a face, “I liked it better when you two didn’t speak.”

John and Rob just grinned in response.

~ ~ * ~ ~ * ~ ~ * ~ ~

Harry was about to head out to grab some lunch when he was ambushed in the corridor outside the CPS office.

“Harry, thank Merlin!”

Harry looked up in surprise, “Susan!”

“I need your help,” Susan said, genuine worry flashing in her eyes.

“What’s wrong?” Harry asked, pulling the door of the office shut. Thankfully, the corridor was quiet because most of the Aurors were on their lunch break.

“Percy is missing,” Susan whispered, “Two nights ago, we got a floo call in the middle of the night. He said he’d get it and when I woke up the next morning he was gone. I thought maybe it had been a work emergency so I didn’t think too much of it. But he was gone all day and night yesterday too. I’ve sent him a patronus which he didn’t respond to, and my owl just came straight back.”

“That’s really odd,” Harry said with a frown.

Susan nodded, “Do you think you could maybe look into it? He wouldn’t have just left like that Harry, not by choice.”

“I know he wouldn’t have,” Harry assured her, “I’ll look into it, okay?”

“Thanks,” Susan breathed, kissing him on the cheek, “Floo me if you find out anything okay?”

“Of course I will Suse,” Harry said.

She smiled gratefully and left the corridor. Harry sighed and decided to forgo his lunch to do a bit of investigating. He headed down the corridor towards the supply closet and reached the office that he was after, ‘Missing Persons’.

He knocked on the door then opened it.

“Woah, what’s the chosen one doing visiting us plebs?” An Auror asked.

Blanche rolled her eyes, “Shut up Stone, Harry’s cool.”

Ophelia nodded, “Yeah, we were in training with him,” she smiled at Harry, “Ignore Stones, he’s a grumpy old man.”

“A grumpy old man who is your boss,” Stones (who looked to be in his 50’s, was slightly overweight and balding) pointed out.

Harry smiled, “I just came here looking for a bit of advice. My friend’s Husband seems to have disappeared off of the face of the earth after getting a mysterious floo call two nights ago. Do you have any tips on where to start?”

“Try tracing the floo call first,” Stones advised him, “9 times out of 10 it works unless you’re dealing with a really clever criminal who knows how to encrypt it beyond our abilities. That’s when we need to bring in a curse breaker cause they can read code way better than we can.”

“I may know a curse breaker,” Harry said with a smile, “If I encrypt the call, it will only give me the co-ordinates that the caller used though, won’t it?”

“Yeah, you won’t get a name or anything, but it’s a start,” Blanche said.

“It certainly is,” Harry said, “Thanks for you help, and it was nice meeting you Auror Stones.”

“You too Potter,” Stones said, raising a hand to wave goodbye.

Harry did the same then slipped out of the office.

**TBC.**


	135. I've Got Friends That Will Run Through Walls

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> TRIGGER WARNING: Depression

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter title comes from the song:  
Run Through Walls by The Script

Once he finished work that night, Harry went to Susan’s apartment with Daphne and Teddy. The two women had a cup of coffee and played with Teddy while Harry tried to break the encryption on the call. He managed, but rather than getting a simple line of code that translated into co-ordinates, he was met with a second layer of encryption. At that point, he handed the job over to Daphne.

By the time she managed to get through it, Teddy had fallen asleep on Susan’s lap. Susan looked tired too, she had obviously not slept well since Percy’s disappearance.

“Got it.”

Harry got up off the sofa quietly so as not to wake Teddy. He knelt down next to Daphne and looked at the co-ordinates. He pulled a map out of his pocket and pinpointed them, “It’s an abandoned warehouse in London.”

“Dead end basically,” Daphne said irritably.

“Yeah,” Harry said, shaking his head angrily, “After all of that.”

They both turned to look at Susan. Disappointment shone in her eyes, “I’m sorry Suse,” Daphne said.

Susan shook her head, “Don’t be sorry Daph. Thanks for trying.”

“I just wish I could have done something more,” Daphne said sadly.

“Don’t worry about it,” Susan said again, “You better get this little guy home though. He’s exhausted.”

“Yeah I will,” Daphne said, lifting Teddy up and popping his head on her shoulder. He began to cry, “Shh, it’s alright baby. Let’s get you home to your bed.”

Teddy settled back down on her shoulder. Harry smiled at her, “You get him home babe. I’ll stay and ask Suse a couple of questions then I’ll follow you home okay?”

“Okay, just don’t do anything stupid, alright?” Daphne asked, her eyes meeting his, “If you want to go out and do any investigating, make sure you have Nev with you.”

“I will,” Harry promised her.

Daphne left the apartment and Harry sat down next to Susan. He opened his mouth to ask her if she had any idea who might have floo-ed Percy, but before he could, the floo roared to life.

Susan jumped up expectantly, but Harry who had learned to always expect the worst, grabbed his wand and pointed it at the fireplace.

There was no pause to imply that Susan had to grant whoever it was permission. The flames roared green and Percy stumbled out.

“Percy!” Susan exclaimed in relief.

Harry didn’t drop his wand. He cast a spell on Percy which checked for any mind altering charms, it came up negative.

Percy drew himself up, he looked perfectly fine but there was something about the way that he held himself which made Harry think that he was injured.

“Finite incantatem,” Harry said quietly.

The spell washed away all enchantments, including glamour charms.

Susan gasped and let go of Percy as the true extent of his injuries were revealed, “What happened to you?”

“I’m fine,” Percy gasped, holding his side.

“No, you aren’t,” Harry said, stepping forward.

“Harry, I’m-”

Before he could say ‘fine’, he passed out.

“Harry!” Susan panicked.

“Help me lie him down on the sofa,” Harry said, and Susan did.

Harry then used magic to remove Percy’s clothing, leaving him in his boxers. Susan drew back in horror when she saw how battered and bruised he was.

“What the hell was he doing?” Harry asked in disbelief as he scanned Percy with his wand.

“I have no idea,” Susan replied tearfully.

Harry’s wand buzzed and he frowned, “Most of the injuries are superficial, but he does have internal bleeding. That was why he grabbed his side and passed out.”

“Can you fix that?” Susan asked, “Cause I can call Lil-”

“It’s okay I can fix that,” Harry said, casting a spell on the bruised area that Percy had grabbed before passing out. His breathing began to even out straight away which made Susan sigh in relief.

She sat down by his side and began to heal the many bruises and cuts on his body and face.

“Do you mind if I hang around until he wakes up?” Harry asked, resting his hand on Susan’s shoulder, “I need to know where he went, as an Auror and a friend.”

“Yeah, I know,” Susan said a little stiffly, “Grab a coffee and wait in the kitchen. I’ll come and get you when he wakes up.”

~ ~ * ~ ~ * ~ ~ * ~ ~

When Percy woke up, the first thing he saw was Susan’s eyes and they were full of concern.

“Suse,” He said, smiling weakly at her and pushing himself up on the sofa.

Susan raised an eyebrow at him, “Don’t you dare ‘Suse’ me. You disappeared off of the face of the Earth for two days then came back half dead!”

“I was working,” Percy lied.

“You always tell me when you’re working,” Susan said, crossing her arms over her chest, “Who floo-ed you?”

“Suse, it’s really not that important-”

“Really?” Susan asked curtly, “Because Harry is sitting in the kitchen and he thinks it’s important.”

“Why is Harry here?”

“He was helping me track you down because for all I knew, you were dead in a ditch somewhere Percy!” Susan snapped.

Percy met her eyes and sighed, “I’m sorry.”

“So you should be,” Susan said irritably, “But if you want me to speak to you again this year, you had better tell me what was so important that it made you run off like that.”

Percy frowned and took his eyes off of hers, “Blackmail.”

“What?”

“There is someone out there who has been blackmailing me,” Percy replied, “It’s why I’ve been trying to stay out of Britain for long periods of time. The reason I take on jobs all over the place is to stay away from them so that they can’t drag me back in.”

“What could anyone possibly have on you?” Susan asked ludicrously, “You’re a good man Percy.”

“Am I?” Percy asked, still unable to look at her, “Because I really don’t feel like it right now.”

Susan sighed too. She got to her feet and called, “Harry, I can practically _hear _you eavesdropping so you might as well get your nosy arse in here!”

Harry stepped out of the kitchen sheepishly, “Sorry,” he said.

Susan pointed to the armchair, “Sit down.”

Despite the fact he felt like a dog, Harry did so.

“What do they have on you Percy?” Harry asked, looking over at the man who he thought of as family.

“I did things for the Ministry during the war,” Percy replied, “Things that I’m not proud of.”

“During the time when you didn’t speak to the rest of us?” Harry guessed.

Percy nodded, “I was forced to act as a spy, that much I think you know.”

Harry nodded.

“But I’ve never told anyone about the rest of it,” Percy admitted, his eyes meeting Susan’s again, “Not even you Susan.”

“What did they make you do?” Susan asked, grabbing his hand.

“In addition to being a spy, they turned me into a Hit Wizard,” Percy said, he shook his head, “You know how I was back then, convinced that my superiors in the Ministry were always right so I did what they said, blindly. I killed people during the war, bad people but their blood was still on my hands and I…” he frowned, “I avoided the rest of my family because I couldn’t stand for them to know what I was. It was because…for a long time I couldn’t look them in the eye after all that I had done.”

“And because you weren’t employed officially as a Hit Wizard, they used that as leverage to bring you back in,” Harry realised.

Percy nodded.

“What did they have you do?” Harry asked curiously.

“Kill a Muggle politician who had funded the Death Eaters,” Percy replied, swallowing a lump in his throat and looking down at his hands.

Susan brought her hand up to her mouth but didn’t audibly gasp.

Harry wasn’t as phased by this as she was, but then again, he also wasn’t married to Percy.

“Percy,” Susan said, looking at him in disbelief, “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Because I thought it was over and I didn’t want to tell you about that side of me. I figured a good girl like you would leave the moment you found out the truth,” Percy replied honestly.

“Then you’re an idiot,” Susan said irritably, “I wouldn’t leave, but I am angry. I’m angry that you never told me and I’m angry that you let them blackmail you when your adopted brother and all his friends are bloody Aurors!”

“She has a point,” Harry said with a slightly amused look, “I did notice that you said ‘he’ instead of ‘they’ when you were talking about the things that happened in the past Percy. Have you met this guy?”

Percy nodded, “Yeah.”

“So you could identify him from a series of photographs?” Harry added.

Again Percy nodded, “I could yes.”

“Alright,” Harry said with a nod, “This stops here. Nobody is forcing you to kill anyone again, and I’m taking this to a higher authority. I have a hunch that the person who turned you into a temporary hit man was a rogue Auror. In which case, you were acting on the authority of an official Ministry figure.”

“Do you know who it is?” Susan asked in surprise.

“Not quite, but I have a couple of ideas,” Harry said honestly, “Leave it with me and lay low until I have answers Percy.”

Percy nodded, “Thank you Harry.”

~ ~ * ~ ~ * ~ ~ * ~ ~

“Why are we in the supply closet?” Rob asked, raising an eyebrow at Harry.

“Because I need to talk to you without being spied on or overheard,” Harry whispered, “And that’s impossible in this department.”

“And here was me thinking that you just wanted to see the elves,” Rob joked.

“I’m serious Rob,” Harry said in a hushed tone, “My friend is being blackmailed and I’m sure an Auror is behind it.”

This caught Rob’s attention, “Go on.”

“My friend was duped into becoming a temporary hit man during the war,” Harry whispered, “Once the war ended, he got out of that life but a few nights ago he got a floo call.”

“Let me guess, whoever it was blackmailed him into coming back?” Rob guessed.

“Yeah,” Harry replied quietly, “And he was forced to kill a muggle politician who had funded the Death Eaters, the same politician who we investigated for child abuse a few weeks ago.”

“That’s weird,” Rob said with a frown, “But if he was blackmailed during the war, it would have had to be by one of the old Aurors, the ones who didn’t think blackmail counted as going rogue.”

“I know, and my gut instinct tells me that Organised Crime were involved,” Harry added in a whisper.

“Half of Organised Crime walked out when veritaserum testing was announced,” Rob whispered, “It could be any of them.”

Harry shook his head, “I don’t think it was, I think it’s someone who is still here so I want to steal their files and take them to my friend so that he can identify the Auror who is blackmailing him.”

“That’s risky and stupid,” Rob pointed out.

“I know it is, why do you think I’m asking _you _in a _supply closet_ Rob?” Harry asked, raising an eyebrow at his boss.

At that point the door opened, and Rob and Harry stared at each other in horror. John reached in to grab something then stopped and frowned, “What the hell are you two doing in a supply closet?”

“Not what you think,” Harry replied quickly.

“He’s way too young for me,” Rob whispered.

Harry shot Rob an amused look.

"And male," Rob added, as an afterthought.

John narrowed his eyes at them, “Are you doing something illegal?”

“Not yet,” Rob replied, grabbing Johns wrist and pulling him into the closet. He shut the door and added, “But we’re about to. Do you want in on the act?”

“I’m Assistant Head of the department, I’m not going to just shut my eyes and let you do something illegal!” John hissed, “What’s going on?”

“A rogue Auror is blackmailing a guy that he forced to be a hitman during the war,” Rob replied quickly, “So we need to steal some staff files to show to the guy so he can identify him.”

“Okay, if you do that, you’re going to lose your job,” John said matter of factly, “However, if I sign over some staff files for you and say that you’re the Auror on HR duty this month, nobody is going to blink an eye.”

Rob grinned, “Do you know what? I love being friends with you again.”

John snorted, “Can we move this conversation somewhere a little less cramped? I’m getting PTSD about that time you pissed Liz off and she locked us in a vanishing cabinet for three days.”

Harry sniggered, “You two were locked in a vanishing cabinet together for three days? Vanishing cabinets are _tiny_.”

“I know,” John said, glaring at Rob, “It’s even worse when you have his big arse shoved in your face.”

“My arse is not that big!” Rob objected.

Harry snorted, “You two remind me of Draco and Theo,” he remarked.

“Woah, I take great offence at that!” Rob exclaimed in an outraged whisper.

Harry sniggered, “I’m going to leave first to avoid suspicion. Is it best if I bring our guy into your office tonight to look at the files?”

“Yeah, don’t come in until after 5.30pm,” John advised, “The department will have emptied a good bit by then.”

“Okay, see you later then,” Harry said, slipping out of the closet and heading back to the CPS office. As he entered, he met Elizabeth by the door.

“Did you get the parchment, Harry?” She asked with a smile.

“Oh damn, got sidetracked along the way by Fee,” Harry said, hitting himself on the forehead.

“Don’t let your wife hear you say that,” Elizabeth chuckled, “Don’t worry about it, I’ll grab a few extra rolls.”

“Thanks Elizabeth,” Harry said, turning around to hide his grin.

~ ~ * ~ ~ * ~ ~ * ~ ~

“How does that kid keeping dragging me into illegal shit?” Rob asked in an irritated whisper, “I got myself kicked into Domestics because I believed in him and he just keeps making me do it.”

“It’s kind of uncanny actually,” John agreed, “And I did just find you in a supply closet with him. Not to mention it’s been ages since you had a proper girlfriend-”

Rob opened his mouth to defend himself, but John cut in, “Gaia doesn’t count, she leant on you and you promised to look after her kid. It wasn’t really romantic was it? Was it even sexual?”

Rob made a face, “It was…no, not really to be honest.”

“And now you’re dragging Junior Aurors into supply closets.”

“He dragged me into a supply closet,” Rob corrected his friend, “And I’m not gay if that’s what you’re implying.”

“I’m not implying anything, I’m just saying that you haven’t had a serious relationship with a woman since Liz,” John whispered, “And the traumatic ending of that would have been enough to turn any decent guy gay.”

“For fuck sake John, I’m not gay,” Rob muttered irritably.

At that point the door opened and both men turned to see Elizabeth peering into the cupboard. She dropped her arms to her side and shook her head in disbelief, “You lasted less than two weeks guys.”

“We’re just talking-”

“About Rob being gay, in a supply closet," Elizabeth finished, raising an eyebrow at them.

“I’m not gay!” Rob exclaimed.

Elizabeth cocked her head at him, “Do you really believe that though?”

“That’s it, I’m done,” Rob said, shaking his head and walking past her into the corridor, “I’m out of here!”

Elizabeth reached past her husband to grab a roll of parchment then she looked at him in a long suffering way and shut the door on him.

~ ~ * ~ ~ * ~ ~ * ~ ~

When Harry snuck Percy into Johns office at 6pm that night, under his invisibility cloak, he wasn’t surprised to discover that Rob was already in the office with their Assistant Head Auror.

“Where’s your guy?” John asked, frowning when he saw that Harry was alone.

Percy shrugged off the invisibility cloak and breathed in deeply, “It smells awful under there Harry.”

“Sorry, it doesn’t wash too well,” Harry said sheepishly, folding the cloak up under his arm.

“Is that an invisibility cloak?”

“Yeah, it was my Dads,” Harry said with a shrug, “This is Percy by the way. He’s my adopted but not adopted brother.”

“Molly Weasley practically raised Harry,” Rob added for Johns benefit.

“Ah,” John realised, he smiled, “Nice to meet you Percy. I’m friends with your older brother Bill. He’s a brilliant curse breaker, we’ve worked with him on a few occasions.”

Percy smiled, “He is a brilliant curse breaker,” he said simply. Harry figured it must be annoying, getting compared to your older siblings all of the time.

“We’ve narrowed it down to our most likely suspects,” Harry said when Percy sat down in front of Johns desk, “So hopefully it’s one of them.”

Percy nodded and began to flick through the files. There was a tense silence between the three Aurors as he did so. He was nearing the end and hadn’t said anything which made Harry nervous, but then he noticed a little tell. Percy tensed and his adams apple bobbed in his throat.

He leant forward to look at the file in front of Percy and his eyes widened.

“That’s him,” Percy said, laying the file down on the desk.

John’s eyes widened, “Graves?”

“Makes sense,” Rob said as he got to his feet, “He’s an old style Auror, he’s a pureblood, descended from the Lestrange’s…”

“He’s always been a loyal Auror though,” John said with a frown, “He was tested with veritaserum recently. He didn’t work with Voldemort or the Death Eaters.”

“There are more ways to go rogue,” Harry pointed out.

“Like taking the law into your own hands,” Rob said darkly.

John nodded and looked down at the file once more, “Percy, I can assure you that this will be dealt with come first light tomorrow but I’m going to need a little more from you first.”

“I understand,” Percy said with a nod, “I’ll give you any memories that you might need. I don’t even want to keep a copy, you can just have them.”

Harry shook his head, “You can’t just erase your mistakes Perce. You need to keep them so you remember to learn from them and to prevent yourself repeating them.”

“Listen to the kid philosopher,” Rob said, patting Percy on the shoulder.

“Can you come with me to the memory room?” John asked Percy as he got to his feet.

Percy nodded and got to his own feet. He glanced back at Harry and smiled, “Thanks Harry.”

“Anytime,” Harry promised with a smile.

Rob crossed his arms and leant against the wall, watching Harry with interest as John left with Percy.

“Graves is going to get fired,” Harry said, turning to look at Rob, “Isn’t he?”

“Graves is going to go to Azkaban,” Rob said, “Shep will get the memories from Percy then he’ll go straight to Jack. I reckon Graves will get arrested as soon as he steps foot in this office tomorrow morning.”

“Good,” Harry said firmly, “He deserves it.”

“Oh yeah he does,” Rob agreed, stepping out of the office and looking at Harry, “You coming to the Leaky for a celebratory drink?”

“I thought no Juniors were allowed,” Harry said with a frown.

“Not till they prove their mettle and you just did Harry,” Rob said with a proud smile, “You’ve been in the doors two weeks and you just busted a rogue Auror.”

Harry chuckled and fell into step with Rob, “Yeah, and after the last couple of days, a drink sounds good,” he admitted.

Rob nodded as they left the department together, “Hey, do you think I’m gay?”

Harry frowned over at his boss, “Uh…well I didn’t until you mentioned it but you do kind of flirt with everyone.”

Rob considered this for a second, “Do I?”

“Well you flirt with Elizabeth and John,” Harry said, frowning again, “And kind of Sumner too to be honest.”

“What? I do not flirt with Jack!”

Harry snorted, “Are you gay?”

“No I’m not bloody gay!” Rob groaned, kicking the door open a little too violently as they left the DMLE for the night.

~ ~ * ~ ~ * ~ ~ * ~ ~

“Harry!” Draco exclaimed the following morning.

“Draco,” Harry said calmly.

“You’ll never guess what happened this morning,” Draco said in an excited whisper.

“What happened?” Harry asked, looking over at him and Neville.

“Graves was arrested,” Neville replied, meeting Harry’s eye, “He’s a rogue Auror.”

“Is he?” Harry asked in a terrible show of surprise, “I would never have guessed.”

A snort from the doorway made him turn his head. Harry turned and saw Elizabeth standing there, “So I find Rob and John in a supply closet that you had just come out of, and then John doesn’t get home until close to midnight last night,” she said, stepping into the room, “And then Graves is arrested this morning. Does that seem a bit suspicious to you?”

“You got us Lizzie,” Rob said, stepping into the office and dropping his bag at the door, “I wasn’t stealing your Husband, I was plotting to take down a rogue Auror with him.”

“At what point did I accuse you of stealing my husband?” Elizabeth teased, “I believe I accused you of expressing latent homosexual feelings towards each other.”

Rob rolled his eyes at that and said, “Right, for the record. It has been a while since I dated a female, but I am not gay which Harry will verify.”

Elizabeth raised an eyebrow at Harry.

Harry chuckled and said, “We went to the Leaky last night and Rob took the barmaid home. He did it to prove a point but it definitely looked like he was into her so yeah, he’s not gay.”

“Or are you just his cover?” Neville joked.

This comment made the office descend into chaos as they all burst out laughing.

~ ~ * ~ ~ * ~ ~ * ~ ~

“You excited to be home Sade?”

Sadie smiled, but just like in the hospital, it didn’t reach her eyes.

“Yeah,” She said softly, “It feels good to be home.”

“Do you want to go and lie down?” Theo asked, placing his hand on her forehead, “You’re still a little hot. I think the apparition might have taken it out of you. I can get the twins settled down in their cots.”

Sadie frowned down at the babies, she was holding Almina and Theo was holding Charlus.

“Is everything okay love?” Theo asked her.

“Fine,” Sadie replied, faking another smile, “I’m just tired.”

“Go and have a lie down then,” Theo said, watching her walk up the stairs with a real sense of worry and dread in his gut.

By the time Theo had fed and changed the twins, Sadie was asleep. He settled them down in their cots at the end of the bed that he and Sadie shared. Then he set up a charm on the room so he would hear any noises.

After that, he tiptoed out of the room and headed downstairs to the door into Number 12. Draco answered it less than a minute after Theo had pressed the bell so he must have been in the basement.

“Can you come through?” Theo asked.

Draco caught his friends eye and saw the concern there. He nodded, “Of course I can,” he said, stepping into the Nott family home and shutting the door behind him.

Theo set the kettle on to boil and leant against the kitchen counter, “Draco, I’m so worried about Sadie.”

Draco had sensed this coming because he and Hermione had both noticed how distant Sadie seemed to be. He nodded and said, “Yeah, me too Theo.”

Theo looked up sharply, “You see it too? I’m not going crazy?”

“You’re not going crazy, she’s definitely struggling to adjust,” Draco said quietly.

“She’s so sad all of the time, and even looking at the twins…it’s like she doesn’t fully connect with them,” Theo said, spilling it all out now that he had his best friend back and could talk to him privately.

“Did you mention it to the Healers?”

Theo nodded, “They said it was probably just the baby blues but to keep an eye on it. But it seems like a bit more than the baby blues, doesn’t it?”

“She might have postpartum depression,” Draco said, waving his wand to make the tea make itself as the kettle screeched loudly.

“She thinks she’s a terrible Mother,” Theo whispered.

“She would think that way if she’s depressed,” Draco said, reaching out and grabbing Theo’s wrist, “I know it’s not the same, but I can relate Theo. 6th year was the worst time of my life, I went through a really deep depression that year. I considered killing myself to get out of the dire situation that my Father had gotten me into. When you feel like that…you blame yourself for your own depression, you think that maybe if you had just been able to think a bit more positively, or do things a little better, that you wouldn’t feel that way.”

Theo looked Draco in the eye, “I’m scared for her Draco, I’m…” he swallowed and his voice broke, “I’m terrified that she hurts one of the kids.”

“I don’t think she will Theo,” Draco said, pulling his friend in for a hug. He wasn’t often the person to initiate a hug, but he could se how hard Theo was finding this, “She loves the babies, even if she is having trouble showing it. But you have to remember that she had a difficult birth which is probably where this stems from. She struggled to connect at the start and now she just feels lost.”

“But what can I do?” Theo asked, his body shook and Draco could tell that he was crying, “What can I do to help her?”

“Support her as much as you can,” Draco said, hugging his friend tightly, “I think it will get better once Sadie starts to get her strength back and adjusts to life as a Mother.”

Theo took a shaky breath and drew back. He wiped his eyes hastily and nodded, “Yeah, you’re right Draco. Sorry, I’ve just…I’ve been keeping this in for a while.”

“I can tell,” Draco said, pushing a cup of tea in Theo’s direction, “Have a cup of tea, take a deep breath then try to get some sleep. Everything will look a bit brighter in the morning.”

Theo nodded and took another steadying breath, “Stay for a bit?”

“Of course I will.”

~ ~ * ~ ~ * ~ ~ * ~ ~

“Hey Percy,” Rob said with a smile.

Percy handed the Auror a cup of coffee in a cardboard mug, “A meagre thank you for your help, but it’s the best I can do.”

Rob laughed, “It’s great. Coffee is always a good thank you when Aurors are involved.”

Percy smiled, “You asked to meet me?”

“Yeah, I have an offer for you,” Rob said as he and Percy fell into step together at the Muggle park where they had met up.

“An offer?” Percy asked, raising an eyebrow at him.

“Yeah,” Rob said, drawing his cloak closer as a cold wind blew, “You were acquitted of all crimes because a little probe of Graves memories showed that he coerced and blackmailed you which means you have a clean criminal record.”

“Okay,” Percy said with a frown.

“So I wondered how you felt about becoming an Auror?” Rob asked.

Percy’s eyes widened, “An Auror?”

“Yep,” Rob said, looking at Percy to gauge his reaction, “You were a bounty hunter so we can fast track you straight into the department without putting you through training. You wouldn’t even be classed as a Junior, you’d go straight in as an Auror.”

“And you’re seriously head hunting me for the job?” Percy asked in surprise.

“Yeah, course we are,” Rob said with a laugh, “All it takes is a glance at what you did as a bounty hunter to see that you’re a good catch. You’re smart, you’ve got plenty magical power and you’re resourceful. Not to mention that strong moral compass that every friend of Harry’s seems to possess.”

Percy laughed at that, “Well I’m honoured and stunned by your offer. I really will consider it very carefully, but I need to discuss it with my Wife before I make a decision.”

“Of course,” Rob said with a nod, “If you were to accept, we’d like to place you on the Missing Persons team. One thing you definitely proved in your work as a bounty hunter is that you’re good at finding people.”

Percy nodded thoughtfully, “I am,” he agreed.

“Get an answer to me by Friday,” Rob said, clapping him on the back, “See you later Percy.”

“Goodbye Rob.”

~ ~ * ~ ~ * ~ ~ * ~ ~

“The prodigal son returns!”

Theo grinned as he walked into the office, “Did you miss me?”

“Nah, it’s been lovely and quiet for the last three weeks,” Neville joked.

“All the paperwork has gotten done on time too,” Harry added.

“And without errors,” Elizabeth teased.

“Draco’s been a right whingy bastard though,” Rob smirked, “Sulking and walking around the place like a mopey zoo lion.”

Theo laughed out loud at the image that popped into his head upon hearing Rob’s words.

“In all seriousness, welcome back kid,” Rob said, patting the younger man on the back.

“How was Sade this morning?”

“Terrified of being left on her own with the kids for the first time,” Theo admitted, “I took that extra week off work as holiday to help her out and I’m so glad I did.”

“I’m sure she’ll surprise herself by how well she copes,” Neville said supportively.

Harry nodded, “And Daph is on call in case she starts to struggle.”

“I’m glad someone is,” Theo said, smiling weakly at his friends, “So what did I miss?”

“Oh tons,” Harry said with a grin, “Rob and Sheppard are friends again.”

“They hang out in supply closets together now,” Neville added in amusement.

“But Rob’s not gay,” Harry teased.

Rob rolled his eyes, “Rob is right here, thanks.”

Theo laughed, “Any big cases?”

“A few, you can read the weekly briefs to catch up,” Elizabeth said, dumping three files in his hands.

Rob grinned at him, “Welcome back.”

Theo could have groaned, he had walked straight into that.

“Memo,” Neville said, picking it up and scanning it.

“Case?” Rob asked.

“Nope, acceptance of a job offer,” Neville replied, handing Rob the memo, “Percy Weasley said yes.”

“Percy Weasley?” Theo asked in surprise, “Susan’s Percy?”

“How many other Percy Weasley’s do you know?” Harry snorted.

Theo rolled his eyes, “Shut up Harry. I’ve been out of the game, changing nappies and getting spewed on for three weeks.”

Draco chuckled, “Percy was offered a job in the department, working with the Missing Persons team.”

“And he just said yes,” Rob said cheerfully, “I better tell Shep the good news. Theo, welcome back, get your arse in a chair and make sure it’s a comfy one because Lizzie has got a return to work form to fill in with you and a fuck load of risk assessments that you need to be aware of now you’re a Daddy.”

Theo groaned and sank down into a comfortable armchair while the others laughed at his expense.

~ ~ * ~ ~ * ~ ~ * ~ ~

“Goal!”

“It wasn’t a goal, you cheated!” Bill exclaimed.

“How did I cheat?”

“You levitated the ball into the basket,” Bill said with shake of his head, “Which is cheating. Also, it’s basketball so you don’t say goal, you say you scored.”

“Yeah but that’s called the goal,” Daphne objected, “So it’s a goal.”

“It’s not!” Bill exclaimed.

“Also, you didn’t state that I wasn’t allowed to use magic,” Daphne cut in.

Bill groaned and let his head drop onto the desk, “You’re driving me fucking crazy Daph. I need a case.”

“I’m driving you crazy?” Daphne snorted.

Before an argument could begin, the floo roared to life and they both looked over hopefully.

“Please be a client,” Bill whispered, “Please be a client.”

Daphne rolled her eyes then smiled when she saw Sadie’s face in the fire. The smile on her face flickered when she saw tear tracks on her friends face, “Come on through Sade, we’re so bored and I need tiny baby hugs!”

Sadie’s face lit up and she stepped through the fireplace with a baby in each arm.

“Sorry Daphne,” Sadie said tearfully, “But Theo went back to work today and it’s just so hard when he’s not here to hold one of them while I feed the other or change a nappy. I feel like one of them has been crying all day and I just-”

“Shh,” Daphne soothed, “You’re here now, you can get a little break,” she said as she took Charlus from her arms and turned to Bill, “Here Bill, hold Charlie.”

“Oh its been a _long _time since someone told me to do that,” Bill said with an amused grin, happily taking the baby from Daphne.

Daphne shot him a long suffering look and took Almina from Sadie’s arms, “Hello Mina,” she said in a ridiculous baby voice, “Let’s go for a little walk to make your Mummy a cup of tea. Would you like to see some scary goblins? They don’t like babies, can you throw up in their faces for Auntie Daphne? Because that would make me very happy.”

Bill shook his head in amusement as Daphne left the room with Almina in her arms. He looked up at Sadie and smiled, “Sit down in Daphne’s chair, it’s really comfy.”

Sadie sat down and looked at Bill guiltily, “Sorry to interrupt your day.”

“You’re not interrupting anything,” Bill promised her, “We were so bored that we had resorted to arguing and playing office basketball.”

Sadie chuckled weakly at that and Bill smiled sympathetically as he shuffled Charlus in his arms, “I’m a Dad too you know? So I know it’s not the same, but I do know how hard it is to go from being your own woman to being a Mother. You feel like you lose yourself in Motherhood and the thing Fleur found that helped her was having one night a week where she could go out and be Fleur, not Victoire’s Mum.”

“I think I need something like that,” Sadie admitted with a sigh, “I feel like my entire life has been turned upside down and I just can’t cope.”

“You’ll learn to cope really quick,” Bill promised, “Parenting is the sort of job where you learn on your feet.”

Sadie smiled, “Thanks Bill,” she said.

“No problem,” Bill said, glancing over at the filing cabinet as Daphne came back with a cup of tea.

“Did she throw up on any goblins?” Bill asked with an amused smile.

“Unfortunately not,” Daphne sighed, “Do you want to stick around for the rest of the afternoon Sade?”

“No, I don’t want to get in the way,” Sadie said with a shake of her head, “Thank you for the cup of tea though Daph, I’ll head off after I’ve had it.”

“You don’t have to,” Bill said, looking over at the tired young woman, “We have a ton of letters in the filing cabinet to get through. It’s boring work mind you…sorting out the junk from the cases that don’t involve magic, to the ones that do involve magic but weren’t interesting enough for us to take on.”

Sadie shook her head, “No, it sounds great and it would be nice to be useful again.”

“Hey,” Daphne said softly, “You’re raising two awesome little babies. You are being useful every minute of the day.”

“You know what I mean,” Sadie said, smiling at Daphne.

“We do,” Bill said, unlocking the top drawer of the filing cabinet, “Knock yourself out. Charlie and me are gonna have a nap right here.”

Daphne laughed and smiled down at Almina, “I’ll just enjoy tiny baby cuddles for as long as you let me,” she said honestly, “Why do babies just smell so good?”

“Hormones,” Bill said, opening one eye to focus on her, “Don’t even think about it.”

“Too soon after adopting Ted don’t worry, Harry and I won’t have any of these adorable little things for a while yet,” Daphne promised him, “So I’m going to enjoy this one for as long as I’m allowed to.”

“You really love babies,” Bill chortled.

“Shh, don’t tell anyone,” Daphne said with a grin, “You’ll ruin my reputation.”

Sadie laughed at that, and it was the first genuine laugh that had escaped her lips since she had left the hospital.

**TBC.**


	136. Friends Like You

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TRIGGER WARNING: Depression.

Rob looked up suspiciously at Draco as he hovered by the filing cabinet.

“Draco you coming?” Theo asked his best friend.

“Nah I’m going to stay back a bit,” Draco replied. He smiled at Theo, “See you tomorrow.”

“See you,” Theo agreed as he left he office.

“Why are you hovering Black?” Rob asked. He raised an eyebrow at the Junior Auror.

“Because I need to talk to you about Theo,” Draco replied, he shut the office door, “It’s not just me who has noticed that he’s struggling, is it?”

Rob sighed and shook his head, “He’s making a lot of mistakes at the moment.”

“It’s because he’s tired,” Draco said, he paused and leant against his desk, “Sadie is struggling, really struggling, so Theo is taking on as much as he can. He’s barely sleeping then he’s dragging himself through work 5 days a week, 6 when he’s on a weekend shift.”

“That’s parenting though,” Rob said with a shrug, “It’s hard. When Nick was born, I was pulling double shifts and graveyard shifts because I was running Domestics on my own. I was constantly knackered, but you just need to learn to push past it.”

“It’s more than just physical exhaustion though Rob,” Draco said, he debated whether to tell his boss the truth or not, “Sadie…she’s…”

“She has postpartum depression?” Rob guessed.

Draco nodded, “I think so, and Theo does too. The Healers are still saying it’s the baby blues but Sadie isn’t prone to bouts of depression and this is…it’s so unlike her.”

“So Theo is pulling the graveyard shift to help her get through the day,” Rob said with a nod, “Yeah, I get it. Gaia, Nicks Mum, she struggled with depression all her life, along with addiction and a million other things. She had postpartum depression too, and she eventually killed herself.”

Draco’s eyes widened.

“Not that I’m saying that what Theo’s wife will do,” Rob said quickly, “Gaia had been abused as a kid, she hadn’t had a good life. But I do see where you’re coming from, about Theo so yeah I’ll cut him a bit of slack. That was what you were going to ask me to do, wasn’t it?”

“Yeah,” Draco admitted, “Was it that obvious?”

“Yep, aren’t you Slytherins meant to be manipulative and sneaky?” Rob asked as he raised an eyebrow at the blonde man.

“I used to be until I fell in love with Hermione,” Draco said, a small smile slipped onto his lips, “Falling in love with the Gryffindor Princess kind of ruins your reputation as the Slytherin Prince.”

Rob snorted, “The Slytherin Prince? Did people really call you that?”

“Yeah, loads of people called me that,” Draco said defensively.

“Who came up with it?” Rob asked, he grinned at Draco in amusement, “Because it sounds like a self-nickname.”

“Well it wasn’t,” Draco said a little huffily.

“We’ll see what Harry has to say about that tomorrow then, will we?” Rob asked with an amused look.

Draco just made a face, but Rob stopped laughing and said, “In all seriousness Draco, if you guys want to help Theo, the best thing you can do is bring him up to speed before the field test next week. You guys need to pass to prove that you’re as good in practice as you were in your final exams.”

Draco nodded, “We’ll do that,” he promised, “And thanks Rob. Harry was right, about you having a heart.”

Rob snorted, “That bloody kid, giving all of my secrets away,” he joked as he looked back down at his paperwork.

~ ~ * ~ ~ * ~ ~ * ~ ~

Hermione looked up when a knock sounded on her office door. She was currently working in the Administrative Registration Department of the DMLE. That meant that her day pretty much consisted of registering births and deaths, granting acceptance of marriages and occasionally, she got something a little different. This morning it had been a divorce, but a tricky one because it was between a Wizard and a Muggle. The children had not yet shown signs of magic but they were still young so the wizard wanted to raise them with knowledge of magic. The Muggle wanted to take them back to her family home and raise them as Muggles. There had been a lot of arguing and Hermione quickly realised that this line of work probably wasn’t going to be for her.

“Come in!” She called.

The door to the little office opened and Hermione smiled when she saw Sadie. She had Almina in a baby carrier on her chest and Charlus was on her hip.

“Hey Sadie,” Hermione said, “How are you doing?”

Sadie smiled sadly, “I wish I could say good.”

“You’re adjusting, it’s understandable,” Hermione said with a smile as she took Charlus from her, “Do you want to talk about it?”

Sadie sat down gingerly, Almina was fast asleep in the carrier.

“I can arrange a hot cup of tea or coffee too,” Hermione said, looking knowingly at her friend.

“A hot cup of coffee would be heavenly right now,” Sadie sighed.

Hermione smiled and set up a little canteen behind her with magic. Coffee began to brew itself as she bounced Charlus a little.

“Mina is okay,” Sadie admitted, “And I feel awful for having a favourite child. Occasionally she gets trapped wind but we can sort that out easily enough but Charlie…he’s impossible. I feel like he just cries all day Hermione, its this high-pitched scream like he’s in pain and nothing seems to help.”

Hermione frowned down at the little boy who looked tired but was squirming and complaining, “It sounds like colic.”

“What’s that?” Sadie asked, her eyes widening, “Is it serious?”

“No,” Hermione said with a chuckle, “It’s very common Sadie, more so in first born children and in boys. It’s basically trapped wind, to the extreme. He might be so uncomfortable because his tummy is constantly sore.”

“But we burp him all the time,” Sadie said tearfully.

“It’s alright Sadie,” Hermione soothed, looking at her tear-stained cheeks with concern, “I’m not saying you’re a bad parent. With colic though, burping them doesn’t seem to do much more than take the edge off. You could get some medicine for him at any muggle pharmacist so it might be worth nipping into the apothecary?”

“I will,” Sadie said, wiping her eyes, “I’m sorry for crying at everything Hermione. I just feel so sad and anxious all of the time. Some things are worse than others, like the thought of having to get in and out of the apothecary with them by myself because Almina is only happy in a carrier and Charlie really hates lying down flat in the pram.”

“It really sounds like colic,” Hermione said with a frown. She looked up at the clock on the wall then down at her calendar, “I’ll tell you what Sade? I’ll push my 1pm meeting back to 2pm so I can take you out for lunch. Then I’ll leave you with Mina and nip to the Apothecary with Charlie to get some medicine.”

“No Hermione, you don’t have to do that-” Sadie began to say.

“I want to,” Hermione assured her friend as she got to her feet and grabbed her coat, “And you need a break.”

Sadie smiled warmly, and it actually reached her eyes. They went down to Diagon Alley together and Hermione took Sadie and the babies to a café that she loved, it had popped up next door to the joke shop after the war.

Almina woke up briefly for a feed so Hermione got a little cuddle before she went back into the baby carrier where she promptly fell asleep again. Charlus had a little nap, but he was still very unsettled. It seemed to do Sadie the world of good to eat her lunch in relative peace and quiet. Hermione told her off when she admitted that this was the first time in weeks that she had eaten lunch, normally she forgot.

Once they had eaten, Hermione put Charlus in the pram and propped him up with her jumper so that he wasn’t lying flat. She had been out of the café for a grand total of five minutes when the little boy fell into a far more peaceful sleep. She said hello to a few people she passed in the alley but made sure to keep moving so that Charlus wouldn’t wake up when she stopped in the apothecary.

“Afternoon Hermione!”

Hermione smiled at the man behind the counter, “Good afternoon Ichabod,” she said cheerfully.

“Have you run out of potions ingredients already? You were only in here last week,” Ichabod joked.

“No, it’s not for me this time,” Hermione said with a laugh, “It’s for this little boy, and his Mummy.”

Ichabod smiled down at the baby, “He’s lovely. What’s his name?”

“Charlus,” Hermione replied, “I’m his Godmother,” she added proudly.

“What can I do for him then?” Ichabod asked.

“I wondered if you had anything that works for colic? Or even any tips on something I could brew to help?” Hermione asked.

“Colic,” Ichabod mused, “Yes, there’s an old home remedy for that but you’re stretching my memory now. It’s normally passed down from Grandmothers…let me have a look in my book of household ailments.”

“Thank you Ichabod,” Hermione said gratefully.

Ichabod hummed as he flicked through the book and Hermione rocked the pram to keep Charlus asleep.

“Ah, I knew it was in here somewhere,” Ichabod said, “There is a remedy. It simply requires clean water, fennel, ginger and chamomile. Most Mothers put a little sugar in too, to make it taste better. It takes a day to brew and can be bottled, from this point it will last for up to 6 months. The dosage is a teaspoon a day.”

“Perfect,” Hermione said with a smile, “Could you bag the ingredients up for me?”

“Of course,” Ichabod said, disappearing into the back of the shop. When he came back, Hermione asked, “I don’t suppose you know of any remedies to help with postpartum depression or anxiety?”

“The anxiety I can help with,” Ichabod answered, “But the depression? That’s on you I’m afraid Hermione, the best thing for that is a support system.”

“Well she definitely has that,” Hermione said with a smile, “You said you could help with the anxiety? That might be a start, she’s so worried and stressed all of the time right now.”

Ichabod nodded. He pulled a box out from underneath the counter, “It has a cheesy name, but it works.”

Hermione looked at the box and snorted, “Worreez-be-gone? It sounds like it was invented by a Weasley.”

“It was,” Ichabod admitted, “By mistake when our esteemed friends down the alley were experimenting with their range of sweets to get you out of classes.”

“There’s nothing dangerous in it with Sadie breast feeding?” Hermione asked.

Ichabod shook his head, “All natural ingredients, but the sort that calm you like lavender and chamomile.”

“I’ll take a couple of boxes of those too then,” Hermione said, “Thanks Ichabod.”

“A pleasure as always, Hermione.”

~ ~ * ~ ~ * ~ ~ * ~ ~

When Hermione had escorted Sadie back to Grimmauld Place, she helped her get the babies down for a nap in their cots then she sat Sadie down in the kitchen and gave her a cup of tea.

“Don’t you need to get back to work?” Sadie asked.

Hermione glanced at the clock, “Not for 15 minutes,” she replied. She had set a few charms up to clean the kitchen, Sadie had apologised for the mess and Hermione had told her not to be so silly.

“Did you manage to get something at the Apothecary?” Sadie asked as she sipped her tea.

“I did,” Hermione replied. She pulled the boxes out of her bag, “These are for you, ignore the cheesy name because I have it on good authority from my friend at the apothecary that they work wonders. They should help with your anxiety, but try not to have more than two a day or you could end up relying on them too much.”

Sadie smiled at her friend, “Thank you Hermione.”

Hermione smiled too, “And I have all the ingredients to make a potion for Charlie. I’ll make it tonight, but it will take a day to brew. As soon as it’s done I’ll pop round with it, once bottled it will last for 6 months and all you need to do is give Charlie a teaspoon a day.”

Sadie’s smile turned tearful, “Thank so much, I really don’t know what I’d do without you guys.”

“You’re lucky that you never have to worry about that,” Hermione said, she hugged her friend tightly, “I do need to get back to work but just come through if you ever need anything okay? Draco or I will do whatever we can to help.”

“I know,” Sadie said with a smile, Thank you.”

“Anytime.”

~ ~ * ~ ~ * ~ ~ * ~ ~

“Is this an intervention?” Theo asked. He looked around the basement of Number 12 Grimmauld Place at his friends.

“Kind of,” Harry replied.

“More a case of bringing you up to speed so you don’t fail the field test tomorrow,” Draco added.

“And we decided to do it at the last minute because information isn’t staying in your head for long right now,” Neville cut in.

Theo sighed, “It isn’t, you’re right. I’m sorry.”

“You don’t have anything to be sorry about,” Draco promised him, “Your entire life just changed overnight. Nobody blames you for being tired, but we also don’t want you to lose your job because you failed the field test.”

Theo nodded and took a breath, “Okay so the field test is an obstacle course isn’t it?”

“Kind of, but you should drink this before we start,” Harry said, he handed Theo an energy drink, “It’s a muggle invention and it’s terrible for you, but it will make your brain and body a little sharper so you can have one tonight and one before the test tomorrow.”

“But no more,” Draco said, giving him a warning look, “Because they are addictive.”

“Yes Mum,” Theo said with an amused smile as he accepted the drink from Harry and took a cautionary sip. He made a face, “That’s disgusting.”

Harry nodded, “Yep, but that will happen when you put bull sperm in a drink.”

The look on Theo’s face was priceless, Draco couldn’t help himself as he grinned and said, “Drink up then Theo.”

Harry sniggered, “So the field test is an obstacle course with an unexpected element. It’s probably going to be an ambush and there is probably going to be a duel involved. We know that because although it’s meant to be a blind test, Rob sat us all down last week and said,” he then launched into a flawless impression of Rob, complete with the Irish accent, “_Right lads. The field test might be an obstacle course. There might be a lake, or that might be a red herring. There might even be an aerial aspect. There might be an ambush, not that I could possibly know that because there’s no way they would still be using the same course after ten years is there? Anyway, might be a duel in there. Us Senior Aurors love to surprise you with a little duel_.”

Theo burst out laughing, “So he told us exactly what to expect?”

“Course he did, it’s Rob,” Neville said with a laugh.

Theo shook his head in amusement, “Alright then. How are we going to do this?”

“I’m going to be a Death Eater,” Harry said, “And I’m going to ambush you, Neville is going to be my right hand man.”

“Why are you the Death Eater?” Draco asked in disbelief.

“Because you _were _a Death Eater and you were terrible at it,” Harry remarked.

Draco looked offended for a moment then frowned, “Hang on, that’s a compliment.”

“Well done dumbass,” Neville chuckled.

“Shut it fatbottom,” Draco retorted.

Neville rolled his eyes, “You need to come up with a new insult.”

“If you two are Death Eaters, what am I?” Draco asked as an afterthought.

Harry shrugged, “I don’t know, a tree?”

“A tree? A fucking tree?”

“You’d make a good tree. All you’ve got to do is stand there and not do anything,” Harry pointed out.

“Wasn’t that your basic stance as a Death Eater?” Neville asked in jest.

“Oh shut up Fatbottom, you aren’t even his best sidekick, that was Weasley,” Draco jibed back.

“Woah, you do not get to judge my sidekicks,” Harry said, pointing at Draco, “Especially because you’re totally wrong. My favourite sidekick was always Hermione.”

“Was that before or after you two went camping together?” Neville asked as he raised an eyebrow at his friends.

“Oh no,” Draco said with a shake of his head, he raised his wand and pointed it at Harry.

Harry raised his wand and pointed it at Draco, “Fancy practicing your duelling skills then?”

“Oh yeah, prepare to get your arse well and truly kicked Potter.”

Harry raised an eyebrow at him, “Do I look scared, Malfoy?”

“Oh for Godric’s sake, here we go again,” Neville muttered.

“And Rob thinks I’m the one shagging Draco,” Theo snorted. He shook his head and took a sip of his rank energy drink.

From that point, chaos descended.

~ ~ * ~ ~ * ~ ~ * ~ ~

Harry looked up when the floo whirred. It was Sunday morning and it was his weekend off so he had been reading the prophet, wondering what he would do with himself for the rest of the day.

“Recognised floo signature,” The floo said.

“Let them in then,” Harry said as he put the paper down on the table.

He wasn’t surprised to see Sadie walk through the flames. She had a baby in each arm, and she looked exhausted.

“Hi Harry, sorry to interrupt,” She said apologetically.

“You weren’t interrupting anything, I was just reading the paper,” Harry said with a smile, “Are you alright?”

Sadie sighed, “Not really.”

“It’s Theo’s weekend on,” Harry realised, “He was on call last night.”

Sadie nodded, “He spent most of the night at the Closes so I was on my own, and I’m just so tired Harry. I…I was sort of hoping Daphne might want to have the babies for a little while.”

“Oh,” Harry said, his brown knitted into a frown, “Well she’s out. She takes Teddy down to Diagon Alley on a Sunday, then the park afterwards.”

“Oh, I’m so sorry, I forgot all about that,” Sadie said tearfully.

“No, no,” Harry cut in and stood up, “You don’t need to be sorry Sadie. You look exhausted and I have nothing better to do with my time right now. I normally just drink copious amounts of coffee and read the prophet while I’m waiting for them to come back. I’d go with them but apparently it’s Mummy/Teddy bonding time and since I get to take him to Quidditch matches, I’m not allowed.”

Sadie chuckled.

“So I can watch the twins for you,” Harry said with a warm smile, “Go on up to one of the guest rooms, put up a silencing charm and sleep.”

Sadie’s eyes widened, “Oh no Harry, I couldn’t. That wouldn’t be fair-”

“Sadie,” Harry cut in, “Honestly, I can handle them. I used to look after Teddy loads as a baby, when I was still at Hogwarts half the time actually.”

“I know, I remember family week,” Sadie admitted, “Are you sure you can handle them both at the same time though?”

“Yeah, I’ll be fine,” Harry assured her, “Go on, get yourself some sleep then have a bath afterwards. You’ll be wanting some you time.”

Sadie smiled broadly, “Thank you Harry,” she said gratefully. She kissed him on the cheek then passed the babies over to him.

~ ~ * ~ ~ * ~ ~ * ~ ~

“Quiet when you go inside,” Daphne said to Teddy as she unlocked the front door, “Daddy had a tough morning at work yesterday so he might still be asleep.”

Teddy nodded.

“Tiptoes okay?” Daphne said with a smile at the little boy.

“Tippy toes,” Teddy whispered.

They slipped into the entrance hall and Teddy tiptoed for about three steps then ran flat out into the kitchen. Daphne rolled her eyes in amusement and followed him, but she stopped in her tracks when she realised that Harry was awake, and that he had company.

Harry smiled up from the monthly DMLE bulletin that he had been reading, “Hey love, did you have a good morning?”

“Yeah!” Teddy exclaimed.

“Shh,” Harry hushed him, “Mina and Charlie are asleep Ted. Auntie Sadie had a tough night so we need to make sure they all catch up on their sleep, don’t we?”

Teddy nodded and put a finger on his lips.

Harry smiled and ruffled his hair, “You’re a good boy. Go into the pantry and grab yourself a bar of chocolate.”

Teddy grinned and ran into the pantry.

Daphne crossed her arms and leant in the doorway, “How long have they been here for?”

“A few hours,” Harry replied, he sipped his coffee and used wandless magic to re-boil the pot on the counter, “Do you want a cup of coffee?”

Daphne raised an eyebrow at him, “Damn, you are good at this.”

“It makes you want me right?” Harry joked.

“Worryingly enough, it kind of does,” Daphne admitted, an amused grin slipped onto her face.

Harry grinned, “It’s not that hard when you only have them for a few hours. You remember it when Teddy was this baby we watched every once in a while. But then when it’s full-time, you realise that the heat is on. That’s what it is with Sadie, she gets riled up so the kids get riled up. The trick is to stay calm, and to know how to re-boil a coffee pot with magic. That way you always get a hot cuppa when they are asleep.”

“Is that all you can do wandlessly?” Daphne asked, raising an eyebrow at him.

Harry’s grin widened. “Oh you know it’s not.”

Daphne laughed, “How is Sadie doing then?”

“She’s tired and emotional,” Harry replied. “I sent her upstairs for a nap, told her to have a hot bath as well. You always used to like to pamper yourself when you got stressed with Teddy.”

Daphne nodded thoughtfully and grabbed the steaming hot cup of coffee that Harry had just sent towards her. She sipped it and sighed with contentment, “Do you know, if the whole Auror thing ever falls through, you would make a pretty good house-Husband,”

Harry laughed quietly, “Never going to happen. I have a hero complex, I need to save people all of the time remember?”

Daphne just chuckled as she sat down with him at the table, “Apparently this time it’s Sadie.”

“Sadie doesn’t need saving, she just needs a little bit of her sanity back,” Harry said with a chuckle, “Wouldn’t we if we had twins?”

Daphne shuddered, “Ugh, just do _not _jinx it.”

“You would only have to give birth once,” Harry pointed out.

“Yeah but then I’d have all of this stress that Sadie has,” Daphne said with a shake of her head, “Watching her go through it is painful enough.”

Harry nodded his agreement.

“Anyway, we’re not there yet,” Daphne said, smiling at him, “We’ve got Teddy and our careers. We aren’t having a baby right now, let’s just remind ourselves of that every time these adorable little angels make us feel broody.”

“You,” Harry snorted in amusement, “They are making _you _feel broody.”

“Yeah, they really are,” Daphne agreed.

“So are you sure you don’t want to have a baby right now?” Harry asked, mostly in jest.

Daphne fixed him with a stern look, “If you got me pregnant right now, Bill would go off his head. He’d duel you.”

Harry snorted, “Pfft, and? I could take Bill Weasley in a duel any day of the week! Twice on Sundays, cause he’ll be full of Molly’s amazing food so he’ll be slower. You get it?”

“Yeah I get it, but it was way too elaborate to be funny,” Daphne said with a shake of her head, “No babies, and no duelling my boss. Got it?”

“Got it,” Harry chuckled, sipping his coffee once more as Teddy barreled back into the kitchen and woke the twins up.

~ ~ * ~ ~ * ~ ~ * ~ ~

As the days and weeks passed by, Sadie gradually came to rely on her friends less. The twins began to settle into something that resembled a routine, and as a result she and Theo got more sleep. Neville had also let Sadie into a little secret; he had taken her to the greenhouse in the grounds of Longbottom House. Sadie had loved it and had jumped at the chance to help Neville out there for a few hours one night a week. She loved the babies, but she needed some time to just be herself too.

However, there were some days when she struggled, and some days when Theo struggled too. It was harder for him in a sense because he had to juggle being a Dad to two very young children with his job as a newly qualified Auror.

One such occasion was on a Saturday morning. Sadie had gone out with Daphne, it was her first outing without the kids (apart from her trips to the greenhouse after she had put the babies to bed). As such, she hadn’t wanted to go far so she and Daphne were spending the day in London together.

Theo had coped well to begin with, but come midday he was at breaking point. It was Draco and Neville’s weekend on at work, and Harry was away at a Puddlemere game with Teddy which left him very few options for support.

That was how he ended up in the hospital wing of the Auror training centre. He smiled sheepishly at Lilly when she saw him hovering in the doorway, “Hey?”

Lilly laughed, “Hey, are you having a hard time?”

“Just a bit,” Theo said with a sigh, “Do you mind if I hang around for a while?”

“Course not,” Lilly replied, “Come over here though, I’m fixing up a trainee.”

Theo followed her to the far end of the hospital wing where a trainee lay with his leg propped up.

“Gareth, this is my friend Theo,” Lilly said conversationally, “His wife nearly died giving birth to these little cuties a couple of months ago so things have been pretty tough for them.”

Gareth nodded, “Okay?”

“So he’s going to hang around here for a bit while I fix you up,” Lilly finished, “You cool with that?”

“Yeah Moon, just knock me out with a pain potion and do your thing,” Gareth said nonchalantly.

“Alright, deal,” Lilly said, reaching into a cabinet and pulling out a phial, “Knock that back, you’ll be out at least 12 hours so you’ll miss Potions Lab tomorrow.”

“Nice,” Gareth said, and he knocked the drink back.

Theo watched this scene in amusement and chuckled when Gareth started to snore.

Lilly shook her head in amusement, “He’s a second year who didn’t pass when Sumner opened up the exams to everyone. No surprise considering he got this in a training exercise.”

“What did it?” Theo asked, looking at the leg which was pretty chewed up.

Lilly conjured up a padded play pen, “Pop the twins in.”

Theo did, the babies were just over 2 months old so they couldn’t do much more than just lie there. Lilly did a fancy little spell with her wand which made stars and planets float around above their heads, the twins instantly began to try and reach out to grab them.

“You’re bloody brilliant Lil,” Theo said with a sigh.

Lilly smiled at him, “In answer to your question, he got into a fight with a Kappa.”

Theo rolled his eyes, “Idiot.”

“Coming from you?” Lilly snorted, “You’ve not exactly got the best track record with magical creatures, have you?”

“That’s all in the past Lil, I’m learning to be at one with nature now,” Theo remarked.

“Yeah right,” Lilly sniggered, “See that door over there?”

Theo glanced over to where she was pointing, “Yeah?”

“It’s the office, nip in and get yourself a cuppa,” Lilly ordered him.

“Yes ma’am,” Theo said, grinning and saluting her before disappearing into the office.

He busied himself with making the coffee, all the while thinking about how lucky he and Sadie were to have friends like Lilly. Theo chuckled at the sight he saw when he came back with his cup of coffee. Lilly was putting a stitch in Gareth’s leg then playing peek-a-boo with the twins before going back in to do another stitch.

“You’re in the wrong line of work,” Theo said with a warm smile, “You should be working with kids.”

“Yeah, maybe one day,” Lilly said with a smile, “Right now, I love where I am.”

“Fair enough,” Theo said, he couldn’t argue with that when it was exactly how he felt about his own job.

~ ~ * ~ ~ * ~ ~ * ~ ~

“Fun Auntie Susan is here!”

Sadie smiled weakly at her friend as she stepped into the drawing room, “Hey Suse.”

The smile on Susan’s face flickered, “Are you okay Sadie?”

“Tired,” Sadie said with a shrug, “I don’t think I’ll ever _not _be tired anymore if I’m honest.”

“It will get better,” Susan said, grabbing her friends hand, “By which I mean, you’ll get used to this level of tired so you’ll stop feeling tired.”

“That’s not at all confusing,” Sadie said, raising an eyebrow at the Hufflepuff.

“Ah, you get the jist,” Susan said with a wave of her hand, “Look at these little bambinos! They are so big!”

Sadie looked down into the playpen where the twins were playing with soft toys.

“They are coming up on 3 months old now,” Sadie said with a nod.

“Has it gone quickly?” Susan asked, rummaging in her bag.

“Sometimes it does, other times…not so much,” Sadie replied.

“You seem a lot brighter than you were the last time I spoke to you,” Susan said honestly, “Oh, and the reason I’m here is because I have presents! Perce and I went on one last trip before we decided to settle down like the boring old farts we’re becoming.”

Sadie chuckled, “Has he started working at the Ministry then?”

“Yeah he started last week,” Susan said with a smile, “And I had a job interview, did I tell you about that?”

Sadie shook her head, “No, where was it?”

“The Ministry,” Susan admitted, “In the DMLE. I figured if I’m going to do the whole, proper career thing, I might as well follow in the family footsteps.”

Sadie laughed, “Lawyer then?”

“Lawyer, Juror, I don’t know,” Susan said with a shrug, “Figured I’d start out working in the Misuse of Magic Office and see where it goes from there. I got the job either way.”

“Good for you,” Sadie said cheerfully.

Susan smiled too, “But, since it was our last trip, I made sure to bring something nice home for the twins so here we go!”

She pulled two very brightly coloured soft toys out of the bag and Sadie laughed as the twins eyes widened the moment they saw them.

“Ooh do you like these?” Susan asked cheerfully, “They are from Mexico! They are cool aren’t they? Yeah, they are! Here you go munchkins.”

Sadie smiled as her friend put the new toys into the playpen. She drew her legs up underneath her as she watched Susan play with the babies and she took a deep breath, reminding herself to count her blessings.

It was easier now, Charlus had calmed down so much since Hermione had come up with her colic remedy. The anxiety relieving sweets really did help too. The bad days were becoming few and far between and most days, Sadie could see the light at the end of the tunnel now.

And all of that, was due to their amazing friends.

~ ~ * ~ ~ * ~ ~ * ~ ~

April became May, and Wizarding Memorial Day came and went. It wasn’t quite so sad this year though, because there was a lot of light and happiness in all of their lives now. The twins continued to blossom as they learned new things and got bigger each day. Theo, along with all of his friends, truly began to fit in within the Auror department and Child Protective Services really began to come into its own.

Rob was promoted to Senior Auror, which he wasn’t happy about at first because he thought it had only happened now that he and Sheppard were friends again. After he grabbed John and held him against the wall, he realised that John hadn’t had anything to do with it, and he had been forced to buy him a hell of a lot of pints to apology for being a ‘rash bastard’, in his own words.

Traditionally in the Ministry, May was promotion season. It was when any annual promotions tended to be announced and when any big changes began to be implemented. Arthur had been promoted to Head of the Improper Use of Magic Office which was a brilliant promotion in terms of status and pay.

It was because of this that Draco wasn’t surprised when Hermione burst into the house excitedly one Monday night.

“Draco!”

“I’m in the kitchen!”

Hermione ran down the stairs and beamed at him, “I just passed my course! It’s early, but they said that they didn’t see any point in having me finish it when I had already proven my worth.”

Draco beamed at her, “Congratulations!”

Hermione threw herself into his arms and squeezed tightly, “I got to pick my department, do you know what I picked?”

“Aurors, or Hit Wizards?” Draco guessed, he knew that she had enjoyed working in those departments.

“Not quite,” Hermione said, smiling at her fiancé, “But I expect that I will be working with you quite frequently.”

Draco raised an eyebrow at her, “Go on then. What did you pick?”

“Technically I will be working out of the Auror office,” Hermione said with a smile, “But from the administrative side of things. I decided to be a lawyer, I enjoyed a lot of what I did over the past year but the one thing I hated was the paper pushing. I want to make a difference and that’s where I can do that.”

Draco smiled proudly at her, “Of course it is.”

“So I’m going to specialise in Child Protection and Creatures Rights cases,” Hermione said, bursting with excitement and happiness, “And I’m going to change things.”

“Hermione Granger, defender of the wizarding world,” Draco said, smiling as he leant down to kiss her, “I love you, and I’m proud of you.”

“I’m proud of me too,” Hermione admitted, leaning into the kiss.

~ ~ * ~ ~ * ~ ~ * ~ ~

A few nights after Hermione’s big career news, the alarm on the door to Number 11 sounded.

“Access requested. Theodore Nott.”

Draco looked over at Hermione, “Do we?”

Hermione yawned, “You can let him in but I’m not sure how long I’ll be awake for.”

Draco glanced at the clock, it was already nearly midnight and Hermione hadn’t had the easiest day. She had well and truly been thrown in at the deep end with a tough case.

“That’s fine,” Draco said. He raised his voice and said, “Access granted.”

The door in the basement opened and Draco said, “I think he’ll have the twins with him. You go up to bed, I’ll help him out for the night.”

“Are you sure?” Hermione asked, looking at him warily.

“Yeah, we’ll be fine,” Draco promised, “I’m good with babies remember?”

“I know,” Hermione said, smiling at him, “Draco Malfoy, the baby whisperer.”

“Black,” Draco corrected.

“You’ll always be Draco Malfoy to me,” Hermione said, kissing him lightly, “Whether you want to be or not.”

Before Draco could respond, they heard crying coming from the stairs to the kitchen.

“Run away before you get sucked into babysitting,” Draco said, nudging her towards the staircase.

Hermione chuckled and disappeared up the stairs. Draco smiled as he watched her go, until Theo stepped into the hall with black bags under his eyes and two grumpy babies.

“Hey man,” Theo yawned.

“Hey,” Draco replied, “Tough night?”

Theo nodded, “Sadie is knackered Draco, she just needs a break. Can we crash here tonight?”

“You don’t even need to ask, you know that,” Draco said honestly, “Do you need a hand getting them settled down?”

“If you don’t mind,” Theo admitted.

“I don’t mind, I love these guys,” Draco said with a genuine smile, “But I’ll have Mina because she likes me better.”

“Yeah Charlie always stares at you suspiciously,” Theo agreed with a chuckle as Draco took Almina from him.

“Come on little one, you need to get to sleep so I can give your Daddy a night cap and let him catch up on some rest,” Draco said, gently rocking the little girl.

Theo yawned and followed Draco up to the drawing room, “Thanks Draco, you’re the best.”

“I know you’re tired but don’t get all sappy on me,” Draco teased.

“Ah I’m always sappy,” Theo said with a grin.

Draco chuckled in amusement, “Yeah, that’s true but for all your flaws, you made two amazing kids Theo.”

Theo smiled, “Whose getting sappy now?”

“I’ll just sing Mina a lullaby before we get too sappy and start crying,” Draco joked, making his best friend laugh.

Despite how exhausted he was, Theo also felt incredibly lucky.

~ ~ * ~ ~ * ~ ~ * ~ ~

Hermione had to laugh when she stepped into the drawing room the following morning. She knew that Draco had been helping with the twins all night because he hadn’t come to bed, but she hadn’t expected to find them all sprawled in the drawing room together.

Theo was fast asleep on the sofa, drooling all over her favourite cushion none the less. The twins were sleeping soundly in a playpen and Draco lay next to it. His arm was stuck between the bars as his hand rested on Almina's chest.

Hermione smiled at the sight, she knew that Draco loved babies and she couldn’t wait for the day that they decided to start a family together.

She didn’t want to wake them up, so she headed downstairs to get breakfast on, all the while thanking Sadie and Theo for choosing them as the twins Godparents. It truly was a blessing as far as both Hermione and Draco were concerned.

**TBC!**


	137. The End?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The Eurovision party is a mash up of probably about 4 or 5 different years, most of which happen after 2000 so defo not cannon lol! But it was just a bit of fun! :)

“Wolfie!”

Rob rolled his eyes, “Harry, I told you not to call me that.”

Harry grinned, “I know. Are you still coming to the party tonight?”

“I said I would, didn’t I?” Rob retorted as they walked into the CPS office together.

“I know, but you say things then don’t follow through on them quite a lot,” Harry said with a shrug.

“I’ll be there,” Rob said simply, “Did you hunt me down just to bug me or was there an actual reason?”

“There’s a reason, we got a call,” Harry said, handing him a memo, “It’s an interesting one.”

Rob looked down at the paper and raised an eyebrow, “That is interesting. Come on then wonder boy, let’s go.”

Harry snorted, “I keep telling you, if you don’t quit calling me wonder boy then I’ll not quit calling you Wolfie.”

“What if I got bitten by a werewolf huh?” Rob asked, raising an eyebrow at Harry as they walked towards the apparition point, “Then you’d feel bad about calling me Wolfie, wouldn’t you?”

“Nah,” Harry said with a smirk, “It would just make the nickname more appropriate.”

“Damn kid, you are learning too much from me,” Rob said, grinning proudly at Harry as they spun on their heels and apparated to the co-ordinates where the call had come from.

It was an interesting one because it was in Hogsmeade which was generally considered to be a rather posh area where you wouldn’t expect to find endangered children. As it was, the case revolved around a recently orphaned child who was being neglected by his elderly Grandfather.

“Take the kid back to the Ministry,” Rob said to Harry in an undertone, “Jump through whatever hoops you need to, and get him to Lupin House as soon as you can.”

Harry nodded, “What are you going to do?”

“I need to talk to the neighbour who made the call for the report sheet,” Rob replied, “If I don’t see you back at the office, I’ll see you at Draco’s place tonight for the party.”

“Alright, see you later Rob,” Harry said, kneeling down to explain what was going to happen to the little boy who they had just recovered.

Rob left the house and walked the short distance down the street to a small, quaint bungalow that had roses growing in the front garden. He knocked at the door and shortly after, a woman answered.

“Hi there ma’am,” Rob began to say, before he really _looked _at the woman, “I’m…I…sorry, I need to talk to you about the call you made to the Auror department.”

“Of course,” She said, she smiled and it looked so familiar, “Come in.”

Rob did, he drank a cup of tea while she gave him all of the details. It didn’t really cross his mind that he didn’t like tea, he was just drawn in by this woman. He had felt an instant connection with her, and she looked so beautiful but also so familiar. It was her heart shaped face, her deep brown curls, that friendly smile and her eyes…there was something about those hazel eyes.

When he had finished filling in his report, Rob looked up at her and frowned.

“You have been looking at me very strangely, Auror,” The woman, who had introduced herself as Jennifer, said.

“Sorry,” Rob said sheepishly, “I’m not being creepy. You just…you really remind me of someone.”

Jennifer raised an eyebrow at him, “Do I?”

Rob couldn’t help himself, “What did you say your surname was?”

“I didn’t,” Jennifer said, “But since you asked, it’s Weir.”

“Weir?” Rob asked, his eyes widening, “Like Elizabeth Weir? Are you related to Lizzie?”

Jennifer smiled, “Yes, she’s my older sister.”

“Sister?” Rob asked, his eyes still far wider than normal, “She has a sister? Why didn’t she tell me that she had a sister?”

Jennifer frowned, “Wait a minute…did you say Lizzie?”

“Uh, yeah,” Rob replied, looking up at her, “Why?”

“Oh sweet Salazar, _you’re _Rob!”

Rob’s frown deepened, “Yeah…what, does nobody else call her Lizzie?”

“No,” Jennifer replied, chuckling, “She hates it.”

“And why did you say, _you’re Rob_, like that?” Rob asked as an afterthought, “And did you say Sweet Salazar? Were you in Slytherin?”

Jennifer smiled at him in amusement, “Yes, I was in Slytherin. And the reason I was surprised was because Elizabeth never mentioned the fact that you were Irish or that you were so…” she raised an eyebrow at him, “Athletically inclined.”

At this Rob grinned, “Didn’t she? Probably too busy gushing over Shep I suppose.”

“Something like that,” Jennifer agreed.

Rob chuckled and looked up at her again, “Right, well if this is forward and weird. I’m sorry cause I’ve been out the game a long time. But do you fancy coming with me to a party tonight? I’m only going because the Junior Aurors invited me but they are all children so I’m going to feel like an old man and it would be nice to have some company.”

“Is Elizabeth going?” Jennifer asked cautiously.

“Nah, she never goes out with the Juniors,” Rob said with a wave of his hand, “She says it’s unprofessional,”

“It is kind of unprofessional,” Jennifer pointed out.

“Maybe, but it’s also useful. When they are in a social setting, they are more relaxed which means I can get to know them better and by knowing them, I can tell when something is up with them,” Rob explained, “And that’s a pretty vital thing to be able to tell when you work in a dangerous environment.”

Jennifer smiled, “Sounds like you care about them a lot.”

“Yeah well, don’t tell them this, but I do,” Rob said with a shrug.

Jennifer’s smile widened, “Yes, I would like to go to the party with you.”

Rob grinned, “Great! There’s only one catch.”

“Which is?” Jennifer asked, narrowing her eyes at him.

“It’s a Eurovision party,” Rob admitted.

“A what?”

“It’s a Muggle thing, and it means you need to wear something neon, apparently,” Rob explained.

“Okay,” Jennifer said, she shrugged, “You have to try everything once I guess, right?”

“Right,” Rob agreed with a grin, “That is a good life motto, I’m with you on that.”

Jennifer chuckled, “See you tonight then Rob.”

“See you later Jenny,” Rob said, winking at her and letting himself out of the house.

~ ~ * ~ ~ * ~ ~ * ~ ~

“I cannot believe I agreed to this.”

Hermione grinned at Draco, “You look great.”

“I look like a complete fool,” Draco said as he looked down at the bright neon clothes Hermione had managed to convince him to wear.

Hermione herself looked ridiculous in a neon yellow skirt with a neon blue top and a pink feather boa, “It’s fun Draco, I can’t believe you’ve never watched Eurovision before!”

“I’ve never watched it because it’s a piece of Muggle crap,” Draco complained, “Is this why you insisted on having electricity put into the house?”

“I like electricity,” Hermione remarked as the doorbell rang, “And you like this house, even though you pretend you don’t. Get the door.”

“Like this?” Draco asked, he threw himself down on the sofa, “It’s your party, you get the door!”

Hermione rolled her eyes and walked down the stairs towards the front door while Draco poured himself a glass of firewhiskey. She yanked open the door and grinned when she saw Harry and Daphne on the doorstep dressed up in the ‘neon’ dress-code Hermione had specified. Harry was lucky, he had gotten away with a bright green t-shirt and Daphne being Daphne was in a tight-fitting bright pink neon dress and yellow high-heels.

“You look great!” Hermione said, she hugged them both as she ushered them in to where Draco was sulking in the living room. Harry laughed out loud when he saw Draco in tight neon green trousers with a yellow top, “Nice look mate,” he remarked as he sat down next to him on the sofa and grabbed a butterbeer.

Daphne smirked, “Really suits you Draco,” she said in amusement, “Was it Hermione’s doing?”

“Do you really think I’d dress like this of my own accord?” Draco asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Who knows what you and Theo do in the bedroom,” Daphne said with a grin.

Hermione burst out laughing while Draco just sulked harder than ever before. As she giggled, Hermione said, “Sorry love, but I do think it kind of suits you.”

At that point the floo whirred to life. This time it was Neville and Lilly who were a little more lowkey with their choice of outfits than Harry and Daphne, but they still looked great.

“Hey!” Hermione said, “I’m so glad you could make it.” 

“I have no idea what Eurovision is, but it sounds fun,” Neville said in amusement.

“This party is a great idea Hermione,” Lilly agreed.

“It will be fun,” Hermione said happily.

“Wicked,” Neville said, he walked into the drawing room just as Theo and Sadie appeared in the doorway, having let themselves in through the adjoining door downstairs.

“How did the babies settle for your brother and Clara?”

“Fine, but we might get a call for help in half an hour,” Sadie said with an amused chuckle.

“Nah Clara will be fine, if it was Sorenson on his we’d be screwed,” Theo said with a grin.

Theo had gone all out and was wearing neon pink trousers, green trainers and a neon blue t-shirt whereas Sadie was far more modest in a green dress.

Hermione laughed, “I’m glad you managed to get a sitter so you could make it,” she said, kissing Sadie on the cheek, “You look great Sadie.”

“Bloody amazing for someone who gave birth a few months ago,” Daphne agreed, hugging her friend tightly.

Bill and Charlie arrived next which made sense since Bill was currently living with Charlie. Alongside were their dates, Astoria and Lara.

Hermione greeted them both warmly and Daphne shot Bill a smug grin. He had just started seeing Lara, rather than helping her out as a friend and Daphne was adamant that it was all thanks to her meddling. Charlie and Astoria were doing well, despite not having moved in together yet. Taking things slower seemed to be working well for them. Bill and Charlie hadn’t made much effort, they had neon shoelaces which glowed in the dark, but the women had made a bit more effort. Lara wore a neon pink skirt and like Hermione, had a feather boa. Astoria had put a classy spin on the theme with a neon blue tea dress.

After that, Percy and Susan arrived via floo.

“Wow, this party makes my head hurt,” Percy said, blinking in the sight of all the neon people.

Susan did a twirl and grinned, “This is my scene!”

They all laughed at her, she had almost every neon colour you could imagine on with a neon yellow dress and about 20 bracelets and necklaces, some of which were made out of glowsticks.

Hermione hugged Susan and chuckled at the look of exasperation on Percy’s face. At that point, Ron and Ginny arrived.

“You guys made it!” Hermione said, “Come in, come in!” she hugged them both and once they were in shut the door.

“Ron, you didn’t wear neon!” Hermione objected.

“Of course he didn’t,” Ginny said in amusement.

“I didn’t think you were serious,” Ron remarked, “Did everyone else dress up?”

Ginny burst out laughing as they walked into the drawing room, “Looks like it Ron,” she said, she was referring specifically to Theo and Draco with their tight-fitting neon trousers. Ginny herself was wearing a bright blue dress so she had done her part.

The doorbell rang again.

“That will be Rob,” Hermione said, looking at Draco, “You can get it.”

Draco huffed, “I am not answering the door looking like this!”

“He’ll see you in two minutes anyway!” Hermione exclaimed, “Get the bloody door!”

Draco pushed himself to his feet and strutted off in the huff. He opened the front door and looked at Rob, he could tell that his boss was struggling to hold it together.

“You look fucking ridiculous mate,” Rob said, sniggering at the outfit.

“I know, blame the bloody Muggle-born I asked to marry me,” Draco said with a roll of his eyes, “Eurovision.”

“Watch it, I’m a Muggle-born,” Rob reminded him as he stepped into the hallway after Draco.

“I don’t have anything against Muggle borns,” Draco said honestly, “Neon outfits and Eurovision though….that’s a different story.”

“And that is why I’ve never been to a Eurovision party before,” Rob said dryly.

“You didn’t have to come,” Draco pointed out, “You could have used the whole, 'I don’t like socialising with you guys because you’re too young and fun for me' excuse that Elizabeth goes with every time.”

“Well I could,” Rob admitted, “But I’m not Elizabeth, am I? I’m far more fun.”

“But about as into Sheppard as she is,” Harry said, smirking from the top of the stairs.

Rob rolled his eyes, “You know fine well why we were in that store closet Potter! You were there too!”

Jennifer shot Rob an amused look, “Is _this _the real reason you like hanging out with the Juniors?”

“No, that came out wrong,” Rob said, glaring up at Harry.

Harry just grinned, “Going to introduce us to your date?”

“Yes, she’s called Jenny,” Rob said with a roll of his eyes, “Jenny, this is Draco he’s an idiot who is not a very good Auror. This is Harry, you’ve probably heard of him, he killed some bad wizard, saved the world or something but he’s a total prick.”

“Okay so first things first, my name is Jennifer,” Jennifer said matter of factly, “Despite what Robert decides to call me. Also, it might be useful for you all to know that I’m a high ranking Democratic in the Department of International Magical Co-operation so I know things, and I know how to make other people do the things I would like them to do.”

Draco grinned, “Oh this is good, you really know how to pick them don’t you Rob?”

At this Rob just sighed half-heartedly.

Jennifer smirked, “Did you also know that your boss is of German descent and his real name is actual Robert Wolfenstein? There’s a little fact for you, and I know a lot more so every time he calls me Jenny, I’ll just pull another little fun fact out for you all.”

Harry laughed loudly, “Oh this could be a fun night Rob. The only other person I’ve seen put you down that hard is…” he trailed off and his eyes widened, “Wait a minute! You look _exactly _like her!”

Draco realised it a few seconds after Harry. His jaw dropped, “Your surname doesn’t happen to be Weir, does it?”

“It does,” Jennifer said, smiling sweetly at them.

“You’re dating Elizabeth’s sister?” Harry and Draco asked in unison.

“I asked her out on a date, we’re not dating,” Rob said, looking over at Jennifer, “Are we?”

“That depends on how tonight goes,” Jennifer said with a sly smile.

“Wow,” Harry said, “Elizabeth is going to kill you.”

Draco nodded, “Yep, it’s going to be our next case isn’t it? Monday morning, we all get dragged into the corridor to a big meeting.”

“Sumner puts on his best sad face and says, I am very sorry to tell you all that over the weekend, Auror Wolfe was in a bad accident. Not at all suspicious, just an accident sort of accident. He was a great Auror, nobody liked him, we shut him in a corner with some house elves for five years but he was a great Auror,” Harry continued in jest.

“You guys are all fired,” Rob said, practically huffing, “Go work in Vice or some other department that is way less cool than CPS.”

“I can’t work in Vice, I can’t wear sunglasses,” Harry said, motioning to his glasses.

“And I can’t handle working with Mitchell,” Draco said distastefully.

Jennifer grinned, “I like you kids. I see why you hang out with them now Rob, they are wise beyond their years and sneaky, I love the sneakiness. Were you two boys in Slytherin?”

“I was,” Draco said proudly, “Golden boy over there wasn’t, he was in Gryffindor.”

“I was a hat stall!” Harry pointed out.

“You two are married or nearly married, quit trying to impress my not-girlfriend!” Rob exclaimed.

Draco snorted, “Come on, we better join the party before Hermione sends out a search party. Didn’t you get the memo about neon by the way Rob?”

“I don’t do neon,” Rob said, “I am a hard arse Auror, not some pansy Junior-”

“Rob, you worked Domestics on your own for 5 years because you pissed off every Auror in the department,” Harry pointed out as they reached the drawing room, “You’re not a hotshot.”

Rob glared at him and Jennifer struggled to hold back a chuckle. They stepped into the busy drawing room together and Neville immediately noticed that he wasn’t alone.

“Robs got a date.”

Rob rolled his eyes, “Yes, I do. Junior Aurors who I have the misfortune of working with, and the rest of you, this is Jennifer.”

Jennifer smiled and raised a hand to wave at them all.

“You look kind of familiar, Jennifer,” Theo said as he walked over to shake her hand.

Jennifer smiled, “You probably know my older sister, Elizabeth.”

Theo and Neville looked at Rob in disbelief.

“Elizabeth?” Theo asked in shock.

Neville snorted, “Nice knowing you Rob!”

“Fuck off fatbottom,” Rob retorted.

Neville rolled his eyes and Jennifer smacked Rob around the head, “Don’t insult him for his surname. That name belonged to two of the greatest Aurors of our generation, you arsehole.”

Rob snorted, “Well what else can I slag him off for? He’s like the bloody wonder kid over there, he’s too damn good at his job! See these two, killing dark lords and beheading snakes before their 20th fucking birthdays.”

“I’m sorry, did you just say beheading snakes?” Jennifer asked.

Neville grinned, “Yes, it’s a cool story. It involves a cardigan and the sword of Gryffindor. Come on, I’ll show you to the drinks cabinet and tell you all about it.”

“And now he’s stealing my not-girlfriend,” Rob said with a shake of his head as Neville and Jennifer walked away together, “It’s like Lizzie and Shep all over again.”

Lilly stepped up next to Rob and said, “If he’s stealing your not-girlfriend, he’ll not have balls in the morning.”

Rob raised an eyebrow at her, “Who are you again?”

“Lilly Moon, trauma healer, best in my year,” Lilly said with a smirk, “And fiancé of Neville Longbottom.”

Rob grinned, “I like you.”

On the other side of the room, Draco, Harry and Theo were discussing Robs choice of date.

“He’s dating Elizabeth’s sister,” Harry said with a shake of his head.

“He must really have a type,” Theo mused, “But then I guess I have a type actually. I mean Daphne and Sadie look quite alike.”

“Daphne never so much as kissed you,” Harry snorted.

“Doesn’t mean I never fantasised about it,” Theo pointed out.

Harry made a face, “That’s enough about that. But seriously, don’t you think it’s weird?”

Draco shrugged, “It’s weird but I guess it kind of makes sense.”

Theo nodded thoughtfully, “If you can’t get the girl, right?”

“Get the girls sister apparently,” Harry snorted.

“Younger sister,” Draco grinned.

“Elizabeth is going to go nuts when she finds out,” Harry sniggered.

“Oh I need to be there to see that,” Draco chuckled.

“Right!” Hermione said loudly as she turned the television on, “Let’s get started now that everyone is here!”

“What about Luna?” Ginny asked as she sat down on a large beanbag and helped herself to a drink.

“She said she was busy,” Hermione shrugged, “She’s probably on another continent knowing her.”

“Probably,” Harry agreed with a chuckle.

Hermione smiled and turned the volume on the TV up, “Alright everyone it’s starting, the UK are last this year so plenty of time to get drinking!”

“What the hell is the point of this thing?” Theo asked as he grabbed a firewhiskey, “I just liked the idea of alcohol and dressing up.”

“Every country in the final sings a song and the rest of Europe votes!” Hermione said happily, “It’s great fun.”

“How is that fun?” Draco asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Wait till you see the stuff they do,” Harry said in amusement, he had seen bits of Eurovision growing up because the Dursleys had watched it every year.

“Oh Ukraine is first!” Hermione said as she handed out drinks and turned the television up.

“What the hell is that?” Theo asked in disbelief.

“Is it a hamster wheel?” Lilly asked as she looked closer.

“That man is in a hamster wheel!” Sadie exclaimed.

“Hermione, what kind of weird Muggle shit is this?” Draco asked as the man in the hamster wheel started dancing while the woman sang a song about a clock, or something like that.

“This is my culture Draco, if you want to marry me deal with it!” Hermione said, she was mildly offended.

“Some fucking culture,” Theo muttered under his breath.

“To be fair Hermione,” Lara cut in with an amused smile, “This is not the best of Muggle culture.”

“You make a fair point,” Hermione admitted sheepishly as Sadie whacked Theo around the head for his previous comment.

Ron was watching the screen in amusement, “I feel like I’m on drugs or something…”

Harry snorted in amusement and glanced at Hermione, “This is nothing, trust me.”

Hermione nodded her agreement, “He’s right.”

“Great!” Neville exclaimed, “This is fantastic.”

Lilly laughed, “I’ve always liked it,” she admitted, “Even if the UK haven’t won in years.”

They made small-talk until the next song caught their attention.

“Is he singing about cheesecake?” Daphne asked with a frown.

“Uh, yeah,” Hermione giggled.

“My kind of song,” Theo said as he bopped along to the music.

Sadie rolled her eyes, “Shut up you prat,” she laughed.

Draco just shook his head in disbelief, he still wasn’t convinced by the show, “Muggles do weird things for entertainment.”

“They would probably think that Quidditch is weird,” Harry pointed out.

“And using owls to deliver post,” Hermione added.

“And the fact we still use quills and parchment,” Lilly said, “They stopped using that centuries ago. We’re so backwards, I mean are there even openly gay people in the wizarding world?”

“Yes,” Theo and Draco echoed, they shared an amused look with Sadie and Daphne.

“Do tell,” Harry said in amusement.

“Slytherin common room,” The four said in unison and the others laughed loudly. They talked throughout some of the songs, they only paused to comment or gape in disbelief at the ones that were really weird.

“Wow. What is that?”

“The outfits are bright,” Astoria pointed out.

“I like it,” Hermione said as she bopped to the music.

“It’s pretty good,” Draco said, he was tapping his foot along to the catchy music.

“Oh my god,” Hermione grinned, “Draco you’re _enjoying _this, aren’t you?”

Draco scoffed, “Of course not.”

“Yes you are,” Harry chortled, “You wanna sing along really.”

“No, I don’t,” Draco assured them.

“I’d vote for that,” Daphne said with a chuckle, “Go Iceland!”

Hermione laughed and they skipped over the next song which was a slow love ballad, they spent that time taking the piss out of Draco for actually enjoying doing something Muggle.

“Okay, is that a circular piano?”

“I want a circular piano!”

“Theo, you can’t even play the piano!”

“I’d learn if I had a circular one!”

Hermione laughed at the banter between Sadie and Theo, some things really didn’t change. She sat down next to Draco as Harry poured out drinks and handed them out.

“Is that a rollerblading swan or am I drunk?” Draco asked casually.

“You’re drunk and that is a rollerblading girl dressed as a swan,” Charlie answered.

Harry nodded, “I did tell you it would get weird. Eurovision is a showcase of the crackpots across Europe.”

“Dumbledore should have gone on for the UK then,” Daphne joked and Harry shot her a mock glare.

“Sorry,” She teased, “I didn’t mean to insult your hero.”

Hermione snorted in amusement and Neville and Ron held each other up as they laughed at Harry’s expense.

“Woah, whats happening now?” Ron asked, he looked to the television screen as a new song started.

“Uh, this is Poland,” Hermione said with a frown, “And it appears to be rather…risqué.”

Ginny snorted, “More like porn.”

Ron gaped at the skimpy, busty blonde women singing and dancing on the screen.

“Merlin, they’re stripping!”

“Draco!”

“And wanking a wooden stick,” Theo said matter of factly.

“Churning butter,” Sadie said as she glared at her husband.

“This is definitely porn,” Rob said.

Jennifer cocked her head at the screen, “Yeah…” she agreed.

Ron was just gaping at the television. Ginny smacked him, “Oi! You are a Father, Ronald! Stop drooling over some young blonde things!”

“They are pretty hot to be fair,” Bill said.

“Well Bill,” Charlie grinned, “You are quite partial to young blonde things.”

Bill rolled his eyes, “One! I married one young blonde girl and I’m gonna get saddled with that for the rest of my life?”

“Oh yeah!” Charlie said with a grin.

Lara patted him on the back and said with mock sympathy, “Hurts to be a cradle snatcher right?”

“Lara, you’re like two years younger than me!”

At this the others all burst out laughing. Rob lowered his voice and asked Jennifer, “You know I never asked, but how much younger than Elizabeth are you?”

“6 years,” Jennifer replied.

“Oh man, I’m a cradle snatcher too,” Rob said with a shake of his head.

Jennifer just smirked in amusement, “Yep.”

Sadie shook her head in amusement and looked at the screen, “As attractive as you all think the women are, the song is rubbish.”

“It’s catchy,” Charlie argued.

“You would say that,” Ginny said in amusement, “Honestly, men disgust me!”

“So now you all like my crappy Muggle TV show!” Hermione remarked in amusement.

“Yeah,” All the men in the room echoed.

Hermione laughed, they might have grown up in a lot of ways since their Hogwarts days but some things clearly didn’t change.

“Is that a man…or a woman?”

“It’s a man dressing up as a woman,” Susan said, “It’s called drag.”

Draco raised an eyebrow, “Well it’s weird.”

“For Merlin’s sake Draco!” Hermione exclaimed, “Just because something doesn’t fit a perfect prototype doesn’t mean it’s weird!”

“Yeah but it’s a man with a beard being a woman!” Theo said.

“So?” Lilly asked defiantly, “If he wants to dress up as a woman and keep his beard he can.”

Percy frowned, “The Muggle world is strange.”

“Nah, the Muggle world is open and unprejudiced unlike the wizarding world,” Charlie cut in.

“He’s right,” Susan agreed, “The wizarding world is the weird one. It’s so backwards and old fashioned, this is the 21st century. People can be whatever they want to be.”

“Okay, fine,” Draco said as he raised his hands in defeat.

“Just listen anyway instead of judging,” Rob pointed out, “The bearded girl can sing.”

“And it’s a good song,” Daphne agreed, “I have to applaud the Muggle world for being as open as it is. Charlie and Suse are right, the wizarding world is backwards.”

“Everyone has a right to an opinion,” Jennifer said diplomatically, “But this is a party so let’s not express them too much, okay?”

They all nodded their agreement.

“Ohh, guys its France!” Lilly said as she turned back to the TV.

“Who cares about the French?” Harry asked.

Hermione rolled her eyes, “France is lovely. What’s wrong with the French?”

“Historically the English and the French just don’t get on,” Harry shrugged, “Well in Muggle history anyway. The amount of wars they have fought each other in is ridiculous.”

“Well they were on the same side in World War One and Two,” Lara pointed out.

“Yeah, but before that there was the Hundred Years War, the Napoleonic Wars…” Harry said.

“Since when did you know so much about Muggle history?” Hermione asked in disbelief.

“Since he bought a television set for the house,” Daphne said, she rolled her eyes, “When I take Teddy out on a Saturday morning he watches the History channel.”

Hermione laughed, “Draco is fond of Muggle crime dramas…”

Draco snorted, “That was _one time, _there was nothing else on.”

“Yeah right,” Hermione grinned.

“Anyway, the French are pretty crap,” Harry said as he gestured to the TV.

“From what I gather they are singing about moustaches,” Jennifer said matter of factly.

“What?”

“Who in their right mind sings about moustaches and cheesecake?” Theo asked in disbelief, “If people enter their ENTIRE COUNTRY into this show to win it why do they do such ridiculous things?”

“It’s kind of a joke these days,” Hermione shrugged, “And they obviously thought it was a good idea. If something’s funny people might vote for it.”

“This isn’t funny, it’s just weird,” Draco said.

Theo nodded his agreement, “I concur with that comment.”

“You would, you’d agree with anything Draco said,” Sadie said with an amused glance at her Husband, “Sometimes I think you’re married to him not me.”

“Well I would have married him if it was legal, instead I’m stuck with you,” Theo joked.

“I knew it!” Rob joked.

Harry chuckled and looked at Sadie sympathetically, “How do you put up with him Sade?”

“Honestly Harry, some days I ask myself that same question,” Sadie admitted with a laugh.

Theo’s response was to stick his middle finger up at Harry and say, “Shut up Scarhead.”

“Ah, the age old insult,” Harry said with an air of mock nostalgia, “Takes me back to those days when you would all abuse me because you weren’t cool enough to actually be my friends.”

“Who’d want to be friends with the golden chosen one?” Draco asked sarcastically.

“All of you lot apparently,” Harry said in amusement and Daphne chuckled.

They talked and drank throughout the night, they missed a lot of countries and only paid attention to the ones they felt required their attention.

Jennifer nudged Rob, “Look Rob, Ireland is up next.”

Rob stared at the screen in disbelief, “Who…the…fuck…are…Jedward?”

Harry frowned at the screen, “Um…well…they are very expressive, I guess?”

“Expressive?” Rob exclaimed, “They’re like the Weasley twins on crack!”

Considering the fact that several Weasley’s were in the room, that comment went down rather well because they all saw the funny side of it.

“What _are _they singing about?” Lara asked with a frown.

“Lipstick, I think,” Draco said in amusement.

“Is this what Ireland is like?” Neville snorted.

“That is not an accurate representation of Ireland!” Rob said, suddenly going more Irish in his defence of his homeland, “Ireland is lush green hills and proper whisky, not the shite you English bastards drink. Ireland is full of farmers, alcoholics, catholic priests and satanic nuns. These two little wankers are _not _Ireland.”

“Alright Rob,” Harry said, shaking with laughter as he patted him on the back, “Calm down, shut your eyes and go to your happy place. Be on that hill in Kildare with the rain coming down and the bagpipes playing in the distance.”

“I regret ever letting you practice for your legilimency test on me, you little wanker!”

Jennifer raised an eyebrow at Rob, “Do you think you could be _this _Irish all the time?” she asked, more than a little suggestively.

“Lizzie hated the accent,” Rob said with a grin, “To think, I was with the wrong sister all that time. If only I had met you first.”

“If you had met me first I would have been in 2nd year, which would have made you a paedophile,” Jennifer pointed out, “So it’s probably a good thing that you didn’t.”

Harry barked out a laugh and patted Rob on the back, “Oh you’re gonna keep him on his toes Jennifer. He needs that, I reckon you should stick around.”

“Alright loverboy, I don’t need you meddling in my love life,” Rob said, nudging Harry out of the way.

Theo yawned and stretched, “Mione, how long has this got to go?”

“Why? You tired already old man?” Charlie joked.

“I have twin babies,” Theo said with a snort, “I’m always tired.”

“Amen to that,” Sadie agreed.

Harry grinned, “I have an awesome toddler who sleeps through the night, unless he’s teething then he destroys all of the bedding…”

“What the fuck?” Rob asked.

“Oh his Dad was a werewolf,” Harry said with a wave of his hand, “So when Teddy is teething he destroys anything cute and fluffy.”

Rob grinned and leant forward, “I like this kid. When can I meet him?”

Jennifer shook her head in amusement, “I’m starting to see why Elizabeth found you hard work.”

“Oh but I’m worth the work,” Rob flirted.

Neville snorted, “No he’s not, cut your losses and run now Jennifer.”

“You,” Rob said, pointing at Neville, “Shut up.”

Neville just grinned in response then tuned into an argument that had just started between the others.

Theo was saying to Sadie, “I don’t know why you insisted on coming anyway. I was hoping to get some quality time with Draco tonight!”

“Merlin Theo, I’m starting to get worried about your obsession with my fiancé,” Hermione said with a raised eyebrow, “He sees you more than he sees me.”

“Well Sadie spends more time with you than me,” Theo combated.

“Yeah, because you’re _always _with Draco,” Sadie said with a raised eyebrow.

“We’re not _always _together,” Draco argued.

“No, they’re not always together. Sometimes Draco’s with me,” Harry said in amusement.

“Yeah,” Neville said through his laughter, “Do you not remember when they had a lovers tiff and didn’t talk to each other for like a month? I had to put up with all Theo’s whining about how much of an arsehole Draco was.”

“And I had to put up with all Draco’s whining about Theo,” Harry said in amusement.

“And we all went shopping,” Daphne said, smirking at the girls.

They all laughed, although Theo was still huffing slightly. Hermione said, “Anyway there isn’t long left. This is the Netherlands and after this there is just one more country then it’s the UK.”

“This one sounds like some American country band,” Draco remarked, he tapped his foot, “I actually quite like it.”

“Bloody hell Draco, you really are enjoying this aren’t you?” Harry asked in amusement.

“I am _not _enjoying it,” Draco remarked, “Some of the songs are okay, but that is the extent of my enjoyment.”

Harry and Hermione just shared an amused look, they took the mick out of Draco throughout the rest of that song and the next one. Then Hermione got serious, “Shh! We’re on, I want to see who our entry is this year!”

They all fell silent as the stage lit up and a young woman walked forward with a microphone in her hand. She started to sing and the camera zoomed in on her face.

“Is that…Luna?” Harry asked in disbelief.

“Why the hell is Luna there?”

“What the hell is she doing?”

“She’s the UK’s entry!” Hermione exclaimed.

“Did you know about this, Hermione?” Susan asked as she stared at the screen in disbelief.

“No,” Hermione said honestly, “Shh! I want to hear her!”

“So she’s going by the fake name Moon,” Harry said, shooting an amused look Lilly’s way as Luna introduced herself.

She was dressed in silver and gold metallic dress robes and her hair was crazier than Hermione’s had been in 1st year. She had a horn on her head and her make-up was all silver and gold.

“She looks so wizarding!” Daphne exclaimed, “The statute of secrecy will never let her get away with that!”

“It’s Eurovision, the Muggles won’t think anything of it,” Hermione said offhandedly, “Can she actually sing?”

“Yeah, she’s pretty good,” Ginny said, “I’ve heard her sing before.”

“What the hell is she doing?” Ron asked through his laughter as someone brought an item out onto the stage and helped her onto it.

“I think that’s a unicycle,” Susan said in amusement as Luna climbed up onto it.

The music started to play and it was instantly recognisable.

“She’s singing a Weird Sisters song!” Daphne exclaimed.

They all burst out laughing as Luna changed the words to a Weird Sisters song and sang, “Can you dance like a unicorn?” with a unicorn horn on her head while on a unicycle. The crowd seemed to love it and were all cheering and dancing.

Meanwhile in Number 12 Grimmauld Place, everyone was rolling about the floor laughing. Sadie got to her feet and said, “I have to go to the toilet or I’ll wet myself,” through her giggles.

“Merlin, Hermione, that was good,” Draco admitted, “For a Muggle show, it’s not bad.”

Hermione laughed too, “Do you know what? The UK might actually win this year.”

Rob snorted, “Hah! Fat chance! We going to treat this like any other Eurovision party and play a drinking game while the rest of Europe takes forever to vote?”

“Yes,” Bill said, pointing at Rob and grinning, “I like you.”

“And to think, you didn’t want to come,” Jennifer murmured in his ear.

Rob smirked at her, “You’re my lucky charm obviously.”

“Have I told you tonight that I love your accent?” Jennifer asked him in a whisper.

“Once or twice,” Rob said, flashing her a grin.

Harry chuckled and looked away from his boss. He wouldn’t admit it, but he was happy to see him having a good time. He smiled around at all of his friends… at Ron, who was a brilliant Dad despite the circumstances. At Ginny, who was a fantastic Mother and Healer, and who Lupin House could not do without. At Bill and Lara who were laughing together, Bill with his hand on the small of her back protectively. At Charlie who was grinning and flirting with Astoria while she shook her head and smiled fondly at him. At Sadie and Theo who were settling into parenting so well now. At Susan and Percy who were settling into marriage just as well. At Neville and Lilly who were blossoming as they found their feet with their new jobs. And at Hermione and Draco who were happier than Harry had ever seen them.

All was well.

** **

**THE END!**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just kidding! There’s a flash forward for Draco and Hermione’s wedding 😉 . I wouldn’t do that to you guys after all these years!


	138. Jurassic Dragons

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is very heavily based on the Jurassic Park movies...

** December, 2000 **

**7 MONTHS LATER…**

“Are you bringing your work home with you _again_?”

Hermione rolled her eyes as she dropped a stack of files onto the kitchen table, “And you weren’t doing the same last night when you brought home a case file full of disgusting pictures?”

“Firstly, that’s not my case. I was just having a look for Rob because Sam and Mitch asked for his advice. Also, I did tell you not to look in it,” Draco pointed out as he spooned some food into a bowl in front of her.

“There were decapitated bodies Draco!”

“Yes, I am aware of that,” Draco said matter of factly, “They call him the Decapitator for a reason love. Now if I were you I would stop thinking about that because I’ve made tomato and sausage hotpot for dinner.”

Hermione shook her head in amusement as she sat down across the table from him, “I’m not as squeamish as you think I am. And I’m sorry, but I do have to work tonight. I’ve been approving contracts all day long and I still have three to get through.”

“What department have sent you a stack this time?” Draco asked curiously, he knew it was part of Hermione’s job to approve or deny contracts for developments within the wizarding world. She had to assess them for legal loopholes, and if she saw serious flaws she immediately denied them.

“The DRCMC,” Hermione said as she ate a forkful of Draco’s hotpot, “And this is delicious by the way.”

Draco smiled slightly, “I’m glad you like it. How many contracts do you need to approve or deny tonight?”

“Three,” Hermione admitted, “But the first two are almost definitely going to be denied. I think it will be a case of reading the blurb and then laughing.”

“How bad are they?” Draco laughed.

“Well one is an application for a feeding zoo for unicorns,” Hermione said with a roll of her eyes, “They are far too shy and it’s not fair on them to be ogled by the public, not to mention the fact they are a protected species.”

“A definite no,” Draco agreed.

Hermione nodded and swallowed another mouthful, “And the other is an application for planning permission. Somebody in the department wants to build an emporium for viewing bloody Acromantula.”

“How stupid are those people?” Draco asked in disbelief.

“Very,” Hermione said with a shake of her head, “I’m so glad I decided to go into the DMLE. I couldn’t handle working with those idiots, instead I just have to deny their stupid contracts.”

“What’s the last one then?” Draco asked curiously, “And do you want some wine? I mean it _is _Friday night and we are getting married in two days. You have remembered that haven’t you?”

Hermione shot him a long suffering look, “No Draco, I have not forgotten about my own wedding and I am sorry that I have to work over the weekend.”

“I know you are love. Was it a yes or a no to the wine?”

“I’ll have a tiny glass,” Hermione conceded.

Draco began to pour the wine and Hermione continued, “The last one has some promise. It’s certainly an interesting idea. A group of people within the DRCMC have just shut down a dragon reserve on this tiny little island out in the Atlantic. They are trying to think of new uses for it and so far I’ve turned down about 6 applications for stupid things like a Quidditch centre, I mean who’s going to go all the way out there every summer for Quidditch training?”

“It would be pointless and expensive,” Draco agreed, “Have none of the applications made sense?”

“You know, I shouldn’t actually be telling you about this. It’s classified,” Hermione said as she grabbed the file and opened it, she swallowed her mouthful as she did so.

“And my security clearance is higher than yours,” Draco pointed out.

“Still, Draco,” Hermione said with a pointed look, “If I tell you about this file you can’t tell anyone else about it, not even Harry, Neville or Theo.”

“Come on, I won’t tell anyone,” Draco said simply, “What are they doing on the island?”

“Well,” Hermione said, “The dragons on the island were really rare and it shut down when a fight between the final two made them extinct. This application wants to re-open the reserve as a sort of tourist attraction, they want to use magic to genetically modify the remains to effectively re-birth the dragons-”

Draco had been gradually looking more and more sceptical as Hermione went on but at this point he shook his head and interrupted her, “- no way, there is _no _way you can approve that contract.”

“Why not?” Hermione asked with a frown, “I think I know more about dragons than you do!”

“Yeah maybe you do, but have you ever seen_ Jurassic Park_?”

“No,” Hermione said as her frown deepened, “How have you seen it, exactly?”

“I saw a re-run at the cinema with Harry and Neville, after the second film came out,” Draco said offhandedly, “But the point is, you _cannot _approve that contract.”

“But-”

“No Hermione, I am putting my foot down!” Draco said firmly, “You cannot approve that contract!”

“Draco you do not get to tell me what to do with my work-”

“- yes I do!” Draco said as he glared at her, he grabbed the file and pulled it out of her reach then put a large “X” in the box for approval, “You are denying that contract!”

“Draco!” Hermione shouted angrily, “You have yet to give me a valid excuse, and I have to sign that to make it official!”

“You want a valid excuse?” Draco asked in disbelief, “How about the fact that the original creatures died out for a reason? That reason being because they made each other extinct! You can’t train them and you definitely can’t put them near humans, fucking hell Hermione they _eat _humans!”

“But with viewing platforms and containment charms-”

“What happens when the containment charms collapse? Dragons are huge, especially the rare, dangerous ones! They were confined to that island for a reason and the second they smash into the dome of the containment charm, it will break and people will die,” Draco said firmly, “You have to sign that contract Hermione, there is _no _way that can happen.”

“Alright,” Hermione sighed, she grabbed the contract from her fiancé and scrawled her signature across it, “Happy now?”

Draco nodded and topped up her wine glass, “Yes and when I show you the film you will thank me, I swear.”

“I’ll take your word for it,” Hermione said a little grumpily, “But there better be a bloody good dessert.”

“Black forest gateau,” Draco smirked.

Hermione cheered up a little at this, “Honestly, who would have thought that we would be here? Two days before our wedding and _you_, the pureblooded idiot who I met in first year would be lecturing _me _about muggle movies.”

“Hey, a lot can change in 9 years,” Draco said with a smile.

~ ~ * ~ ~ * ~ ~ * ~ ~

“Why have we been called in at this ridiculous hour on a Saturday?” Theo yawned irritably.

“Because our serial killer killed three more people overnight,” Rob said dryly.

“He’s not our serial killer,” Elizabeth pointed out.

“He’s the whole departments serial killer Liz,” Rob said as he rubbed his eyes, “He’s killed 11 people.”

“Robbie has a point,” John said as he appeared in the doorway, “The whole department is on this guy Liz. Everyone is chasing leads and running background checks, he’s getting out of control.”

Elizabeth nodded, “So this is our priority now?”

John nodded too, “Deal with any emergencies relating to your own department but beyond that, catching this guy is the whole departments focus.”

Rob bowed his head, “Got it Shep.”

John left and moved on to the next office, probably to give them the same brief.

Draco sighed and threw himself into a chair, “How are we going to catch this bastard? Because I get married tomorrow and if he’s still at large, nobody is going to be at my wedding since my best man, groomsmen and pretty much all my friends work in this bloody department!”

“Clocks ticking then,” Rob said as he conjured up a murder board.

“Can’t have the Princesses wedding day getting ruined,” Theo agreed, clapping his friend on the back.

Draco sighed, “Yeah, we really can’t. She’s already not in the best of moods with me at the moment.”

Theo yawned again and asked, “What did you do?”

“I forced her to deny a contract she wanted to approve,” Draco admitted.

Harry scoffed, “_Why_?”

“And how did you persuade her?” Neville asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Yeah the princess isn’t exactly the easiest person to convince to do anything,” Theo added.

“Well I do kind of have leverage,” Draco smirked, “It involved a black forest gateau and a promise of morning sex which she is not going to be happy that I didn’t deliver on, by the way.”

“Serial killers don’t wait for you to get laid,” Rob snorted.

Harry chuckled, “What was the contract anyway? I mean why would you care so much?”

“Some idiots in the DRCMC wanted to open up a tourist attraction on that island, you know the one where those rare dragons went extinct?” Draco asked.

The others nodded and Draco continued, “They wanted to use magic to genetically modify the dragons and bring them back to life, then open it for bloody tourists. She thought the idea was intriguing and she was thinking about approving it.”

“Seriously? Has she not seen _Jurassic Park_?” Neville asked in disbelief.

“Apparently not,” Draco replied with a roll of his eyes.

“I mean at what point do you decide it’s a good idea to mess around with nature?” Harry asked with a shake of his head, “Look how that went for John Hammond!”

“I know!” Draco exclaimed, “Alan Grant had the right idea saying it was a mistake to try and bring extinct animals back to life!”

“But life finds a way,” Neville shrugged.

Rob looked at Elizabeth in exasperation, “How are these guys expected to help catch a serial killer Liz?”

“Well two of them did fight a Dark Lord,” Elizabeth said with a smile.

Rob snorted, “Yeah and they _never _bring that one up,” he joked

He and Elizabeth were on much better terms these days. It probably had a lot to do with the fact that Rob was actually in a serious relationship with Jennifer. He had survived telling Elizabeth miraculously, and they had a great working relationship now, minus the flirting.

“They have a point though,” Elizabeth said, “A tourist resort revolving around Dragons is a bad idea.”

“It’s a very bad idea,” Rob agreed, “We’ll do a double date to a muggle cinema some time and I’ll show you the movie _Jurassic Park, _then you’ll get it.”

Oblivious to their bosses, the Junior Aurors were still discussing the plot of the movie.

“Animals become extinct for a reason, normally because they kill each other until none are left,” Neville agreed, “Why would _anyone _think bringing them back from the dead _and _making them a tourist attraction is a good idea? Nobody wants to go to a petting zoo for Acromantula after all!”

“Funny you should say that, I’m pretty sure that’s one of the other ones she disapproved,” Draco snorted.

“Are you supposed to be telling us this?” Theo asked in amusement, “Didn’t she have to sign a disclosure agreement or something? And also, who the fuck are John Hammond and Alan Grant?”

“Characters in an epic movie,” Rob cut in, “Now if you eejits are quite finished talking about it. Can we get to catching this serial killer? Because I quite fancy making an arse out of myself and drinking all the free booze at pretty boys wedding tomorrow.”

Draco usually rolled his eyes at the nickname, but this time he wholeheartedly agreed.

~ ~ * ~ ~ * ~ ~ * ~ ~

“Hey Lil! How was your refresher course in France?”

“Boring, same as always. How is England?” Lilly asked as she pottered about in the kitchen of Longbottom house.

“Well it has been rainy, snow in the highlands as always. Oh, and there was a bitch of a serial killer running wild,” Neville said.

“Ah, the Decapitator?” Lilly asked as she pulled two bottles of cider from the fridge.

“Well the Decapitator has been decapitated,” Neville said as he sat down heavily on the sofa and accepted the cider that Lilly was holding out for him.

“Are you allowed to do that?” Lilly asked with a raised eyebrow.

“He had killed 11 people, we were authorised to use whatever force deemed necessary,” Neville sighed, “Also, we were on the clock because we weren’t going to let him ruin Draco’s wedding.”

Lilly rolled her eyes, “You killed a serial killer so that Draco’s wedding wasn’t ruined?”

“Well no, we killed a serial killer because he was a serial killer,” Neville said matter of factly. “I personally didn’t kill him, Draco did. He thought it was poetic.”

Lilly scoffed, “He would, what did _you _think?”

“Honestly,” Neville said with a frown, “He would have escaped at some point and killed more people. I doubt we would even have got him through the court trial before he escaped…”

“So you agree?”

“I agree that killing him was the right thing to do, for the greater good,” Neville nodded, “But I think decapitating him was a little bit dramatic.”

“If it was Draco’s idea then of course it was dramatic,” Lilly said as she rolled her eyes and sat down next to her fiancé on the sofa, “What did he decapitate him with?”

“Dark magic,” Neville said with a roll of his eyes, “At least he didn’t use a sword because then I’d have been pissed off. That’s kind of my signature weapon.”

Lilly snorted, “Why did he decapitate him? Don’t you guys just save kids in CPS? I thought there were big hot shots in Homicide and Vice to do all the killing and decapitating.”

“There are, but because we wanted to catch him and save Draco’s wedding, we got there first,” Neville replied, “And Harry being Harry was too busy trying to disarm him to do anything useful.”

“Harry was being Harry because he doesn’t believe in using force unless absolutely necessary,” Lilly cut in.

“I know,” Neville said honestly, “Either way, I was duelling with Harry. Theo got knocked out because he’s Theo so Draco decapitated him.”

“Are you really okay with it?”

“It’s over now, and there’s one less murderer in the world,” Neville said with a shrug, “The families of all the victims have closure so on balance, I’m okay with it.”

“Alright,” Lilly conceded.

“And speaking of Draco, he did do some good yesterday,” Neville yawned.

“Oh yeah, what did he do?” Lilly asked curiously.

“He stopped Hermione from approving a contract to re-open that dragon reserve on the island out in the Atlantic,” Neville said with a wave of his hand.

“And why is that a bad thing?” Lilly asked curiously, “I mean the dragons there went extinct but it’s a good environment for other species to live in, such as-”

“- exactly,” Neville cut in, “But they didn’t want to import other species of dragons onto the island. They wanted to genetically modify the DNA of the extinct dragons using magic, _and _to make things worse they wanted to make it into a tourist attraction.”

“And Hermione was actually considering approving it?” Lilly asked in disbelief, “I mean has she seen _Jurassic Park_?”

Neville laughed out loud, “That is exactly what I said.”

“We _have _to remedy that,” Lilly laughed.

~ ~ * ~ ~ * ~ ~ * ~ ~

“Hey, Hermione!”

Hermione smiled at Lilly as she stepped into her kitchen, “Hey Lil! How was your course?”

“Dull,” Lilly said with a smile, “How are you feeling?”

“Oh, I’m fine,” Hermione said with a nervous smile.

“Really?” Lilly asked, raising an eyebrow at her, “Because you’re getting married tomorrow.”

“I know, I can’t quite believe it’s come around this fast,” Hermione laughed, “I don’t know how I’m going to get any sleep tonight.”

“I was sorting hoping you would be feeling like that,” Lilly said with a grin, “Because we’ve arranged a little get together to keep your mind off of the nerves.”

“A get together?” Hermione queried.

“Yeah,” Lilly said with a smirk, “Just you if you’re being traditional and not seeing Draco tonight. But if he’s here, then he can come too.”

“She’s not traditional,” Draco said, stepping into the kitchen in a dressing gown.

“Good,” Lilly said cheerfully, “Get dressed and head over to Longbottom House. It’s not like you have anything else to work on, you guys don’t have a case at the moment.”

“Why do I get the feeling that you disagree with my treatment of the Decapitator?” Draco asked Lilly with a roll of his eyes.

“Because you decapitated him with dark magic,” Hermione said irritably, “_I _disagree with your treatment of him too!”

“He killed 11 people!” Draco remarked.

“I know and I get your logic in _killing _him,” Lilly admitted, “And so does Neville. But decapitating him was unnecessary.”

Draco opened his mouth to object.

“You can’t just use Sectumsempra to decapitate him to make it your signature spell, just because Harry has Expelliarmus,” Lilly said, crossing her arms and staring him down.

“Yeah but my Godfather invented it!” Draco objected.

“And? You’re Godfather was a dick!” Lilly pointed out.

Draco frowned, “But…Hermione?”

“Sorry Draco,” Hermione said sheepishly, “But Snape was kind of a dick. I mean I know he betrayed Voldemort and everything, and technically he did keep Harry alive but he did it for all the wrong reasons. I mean if you look at the life choices he made then consider that he made them all because the girl he had a creepy, obsessive crush on died…you know?”

Draco sighed, “Yeah…I mean…when you put it like that.”

Lilly shrugged, “The truth hurts Draco. Maybe just have a little think about your own life choices though? Decapitating people in your first year as an Auror…it’s a slippery road.”

“I’ve already had all of this from Harry _and _Hermione, probably worse from Harry actually because he was all like, _Draco don’t you remember what that spell did to you? How could you use it on someone else? I thought you were better than this, I’m just bloody disappointed in you,_” Draco said with a pointed look. He then rolled his eyes.

“Well, your Harry Potter impression is on point,” Lilly remarked sarcastically.

Draco shot her a long-suffering look, “I _know _it wasn’t necessary but the sick bastard deserved it and nobody else is prepared to admit it apart from Theo and I.”

“Theo would say the earth was flat if you said so,” Hermione retorted, “So I wouldn’t think _that _counts for much!”

Lilly grimaced, “Okay, so you two are clearly having a bit of a domestic here which is not ideal considering you’re meant to be getting married tomorrow.”

“We’re not having a domestic,” Hermione said with a sigh, “I just want him to admit that he acted rashly because he wanted the Decapitator removed from the picture so he wouldn’t ruin our wedding.”

Draco sighed too, “Fine. I acted rashly and without thinking, like a Gryffindor, because I didn’t want anything to ruin your perfect day tomorrow. Is that what you wanted to hear?”

Hermione smiled at him, “Yes, it was, thank you. That was very sweet of you, but also wrong and morbid.”

Lilly snorted, “This is a weird conversation and I am _so _glad I’m not marrying a Slytherin. But I’ll see you guys in half an hour at Longbottom House, okay?”

Hermione nodded, “Of course Lil, we’ll be there.”

“Great!” Lilly said with a smile, “See you guys soon….and Hermione?”

“Uh-huh,” Hermione said somewhat distractedly.

Lilly smiled slightly, “Don’t give Draco _too much _of a hard time. If anyone deserved that kind of death it was that sick bastard. He killed 11 people, some of them young girls.”

“I know, Lil,” Hermione admitted as Lilly disappeared into the fireplace.

~ ~ * ~ ~ * ~ ~ * ~ ~

When Draco and Hermione arrived at Longbottom House later that night Lilly answered the door with a slightly mischievous grin, “Hey! Everyone else is here.”

Hermione frowned slightly as they stepped into the kitchen/dining area, “I don’t see any food or any people.”

“That’s because all of the food and people are in the cinema,” Lilly said, “It’s just a buffet, is that okay?”

“That’s fine,” Hermione said offhandedly, “What are we watching in the cinema?”

“It’s a surprise, come on,” Lilly said, she could barely contain her smirk as she led them upstairs into the crowded cinema room where all of their friends were already gathered, they were all eating food off of paper plates.

“What are we watching?” Hermione asked again as the movie began to play on the big screen while she and Draco sat down on a comfortable sofa in the front ‘row’.

“Well Hermione, we’re educating you,” Harry grinned.

“Yeah, we think that you need to know _why _that dragon reserve in the Atlantic was a bad idea,” Neville smirked.

Hermione rolled her eyes at them, “Okay… a. None of you were supposed to know about that because _Draco _wasn’t supposed to tell anyone and, b. You’re making me watch _Jurassic Park_, aren’t you?”

“Yes, we are,” Harry grinned.

“And wedding day tomorrow or not, we will put a bodybind on you if you try to move,” Lilly added in amusement.

“The rest of us _normal _purebloods are just as perplexed as you here Hermione,” Daphne said in amusement, “But Harry thinks it’s a travesty that we haven’t seen this movie.”

“It _is _a travesty!” Harry exclaimed, “It’s one of the coolest films ever made!”

“You’ll get our verdict once the movie has finished,” Sadie added with a chuckle.

“Deal, by the end of the film you’ll be in love with dinosaurs!” Harry said confidently.

We’ll see about that,” Daphne said in amusement.

**127 MINUTES LATER…**

“That film was _epic_!”

“I told you so!” Harry said as he grinned at his wife.

Hermione was still staring at the screen in shock as the titles ran, “Woah.”

“You can say that again,” Theo said as he also stared at the screen, “Dinosaurs are _so _cool!”

“Come on they aren’t _that _cool, they are pretty similar to dragons,” Sadie said with a roll of her eyes.

“Yeah dragons come in different shapes and sizes but they all do the same thing!” Harry objected, “They just breathe fire and destroy shit.”

“But dinosaurs all do different stuff. Some eat meat, some eat plants. Some have really tall necks and some have huge teeth or giant wings or spikes on their back!” Neville added excitedly.

“And some eat humans and destroy shit, _just _like dragons,” Hermione said loudly, effectively breaking into their argument.

She glanced at Draco who was watching her with interest and said, “Thank Merlin that you stopped me from approving that contract, Draco.”

“See, this is why Muggle movies are educational,” Harry said with a smirk, “If it wasn’t for _Jurassic Park_ you would have created an insanely dangerous tourist attraction and you would have been responsible for the deaths of thousands of people.”

“I think that’s a _bit _dramatic, Harry,” Lilly said with a raised eyebrow at her friend.

“Especially when you’re saying it to your best friend the night before her _wedding_,” Daphne pointed out, glaring at her Husband.

“Okay so maybe I was a little dramatic, sorry Mione,” Harry said sheepishly, “But look what happened in the movie. And that was just when they were testing it to see if it was okay to launch. Imagine what would have happened if they had opened it to the public and one of the dinosaurs escaped! Tourists would die, children would get eaten!”

“This is why I won’t let you show Teddy movies,” Daphne said pointedly.

“I wouldn’t show him _Jurassic Park_, not until he is at least 5. I was only going to show him Disney films!”

“5?” Daphne asked in disbelief, “Hermione and Sadie screamed watching that film, you are not showing it to Teddy until he is at least 12!”

“12?” Harry scoffed, “By the time _I _was 12 I had defeated Voldemort twice _and _killed a Basilisk!”

“You say that like it should be normal! That is _not _normal! And Teddy is not you,” Daphne exclaimed in disbelief, “He’s a safe little boy who doesn’t have to grow up in a war and who will not be watching films about dinosaurs or creepy clowns or bloody dolls that come to life until he is _at least _Hogwarts age!”

“What are, you, his Mother?” Harry joked.

Daphne just gave him a long-suffering look.

Harry rolled his eyes, “Alright you win,” he said.

At this Draco made the sound of a whip and smirked at his friend.

“Oh shut up Drakey,” Neville grinned, “This will be you soon.”

“You’re getting married in the morning,” Theo said in a sing-song voice.

“Yes, I am aware of that,” Draco remarked dryly.

“And I’ll make you a deal Daphne,” Harry cut in, “I won’t show him adult films but can I show him Disney films? I mean surely _The Lion King_ is okay.”

“_The Lion King_?” Hermione asked in disbelief, “Simba’s Father dies in that movie and Teddy has a dead Father! Honestly Harry, you can’t show him that!”

“He’s going to have to learn that people die at some point, Hermione,” Harry pointed out, “People will ask him about his parents and teaching him about what happened early on is better than lying to him for years and telling him just before he goes to Hogwarts.”

Everyone glanced at Daphne, they expected her to argue with Harry about this. She didn’t, instead she smiled slightly and nodded, “I agree with Harry on this one.”

“Really?” Theo asked in surprise.

“Really,” Daphne said, “There’s no point in building his life into something that it isn’t and then taking it away from him. It’s cruel and he will have to accept that his parents are dead one day. It will be easier for him to accept that as a child, than as an adult.”

“Well, you two sure are good parents,” Lilly said with a smile.

Draco nodded his agreement and smiled at his friends, “It takes a great parent to realise that their child has to feel pain sometimes to grow up and to grow as a person.”

Harry smiled slightly but the conversation was getting far too personal for his liking, “Well as moving at this is, let’s move onto the next film. Who wants to watch the second _Jurassic Park_ movie?”

“No!” Draco, Neville and Lilly echoed.

“It’s the worst _sequel _ever!” Draco remarked.

“I don’t know if I would say it was the worst ever. _Jaws 2_ was pretty shit,” Neville pointed out.

“And _Robocop 2_ was a downright failure,” Lilly added.

“Not to mention the embarrassment of _Grease 2_”,” Hermione piped up.

“But the greatest of all terrible movie sequels has got to be _Speed 2_,” Harry said, and every muggle-born or pureblood who he had converted to a movie buff nodded their agreement.

“So we’re all in agreement then?” Neville asked, “We’re definitely not watching the second movie?”

“I will definitely not be watching it,” Hermione said as she got to her feet, “I need my beauty sleep for the big day tomorrow.”

“So do I,” Draco said with a grin.

Theo sniggered, “You still coming to ours to get ready tomorrow morning?”

“Yep, I’ll see you bright and early,” Draco said, “You better be there too Harry, and you Neville.”

“Why am I always an afterthought? I’m a groomsman too!” Neville objected.

“You’re the one he likes least though, sorry baby,” Lilly said, patting her fiancé on the back sympathetically.

Hermione shook her head in amusement, “He loves you all equally, but he’ll never admit that.”

“I don’t love _any _of them,” Draco objected, “They are all weirdos, apart from Theo obviously.”

Hermione rolled her eyes, “Are you girls still okay to come and get ready at the house tomorrow?”

“Of course we are,” Daphne said with a smile, “Are you sure you don’t mind having Teddy running around while we’re getting ready?”

“Of course I don’t, he’s part of the family,” Hermione said honestly.

“I’ll go via Bones Manor and grab Susan,” Lilly said with a grin, “She’s going to need to be dragged along with her whole, ‘I can’t go to the wedding cause I’m so fat' thing.”

Daphne snorted, “She’s not fat, she’s 5 months pregnant.”

“Try telling Susie that,” Hermione laughed, “She’s already dropped out of being a bridesmaid because of it. But I know she’ll be there Lil, don’t worry. I’m more worried about Gin and Blaise fighting with them both being part of the wedding party.”

“You don’t have to worry about that anymore,” Draco admitted, “I sorted it.”

“You sorted it?” Hermione asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Yeah… I wasn’t going to tell you unless you brought it up,” Draco admitted sheepishly.

“Oh good Godric, what did you do?” Hermione muttered in disbelief.

“Well,” Draco said with a grimace, “I sort of altered Blaise’s memory of me asking him to be a groomsman.”

“Altered?” Hermione asked sceptically.

“Obliviated,” Harry cut in, “He obliviated him.”

“Yeah,” Draco said sheepishly, “I erased his memory of me asking him to be a groomsman. It was easier than having to deal with the custody battle and all of that going on between him and Ginny.”

“Oh for the love of Merlin,” Hermione sighed, “You’re telling me this the _night _before our wedding? I mean what are we going to do now? We’ve got an odd number of groomsmen and bridesmaids!”

“We don’t,” Draco assured her, “Because I sorted that too.”

“You…” Hermione trailed off and narrowed her eyes at him, “Who did you ask in his place?”

“Eh…well does it matter?” Draco asked evasively.

“Of course it matters! How can you even ask me if it matters?” Hermione kicked off.

“Okay sorry, it does matter,” Draco said, he nodded sincerely, “It totally matters, you’re right.”

“I know I am!” Hermione exclaimed, “So who did you ask?”

“Well I asked Rob,” Draco answered.

“Rob?”

“Yeah Rob, you know my boss-”

“I know who Rob is Draco!” Hermione said irritably.

“Right, so I asked Rob,” Draco said, looking at her warily.

“And?”

“And what?”

“What did he say?” Hermione asked.

“He said yes,” Draco answered.

“Just yes?” Hermione asked, narrowing her eyes at Draco, “Because I’ve met Rob and he very rarely does something he doesn’t want to do without conditions.”

“Well there was a condition or two,” Draco admitted, “And it involved free alcohol but it’s fine. I’ve spoken with Harry about it and if he gets rowdy, he’ll kick him out.”

Harry nodded sincerely, “It’s all under control Mione.”

“But I think your true nerves just started to show through,” Daphne said, patting her friend on the back, “So maybe I should grab Teddy out of the spare room and stay with you tonight?”

“Maybe that would be a good idea,” Hermione admitted.

“Yeah, maybe the whole tradition of not seeing each other the night before the wedding is a good idea after all,” Draco said a little too quickly, “Can I stay at your place Harry?”

Harry raised an eyebrow at him, “My place? Shouldn’t you be staying with the best man?”

“I should but the best man has twin babies who are teething and I don’t need that shit the night before my wedding,” Draco retorted.

“Woah man,” Theo said, gripping his chest as if he was clutching at his heart, “I’m so hurt.”

“Sorry Theo, I love my godkids to bits but I need to be well rested for tomorrow,” Draco said honestly.

“I know,” Theo chuckled, “I get it.”

“And it’s fine if you want to crash at the Manor,” Harry added, “But I reckon we should get a move on because it is getting late and we do all have somewhere important to be in the morning.”

“Yeah, we do,” Draco agreed, he smiled at Hermione, “See you on our wedding day.”

Hermione kissed him back and smiled too, “See you tomorrow,” she agreed.

**TBC...**


	139. I Will Never Stop Choosing You

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter title, and Draco and Hermione's first dance is inspired by the song:  
Never Stop (Wedding Version) by SafetySuit.

** 23rd December, 2000 **

_Arundel Castle, West Sussex_

“Still can’t believe you’re getting married in a fricking library man.”

“Theo,” Harry hissed, “Do you really think that’s helpful right now?”

“I’m distracting him from his nerves!” Theo whispered.

Draco swallowed a lump in his throat as he stared out at the guests.

“Good luck with that,” Rob remarked.

“Rob, shut up,” Harry said sternly, “The deal was that you be a groomsman, you stand there quietly and then you get free booze. There was nothing about sarcastic remarks.”

“Not even in the small print?” Rob joked.

“There was no small print,” Neville whispered from Rob’s other side.

“I feel so outnumbered Theo,” Draco whispered to his best friend, “Most of these people are Hermione’s family or friends. I mean…I fought against most of the people in this room in the war.”

Theo nodded thoughtfully, “Oh yeah, you did actually.”

Draco began to panic, “Why would their heroine marry me? Oh sweet Salazar, it’s all been a trick hasn’t it? She’s not going to show up.”

“Yep,” Harry said dryly, “It’s all an elaborate joke. I don’t even like you, she still hates you. She just bought a house with you and threw thousands of galleons at this wedding for a fucking laugh.”

Rob raised an eyebrow at the younger man, “Have I been rubbing off on you?”

“Wolfe, zip it!” Harry hissed irritably.

“Oh and you’ve been taking lessons from Lizzie apparently.”

Neville rolled his eyes and silenced Rob. He shrugged and mouthed something that looked like ‘fair enough’.

“Draco, get a grip,” Harry whispered, “She is going to come because she loves you. The past is the past, leave it there and stop trying to drag it into the present. She loves you for who you are now, not who you were then and _that _is why she will be here.”

Theo frowned, “I kind of feel like I should have said that. It sounds like a best man kind of thing to say.”

“Yeah it was, but you were being a dick,” Harry said irritably, “So man up and start being a decent best man. And if any of you idiots ruin my best friend’s wedding day for her, I will not hesitate to hex your arses across the Atlantic. Okay?”

“Sir yes sir,” Theo said, doing a mock salute, “Mr. future Head Auror, sir.”

Rob shook his head in amusement.

“Yeah,” Draco said, he swallowed hard and nodded, “Sorry for the moment of self-doubt.”

“It’s fine, we all have it but not normally at the altar,” Harry said, shooting Draco an amused look, “Trust you to be the dramatic one.”

Draco chuckled weakly then the piece of music that Hermione had chosen to walk down the aisle to, began to play.

Harry dropped back into his place next to Neville as the large doors opened and the bridal party walked into the library. It was a beautiful venue for a wedding with its high roof and four walls lined with ancient books. A red carpet had been used to create an aisle and the area had been filled with chairs for the guests.

Ginny walked in first wearing the dress that Hermione had chosen for the bridesmaids. It was long and figure-hugging, comprised entirely of golden sequins. Her long red hair had been left down and curled, and she wore a golden wreath in her hair. Ginny, being the confident woman that she was, smiled broadly at everyone as she walked down the aisle to take her place in the front row on Hermione’s side of the library.

Once she sat down, Molly passed Zola over to her from the row behind. The little girl squealed excitedly to be with her Mum once more. She then reached up and tried to grab the wreath from her head.

Harry chuckled as Sadie walked down the aisle next. She wore the same dress and wreath as Ginny, but she didn’t hold herself as confidently as the red head did. She waved nervously at Theo and smiled at Narcissa and Cygnus as she walked past. The two of them had been lumped with the twins _and _Teddy. Although, at the moment, it looked like Teddy was being the more difficult one.

Lilly walked in next. The golden wreath stood out far more in her dark hair. She smiled at Neville and sat down next to Sadie in the front row.

Lastly, Daphne stepped in. Like Ginny, confidence wasn’t an issue for her. She smiled at the guests and blew Teddy a kiss which caused a loud shout of, “Mummy!” and a roll of the eyes on Narcissa’s part, “Shh Teddy.”

“Or we will be forced to silence you,” Cygnus warned him.

Astoria rolled her eyes from her spot beside him, “Dad! You can’t silence a toddler!”

“Watch me,” Cygnus muttered, “I did it to your pain in the arse of a sister often enough.”

From Astoria’s other side, Charlie couldn’t hold back his snigger.

Daphne looked absolutely stunning in the dress and wreath. Harry grinned and whispered to Neville, “And to think she kicked off about the dress when she first tried it on.”

Neville chortled as he recalled the moment Hermione had unveiled the dresses.

_“It’s golden.”_

_“Yeah!” Hermione had said excitedly as she bounced on her heels in the drawing room of 12 Grimmauld Place. _

_“No,” Daphne said with a shake of her head, “It’s not a little touch of gold Hermione, it is **golden**.”_

_“Yes,” Hermione said, narrowing her eyes at Daphne, “Since it’s a Christmas wedding there will be lots of gold and silver.”_

_Daphne looked at the dress distastefully._

_Harry shot Neville an amused look while this played out._

_“This is the wreath to go with it,” Hermione added, showing them all the golden wreath, “And I thought if we all curled our hair-”_

_“You want me to wear a golden dress and a golden wreath? What is this wedding? A bloody sacrificial offering to Godric bleeding Gryffindor?”_

_“Daphne,” Harry cut in, “Now, it’s Hermione’s wedding and as her friend and maid of honour, you have to respect her choice.”_

_“It’s a golden dress Harry!”_

_“Yeah you can pull it off though Daph,” Neville said._

_Daphne raised an eyebrow at him, “What did you just say?”_

_“You can pull anything off,” Harry said quickly, “You’ll look like a phoenix.”_

_“A hot phoenix,” Neville added._

_“Watch it Longbottom,” Lilly warned._

_“Just trying to keep the peace,” Neville whispered._

_“Why can’t I wear silver if it’s a silver and gold wedding?” Daphne asked, crossing her arms over her chest._

_“Because….well you can’t wear silver while everyone else wears gold,” Hermione said with a frown._

_“Fine, put Sadie and I in silver then. That’s two and two, nice and symmetrical and Sadie will agree with me that silver is better than gold. Right Sade?” Daphne looked at her friend._

_Sadie made a face, “Um…honestly Hermione it’s your wedding so I’ll just go with whatever you want.”_

_“Traitor,” Daphne muttered irritably._

_“Come on Daphne,” Neville said, “Theo didn’t put up a fight about having to wear gold dress robes did he?”_

_“Draco did,” Harry sniggered._

_“You said you loved them!” Hermione exclaimed, glaring at her fiancé._

_“Well I do **now,**” Draco said, he glared at Harry, “I might have had a little…wobble…though.”_

_“A little wobble?” Harry snorted, “You said you felt like she was stripping your identity away and turning you into a Ron clone who would love Godric Gryffindor and do everything that she said.”_

_Hermione’s jaw dropped, “You **said **that?”_

_“No, I didn’t say that!” Draco’s glare intensified, “I said that maybe gold wasn’t my colour but if it made you happy I would wear it. Honestly you need to get that lunatics head checked, I reckon that scar is making him fucking crazy.”_

_“You could have just told me that you didn’t like them,” Hermione said irritably._

_“I could have but you would have just told me that I had to wear them anyway. Wouldn’t you have?” Draco asked, raising an eyebrow at her._

_“Well…yes, probably.”_

_“Exactly, so what would have been the point?” Draco shrugged._

_Hermione rolled her eyes and looked over at Daphne, irritation shining in her eyes now._

_“What? I’m with Draco on this one. You are stripping us of our identity Hermione. I feel objectified actually,” Daphne said matter of factly._

_Neville rolled his eyes._

_Theo remained silent because he was still pissing himself with laughter in the corner of the room._

_“It’s for one night,” Harry said calmly, “Nobody is going to think that just because you wear a gold dress once, you’re not the Slytherin ice queen anymore okay?”_

_“And if it bothers you **that **much, you can change for the reception,” Hermione compromised._

_“Deal,” Daphne said with a smirk._

_“Bloody Slytherins,” Hermione muttered, shooting a glare Draco’s way._

_“Don’t give me that look, I broke up with her years ago,” Draco said, raising his hands in defeat, “She’s Harry’s problem now.”_

Harry smiled in amusement at the memory. But before he could dwell on it much more, Hermione walked into the library with her Dad. John smiled tearfully at his wife and Harry frowned, suddenly coming to the realization that Hermione’s parents were also called John and Elizabeth. He would have dwelled on that weird coincidence for longer if it weren’t for the fact that he was focusing on his best friend.

She looked happy, and she looked stunning. Hermione hadn’t opted for a plain white dress because she had thought it was too traditional and boring. Instead she wore a white ballgown with lace sleeves, embroidered with beautiful pastel pink roses with golden stems. She had left her hair down and curled it, wearing a golden wreath like her bridesmaids. Her wreath was more elaborate because it also contained pearls and pink enameled roses.

She smiled at Draco as she walked down the aisle towards him and Draco let out a breath that he hadn’t realised that he was holding.

When she reached the altar, her Father lifted her veil then sat down with Hermione’s Mother and the bridesmaids in the front row.

“Hey,” Draco said quietly.

“Hey,” Hermione said, smiling nervously at him.

“Ladies and Gentlemen,” The wizard conducting the ceremony said in a very deep voice, “We are gathered here today in this beautiful library, to witness the marriage and binding for life of Draco Abraxas Black and Hermione Jean Granger.”

Hermione and Draco continued to stare at each other, both too nervous to look out at the crowd.

“Today Draco and Hermione will bind their lives and magic together,” The little wizard continued, “But before we begin. I must ask if any man, or woman, can show just cause as to why these two may not be wed. Let him speak now, or forever hold his peace.”

He paused momentarily, and when nobody said anything, he then continued, “Ah, good. Now that we have gotten that part out of the way. Do you, Draco Abraxas Black, and you, Hermione Jean Granger, promise to comfort, honour, protect and be faithful to each other for as long as you both may live?”

“I do,” Hermione said.

“I do,” Draco said at the same time.

“Then I would ask you to give your vows to one another,” The little man said. He smiled and took a step back.

Draco took a shaky breath and went first, “Hermione, you know that I struggle to express my feelings at the best of times, let alone in front of all of our family and friends but I will try to do the best I can.”

Hermione smiled and squeezed his hand. Draco took another breath, “I want to thank you today. I want to thank you for making me a better person. You saw good in me when everyone else saw bad. You saw light in me when everyone else saw darkness. You believed in me when everyone else saw a failure. Without you, I would not be the man that I am today and for the first time in my life, I am proud of that man so thank you for loving me, especially when doing so wasn’t easy. I promise to repay you for that, for the rest of our lives.”

Hermione swallowed and wiped away a stray tear. Then she took a deep breath and said her vows, “Draco, thank you for fighting for me when everyone else tried to break us apart. There were people who wanted to protect me from you, people who didn’t see what I saw back then. I know you think that I make you a better person, but you have changed me too,” her smile widened, “Entirely for the better. We had to overcome a lot of challenges, our cultures clashed and our personalities sometimes too.”

A small chuckle came from their friends at these words, Draco included.

“But every day you challenge me and spur me on, you make me stronger and you make me better,” Hermione said, squeezing his hand, “You made me question everything in my life. You made me re-evaluate my perception of good and bad, light and evil, right and wrong. All of that made me better, and I love you for it. I promise that I will always remember how raw our love was in this moment, even when we are old and boring like the rest of our friends.”

Another chuckle went round their friends at this.

Even the little wizard conducting the ceremony chuckled, “Do you, Draco Abraxas Black, take Hermione Jean Granger, to have and to hold from this day forward? For better, for worse, for richer or poorer, in sickness and health, to love and to cherish until death do you part?”

“I do,” Draco said, his voice breaking for the first time.

“And do you, Hermione Jean Granger, take Draco Abraxas Black, to have and to hold from this day forward? For better, for worse, for richer or poorer, in sickness and health, to love and to cherish until death do you part?”

“I do,” Hermione said, tears shining in his eyes.

Theo smiled tearfully and stepped forward with the rings. He handed Draco a ring first, it was Hermione’s diamond and ruby encrusted wedding band.

“Place the ring on Hermione’s finger please Draco,” The little man said.

Draco did so, his hands shaking as he slid it into place.

Theo then handed Hermione’s a ring, this one was Draco’s simple golden band.

“And Hermione, please place the ring on Draco’s finger,” The wizard said.

Hermione’s hands shook far more than Draco’s had as she slid the ring onto his finger.

The little wizard smiled and took a step back, “Now please hold hands and face each other for the binding of your magic.

Draco and Hermione did so, looking at each other with a mixture of nerves and excitement.

The little wizard cast the charm and a golden glow surrounded the couple.

“You are now bound in body and in soul,” The little wizard said cheerfully, “You may now kiss the bride!”

Draco smiled and leant down, capturing Hermione’s lips in a chaste kiss while their friends and family all cheered and applauded.

~ ~ * ~ ~ * ~ ~ * ~ ~

The wedding reception was at 12 Grimmauld Place. Hermione had agonized for weeks on where to have the reception but had concluded that it had to be in a wizarding home because the statute of secrecy would get broken if they chose a Muggle venue. Mostly because of people like Theo and the Weasley’s. Harry and Daphne had offered up Potter Manor for the night, but Hermione had said that she would rather use her own home.

And, it scrubbed up beautifully. The drawing room was big enough for their relatively small wedding party but the seats had been crammed in a little for the food. It would be far less crowded once the speeches were finished and it was turned into a dance floor though.

The gold and silver theme carried on into the house. There were silver ice sculptures which shimmered. The food was served on golden and silver platters. It was all very classy and very pureblood in fact.

The meal had also been lovely.

“Daph,” Harry said, standing in front of the head table to talk to her, “Do you think I should go and relieve your Dad and Narcissa?”

Daphne looked over to her Father and Narcissa who were struggling to contain Teddy. She smiled in amusement and said, “It’s kind of funny.”

“Stop punishing them for getting together,” Draco said.

“Oh come on, like you were happy about it,” Daphne snorted.

“He’s right though, we shouldn’t subject them to Teddy when they were already kind enough to offer to watch the twins,” Harry said with a slight smile.

“Yeah, you’re probably right,” Daphne admitted, “Go and grab the little rascal.”

Harry chuckled and walked over to their table, which was very close to the top table. The moment Teddy saw him, he shouted, “Daddy!” and ran into his arms. Harry picked the little boy up and Cygnus sighed in relief, “Thank you Harry. That boy spends too much time with his Mother, he is exactly like she was at that age.”

“What’s that then, a handful?” Harry joked.

“Oh he’s just excitable,” Astoria said, blowing a kiss at Teddy, “Aren’t you little guy?”

“Toria,” Teddy said, reaching out for his Aunt.

“Come here,” Astoria said, sitting him down on her lap.

Cygnus rolled her eyes, “Prefers the women that one.”

“I’m just his favourite,” Astoria smirked.

“You’re only his favourite cause you’ve been feeding him cake,” Charlie retorted, nudging her in the ribs playfully.

Harry laughed at the interplay between the couple and at that point, the speeches began.

Hermione’s Father stood up and clinked his spoon against a glass. The room gradually fell silent and Mr. Granger smiled out at them all, “Hello everyone, thank you all for making the time and effort to come today. I appreciate that it wasn’t easy for everyone because my daughter _insisted _on a Christmas wedding,” he shot Hermione an amused look.

“He makes a good point,” Theo whispered.

“Shut up Theo,” Hermione hissed along the table.

Draco chortled as Hermione’s Father continued, “As I am sure you can imagine, the first time I heard the name ‘Draco’ I never imagined that would be the name of my future son-in-law. You will all know that Hermione and Draco never exactly hit things off straight away.”

This caused a chuckle to go around, Harry snorted in amused agreement.

“But as the years went on, we began to have our suspicions,” Mr. Granger continued with a smile, “When Hermione came home from her fourth year talking about how Draco had bested her scores, she made a throwaway remark about how they could have been good friends if he wasn’t such a, and I’m quoting here, Snakey little wanker.”

Hermione let her head drop into her hands at that point while Theo burst out laughing. Draco grinned at his wife, “Snakey little wanker?”

“Shut up, I was 15!”

“Yeah when you were 15 you hung out in trees for hours, just so you could look cool insulting the Gryffindors when they walked past,” Theo said with an amused grin.

“You,” Draco pointed at Theo, “Shut up.”

“Nah just save it for the speech,” Harry whispered with a grin.

“Then Hermione came home from 5th year and it was all rather negative again,” Mr. Granger continued, “But after 6th year, the entire summer she would not shut up about Draco and how she wondered if Draco was okay, and how she wouldn’t ever get to find out because she wasn’t going to go back to school. And how she hoped he wasn’t dead, but if he was she would have found out probably because surely the Prophet would have printed it. We found it a bit suspicious considering she had told us for the past six years that she hated this boy,” he finished.

Draco smiled slightly as Mr. Granger carried on, “But anyway, that was then and this is now. All any father wants is somebody who is good enough for his little girl,” at this Hermione blushed, “And I truly believe that Draco is. From my perspective, it takes someone pretty special to take a look at themselves when they are 18 and not like who they see in the mirror then to decide to change who they are. So Draco, you are okay in my book and you are welcome to play golf with me any time, or join me at the lake any Sunday you feel like.”

Mr. Granger raised his glass and said, “To Draco and Hermione.”

Everyone else did a toast, and Draco whispered, “Why does he want me to go to a lake with him?”

“Fishing Draco, he means you can go fishing with him,” Hermione whispered back.

“Fishing?”

“I’ll explain later,” Hermione murmured.

“What’s golf again?” Theo asked Draco quietly.

“The one with the ball,” Draco replied.

“What one? Lots of them have balls!”

“The one with the big wooden bat and the ball,” Draco answered in a whisper.

“No Draco, that’s cricket,” Harry said in amusement, “I’ll show you guys what golf is one day but right now, you need to stand up and give your speech.”

“Don’t remind me,” Draco said nervously as he got to his feet.

“I would like to join Hermione’s Father in thank everyone for coming,” Draco began as he smiled at Mr. Granger, “And in turn thank him for his kind words. I would like to thank everyone who made this day possible. Thank you to Hermione’s wonderful Matron of Honour, Daphne, who made sure Hermione picked a venue in time and who kept the day on track. Even if she did have the world’s biggest temper tantrum about the dress code for the day being too Gryffindor-esque for her liking.”

Daphne glared at him along the table.

Draco just smirked and continued, “Thank you to the lovely bridesmaids, Lilly, Sadie and Ginny, for supporting Hermione. I would also like to thank my Mother and her partner Cygnus for performing babysitting duties excellently throughout the ceremony. I would especially like to congratulate you for managing to control yourself and _not _silence Teddy, Cygnus. I’ve babysat that boy enough to know the struggle.”

This caused a wave of laughter to go around the drawing room.

“Obviously, I have to take this moment to thank my groomsmen, Harry, Neville and Rob. Rob, thank you for showing up, that’s about as much as I expected of you. Harry, thanks for knocking a bit of sense into me when I had a panic about Hermione showing up and Neville, thanks for silencing Rob and leaving it on, that’s possible the best thing you’ve done since you beheaded that snake!”

“Hear hear!” Jennifer shouted from the table where she was sitting with an amused Elizabeth and John, who was besides himself with laughter while Rob sulked next to him.

“And thank you to my best man Theo, for standing by my side on the most important day of my life,” Draco clapped Theo on the shoulder and smiled, “You’ve been by my side from the start so it wouldn’t have felt right to have anyone else with me today.”

Harry rolled his eyes and looked at Hermione in exasperation, “Which one did you marry, Draco?”

“Watch it scarhead,” Theo retorted.

Draco chuckled and looked over at Hermione, “And lastly, but most importantly, I would like to thank Hermione for agreeing to marry me. I can unsure you all that she is not under any imperius charms, I’ve not altered her memory, she just, for some inexplicable reason, loves me despite my many flaws. I never thought the day would come when I would call her my wife, but I am very proud to be able to do so.”

Hermione smiled tearfully as Draco raised his glass, “To my beautiful wife, Hermione.”

“To Hermione,” They all toasted.

Draco sat down and looked warily at Theo as he got to his feet. He grinned and clapped his hands together, “Oh, I have waited my whole life for this moment! Hello everyone! Welcome to the wedding. This is the kind of wedding where you are all sitting there right now going, has this actually happened or am I in a parallel world? Some of you will then just throw that thought away like oh of course this is real, silly me! But others will actually think into it and be like, right…are they actually getting married? Because I remember her punching him in the face really hard…and he hugged Voldemort, that happened too right? Then you conclude, yep must be a parallel world.”

Hermione slapped herself in the face.

Draco let his head drop onto the table.

The rest of the wedding party found it bloody hilarious.

“But no! By some miracle, this is really happening!” Theo continued exuberantly, “Hermione Granger; muggle-born, Gryffindor Princess, Feminist, Creatures Rights Activist. Let’s not forget that time she told us all to spew for house elves.”

“S.P.E.W!” Hermione exclaimed irritably.

Theo just grinned down at her and continued, “And Draco Malfoy, Black now but always Malfoy in our hearts am I right?”

“In yours maybe,” Neville snorted, getting a round of applause.

“Oh shut up Longbottom, this is my moment,” Theo said as he carried on, “Draco Malfoy, pureblood, Slytherin Prince, definitely not a feminist, and pretty much didn’t give a shit about creatures rights. I mean let’s not forget this is the guy who got viciously attacked by a Hippogriff because, well basically because he was a bit of a bellend.”

Draco banged his head off of the table rather loudly.

This of course just spurred Theo on, “It was hardly a match made in heaven was it? We were all there to witness it. He insulted her, Ron tried to protect her and threw up slugs for a week. Thanks for taking one for the team there Ron, that gave us months of entertainment, we pissed ourselves every time we saw a slug!”

Ron just gave Theo the middle finger while Harry had to try and hide the fact he was laughing at his friends expense.

“And as I mentioned earlier, there was that time she punched him in the face and he cried like a baby,” Theo said with a grin, “He wouldn’t shut up about it afterwards thought. He kept banging on about how hot it was that she was so strong and empowered.”

Hermione sniggered a little at that.

“The amount of times she insulted him or bested him and he exclaimed, my Father will hear about this!” Theo screeched in a bad impersonation of Draco, “Of course his Father never did hear about it because why would he want to hear about the fact that Draco was in love with an infuriating muggle-born? His Mother heard about it though, poor Narcissa had to pour through at least three letters a week with whole page long rants about Hermione Granger. Am I right Narcissa?”

Narcissa chuckled and replied, “You are right Theodore.”

“Mother!” Draco exclaimed.

Hermione grinned and sat up a little straighter, “Carry on Theo, I’m starting to enjoy this.”

“So am I,” Harry sniggered.

Theo grinned broadly, “Anyway, some time passed and a snake faced bastard tried to take over the world and failed, thanks to our golden hero right here,” he gestured at Harry, “With his trusty best pal Ron and his plucky sidekick Neville. And our darling Hermione here as the brains of the operation because let’s face it, those three had no bloody idea what they were doing.”

“And then alas we returned to dear old Hogwarts,” Theo said theatrically, “Where once more the sparks began to fly, but in a romantic way with much more sexual tension,” he waggled his eyebrows.

Harry muttered, “Oh dear God.”

“But a lot changed that year,” Theo said, the tone suddenly became far more serious, “And entirely for the better. Draco wouldn’t be the man he is today without Hermione’s calming, positive influence and Hermione wouldn’t be anywhere near as snarky without Draco’s influence so all in all, things turned out well for them.”

There was another round of laughter.

“But the main thing is that they love each other,” Theo said with a smile, “And I don’t just mean they like each other a lot and therefore feel they can settle down. This isn’t a pureblood marriage, nobody is doing this because it’s enough or it’s okay to settle. They love each other the way that two people are supposed to. It’s a blind, reckless love, the sort that consumes you. So cheers, to Draco and Hermione!”

Everyone was stunned by the romantic, profound note that Theo had ended that on. But they all raised their glasses and toasted the newlyweds all the same.

“I’ll forgive the rest of the speech because of the ending,” Draco said, smiling genuinely at is best friend.

“Thought you might,” Theo said, patting him on the back, “I love you man.”

“Yeah, I love you too mate,” Draco said, hugging his best friend tightly.

“I thought we didn’t do hugs,” Theo said as he hugged him back.

“Shut up, I’m the Godfather to your kids now, it’s gotten domestic and sappy,” Draco said as he released him, “So we do hugs now.”

Hermione shook her head in amusement and grabbed Draco’s hand, “It was unconventional but very you, and ultimately quite sweet Theo.”

“Why, thank you,” Theo said, and he did a bow.

“Come on,” Harry said with a chuckle as he ushered Daphne over, “We better clear out so the elves can turn the room around. Daph, now is as good a time as any to nip home and change.”

Daphne blew out a relieved sigh, “Thank goodness, I was just about converted,” she joked, shooting Hermione a grin, “I thought I was about to start worshipping Godric Gryffindor.”

Hermione shook her head in amusement, “You are impossible, but thank you for today.”

Daphne kissed her cheek, “You’re welcome lovely,” she said as she blew out of the room.

Harry shook his head at the little boy in his arms, “Your Mummy is so high maintenance Teddy.”

“But she’s amazing in the bedroom,” Theo said, covering Teddy’s ears, “That’s why Daddy keeps her around.”

Harry shrugged Theo’s hands off of Teddy’s ears, “That is not why I keep her around. But while we’re on the subject of kids, I reckon you should relieve Narcissa of yours.”

“What are you talking about?” Theo asked with a grin, “Mine have been little angels all day. It’s yours who was a pain in the butt.”

“Terrible twos are rough aren’t they Ted?” Harry said, ruffling his hair.

Teddy just yawned in response.

“Mione,” Harry called over the nosie of everyone leaving the drawing room, “I’m going to take Teddy to Andi’s now that the meal is over. I’ll be back before the cake cutting and the first dance.”

“No problem Harry,” Hermione said, kissing Teddy on the cheek, “Thanks for coming little guy.”

Draco smiled and ruffled Teddy’s hair, “See you later little man.”

Teddy yawned again so Harry chuckled and left the house with him.

“I better get my two off to the sitter too,” Theo said as Sadie approached him with two wriggling babies that she had just relieved Narcissa of.

“Whose watching them?” Hermione asked curiously.

“My Step-Mum.” Theo replied, “She complained that we always let Sorenson babysit so we said she could have them for the night. I reckon she’ll be knackered in the morning and never ask to have them again.”

Draco snorted, “You never know, she might surprise you.”

“We’ll see,” Sadie chuckled, “But they are tired so we’ll take them to Nott House and head back later. Say goodbye to Auntie Hermione and Uncle Draco Mina.”

Almina lifted her hand and attempted to wave. Hermione grabbed her hand and shook it, and Draco gave her a little hug.

“You say goodbye as well then Charlie,” Theo said, having taken his son from Sadie.

Charlus made a face then some sort of growling noise.

“Or not,” Hermione laughed,

“He’s tired,” Sadie chuckled.

“And part werewolf apparently,” Theo remarked dryly.

“See you soon,” Hermione said with a smile as the couple left the drawing room.

“Congrats then Mrs. Black,” Lilly said as she skipped over to the couple, “Hey Nev, I reckon you should remove that silencing charm from Rob. He’s starting to get a tad angry now.”

Neville chortled and grabbed her hand, “I’d actually forgotten I put it on till Draco mentioned it. Come on, I need you by my side when I take it off. I might be in need of a Healer to mend my ear drums.”

Draco and Hermione laughed as their friends disappeared, leaving them alone by the head table as a team of house elves came in and began to tidy up.

“Come on,” Draco said, smiling at his wife, “Let’s sit up on the roof terrace while we wait, it’s probably about the only alone time we’ll get for the rest of the night.”

“That sounds perfect,” Hermione admitted with a smile.

~ ~ * ~ ~ * ~ ~ * ~ ~

Almost everyone was gathered back in the drawing room after it had been turned into a ballroom. The cake was on the table and about to be cut when Daphne waltzed back into the room.

Hermione looked at her friend in disbelief, “Draco, look at her.”

Draco turned around and his eyes fell on Daphne, “Wow.”

“She’s just wearing that to prove a point, isn’t she?” Hermione asked in disbelief.

“I mean…well…” Draco tried to come up with something diplomatic to keep the peace but then he settled on, “Yeah, she’s proving a point alright.”

“I hate her sometimes,” Hermione grumbled.

“She’s one of your best friends,” Harry said as he approached them.

“You are my best friend,” Hermione corrected, “And as she is married to you, I put up with more of her whims than I would with anyone else.”

“That…” Harry trailed off, “That sounds fair yeah.”

Daphne was wearing a very similar dress to the one she had been forced to wear to the wedding. In fact, Hermione suspected it was the same dress, just magically altered. Where a high necklace had been, it was now low cut and revealed cleavage. It had been drawn in at the waist and more to point, the colour had been changed. The sequins were emerald green at the bust then blended in at the start of the skirt to become silver. The wreath in her hair had also been transfigured to silver, and Daphne had added green accents with what looked like real emeralds.

“I know you’re pissed off with her and I don’t blame you,” Harry said honestly, “But right now I’m just looking at her thinking, how the hell did I get that woman to marry me and adopt a child with me?”

“I wonder that regularly,” Draco remarked dryly.

When Daphne reached them she sighed and said, “Ah, that’s better.”

“It’s the same dress, isn’t it?” Hermione asked in disbelief.

“No, I would never brutally rip apart the dress you lovingly picked for me,” Daphne said honestly, “It’s a copy of the original dress, just spruced up to de-Gryffindor it.”

“What are you going to do with the original?” Hermione asked, narrowing her eyes at her friend.

“Put it somewhere safe and cherish it forever,” Daphne replied, struggling to hide her sarcasm.

“You’ve put it in a cupboard and you’ll put it in a dressing up box for your kids if you’ll have girls,” Draco predicted.

“No,” Daphne said unconvincingly.

“You’re unbelievable,” Hermione said, unsure whether to laugh or cry. At the end of the day it was a minor disagreement that would be forgotten about in next to no time anyway.

“Time to cut the cake!” Harry announced before a fight could get underway.

The couple then cut the cake together and took to the dance floor for their first dance.

“You are impossible you know,” Harry murmured to Daphne as they stood on the sidelines.

“Why do you put up with me then?” Daphne asked, raising an eyebrow at him.

“Because you’re intelligent and funny and witty,” Harry said, struggling to keep his eyes away from her cleavage, “And also hot, very very hot.”

Daphne chuckled and hushed him, “The dance is about to start.”

_“This is my love song to you,_

_Let everyone woman know I’m yours,_

_So you can fall asleep each night babe,_

_And know I’m dreaming of you more.”_

Hermione leaned into Draco’s embrace and whispered, “This has been perfect.”

“Yeah,” Draco agreed as they swayed on the floor together, “It has been.”

_“You’re always hoping that we’ll make it,_

_You always want to keep my gaze,_

_But you’re the only one I see love,_

_And that’s the one thing that won’t change.”_

At this point, the rest of their friends began to take to the dance floor. Theo held his arm out to Daphne as was tradition for the best man to dance with the matron of Honour.

Daphne didn’t make a joke for once. She just smiled and joined him on the dance floor, her eyes falling on Draco and Hermione as they looked into each other’s eyes lovingly.

“He really loves her,” Theo said softly.

“Yeah,” Daphne agreed, feeling a little emotional, “Could never have called it, could we?”

“Nah,” Theo said as he spun her out, “But life is funny that way.”

Daphne chuckled and shot Harry a smile.

_“I will never stop trying, _

_I will never stop watching as you leave,_

_I will never stop losing my breath,_

_Every time I see you looking back at me_

_I will never stop holding your hand,_

_I will never stop opening your door,_

_I will never stop choosing you babe,_

_I will never get used to you.”_

“Do you fancy a dance, Sadie?” Harry said, smiling at his friend, “Since your Husband has stolen my wife and it is traditional for the groomsmen to dance with the bridesmaids?”

“I would love to dance Harry,” Sadie said, smiling as they took to the floor together.

They fell into hold easily and Harry smiled over at the newlyweds, “I never thought I’d see her this happy after the war.”

“I never thought I would see the day that Draco stopped denying his feelings for Hermione,” Sadie said with a chuckle.

“The song they have chosen hits home a lot,” Harry said, thinking that the lyrics reminded him of Daphne.

“Yes,” Sadie admitted as they danced together, her eyes falling on Theo who was being silly with Daphne. A smile came to her lips, “It does.”

_“And with this love song to you,_

_It’s not a momentary phase,_

_You are my life, I don’t deserve you,_

_But you love me just the same.”_

Neville smiled over at Lilly, “Want to dance? Since it’s tradition and all?”

“Oh come off it Nev,” Lilly said, grinning at him, “You love to dance.”

“I know,” Neville said with a chuckle, “But it’s not exactly your thing.”

“I can do this kind of slow dancing,” Lilly said, putting her hands in what she thought was the right place.

Neville laughed and moved them into what was actually the right position, then he pulled her close and said, “So that’s it then, we’re the only non-married couple in our friend group.”

“Which sounds bad until you remember that we’re only 20,” Lilly pointed out.

“True,” Neville chuckled.

Lilly looked up into his eyes and smiled, “And we’ll get there eventually. You know that, don’t you?”

“Of course I do,” Neville said, smiling warmly at her and kissing her lightly.

_“And as the mirror says we’re older,_

_I will not look the other way, _

_You are my life, my love, my only,_

_And that’s the one thing that won’t change.”_

Ginny stood above Robs table and smirked done at him.

Rob raised an eyebrow at her, “What do you want, ginger human?”

“Rob!” Jennifer and Elizabeth chastisted in unison.

Rob rolled his eyes, “What?”

“Be polite,” Jennifer said, looking up, “Sorry, Ginny wasn’t it?”

“Yep,” Ginny said, she held out her hand, “Come on Rob, we need to dance.”

“Oh no, we really don’t,” Rob said quickly.

“It is traditional,” Jennifer said, “You’re a groomsman and she is a bridesmaid.”

“She is also a child,” Rob pointed out, “Like a literal child.”

“She is not a child,” Jennifer said, raising an eyebrow at Rob, “She has a child.”

“Children can have children, I know this because I work in CPS,” Rob pointed out.

“Robert,” Elizabeth said, fixing him with a stern look, “Dance with the nice girl.”

“Do as you are told,” Jennifer advised.

Rob looked to John in disbelief, “Mate, are you going to help me out here?”

John scoffed, “Am I going to over-rule my wife and her super scary sister who _you _decided to date? Uh no Robbie, I'm not because I'm not stupid.”

“Some hotshot Auror you are,” Rob sulked as he got to his feet.

Ginny smiled sweetly at him and dragged him onto the dancefloor.

_“I will never stop trying, _

_I will never stop watching as you leave,_

_I will never stop losing my breath,_

_Every time I see you looking back at me_

_I will never stop holding your hand,_

_I will never stop opening your door,_

_I will never stop choosing you babe,_

_I will never get used to you.”_

As the song neared it’s end, more couples took to the dance floor. Astoria managed to drag Charlie up, and Bill and Lara willingly started to dance together. Narcissa danced with Cygnus, and Hermione’s parents danced together too.

“Come on Suse, let’s have at least one dance together,” Percy said, holding his hand out to his wife.

“How are we going to do that with this big bump in the way?” Susan huffed.

“Easily,” Percy said, putting his arms around her and keeping a little distance for her bump, which really wasn’t that big but Susan had always been a drama queen.

“I swear I’m pregnant with twins,” Susan grumbled.

“Lilly has checked three times,” Percy said, smiling at her in amusement, “You aren’t.”

Susan made a face at him.

Percy’s smile didn’t shift. He just rested his hand on the small of her back and said, “Think about it, next Christmas there will be three of us.”

Susan’s expression softened and she smiled down at her bump, “Yeah, there will be.”

_“You still get my heart racing, _

_You still get my heart racing, for you_

_You still get my heart racing, _

_You still get my heart racing, for you.”_

~ ~ * ~ ~ * ~ ~ * ~ ~

As the night wore on, the free bar began to take effect.

“Look at this one!”

Neville shook his head in disbelief, “Lilly! You can’t just lift up your dress in front of my boss!”

“It’s fine,” Lilly said offhandedly, “It’s only my lower leg, it’s not like he can see my knickers.”

Rob cocked his head to look at the scar, “That’s a good one. How did you get that?”

“Crazy Muggle with a cutlass,” Lilly said cheerfully.

“Nice!” Rob said, “Look at this one.” He lifted his shirt up and Jennifer rolled her eyes.

Lilly looked at the oval shaped scar, “That’s pretty cool. How did you get it?”

“Stabbed by an ex-girlfriend,” Rob said with a grin.

Jennifer raised an eyebrow at him, “What?”

“Not your sister,” Rob assured her.

“Right, that makes that sentence better,” Jennifer said, she shook her head at Neville, “Why are they getting a thrill out of comparing scars?”

“I have no idea,” Neville said with a sigh, “Do you want another gin? Cause I’m going to go to the bar and leave them to it.”

“Yeah, do you know what? I reckon I’ll just come with you,” Jennifer said, looking back at Rob in a fond, but long-suffering sort of way.

~ ~ * ~ ~ * ~ ~ * ~ ~ 

“I’m not going to lie, I’m still pretty disgusted by the fact our parents are together,” Daphne said as she danced with Draco.

Draco followed her line of sight to where their parents were dancing. Cygnus was whispering something and his Mother was smiling and nodding.

“Yeah, I mean it took me a while to get used to it,” Draco agreed, looking back at his friend, “But I’ve not seen my Mother this happy for a while.”

“I know,” Daphne said with a sigh, “And I’m glad that they are happy, I really am. But what if they get married?”

“Do you think they will?” Draco asked in alarm.

“I never thought my Dad would remarry after my pscyho Mother,” Daphne said with a sigh, “But lately he’s been weird. He keeps making comments about marriage, like he’s trying to prepare me for the idea.”

“I didn’t think my Mother would remarry either,” Draco admitted, “But if they want to…well who are we to stand in their way?”

“But if they got married we would be related,” Daphne said, making a face.

“By marriage, not blood,” Draco pointed out.

“You would be my step-brother,” Daphne said, looking up at him, “My ex-boyfriend and my step-brother.”

“But I was your ex-boyfriend first so you’re getting hung up on a technicality,” Draco said, looking at her in amusement, “You’ve been very dramatic this evening.”

“Must be all the alcohol,” Daphne joked.

Draco laughed and said, “I doubt we have anything to worry about though Daphne. Even if your Dad wants to marry my Mum, I very much doubt she would remarry now.”

“Thank Salazar for that,” Daphne remarked with relief.

~ ~ * ~ ~ * ~ ~ * ~ ~

Charlie was a little drunk by the end of the evening, but not to the point where his faculties could be called into question. As a slow song played, he swayed around the dancefloor with Astoria contently.

“You know,” Charlie said thoughtfully, “This whole wedding thing today…it’s had me thinking.”

“Weddings tend to do that,” Astoria stated.

Charlie drew back a little to look at her, “I know, but it got me thinking about us. Bill has finally buggered off to live with Lara so…do you reckon it’s time to buy that big house in the country with enough room for all my dragons?”

Astoria raised an eyebrow at him, “Are you proposing to me?”

Charlie frowned then his eyes widened with realization, “Yes…I am and it’s a terrible proposal isn’t it? I mean I don’t even have a ring or anything yet, but you would probably want to chose it anyway because you’ll want something fancy-”

“Charlie,” Astoria cut in with a smile, “I would love to buy that big house in the country with you. I would love to marry you. I was just waiting for the moment to be right for you.”

Charlie grinned at her, “Sorry for the shit proposal.”

“It’s fine,” Astoria laughed, “It was very you.”

Charlie leaned down to kiss her as the song came to its end.

~ ~ * ~ ~ * ~ ~ * ~ ~

From the balcony that Draco had installed just for the wedding, Draco and Hermione looked down at their friends and family. It was after midnight so not many people were left, and they were about to throw in the towel themselves and go to bed.

Down below Rob, John and Neville were playing drunken darts with a dummy that they had conjured up, while Elizabeth and Jennifer drank gin and looked on. Lilly was being the referee, and somehow her dress had halved in length throughout the course of the night.

Harry and Daphne, and Theo and Sadie, were both on the dance floor. An upbeat song was playing and Theo was being very dramatic, much to Sadie’s amusement. Harry was dancing like a Dad, and Daphne was making him look bad.

Hermione smiled down at them, and all the others, Charlie and Astoria were talking in whispers, lost in each other’s eyes. Susan had her feet up in Percy’s lap. Her shoes were abandoned as he massaged her feet which she seemed to be thoroughly enjoying because she was practically asleep. Bill was laughing as he danced with Lara, and Hermione was glad to see that he had found happiness again.

“We have a pretty good life,” Draco said, reading the look in her eye.

Hermione reached down and took his hand, “We do,” she agreed with a smile.

Draco smiled too, “Thank you Hermione,” he said, leaning over to kiss her.

“For what?” Hermione mumbled against his lips.

“For seeing the good in me when I couldn’t even see it myself,” Draco said, his eyes boring into hers.

Hermione leant up and captured his lips again, this time in a far more searing, passionate kiss.

“Oi pretty boy!” A shout from below said.

Draco and Hermione split apart and down below, Rob called, “Take it to the bloody bedroom!”

Draco smiled mischievously and said, “Alright I will!”

He lifted Hermione up and she squealed in alarm. Then without further ado he carried her off of the balcony towards their bedroom, to cheers and catcalls from all of their very drunk, but wonderful friends.

** THE END? **

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's not really the end yet. It is the end of the story in the year 2000. There is one final chapter to go, ONE CHAPTER GUYS! But it’s set a few years in the future so bear with me while I get the old flux capacitor working 😉


	140. All Was Well

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The first dance song is:  
Compass by Lady Antebellum

**February, 2003**

** _3 years later…_ **

** **

“Teddy! Come downstairs and try on your robes for Uncle Nev’s wedding!”

Harry snorted in amusement as a thundering sound above alerted them to the fact that Teddy was on his way.

Daphne shook her head in amusement and handed Harry a bottle of milk, “I should have added quietly to that sentence.”

“It wouldn’t have made a difference,” Harry said with a smile as he popped the bottle into the mouth of the four month old baby in his lap.

“Where are my robes Mum?” Teddy asked as he bounded into the kitchen.

“Hanging up,” Daphne said, motioning to the back of the pantry door, “What do you think?”

Teddy, who was about to turn five and had grown up far too quickly for Harry and Daphne’s liking, grinned, “I love the colour!”

Harry chuckled, “Auntie Lilly picked the colour scheme.”

“Far better than the colour scheme of Auntie Hermione’s wedding,” Daphne said, ruffling her sons hair, “But you were too young to remember that hideous gold spattered affair.”

“Don’t taint him,” Harry joked, “What if he wants to be a Gryffindor?”

“Then I have to educate him,” Daphne said, shooting Harry a grin.

The robes were deep blue with bronze cuffs, the colours were very Ravenclaw-esque but they also went together rather well.

“Try them on then,” Daphne said, “I need to make any adjustments needed tonight so chop, chop.”

Teddy grabbed the robes and disappeared to try them on. Daphne glanced over at Harry and shook her head in disbelief, “Has he just drained that whole bottle for you?”

“Yeah,” Harry said, shooting her a grin, “I don’t know why you act like he’s such a pain to feed. He always demolishes his food for me.”

“That’s because you’re his favourite,” Daphne said, smiling fondly at her Husband and the half-asleep baby in his arms.

“Course I am,” Harry said as he looked down at the sleeping boy, “I found him.”

** _4 MONTHS EARLIER…_ **

** **

_“Still weird having a building, isn’t it?”_

_“Weird?” Rob scoffed, “Harry, it’s bloody awesome!”_

_Harry chuckled and sipped his coffee, sensing that Rob was going to go into a long monologue._

_“I went from being one bloke on my own in the corner of the bloody bullpen to having a whole team full of baby Aurors,” Rob began._

_“Juniors,” Harry cut in._

_“Same thing,” Rob said with a wave of his hand, “And now look at me. I’m running CPS-”_

_“In conjunction with Elizabeth,” Harry cut in._

_Rob glared at him, “Would ya quit taking the glory away from me?”_

_Harry smirked and sipped his coffee, “Just saying. But anyway, carry on.”_

_Rob shot him an irritated look, “Now I run CPS, in conjunction with Elizabeth, out of our own building right here on Diagon Alley. I never thought that would be what it took to make me happy, but I’m pretty damn happy.”_

_“The new wife and baby probably helps with that too,” Harry pointed out with an amused smile._

_“Well yeah, that’s also a factor,” Rob said with a grin._

_Harry laughed and said, “You better drink your coffee. It’s going to be a long night.”_

_“Yeah,” Rob agreed with a sigh, “You sure you don’t mind working tonight?”_

_“What, you think I can’t hack the night shift on Halloween?” Harry asked, raising an eyebrow at his boss and friend, “What would I be doing if I wasn’t here?”_

_“Crying over a photo album?” Rob joked._

_Harry snorted, “Nah, haven’t done that in years. I’m fine to work tonight, in fact it takes my mind off of the date if I’m honest.”_

_“Closes are going to be fucking chaotic tonight,” Rob said, glancing at the clock on the wall of the office. The building that Child Protective Services had moved into was relatively small but conveniently located. The vulnerable people who lived in the Closes could visit them easily which was what made the location vital. The CPS building was always open so that it could be a refuge to those in need, regardless of the time of day or night._

_An alarm on the wall behind them rang and Rob drained the last of his coffee, “First call of the night. It’s Halloween and the moon is full. People are gonna be acting crazy tonight mate.”_

_“Great,” Harry muttered sarcastically as he followed Rob out of the building._

_* ~ ~ * _

_“So Wolfie,” Harry grinned as they walked along a deserted Diagon Alley, “When you said things were going to be wild, did you expect an actual werewolf?”_

_“Of all the things I expected tonight, that was definitely not one of them,” Rob admitted._

_“Reckon he’ll get off on the charges?”_

_“He bit someone’s arm off so without a very good lawyer, I doubt it,” Rob remarked sarcastically._

_“I’ll give Hermione a call in the morning.”_

_Rob snorted, about to tell Harry that he couldn’t rely on Hermione to save every lost soul in the world. But before he could, a sharp cry had them both on edge. It was the middle of the night, there was no way that anybody should have been out here with a baby._

_“Did you hear that?” Harry asked._

_Rob nodded, his ears pricking up as he looked down the close, “Harry, look.”_

_Harry followed his line of sight to the CPS building._

_“Oh my God,” Harry breathed when he saw the bundle on the steps._

_In unison, they ran to the steps of the building where they saw the baby, wrapped up in a warm, fur blanket._

_Harry picked the bundle up and took it inside, knowing that Rob was on his heels. They got to the office and Harry peeled the blanket back, his anxiety kicked in when he saw that the baby had no clothes on beneath the blanket._

_“He must be freezing,” Harry said, turning to look at Rob, “And we have no idea how long he was out there for.”_

_“Floo Neville’s Healer missus, now,” Rob said, checking the babies vitals with a basic healing charm._

_Harry nodded and rushed to the fireplace. The moment he told Lilly that there was a baby in the building who could be sick, she stepped through the fireplace in her pajamas. _

_“Oh my God,” Lilly said in horror when she looked at the baby, “He’s tiny, and…look at the cord Harry.”_

_Harry looked down, it was relatively long and looked like it had been cut by someone with a shaky hand. The slice from the severing charm was most definitely not in a straight line._

_“He was born tonight,” Harry realised._

_Lilly nodded and gently pressed her hand against the babies chest, she shut her eyes and listened for a moment then she performed a few diagnostic charms. While they were running, she cast a warming charm on the baby and asked, “Do you have any baby clothes here?”_

_“No,” Harry replied, “They are all at Lupin House.”_

_“We’ll just transfigure something then,” Lilly said, she glanced around the room and saw a blanket lying on the back of a chair. Without asking whose it was, she transfigured it into a babygro and began to dress the little boy._

_Once the suit was on, he began to settle down._

_“He must be hungry but we don’t have any baby milk here,” Lilly said, she looked up at Harry and Rob, “He’s healthy, he was a little on the cold side but I’ve sorted that out with a couple of warming charms. But…he’s so young, he’s hours old.”_

_“Whoever left him here must have been desperate,” Harry said, looking at the baby boy as his eyes drifted shut._

_Rob nodded his agreement, “Young probably, under-age I suspect. She probably gave birth alone, and she was probably terrified.”_

_Lilly nodded tearfully, “So she left him here because this is advertised as a safe place, a refuge for any child in need.”_

_“Like a fire station,” Harry and Rob said in unison._

_Lilly reached down and touched the tiny baby boys cheek, “What are you going to do with him?”_

_“We’ll have to take him to Lupin House,” Rob said, looking sadly at the baby, “And unless someone adopts him, that will be all he ever knows until he goes to Hogwarts, assuming he’s not a squib that is.”_

_“I doubt it,” Lilly said honestly, “I did a blood test when I checked him over and…he’s a pureblood.”_

_“A pureblood?” Harry asked in surprise._

_Rob frowned, “That rules out the Closes.”_

_“I hate to think about the circumstances of this poor little boys birth,” Harry said, swallowing a lump in his throat, he had been unable to take his eyes off of the boy, “We can’t take him to Lupin House. They are already operating at full capacity…and a baby this young requires full-time care.”_

_Rob looked at Harry in disbelief, “Well I can’t take him home. I’ve already got Nick, and Natasha isn’t even a year old yet.”_

_“I know, I wasn’t asking you to take him home Rob,” Harry said quietly._

_Rob’s eyes widened, “What? You? You’re just going to take this baby home?”_

_“Wouldn’t be the first time, would it?” Harry asked._

_“Yeah, you’ve taken kids home temporarily until we could find room at Lupin House or track down family for them,” Rob agreed, “But you’ve never taken a baby in Harry, a newborn baby.”_

_Lilly looked her friend in the eye, “If Daphne doesn’t kill you for it, maybe it would do you both some good.”_

_Rob frowned between the two of them as Harry held Lilly’s gaze for a second._

_“Yeah,” Harry said, looking back at the little boy, “Maybe it would.”_

_“I’ll head home and change,” Lilly said, grabbing Harry’s arm, “Then I’ll go via Potter Manor and grab Daphne. Okay?”_

_Harry nodded, “I’ll floo you if anything changes.”_

_Lilly stepped back into the fireplace and Rob, in a completely uncharacteristic moment, hugged Harry._

_Harry drew back in surprise, “Uh Rob…are you feeling alright?”_

_“Yeah mate I’m just sorry,” Rob said, sympathy shining in his eyes, “I’m sorry that I didn’t realise sooner. I guess with everything going on in my life I’ve not been the best friend in the world.”_

_Harry swallowed and forced himself to look at his boss, “What are you talking about?”_

_“You don’t have to play the tough guy with me, Harry,” Rob said, his tone softer than usual, “You and Daphne can’t have kids, can you?”_

_Harry sighed and looked away from Rob, “Two years on, it’s not looking likely,” he admitted._

_Rob put his hand on Harry’s shoulder and said, “Maybe you two could give this one a home then.”_

_“I think we can,” Harry said, smiling at the sleeping infant._

“You’re thinking about the night you found Al again aren’t you?” Daphne asked her Husband.

Harry drew himself out of his thoughts, “Yeah, I think about it all the time.”

“I know you do,” Daphne said, sitting down across from him at the table, “But you need to stop dragging yourself through it. You did the right thing by bringing him home, and we did the right thing by adopting him.”

Harry caught her gaze, “I just wonder about who his real parents are all the time. It’s not like with Teddy when we knew his whole backstory. This is different and we just don’t know if someone will come back and fight for him one day.”

“If they do, we will face that together and we will fight just as hard to keep him,” Daphne promised Harry, “Regardless of how he came into our life, he is our son, as much as Teddy is.”

“And you think he’s going to be okay?” Harry asked, meeting his Wife’s eyes.

“Of course I do,” Daphne said softly, “Why do you think I suggested the name Alastor? He survived being left out on that doorstep when he was a few hours old. He’s a tough little guy Harry, he can survive anything.”

“Just like Moody,” Harry said with a smile.

“Exactly,” Daphne said, reaching out and grabbing his hand.

“Thanks love,” Harry sighed, “I needed that tonight.”

“I know you did,” Daphne said, reaching across the sleeping baby to kiss him on the cheek.

~ ~ * ~ ~ * ~ ~ * ~ ~

“Draco! Draco! Draco!”

“What? Are you dying?”

Hermione looked up in disbelief, “Am I dying?”

“Well you just shouted my name three times from the top of the house,” Draco pointed out as he buttoned up his flashy red Auror robes.

“Yes because I need to talk to you before you go to work,” Hermione said, crossing her arms over her chest.

“Well I just jogged up the stairs thinking someone was strangling you so spit it out,” Draco said, smiling at her fondly.

Hermione rolled her eyes, “Working in Homicide is making you paranoid.”

“Oh come off it, working in Homicide makes you want me right?” Draco teased.

Hermione shot him an exasperated look, “You’re unbelievable, do you know that?”

Draco chuckled, “What’s up? It sounded pretty important.”

“It is,” Hermione said, “But if I tell you, you can’t tell anyone else okay? That means Theo as well.”

“I can’t tell Theo?” Draco asked in surprise.

“You can’t tell Theo,” Hermione confirmed.

“But you always let me tell Theo,” Draco objected.

“Well this time, you can’t,” Hermione said with a wave of her hand, “It’s way too early.”

“Too earl-” Draco’s eyes widened, “Oh sweet Salazar! Too early? You’re pregnant!”

Hermione beamed at him, “Yes!”

Draco’s face broke out into a grin, “Yes! Oh Hermione, this is great news!”

“I know,” Hermione said brightly, “But you can’t tell Theo, not until we’ve been through all of the checks okay?”

“Okay,” Draco said, kissing her excitedly, “I won’t tell him, I promise.”

Hermione laughed and nudged him towards the stairs, “On you go then. I don’t want to think about what Sumner would do to you if you’re late in your first week at Homicide.”

“I’m going,” Draco said, shooting her a grin as he jogged down the stairs backwards, “A baby!”

“A baby,” Hermione agreed, chuckling at his response.

She shook her head in amusement as she heard the front door slam. At that point she took a step across the hall to her bedroom and felt her stomach churn, “Oh baby, you can’t keep this up all day. I have a big court case this afternoon.”

Another wave of nausea hit her and she ran into the bathroom. Apparently, unborn babies didn’t give a shit about big court cases. Hermione had a feeling that the next few weeks would be fun.

~ ~ * ~ ~ * ~ ~ * ~ ~

“Theo,” Draco hissed as he hovered by the supply closet.

Theo stuck his head out of the Vice office, “What?” he whispered.

“Come here,” Draco said, stepping into the closet and shutting the door.

Theo frowned but slipped out of the office and into the supply closet.

“Lumos – what the fuck is going on?”

Draco beamed at his best friend, “If I tell you something, you can’t tell anyone because it’s a big secret okay? If it gets out I’m dead, like so literally dead-”

“Are you going to tell me you’re gay?” Theo whispered in disbelief, “Because I know we muck around for banter but-”

“I’m not gay you idiot,” Draco sniggered, “I’m just over the moon right now.”

“Why?” Theo asked suspiciously.

“Hermione’s pregnant!” Draco said in an excited whisper.

“Pregnant!” Theo said in the same tone, “Really? Oh man, that’s bloody brilliant! After you guys spent the last year trying, that’s just…oh I’m so bloody happy for you guys.”

Theo launched himself at his best friend and wrapped his arms around him, “I’m so happy I could cry. I’m gonna be Godfather right?”

“Of course you are, you bloody idiot,” Draco laughed, hugging his friend back.

At which point, the supply closet door opened.

“Oh dear Godric,” Sumner said in disbelief, “Really lads? It’s like Sheppard and Wolfe all over again.”

“No, no sir it’s not what you think-”

“Yeah, yeah Nott. That’s what they all say,” Sumner said, looking between the two Aurors, “Quit snogging in the closet. It’s your first week in big departments, start pulling your weight.”

“We really weren’t snogging sir-”

“I don’t want to hear it Black. What you do in your spare time is up to you, but don’t do it in _my _department,” Sumner said sternly.

Theo shot Draco a glare as he left the closet, “I hate you,” he mouthed.

Draco grinned, “But she’s pregnant!” he mouthed back, leaving the closet with a skip in his step.

~ ~ * ~ ~ * ~ ~ * ~ ~

“Hey! How is my favourite editor?”

Sadie laughed, “I’ve edited one book Suse.”

“And it was a huge success,” Susan said with a grin as she stepped into the garden of 11 Grimmauld Place with a red haired toddler in tow.

Sadie shook her head in amusement, “Charlie! Mina! Look who is here.”

Charlus and Almina looked up from what they were doing, which seemed to be examining a red and green potted plant with interest.

“Addie!”

The little red haired girl, Addison Molly Weasley, beamed and ran over to the twins who would turn three the following month.

“It’s a shame they won’t be in the same year at Hogwarts,” Sadie said as she sat down at the garden table and clicked her fingers, “They are so close.”

An elf appeared at her side with a crack, “Yes Missus Nott?”

Sadie smiled at the elf, “Would you please fetch us some tea, Yonda?”

“Yes Missus Nott. Yonda is to be getting this right now.”

With another crack the elf disappeared. Susan sat down next to her friend, “I’m still jealous that you have such a lovely elf. I thought we were getting a good deal when we inherited one with the restoration of Bones Manor, but man…was I wrong or what?”

“Oh Hamish is lovely in his own way,” Sadie said, smiling in amusement at her friend.

Susan raised an eyebrow at her, “Really Sadie? Hamish is old and so Scottish it’s unbelievable. Not to mention completely insane.”

“He’s not insane,” Sadie chuckled, “He’s just misunderstood like that old elf Harry speaks of, Kreacher.”

“No,” Susan said with a shake of her head, “Kreacher had a cruel mistress and was lonely which made him a little unhinged. But Hamish is completely bonkers. A couple of nights ago I woke up to hear Addie crying and when I found her in the kitchen, it was pretty obvious why.”

“Oh sweet Salazar,” Sadie said, biting her lip in amusement, “What did Hamish do?”

“What did Hamish do?” Susan scoffed, “Well Hamish decided to strip completely _naked _and do a fucking highland jig Sadie. And what did Perce do? Burst out laughing, then left me to calm Addie down while he bottled the memory and made copies to show his brothers.”

Sadie tried to hide her smile, “I agree that what Percy did was wrong, because I would have killed Theo if he had done that. But the situation is rather funny.”

“It’s not funny,” Susan said with a shake of her head, “Do you know how long it took us to get that elf to wear anything?”

Sadie chuckled, “But because he’s part of the house you can’t expel him.”

“I can’t and I don’t think I’d have the heart to,” Susan admitted with a shrug, “He’s a fucking lunatic but he served my parents and grandparents.”

“He witnessed their deaths then spent a long time locked in a ruined house by himself,” Sadie said softly, “I think you can understand why he’s a little unhinged.”

“Oh I get it,” Susan said honestly, “Anyway, enough about me. I should be congratulating you, the new edit of “Hogwarts: A History” that you have been working on for the last couple of years went down a storm.”

Sadie smiled, “Thank you. I got a book deal with the publisher after the initial success.”

“Did you?” Susan asked excitedly.

Sadie nodded, “I’ll be editing “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them” next. It’s going to be a collaboration with Neville.”

“Oh that sounds brilliant,” Susan said with a smile, “Makes me feel insignificant.”

“Susan,” Sadie laughed, “You’re a lawyer, a damn good lawyer. You and Hermione have put away most of the scumbags this side of the border.”

Susan shrugged, “I know, but I’d love to have the talent to write like you do.”

“We all want what we can’t have I suppose,” Sadie said, looking over at the three children as they played together.

“Theo still trying to convince you to adopt?” Susan guessed.

“Yes,” Sadie sighed, “But I’m sticking with my original stance right now. I don’t think it would be fair to the twins or to the child we would adopt. They would always feel inferior to our biological children…”

“You should talk to your best friend about it, she’s kind of an expert,” Susan pointed out.

“It’s not the same with Daphne and Harry,” Sadie blurted out, it had come out before she had really thought about it.

Susan frowned, “What do you mean? Because they adopted first?”

Sadie sighed and looked at her friend, “No, I shouldn’t be telling you this so please keep it quiet okay?”

Susan nodded.

“They can’t have kids,” Sadie said sadly, “They have been trying for two years, they have tried all sorts of treatments and nothing is working.”

“Oh,” Susan said, her face fell, “That’s such a shame.”

Sadie nodded, “That was why they adopted Alastor.”

“I get it,” Susan said with a nod, “But I do think you should reconsider with the whole adoption idea, if you want another kid too that is.”

“I do,” Sadie admitted, “But not right now with the way things are between Theo and I. His new partner in Vice is Blanche and…she’s just so, well come on you’ve met Blanche.”

“I’ve also met Theo, he’s completely devoted to you,” Susan said, giving her friend a stern look.

“He also wants another baby and I can’t give him that,” Sadie said, a pained look on her face.

“He’s not going to leave you because of that,” Susan assured her, “He loves you and he loves those kids. You three are well and truly enough for him, so stop worrying about Blanche Zabini.”

Sadie wanted to object, but at that point Yonda arrived back with their tea, and a shout of, “I’VE FOUND A GLOWING FROG MUMMY!” drew their attention elsewhere.

~ ~ * ~ ~ * ~ ~ * ~ ~

“Are you nervous?”

“Nope, but if you keep asking me that question then I’m going to get nervous,” Lilly said, shooting Susan an amused smile.

“Sorry, I’m a terrible Matron of Honour, right?”

“The worst,” Lilly joked.

“You look like a painting Lil,” Susan said, smiling broadly at her friend.

Lilly looked at herself in the mirror and smiled, “I do scrub up okay, don’t I?”

She was wearing a ballerina style wedding dress which meant it came to just above her ankle. It was fairly simple, just an ivory satin dress with a sweetheart neckline and relatively large skirt. She wore sky-high heels with it, and had used jewelry to add colour to her look. She wore a golden necklace, inset with sapphires. Her veil was also held in place with a golden tiara, also inset with sapphires.

“Alright,” Susan said, “So let’s just go through a checklist. Have you got something old?”

Lilly nodded, “Yes, Neville gave me one of his Mothers rings.”

“Something new? Yeah that’s your dress,” Susan said, “Something borrowed?”

“Yep,” Lilly said as she smoothed out her veil, “I borrowed the veil from Hermione.”

“Something blue?”

Lilly frowned, “Well…my jewelry is blue.”

“It is, but you don’t have the full set,” Susan said, smiling at her friend. She pulled a small box from her handbag and handed it to Lilly, “So I bought you a gift.”

“Oh Susan, you didn’t have to do that,” Lilly said gratefully. She opened the box which contained the matching golden and sapphire earrings to go with her necklace.

“Let me help you put them on,” Susan said, slipping the earrings onto Lilly’s ears and tucking her hair behind them with a couple of hair grips, “What do you think?”

Lilly smiled at her reflection. She had kept her shoulder length dark hair down, but curled. The way Susan had pinned her hair back away from her face, combined with the earrings, made her look very elegant.

“I think it’s great,” Lilly said honestly.

“Come on then,” Susan said with a grin, “It’s nearly time and your Dads are waiting for you!”

~ ~ * ~ ~ * ~ ~ * ~ ~

“You okay Neville?”

“Yeah,” Neville said with a smile, “I’m not nervous.”

“You’re not nervous?” Theo asked in disbelief, “Nev, that’s just not fair.”

Neville chuckled, “We’re already married Theo, we got married at the Ministry yesterday. This is just for show for her Muggle family. It’s not like she’s going to stand her Husband up. Is it?”

“That’s a good point,” Harry said with a grin as he bounced on the heels of his shoes.

“It’s still not fair that Neville is the most composed out of all of us,” Draco complained.

Harry grinned at his best friend,, “So you going to tell them the colour of your bond yet?”

“Nope.”

“It’s cause it was silver, wasn’t it?” Draco said.

“Silver is still a good colour,” Harry said to Draco, “It’s very rare for bonds to be golden.”

“Mine was,” Draco said smugly.

“Harry’s was so golden I’m surprised a fucking Phoenix wasn’t born out of it,” Theo muttered.

“You’re just jealous that yours was silver,” Harry said calmly.

“Why can’t you just tell us Pothead?” Theo asked, “You and Susan were there.”

“Because it’s up to Neville,” Harry said simply.

“I don’t get why you won’t tell us Neville,” Draco said, “Unless it was bronze. I mean that’s still a good colour, only 21% of bronze marriage bonds end in divorce.”

Neville scoffed, “You and Hermione were actually made for each other, you love a good statistic don’t you?”

Draco snorted in amusement.

“Go on then Harry,” Neville said, smirking at his friend, “Tell them.”

“It was gold,” Harry said to Draco and Theo.

Theo rolled his eyes, “Oh for the love of God-”

“Theo, you can’t say that in a church!” Harry hissed, they were standing at the altar of the church as it filled up.

“Sorry,” Theo said, lowering his voice, “I was going to say Godric which is actually more disturbing to be honest, but the point is, how am I the only one who got silver?”

“It just makes you unique Theo,” Draco said, tapping him on the shoulder.

“And let’s face it, you were a dick for years before you married Sadie,” Neville pointed out.

“I was 19 when I married Sadie,” Theo remarked.

“I know, you started young,” Harry teased.

Neville snorted in amusement at that comment. Then music began to play very loudly from the organ behind them.

“For the love of the founders,” Theo hissed, “I nearly shit myself! Why is it so loud?”

“Theo, shut up or I will silence you,” Harry warned him.

Theo, sensibly, heeded his advice. The doors to the church opened and the minister walked in. He took his place in the centre of the altar as the bridal march began to play, and the bridal party walked in.

Hermione, Daphne and Susan were all wearing the same dress. It was a knee length deep blue dress with bronze embellishments. They all wore golden hair pins with a deep blue flower upon them, in their hair as well. All of the bridesmaids had their hair curled and pulled into buns, with a few strands loose at the front.

Draco smiled as he looked at Hermione, he was still over moon about their baby news and keeping it a secret was killing him. But as he watched her walking down the aisle, he couldn’t help but think she looked similar to the way she had at the Yule Ball all those years ago when things had been so very different.

As the music reached its crescendo, Lilly stepped into the church with her Dads.

At that point they heard a loud, “She’s got _two _Dads?” from Rob. Followed by a slapping sound, and a groan.

Lilly looked beautiful, and being Lilly, she laughed the comment off. She had decided that she wanted her biological Dad, Neal and her Step-Dad Simon, to walk her down the aisle together so she had one on each arm.

“I’m surprised the church allowed that,” Draco whispered.

The Minister looked rather affronted.

“Draco, shut up,” Harry said in exasperation.

Neville ignored them, he only had eyes for Lilly. She smiled through the veil when she reached him.

“Do you both give this woman to this man?” The Minister asked Lilly’s Dads.

“We do,” They said in unison.

In the front row behind them, Lilly’s Mother rolled her eyes. It was no secret that she did not get on well with Lilly’s Dad, he _had _run off to Japan with his male lover after all.

Together, they lifted her veil and took a seat in the front row, as far away from Lilly’s Mother, Linda, as possible.

The Minister smiled and began the ceremony.

~ ~ * ~ ~ * ~ ~ * ~ ~

“Why was that so bloody long?” Theo complained as they left the church.

Harry shook his head in amusement.

“And who the bloody hell is this Jesus bloke? They spent forever banging on about him and their fake God.”

“Theo, shut up,” Harry said, “Or whisper. These people are Lilly’s family and they all believe in that fake God.”

“Well I don’t and I definitely didn’t sign up for 3 paragraphs from a crappy book and a bunch of shit songs,” Theo grumbled.

Draco looked at Theo in disbelief, “Theo, you _took _Muggle Studies. How can you not know who Jesus is? Or what the Bible is for that matter?”

“Oh come on, you all know that I slept through that class,” Theo said with a wave of his hand.

Draco shook his head at his best friend then turned to Harry, “He has a point though, Muggle weddings are really long.”

“And boring,” Theo added, “I much prefer a wizarding wedding. It’s just, do you take this man? Do you take this woman? Yep? Your magic is bonded. Wham, bam, thank you ma’am.”

“Yeah Theo we know that’s how your kids were conceived,” Harry said with a smirk as they walked up the main road together.

“Screw you Harry,” Theo said with a snort.

“I didn’t think I was your type, but from what I hear about you and Draco in supply closets…” Harry said, grinning at his friend.

“Oh fuck off! How did you find out about that in CPS? You’re not even in the same building as us!” Theo objected.

“And it wasn’t what it looked like,” Draco added.

“Sure it wasn’t,” Harry sniggered, “And how did I find out? Sumner busted you then told Shep. He then told Liz who told Wolfe, who told me. There are no secrets amongst Aurors boys.”

“You’re a prick, but you also should have been a Slytherin,” Draco pointed out with a chuckle.

“What can I say? My wife is starting to rub off on me,” Harry joked.

Theo snorted, “How much longer till we get to the place where they are having the reception?”

“Another 5 minutes,” Harry replied, “But we could have gotten there faster if you had just gotten in the car.”

“The car?” Theo asked in shock, “The car? Oh you mean that muggle death trap?”

Draco shook his head and caught Harry’s eye, “I give up.”

“Me too,” Harry said, shaking his head at their friend with fond amusement.

~ ~ * ~ ~ * ~ ~ * ~ ~

The reception was in a beautiful venue. They were in the heart of London but they had a view of Regents Lake. The hall was beautiful, with bare stone walls, golden chandeliers and a really classy charm.

“Time for speeches!”

Lilly smiled up at her Dad as he rose to his feet, “Sorry about the unconventional nature of this everyone, but Si and I are going to be giving the Father of the Bride speech together.

“You have got to be kidding me,” Linda muttered from her seat next to Neville.

“It will all be over soon and they’ll be back in Japan, Linda,” Neville whispered reassuringly.

“We would like to thank you all for coming today,” Neal continued with a smile, “It has been a beautiful day and we have both been so proud to watch Lilly marry the man of her dreams.”

Simon nodded and took over, “It seems like only yesterday that Lilly came into my life, back when Neal and I met on the set of Rocky Horror: Picture Show. I never thought I’d fall in love with Frank-N-Furter and gain an adopted daughter, but I am very thankful that I did.

Linda ground her nails against the wooden table and Neville grimaced, this was not going to end well…

Neal noticed this and took over, “We first met Neville a long time ago, Lilly told us that she had a friend at school who didn’t have much in the way of family and who didn’t particularly enjoy his summers so we invited him to spend some time with us while we were back in the UK. The minute we got the kid singing along at a Boyzone concert, we knew we’d be gutted if Lilly ended up with anyone apart from him.”

Neville hid his head in shame as the Muggle guests laughed at this comment. Harry cackled from his spot further along the table.

“I was 12!” Neville objected, mainly for his best friends sake.

“Excuses, excuses!” Harry called back.

Neal laughed and continued, “We saw a lot of Neville. Almost every time we came home to see Lilly, Neville was around and that was great because we could see how much fun he and Lilly had together. When she started writing home about boys we hadn’t heard of, who weren’t Neville we started to get worried.”

“We never had to use the, she’s got two protective Dads who will come after you line, but we got pretty close,” Simon added.

Lilly shook her head in amusement.

“So we would like to congratulate Lilly and Neville,” Neal said with a smile, “But we would also like to thank Lilly’s Mother, Linda. Although we have had many disagreements over the years, one thing that we can agree on is that Lilly has grown into a beautiful, intelligent, young woman who any parent could be proud of. And I spend more time out of this country than in it, so that is all thanks to you Linda.”

Neal raised his glass and Linda looked at him in surprise.

The rest of the room raised their glasses too and they all toasted the happy couple. When Neal sat down, Linda leaned across Neville and Lilly to say, “Thank you Neal, that was the most genuine thing I have heard out of your mouth in a long time.”

“It’s the truth Linda,” Neal said with a soft smile.

“Thank you,” Linda said again.

Lilly raised her hands and pushed them apart, “No. You two are not reconciling and having some weird sort of three way on my wedding day. You do what you want in your own time, but not on my wedding day!”

Neville sniggered as he stood up to give his speech. He smiled nervously at the room of people, there were a lot of Lilly’s family to a smattering of his friends and colleagues, “So, all of you who know me, know that I don’t like speaking in public. I normally leave that to my best friend Harry, he’s a big fan of a heroic speech, so much so that I reckon he thinks he makes his own background music.”

Anyone in the room who knew Harry laughed at this, Rob louder than most.

Neville chuckled nervously, “So I will do my best but speeches are not my thing. Anyway, I have a lot of people to thank for making today happen. Chiefly, Susan, Lilly’s Matron of Honour. Thanks for getting her so drunk on the hen night that she didn’t know what country she was in Suse, that one was pretty spectacular.”

Susan grinned, “Thank you very much!” she said theatrically.

“And also for helping make today happen, obviously. Thanks to the wonderful bridesmaids, Hermione and Daphne. Thank you to my groomsmen, Theo and Draco, although I don’t know why I’m thanking you because you didn’t do very much to be honest.”

“Oi!” Theo objected.

“We didn’t do much,” Draco admitted.

Neville chortled, “And thanks to my Best Man and my best friend, Harry. Thanks for being here with me today, we’ve been through a lot in our relatively short lives and there’s no one I’d rather have at my side on a day as important as today.”

Harry smiled broadly at him, “Anytime Nev.”

Neville smiled, “Anyway, enough of the sappy stuff. The big thanks goes to Lilly, for bringing me home, a bit like a stray dog that she felt sorry for, during those crappy summers when I was lonely. For introducing me to really irritating pop songs that I can’t get out of my head, then teasing me when you hear me sing them in the shower. For saving me from a really dark place in our last year at school and for becoming my wife, a dream I never thought would come true as an awkward 12 year old kid who had a habit of falling down staircases and getting strung up by chandeliers.”

The wizards in the room chortled at this, because they knew exactly what Neville meant by that.

“So thank you to my wife, Lilly,” Neville said, raising his glass.

“To Lilly!” They toasted.

“Well,” Lilly said, smiling at her Husband, “That was pretty damn good for someone who apparently can’t do speeches.”

Neville smiled at her, “I love you,” he said, kissing her lightly.

“I love you too,” Lilly said, turning her attention to Harry as he rose to his feet.

“This, I’m dreading,” Neville admitted.

“It can’t be that bad,” Lilly whispered, “He can’t talk about magic, what’s the worst he can do?”

“True,” Neville agreed, his eyes falling on his best friend.

“As Neville just pointed out, I do love a good speech,” Harry said with a grin, “So sit tight, relax and we’ll all be onto the drinks soon.”

This got a small laugh.

“The day I met Neville seems so long ago. We were kids, on the train to school together and Neville had lost his pet toad. First things first, I thought, who has a pet toad? This kid is weird,” Harry began and Neville shook his head, if that was a sign of things to come then it wasn’t going to be good.

“Then I actually got to know Neville a bit and I realised that he was alright really,” Harry continued, “He was never going to be a sports fan though. The first sports lesson we had together he managed to break his wrist then I saved the day, which was sort of a sign of things to come to be honest.”

Neville shot him an exasperated look.

“Anyway, while we were in school together, I was a bit of an arsehole to Neville. If I’m honest, he was my back-up friend who I only really hung out with when my other two friends were either fighting or making out, that was a weird transition,” Harry said with a wave of his hand, “I have apologised to Nev more times than you can imagine for that, but I will once again offer an apology. I’m sorry Neville, you are way more awesome than I initially gave you credit for.”

“Thanks,” Neville chuckled.

“But onto the more serious aspect, it’s very rare that you find a friend who you can truly rely on whatever the circumstances,” Harry said seriously, “And to me that friend is Neville. When I was getting married, he was there for me. He has been my partner on the force for a good few years now and I couldn’t imagine doing it without him – sorry Rob, you’re my back up Neville,” he added.

“You wound me Potter!” Rob called from the crowd.

Neville snorted in amusement.

“But we go way back,” Harry continued, “We bonded over both having suffered as kids. Our parents weren’t exactly in the picture and we took down the terrorist responsible for that together. I know that Neville will always have my back, and I also know that if he’s wearing a cardigan and brandishing a sword, you really shouldn’t mess with him.”

“Harry!” Neville hissed.

“You’ll break the statute of secrecy!” Lilly added.

“Here’s to Neville and Lilly on their wedding day. May their never be a better snake beheader in the wizarding world.”

There was a gasp around the room, the loudest from Neville and Lilly.

Harry grinned and said loudly, “And 3…2…1…” he then snapped his fingers.

At this point, every Auror in the room stood up and said, “Obliviate!”

Harry grinned at his best friend, “I love being an Auror.”

Neville breathed sharply, “I hate you. I swear, you nearly gave me a heart attack.”

“You are an arse,” Lilly agreed breathily.

“What are they all going to remember?” Draco asked, “They can’t just blank out your entire speech.”

“Nah, they will remember how awesome Neville is and how I gave a really emotional speech,” Harry smirked.

Hermione narrowed her eyes at him, “This is ethically wrong, and I disagree with it.”

“Oh sue me Mione,” Harry grinned.

“It’s misuse of your power,” Ginny agreed.

“Oh come on, Sumner agreed to it and he’s the Head Auror.”

“Really Jack?” Hermione asked, crossing her arms and staring the man down.

Susan nodded her agreement, “I’m disappointed in you too Jack,” she agreed.

Sumner rolled his eyes, “Get off your high horses you two. It’s a prank, you would have done the same thing.”

“Can I just state for the record, that I also felt that it was morally wrong?” Elizabeth piped up.

“Course you did Lizzie, you think everything is morally wrong,” Rob snorted.

John sniggered and was immediately glared at, “John!”

“Sorry, Rob…that was wrong and mean of you. Elizabeth does not have a strong moral compass at all, what are you on about?” John asked with a grin.

Elizabeth shook her head in disbelief, “If I had a time turner and could go back to the day that _you two _became friends again!” she muttered irritably.

At this point, all the Muggles in the room began to applaud which was mildly disturbing.

“Time to clear the room and have a party!” Harry said cheerfully, in a bid to take the attention away from his slightly off-key prank.

~ ~ * ~ ~ * ~ ~ * ~ ~

When Neville and Lilly took to the floor for their first dance, Harry wasn’t ashamed to admit that he felt pretty emotional. This had been a long time coming for the two of them and it had been a brilliant day.

They looked like such a strange couple with the height difference, but they danced together and smiled broadly at each other, and that was all that mattered.

“So what now?” Lilly asked, looking up at Neville.

“Now we go on a bloody awesome honeymoon,” Neville said, pulling her in as the songs lyrics began to play. It was a muggle song that Lilly had picked, but Neville hadn’t disagreed with her choice at all.

_"Yeah it's been a bumpy road,  
Roller coasters high and low,  
Fill the tank and drive the car,  
Pedal fast, pedal hard,  
You won't have to go that far."_

“It has been a bit of a bumpy road,” Lilly murmured into his chest, “Hasn’t it.”

“It has been,” Neville agreed, “But I wouldn’t change it for the world.”

Lilly smiled, “No, I wouldn’t either.”

_"You want to give up cause it's dark,  
We're really not that far apart,_

_So let your heart sweetheart be your compass when you're lost,  
And you should follow it wherever it may go,  
When it's all said and done you can walk instead of run,  
Cause no matter what you'll never be alone.  
Never be alone,  
Never be alone."_

As others began to join them on the dance floor, Harry held out his hand to Daphne. Susan was already dancing with Percy so he figured this wasn’t as traditional as Draco and Hermione’s wedding, which made sense.

“That prank you played earlier was very clever, but also mean,” Daphne said, raising an eyebrow at him as they danced together.

“Sorry,” Harry said sheepishly, “I thought it would be funny.”

“I’m sure it will be in five years time,” Daphne said, “But right now, nobody thinks it’s funny.”

“Rob does,” Harry said, “And Theo.”

“And what does that tell you about the maturity level of the prank?” She asked pointedly.

“Fair point,” Harry admitted.

Daphne smiled slightly, “But anyway, I have something I need to talk to you about.”

“Okay,” Harry said, spinning her out and bringing her back to him, “What’s up?”

“You know how we took Al in because we were pretty sure that kids were going to be a no go for us?” Daphne asked him, looking up into his emerald eyes.

“Uh-huh,” Harry said, his gaze falling on hers.

“Well, it turned out that all we needed was a baby in the house,” Daphne said with a smile.

Harry frowned, “What?”

Daphne chuckled, “You don’t have to bring home another stray Harry. We’re going to have a baby of our own.”

Harry’s eyes widened, “We’re going to…you mean you’re…?”

“Yes,” Daphne laughed, “I’ve been keeping it quiet for so long in case something was wrong. I didn’t want to tell you, and have you be let down but I had my first check-up a couple of days ago and everything is fine.”

Harry continued to stare at her, “You…so….wait what, first check up? How long have you been keeping this to yourself?”

“A couple of months,” Daphne admitted.

“A couple of months?” Harry asked in disbelief, “Daphne! You should have just told me!”

“We had a lot going on,” Daphne said with a smile, “We had a one month old baby in the house and I found out that I was pregnant.”

“Oh…Godric…”

“Your brain has just caught up to the fact we’re going to have two under two and Teddy, hasn’t it?” Daphne asked, smiling at him in amusement.

“Yep,” Harry said, his shock turning to happiness, “But that’s brilliant news!”

Daphne smiled broadly, “I thought we could tell the others once Neville and Lilly get back from their honeymoon.”

Harry smiled and nodded, “Yeah, that sounds like a brilliant idea but-”

“Yes, you can tell Rob tomorrow,” Daphne said, smiling at him knowingly, “Because even if I told you not to, you would.”

Harry grinned sheepishly, “You know me so well,” he said, leaning in to kiss her as they swayed on the dance floor together.

_"Forgot directions on your way,  
Don't close your eyes, don't be afraid,  
We might be crazy late at night,  
I can't wait til you arrive,  
Follow stars you'll be alright."_

“It’s not as good as our wedding was.”

Charlie snorted as he danced with his young Wife, “Tori, weddings aren’t competitive.”

“Of course they are Char,” Astoria said, “And ours was definitely better. We had peacocks.”

“I don’t think that made it better,” Charlie admitted.

“They were beautiful!” Astoria argued.

“And they shit everywhere,” Charlie added, he broke into a grin, “Although when one attacked Draco then had explosive diarrhoea all over him…that was good.”

Astoria rolled her eyes and shook her head, “Honestly, I don’t know why I put up with you.”

“Because you’re into older men who wear leather and train dragons,” Charlie said, waggling his eyebrows at her.

Astoria smiled and smacked him on the arm playfully, “Shut up or I won’t let you import that dragon from Romania that you’re after.”

“Damn,” Charlie muttered, “I hate it when you use dragons against me.”

Astoria just smirked triumphantly.

_"You want to give up cause it's dark,  
We're really not that far apart,_

_So let your heart sweetheart be your compass when you're lost,  
And you should follow it wherever it may go."_

“I’m sorry for accusing you of sleeping with Blanche,” Sadie said, resting her head on Theo’s shoulder as they danced together.

Theo chortled, “You see what I meant when I said I wasn’t her type now?”

Sadie laughed, “Yeah, I feel like a bit of an idiot, sorry.”

“It’s okay love, things haven’t exactly been great between us lately,” Theo said.

Sadie drew back a little so that she could look up at him, “But we’ll make it through won’t we?”

“Of course we will,” Theo replied, frowning a little, “What makes you think that we won’t?”

“Well…it’s just that…” Sadie sighed, “We were the only ones who got a silver marriage bond.”

“Oh Sade,” Theo breathed, pulling her closer, “That doesn’t mean anything. I love you and I love our kids, you guys are my entire world. I don’t mind if we can’t have any more honestly.”

“Really?” Sadie asked, looking up to meet his eyes.

“Really, I’ll quit bugging you about adoption,” Theo promised, “You three are more than enough for me.”

Sadie smiled and leant up to kiss him lightly, “Thank you,” she said softly.

_  
"When it's all said and done you can walk instead of run,  
Cause no matter what you'll never be alone,  
Never be alone,  
Never be alone."_

“Do you think we should have another kid?”

“Uh no,” Susan said, raising an eyebrow at Percy, “Why would you suggest that?”

“Because I love Addie and I figured we’d have more than one,” Percy said with a shrug.

Susan snorted, “I love Addie too but she’s a little diva. I’m fine with just her right now, and I don’t think we can have anymore kids until we deal with Hamish.”

“There’s nothing wrong with Hamish, he’s a great laugh,” Percy grinned.

“He’s traumatising our daughter and if you carry on in that vein, you will lose your capability to make a second child,” Susan said firmly.

Percy swallowed and nodded, “Deal. I’m fine with just Addie.”

“Good,” Susan said, smirking at her Husband.

_"You want to give up cause it's dark,  
We're really not that far apart,_

_So let your heart sweetheart be your compass when you're lost,  
And you should follow it wherever it may go."_

“I still can’t believe that she married him,” Draco said, shaking his head as he looked at his Mother who was dancing with Cygnus.

Hermione smiled in amusement, “Would you quit it? You’re dancing with your wife at a wedding, stop being grumpy.”

“Sorry,” Draco admitted sheepishly, “It just irks me. Especially when Harry calls me brother.”

“You know he only does that to annoy you,” Hermione chuckled.

“He’s an arse,” Draco muttered, drawing Hermione closer to him, “But you’re right. We should be happy, we’re at a wedding.”

“The last one for a while now,” Hermione mused, “We’re all married apart from Ginny and since she showed up with Blanche, who knows if she’ll ever get married. I can’t believe she’s dating her baby Daddy’s _sister_.”

Draco chuckled, “Theo will be happy. Sadie thought that they were sleeping together.”

“They are going through a rough patch,” Hermione sympathised, “I think it must be hard when you have young kids.”

“We’ll find out soon enough,” Draco said, kissing her forehead.

“We will,” Hermione said with a smile, “And I can’t wait for our next adventure.”

“Neither can I,” Draco promised.

_  
"When it's all said and done you can walk instead of run,  
Cause no matter what you'll never be alone,  
Never be alone,  
Never be alone."_

“Do you think that we should get married?”

Lara made a face, “No. Why? Do you want to remarry?”

“Not really,” Bill admitted, “I sort of fucked it up the first time and it cost me a fortune so I’m not that willing to do it again.”

“So why did you ask?” Lara chuckled.

“In case I was doing you a disservice,” Bill said honestly, “I didn’t know if marriage was a thing you wanted.”

“No, I’ve been there and done that too,” Lara pointed out, “It’s expensive and messy when it breaks down. If you and I break up, we just have to fight over custody of the oversized newt.”

“It’s a dragon, Lara.”

“It’s not a dragon Bill, it’s a bearded dragon which is a newt,” Lara said with a smile, “If you want to see a dragon, look in your brothers back yard.”

“Charlie’s garden is basically a dragon reserve,” Bill said with a roll of his eyes, “Do you want a dragon? I’ll get one if you want one.”

Lara laughed and pulled him closer, “I don’t want a dragon and I don’t want to get married. I’m just happy with you.”

Bill smiled at her, “I’m pretty damn happy with you too.”

_"When it's all said and done you can walk instead of run,  
Cause no matter what you'll never be alone."_

“Come on, let’s slip outside for a bit,” Neville said once the dance ended.

Lilly wasn’t sure why he wanted to escape, but she let him lead her out onto a balcony all the same.

Neville breathed in the cool February air gratefully and smiled at his wife, “I just wanted to talk to you somewhere a little more private.”

“Why?” Lilly asked curiously.

“I got an offer yesterday,” Neville admitted, “Pomona floo-ed me. She plans to retire at the end of this school year and she told me that if I wanted it, the job could be mine for the start of the next school year in September.”

Lilly’s eyes widened, “Herbology Professor?”

Neville nodded eagerly.

“Nev, that’s your dream job!”

“I know,” Neville said excitedly, “But I wanted to discuss it with you first.”

Lilly scoffed, “There’s no discussion, take the job. You always said that you would regret declining it if it was offered and I know you probably feel bad about leaving Harry but let’s face it, he’s got Rob and those two are about as Brokeback Mountain as Draco and Theo.”

Neville laughed out loud at that, “True,” he agreed.

“So take it,” Lilly said, smiling proudly at him, “Get the dream job, before you turn 25 as well! Because you’re bloody awesome.”

“You’re pretty awesome too Lil,” Neville said, grabbing his wives hand, “You save lives every day. Do I tell you often enough that I admire you for that?”

“Every day,” Lilly said, leaning up to kiss him, “But I still appreciate it.”

“I love you, Lilly Longbottom,” Neville said, grinning at his wife.

“And I love you, Neville Longbottom,” Lilly said, kissing her Husband.

~ ~ * ~ ~ * ~ ~ * ~ ~

Towards the end night, after _many _drinks and a slow dance with Rob, Harry got the DJ to stop the music and then he jumped up onto a table.

“Oh jeez,” Neville said.

Lilly grinned in amusement.

“Hey everyone!” Harry said, raising his glass of whiskey, “I just need to make a toast right now, because I’m feeling emotional.

Daphne shook her head in amusement, “It’s because Nev and Lil are the last people in our friend group to get married and that gets you thinking about stuff you know? Thinking about how far we have all come from the teenagers who had parties and got drunk in the common room at school. I look at us now and we’re all married with proper jobs and some bloody amazing kids running around and we’re all just so lucky. We got through some crappy stuff, stuff that I know myself and a lot of you guys didn’t think we would get through. We overcame so many odds to be here today and it just makes you appreciate life.

So here’s a toast to all of us. What’s left of the broken teenagers who went into their 8th year at school, not knowing what to expect but definitely not expecting this wonderful life that we’ve built together.”

He raised his glass, and spilled half of his drink down himself.

Despite his obvious drunken-ness, the sentiment rang true with them all so they all raised their drinks and toasted, as Harry jumped down from the table and put his arm around Neville’s shoulder, “Also Nev, I’m not supposed to tell you til you get home from your honeymoon but I can’t tell Rob before you cause you’re my best mate.”

Neville held his best friend up and smiled at him in amusement, “Go on?”

“Daphne is pregnant,” Harry beamed, “Actually pregnant with our own baby, the one we thought wasn’t going to happen.”

Daphne rolled her eyes but smiled fondly at him, “Congratulations you kept that a secret for a grand total of three hours, I’m very proud of you.”

Neville beamed, “Congrats Harry,” he said, then he pulled Daphne into a hug, “That’s brilliant news.”

Daphne smiled broadly, “I know, I just didn’t want to steal your thunder on your wedding day.”

“You’re not stealing our thunder,” Lilly promised as she kissed her friend on the cheek, “We’re thrilled for you.”

Harry was still grinning like an idiot, “We want you guys to be Godparents obviously. You will say yes, won’t you?”

Neville smiled a little tearfully, “Of course we will be Harry. We’re Godparents to Teddy and Alastor, why would we feel any different about this one?”

Harry smiled too, “Thanks Neville, I love you man.”

Daphne shook her head in amusement and caught Lilly’s eye, “To think at the beginning of all of this, those two used to insult Draco and Theo, right?”

“I guess everything goes full circle in the end,” Lilly laughed.

“Everything definitely worked out in the end,” Harry said as he released Neville from the bear hug he had drawn him in for.

“Yeah,” Neville agreed, putting his arm around Lilly’s shoulder and looking out at the friends who had become their family, “It really did.”

** THE END!!!! **

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this is the end for now guys! I do want to write a sequel one day. It will be set about 3 years after this epilogue and will centre around the same group of friends but I won't post it on as chapters here. It will be its own story within this universe. I can't guarantee when I will write it as I have lots of other projects I would like to finish first but I just wanted you to know that it's not really the end yet, just the end for now!
> 
> Thank you so much to everyone who followed this! To everyone who came with me from FF.NET and all the new readers who discovered it on here! I love you all, thanks for reading and I hope the ending satisfied you all! :)
> 
> For anyone interested, the next two stories that will be popping up on here will both be multi-chap ones. One is Charlie/Hermione/Bill and the other one is Drarry :)
> 
> Thanks again guys! :D


	141. Big News! (Not an actual chapter, sorry!)

Hey everyone!!

So, I finished this story and decided to move onto bigger and better things. The only problem is that I love this universe and don't want to write anything else at the moment. I've published some new stories that I was working on, and I spent the last week writing a prequel to this story!

At the moment it's called 'The Seventh Year' which is terrible, so I'm open to suggestions for renaming it. It focuses on the cohorts of Neville and his band of merry men and women. And of course, on what our favourite Slytherins got up to during the war. Since it is a prequel, it's Neville x Ginny with hints of Neville x Lilly. On the Slytherin front, it's Draco x Pansy, Daphne x Blaise (but that's brief, and she's basically just sleeping with him, so it doesn't count) and hints of Theo x Sadie, but Theo's an oblivious idiot.

Anyway! The point of this message is to let you know that having written the prequel; I have decided to rehash this story SLIGHTLY. I'm not rewriting it in terms of big plot or relationship changes, but I do plan on fixing plotholes, touching up the grammar and making some changes. The changes will mostly relate to making it more mature, so any violence will be a bit more graphic, and I'll be adding some sex scenes. The early aspect of Daphne and Harry's relationship will change because of that, but hopefully, everything else will just be little tweaks! Once the prequel is uploaded, I'll update this story so that you can read the prequel then jump straight back into this story and they should flow seamlessly together!

Lastly, if anyone wants to field suggestions to me for the rewrite, go for it! I'll take anything you suggest on board, and if anyone wants to point out plotholes they noticed to me that would be fantastic too :D

Thanks, guys!

Holly


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